Our twenty fourth entry in this blog is our trip to the very famous Chocolate Hills in Bohol. In Filipino, this is called as Tsokolateng Burol. “The Chocolate Hills are a geological formation in the Bohol province of the Philippines. There are at least 1,260 hills but there may be as many as 1,776 hills spread over an area of more than 50 square kilometres. They are covered in green grass that turns brown (like chocolate) during the dry season, hence the name.” -wiki

Here is the wide observation deck in one of the hills to get a good view of several other Chocolate Hills.

There are lots of Legends being told by the locals about the formation of these Chocolate Hills. Some of them are as follows:
The first legend tells the story of two feuding giants who hurled rocks, boulders, and sand at each other. The fighting lasted for days, and exhausted the two giants. In their exhaustion, they forgot about their feud and became friends, but when they left they forgot to clean up the mess they had made during their battle, hence the Chocolate Hills.

Here is Ate Rei looking at the view… 🙂

A more romantic legend tells of a giant named Arogo who was extremely powerful and youthful. Arogo fell in love with Aloya, who was a simple mortal. Aloya’s death caused Arogo much pain and misery, and in his sorrow he could not stop crying. When his tears dried, the Chocolate Hills were formed.

Here is another photo of Ate Rei, tired and exhausted from the long climb to the peak of this hill. We did not bring along Sai, he is sleeping downstairs at a restaurant nearby.

The third legend tells of a town being plagued by a giant carabao, who ate all of their crops. Finally having had enough, the townsfolk took all of their spoiled food and placed it in such a way that the carabao would not miss it. Sure enough, the carabao ate it, but his stomach couldn’t handle the spoiled food, so he defecated, leaving behind him a mound of feces, until he had emptied his stomach of the food. The feces then dried, forming the Chocolate Hills.

Until next time Chocloate Hills!