Chocolate Hills in Bohol

[jadegil6]

A few pics of my visit to the Chocolate Hills in the province of Bohol:

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[Edwin]

The Chocolate Hills in Bohol are very interesting. Thank your, Sir Michael, for sharing these pictures with us. They are fun to see!

[jadegil6]

These are some more photos of the rice farms in the area around the Chocolate Hills:

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[Edwin]

Thanks again, Sir Michael, for the very lovely pictures of the rice farms, and of the farmer's water buffalo!

[abufarsi]

did somebody tell you how these distinctive geological formations were made? Volcanic?

[jadegil6]

Legend
Four legends explain the formation of the Chocolate Hills. The first 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.

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.

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.

The last legend is about a gluttonous giant named Miguel that eats everything in his path. One day he came to a plain. He saw a beautiful young woman named Adrianna. To win her affection, he needed to lose weight. So he excreted everything he ate. In the end, his fecal matter covered the land and he won Eng's affection.

Scientific theory:
The Chocolate Hills are conical karst hills, called mogote, and are created by a combination of the dissolution of limestones by rainfall, surface water, and groundwater and their subaerial erosion by rivers and streams after they had been uplifted above sea level and fractured by tectonic processes. The grassy hills were once coral reefs that erupted from the sea in a massive geologic shift. Wind and water put on the finishing touches over hundreds of thousands of years. There are estimated to be from 1,268 to about 1,776 individual mounds, these cone-shaped or dome-shaped hills are actually made of grass-covered limestone. In the dry season, the grass dies, and the mounds turn brown...hence the name, Chocolate Hills.

[crisipicada]

I have been in bohol 6 or 7 years ago. I like the place because it is relaxing to stay there and see the chocolate hills. I want to visit sometime there very soon just incase time grants.

[Smiley]

Yes Bohol is a very nice area.I think Tarsiers are hilarious! Do they live in other areas? I`ve never seen one outside of Bohol.

[Edwin]

Yes, it would be fun to visit the Chocolate Hills in Bohol. According to what I found on google they used to be all over SouthEastern Asia. Varieties of them can still be found in Borneo and Indonesia, and of course in the Philippines mainly in Bohol. They say that they naturally live about 14 years, but if they are put in captivity they don't live that long.