Chocolate Hills, tarsiers, and Panglao's pristine reefs — Philippines' interior island
Bohol is a compact island province in the Visayas with three natural icons that draw visitors from across the world: the Chocolate Hills — over 1,200 perfectly conical limestone mounds that turn brown in the dry season, covering an area larger than Singapore's central business district; the Philippine tarsier, one of the world's smallest primates, visible in the Tarsier Sanctuary outside Corella; and Panglao Island's Alona Beach, a strip of white sand over a reef wall considered one of the best beginner dive sites in Southeast Asia. The food is distinctly Visayan: puso (rice in woven coconut…
Bohol's indigenous Visayan culture centred on Tagbilaran and the Baclayon municipality — the Baclayon Church (1595) is one of the oldest stone churches in the Philippines, built by Augustinian priests from coral blocks. In 1565 Miguel López de Legazpi signed the Blood Compact with Rajah Sikatuna on Bohol's beach, one of the first recorded formal treaties between Europeans and Filipinos — the event is commemorated by a monument and considered a symbol of friendship rather than conquest. The 2013 Bohol earthquake (7.2 magnitude) damaged many of the province's heritage churches, including Baclay…