The highlight of our stay in Bohol was our last day, when Stuart and Mia took us to
Danao Adventure Park, which is located near the center of the island.
During the course of our ride there, which was probably a couple of hours, the quality of the roads varied greatly. There would be stretches of freshly paved road, followed by several miles of unpaved road, followed by more paved road, and so on. I distinctly remember one odd moment where we were on a lengthy stretch of unpaved road, and then suddenly the road was newly paved for at most 50 feet, and then after that it was unpaved again for another few miles. I was puzzled why they would pave just a small segment of road in the middle of a long stretch of unpaved road rather than starting from where the last paved section ended and then working their way onward to connect to the next paved section.
The first activity, which we all participated in, was a zipline called the
Suislide. It's actually a double zipline. For the first part, you zip acoss the canyon to the other side. Then after you get there, you walk over to the next line, which takes you back across to the side where you started from. Stuart went first, because he wanted to film us all during our arrival at the end.
That's Stuart with the yellow helmet and Flip camera in hand, getting into position for his launch. Below is a picture of the cable strung across to the other side of the canyon to give you an idea of what it looks like. While it's not very long, it is rather high and you definitely would not want to fall.
And away goes Stuart!
Next up was my wife and my son. They opted to go tandem, with my son riding alongside my wife.
My daughter and I woud follow them. She rode on my back. Unfortunately, I don't have any picture of us on my camera of the two of us. For the return zipline, I was able to get photos of my wife's sister Myla and her sister Mia and Mia's daughter Zoe.
Next up was my turn to shine as I decided to take
The Plunge. The following set of pictures should tell you everything you need to know about it.
As you can see, I went head first instead of feet first. After the drop I was supposed to pull out my feet and then lift myself up to an upright position, with my hands holding on to where my feet were. I had trouble getting one of my feet out for a moment and briefly feared that my sneaker would come off and fall down into the river below.
For the next one, it might be a little hard to see me because I am so far down.
And then for the return.
Yeah, I just did that!
After that, the whole gang road together on the Sky Ride, which is like the zipline except you ride in an open air cable car that goes much slower and the zipline. It was more for the view than anything else, but it did allow me to take some photos that give a bird's eye perspective of the Suislide and the Plunge.
Now here's a birdseye view of the Plunge.
And here's the Suislide.
After the day's adventure activities, we stopped at the Adventure Park's cafeteria for some Filipino buffet. Afterwards, I went roaming outside and came across this sign.
For someone who lives outside of the United States of America, this sign would be considered unremarkable. But here in the good old USA, words like "socialized" and "socialism" are considered dirty words. I can just imagine how your average Tea Party Republican would react if they saw a sign like this at some national park here in America.
"Whut? My park fees are supporting socialism? That's a goddamn disgrace! I want my fucking country back! Take this sign down or I'm never coming to this park again for the rest of my life, so help me god!"