Posted Coordinates
The initial coordinates will bring you to the top of one of the 1,776 hills dotted the island. At the moment, only two of these hills were commercialized. One was built with hotel and the other one is a public viewing deck (here). Entrance fee is Php 50.00 per person.
How to get here
1.) Book day tours in different travel agencies online or in the island.
2.) For backpackers, after arriving via seaport or airport. Ride a tricycle going to Dau Bus Terminal. Ride a bus going to Carmen and alight just in front of the posted coordinates. Ride a habal habal (motorcycle) going up the hill.
3.) Rent a motorcycle in Tagbilaran City and tour around the island.
Overview
The Chocolate Hills are a group of unusually shaped hills located in the middle of the island of Bohol in Philippines. This extraordinary landscape is unique to this small island. The hills are not huge; the highest one barely reaches 120 meters in height. Even so, most hills are between 30 and 50 meters. The conical Chocolate hills are scattered within a fifty square kilometer area. In June 1998 the “Chocolate Hills” were declared the National Geologic Monument and this national park definitely merits a visit.
Legends/Myths
Mystery still surrounds how the Chocolate Hills were formed. One of the more popular local legends is that long ago, two giants fought for days, hurling earth and stones at one another, until they fell exhausted, friends once more, into each other's arms. More romantic is the handsome young giant, Arogo, who fell in love with a mortal woman. When, as mortals must, she died, the giant wept, his great teardrops turning into the Chocolate Hills.
Karstification
The genesis of the “Chocolate Hills” is due to the emergence of the Pliocene limestone coralline platform, then to its karstification in a particularly homogeneous tropical climate conditions: rainfall, temperature, wind, pedologic and vegetable covers. In other aspects, their good overall porosity explains their mass impregnation by the runoffs as well as the appearance of important aquifers, exploited for the development of irrigated rice fields.
Karst models are present, notably the caves and underground networks of which very few have been explored. Finally this original context (insularity, virgin tropical forest undisturbed for a long time) permitted the sustainability of a particularly original endemic fauna including the famous Bohol tarsier.
Mogote
Mogotes are composed of limestone and samples proved that this is mostly coral limestone of red algae containing numerous Foraminifera (Myogypsina, Lepidocyclina, Heterostegina etc.). Their primary porosity in a great deal lowered by the cement fill and matrix was often recrystallized (microsparite). However, this is still poorly consolidated limestone acting as a real sponge as it is confirmed by abundant aquifers and numerous subterranean rivers. On slopes there are less water flows due to infiltration. The main factor for strong karstification is a lot of rain and this explains the abundance of caves and subterranean systems.
Varieties of Limestone
There are many different names used for limestone. These names are based upon how the rock formed, its appearance or its composition and other factors. Here are some of the more commonly used.
Travertine: A limestone that forms by evaporative precipitation, often in a cave, to produce formations such as stalactites, stalagmites and flowstone.
Fossiliferous Limestone: A limestone that contains obvious and abundant fossils. These are normally shell and skeletal fossils of the organisms that produced the limestone.
Coquina: A poorly-cemented limestone that is composed mainly of broken shell debris. It often forms on beaches where wave action segregates shell fragments of similar size.
Lithographic Limestone: A dense limestone with a very fine and very uniform grain size that occurs in thin beds that separate easily to form a very smooth surface. In the late 1700's a printing process (lithography) was developed to reproduce images by drawing them on the stone with an oil-based ink and then using that stone to press multiple copies of the image.
Chalk: A soft limestone with a very fine texture that is usually white or light gray in color. It is formed mainly from the calcareous shell remains of microscopic marine organisms such as foraminifers or the calcareous remains from numerous types of marine algae.
Oolitic Limestone: A limestone composed mainly of calcium carbonate "oolites", small spheres formed by the concentric precipitation of calcium carbonate on a sand grain or shell fragment.
Tufa: A limestone produced by precipitation of calcium-laden waters at a hot spring, lake shore or other location.
Earthcache
The ff. questions needs to be answered via email / message. Internet search / dig are not acceptable.
1.)Observation - Based on the sample, inspect the soil and describe its appearance, smoothness and color.
2.)Observation - Based on the varieties of limestone above and with the help of the soil in any of the 1,776 kisses, identify which limestone this belongs to.
3.) View - Take a picture of yourself with the hills on the background or your GPSr showing the coordinates. (Optional)
References
This geological materials are compiled and excerpted from the following references:
chocolatehills.net
geology.com
dlib.si/stream by Jean-Noel Salomon
