Lunch on the Loboc river

A slow lunch cruise up a jade-green river under coconut palms, with songs on the riverbank and a battered Jesuit church at the start, is pure Bohol cliché and still lovely.

Area

Bohol interior

Start from

Tagbilaran

Distance

about 25 km to Loboc; about 4 km upstream by boat

Time needed

half a day

Best season

All year; river is greener and calmer outside heavy rains

Difficulty

Easy

Transport

Car or bus to Loboc, then floating restaurant or kayak

Tickets & rules

Cruise fee including buffet; small fee for church museum

Why go

I expected to be cynical about the Loboc floating restaurants: big bamboo rafts with buffets, a guitarist with a microphone, a hundred people photographing the same palm trees. Then the raft pushed off, the water turned the colour of old jade, and a kingfisher crossed in front of the bow. I stopped being cynical somewhere around the second plate of grilled fish.

The river is narrow and winding, lined with coconut palms, nipa and bamboo. Along the banks, villages set up small platforms where children and families perform folk dances and songs as the rafts pass, and the boats stop for a few minutes so passengers can tip. It is staged, but warmly so.

Upstream, the cruise turns at the low cascade of Busay falls. If you prefer silence, you can rent a kayak or a stand-up paddleboard instead and go at dawn, when mist lifts off the water and you meet only fishermen setting traps.

The story

Loboc was one of the early Jesuit missions in Bohol, established around 1602. The church of San Pedro Apostol, built in stages through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, stood by the river with a separate bell tower and painted ceilings that were among the finest in the province.

The 2013 earthquake brought down much of the church and its façade, and the restoration has taken years. Before the quake, Loboc was famous for its convent museum and for the Loboc Children’s Choir, a group of local children who became known nationally and internationally, winning competitions abroad and singing for visiting dignitaries.

The river itself has always been the town’s road. Before there was a highway, produce and people moved by boat between upland villages and the coast at Loay. Rafts of bamboo were floated down to market, and some older residents remember swimming beside them as children.

Near Busay falls, a small hydroelectric plant has been running since the mid-twentieth century, one of the older ones in the region. Its weir helps keep the stretch above town deep and slow, which is why the river can look so calm even in the dry months.

Getting there

Loboc is about 45 minutes by road from Tagbilaran on the route to the Chocolate Hills, so most people stop for lunch on a countryside tour. Buses and jeepneys towards Carmen pass through Loboc.

Cruises leave from landings near the church and the town centre. They run mainly around lunchtime, with some evening departures; check current schedules on the spot.

A suggested plan

1. 10:30Walk around the Loboc church and see what is open of the restored buildings.
2. 11:30Board a lunch cruise and eat on the way upstream.
3. 12:15Stop at the riverbank performances; have small notes ready for tips.
4. 13:00Turn at Busay falls and drift back downstream.
5. 14:00Continue to the tarsiers or the Bilar forest, or take a sunset kayak trip later.

Where to stay

Loboc has a handful of riverside guesthouses and lodges that make a peaceful alternative to Panglao, especially if you want to paddle at dawn. Otherwise, it is an easy day trip.

Good to know

• The buffet is simple Filipino food; it is about the setting more than the cooking.
• Morning kayak or paddleboard trips are the quietest way to see the river.
• Sit on the shady side of the raft; the sun is fierce at midday.