Its our final day on Panglao and we’re sad to be leaving. The hotel has been fantastic, the food brilliant and we’ve just loved the peace and tranquility of the beach.
We take a post breakfast beach walk. It’s Sunday so there are a number of family groups out and about. There are signs around the hotel warning of sea urchins and to he careful not to step on them. We’ve seen a number of them around in a beautiful variety of colours.
We notice some small groups dotted along the beach further out as its low tide. I’m curious, so approach a group to see exactly they’re up to only to discover that they’re breakfasting on sea urchins.
The collector urchin, known in Bohol as Swaki, is an Echinoderm like the starfish and the sea cucumber. Echinoderms are found in shallow tropical waters inhabiting sea grass beds, coral reef areas and macroalgae communities. Collector urchins have round dark bluish-purple shells with green, orange, and white spines. They collect debris such as fragments of shells and detritus for camouflage, hence the name collector urchin. Known as gardeners of the reef, these marine critters play an important role in keeping the reef groomed and healthy, feeding on seaweeds that affect coral growth.
In Bohol, the collector urchin is considered a delicacy in coastal communities. It can be eaten raw or grilled in an open fire before opening the shell and scooping its flesh. It is a good source of fiber, Vitamins A, and E, protein, calcium and iodine. The locals we talk to are eating them raw with a splash of chilli vinegar. It’s akin to eating oysters at Whitstable. They kindly offer us some to try but we politely refuse as we don’t want to run the risk of them disagreeing with us.
It starts to rain and we walk back from the beach to the hotel for a swim. Our bags are packed as we’re leaving at 1pm for a flight and as we have nothing better to do a swim in the rain it is.
We board our flight at 3.30pm in the rain. We leaving Panglao and Bohol for our final island of the Philippines, Palawan.
We land in El Nido and our driver whisks us off to our hotel.
We shower and change and Brownie leads us to a nearby restaurant where we eat great tapas and I drink G&T’s out of a bucket. We’re off on a boat trip tomorrow so home to pack a sea day bag after another great day.
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