It is said that it's a mystical island, and that witchcraft and
sorcery are alive and kicking in Siquijor. For a dumb western tourist it
was really hard to find the mystique. Here's all the sorcery we
witnessed:
Our travel itinerary, our route marked on the map with light red, places we stayed marked with balloons.
1. Day
We
took the 1.30pm fast ferry from Dumaguete to Siquijor town. We were
surprised by the waiting system. First we waited in a lobby, then in a
bigger boat and about 20 minutes before the departure we transferred to a
smaller ferry parked next to the bigger one.
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| Is it really necessary to taunt the smokers like this
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What we didn't know was
that there was air-con in the boat. We were wearing shorts and a t-shirt
so we were freezing.
By the time we reached Siquijor we
were hungry and decided to stay in town and eat a late lunch. We had a
long lunch with dessert and all. Ilkka had to experience halo-halo.
Unfortunately he prefers his desserts without corn and beans...
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| Local delicacy halo-halo: corn flakes, sweet corn, boiled white and brown beans, jello cubes, ube ice cream, ice and milk. |
It was a bit rainy and we were a bit wimps so decided to stay in Siquijor town as it was getting late and dark already. We decided to spent a night in the Das Straum guest house for the cheap price of 250 PHP.
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| Our room in Das Traum Guest House |
2nd day.
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| Ilkka after about half a vertical mile on bicycle | |
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| And Tuuli after same amount of travelling, she needed a rest! |
2nd Day
Second day started early with a gargantuan uphill climb to San Antonio where we were supposed to find a local faith healer. After Ilkka barely making it all the way we stopped in a guest house for breakfast. It turned out that the only thing they had was instant coffee and to the horror of us Finns the poor innkeeper took a motorcycle to somewhere far away to fetch us some bread. We had our bread and coffee with the delightful company of several dogs and cats, a single scorpion and a huge orchestra of garden gnomes. The couple that ran the guest house were totally nice but when it came to the subject of the faith healer they were surprisingly tight lipped for some reason so we mounted our bikes and continued our search.
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| Getting closer... |
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| San Antonio Guest House |
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| Breakfast in San Antonio Guest House, note the 3 in 1 coffee sachet! |
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| Ilkka's favorite: garden gnomes! They had the whole orchestra! |
In the next village we asked around and a nice lady agreed to take us to the local faith healer. He lived in a relatively big house with a lot of home electronics and after a short interview he agreed to heal Tuuli's feet from mosquito bites. Unfortunately we do not have a video of the healing process but it included a lot of whispering to Tuuli's feet and rubbing coconut oil on them. Now, fully protected, we headed on south-east for a hotel or a resort.
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| We visited a faith healer's house in Cang-Asa. Tuuli got her feet cured. |
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| Fish treatment for feet by the Balete tree. Kirsi, the one we had was luxurious. We were too afraid of these relatively big fish so didn't go for treatment this time. |
In the way we encountered some stunning scenery, exhilarating long
downhills and a hundred years old tree with it's own donation box. We stopped shortly in Lazi to have something to eat and to have a look at the local convent / catholic school. There was also a huge church in Lazi but it looked too intimidating to enter so we carried on on our journey.
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| Lazi |
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| Old convent in Lazi |
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| There must be times when it's not this quiet around here:D |
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| Church in Lazi |
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| And down we go! Beautiful scenery! |
Later at the afternoon, we arrived to a nice looking beach resort with beautiful view to the ocean and decided to spent the next two nights there only to realize that it was some kind of almost 24 hour non-stop karaoke party for the locals. Later we found out that it's a government owned place and it is best to avoid the area specially during the weekends:D Room at Hotel Agripino was 1,300 PHP a night.
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| Relaxing by the sea in Salagdoong |
After hearing such classics as 'My Way', 'I started a Joke' and some Shakira songs get absolutely butchered in full volume time after time and realizing the restaurant did not serve any real vegetarian food we promptly walked to the reception and cancelled the reservation for another night. We had some good times watching the sunset from a top of a small hill and having dinner with a American/Australian couple who were also backpacking in Siquijor. Full ten points to this couple. They were riding Harold's Mansion's pedal bike with no gear and they went all the way to Lazi the first night (while we wimps were staying safely off the rain in Siquijor town...).
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| Sunset in Salagdoong |
3rd Day
The 3rd day started with a minor disaster as Tuuli's bike broke down and we did not have the know-how or the tools to fix it. To top it up, we had to send her all the way to Siquijor City to get it fixed since apparently it was the only town with a capable bike repair shop. Luckily a pedicab was around to take her and the bike so we did not have to walk all the way.
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| My bike in repair - again! |
After the resort we were in the 2nd night we didn't have such high hopes for the accommodation for tonight. Tuuli looked up a promising place on the Internet and it turned out to be...not quite what they promised but nonetheless a very nice resort with most excellent view to the ocean and hammocks(!) that hung above the water on high tide.We were also very pleased with the little stone villa with an actual fridge and stone steps that went from our porch straight to the beach. The room cost 1400 PHP only and was well worth it in our opinion.
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| Every day I'm hammocking! |
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| Our beautiful bed in Casa de la Playa in Sandugan. |
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| Tuuli's breakfast/lunch after the 15 km ride in scorching sun! |
The restaurant in the resort had the word 'verde' in it, hinting strongly of a wide selection of vegetarian food. However, the selection was quite poor although the food that was available was quite delicious and served uncharacteristically hot. We had a nice bowls of mungo- and onion soup, sizzling pork and a plate of mouthwatering french fries.
Despite of the German owner it lacked eco-consciousness (we could not fill our water bottles but had to buy plastic bottles instead). Otherwise we would recommend this resort to anyone who wants to relax and enjoy the beautiful island of Siquijor.
Random pics:
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| It felt like home with the tuko. |
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| Last lunch in Siquijor |
