Siquijor’s Witches, Waterfalls and a Strange Night Out

With over 7,000 islands in the Philippines and only a handful of them supporting large scale tourist development, the choices for island hopping are endless. Once away from the well connected routes, be prepared for some “interesting’ boat rides like the one we had on our way to the island of Siquijor.

Siquijor has no airport and the only way on or off the tiny island is by boat from Dumaguete and what a ride it was. The sea seemed slightly choppy when we boarded but that was nothing once our tiny vessel got to the large rollers of the open ocean. Waves pounded against the windows soaking everyone within, while Lianna slipped deeper in an intentional gravol induced coma. 90 minutes later and even the Filipinos looked happy to be on dry land once again.

WITCH DOCTOR

Siquijor has a reputation as an island of witches and black magic among the locals due to the mountain healers who inhabit the mountains on the interior but we were more interested in exploring a piece of the Philippines which felt a little more low key. The game plan was to rent a motor bike and set off to explore the island at our own pace but after meeting 3 other travelers with injuries, 1 quite serious, from motorbike accidents we decided to find an alternate way.

The following morning we met some fellow travelers with the same idea in mind and attempted to get a vehicle organized to take us to some of the islands best sites but by the time things came together, it was too late so we made arrangements for the next day and headed off to nearby Salagdoong Beach. A popular picnic spot with locals, Salagdoong has a nice patch of sand around some rocky outcrops and is a good place for swimming. Not a bad place to kill an afternoon laying in the sun but certainly not one of the finer beaches I have been to. When the sun had set and our tricycle driver was taking us back to our guesthouse he suggested we come to a disco that night as it was Friday and that he could pick us up. There was some hesitation in the group as we were going to leave at 830am the following morning but in the end after playing cards and a few rum and cokes, 4 of us set out for the party around 10pm.

After the (many) cheap drinks and conversation things lead to a point of ridiculous dancing and singing. The playlist was surprisingly familiar after the live band switched to a top 40 set list. Our group of 4 foreigners were warmly accepted amongst all the Filipinos and except for some hilarious dancing from some of the older men trying to pick up the two western girls, we realized the locals idea of a good time was exactly the same as ours.

The end of the night saw us settling in with the friendly owner of the disco for some free beer and he encouraged us to invite all our relatives to the wonderful island of Siquijor, but not before Lianna got up with the band to sing her own rendition of Black Eyed Peas. By the time we were back at the guest house it was 3am and we knew waking up the following morning was not going to be easy.

Everyone the next morning was slow to get it together and thankfully so was our driver. We started out around 9 am heading straight for the interior mountains before snaking our way down to the coast over the course of the day. Our first stop was to see a local witch doctor in the interior and after he treated one of the other travelers with a terrible reaction to a sunburn we moved on to a satisfactory view point atop the highest mountain on the island.A trip to Siquijor is incomplete without a trip to see the amazing Cambugahay waterfalls which offer a gorgeous turquoise plunge pool to swim in. Easily our highlight of the island it was difficult to leave as all afternoon could have been spent swimming underneath the falls, we headed to JJ’s cafe for lunch.

Slowly being developed into a residence for backpackers, the friendly Aussie owner made our lunch all the more interesting and would certainly be a fantastic place to stay once they finish the plans to add more rooms as at the moment they only had a 6 bed dorm available. Our last stop was to Paliton Beach from where we took in a scarlet sunset as the local fisherman launched their boats in search of an evening catch. Everyone exhausted from the (night) and day we had, it was early to bed with just about all of us needing to wake up at 4 am to catch the 6 o clock boat off the island.

We stayed at Kiwi Dive Resort which was a descent place to stay although the owner wanted almost no interaction with his guests. Despite having a lovely girl doing her best to serve the 12 or so tourists, without ordering in advance there is a risk you could go to bed hungry as we did on our final night. Nonetheless, we had a great time and met some great people while staying there.