After an hour and half we arrived on the Ocean Jet liner, into Larena in Siquijor Island from Bohol. We took a tricycle (400) around to San Juan area of Siquijor where we had heard there were several cheaper places to stay. We stayed at Casa Miranda on the beach in a small room with a bathroom for (350). Due to it being rainy season the beach itself was covered in seaweed so didn’t look that appealing. We rented a scooter for the time we were there (350 a day) from our accommodation, which made our time in Siquijor. The island itself is perfect for renting a scooter, there is a really smooth tarmacked freeway running around the whole of the island with other less smooth roads up in the mountain, which are fun to explore.
We got on our scooter and drove through the local town went through town before stopping at Legends restaurant looking over isolated views of the sea for lunch, where we shared a medium BBQ chicken pizza (295). From there we took one of the roads up into the mountains to Lugnason Falls (small donation parking). One of the local guides took us down the track to the falls. Lugnason falls was impressive being surrounded by jungle and cliffs making a small lagoon at the bottom. The guide jumped from the cliff and the top but we climbed down to the waterfall and enjoyed jumping and swimming in the lagoon and under the waterfall, which was really refreshing. The guide then took us up to see the other waterfalls leading down to Lungason- Zodiac falls which was impressive and we swam at a few more along the way. At the end we tipped the guide but the falls themselves were free. We grabbed some petrol (40) and then enjoyed exploring the backstreets and along the coast for a while. For dinner we stopped at a small pop up street stall in one of the laybys near to the accommodation, having pancit Thai curry, spring rolls and veg (190 between us). We went to chill back in the communal area of the accommodation but the wind picked up, then the power cut out (common on Siquijor during rain storms) and then lots of rain so we went to watch films instead in our room.
We grabbed Hot Silog breakfast at our accommodation (sausage, egg, garlic rice and coffee) before getting ready to head out on the scooter again. We headed over towards Lazi where we saw the 400 year old impressive balette tree with the small pool fish spa underneath it. We dipped our feet in and experienced them cleaning our feet it tickling but trying to avoid some quite large fish in there just in case! (5 parking, 10 environmental fee, 10 entry fee). We went into the town of Lazi for lunch which actually had a range of restaurants and shops, quite built up for the small island. We found a decent looking burger restaurant for lunch (cheeseburger and chips 95) and also bought some pastry/cakes from the local bakery (5p each). Continuing around the island we headed to Canibugahay Falls (10 parking, tip to guide). After parking up we headed down towards a couple of tears of larger, more open pools and small waterfalls. You had the option to tarzan swing into the first pool (20) but we spent our time swimming in the refreshing waters and dipping under the waterfall. After this we drove to Saladoong beach (20 parking, 25 entry to the resort). This had two strips of small beach and the water looked inviting. We tried snorkelling in the water however there was not much to see and the waves were quite big. There is also an option to do different jumps and slides there into the sea as well as there being a restaurant. Usually I would imagine in high season this would be very busy with Filipino holidaymakers but it was reasonably quite due to it being low season. We continued right around the island to Larena and visited the hypermarket to get some drinks and snacks before continuing the loop around the island back to our accommodation. We sat and watched the sun go down from our accommodation. We had planned to get dinner again at the layby however by the time we walked there this was already closed or finished for the evening. Instead we carried on walking a little further and had dinner at Black Belt Grill (chicken BBQ 75 each, rice 20 and some beers). We headed back to Casa Miranda for a couple of beers before calling it a night.
After breakfast at Casa Miranda we drove up to one of the higher points on Siquijor to Triad Coffee Shop. There was a very decent view over the island, for an ok cappuccino (95). We carried on down the mountain roads to Larena back to the hypermarket. We stopped for lunch at Sweet Sensations in Larena (burger/fries/drink 109, chilli dog/fries/drink 105). We had a brief walk around the town although there wasn’t much there. Whilst there though Dave decided to get a haircut, and came out a little later with a much shorter hairdo for 50p. We headed round to Palington beach, which is described as little Boracay (where the beaches are supposed to be gorgeous). It was nice but due to the wind and rain it was covered in seaweed. We watched the sun go down at Casa Miranda before having margaritas (145) at Marco Polo.
The following day the weather was awful with a lot of wind and rain, so we chilled out in the morning before heading to EMJs burger and bakery for lunch. We headed to the port to look at the timetables/prices of boats for heading over to Cebu. The rest of the day was quiet with us catching up on notes and blogs. In the evening we headed to Baha bar for dinner (chicken burgers 145) and craft beer. This place had a very relaxed, chilled vibe with live music playing.
Our last full day in Siquijor we chilled out at Casa Marina for the morning and then headed out on the scooter to Tubod marine sanctuary and coco grove beach. This was a lovely beach, but again quite seaweedy. We drove over to Lazi to a 24 hr café for Panini (110) and burger (95) and coffee 45. We drove through the mountain paths stops at various viewpoints over the mountains and sea. At Larena we bought snacks for the journey the next day and tried to buy tickets for the boat but the port wasn’t open. Instead we headed back to Casa Miranda where we paddled in the sea and played with the dogs in beautiful sunny weather. We went back to Baha bar for drinks watching the sunset and dinner before packing up our room ready for leaving the next day. There was a long power cut so we chilled out in the dark for a while.
We left Casa Miranda getting a tricycle at 7am to siquijor port (15-20 minutes 200p). The GL shipping boat left at 8am (150each, terminal fee 14 p) for Dumaguette. The boat took about 1 hour to get to Dumaguette. On arrival we took a tricycle to Ceres bus liner with a couple of other travellers (40). The bus to Cebu was ready to go so we got straight on and travelled to Cebu (240p). It took about 1 hour to get to tampi port then we took the Mayo cargo boat over to Bato 70p- 30 minutes, from there we took the bus to Cebu. This took about 3-4 hours without stopping apart from a quick toilet break. This bus went past Oslob if you are planning on heading there and followed the coast line. We arrived into Cebu at 3.30pm where we grabbed 7/11 snacks by the south terminal. We walked 1 ½ km to Robinsons mall and fuente osemenas roundabout. We headed back to Kim Castros for the evening. On our arrival he was very hungover so took a nap and we walked over to Ruston’s supermarket before chilling out with him. In the evening Kim took us out to a BBQ place where you chose your own meats for grilling. As well as having beers of course. In the morning we said goodbye again leaving for the airport at 6.30am (250). We grabbed ham and cheese croissants and Cinabon before our flight back to Manila at 10.30am.
An hour and a half later we were back in Manila where we got a grab back to Z hostel (170). We grabbed lunch at Family Mart before walking to the Power Plant Mall and chilling out at the hostel. We got our free sunset cocktails on the roof terrace chatting to people from Ireland, Australia, New Zealnad, Britain and Nambibia. We treated ourselves to El Chupacarbra for tacos and margarihtas with the New Zealanders. In the morning we had 7/11 breakfast before getting another grab back to the airport, to fly to Japan with Philipine airlines.
Alex
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