When we arrived at the Ferry Terminal it was pretty amusing to see they had a boat leaving at 8am every morning to go to Siquijor and that was it… Regardless of what the website and the signs above the ticket desk saying Siquijor – 3:45pm led us to believe. We started speaking to a Filipino there and thankfully he suggested we get a taxi to another port about 2 hours away that had ferries leaving to get to Siquijor every hour, he organized his friend to pick us up and we were on our way.
The 2-hour trip turned into a 3 and a half hour trip, but finally, we were at the ferry terminal, we said goodbye to our driver and boarded the boat. After a 45-minute wait a ticket man came around and we soon discovered this ferry was going to another island (still didn’t catch the name of it) and once there we could make our way to the other Ferry Terminal that sold the tickets to Siquijor. We shrugged it off, paying out $3 fee and settled in for the boat ride. When we were on land, we asked a trike drive to drop us off at the next ferry terminal – this is the point where we found out that the next ferry to Siquijor was at 8am the next day – so we were on some island we didn’t know the name of, at 7pm at night, with nowhere to stay. What could go wrong, right? Luckily, nothing did. We found a little hotel close by and snacked at the bakery down the road. The next morning we were up and ready sure that we would finally make it to Siquijor and I promised Justin that seeing as this island stop was his idea, he better make it well worth the trip.
Siquijor is a beautiful island, but it gets such a bad wrap from the other Filipinos (with major paranoia in my opinion) who don’t live on the island. Myths say the island is cursed and is home to voodoo magic and witches, majority of Filipino travellers who go there say how freaky the island is. According to these myths, travellers of the island end up with illnesses, are cursed or at least obtain injuries. Siquijor felt anything but scary or cursed, sure, it is mystical, but because of its unspoiled beauty not because of evil witches and faith-healers.
We spent the second day on this glorious island discovering the ancient Balete tree, an enchanted tree which is over 400 years old and Cambugahay waterfall then riding around to the northern tip of the island.
The following day we decided to ride to Salagdoong beach, something we are so glad we did, this beach was absolutely beautiful and Justin loved making my heart jolt by making use of the jumping rocks.
Anyway, I better go, I am a little drunk from one too many San Miguels and I think I might break our computes auto-correct.