Siquijor: Mystics and Magic

 

When I was young, I heard a lot of scary stories told about this enchanting island.  Mainly by silly maids, who if memory serves me right wanted nothing more than to scare the living daylights out of prepubescent teens. *sheesh*  A decade later, that memory still haunts me.  The maid's, not her wild stories.

But true enough, growing up I would hear countless more tales about the island's supposed eerie-ness, the home to mangkukulams, sorcery and other Regal Films inspired B-movie plot line.  Fortunately, we were traveling with someone from Dumaguete, who branded silly tall tales as nothing but utter myths and such.

There's no airport in the island and anyone who wants to visit this enchanting place up close needs to go to Dumaguete and take a boat from the pier.

And of course, best to rent a van or jeepney for the day to tour you around the city.  First stop: Mt. Bandila-an Peak.

Unfortunately, I was not dressed for the occasion.  Our driver took us to Mt. Bandila-an, said to be the highest point in the island at 557ft above sea level.  He said and I quote "mga five minutes lang po yan".  He said this over and over that despite my no-exercise-while-on-a-vacation policy I was happy to go along with the trek. He apparently had a waayyy too slower watch than all of us combined, 'cause his 5 minutes turned out to be a good 30-40 minutes to everyone else.  Long trail aside, absolutely cool view once we reached the top.  (I almost slipped a number of times, too slippery  slopes trails)

Point of Interest: Unable to miss the 14 stations of the cross on the way to the top.

Viewing Tower

After our "5-minute" trek, we were taken to Cambugahan Falls.  Some people might appreciate the rough roads as part of the adventure, too bad my ass didn't/will never see it that way. 

Cambugahan Falls has become one of the main attractions in Siquijor, mainly because of its rather cool multi-tier waterfalls!  It's also not to high up that a little diving and cliff jumping isn't out of the question.

 

Of course, Little Ms. Show Off runs off to jump...

And last stop on our day trip to Siquijor is Coco Grove Beach Resort.  I got a little bit excited 'cause on the way, I heard some chitter chatter that this is rumored to be the place where Brad Pitt vacationed at. Hehehe, naah, what are the chances right?!!?

Some of the photos were taken from: Rye Matignas' cam