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Published: April 1st 2013
Day 1: To be honest I thought the APO Island Tour package was too pricey. We basically paid 2200/each for a 45ish minutes boat ride and for the snorkelling gears. We had to separately pay for our lunch too. There's really not much of competition around since there were no commuter boats, one would have to hire a private boat anyhow.
Now on the brighter side...it felt totally amazing swimming with huge sea turtles! They were feeding on dead corals (algae) and seaweeds and seemed pretty used to swimming along with people. They won't budge unless you invade their space. I wasn't expecting they'd really be huge and plenty. We saw groups of them, it was a great snorkel experience. Just a shame some of the tourists kept holding them, the guides had to constantly remind them that they were not allowed to do so.
The day was nice and warm despite the gloomy weather forecast. I must say Janet is our lucky charm in terms of defying bad weather predictions.
The city of Dumaguete is located in Central Visayas and is one of the quietest PI city I’ve been. People are nice and helpful, and the place
is relatively clean. Despite our complain about the pricey tour packages, the
Orientwind Travel & Tours did a great job at taking good care of us. Their guides were knowledgeable and spoke English very well - just what we needed for Andy, our British (ehm...I mean Scottish) colleague travelling with us.
Day 2: It was supposedly just a day tour in Siquijor but the schedule of the boat trip would limit our stay for only three hours. We didn’t want to zoom our way around so we decided to spend the night in the island. The province is known for stories of witchcraft, enchantment, sorcery, love potions, and the like, but I won’t be mentioning about it...err...did I just mentioned about it?! These kind of practices is unacceptable to the Catholic principles and can still cause strain between two opposite ardent believers. I can assure you though that the people we met were totally harmless, never did my spirituality felt threatened in any way. For those who want to get a love potion, it will take two months to makes and would require for you to stay in the island a little longer 😉
One of my favourite part of the
day was the afternoon meal up a hill in Larena. With the view of the nearby islands of Apo, Bohol, Negros, Mindanao and the town of Larena below. Triad Cafe served a set of really good Filipino food that we quite enjoyed.
We went onward to the Guiwanon Mangrove Park by the seaside after our lunch, the sun shining brightly. The cool breeze eases up the heat as we walked on bamboo bridges through the mangrove trees. It was just a small area of mangroves but I did enjoy the short walk.
Next stop was the Kapilay Spring Park public pool with its steady flow of freshwater -- looked handy on a warm day.
The Bolo-Bolo Healing ritual was right up next done by the 80+year old
Lola(Grandma) Conching who uses a miraculous stone that’s said to have been given to her by the child Jesus (Sto. Niño) when she was just 40 years old.
Lola Conching starts the routine with a short prayer, fills half of the glass with clean water submerging the stone. She’d then blow bubbles in the water using a bamboo straw. The water would turn murky, our guide explains that this signifies
the impurities being extracted from your body. But just what they always say, only the faithful will be healed.
Then to the huge Balete Tree where the enchanted man Pablo Cabebo is said to live. According to the stories, every now and then he’d show up and mingle with the townspeople and point to this tree whenever he is asked where his house’s at. Couriers would also keep on dropping packages for Pablo, addressed where the Balete Tree is located. FedEx and Fairies? Apparently they need it too.
The vine swinging at the Cambugahay Falls was so much fun, actually it was so so so so much fun! There was a group of teenagers boys lurking around which made me a bit uncomfortable but nonetheless I’ll say it again, I was having too much fun dangling on the vine and throwing myself to the river. There were layers of falls, just short drops but I loved ‘em.
Salagdoong Beach Resort & Hotel Agripino was our home for the night. Nothing fancy, the beach was okay, the water was crystal clear, generally it was just an okay place. There’s a rotating brownout in the island so there were times we didn’t had AC
and lights. I was so craving for ice cream probably because I knew they were melting and I was just being stubborn. Dinner time at the resort’s cafeteria was an eating contest between humans and mosquitoes trying to suck every drop of our blood. Good thing we had ample supply for them all. We burp, them mosquitoes burp...everybody happy.
Janet and My plan to drive around on a motorcycle was ruined by the fact that neither of us has a driver license. How could we not have thought about that?! Bummer.
Day 3: It was time to go back to Dumaguete. The choppy water was already starting to make me feel sick, glad I was able to hold it until we were back on steady ground.
We had Dinner at Jutsz Resto for a round of Italian cuisine. We then walked by the Rizal Boulevard afterwards where I noticed lots of tourists, the area reminded me of seaside Phnom Pehn.
Drinks at Mooon Cafe, quite an artsy bar. Nice time talking about work
(ugh) and random stuff
(which was more fun to talk about), and about the people that we know 😉
Day 4: Balinsasayao
Twin Lakes some 13 km up a mountain through alternated dirt and paved road. Our car broke about 2 km away from the Lake and got stranded for a bit of a long while. Thank goodness there was a family who let us ride at the back of their pick up to the lake and even took us back to Dumaguete. Not the most comfortable situation to be in but how can we complain?! and being the masochist that I am, I actually enjoyed the ride! I'm doubtful if the others did too.
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JayExiomo
Jay Exiomo
Ooooh, turtle!
Nice shot. :)