Siquijor Travelog II: Spontaneity

Siquijor Travelog II: Spontaneity

The perks of arriving earlier than your mates of the travelling pants include having an extra time to appreciate the place aside from its sceneries. Having travelled from places and meeting different faces from different cultures and localities gives me a deeper sense on how we Filipinos could be so complex yet so simple at the same time in terms of hospitality – the value that we so boast.

Staying in Tacloban, Siquijor, Siquijor puts us at the midpoint of the Larena commercial center and Siquijor public market. We decided to buy and prepare our own food so to lessen expenses and to utilize our “excess” time wisely. We went to Siquijor public market, a 15-minute cab ride from our abode, you can take a pedicab or a multicab, eitherway the fare is only Php 8.00. We combed through the market to find the cheapest and best quality goods we can find. I also decided to purchase a pair of sandals worth Php 280.00 for my “pina-blagir” photos. I hope Liz Uy would be proud. Should I feel so conceited I might post a photo-diary of the trip. :)

We went to the St. Francis de Assisi Church near Siquijor Port. Though very compelling and captivating as it is, we refrained ourselves from taking “pina-blagir” and instagram-worthy photos. We decided to wait for our other mates just to be fair for them. They’ll be arriving by afternoon anyways. Or so we thought. Not until we received a call from them saying they won’t be able to make it this afternoon and will be arriving tomorrow, Saturday 9am. Eotteohkke? 

Gladly there’s a tourist map near the port. We just need to select a spot, take our purchased goods home, and then go on a mini spontaneous trip to a spring park in San Juan, a neighboring municipality. So we did, but before going to the trip we first came back to the St. Francis de Assisi Church to snap some tons of photos- I guess we earned as much as this privilege for arriving earlier. We went to the port area to inquire for motorcycle rentals, when suddenly a call came in. The supposed mini-spontaneous trip to the spring park is cancelled since the attraction is part of our itinerary and that would be so unfair to them. So what did we do? We added tons of photos the previous tons of photos of ourselves featuring the church and belfry in our camera roll.

Moments later we enjoyed a big bowl of halo-halo worth Php 70.00 courtesy of Portside Cafe to redeem ourselves from the scorching heat thinking it was enough to be the redeemer. No offense to the halo-halo, but it wasn’t. The photographer-modeling acts left us feeling sticky and sweaty. We felt like we needed a splash of seawater seeing the vast expanse of radiant blue waters around us. Then it came to me that there is a beach resort just across the road from our home. So we decided to go there. Spontaneity it is.

After taking a short walk, we arrived at the resort. It was empty – empty as in we were the only “tourists” there. The entrance fee was Php 25.00, and it was very worth it, considering that their pool would be mistaken as an infinity pool because of the beautiful view overlooking the shoreline and a silhouette of Negros Island, and the resort all solely for ourselves. We took advantage of the view and the thunder-lightning weather of the opposite island for our instagram feeds.

Even the shoreline did not escape our keen eyes, all for the love of photos and proofs of travel. Spontaneity it is.

To be continued in Siquijor Travelog III: “Under and Over Siqujor - Caves and Cliffs”

PS. All rights pertaining the photographs used in this blog post belongs to us.

Art Marvin Arañas

Hanna Paula Jinayon

Vicon Bañaga de Guzman