Thank God we arrived in this mystical island in one piece! The journey going here has been laden with so much anxiety! But at this point, Peter and I were ready to start enjoying ourselves. Like I said in my previous post, we were supposed to check-in at Coral Cay Resort. However, the kind tricycle driver, Kuya Romeo, suggested that if we are after a nice beach where we can sunbathe, Hotel Agripino at Salagdoong Beach is the best place to be! It was a bit farther than Coral Cay though. So instead of a 20-minute tricycle ride from the port, it took us almost an hour to get to Hotel Agripino and the whole ride cost us Php500.00 instead of only Php300.00. Normally, if you rent a tricycle from the tourism office, it will cost you Php600. But since Kuya Romeo is nice, he gave us a discount. To make it even better, he offered to give us a package tour instead. Inclusive of our trip from the port, the tour for the rest of the day cost us only Php1000.00. I think that is already cheap enough considering that Siquijor is quite a huge island as compared to Camiguin which you can literally tour in just an hour (which reminds me I still have yet to share with you our trip to Camiguin…).
Siquijor Provincial Tourism Office
Telephone #: (035) 344-2088, 480-9173
Hotel Agripino: (+63) 09102002552
Cottages: (+63) 09187714714
Email: tourismsiquijor@yahoo.com
Moving on, our first stop was at Guiwanon Spring Park located in Luyang, Siquijor. It was on the way to our hotel so it was practical to explore the area right then instead of going back there at a much later time. Kuya Romeo parked his tricycle at the side of the road. I was hesitant to leave the tricycle AND our baggage at first, for fear that he might just run off with them. Yes, I am paranoid that way. But according to Peter and his horde, he was a good person so we trusted him. We crossed the street and stepped down on its wooden ladder leading to the wooden bridge. It was around 12:00 noon of November 1. Kuya Romeo said that the entrance fee is only Php10.00. However, nobodywas there to take our payment. Everyone must be either at the cemetery or at home praying for their beloved departed while here we were doing this trip. Hehehe. It was a bit eerie at first. But after passing by the first main hut, I was already enjoying myself.
As we traversed the sturdy wooden bridge, we saw several huts nestled on trees and pitched on stilts standing on sand and seawater.
Mangroves were all around us. It was so peaceful and beautiful. Even if it was the middle of the day, I couldn’t help but still wear my jacket for the air was so fresh and the breeze was so cool.