I always love going to Siquijor - it’s a gorgeous island away from the city grime, the people are incredibly friendly and the diving is fab. The only downside to working on the island is that there’s a really wide, shallow seagrass flat that stretches out to the reef. So we’re standing on the beach, looking at our dive boat which is stuck several hundred meters out by the reef. Every morning and afternoon we had a fun game of paddling a kayak borrowed from the resort out to the boat, then paddling both the kayak and the little bangka from the dive boat back to the beach, and then the bangka back to the boat (we couldn’t convince the resort to let us keep the kayak all day).
After a couple of days of this, we asked our boat boys if we couldn’t fit three of us in the little bangka to go back to the beach, since we were leaving all our gear on the boat. It was pretty low in the water, and required a certain degree of balancing, but it seemed to be working fine. About half way, minds firmly fixed on a hot shower and sundowners at the bar, there was an almighty creaking noise and the bamboo outrigger snapped in half, sending us all flying! It was pretty funny after I had managed to swim back to the beach and pull the urchin spines out of my foot (calamansi/lime works a treat!), but I did feel bad about the boat!
The next day we managed to persuade Coral Cay to launch their bangka to ferry us to and from the reef. Luckily it was made of sterner stuff.
After three days diving/working, we took a day off and hired a motorbike to explore the island a bit. At first the plan was for me to learn to ride the bike, but we ended up with such a monster that I don’t think I would have been able to reach the peddles, so I just clung on for dear life.
Siquijor has one main road that runs around the island. It’s a beautiful ride, and we stopped off at old convents and stunning beaches along the way. After lunch we decided that we needed a bit more adventure, and turned off onto a smaller road to head up through the hills to San Antonio - a village that apparently practices the witchcraft Siquijor is infamous for.
I’m not sure that we ever made it to San Antonio… a rash decision at a cross roads led us to ever deteriorating roads (sometimes I think we were riding along a river bed) and ever smaller and more rural communities. People starting running from their houses to wave hello to us. Clearly foreigners had not been in these parts in a long time. Worryingly, people became unsure of which direction to point us in when we asked for directions, to the third largest town on the island. By this stage I was pretty glad we had the big bike, and not the little scooter thing I was after! Eventually, aching from the bumpy non-roads and just as the sun was setting, we made it back to the main road and our resort. It was a great adventure though - we’re going back for more exploring over holy week!
Becks is a marine ecology PhD student, living in Queensland (Australia), Dumaguete (Philippines) and London (UK). Marinegirl is her online alter-ego. She dreamt her up as as super-gorgeous superhero saving the underwater world (if you've seen Captain Planet, you get the idea). She is not, and never will be, in the marines.