Siquijor, the island of witchcraft

After Apo island we went to nearby Siquijor. Much bigger then Apo, though easily toured on one day. 72km around.

Called Isla del Fuego or the “Island of Fire” (because of its many fireflies in the Molave trees) by the Spanish before, Siquijor is considered by many Filipinos to be a mystical island, full of witches and other supernatural phenomena. Some will never go there out of fear. Some will tell you not to go because something bad happened to a relative or their friend. Very intriguing.

To make it even more exciting we decided to go look for one of the last healers to be found there. And we found him.
The man, called Oal by the locals, lives on a very modest property, nothing more then a shady nipa hut at the entrance of a small forest. What touched me was the kid when we entered the property. A young boy of around 6 years old, who took my hand and hold it against his forehead while saying the word “bless”. This is an old way of kids to greet older people and showing their respect. The first time I ever experienced this. Oal his (grand)sons welcomed us and introduced him to us. A very respectable man, lots of aura around him. But very hard to communicate as neither of us masters te Visayan dialect and they didn’t master Tagalog or English. So the information was a bit basic.
We had some small chitchat, he looked at my back (which is still hurting from the crash in Bohol), read our hands and gave him a donation as a thank you for his time.

Besides this visit, we wanted to find Franco, who’s able to move paper purely with the power of his mind. The man was even in a documentary on National Geographic. Too bad we had a hard time tracking him down and finally gave up.

This way we saw a big portion of the island and local way of living. Remarkable was the softness and warmth of the locals. Very laid back people, warm smiles, friendly & modest.

Black & White portret of Oal

Arrival at Siquijor

The beach where we stayed 3 nights.

What we did during sunset & mornings

aaah, good life

our little bangka

4 legged spider

The enchanted waterfalls (I forgot the name of the village)

One of my last wonderful dives this year

See you soon again, dear Philippines.

deep *sigh*

From tomorrow, the 29th, a long tiring journey to Belgium awaits me.

Cebu – Manila – Kuala Lumpur – Bangkok – Dusseldorf – Gent (-Westmalle Tripel)

Apo Island

After my trip to Bacolod I awaited the return of Shayne in Cebu, Talisay. The next day we headed to Apo island, a tiny island located 45mins boatride southwards from Dumaguete, Negros. Listed by National Geographic as nr. 9 divespot in the world. No traffic, not even a bicycle. 2 small villages, 2 modest resorts (which we both tried out…definitely go for Liberty’s if you ever go there…better food and warmer people), 2 lagoons. Plenty of very diverse coral & fish. Finally I saw a wild seaturtle! Woohoo!

I snorkelled kilometers there, even to very deep parts. The water was so clear! I practiced my freediving (diving deep with only snorkelgear). It was a small paradise. Let the pictures speak to you. We had an awesome time there.

view from our room at arrival time

the next day when we woke up

the lagoon

the school (it was off day)

the coralgarden…go 2 meters inside and a wonderful underwaterworld opens up for you.

the road through the village

the church

Lightning time at night

local kid

Shayne doing her divingsession

Liberty

The village

view at Negros from the top of Apo

An abandoned house or school or whatever it was…

kids graffiti

mad grasshopper

posing Apo fly

local kids doing their trick at sunset. They easily could do do a free salto. Unfortunately they were a bit shy in front of my camera.

Masskara Festival in Bacolod, Negros province

around mid October there’s a huge colorful festival in Bacolod: the Masskara Festival. Parades from all barangays (villages), parties, art galleries, band gigs, foodfests, etc etc.
What’s typical about the parades is that all masks show a wide smile. In short, the story goes back in time when the harvest of sugarcane (loads of sugarcane plantations to be found in Negros) was very poor and people started to feel very depressive. The governor decided to do something about that and he launched a festival in an effort to make his people happier. The smile on the masks hides their sadness. Upon today this is a yearly event, widely known across the nation. I went there together with Czaldy from Davao (who later seemed to be a great Red Horse companion). We took the bus, ferry, bus (7-10hrs) from Cebu city and met up in Bacolod with loads of other people and friends. We slept 2 days at J & E’s house. Although ’slept’ is an overstatement. The last night we actually skipped and we just went straight on the bus around 7am and digested our hangover on the bus.

Jason, Roy, a cigarette vendor & E(lizabeth).

The day after we went to the ruins of Talisay (not to be confused with Talisay in Cebu province)

Gallery orange

A typical Pinoy house in exhibition style

J(ay) showing his firetricks, me shooting them

J on fire

Some snapshots of the nights…

Gringo, a real ‘bacolodian’

Jason had enough

Czaldy at 10am, no sleep & this after three days of Red Horse. You can’t tell. Respect Czaldy! haha.