Text and Photos by Carlo S. Suerte Felipe

Fear and excitement immediately gripped me upon hearing that Siquijor was our next destination.

Fear because Siquijor is widely known as the land of enchantment, evil spirits and sorcery. Excitement because of the first reason, and the fact that I had been wanting to uncover the secrets of this mysterious island.

We booked the cheapest flight to Dumaguete months ahead. My friends and I left Manila early in the morning and arrived in Dumaguete around 10 AM. We headed straight to the port and took the next boat to Siquijor. The ride lasted about 40 minutes.

It was a little past noon when we arrived at the port of Siquijor. The first structure to greet us was the St. Francis de Assisi Church. After asking some of the locals in the area, we learned that you can actually rent a motorcycle to tour the island.

We didn’t have a hotel yet upon our arrival. Fortunately, our tricycle driver knew of a nice resort located 20 minutes from the port. The hotel was a bit pricey for our budget, but we had beautiful views of the ocean that we didn’t mind at all paying more.

After leaving our bags in our rooms, we rented two motorcycles and had lunch at a nearby eatery. We planned out our itinerary using the tourist map from the resort. We then headed to the Lugnason Falls located near our hotel. The waterfall is about 20 feet high and taller than the stair-like Cambugahay Falls which we visited the next day. Tourists can swim in both waterfalls.

On our second day, we were able to visit several tourist attractions starting with the century-old Balete tree. A cold spring flows from the base of this tree, so the locals turned the spring into a man-made pool of sorts by placing concrete around it. But they made it so without damaging the natural landscape of the area. Here, visitors can enjoy a fish spa and selfies with the "enchanted" tree. From there, we headed towards the San Isidro Labrador Parish Church, otherwise known as the Lazi Church housing a convent that was built during the mid-1800s.

Spelunking at Cantabon Cave was next on our itinerary. From the church, we made a quick stop at the Cambugahay Falls and another stop at a sari-sari store for some refreshments. We found out that the store owner moonlights as a local healer and was recently featured in a travel show about the island. We took that opportunity to ask her about the truth surrounding the island’s supposed evil spirits and sorcery. She gladly obliged, saying that local healers most especially believe in them. Sharing some tips, she said that for an enchantment or even a simple love potion to work, the person must believe in it and should be ready to spend thousands of pesos.

The trip to Cantabon Cave took us about one and a half hours (we made two wrong turns along the way). Luckily for us, we arrived just in time for the next batch of tourists to tour the cave. Visitors are advised not to touch any of the stalactites and stalagmites in the cave to preserve its white color. There is only one entrance to the cave and several areas have low headroom, so best to follow the lead of your guide. The view inside is amazing making all your physical strains worth it.

We left the cave past noon, deciding to check out the inner parts of the island and back through the circumferential road. Because we feared going back to the resort at night, we cut short our exploration and were back in our rooms before 5 PM.

We checked out of the resort on our third day to visit the eastern side of the island, where we found the Salagdoong Beach Resort. Before reaching the resort, we passed through a man-made forest. We thought of spending our last night on the island at the resort but there were no available rooms for four persons.

We left and looked for other places to stay until we arrived at The Norwegian Dream Resort, owned by a retired Filipina chef and her Norwegian husband. Had we known about the place upon arriving in Siquijor, we would have stayed here from the beginning. The owners were very accommodating and their food was very affordable.

Siquijor definitely surprised us to say the least. We came to the island unsure of what was in store for us. But we left the island enchanted by its beautiful coastlines, secretive forests and mangroves, and the warm hospitality of the locals. It’s been months since we left the island, but until now it keeps calling us back.

Siquijor put us under a spell.

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