A day Trip to Siquijor...

[mrsteve38]

August 2006 I was spending a few days in Dumaguete and surrounding areas. I decided to go over to Siquior Island for a few days. It had been a bit overcast in Duma for the last few days, with rain mostly in the evening.
I took the fast Delta to Siquijor. When we landed I walked up the wharf to where all the trikes were waiting. A young guy approached me, he had a trike and was willing to take me anywhere I wanted.

We got in the trike, actually it was not his (there was a driver), but the young guy said he was a tour guide.
I asked to go to Kiwi Dive resort, which is near to Larena, but as the Delta docks in Siquijor, it means quite a long trike ride. the young guy's name was Edrick Maghari, also known as Dopoy, and if he is still there, I would advise people to go with him. A very pleasant and honest young man.

Dopoy did seem to plug the Coco Grove Resort though, but I stuck to my guns and we set off for the Kiwi Dive resort. When we got there, I was told it was full. So I asked to go to Islanders Paradise. This was also full...I later learned some of these places don't have many rooms, so if a dive group or something comes along, the place gets full quite quickly (this was off season remember).
Anyway, next on my list was Casa de la Playa, where I could have had a cottage for 800P. But the quietness of the place, along with the weather which by now had started to drizzle, put me off staying there.

We went back to Larena, where Dopoy said there was a hotel, but I asked to go back to Siquior Town. I got off at a little Swiss restaurant type place near the town. I invited Dopoy to accompany me for a few beers and something to eat. he told me about his studies and how he wanted to be an official tour guide or something.

I decide I was going to go back to Duma on the afternoon ferry. Dopoy came with me to the wharf, where we had a few more beers as we waited for the ferry.

As I left I tried to give him a couple of hundred Pesos for his time, as he had been with me most of the day, but would not get any commission from the resorts as I had not stayed there. I finally persuaded him to accept the money as payment for his time, and told him next time I'm in Siquiojor I'll look out for him and go to the Coco Grove!

The return trip to Duma was really bumpy, and I heard some sailings were cancelled a day or two later as the sea was so rough, so as I was by now on quite a tight schedule it was probably for the best that I hadn't stayed a couple of nights on Siquijor....