Adventures with Jack and Julia

Siquijor

Although we’re pretty accustomed to long travel days at this point, getting from Moalboal to Siquijor took it out of us. Once it was all said and done, we’d taken 2 different ferries, 1 bus and 4 trike rides (essentially a motorbike with a cage attached for seating) before we finally made it to our new destination. As reward, however, Siquijor ended up being one of our favourite stops in our Philippine journey, and even overall so far!

We checked in to our homestay, which was a private room steps from the water and next to a delicious vegan restaurant that we frequented many times during our stay. We’ve eaten a lot of vegan food this trip so far not because we’ve converted or anything, but it’s just so healthy and delicious when compared to a lot of the local fried dishes being served elsewhere. When you haven’t cooked any of your meals except oatmeal for four months, you end up craving simple foods like fresh vegetables and fruits over that time. Luckily, this restaurant was so tasty and were able to accommodate Julia’s diet as well. There was another cool spot close by called Baha Bar that had a lovely beachfront bar set up right on the water for sunset that we ate at a couple of times and really enjoyed. It’s set up like a massive tree house with couches and tables all tucked away so you feel like you have your own little private area while dining. It’s a really fun spot!

Other than eating tons of amazing food, the two big highlights for our time were snorkelling at Tubod Beach and visiting Cambugahay Falls. Tubod Beach is home to a protected marine sanctuary area and you need to pay for a guide if you visit during low tide. We didn’t know this ahead of time, but we were happy to have paid for a guide in the end because he knew exactly where to snorkel and he took amazing pictures for us! We really appreciated how seriously they took their jobs in ensuring the coral and marine life doesn’t get destroyed by snorkelers and cleaning up any garbage that floated by us along the way. It really made a difference and it’s no understatement to say that this was without a doubt the best snorkel spot we’ve ever been to. The water gets to about 40 feet deep and we could see all the way down as well as well over 100 feet in front of us. We saw so many vibrant tropical fish, but the cherry on top for us was finally getting to see a sea turtle. We swam alongside it after it awoke from its nap, and watched as it poked its little head out of the water and dove back down. This was an experience that was high on both of our bucket lists and we were beyond thrilled and overwhelmed with happiness that it finally happened.

On a different day, we rented a scooter and headed to Cambugahay Falls, which is a beautiful three-tiered light blue waterfall, where you can swim and jump from rope swings. While there, Julia swung from the 5 metre while Jack braved the 8 metre before we made our way up to the top pools to continue cooling off from the heat.

All in all, we really enjoyed this island because it was less crowded and had a more laid back vibe. It reminded us a lot of the things we loved about Koh Lanta with a real beach-town feel to it. Everyone we met was lovely, and the snorkelling beat out some of the other more well known spots we’d heard about before coming here. We hope to be back some day to experience it again.

Panglao

Following that high, the journey from Panglao was much less complicated than our previous journey. We took a trike, a ferry and a Grab to make it to our hotel. Panglao is actually a smaller island that is part of the better known Bohol. Here, the main tourist activities include the Chocolate Hills, seeing the tarsiers, and once again visiting the beaches.

Most tourists when they come here stay near Alona Beach. However, we decided to stay a bit further away from the busy zone for a cheaper accommodation and a quieter neighbourhood. We did check out the Alona Beach area for sunset one day and it reminded us a bit of Boracay, but the beach wasn’t as nice. We were glad we went because we got to see a surfing dog though!

For food, we were able to find a delicious vegan restaurant for dinner and went a couple of times during our stay where Jack tried their vegan lechon kawali which looks just like barbecued pork belly! Luckily, this restaurant wasn’t too expensive like some of the other vegan places we’d found so far. When you don’t eat like the locals, you end up paying tourist prices a lot of the times so we’ve really had to be selective with where we go. Not only are we checking for cleanliness and positive Google reviews, but we’re also checking for our diets and making sure we’re not paying any ginormous tourist taxes along the way. That could be the difference between visiting another country later in the trip of having to come home early.

Along the same lines as our meal planning, we opted to not do an expensive tour to visit the tarsiers and Chocolate Hills. Instead, with a little bit of extra planning on Julia’s part, we were able to figure out our own way there via public transportation. This added a lot of time to our journey, but saved us quite a bit of money which we were more than glad to do. If there’s one thing we have on this trip, it’s time which is not a luxury we’re bound to have very often while visiting these places. As a bonus, we also got to see more of the beautiful countryside and it made for more of an adventure as we travelled with the locals.

The Chocolate Hills are a unique geological formation featuring almost 2,000 round mounds that turn chocolate brown in the dry season. This is where their name came from! They were still green when we visited as we’re not far enough into the dry season for that to occur yet, though. These limestone hills formed from uplifting and erosion of marine limestone which is essentially ancient coral reefs that have been compacted over millions of years, in a process called karstification. Rainwater slowly dissolved the soft rock, and eventually shaped them into the unique mounds you see today.

As if the Vancouver winter was reminding us how much we’re missing out on, we got caught in a rainstorm as soon as we arrived at the hills. We took cover in the nearby restaurant and got some warm beverages while we waited out the storm. Despite it being a cloudy day, it was so cool to walk up to the viewpoint and see the thousands of hills before us. Photos don’t really do it justice. It’s truly a magnificent sight.

As for the tarsiers, these little guys are the tiniest nocturnal primates in the world and are known for their humongous eyes. The Philippine tarsiers are sadly critically endangered due to habitat loss and illegal pet trade so the way to see them is by visiting one of the sanctuaries on Bohol. Of course, it wasn’t until we were en route that we realized that the “sanctuary” on the bus route home was not the same sanctuary that we had learned about, and was instead more of a zoo where the animals are not cared for in the same capacity. The actual sanctuary was very far out of the way and would add hours of travel time, so we decided to skip it this time. Note to self: when planning your own route to save some money, make sure the route actually goes where you want to go…

We were sad to not see these cute little creatures but were happy that we had realized not to visit the one on our route home and have supported animal cruelty. It’s eye opening how different things are in different countries. At home there have been cases of similar things going on at aquariums and zoos, so you have to be so careful what you choose to support. In these third world countries, it’s much more extreme what we’ve seen so we always make a real effort to not put our dollars towards these organizations.

In any case, after 3 nights in Panglao, we were excited to fly to our next island called Palawan and we’ve got two destinations to explore when we get there. We’re going to a lesser known spot called Port Barton which as it turns out is a hub for budget backpackers and also to El Nido to do one of the stunning island hopping tours.

The Philippines so far are such a treat. We added these places to our schedule later in our planning and we’re really glad we did. Between the crystal clear waters and the cute surfer towns, we’re having a blast everywhere we go. Definitely worth a visit before everything gets too populated with tourists!

Thank you for continuing to support us by reading our blog! If you want to help support us further, please also consider buying us a coffee 🙂