Date of travel: June 15-16, 2013
A Scary Siquijor Story
We had just finished a 1pm to 6pm tour of the island, and we were on our way to JJ's Cafe and Backpackers Village for dinner. We were amusing ourselves with stories of sigbins, pretending we were cool with cruising through an unlit road in Siquijor (which is why nobody pointed out how creepy it was when we were passing through a cemetery).
Cang-Isok House in the town of Enrique Villanueva is the the oldest house in Siquijor. It's a huge dilapidated nipa-hut-inspired house that is still inhabited.
Suddenly, Kuya Joam (our tricycle driver/ tour guide) pulls over to the side of the road.
He asks us to get off. We lose our feigned nonchalance, and ask Kuya Joam to please stop scaring us.
He looks at us furtively and points to a tree.
There we see ...
Siquijor seems sparsely populated, and vehicles, especially public utility ones, rarely pass by the roads. The place makes for an ideal setting for a horror or thriller film. I'm thinking
along the lines of the main character getting abducted, managing to escape, finding the highway deserted, and getting eaten by a manananggal instead. Or maybe an old rundown truck does pick him/her up but it's that flesh-eating creature from Jeepers Creepers. This place is so ideal for this type of film that you can even shoot it in broad daylight and still get that creep factor. Nah, I'm just messin' with ya. What I'm trying to say is, no wonder Siquijor is a popular longboarding destination.
Fireflies.
The end.
Seriously, I have no scary Siquijor story for you. Oh, I lost my eyeglasses in Coco Grove ('almost sure I left them in our room) and I broke my nifty fifty camera lens in Dumaguete. My companions tell me that there is only one logical explanation for this: kulam. It had to be kulam. Not carelessness, not my worsening forgetfulness, but kulam.
See when we were having breakfast at Coco Grove, I kinda, sorta gave a waitress a little squint as she smirked and impatiently tapped her notepad while Lois, one of my companions, was explaining the elaborate process of how she wanted her eggs done. So, to that Coco Grove Sunset Restaurant waitress, if you're reading this, please forgive me for giving you the squint. I'd call things even if my eyeglasses magically appear in my room and my lens repairs itself.
It's true, the color of the seawater in Siquijor is weird. If there's such a thing as degree of turquoise-ness, then the waters of Siquijor is by far the turquoise-iest waters I've seen.
Three Layers of Siquijor
I have no scary story for you.
But this dialogue between Dr. Horrible and Penny from "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" pretty much sums up how I feel about Siquijor:
Penny: He's a really good looking guy and I thought he was kind of cheesy at first.
Dr. Horrible: [under his breath] Trust your instincts.
Penny: But, he turned out to be totally sweet. Sometimes people are layered like that. There's something totally different underneath than what's on the surface.
Dr. Horrible: And sometimes there's a third, even deeper level, and that one is the same as the top surface one. Like with pie.
First Layer
You know what the first layer of Siquijor is -
it's the same impression that people have of my home province, only it's more intense.
With Samar, people can't quite decide whether they've heard about it because of
barang stories,
aswang stories, or because their maid comes from Samar. Maybe it's high time we put Biringan City into the mix (I'm not going to talk about that here so just Google it).
With Siquijor, people know exactly what the province is famous for: witchcraft and sorcery.
Second Layer
Siquijor is the Philippine province that immediately comes to mind when you hear the words hex, curse, spell and other synonyms. However, the stigma is slowly fading as more and more people visit the province confident that the talk about the witches in Siquijor is just that: all talk. Instead of witches, in Siquijor they find the following attractions:
1. Old Churches
If you're into churches there are three centuries-old churches (three of them, not three centuries old) that are worth checking out in Siquijor.
The first one is the Church of St. Francis de Assisi. This one is easily the first photo-op worthy spot when you get to the island as it is just a few meters from the port of Siquijor, Siquijor.
There's also the San Isidro Labrador Parish Church in the town of Lazi.
San Isidro Labrador Parish Church in Lazi, Siquijor
The third one is Sta. Maria Church in the town of Maria. I was keen on getting inside this church the most because it's home to the infamous statue of Sta. Rita de Siquijor, dubbed as the Black Magic Mary because of her sinister appearance. Unfortunately, despite waiting for about thirty minutes outside the church, we sensed that the funeral ceremony going on inside wasn't gonna finish soon, so we bounced.
2. A Giant Balete Tree
The girls getting free fish spa in the man-made pool.
3. Waterfalls
Cambugahay in the town of Lazi is composed of three tiers. Personally, I think that on each layer the waterfall drop is too short and water volume too low that , collectively, they lack the grandness that other waterfalls have. I guess, to really appreciate its beauty, you'll have to be at a vantage point where all three tiers are visible.
It had been drizzling when we visited the waterfalls, which might be why the water wasn't clear. On the upside, my companions say that unlike other waterfalls, the water temperature wasn't freezing (I didn't get into the water. 'Not inviting enough).
Although the waterfalls are easy to get to (it's practically beside the road, counting out the 135 concrete steps you have to descend), I still say they're a bit overrated. This is why when Kuya Joam asked us if we wanted to see more waterfalls on the island, we passed. 'Coz you know, Cambugahay supposedly being the best waterfalls in the area says a lot about those next in line.
Most tourists rave about this place because there are usually vines you can use to swing before dropping into the water. Again, unfortunately for us, there were no vines when we visited (Hey, maybe this series of unfortunate events warrants a title of "A Scary Siquijor Story" after all).
4. Beaches
The beaches in Siquijor (or at least the ones we swam in-- Salagdoong and the Coco Grove beach), I 'd say are not the best for swimming because of the rocky seabed, but the waters of the province do have a different appeal. It feels ... raw. Raw in an awesome kind of way. 'Cause ya know, I'm one with Mother Earth like that. Corals prick my feet, seaweeds make contact with my skin, and I say, "Now this is some unadulterated beach."
(I know, it sounds wrong when you use raw, prick, and contact all in one paragraph, but I couldn't help it)
Salagdoong Beach Resort. According to Kuya Joam, Siquijor waters tend to be algae-infested from May till the end of the year. He says they clear out starting January. If you're going to Siquijor to beach hop, then the best months are from February to April. Check out wanderingdylan's list of other beaches in Siquijor.
Left: Those can't swim take a photo of their feet instead. Right: Those whose legs are recovering from a surfing injury think long and hard on the platform before deciding it's best not to tempt the Sisters of Fate.
Left: Lois - the only cliff jumper of the group. Right: Those whose legs are recovering from a surfing injury who had thought long and hard on the platform before deciding it's best not to tempt the Sisters of Fate jump from the large slide instead.
Third Layer
The third layer of Siquijor is under the presumption that Kuya Joam's stories are true. He says that while he does not believe in the power of witchcraft and sorcery, he has on several occasions accompanied visitors to the most popular mambabarangs in the island who typically live in the remote mountains of the island.
So yes, it's true, the most popular practitioners of malevolent sorcery are in Siquijor. So popular that clients are willing to pay the mambabarang as much as P100,000 to a put a curse on people who've earned their spite. According to Kuya Joam, common clients are concubines wishing ill-will to the lover's family and business people who might have been cheated on by a partner. The process of putting a spell on someone is quite tedious and takes about seven to nine weeks, which might justify the price. Kuya Joam says he's even accompanied a mambabarang and a client once to a cemetery at night. I don't quite remember if it was to recite incantations or to collect something from a grave.
Outside the Sta. Maria Church in Maria, Siquijor. Kuya Joam amusing the girls with stories of witchcraft and sorcery. Kuya Joam (09276932095) is the most sought-after tour guide in Siquijor, so make arrangements with him in advance. Tricycle tour rates start at P1,000.
The question of whether these rituals work or not, I guess, is too BIG for us to answer. Too big, so I leave you instead with a question Kuya Joam asked us rhetorically, "How do you make sure that the mambabarang completes the task and doesn't just move on working for a different client when you leave the island?" Sound off at the comments, y'all.
P.S. Sigbins are truly mysterious creatures. According to Grace, who comes from Masbate, they play wingman (wing-creatures?) to aswangs, but according to our house help from Negros Occidental, they are wingmen to elementals. They are also, apparently, everywhere because Nanay used to deter us from going into the sea by telling us that a sigbin would take us if we disobeyed her. If you wanna know more about sigbins, go check out wikipedia. If you want music with your introduction to sigbins, then take it from Junior Kilat (explanation with subs start 2:40 into the video).
Labels: Balete Tree, Cambugahay Falls, Philippine Churches, Salagdoong Beach Resort, Siquijor, Sorcery, Waterfalls, Witchcraft
