Bye Siquijor, Hello Apo islands! 20/1

After a week in Kiwi dive resort we decided it was time to move on to Apo island. Apo island is famous for the excellent diving. It's rather expensive to get there and to stay and there are only two resorts on the island. The rain poured down so it felt like a good departure day. Skies cleared up when we arrived at the pier. The boat cost 100 pesos ( 15 SEK) for a one way ticket. On the boat we met a very nice couple from Bath, England. They spend their winter time travelling since he trains proffessional car racers during april - october. Not a bad career...!

Water is very shallow around Siquijor so the pier is very long

We hit some ATM machines for some good cash and stopped a Tricycle for a ride to the Bus station. The tricycles are so fantastic, Family Janlert + 5 big backpacks and 5 small ones could all fit in!

Oskar is looking a bit squeezed...

Lady Luck was on our side today, we only jumped from the tricycle to the bus. This bus was very convenient. When the ordinary seats are taken you just fold up a chair in the middle. No worries if you are in the back and want to hop off, everything can be fixed in the Philippines.

A sea of bus passengers

Transportation to Apo island is very regulated. There is a fixed fair of 1700 pesos (return) for small boat and 2700 pesos for a large boat so no idea for bargaining. We could see the Apo island soon, very soon we would be there...

Apo island soon...

We arrived the little fishing village in Apo island and Pernilla set out to sign in and pay the National park fee. Rest of the crew set of for Apo island dive resort and soon 2 snorklers where out in the water screaming... It's wonderful! Apo island is absolutly fabulous, very small and charming. with wonderful diving reefs just minutes away. The landing point of Apo is just below Liberty's resort, here there is no real beach and all the boats are anchored here. Tucked away with a very secluded beach is our resort, Apo island resort. Our cottage wasn't big enough for all of us but the cottage had a very big veranda so Kalle and I slept outside. Incredible to watch the ocean from our bed and hear the waves. Never slept better!

The passage to Apo island resort

View from the bed

Sunset Apo island resort

Our cottage, Lower triton

All the way around Siquijor island 18/1

Siquijor is the magical and mystical island of the Philippines used to be part of Negros Oriental and it was at that time called Island of Fire. Siquijor is said to have sorceres and shamans - and a lot of Filipinos will not stay overnight on this island because of this superstition.We didn't see much of that on our around-the island tour. The island is very nice but the beaches are ok but not extraordinary since they are very shallow and not so good for swimming. But equipped with booties you avoid the seaurchines and can snorkle the reefs sourrounding the island. The southern side is slightly more developed but its very genuine. On our way we saw the sacred old tree and Oskar and Klara swimmed in the Cambugahay falls.

Old sacred tree

Old sacred church

Oskar in Cambughaya falls

Cambughaya falls

Utflykt till Salagdong beach 16/1

Efter några dagar med dykning och dåliga magar hos olika familjemedlemmar åkte Oskar, Klara, och Pernilla på utflykt till Salagdong beach. Vi fick lift upp till stora vägen och ganska snart dök det upp en Jeepney. Sträckan vi skulle åka var inte lång men en Jeepney stannar hela tiden och plockar på och av folk. Ett tag var vi ute i buskarna och lämnade cement, då undrade vi vart vi var på väg... Till slut blev vi avsläppta och började vandringen mot stranden. Vägen är omringad av vackra höga träd så det var en skön promenad. För att komma till stranden fick vi betala inträde och när vi kom fram förstod vi varför. Utanför stranden ligger en liten ö med 2 stora rutschbanor som slutar i vattnet och 2 hopptorn för de som vågar. Stranden är liten men trevlig och restaurangen hade jättegod mat. Bredvid resturangen finns det en karaoke jukebox som användes flitigt av söndagslediga filippinos och pick-nick bord att hyra. En familj hade med sig en helgrillad spädgris! Klara och Oskar åkte och hoppade från hopptornen innan det var dags att påbörja resan hem. Nu var vi klart mörare och vi hade turen att få åka med på ett flak. Familjen tyckte vi var väldigt exotiska och bad att få ta foto på oss. En Tricykel tur senare var vi hemma på Kiwi Dive resort för tidig sänggång.

Ups and downs in Siquijor 13/1

Kiwi dive resort a great place if you are not feeling well.

Oskar didn't really recover from the seasickness, must have been some bug... and Vera and Kalle followed his trail. He and Kalle managed to do some diving, which was fairly average. Visibility not so good. We have a lovely little house of our own just by the beach, only paying 1390 PHP per night. The staff is ever so friendly and nice and we have a little house kitten visiting us. She climbs in via the roof. Siquijor is a very quiet and non touristy island. Hardly any cars, just the Jeepney's, Jeeps turned in to some kind of bus. Hardly any transports are made by lorrys so everything goes in the Jeepney, concrete, vegetables on their way to market, roosters and people. When you want to hop off you bang a coin against the rail. Very efficient! The rain is following us :-(, so when the sun shows its face we are very happy. Another transportation is the tricycle, a rebuilt motorbike with a sidovagn (in swedish). we managed to be 11 people at the same time on the tricycle, 4 adults and 7 children! Travelling with Jeepney or Tricykle is very cheap, you pay about 2 SEK or 0,2 pp Euro for a ride.

Our little house in Kiwi dive resort

Some Janlerts talked a lot to Ralp on the big white phone...

The beach, just outside the resort

Klara watching the crabs at lowtide

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Kiwi Dive Resort, Siquijor

After two nights at Nuts Hut we got enough of the mud. We took the ferry to Siquijor island, arrived at 8:45 pm to Siquijor town. Quite a tough ride for Oskar who became seasick. After a 40 min bumpy ride with a taxi we arrived to Kiwi Resort.

Taxi at Siquijor

The resort is very quiet, we have a bungalow down at the beach. The diving is ok, but the visibility is not so good, around 10 meters.

Nuts Huts

We took a taxi to Bohol and went up into the forest. From the main road there was a short walk to the resort, very slippery in the mud.

As it turned out we were slipping along in the mud for the whole stay :-(

 
The plan was to do some trekking, but we were surprised at the arrival by this sign:

 
Vera was so happy!

You get good excercise at Nuts Hut, 275 steps from bottom of the stairs to the top.