Siquijor

Siquijor is small enough to drive around in a morning on the single coastal road, which is how most people see it - a rented scooter, a loop, and stops. Cambugahay Falls is the one everybody photographs, three tiers of opaque turquoise pools in a wooded gully below a long flight of steps, with rope swings hung from the branches. Salagdoong on the east coast has diving platforms built out over deep water off a headland. Paliton and Tubod are the swimming beaches, and Lazi has an old balete tree fed by a spring where small fish clean your feet. The island carries a reputation across the Visayas for folk healing and herbal medicine, which locals treat matter-of-factly.

History

Before the Spanish the island was called Katugasan, after the tugas or molave trees used for house posts, and its people traded with the Chinese. The Spanish of Legazpi's expedition sighted it in 1565 and called it Isla del Fuego, "island of fire", for the fireflies that swarmed in the molave trees, and in 1783 Siquijor was founded as the island's first municipality and parish; legend derives the name from its ruler, Datu Kihod (Wikipedia, Siquijor).

The landscape

• Cambugahay Falls - three tiers of turquoise pools reached down a long staircase, with rope swings.
• Salagdoong - diving platforms built out over deep water on the east coast headland.
• The Lazi balete tree - a huge strangler fig over a spring-fed pool with fish that nibble your feet.
• Paliton beach - a quiet pale beach on the west coast, best in the late afternoon.

When to go

December to May is drier and the sea calmer for the Dumaguete crossing. Cambugahay is worst between ten and three when tour groups arrive; go at opening or late afternoon and it is a different place. Ferries are cancelled in rough weather, so avoid planning a tight onward connection out of the island.

What to expect

Cambugahay is small and gets genuinely crowded, with a queue for the rope swing and freelance photographers pushing their services. Roads are fine on the loop but rough inland, and scooter accidents are common among visitors with no experience. There are few ATMs and they run out of cash. Jellyfish appear in some months, and the falls flatten in a dry spell.

Nearby

Dumaguete and Apo Island are an hour away by ferry across the strait.