Just a small note, because not too much happened in these few days, I’ve condensed them into one page.
21st March - Snorkelling on Siquijor
I got up quite late this morning, which meant I had a late breakfast as well. After I finished my breakfast, we borrowed some snorkels from the hostel. We wanted to try some snorkelling at a popular spot here on Siquijor. Once we’d chilled for a bit in the dorm, we rented some bikes and drove to the snorkelling site around 40 minutes away. As usual, it was a pretty hot day today, as it always is at this time of year on Siquijor, so the snorkelling was a nice way to cool down. However, it was very intense on our shoulders and backs.
We parked up, took our stuff with us, and left it at a secluded spot on the beach. Then, without further hesitation, we jumped in, or rather walked in, and began snorkelling. There wasn’t a reef, but there were plenty of patches of coral, with plenty of wildlife around. I was surprised by just how awesome the snorkelling was on Siquijor, a real treat. After some time, we got out and chilled out on the beach, drying off naturally.
Just for the fun of it, here’s the website of Prince Hypermart, a cornerstone and our saviour on Siquijor.
When we were ready, we rode off to Larena Port to get some groceries from the hypermart there. On the way back to the hostel, we picked up some bananas for breakfast, then chilled for a while. In the evening, we had a huge meal at the bar, a wonderful chicken sub with delicious chips, proper chips, not fries. We returned to the dorm afterwards, and stayed there until we slept. Day 6 of quarantine complete.
22nd March - Another day of snorkelling
Got up mid-morning again, which meant having breakfast by myself as the others are up early. Once the morning routine was complete, Mat and I decided to do some more snorkelling, may as well take advantage while we’re stuck on Siquijor! I thought supergluing the lens to the mask would prevent water leaking in, but it turns out this wasn’t the only problem. Both of our masks were pretty shabby, you get what you pay for I suppose! Also, we kept getting stung, all over our bodies, just loads of tiny pin pricks. Perhaps there are stray tentacles in the water or something. Despite these constant annoyances, we saw a wide range of corals, fish, and even a rapid sea turtle. All of this at the end of our hostel! It’s safe to say we’ll be coming here often.
We turned back after sighting the turtle, and chilled at the hostel for a while. For lunch, we had some noodles we’d bought and got boiling water from the hostel. We have to save some pennies somewhere! In addition to this, I called my parents for a catch up, it was Mother’s Day too. After the chat, I went back to the room and read some manga for a few hours. That’s island life for you I guess!
We went for a walk down the road to find a new place for dinner, but apparently most places are closed by 8pm. Dinner at the hostel it was, thankfully they have pretty good food. Once we’d downed dinner and conversed, we headed back to the room for the night. Day 7 of quarantine complete.
23rd March - Run in with the police
Another late awakening for me, I guess this is the new normal. Miraculously, I managed to have breakfast with Gina and Mat though, which was surprising. We went into town to have a look for a new bathing suit for Gina. The people here are very trusting, because they let her take it to the hostel, try it on, and then return to pay. Consider me nicely surprised. When then took the bikes to the east side of the island, where there was a beach we haven’t been to before. It was incredibly hot today, so we made haste when we arrived to strip down to our bathing gear and take a dip in the sea. Lovely and cool.
After a while, we decided to get out, and when we returned to our bikes, the police rolled up. I’d seen someone looking at us in the sea, and taking photos, and now this. They wanted to check our passports, and asked us about where we’re staying and how long we’ve been in the country. Apparently, it was wrong of us to enter this municipality for whatever reason, but it was news to us. That was the extent of it though, we carried on driving on our merry way, stopping for chicken and rice on the way back home. Not to mention a Jollibee ice cream! After this, we returned to the hostel for good, only having our own noodles for dinner again. We ended the night by playing cards with Elliott and a newcomer from France, Charlotte. Day 8 of quarantine complete.
