Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Christmas Holiday Siquijor: Getting there and the Banana Boat

Random pics from our holiday in Siquijor, a small island off the SE coast of the larger island of Negros, a principle island in the Visayas group. Getting there involved and hour flight from Manila to Dumaguete, the principle city on the southwest corner of the island and an hour ferry boat ride to the small port in Siquijor and then a 20 minute ride to the resort.

The resort is divided into two sections by a "fishing village", basically an access area for local fisher people to store, tend to and launch their boats. There is a path thru the area, it is only about a 100 yards across, and it adds a bit of local ambiance to the place. Each of the two areas has a pool, restaurant and various accommodations from beach side bungalows to multiple, attached rooms.

We had a bungalow on the beach and Grandma had a bungalow a bit up the hill. Our bungalow had a loft for the girls to sleep in and they divided their sleep time between our bungalow and grandma's place. We woke up relatively early, I went out for a run one morning outside the bungalow and came across a creek flowing into the ocean so decided to get off the road and follow it for a bit. Their was a path beside it and it led steeply up hill to a series of cataracts and a irrigation canal servicing the lowlands.  Always makes running less painful when you have a new "runscape" to occupy the mind.

Breakfast was highlighted by fresh mangoes and a beach view. After breakfast, we made our way to the pool and stuck out a claim on the deck chairs. The beach was next to the pool so it was easy to divide our time between the pool and the beach. Kayaks were also available, gratis, so we would often take those out into the coral area (a marine sanctuary - I posted about this earlier) and let the kids jump off the boats and check out the underwater scene. Lunch was typically pool side. There were lots of kids at the pool and our girls knew several of them from ISM so they kept each other busy.



Waiting for the ferry to Siquijor in Dumaguette.


Ada attacking a maraschino cherry from her outrageously sweet chocolate mousse, even Emmerson, who prefers a ratio of 3 sugars to 1 of whatever is necessary to get at the sugar, admitted it was really sweet.


 Getting ready to board the night ferry to Siquijor.


We road on the top deck of the ferry - couldn't see much as it was 9 pm, but the breeze was nice.


 Inside the ferry, 9 pm not a popular ferry time.


On the back of the top deck, rather windy. The girls goofing around.



 Daddy goofing around. Nice to see stars (in the background) after years of living in metropolitan areas with lots of light pollution.


Ada, her friend Morraine, and myself opted for the less abusive, more civilized, speed boat option on the banana boat ride.


 The floating hang out area where you could tie up your kayaks and hang out our use as a base for snorkeling.


Emmerson is second in line - Fleur, her dad, Kiana, and Fleur's mom make up the rest of the passengers. 


The girls loved it.


Round two a few days later. Alicia opted to give it a go - she fell off, Emmerson made sure to note this any time a conversation about our Christmas holidays has come up, or conversations about bananas, boats, beaches, water ....

 Fishing folk area in the resort.

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