Monday September 15, 2014
6:30 a.m. San Juan, Siquijor
Room 2, Casa Miranda

Yep, the typhoon weather did clear out much faster than anyone expected, and I was able to spend yesterday out exploring the island. The pattern on Siquijor is a pretty clear one. The main ring road is too far inland to provide much in the way of scenic views, and the land between the road and the coast is generally private land and inaccessible. Therefore, to see the coast – by far the most beautiful and interesting area – you have to find a side road that leads to a little village on the ocean. That gives you access to the ocean, and from there you can walk as far in any direction you like along the beaches. The beaches themselves are public land. The resorts on them are private. So you can’t go into the resorts, but you can walk past them along the beach.

I started the day with coffee and bread in my room and then I stopped for a real meal in San Juan as I cycled through. Breakfast has always been a problem in that I don’t generally feel hungry. Yet, with food in front of me, I end up eating a lot. And if I don’t eat, I’m irritable. So I have to force myself to stop and eat. I’m usually eager to get going and stopping to eat feels like wasting time, but I really do need to eat.

After breakfast, I had a bit of a Negative Nelly moment. Many, many times I’ve passed a big sign for the Tubod Marine Sanctuary. There are, in fact, a number of signs like these around Siquijor. They are amusing from the get-go because they don’t point anywhere. The signs are very large and are clearly meant to direct tourists to these interesting places. They’re practically billboards and they’ll say something like “This Way to Tubod Marine Sanctuary” and they might have a distance like 1.8 kilometers. But that’s it. “This Way” is never defined. There are no arrows indicating the direction and the billboard is situated in a vague and coy kind of way as if it could be referring to two or three different roads. I stand in front of these signs and have no idea where I’m supposed to go. In any event, I don’t think a visitor can do anything at these marine sanctuaries. They’re just there.

Well, there was a side road at the sign for the Tubod Marine Sanctuary. I’d noticed it a few times because it had a big log or branch blocking access to the road. The sanctuary appeared to be down that road and the sign was asking visitors to come visit it. But with the road blocked, you clearly weren’t supposed to go there. Against my better judgement, I stopped at a small store beside the road to ask them about this. The woman there explained that the sanctuary was down that road, but the road was private. I could walk down that road, but I wasn’t allowed to take my bicycle. THAT was the part that puzzled me. If the road was private, why would I be allowed to walk down it? And if I was allowed to walk, why couldn’t I ride my bicycle? No one could explain the logic or reasoning, but everyone insisted this was the case. The woman offered to let me park my bicycle at her shop, but I wasn’t in the mood.

A short distance farther, I came across another road that led directly to a tiny village on the ocean. There were beautiful beaches and interesting coves and rocky cliffs in all directions, and I locked my bicycle at a private home (after asking around about what I could do with my bicycle) and then I set off down the beach on foot with my camera in hand. As a sidenote, I should mention that all these things set off gales of laughter among the nearby Filipinos. I explained to the woman that I wanted to leave my bike somewhere so I could “walk down the beach.” Something about that phrase set people off, and I heard it repeated from person to person and everyone laughed hysterically. The woman I spoke to went back inside her house after watching me lock up my bicycle, and as I walked away, I heard the entire household explode into laughter. It appears that everything I do in the Philippines amuses local people. It’s hard sometimes not to take it personally. I encounter gales of laughter every day that I’m out on my bicycle. I know it isn’t malicious, because Filipinos laugh all the time about everything and nothing, but it does get annoying at times. I have to look down to make sure that I didn’t forget to put on my pants or something.

My long walk along the beach was wonderful. You wouldn’t call it a perfect swimming beach. The water was too shallow immediately offshore during low tide, and you’d have to go far out to find deep water, and that would involve walking over rocks and coral and squishy sea creatures. The beach itself was sandy and white, but it was covered in a lot of seaweed, coconut husks, and garbage. The Filipino obsession with shopping and plastic bags is very obvious on most of the beaches with thousands of discarded plastic bags everywhere. But it was a very beautiful and interesting area. The beach was alive with all manner of crabs and other creatures. I could walk far out into the ocean on the exposed rocks and peer into the tide pools to see what was lurking there. I had to make my way around limestone outcroppings to get to the next beautiful hidden cove. Local people were fixing fishing nets or swimming in the water or fishing. To be honest, most people were lounging in the shade of palm trees. Only dumb white guys on a bicycle were truly dumb enough to be stumbling around the beaches during the hottest middle part of the day with the tropical sun beating down. The Filipinos did a lot of their work at night – out fishing when it was cool – and would relax during the hot days. They are so used to this pattern that it would really bother them to see me out there in the sun and, worst of all, without even a hat. Plenty of people called out to me to get out of the sun and relax in the shade. Many others pointed up at the sun and then indicated that I should wear a hat. They were genuinely worried about my well-being.

While I walked, I kept a sharp eye on the tide. I’ve learned over the years how quickly an ocean tide can move in, and if you’ve skirted around a limestone outcropping during low tide, it is only far too easy to get trapped on the far side when the tide comes in and your return is now blocked by deep water and waves. I made a mental note of the time and gave myself a turnaround time to make sure that I got back before the tide cut me off quickly. As it was, I had to wade through knee deep water to return, and the waves were threatening to knock me over – not a good scenario considering I was carrying the Olympus and three lenses and my Canon point-and-shoot. I’ve often thought a 100% waterproof knapsack would be a fine addition to my travel kit. There’s just no way to have both that and a regular pannier bag out on a day trip. I suppose it could make sense to have one Ortlieb pannier bag out of a set of four and then use that for trips along beaches and on boats. Something to think about for the future.

I used my 60mm lens for a while but then I switched over to the 12mm wide angle with the polarizer filter. The lens switch is an extremely complicated process because of the adapter rings and various sizes for everything. I have no idea what I’m doing when it comes to that and I can’t remember where anything is. I also noticed that the polarizer filter doesn’t always play nice with the Olympus. It does weird things to the exposure, and I get big black square areas in the blue sky at times. I suspect it is because the filter is far too large and it sits too far away from the camera because of the adapter ring. Another mistake I made – not buying a properly sized polarizer filter in Taiwan when I had the chance.

It was definitely a hot and demanding walk along the beach, and I almost called it a day at that point. However, it was still early, and after I retrieved my bicycle, I continued up the ring road to explore another beach area that I knew about. From there, I turned around and rode back to San Juan and stopped at Belle’s Beach Resort for a cold beer. It’s a beautiful, beautiful spot. I was the only person there for a while, but then Thomas – the Czech owner of Tori’s Backpackers Paradise – showed up. We had a beer together and chatted for a while. He was there for a weekly 3:00 p.m. poker game with the ex-pat owners of some other resorts. Two other ex-pats eventually showed up – one of them with a gorgeous, young Filipina named Joy – and the poker game began. I wasn’t invited to join them, and I wouldn’t have done so in any case. I don’t really know how to play poker, and the whole ex-pat business owner thing wasn’t my scene.

Back at Casa Miranda, I met a youngish couple from Spain and I chatted with them for a minute or two. I noticed the guy first because he was out on the back balcony talking to an employee of Casa Miranda, and I noticed that he was a young and very good looking guy. Then his wife or girlfriend showed up, and she was equally good looking. Her English was much better, and she was willing to talk to me. It was wonderful. It was almost intoxicating to be standing there talking to such an attractive woman with that Spanish accent. I just haven’t been around the backpacker crowd till this time on Siquijor, so this is all rather new and fresh.

I’ve noticed that Siquijor – and Casa Miranda in particular – is very popular among the Spanish. The first group of people I saw here made a big impression on me. I assumed they were Israelies. I learned later they were from Spain. They’re a tough rather cool crowd with tons of piercings through their lips and cigarettes dangling and racing around on motorcycles. There was lots of hair – thick beards and long hair. One guy had massive dreadlocks hanging a solid four feet or more down his back. He often piled the dreadlocks on top of his head to create a giant pile of hair. It was crazy-looking. He reminded me of Indian holy men. I learned later that they were from Spain. Then I met Carlos – the Spanish cyclist – and through him a group of other Spanish visitors. I think what happened is that there is a Spanish man here working as a volunteer. He keeps a blog and wrote about Siquijor a lot. Lots of people read his blog and decided that Siquijor was a good place to visit and to study English cheaply. This gorgeous young couple were also here to study English for a month or two. They said that things had changed recently in Spain and people were suddenly much more aware of the importance of English and were beginning to take the study of English more seriously for themselves and especially for their children.

Tags: Casa Miranda, Philippines Bike Trip 2013, Siquijor, Spain