The Dumaguete-Siquijor Adventure
I’ve always wanted to visit Siquijor because of the “mysteries” of the island and the “unusual” practices of its people. Siquijor has always been associated with black magic and witchcraft here in the Philippines. I remember when I was a kid, my mother told me a story that she threatened a woman whom she assumed was making moves on my dad that she’s from Siquijor and that woman got scared. Back in the days, all you needed to say was you’re from Siquijor, and you’re feared like a Mafia lord, or a Yakusa.
We’ve been informed that there is a special ritual that people who practice black magic and witchcraft do on Good Fridays only. I wanted to witness that so when the CS Cebu decided to go to Siquijor for the holy week, I went with them.
The Adventure
Day 1: April 8, 2009 (Wednesday)
I met with Aime, Brent, Eva, Joanna, Robert, and Weny at Cebu’s South Terminal and we got on a 4AM Bato-Oslob via Liloan bus that would take us to the Southern tip of Cebu, Santander.
From there, we took a fast boat (1 hour) to Dumaguete where our amazing host Frank met us. Frank took us to his family’s charming beach house and said we could stay there for the night, and as if that’s not enough, he took us to this really pretty nipa hut where sinigang na baboy, lapu-lapu, mangoes, have been prepared for us.
Then we went to the Twin Lakes. Since there were seven of us, Frank asked his friend Ed to take some of us to Twin Lakes. Robert, Brent and I rode on Ed’s car and the rest in Frank’s. Ed has never been to Twin Lakes—and so was his car. It wasn’t prepared for the rough and unforgiving road that lied ahead of it.
The Twin Lakes are situated on top of a hill, about 30 minutes from the city. About halfway to the lakes, Ed’s car sputtered and gives up. Ed would try to revive it again and it would run for a few meters and gives up again. We were in this situation for about half an hour when I decided to call the other group to let them know we were stuck. But the other group were already busy taking photos that no one noticed my call… we had to wait another half an hour when Frank notices Aime’s phone had 8 missed calls. He then came to pick us up.
Stranded!
Getting to the twin lakes was worth it. It’s like the whole place is air-conditioned! Very cool breeze, clean air, and the sight was amazing.
We rented a boat for P250/hour that would take us to both lakes and we jumped, swam around and just had real good time. On our way back, another group of visitors were sailing the lake. We would later find out that it was the province’s congressman and his friends from the media industry.
It was already 6.30PM and there weren’t any more motorbike drivers that would take us back to the city since the last one leaves at 5PM. Frank’s car couldn’t carry all 8 of us especially with the state of the road. We were hungry so we went to the restaurant near the lake. Shit. They don’t server dinner since the resto was newly renovated. Then the congressman invited us to have dinner with them and some beers. YESSSSS!!!! At this point, modesty does not exist.
YAY! Free dinner and booze for us!
However, we still didn’t have a solution for our transportation problem. We could have stayed and wait until the congressman and his crew goes home and we can hitch a ride, but god knows until when they would be staying there. Besides, we wanted to check out Dumaguete’s night scene. So we decided to leave Brent and Robert there and we’ll find a motorbike driver along the way and instruct them to get the boys.
We did find a motorbike, and soon we were all back in the city. We went to a bar called Hayahay, and then go home after a few beers.
Free accomodation, free lunch, free booze, free dinner. Life is good.
Day 2: April 9, 2009 (Thursday)
Going to Siquijor.
Since a lot of people were going to Siquijor for the holy week, we weren’t able to get fast boat tickets so instead we had to take the slow boat. It was uncomfortable, hot, and slow.
I wouldn’t mind riding this boat for 15 minutes tops. But being in it for more than an hour is driving me close to a scream.
But these guys aren’t even complaining… I should just shut up.
The Island and Its History
According to Wikipedia:
Siquijor is an island province of the Philippines located in the Central Visayas region. Its capital is the municipality also named Siquijor. To the northwest of Siquijor are Cebu and Negros, to the northeast is Bohol and to the south, across the Bohol Sea is Mindanao.
The Spaniards called Siquijor Isla del Fuego or “Island of Fire,” because the island gave off an eerie glow. This glow came from the great swarms of fireflies that harbored in the numerous molave trees on the island.
The island was first sighted by the Spaniards in 1565 during Miguel López de Legaspi’s expedition. Since then, the island came under Spanish rule and the present municipalities, with the exception of Enrique Villanueva were established as Catholic parishes. The first parish, Siquijor, was established in 1783 under the administration of secular clergymen. In the years that followed until 1877, the parishes of Larena (Cano-an), Lazi (Tigbawan), San Juan (Makalipay), and Maria (Cangmeniac) were founded by priests of the Augustinian, Recollects.
When we got to Siquijor, almost every resort we went to were fully booked. We were getting really hungry. We’ve already gotten in a little argument with the jeepney drivers, and we still didn’t know where to go. Eventually, we got two nice, and clean rooms in Dondeezco Resort and settled ourselves in.
Then we went to get some lunch, and chilled at the resort.
Day 3: April 10, 2009 (Friday)
We hired a jeepney driver the previous day to drive us around Siquijor for the whole day. We were able to trick manong driver into allowing us to ride of the jeepney roof for the first few stops.
We went to the Capilay Spring, saw the 400 year old balete tree, the old Lazi church and covenant, went into a rarely explored cave and then witnessed the Good Friday black magic ritual.
Old balete is old.
Lazi Church, built in 1884
The Lazi convent (now a museum)
Some very old relics in the museum:
old records
piano
typewriter
(We were not supposed to take photos of these because it isn’t allowed, but I did anyway. Shhhh!)
After we left the Lazi church and convent, we headed to Cambugahay falls.
I JUMPED THAT FALLS! Weeeee!
We had lunch here then we went to the mountains to witness black magic.
When we got to the place where the ritual was held (in a clearing within a forest) there were already people there. A couple of European men who were documenting the ritual, and some Filipino anthropologists who has witnessed this ritual for 11 years.
It was only 2PM and the ritual doesn’t begin until 6PM. But the warlock was already preparing the ingredients. I saw him scraping a skull, chopping candles and buring tree trunks and leaves, and branches in a huge metal barrel.
While waiting for 6PM, I invited the group to explore the forest a little bit. When we were ready to go, the wife of the warlock told us that we shouldn’t because we might get lost, or there could be deadly snakes. But the anthropologists supported our little adventure and told us that there was a cave there that not a lot of people know of and they offered to come and show us where it was.
Then we went back to the clearing. At 6PM, the ritual started. It looked like some tattooed guy in a black shirt with a skull and spiders printed on it started putting all these stuff he had previously prepared in a cauldron, mixed it, and viola. We’re done. I didn’t see any chanting or dancing. Then Eva explained to us the whole ritual as explained to her by one of the anthropologists.
The reason that the ritual had to be at 6PM because it is around this time that the sun sets in the west. The location of the ritual was also on the west of the clearing for this same reason, and sunset signifies death.
The warlock puts in honey and this is to ask permission from the spirits of the forest to allow them to perform this ritual. Then he puts in the chopped candles as melted candles are smooth, and thus the process should be smooth too. They also gathered anything from the sea that is supposed to be itchy (the purpose of this one escaped me) and they dry it and put it in the mixtures along with the scraped skull powder that came from not just any skull, but from the skull of someone who was never baptized in the catholic religion. Then they put the ashes of the different parts of 300 different, specific, species of trees that they have gathered in the seven fridays before good friday. Each true supposed to have a special purpose. So it’s like an all-in-one mix. And this mixture they did can only be done on a good friday. After the whole ritual, they carried the cauldron with the mixture home, and we were told that a small bottle of it costs Php500.
None of us bought. We just wanted to see the whole process.
Day 4: April 11, 2009 (Saturday)
The rest of the group continued to Apo island while I went ahead of them and went back to Cebu. I was missing my boyfriend too much. ^_^
