Siquijor and then 700 miles north, a four day epic!

 We Headed from Dumagette to the island of Siquijor where we found the coast, the coral, and more.

Liza:-Siquijor

We stayed on a resort on this cute little island.  It feels slightly like being in a bubble because all your food and needs are sorted out by friendly people but its nice to be cosseted once in a while.  We took a trip round the island and the views were magnificent.
We also went snorkelling at low tide.  It was amazing because we were just above the coral and were swimming with the fish.  I began to understand why people love to go diving because normally you have to dive to get that close to things.  I still don't fancy it much though because of all the kit, I just don't like wet suits.  We went out again when the tide was quite high and it made such a difference looking at the same environment when it was completely submerged and several feet in water the visibility was amazing letting us easily pear at this under water world.  We made some of the guest quite jealous because we came back and described a long eel like thing we had seen and it turned out it was a shy sea snake that is difficult to see.

When it came to taking photos, sunsets!.....

 We did do a lot more here, we took a trip up the mountains however the camera took an off day.



We moved on via another ferry to the island of Bahol, a wonderful and weird place. This was where the Spanish fist set up shop and where Magellan stopped.

In the nearest town was this 17th century Bell Tower.... all falling to pieces.

We stayed in the deepest Jungle at a place with film names huts. Above is view from hut, below the hut.

 No prizes for guessing the name of our hut.

The place was accessed by 267 steps!!! great fun in and out when we left to go on adventures which consisted of:-



The deep deep jungle in which we stayed.....in which lived Tarsiers... the worlds smallest primate. Their main problem is their cuteness!

After which we stopped at a small roadside stall and were invited in to be given too much food and too much beer by what turned out to be the local copper. We had a whole afternoons chat in which cock fighting was big. Here he is with his best hope for the next competition.

Our other visit from here was to the chocolate hills which look like this:-

I did take one of Liza here but am sure without asking she will not want it published!

These are created by volcanic uplift of coral reefs for those who needed to know.

A cock fight

We lift Bahol and started out epic journey, all of 700 miles but a full four days:-

Day one Ferry to Cebu where we spent the night... think Liverpool in the 70's not a nice place but they did sell Chubby Bars!!

Day Two
Then the 26 h ferry journey to Manila, great fun but photo free....

Day Three
Arriving in Manila at 8.00 am but on the 9.00 am bus out to Baguio a large town which was full of Phillipinos doing Ash Wednesday, ash crosses worn by many. ... The only photo of here is the hotels power cut provision.

Day Four

On the six hour bus epic to   Some sights on the way.

Note the rice fields... apparently 2000y old stone walls here, In Bontoc there are regular 1 hour jeepneys to Sagada where we are now staying deep in the North Philippines mountains, 1000m make it a little cooler.

Dusk setting last night over Sagada where we intend to be quiet and slow for a while after the island hopping epic of the southern Philippines.

Too much travel not enough washing, hopefully we have sorted clean clothes for the morrow!!