winairtravel

We were on a trip to Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental province in central Philippines, when I saw a tempting advertisement at the reception area of Coco Grande Hotel, where we were staying in Dumaguete.  It showed a stunning white sand beach destination at Coco Grove Beach Resort, Coco Grande’s sister hotel, located in the island of Siquijor, less than an hour by ferry from Dumaguete. As a beach lover and a crazy adventurer I, together with my other friends, gave in to temptation and all our travel schedules had to be adjusted for that sudden trip to Siquijor.

The next day when we were supposed to return to Cebu City, we side tracked to the island of Siquijor.  We took a ferry from Dumaguete port and arrived in Siquijor after less than an hour. It was a rather smooth ride on a notoriously known super choppy, narrow straits between Negros Island and tiny Siquijor.

Our group (Regal and party) was welcomed by the hotel staff at the Siquijor jetty terminal.

We were fetched by the hotel van for the 15-min drive to the resort.

Currently the best resort in the island, Coco Grove Beach Resort was where we entirely spent all our time while in Siquijor, an island known for its magic spells and witchcraft.

Macky-the-parrot-the-mango-eater was well positioned at the resort’s entrance to welcome guests with his antics.

After check-in we passed by some beautiful villas on our way to our own villa.

Our villa was a standalone 5,000-peso per night sanctuary.  This was not the cheapest nor the most expensive. This was actually expensive by island’s standards but this was the cheapest villa for 5 persons available at the time of our stay, as the hotel was almost fully booked by a huge entourage coming in from Negros for a wedding ceremony.

Anyway it was a huge two-level villa…..

…with a living area…..

…and a huge queen size bed on the first level and three single beds on the second level.

We got out of our hotel after a quick rest and toured the resort.  It is a quite huge resort….

…with two pools.  After a 10-min stroll we were back near the resort’s entrance at one of its restaurants.

We have a breathtaking view from the restaurant area.  Shown here is my friend Cristina with her son, Kyle….

….my friends, Regal and Phines…..

…and myself.

The restaurant was still closed for lunch as it was still too early.  So some rested below coconut trees….

…and some by the sea inside open-air cottages.

Finally the restaurant opened and we had a taste of the restaurant’s international cuisine. I had Thai chicken red curry. Amazing!

This was another view taken from the restaurant area.

After lunch, we were ready to swim!

We positioned ourselves near the restaurant and the beach.

Later we ordered the unique Philippine dessert, halo-halo while enjoying the…

….stunning view of the beach.

Then it was time to step on the beach under the hot afternoon sun….

…for those memorable shots.

We then explored the sea urchin-laden turquoise waters surrounding the resort.  As a step to protect the marine life around the area, sea urchins are not cleaned away.

One of the tropical, non-edible fruits in the island.

As the white sand beach was starting to turn into a golden beach because of the setting sun, we went down to the beach once again.

We got on a raft docked around 20 meters from the shore….

…and got our pics taken.

Then we had fun and more fun.

While our dear friend Regal, lazily strolled on the shore.

Sunset came, we went back to the shore for the amazing shots.  Probably, the best sunset sky shots I have ever taken were from here.  Lucky Regal, I took her picture with the sky opening up to take in the sun for the night.

The fiery red-orange sky casted a melancholy and mysterious effect on the place.

How could I not take allow myself to have a portrait with the sunset.

We had real, wet fun.

It was an emotional farewell to sunset.

After which we dipped in the alluring waters once again.

And continued to have fun!

And more fun on the waters.

After freshening up, we positioned once again by the beach for dinner.

Kyle’s back after missing for 2 hours.  We thought he had been engaged on some witchcraft antics but he actually played basketball in a neighboring place.

After dinner, we just stayed a little more near the hotel pool.  Some went to doze off and I went to have some wine at the wi-fi area (called Coco Net) before retiring.

It was time to say goodbye to Macky, the mango-eating parrot…..

..and to some dark creatures.

As we waited for our transportation to the jetty it was fun to wait in the resort’s reception area….

….and in the resort’s wi-fi area (Coco Net).

Our free transportation arrived and we were whisked to the jetty.

One of those private villas nestled by the shore near the jetty area.

Getting off the hotel van, somebody was still walking on cloud 9!

Obviously, we had real fun as we smiled our way back to Dumaguete.

Kyle was the main reason we were in Dumaguete for his impending enrollment in one of the Philippines top universities, Silliman University.

Goodbye Siquijor! See more of your beauty next time!

This was one of the few unscheduled trips I have had in my entire traveling career.  It was short, awesome and unpredictable!