“We were all born and raised in this Mystic Island of
Siquijor but there are still many things we don’t know about, many places we
haven’t visited. We didn’t need much of everything, just the moment to take in much
of the little things. Mystic Island and with the name it holds, it possess real
mysteries as each beautiful places unfolds.”
Sandugan,
Larena
Sandugan, one of
the 23 barangays in the Municipality of Larena is situated at the northern tip
of the island of Siquijor. Even with the barangays location far from the
Municipality’s center, it is the home of about 7.3% of the islands population.
It is because aside from the common livelihood the locals do, tourism is also
booming in the area. Sandugan Beach is famous for that.
Source: Wikipedia
Philippine Statistics Office (2015)
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| Sandugan's Mountain View |
Sandugan
Beach
Since
one of our classmates live in Sandugan, as a group, we decided to try and visit
the place. Aside from the famous resorts in San Juan, there are ringing bells whenever
I hear Sandugan Beach. We’ve heard that it’s famous for its wide white sand
beaches, its captivating sunsets, crystal blue waters, relaxing ambiance and
for its affordable yet cozy resorts that would really invite you to stay even
more.
Getting
There
So as agreed, we
went there. We rode motorcycles on the way.
However if you are
first timers or maybe you would want to visit someday, there are scheduled
trips from either boats or fast crafts from other neighboring islands in the
region.
There are two
famous ports in the province. Larena
Port and Siquijor Port
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| Larena Port(above), Siquijor Port(below) |
Boat Schedules
Exact Time
Arrival (ETA)
Say you really would be visiting, here are
the fastest routes you could take.
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14 minutes from Larena
to Sandugan; 1 hr 30 for walking
On the other hand, if you would be arriving at Siquijor Port, same types
of transportation would be available.
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32 minutes from
Siquijor to Sandugan; 3 hr 33 for walking
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On the way to Sandugan,
we passed by a known boulevard at Cangmalalag, Larena, Siquijor. The area is
wide open facing the wide blue sea, the mountainous landscape of Larena at the
far right and it’s also a great place to view the sunset.
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| Dumalaay Boulevard at sunrise and sunset |
So as I was saying,
we passed by Dumalaay and soon arrived at our classmate’s house. Going to the
beach, we thought that we were seeing the entrance of a resort but O my G! It
wasn’t, instead it was an enormous house!
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Walner Residence
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We even took
pictures under the shade of a huge bougainvillea plant. With its silky, thin,
incredibly pure white petals, we were awed by how it looked.
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Candid selfie; Beautiful Bougainvillea
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As we go on, I felt
the calmness radiated by the place. I thought my classmates felt it too for
their eyes wandered on the trees and the surroundings.
First
stop, Islanders Paradise Beach Resort
and Restaurant.
Sandugan, if you
might want to know is also home for various resorts. These resorts are living
proof that the place is really beautiful and a great place to stay at.
As we descended the steps going to Paradise Beach, we posed for a
picture. Unaware, we saw those different “goodbye” translations when we were
checking the pictures after the trip. Gosh!
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Bidding Goodbye? Nah.
How would you like it to be?
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| Small Nipa Restaurant (left) and Reception (right) |
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Table and chair out front
facing the beach,
a good place to relax
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| Cheerful Frances |
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| The blue horizon at its best |
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| Magnificent Balete Tree, on the Rocks😎 |
As we continued to
walk the shore we were greeted by incredibly cute and cuddly dogs. They played
and accompanied us while walking. Somehow my scared classmates soon felt light
again.
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| Cute and cuddly hosts
Second
stop, Case De La Playa
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| Beach Front |
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| Great Profile pics |
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Way
to the Beach Front
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| A well landscaped Yellow Tops plant |
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| Casa Matilda, Blanca, Greca Alexa, Romantica, Millenia As we were busy with “selfies”, “groufie” and poses, |
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our
classmate pointed out an island of mangroves. Its position in the open
waters is quite mystical and attractive. Its contrast with the blueness of the
water gives it more emphasis. It’s a good place for thinking, a cool place to
look at the coastline and “haha” a great place for “groufies”.
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The
Island
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| Mangroves and us |
Our next stop is
what I call “The Throne”. It looks
and felt like the center of everything. As you appreciate the old trunk of
mangrove, still standing against the current of the wave, even if the ocean
gets cruel at times, it withstands everything.
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The
Throne
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The
long lost heiresses
As we continued to
roam around and took “selfies” and more, hoooh! We laughed as our tummies
rumble and so we decided to take our lunch.
We tried out Kiwi Dive Resort.
According to
tripadvisor.com.ph, Kiwi Dive Resort is considered as # 8 of 52 Specialty Lodging in Siquijor Island. Furthermore, last
review about the resort from the same source, about first or second week of
March, states that:
“Had fun diving ^_^”
“It was great diving with dive master
Cedric as he showed us cool stuff like rare kinds of nudibranchs. Good for
Macro. They only have few dive sites in the area though we enjoyed diving.
Cedric is a nice dive master so I hope those who will dive with him will give
extra tips for him ^_^. The boatman is very helpful too.
As we got nearer to the resort it was the same time that divers were done with their diving trip. Our classmate had quietly introduced us with the crew’s names.
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Dive master Cedric
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Boatman Felix
We headed into the
small nipa hut, ordered and took a tour around the place while waiting. Some of
my classmates stayed to connect with the
Wi-Fi and view the pictures.
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The cute mini bar
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Up the stairs to the
other rooms; entwined vines gives a pretty nice shade and a unique style.
Stairs were good for another exercise.
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The foliage-covered
pathway leading to the concrete stairs down the beach.
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