We were told Sijiquor island is the new Boracay, the most beautiful and well known beach in the Philippines. Problem is that Boracay is over-run with tourists and it's commercialized. We chose not to go there for this reason and I really hope that Sijiquor doesn't turn into that because it was absolutely gorgeous and completely serene and peaceful. We stayed at a cheap place in town; the tourists that do go here typically stay in San Juan about 15km from town which we didn't know but were happy to be in the middle of quietness amongst the locals. To become more acquainted with our surroundings we walked around and learned that there was a festival for Good Friday at the top of the mountain the next day that focuses on Divine Healing and herbal remedies. Erin and I considered walking to the festival because once again, no bike rentals. Out of fear of a Bohol re-play, we went into town to see how we could get a ride. Good thing because it was about 50km away up in a mountain. This confirmed that the Philippino's are quite precise when calculating distance. We speak with this guy who calls his friend and says he'll drive us around the island all day on his motorbike.....the price was right so we agreed. Neither Erin or I are big fans of riding motorbikes in SE Asia......As PCV's we were unable to because they are so dangerous. But it's the primary mode of transportation and sometimes it's the only option so as RPCV's (returned PCV) we hop on and tell Ricky, our "tour guide" that he has to drive safe and slow because our mom's want to see us in 3 months....he totally understood.
Up the mountain we go on yet another stunning ride through the mountains to the festival. Ricky asked if we wanted to hit up the 12 stations of the cross with all of the locals....yes, please. Renditions of the stations are common here - it's often done as a "pilgrimage" and so the stations were set up along a short hike leading to a view point. Crucifixions are also not uncommon - I believe there are about 20 crucifixions in the area every Easter. I'll gladly hit up the stations, but I can't watch an actual crucifixion. We met a guy along our travels who saw one- he said that the people were totally into it and it was disturbing. So yeah. The stations was a nice way to see how important religion is here. I had a few conversations with many Philippino's who are not religious and it was interesting to hear their perspective that is so different from their society, but I won't get into that here.
After the stations, Ricky whisks us away to the festival. I can't lie and say I wasn't slightly disappointed in the festival. I thought we were going to get to see some cool, crazy rituals, but instead it was a bunch of people hanging around eating and some visited the Divine Healer. We watched some of the healings, but it was basically a guy dressed in robes who stuck his rosaries in the patients stomach and said a prayer. But I was still happy to be there. While walking around, we randomly found 25 PCVs serving in the Philippines who were traveling for the holidays! The PC community is a pretty tight one, regardless of where you serve, so we were really excited to meet them. We arranged to go to San Juan the following day to meet them at their place on the beach as we were off to explore the caves. Caves are big around here - there's a bunch in Thailand too. This one was definitely a tighter squeeze, which made things more challenging, which is awesome. We exit wet and sore (we had a very hilly run earlier that morning and my butt was killing me!) but very happy.
Back at home in town, we say good-bye to Ricky and while searching for, you guessed it, food, we see a procession going on at the church. Carried by men are statues representing the stations as people walk along. They were similar to what we would consider parade floats but these were 10 times more gaudy. I don't mean any offense, but anybody with an Italian Catholic grandmother understands the gaudy religious statues and these were the same same. We walked the procession with the community and I realized that there were just as many men as there were women....possibly more, including kids and teenagers. I heard many times from various Philippino's that the religion here is often a cover and / or not genuine, as with any religion. Although this might be true it was so great to see everybody participating in this. In Thailand, Buddhism is a central part of life but the men and teenagers rarely attended rituals and things of this nature; it was always the old ladies, which I think is similar to back home. Maybe this difference has to do with level of a countries development, meaning the more developed the less community participation. Or maybe it's simply that religion is that important in life here.....I mean I could write a book on this topic, but at the end of the day, it was really nice. We walked around the town amongst this procession for about 15 minutes and then we went off for dinner.
Halo halo is the dessert here consisting of sugar, fruit, übe flavored ice cream (übe is a purple yam that is only grown in Bohol and so it's special in the Philippines and available everywhere. Anything ube flavored will rock your world), more sugar, milk, ice shavings, sugar, annnnnnd did I say sugar? We had this in Bohol but we could only find it in a mall and we were really disappointed because it seemed very "mally"..... you know what I mean. We decided to try it again here hoping it'd be more authentic and this did not disappoint! Best halo halo EVER!
The next day we were ready for serious beach action. We had some left over rum, frat-style-jungle-juice that was strong enough for damage and so we brought it along. We were there to hang with the PCV's but we found ourselves being approached by this cool philippino guy, Oneball. He was super chatty and interesting and so were his friends Kirk and Paolo. They were telling us some far fetched things all morning, such as Oneball running for Governor, and we totally believed them. Largely because politics seemed like a bit of a corruption fluke here as they were in Thailand and so we weren't surprised this cool, young guy smoking a joint was running for Governor. That jungle juice....I know. As it turned out, the guys were messing with us regarding Oneball running for Governor, and Erin and I assumed that wasn't the only thing, but it was an unbelievably fun morning with them.
This island was truly relaxed and chill, similar to southern thailand. I didn't get a Rastafarian feel, but people seemed to have a similar mentality. We enjoyed an absolutely lovely morning with our 3 new funny friends. We were told they'd be making a lechon, which is roasting a pig. This is very popular for Philippino's during holidays and it was Easter weekend so we were excited to get to experience it. They were sacrificing the pig for giving its life. I had never participated in anything like this in thailand and i know I'm a vegetarian, but i was curious and so I watched the killing and sacrifice of this adorable 5 month old, very large lady pig. It was hard to watch and I couldn't watch some parts, but afterwards we all went and placed our palm on the pig thanking her for her life. I'll never do it again, but glad I did it once. The pig roasted for many hours and I was told that it was delish.
Oneball, Paolo and Kirk were really generous and made sure we were OK the whole day. We learned later form one of the PCV's that Philippino men are typically gentleman and treat women very nicely, yet they move quickly....meaning on date one they are confessing their love and desire for marriage and baby making. Ok, that's a bit much for us Americans, but it was refreshing to know that men often play a positive role and are very present in the family. The boys we met did not profess anything crazy as they are more progressive, thank goodness, and so we were was sad to leave our new friends. Erin and i even considered sleeping on the beach because we didn't want to leave, but we went home late that night for a few quick hours of sleep before our morning ferry to Cebu City. Good bye to Sijiquor.....yet another amazing memory.
Cebu was our hub city to connect us to Manila where we were meeting Marjie, our other travel companion, and we had to stay there for a day or so. Cebu city was the complete opposite of everything I've been describing. It was dirty, poverty-stricken with rough people in a city surrounded by ridiculously large malls. You know, people always say the farmers in these developing countries are poor, but so far in every SE Asian country I've been in, the farmers live a life with their family surrounded by beauty and plentiful food; yes, they endure back-breaking work, but seem more at peace. Theses city folk are just different. So, I was not impressed with Cebu City after the beauty and the warm, genuinely friendly people of the south. We arrived via the port on Easter Sunday and decided we would splurge our budget for Easter dinner, since there was little else to do anyway. We also thought it was time for a night of dancing, so maybe this stop in Cebu wasn't so poorly timed after all.
We took a cab to the area we would eat and dance in, which we never do, but it was Easter so we treated ourselves to a cab. We get out and are immediately attacked by at least 5 small children begging for money. sadly, out of fear and confusion we ignored them and they followed us for quite a while. It may be disturbing to hear that we ignored them, but it's a hard position to be in. You want to give but fear being robbed if you do. It's awful to walk away from them but it's an anxiety provoking situation as well.
You may think I'm even more cruel that after that I shoveled a delicious pizza down my throat afterwards. We ate outside and children would periodically approach the tables and be chased away by security guards. Yes, a pizza "restaurant" had security guards, so can you imagine why we ignored the kids out of fear? I can't lie, we thoroughly enjoyed that pizza, washed down with yet another delish rendition of frat-style-jungle-juice of Philippino rum and peach juice. After leaving the pizza place, we were no longer in the safety of our security guards and were once again attacked by begging children. This time with the heart wrenching action of wrapping their hands in my arms and hugging me (while I tightly clutched my fanny pack), calling me "mommy". And this was a distinct mommy, not to be mixed up with my earlier confusion of being called mom when I was in fact being called ma'am. It was a good minute of walking like that and at least the kids got a kick out of it.....laughing is a good sign, right? We get to the safety of the club and our night continues with dancing, meeting more cool Philippino people and a heavy midnight snack of another pizza, some baked goods and fried eggs from a street stall. I cannot lie, Thai's make the best fried eggs in the world, but this egg was a second!
Erin and I return to our hostel, realizing that there are upper bunks available, which in this hostel is the cheaper option. We paid extra money for a bottom bunk as we were told it was all that was available, but at 4:30am we realize this is not the case and are upset by this. We are talking 50 pesos, approximately $1.25 cheaper....not big bucks but $1.25 is a big meal here.....this is how we think. So, Erin and I go downstairs at 4:30am to discuss this with the staff and demand our 50 pesos back. It was an epic fail to our bargaining rights but an epic success in being cheap. Needless to say, the next morning, sober and much more rational, we got a good laugh out of this.
The rest of our time in Cebu is uneventful. We spend the following day driving though the impoverished streets looking for vegetarian Philippino food, which ended up being a rip-off, but an adventure nonetheless. We basically prepared for our flight the following day to meet Marjie in Manila so we could begin our journey up North to the Cordillera Mountains, the part of the Philippines I was most looking forward to.
We meet Marj problem-free in Manila. We purposely gave ourselves no time in manila because we heard it was just an awful city. We take a taxi to the bus station and as soon as we get out, a Philippino tells us not to trust anyone. Great. We buy tickets, some dinner and stroll around the market. It was so overwhelmingly packed, dirty and so not where I wanted to be. Finally, we got on our overnight bus-ride to Banaue, a 9 hour journey. We were ready!
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