It comes with great sadness that today we left the beautiful island of Siquijor and we are back on the island of Negros. We will miss the incredible sunsets, fresh fish on the beach BBQ, parties on the beach and the constant music from Sunny Side Up with their beach fire dancing extravaganza.
We packed our bags, ate a fresh juicy mango for breakfast, along with chocolate porridge and next headed out to the main road to hail a shared tricycle.
We picked up a tricycle really quickly, dropped off a few people at a graduation ceremony and arrived at Siquijor port earlier than anticipated. This meant we could try to get an early fast ferry. We purchased tickets and paid our port fee for the Jalan (GL) ferry. The ferry left a few minutes late but took just over an hour to reach Dumaguete. The sea was choppy and a few drops made their way through the windows.
In Dumaguete we did a few essential jobs. Shopping, money withdrawal, Jolibee ice cream eating, lunch and we also checked future bus times at the main bus station.
We caught a jeepney just off the main road heading to our next destination, Dauin. Dauin is one of the best muck diving locations that exist on our watery planet! There are all sorts of unusual creatures living underwater here that are not found in many other places on earth.
The jeepney took us to the market in Dauin, which was perfect as it was just a short walk to where we are staying. We tried to get a pizza at a street stall but they had all gone. Next we checked a few other food stalls and they were rather short on food too. Eventually we settled for a small stall selling noodles.
Just down the road was our hostel and it took us 2 minutes to reach it on foot. We passed the Dauin church that we remembered, the 'Christmas tree's park' and the house we spent Christmas dinner at in 2014. We arrived at Bongo Bongo Divers. A top spot we remember well.
It had changed a lot and was a lot bigger than we remember. There are a lot of new rooms, a new kitchen, 2 new dogs and a lot more people. The people forgot to check out of the room we had booked, easily done in the Philippines! So, we had a guided tour of the new facilities and a coffee while they vacated.
A quick walk along the beach showed how much development had happened over the last few years. Dauin is still a sleepy little town but now large boats and dive resorts line the beach. There were a lot of dogs playing on the black sand together. Two were on leads tied together. They came over to say hello and wrapped us up with their lead!
We eventually made it into our room and it is very cool. We spent the evening drinking tea and eating local cakes in the funky communal area.
