Bojo River Tour: I'm a LOL Cat

LOL cats are very cute and I'd like to think I'm one of them. LOL. That's why I was all about making myself look cute when we went to Aloguinsan. Spare me this time. I rarely do self-praise. I think about myself so rarely that I am on the verge of forgetting my name. Anyway, this is part II of the Aloguinsan road trip the Boss and I had. Someone advised me nobody cares what I think and people only want directions. There's no need to give a lot of directions here. I uploaded a very huge map of Aloguinsan. That should get you to Bojo River. I did not read the full terms of use for Google Maps. I just hope I don't get a lawsuit one of these days. LOL Cats don't like fines. Bojo River, Aloguinsan, Cebu: Photos courtesy of the Boss. I sometimes call her "chicken." She eats chicken everyday. For her, coffee and chicken are synonymous with breathing.

The Waters of Siquijor

Morning view at Villamar Marine, where we spent the night before touring the island.

Capilay Spring

This is the blog entry where I try to be real helpful so bear with me. Capilay Spring is located at the town center of San Juan, Siquijor. It's about 12kms away from Siquijor, Siquijor, the town where you dock if you take Delta fast craft from Dumaguete. I know Siquijor, Siquijor sounds reduntdant and spammy but that's the name of the town. Anyway, that's too much digression there. Just remember, Capilay Spring is in San Juan.

Capilay spring park. Not somewhere you wanna be unless you want to drown in a mosquito zone. (Yes, it is quite deep.)

On the way there you will pass by JJ Backpackers. It's a real nice place and they are quite cheap that's why they are always booked. We haven't spent the night there but it's something I would recommend. I mean, you can sleep there when you get to Siquijor because you usually arrive there in the afternoon and that's not enough time to go around and it's best to stay in one place and enjoy the beach waters.

If you've been to Plaza Independencia in downtown Cebu, this place is not something you'd have to go to.

Lugnason Falls, Napo, San Juan

Lugnason Falls is the nicer falls compared to the more famous Cambugahay Falls. It's located in the mountains that's why it's not so popular. The tricycle drivers that you pay 800pesos to get you around the island will not take you there because they only want your money and they just want it over with.

Look for this place in the map that you will get free from the Capitol of Siquijor. I have one and I've put some marks on it (the kind of marks that kindergarten children make on their treasure map). Email me if you want it.

If bamboo is a grass, then a bamboo bridge is a bridge made of grass. nyahaha!

This falls is our next stop because we went around the island westward. That's counter-clockwise if you know what I mean. We spent the night at Villamar Marine

before setting out early the next day for the whole island. The second night was spent by the group at Hotel Agripino in Salagdoong. You will know about it below.

You can feel the wind that the falling water makes from this distance. It's what I call the waterfalls effect.

You will have to go through barangay roads to get there. The places are not creepy at all even if they are nearly people-less. From here in Lugnason Falls is a network of barangay roads that can take you to Cantabon Cave without going back to the highway. Cantabon is not something I would recommend but you can go there if you want to waste money on 500-peso mandatory tour guide fee.

The foot of waterfalls are often deep because water pushes the soil underneath. But sometimes there are rocks that hide under them and if you jump without looking, it will be the day you regret being a tourist.

You will not miss Lugnason Falls if you keep asking directions. Once there, you can swim naked because is not likely that you can see anybody during weekdays. But it's either you're a porn star or a traveller. Take your pick. You can't have both, bitch.

I call this hybrid plant a coconut-waterfall tree. Discovery credit belongs to me.

Balete tree, Lazi

Here’s another “attraction” that Siquijo boasts about. There is nothing to it but a tree and a cold spring. There’ also a small canal where many fishes stay. If you’ve been to I2 in IT Park, you don’t have to see this place. But we went there just to feel the enchantment because the Siquijor’s tourism sells it as a “century old enchanted Balete tree.”

The enchanted tree is inhabited by jejemons who drink tanduay and think they're so macho. They're quite accommodating though. Thanks to you guys, really.

When we got there the first people we saw were a bunch of local boys (jejemon I bet) drinking tanduay. They were nice enough to offer me some and I was glad to have a shot because I was so hungry and there was no place to dine from Cantabon Cave all the way there. Bring lots of food if you want to tour the island, is all I’m saying. From the Balete tree it’s about 15-20 minutes’ drive to get to Lazi where the over-charging carenderias are.

This is so much like I2 when you get there. I almost expected to see KFC and Jollibee on the side.

Cambugahay Falls

Cambugahay Falls are a sell-out because they are just two kilometers from the town center of Lazi, Siquijor. When you get there, they will charge you with ten pesos for the parking fee. You can also see some manangs selling nestea and gatorade (it's in the nba, is it in siquijor??)

The person who discovered Siquijor. (Actually, he's just the 5,658,201st person to do so. So he gets no monument for it.)

The water below Cambugahay falls looks like a condominium for mosquitoes so I was not tempted to swim. (Not that I know how to swim. I just said "swim" for convenience). Just a word of caution. Don't swim without someone looking after your things. The place has a reputation for not-so-honest people.

154 steps to get to this place.

After the falls we had breakfast in Lazi and I was surprised to see 138pesos on our bill. I bet those drumsticks had to be imported from Mars that's why they're so expensive. The inter-planetary tariff explains it all.

That tree trunk is for people who don't know how to swim. It is also for people who prefer to balance on tree trunks instead of swimming.

Top view of the falls. Don't bring too much food if you want to go there. There isn't anywhere you can put them on.

Salagdoong Beach

Salagdoong Beach is in Salagdoon, Maria, Siquijor, Philippines! You can stay overnight there for 800 pesos. It's about three kilometers away from the town center of Maria. Finding the beach is not so easy. The only sign to it is as small as a street sign. Anything as small as a street sign on a speed-conducive highway is no good at all.

This is what you call sea-jumping for dummies.

They did attempt to place a billboard advertising the place but it's all washed out and it's nothing but a big spread of white that faces sideways. So it's not good either. I think those people don't want us and are deliberately trying to mislead us.

He's 22 and a retard. He just jumped from a 3-foot high cliff into 5-foot deep water. What a brave lad.

I counted three dive boards and two slides at Salagdoong Rock, a big rock at sea where you can do all suicidal stuffs that comes to your head. I settled for the 3-foot jump. No need to show people that I can dive. (Actually, I need people to see me so I could get help in case I drown.)

>View from the 20-foot diving board. I heard it's good to jump from there when it's low tide and you got many bills to pay. (My camera having lighting issues)

The resto at Salagdoong serves dishes from the 90-140peso range. If they say the menu item is good for three people, they are not kidding. We had a real good dinner and the only not-so-good part about it is finishing the meal off because we ordered a lot because we thought they were not serious. Turned out they were not just sales-talking.

Two Siquijor guys. If you smell bromance, I do too. Bromance!

The slide is perfect for bromance, among other things. It's where you tease your guy friend and make him just and you follow and you splash water to each other when you get to the sea.

One bro dives and the other follows. True bromance!

Bulakaw-Toong River Trek

A moron literally makes the drop off

Trip type: River trekking
Technical designation: wala, whatever
Who it is for: People who don't mind soaking in not so dirty water, people who love to walk

Things that you may want to bring

Slippers: unless it’s merell or unless you are okay with dripping your feet until they rot, do not wear shoes

Food: no stores, no restos. You may not bring lunch if you feel like you want to make this your last trip

Water for a 10-km walk: apparently, the river source is not a water-purifying station so you need to drink from somewhere else (your own water bottle!)

Clothes: one full get up, from the undies to your Ayala outfit. You will swim, stumble face flat, rub yourself against filthy moss

Rope: this is a bit optional, except that you could use it in case there is flood. The river could flood even if the skies are clear. At the far end of the river are some mountains and when it rains from there, the obvious will happen to the lowland. The fact that water travels faster on steeper surface does not help. I call this flooding on a sunny day the jejemon effect: because if a flood catches you by surprise, the least you can do is “jejeje.”

River trek from Bulakaw (yeah, I prefer this spelling). Who would have thought? The closest that can get to a river in Bulakaw, Pardo is that massive filth that flows along its boundary to Talisay. But we did get to a clean river all right. (Clean-looking, at least).

The jump-off point is at Candulawan, Talisay City. To get there, just take that road beside Prince Warehouse Bulakaw and ask your way there.

Nobody will respect you if you drown here.

I: The chill2x river trek
This is where the river pretends to be friendly and gives us some profile-pic-worthy views while we strode easily. This is also where you walk like a man and scream like a girl when you step on some slippery rock.

Icky yucky, these rock formations look slimy but they are not really. they are similar to the ones you find inside caves

We swam, swallowed some water, and found out the horror that was upstream (yeah, the river is not as clean as it looks)

II: The inevitable swim
This part could be easier if you know how to swim with a heavy water-proof backpack on. But I got neither (no swim, do dry bag). At one point we had to do some bag ziplining. It was fun! (For the bags at least)

Spying on the river trekkers: to jump or not jump on them?

Bags are more important than humans

III: Dark cave and roping

You know what is stupid? Here is what: you take a plastic, put your phone inside it to water-proof it, then not know that the plastic is open on the other end and see your phone take a plunge. The more stupid part is when you realize that you don’t have to water-proof your phone at all because the water is shallow.


Anyway, why is there a cave? I guess it’s part of the mountains that flank either side of the river. The water bore though it and charan! it became coco crunch! Cave, I mean. I ate cheese this morning. Must be the cause.

We could not walk the whole length of our mini cave because the waters ahead were unpredictable. So we had to go to the side, climb at some boulder that led us to the higher part of a hill. Going up and down the hill required some rope. Actually, if you know how to cling your way through mossy places, you would not have much use for a rope.

Minicave: this is where you can drop your phone

As opposed to doping, roping is less addictive and require some real effort. Just remember to cling to dear life on that rope. Don’t worry, the flood is the only real danger in this trek so this roping part should not scare you.