the Earth-bound adventures of the Lost and Found

3 to 5 April 2007. monday night, i decided i'd had enough of my chemical oceanography paper and got it into my head to go to siquijor, even if nobody else would or could. i'd last been there three years ago (back when i only had a manual SLR and scanning negatives was expensive, so i had to choose which photos i wanted printed from a contact print AND THEN scan them on a flatbed scanner. that's why i only have a few photos in that album) and felt deprived that i'd been living in dumaguete the past five months but hadn't been back. this time, too, i had no need for sight-seeing. just needed a long, white beach to lie down on. unfortuantely, even if i was early for holy week, the resorts were already fully booked. but really God loves me because i found this place, believe it or not, for only P600. the second room i had to transfer to the next night the very, very nice owners gave for only P400. and this is free broadband internet, DVDs, a library, and satellite tv....

Text and Photos by Jeneen R. Garcia     When the heart is scarred and the spirit barely breathing, the only balm is distance and open space. And so I found myself on a late Tuesday morning at the start of summer standing at the pier in Dumaguete City , looking for a ride to Siquijor.   I had just missed the 11:30 am boat; the next departure was by pumpboat. In a way, I was glad. I wanted no fussy boarding procedures or annoying action movies, wanted only to be close to the wind and the sea. I sat down on a wooden seat across a student whose face looked as weary as my heart. We each have our reasons for going away, and though we may be strangers, often we find ourselves seeking the same places for healing.   Isla del Fuego, the Spaniards had called it. Island of Fire . But under the fierce summer sun, it was the sight of Siquijor Island ’s long, white coves and blue-green waters that comforted me. Surely I had come to the right place.   “But all the resorts a...

16-18 February 2007. It was supposed to be a field trip for a physical oceanography class I wasn't even enrolled in. So yes, I got on the boat and made the motions with the drogue and the GPS to map the currents. I had wanted to go to Danjugan Island ever since I read about it in a coffee table book in 2001. But instead of Danjugan, I got to stay in the precious little island across it, owned by the tito of one of my classmates. Imagine an island all to yourself--with its own kayak, great food, three adorable dachshunds, and sunrises and sunsets all throughout the year. The pictures, I think, speak better than I can.

  Text and Photos by Jeneen R. Garcia     People who go down southeast on Cebu’s scenic coastal road--perhaps to take the ferry across to Negros , perhaps to rest in one of the seaside towns, to come home to family and the sound of the waves--if they go far enough, will come to a bend in the road.   It is a bend so unlike any other in these parts that those who have gone around this bend are sure to know exactly which one I am talking about. For those who have not, let me tell you about it.   Just before you reach this bend, you come down the road right next to a cliff, which is right next to the sea, blue-green turning abruptly deep blue where the reef drops into the Bohol Strait . The water can be calm or ferocious against the rocks, depending on what month it is. On a clear day, you can see Bohol on the edge of the horizon.   The bend itself is marked by a high limestone wall on one side, and the sea on the other. Morning light rises slowly over this ...