Despite its small area, Siquijor Island has to exhibit a wildly mountainous interior. During our three-week stay on the island, we couldn’t omit to go for its highest summit. That is called Mount Bandilaan, it is designated a national park, and reaches a maximum elevation of 632 meters.
We decided to take an early trip to Mount Bandilaan to watch the sunrise. We got up at around 4 am and headed out from Larena by around 5.
Mount Bandilaan is located in the very center of Siquijor Island. It is accessible from the mountain road running between Cantabon Cave and Cang-apa village. The coordinates of the summit are 9.1879, 123.582.
In our case, coming from Larena, we got the road from Cang-Apa. The first light of the dawn had already begun to penetrate in the lush forest by the time we got there, notwithstanding the thick fog that covered the mountain.
Shortly before reaching the path to the summit, there is a sort of little park featuring some nice artificial gardens and two elevated platforms overlooking the east. That’s where we chose to wonder at the sunrise. We got on the platform, set the camera ready to record a timelapse, and laid down a towel to sit and have our breakfast. The sun rose, surely it did, somewhere behind the thick fog that, in contrary to our hopes, it didn’t dissolve. So we didn’t get to see much of a sunrise but had a nice breakfast anyway.
Then we headed further to the summit of Mount Bandilaan. It was a short, 5-minutes walk up a stairway from the road. On the summit, there is a tall tower wherefrom one may marvel at some great views of the entire Siquijor. In our case, though, we could only see a twenty-meters-radius disk of jungle through the fog. That had its own beauty, too, however.
So we left and headed to Locong and Kawasan waterfalls.
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