Siquijor
'Isla del Fuego,' the island the rest of the Philippines whispers about: mystic healers brewing love potions in the hills, coral-stone churches centuries old, and bukayo and budbod sold beside the bottled brews at the Saturday tabu.
What Siquijor is known for.
Tap a card for the story.
heritageFolk Healing & Love Potions
→ Healers in San Antonio and the interior hills; Holy Week brewing rituals
Siquijor's reputation as the island of sorcery is no marketing gimmick — real mananambal (folk healers) still gather forest roots and bark, chant over bubbling cauldrons during Holy Week, and bottle gayuma love potions and herbal cures. You can meet a healer, forage the ingredients, and watch your own brew made by hand.
source ↗foodBudbod (suman)
→ Siquijor and Larena public markets; morning
Siquijor's everyday sweet is budbod — sticky rice (or nutty kabog millet) steamed in banana leaf with coconut milk and sugar, eaten with tsokolate for breakfast. Buy it warm from the public market and you're tasting a tradition older than the Spanish.
source ↗foodBukayo & coastal sweets
→ Market stalls in Siquijor town, Larena, and Lazi
Sweetened coconut strips cooked down with muscovado into chewy bukayo — the island's pocket-money pasalubong, sold in twists of cellophane at every market stall. Pure coconut and sugar, nothing else, exactly as it's always been.
source ↗landmarkLazi's coral-stone church & convent
→ San Isidro Labrador Church & Convent, Lazi, Siquijor
Lazi's San Isidro Labrador Church (1884) and its enormous convento — often called the biggest and oldest convent in Asia, a National Cultural Treasure built of coral stone and hardwood — anchor Siquijor's quiet Catholic heritage right alongside its mystic reputation. The island prays and brews potions in the same breath.
source ↗festivalHealing Holy Week & island fiestas
→ Holy Week healing rituals island-wide; town fiestas through the year
During Holy Week, Siquijor's healers converge to make the year's most potent medicines, while towns throw their patronal fiestas. Faith, harvest, and folk magic all share the same calendar here.
source ↗What grows here.
The produce this place is actually famous for — and the market to buy it at, instead of the airport gift shop.
Siquijor's mananambal healers gather herbs, barks and roots from Mt. Bandilaan across the seven Fridays of Lent — the pangalap — then brew them in cauldrons on Black Saturday. The bottled oils and potions sell from roadside stalls for around 100 pesos.
Eat, drink & shop the towns you pass through.
Independent, Filipino-owned — from the karinderya that’s fed the port for forty years to the roastery the cool kids queue for. Your spend lands where it belongs.
Siquijor
MarketSiquijor Public Market (Tabu)Try Budbod, bukayo, ginamos, herbal brews
The island's central market and weekly tabu — budbod, bukayo, ginamos, fresh fish, and produce sold cheap, with bottles of herbal brews and love potions tucked among the everyday goods. The most honest snapshot of Siquijodnon daily life.
MarketLarena Public MarketTry Budbod, tsokolate, dried seafood, native delicacies
Larena is Siquijor's old commercial port town, and its market is where boats unload and locals stock up — morning budbod and tsokolate, dried fish, and native snacks at port-town prices.
MakerFolk Healers of San AntonioTry Herbal oils, healing brews, gayuma (love potions)
In the highland barangay of San Antonio, mananambal still mix herbal oils, healing potions, and gayuma by hand — meeting visitors, foraging roots in the forest, and preserving a pre-colonial craft the rest of the country is half-afraid of. The spend reaches the healers directly.
MarketLazi market & San Isidro church groundsTry Bukayo, budbod, bananas; heritage church visit
The market town of Lazi sits beside one of Asia's grandest coral-stone churches and convents — buy bukayo, budbod, and bananas at the public market, then cross to the centuries-old church and its vast wooden convento.
MakerBukayo & budbod home-makers (island-wide)Try Hand-made bukayo and banana-leaf budbod
Across Siquijor's towns, families cook bukayo and wrap budbod by hand for the markets — the cottage delicacy trade that keeps the island's sweet tooth fed and the income local rather than corporate.
BarBaha BarTry Own-farm plates + local craft beer
Maite restaurant-bar in island woodwork — farm-and-sea-to-table with nightly live music.
CaféShaka SiquijorTry Acai and peanut-butter smoothie bowls; vegan flat white with oat milk, served on the sand
A barefoot, fully vegan beachfront cafe under the palms in San Juan, famous for acai and peanut-butter smoothie bowls and oat-milk flat whites.
CaféKape de GuyodTry Best-on-island espresso and a standout Spanish latte; AC, fast wifi and views for digital nomads
A San Juan cafe grown from a coffee cart into a Bali-like tropical space, widely cited as serving the island's best espresso.
Festivals & the living scene.
AprHealing FestivalCultureSiquijor · Holy Week
Folk healers gather to brew their famous potions — the island's mystic heart.
all yrJJ's Backpackers Beach PartyPartySiquijor · Fri/Sat/Sun from 9pm
Siquijor's biggest weekly beach party at JJ's in San Juan — beachfront DJs and live bands.
source ↗all yrSalagdoong Beach Cliff Jump & Paliton BeachBeachesMaria / San Juan · year-round, best dry season
Salagdoong near Maria has two concrete diving platforms (about 5m and 10m) over clear turquoise water — jump only at high tide. Pair it with Paliton on the west coast, where a trail through the trees opens onto a wider white-sand stretch locals call 'Little Boracay,' best at sunset.
source ↗all yrFreediving Courses, Tubod Marine SanctuaryAdventureTubod/San Juan · year-round (best Mar–Jun)
Siquijor's calm, clear water and the healthy reef at Tubod Marine Sanctuary make it one of the best places in the country to learn to freedive. Local's tip: Siquijor Freediving (the island's first school and only Instructor Training Center, founded 2019) runs beginner-to-instructor courses, while community-run Amuma Freediving offers AIDA certifications and trains local guides.
source ↗all yrTuba at the Source — Fresh Coconut WineFoodCircumferential Road / Siquijor Market · year-round (freshest before 10AM)
Men climb barefoot to palm crowns at dawn to collect fresh coconut sap; by the time roadside stalls along Siquijor's circumferential road open, the tuba is cold, mildly alcoholic, slightly sweet, and faintly yeasty — nothing like the aged bahalina, and nothing like lambanog. Pair it with kinilaw na lapu-lapu or lato (sea grapes) with tomato and vinegar from the morning market, which sells out by 9AM. Local's tip: many Siquijor cooks use guava as a souring agent in sinigang instead of tamarind — considered more restorative on this island of healers — so always ask what's souring the broth before you order.
source ↗all yrSiquijor Healing & Wellness TourWellnessSan Antonio (Balay Pahauli) · year-round
Siquijor isn't just beaches and waterfalls — it's the 'healing island,' and you can sit with real mananambal (folk healers) for a bolo-bolo cleansing (a stone in a glass of water, blown through a bamboo straw to draw out bad energy) or a tuob herbal fumigation at Balay Pahauli in Cantabon. Local's tip: the healers are busiest around Holy Week, when they gather herbs, roots and stones on Mt. Bandilaan over seven Fridays to recharge the oils they use all year.
source ↗Show 1 more
all yrHealer-Herbalist Forest Walk & Balete TreeEcoCang-Adiis/Lazi, Siquijor · year-round; liveliest Holy Week
Siquijor's interior barangays are home to hereditary folk healers (mananambal) who maintain forest herb gardens. Several offer guided walks identifying medicinal plants and explaining traditional preparation — a living ethnobotany tour. The 400-year-old Balete Tree in Lazi has a freshwater spring pool at its roots. Tip: ask your guesthouse to connect you directly with a healer rather than through an agency; a ₱300–₱500 donation is the respectful format.