Since I was staying at the Casa dela Playa in the off-season, got a surprise bonus from Emely, the owner of the resort. I got a free guide/driver in Hans, a German transplant to Siquijor. We were a curious pair - a towering German and a stocky Pinoy backpacker/photographer. He showed the way through the mangrove sanctuary of Tulapos in my first afternoon in Siquijor. I wouldn't know there was a tree house there if it weren't for him. The next day, went back there on a whim with Dennis, the habal-habal driver I befriended at the Siquijor pier. Even he had no inkling there were tree houses hidden in the thick mangrove forest. Splish-splashing in knee-deep waters, I can hear fishes splish-splashing in our wake. That's how clean the water is and how vital the mangroves are.
