The Siargao curse

The Siargao curse | Daily Tribune

A lot of foreigners who had visited Siargao swear by the curse. Once you’ve been to the island — with its ideal-for-surfing waves, white sand beaches, turquoise waters, iconic sunsets, diverse food culture, vibrant and unpretentious nightlife, and the friendliest of people — they say you’ll never want to leave.

In fact a lot of foreigners, fondly called AFAMs, have decided to make Siargao their home indefinitely. A lot have put up business establishments like surf shops, restaurants, souvenir stores, bars and cafes.

The laidback lifestyle the place evokes — lazy mornings, surfing afternoons, lounging by the beach at sunset, and bar/cafe hopping at night — attracts a whole spectrum from Gen Zs to Gen Xs like me.

When I went there in August of last year for the inaugural Siargao marathon, I swear I didn’t want to leave. Thoughts about buying property there became serious for a while, especially since I have a son who someday wants to put up a restaurant there.

So when the announcement came that the Siargao marathon 2025 will be in early May, in the middle of summer, I lost no time to register.

It wasn’t difficult at all to convince my running buddy, P/Lt. Col. Imelda Reyes, who’s currently based in Valencia, Negros Oriental, to take a short flight from Cebu to Siargao and join me in the marathon. It was such a relief that this time, the race would be in the General Luna area, unlike last year which was in the other town of San Isidro.

Start and finish area was at the beautiful Kanaloa beach. Gunstart was at 1 a.m. so as the 42k runners slithered through the streets with a lot of the bars and nightspots still open, the AFAM dominant crowd were cheering the runners on and giving high fives.

Past the busy area, there were no longer any lampposts and it was really dark. This was why headlamps and flashlights were mandatory gear. Although the forecast that night was rainy, the sky at the start of the race was so clear, we had a mesmerizing view of the star filled sky.

I didn’t race with any specific finish time in mind but my buddy, Imelda, had a goal time so I let her go ahead. It was just me and the music on my earphones running along the streets of Siargao for most of the race. At one point on the way back, when we passed by our hotel, Kaimana, the temptation to pull out of the race and just sleep was so tough to ignore.

In races like this, one is not just fighting against fatigue but lack of sleep, which sort of worsens the fatigue. In an ideal world, I would have banked sleep the nights prior but that wasn’t the case.

When the sun rose, we literally witnessed the island wake up, with the shops opening, and locals going about their business. I then wondered where I’d eat breakfast after finishing. White Beard came in highly recommended so images of coffee, corned beef, and eggs preoccupied me momentarily.

Before I knew it, we were turning round the corner for the finish area and there it was, the place they call Secret Beach.

When I saw my buddy, I was so thrilled to find out that she ended up third place among the female runners.

After a race, I usually feel so wrecked that I couldn’t hurry up enough to get back to the hotel. But since my buddy placed third, we of course had to await the awarding. Kanaloa had a beautiful beach area and a lot of the runners went straight to the water to swim.

“Why the hell did I not bring extra clothes,” I thought to myself.

After breakfast and a bit of rest, my buddy and I wanted to tour our medal a bit so we went to the notorious, I mean famous, AFAM bridge and after taking a lot of photos, we proceeded to Cloud 9 which arguably had one of the best sunset views.

We made a dinner reservation at Roots, a restaurant we ate in last August, and left an indelible mark in my mind, I just had to return. That it was conveniently located within our hotel compound was no coincidence.

Roots Siargao is owned by an interdisciplinary team of chefs/restaurateurs, including chefs Filippo Turrini and Inês Castañeda, along with Marina Castañeda, Ricardo Miranda de Sousa, Diogo Miranda and Daan Overgaag. The restaurant fuses the owners’ Spanish, Italian, Mexican and Portuguese heritage.

Not too many people know too that this team behind Roots have one thing in common. They all previously worked at Central in Lima, Peru, which was named No. 1 in the World’s Best Restaurants.

It was a five course-meal that was just perfect to celebrate another unforgettable marathon for the buddy and me. And since I had a very early flight the next day, there was no opportunity to savor Siargao’s famous nightlife, just 101 reasons to keep coming back.

It’s the curse!