If you are in the Southern Tagalog island province of Marinduque for the annual Moriones Festival, which takes place every Holy Week, it would be great if you can take some time to explore the place.
There are six towns to see — Boac, Sta. Cruz, Mogpog, Torrijos, Gasan, and Buenavista — which you can essentially get to see in a day when you drive around the island province. The attractions they offer range from caves and underground rivers to luxury resorts and an island paradise called Maniwaya.
Now, this is the one that has caught the eye of many locals and tourists alike. No matter how tight their schedules are, visitors really squeeze in a visit to Maniwaya, which is a relatively new and rising attraction. It is an island paradise with stretches upon stretches of virginal, white-sand beaches in the town of Sta. Cruz. It is like a smaller-scale Boracay Island when it was relatively untouched.
Marinduque’s best-kept secret, Maniwaya Island is one of the three big islands that can be found within the waters of Sta. Cruz. The other two are Polo and Mongpong. Polo is closest to the main island of Marinduque, but it is surrounded with mangroves. Maniwaya comes next, followed by Mongpong, which is smaller and has some good stretches of white-sand beach, yes, but none like Maniwaya’s. Mongpong is more mountainous, as well.
Maniwaya is an island paradise whose beauty comes from its simplicity. For the longest time, there were no resorts on the island, just a few families living on the island sharing their homes’ simple facilities with locals who sometimes “come over” for a leisurely swim. Local Marinduqueños, particularly residents of Sta. Cruz, would just rent a boat to get to Maniwaya, stay there to swim and frolic under the sun for the day, and head back to the main island before sunset. There were no places to stay. But then, by word of mouth, more and more people got to know about Maniwaya, and it was inevitable for small resorts to rise on the island to provide what the visitors needed.
Today, there are resorts on the island, potable water, electricity, even facilities for recreational activities, such as jetskiing, banana boat rides, snorkeling, scuba diving, and wakeboarding. Kayaks, speedboats and all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) can be found on the island.
Kayaks, speedboats and ATVs (all-terrain vehicles) are also available on the island. Some long-staying guests like to explore the island on foot at a leisurely pace or on board ATVs to cover more ground in lesser time.
Boasting of a 264-hectare land area and a population of a little below 2,000, Maniwaya Island is accessible by boat via Buyabod Port in Sta. Cruz. There, visitors can either take the regular boat trip or rent their own motorized boat to the island, which will take from 30 to 45 minutes. The waters surrounding the island are so breath-taking and clear that you can actually see the rocks and sand at the bottom when you lean over during the boat ride.
Most guests who visit Maniwaya Island first stop by Palad sandbar, which can be found a kilometer away from the resort island. It is a one-hectare sandbar of fine white sand at the northeastern end of the island. During low tide, it appears, like a small piece of white-sand beach right in the middle of the sea, and changing its shape depending on the season and the flow of the current and wind. When it is high tide, Palad disappears from view. Usually, low tide occurs very early in the morning, so visitors bound for Maniwaya set out early and stop by the sandbar for picture taking before proceeding to the resort island.
A beautiful island paradise bordered by long stretches of powdery white-sand beach, with lush green forests as a fitting background, plus a combination of cool breeze, beautiful turquoise waters and clear blue skies… A serene environment that can make anyone wax poetic… Such is the charm of Maniwaya Island in Sta. Cruz, Marinduque.
How to get there:
Getting to the Southern Tagalog province of Marinduque is through Dalahican Port in Lucena City. Take a ro-ro (roll-on, roll-off sea vessel that carries individual passengers and vehicles as well) to Balanacan Port in Mogpog, Marinduque. The trip takes four hours. From Balanacan Port, UV Express door-to-door vans take passengers to the town of their destination, including Sta. Cruz. It’s a one-hour ride from Mogpog to Sta. Cruz. A trip to Maniwaya Island can be made via a boat ride from Sta. Cruz’s Buyabod Port.