August 17th 2019

My home province Marinduque is most famous for Moriones during Holy Week. However, not many people know that here lies an island which holds treasures that can bring joy and exhilarating feelings to any traveler. Maniwaya Island, despite being a new travel destination, has some of the most breathtaking and stunning shores, water, and rock formations I’ve seen here in the country. It brings a certain serene and quiet atmosphere because of its isolation.

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Maniwaya Island is slowly gaining popularity now. A lot of accommodation options are now available on and near the area. Maniwaya is so breathtakingly beautiful that you need to keep your phone or camera fully-charged because of the endless sights of well-grown corals, white sandbars, and clear waters everywhere!

PERSONAL NOTES

Day 2 of our Marinduque getaway! We woke up later than our scheduled time to travel so very little time was spent on breakfast. My daughter enjoyed her tosilog and chocolate drink while I quickly finished my daingsilog. “Wag kang magmadali Papa”, she insisted. “Okay, I will just relax… Even if I’m pretty sure that we’re cutting too close and we might miss the 7:00AM jeep to Santa Cruz”, I replied with smile. There was an hour interval before the next trip, and if we don’t catch this early trip, our schedule will be ruined.

The terminal is just a walking distance from Boac Hotel, but we decided to ride a tricycle to manage our time. By a stroke of luck, the scheduled jeepney also arrived late. It was almost boarding time when we arrived. The hour ride from Boac to Santa Cruz felt like minutes, as we were asleep in the entire trip. Yep, that’s one of our father-daughter things: we can sleep anywhere, even in at uncomfortable position.

We arrived at the Santa Cruz Terminal at around 8:00 AM. The jeepney driver was still waiting for four more passengers when we arrived so I just offered to pay the remaining seats so we could leave the terminal ASAP. At this time I was smiling again – we were pretty sure that our main itinerary for the day was still on track.

From Santa Cruz, our Barangay (in Torrijos) was just half an hour travel. I decided to swing by and made the usual kumustahan with relatives for an hour. Finally, at around 10:00 AM, our boat operators arrived - we're heading to Maniwaya Island, our main itinerary on day 2 and 3 of Marinduque getaway. To clarify, this is not the usual route going to the island. It’s an additional +45 minutes sea travel compared to coming from the usual jump-off points: Buyabod Pier in Santa Cruz (Marinduque) or in General Luna (Quezon Province). But since I also wanted to visit my relatives while in Marinduque, and my barangay is also a fishing community and has a local docking area of big fishing boats, I decided to arrange and start the Maniwaya trip from there.

From our house, we walked through the now cemented pathway going to the fishing boat docking area called Lalao. Lalao, aside from being my childhood playground and having a special spot in my heart, is a rich habitat of different fauna and flora. It took us more than an hour from the boat docking station in our Barangay going to Maniwaya Island. We had a rough time traveling because of this year’s habagat.

Beautiful sight of thick mangrove forest - going to Maniwaya Island

First things first - we book our accommodation at Wawie’s Beach Resort. I availed the air-conditioned room for Php2500. Their non-air-conditioned rooms/cottages are for Php1200.00 and tents are also available for Php500.00. Power outages or “brownouts” are one of the known problems in the island but the owner assured us that they have a generator set and operational. Upon reaching the resort, I felt relieved to find our room was clean and comfy. The water supply was also good and the hot shower was a plus. The resort also has a restaurant and function hall for videoke sessions. Our cottage was conveniently located near the beach area so the relaxing sea breeze was our best consolation.

Aside from the resort’s restaurant, there were also a few local food stalls near the resort where you could buy chips, toiletries, bottled water and soda drinks. There is also a branch of Rico’s Inn Restaurant just beside Wawie’s Resort. Rico’s Inn is a popular food place in the town proper of Santa Cruz that served affordable pinoy dishes and snacks like litson kawali, pansit and their famous halo-halo.

Bird's-eye view of the northwestern side of Maniwaya Island

WHERE TO STAY

There are a lot of accommodations in Maniwaya Island, which you can easily book online. We stayed at Wawie’s Beach Resort, in the northwestern side of the island, famous for the long stretch of coral beach. The location of the resort is also near everything – most especially within walking distance from restaurants and the warf area going IN and OUT the island. They have a wide selection of room accommodations – from tents and cottages, to non-airconditioned and airconditioned rooms. Lastly, the good thing about their location is the beautiful sunrise and sunset views!

WAWIE'S BEACH RESORT

Maniwaya Island, Santa Cruz, Marinduque

Contact Numbers: Kuya Warlito +639213695359 / +639773314872

FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/WawiesResort/

Below are the other recommended accommodations when in Maniwaya Island.

RESIDENCIA DE PALO MARIA