'Discover' in Marinduque: Island paradise called Maniwaya

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,