Whenever people ask me how
I fell in love with traveling. I always tell them I got inspired by Jack
Kerouac’s “On the Road” novel. An
autobiographical narrative of Kerouac’s post-war road trip across the United
States amidst the background of poetry, jazz and the emerging beat culture.
Thinking back now, I realized the birth of my wanderlust occurred during my
college years. This was a time when my friends and I journeyed to the province
of Marinduque every holy week, to partake at the island’s iconic revelry---the
Moriones Festival.
After witnessing the
street parade of masked Romans and penitents culminating in the ceremonial ‘beheading’ of Longinus, we would cap
Easter Sunday with a picnic at Ulong beach in the town of Mogpog.
Years before I first read
the pages of Kerouac’s novel, the wanderlust bug has already bitten me in the
island of Marinduque. Since then, I have been to many places and has overlooked
the idea of returning to the island, until.
Cebu
Pacific Air Launches Manila – Marinduque Flights
As luck would have it, I
was invited to the maiden Cebu Pacific Air flight to Marinduque last April 1,
2019. Through CebPac's subsidiary Cebgo,
the inaugural flight also signaled the return of commercial flights to the
province after a six-year absence.
 |
| A "Morion" kind of welcome greeted CebPac's maiden flight to Marinduque |
"This is the first time that CEB is offering this route,"
spokesperson Charo Lagamon told the Philippine News Agency. Aside from boosting
commerce and tourism, travel time to the island will be lessened to an hour at
the most. "It would take passengers
at least 8 hours to travel to Marinduque by land and ferry," Lagamon added.
Marinduque
Loop
The entirety of our media
trip was short and sweet. For two days, we simply rode a van and circled the
island stopping at various fascinating places of interest. The experience was
more than enough to remind me of the distinctive lure of Marinduque.
 |
| Elderly women performs the "Putong" ceremony |
The night of our arrival,
I was introduced to a cultural practice indigenous to the province: the “putong” ceremony. “Putong”
translates to "to crown", and
the ritual performed by elderly women is composed of a song of hope climaxing
in a crescendo and a thanksgiving prayer for a blessed life. The rite ends with
the performers tossing coins and flower petals to the guests before crowning
them with a handcrafted crown made from nito
(local vine).
 |
| Marl Butterfly Garden |
The next day, we started
our roundabout at the heritage town of Boac. Despite a fire that ravaged a
number of heritage houses last year, a number of old homes still remains in
Boac, which include decades-old family-ran restaurants that serves some of the
island's known cuisines such as the kari-kari.
 |
| Poctoy White Beach |
The main road of
Marinduque which almost circles the entirety of this heart-shaped island took
us to a series of picturesque landscape: The Tres Islands of Baltazar, Gaspar and Melchor whose surrounding
sandbars radiates with golden sheen from afar. We also saw the popular high-end
Bellaroca Island resort. It closed operation around the same time commercial
flights stopped flying to Marinduque in 2013. Because of the new Cebu Pacific
flights, the resort is now attracting numerous investors interested in re-opening
it.
 |
| Mount Malindig |
Other places we visited
during our day-long road trip are the white beach of Poctoy, the heritage
churches in Sta Cruz, Boac and Gasan, the Marl Butterfly Garden, Malbog
Sulfuric Resort and a charming road-side spot where we viewed Mount Malindig. Towering 1,157 MASL,
Malindig is a potentially active stratovolcano gushing sulfuric spring waters
in nearby towns like Malbog in Buenavista.
 |
| Arrowroot cookies is a favorite pasalubong from Marinduque |
We concluded our eventful
Marinduque loop at the summit of 'Mataas
na Bundok'- a 220 meter peak where the 'Luzon Datum of 1911' is located. Established
by the US Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1911, as the center of Philippine
geodetic triangulations, Luzon Datum represents the 0.0 reference point of any
mappings done in the country.
 |
| Me standing beside the Luzon Datum of 1911 |
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| Pretty travel bloggers, CebPac's Mich and Stratworks' Erika |
Because we only spent a
couple of days exploring, we missed out on the other mesmerizing set of nature
Marinduque has to offer. From my earlier memories of this island, I recall
numerous cave systems, the splendid Maniway Island and Palad Sandbar, countless
waterfalls, the Ungab Rock formation and the list goes on. All the reasons for
me to hasten my next return to Marinduque.
 |
| View of the sunset from "Mataas na Bundok" |
Where to Stay In Marinduque
A few new hotels like the
ones we stayed at Balar
Hotel and Spa have been built in the province in the last couple of
years. Old favorites such as the heritage house turned Boac Hotel (the first in
the island) still remains. Find good deals at Agoda for your
Marinduque accommodation needs.
*Cebu Pacific Air flies from NAIA
Terminal 4 to Marinduque every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
This
article first appeared on the pages of the
Daily Tribune on June 1, 2019
