Poctoy White Beach Torrijos, Marinduque: Simply Marinduque (Poctoy White Beach)

Banca from Pinamalayan to Gasan

Marinduque is located at the southern part of Luzon and is a part of MIMAROPA Region. It is located south and west of Quezon, east of Mindoro Provinces and north of Romblon. Mariduque is subdivided into six municipalities: Mogpog, Gasan, Buenavista, Torrijos, Santa Cruz and Boac its capital. There are several ways to get to Marinduque: via plane to Gasan, via ferry from Lucena City, Quezon which has daily services to the island alternating between three ports of Marinduque (Balanacan Port in Mogpog, Cawit Port in Boac and Buyabod Port in Sta. Cruz). This will cost you P340. If you are from Mindoro, you can take a Banca from Pinamalayan to the Port of Gasan which will cost you P250. Since I am from Mindoro, me and my friend took the banca from Pinamalayan.

Boac Cathedral

Moriones Festival is the main tourist attraction of the province and Boac is the Main stage for this celebration. It is held annually during Holy Week. But other than that, this little province has a lot to offer. From the hot springs of Malbog, Mt. Malindig of Buenavista, the Bathala Cave, Maniwaya and Mongpong Islands of Sta. Cruz, Tarug Cave of Mogpog and the hidden beach of Torrijos, Poctoy White Beach.

Jeep from Sta. Cruz bound to Torrijos

Torrijos is a 4th class Municipality in the Province. People here lives a pretty simple life and their main source of living is either farming or fishing. There are two options to get there. If you are from Gasan, you can take a jeep bound to Buenavista and from Buenavista you have to take another jeep to Torrijos. If you are from Boac you have to take a jeep to Sta. Cruz and from Sta. Cruz to Torrijos. We took the jeep bound to Sta. Cruz because we visited the Boac Cathedral on our first day and stayed there for the rest of the day. The first trip from Boac to Sta. Cruz is at 6:30 AM and the last trip is 3:30 PM. You better wake up early if you're planning to go there. The ride from Boac to Sta. Cruz will cost you P47 only. It is a 1 hour drive of winding roads, uphills and downhills.

Sta. Cruz Church

In Sta. Cruz we visited the Sta. Cruz church, the oldest church in Marinduque. It is very similar to Boac Cathedral in structure and is obviously an evidence of Spanish Colonization. From the church you'll have to walk for 5 minutes downhill to the market where you can find the jeep terminal. You can buy your food here before waiting for the next trip. Torrijos is a remote area so there are less people going there. If you are not a local here you're probably headed to Poctoy White Beach. After 40 minutes of waiting, we're on our way to Poctoy Beach. Traveling Marinduque, you can see how people live a simple life. People are carrying basket full of fish, sacks of palay, a case of beer and softdrinks and lots of stuffs to be sold in their sari-sari store. The dialect here is very similar to that of Mindoro and Quezon. You'll often here "ngani" and "mandin", In Southern Tagalog this our expression to agree or concur or "oo nga" if you're in Manila. From Sta. Cruz to Torrijos is another hour drive and will cost you P40 only. So for less than a hundred pesos, you can reach Torrijos from Boac. Very cheap for a 2 hour drive plus a bonus of friendly people and beautiful scenery.

The entrance to Poctoy White Beach

After almost 3 hours of travelling, we are welcomed by this gate. From here, it is a 5 minute (or less) walk to the beach' entrance. There you will be welcomed by J.R., one of the housekeepers of the resort. You can contact him at 09082231667. You have to pay P30 for the entrance/environmental fee. Student's are discounted. You'll be surprised when you get there, there are a lot of people going there, considering it's a very remote area. One reason is because it is a public resort or maybe it's just summertime when we went there.

Ian Madrid and Ralph Higue preparing for Lunch

There are a lot of stores here which we did not expect. You can buy food, drinks and even souvenirs. Pretty much everything you need for the day and the prices are very affordable. You can buy fresh fish, ranging from P110-120/kilo. The good thing is they will cook it for you and will only cost you P15. The rice is P10/serving, you can also ask them to cook rice if you are a group or a family. We bought half a kilo of fish and for P150 me and my 2 buddies had a great lunch, we even have something left for "pulutan". The cottage costs P200 good for 8 hours, J.R. offered it to us for 10 hours. They have public toilets which are clean I can say. There are rooms at the Rendezvous Hotel which costs P1200 air-conditioned and P600 for a non-air-conditioned room good for an overnight stay (6PM till morning). The good thing is, the rent is negotiable. You can contact ate Elda (09476427673). There are also Kayak which I forgot to ask. All in all, it's pretty cheap isn't it?

Poctoy White Beach

Poctoy White beach is a public resort so people can come and visit anytime they want. There are many people going here but this place is clean. That reflects how disciplined the locals and visitors alike here are. They have garbage cans everywhere and the resort keepers are roaming every now and then to make sure all their customers are okay. They also have lifeguards watching by for your safety.

View of Mt. Malindig

Not as beautiful as Boracay or Puerto Galera this beach has something to offer on its own. This place is perfect for a family outing or if you just want to relax and go out with your friends like what we did. If you want a stress reliever or if you want to escape away from the polluted and noisy city, this place is an option. The beach is beautiful and the ambiance is really relaxing, The people are friendly and everything is cheap plus a bonus view of Mt. Malindig to the right. For mountain climbers like me, this is perfect for beacheneering, please let me know if you have any plans.
By the way, the last trip of the jeepneys from Torrijos to Sta. Cruz is 3:30PM and the last trip from Sta. Cruz to Boac is 4:30PM. If you're lucky, there are vans passing by until 5PM. The last trip of the ferry to Lucena is 7:30PM. Enjoy :).

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