FOREBODING TARUG CAVES

The approach to TARUG CAVES. Ominous, foreboding limestone protuberance. With 32 million years of geological history on how it appeared on the face of the earth. The French naturalist, Alfred Marche, enticed by Marinduque's reputation more than a hundred years ago as "the isle of grottos", traveled to the island from April to June of 1881, to rediscover the island's one hundred caves. What appeared to be a description of Tarug Caves was written in his journals:

"On June 2, I went to a new find. It was raining hard and after several hours of horseback riding we had to abandon our horses which advanced only with difficulty on a wet and slippery soil. We were even obliged to leave our dripping clothes and to go in shorts. At noon we reached the foot of a perpendicular madreporite or coral rock, 70 meters high: on its sides were five to six caves. In the lowest cave I found a skull with a slight stalagmite covering and a small broken gargoyle. It took us nearly an hour to climb this rock, at whose peak was an elevated vault which crossed it entirely. From there, one could see many easily accesible corridors. In one of them, there were debris of coffins and tibors (or Chinese jars).