Hidden beach with a past, Gaspar Island

On a small strip of white sand beach mantled with crushed corals hidden along the southern part of Gaspar Island (one of Tres Reyes (Three Kings) Islands off Gasan), one feels completely isolated from the rest of the world.

This island figured prominently in the journal by a French naturalist who explored Marinduque in 1881, Alfred Marche. He may have referred to the crevice from where the above photo was taken: "About 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the sea being calm, on another exploration of the coast, we visited a few crevices and discovered a grotto, the entrance of which was hidden by debris produced by a volcanic convulsion... I entered and, having the ground dug, I found out that the bottom was carpeted with a bed of skulls slightly covered by madreporic debris and sand." (Marche)