Looc Bay Marine Refuge and Sanctuary

This sanctuary is a protected area opened back in January 1991 to help preserve and manage marine resources. Looc is from the Filipino word "look" (pronounced as lo-ok), which means "bay". It is located in Tablas Island, which is actually the largest among Romblon group of Islands.

Here's our suggested itinerary, with day 1 coming from Romblon Island:

READ: Marble-lous Romblon

DAY 2 TABLAS ISLAND

06:30am - 07:30am breakfast

07:30am - 08:45am boat ride from Romblon Port to San Agustin port

Once you get to San Agustin port, you will be met by locals offering tours and transpo around Tablas Island. If you're planning to go DIY, you can wait for a jeepney bound for Looc, which will take more than 2hours since it's a public transport and cost you P100.

Option 1 aka the cheaper option 

08:45am - 09:00am wait for jeep headed to Odiongan, merienda (there are stores near the port)

10:50am - ETA Odiongan jeep terminal

                 wait for jeep, early lunch

11:50am - ETD jeep headed to Looc

12:35pm - ETA Looc Plaza, lunch

01:30pm - check in, freshen up

option 2 (rent motorbike/car/van -jampacked itinerary)

08:45am - from San Agustin port, rent a habal-habal to take you to the Calatrava for island hopping (Tinagong Dagat, Aglicay Beach, Binucot Beach, etc) for half a day tour

We've opted for the first option because Romblon is such a sleepy town, and I blame it for our very relaxed state of mind, that you just want to savor every minute.

Once you're on Looc proper, and you can just ask the locals where the sanctuary is, or hail a tricycle and pay P10 per head. You're gonna need to register first in their office and pay P100 - half of which is for the boat operator, and the other half is for the Bantay Dagat, and an optional P50 for gear rental. Isn't that freaking cheap?!

*It was only me and my boyfriend who visited the sanctuary that time so we had to pay P150 instead of P100, which was ok, considering that the boat was actually big. It will take a short boat ride to reach the pontoon where you can change clothes, relax and enjoy snorkelling.

Due to time constraints, (and my companion being a lazy ass) we were only able to go to the Looc Marine Sanctuary, but hey, spending time with these colorful fishes is so much fun!



The sanctuary also has an open space for those don't want to swim but would still want to interect with the fishes. I even spotted purple crabs clinging to the bamboo stalks.

uhm, viewing deck? ☺

sorry, no fish spa for me

TIPS FOR YOUR TRIPS:

• Look for the giant clams! From the platform facing the lighthouse, they are situated at the right side of the sanctuary
• Aside from giant clams, there are other marine species present (we didn't get to bring an underwater camera, sad)
• guests are not allowed to go near/climb the old lighthouse
• smoking is also not allowed in Looc.
• Looc Office contact number: 0935 590 2201, open from 8:00am - 4:00pm

WHERE WE STAYED


There are a lot of lodging inn in and near Looc and I didn't book in advanced. Since we arrived at lunch time, we went to Primo Cafe to eat and we chatted with the owner of the cafe and she learned that we needed a place to stay, and for the love of the oceans, we didn;t notice that an inn was just beside the cafe. lol.

So we stayed at Ceasar's Lodging Inn - this one's a budget-friendly inn, and is a 10minute walking distance from the marine sanctuary (If you cant find it in Maps/Waze, just type in "Grimares St."), or you can also hail a tricycle.

I forgot to take picture of the room, but they were decent enough, save for the broken shower. Haha.

And that's it for our Tablas Escape, I hope you'll also have an epic adventure when you visit Romblon!

Cheers,

Wendy the Wanderess