Taal Volcano, Philippines

Our last day in the Philippines draw closer and we were thinking about what we could do as a last adventure. We already had been to the National Museum (Museum of the Filipino People) in Manila and moreover, nobody but me thought it to be even slightly exciting. And even though it contained the oldest cultural material from the Callao Cave and the fabulous burial from Neolithic Duyong Cave and although I couldn't have a look at all the exhibits because they were closing and throwing us out, there was no way the rest of the family would go there once more.

We could have spent our day lazing around like this tired bike driver,

but we instead opted for a tour to the Taal volcano. What is truly remarkable about Taal volcano is the fact that within the Taal caldera which filled up to Lake Taal there is another small volcanic island called Vulcan Point, and on this island there again is a lake. If you consider that Luzon itself is an island, there is actually an island within a lake on an island within a lake on an island. Hm...does this make sense to anybody?

Anyway, we were packed into a minibus with one other guy and brought to Tagatay. On our way we stopped to watch fields of ...

can you guess?

Quite right, pineapples, lots of pineapples. We headed on and soon had a first glimpse of our target, lake Taal with a view on the island Vulcan Point:

We were greeted by a friendly monkey

and settled on a motorised outrigger which brought us to the island.

Although you can have a horse ride up to the crater rim of Vulcan Point we decided against it due to M's allergy and instead had a hike up the mountain.

Once you reach the top, you will notice that stands with knickknackery arrived long before you, selling souvenirs and drinks.

After a nice and cool coconut and getting back our breaths we had a closer look at the scenery.

This is the lake in Vulcan Point; in the background you can see lake Taal.

Since it is an active volcano, you can see smoke billowing out of the larger cracks:

After having a close look at the butterfly effect

we climbed down the volcano again and returned with the outrigger boat to Tagaytay where a wonderful lunch was waiting for us. Sorry, you are late, we nearly finished off everything.

On our way back to Manila we shortly stopped at a streetside market with huge jackfruits

and met a proud jeepney owner

The next day, M and P had their flight back home, but C and my humble self went off for more adventures. But this is a different story for a different blog entry :)