Philippines, North

After getting dropped off at the Bus stop in Tagaytay city, we hired a tuk tuk for the rest of the afternoon for him to take us to the Taal volcano and around. Such a lovely, peaceful, hilly village with the Taal volcano centered around the lake. The Taal is considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes on the planet. It is also the smallest active volcano in the world, with an elevation of 1,020 feet at its highest point (311 meters). But the crater lake that has formed inside its caldera is the largest lake on an island, within a lake, within another island! Naturally I was beyond excited to climb it, which would be my 4th volcanic excursion after summiting the Bromo, Ijen and Kelimutu active counterparts in Indonesia. Unfortunately this couldn't happen for the Taal was in Alert Level 3, when I reached, thanks for it's series of eruptions a year back in 2022. But I knew I wanted to get as close to it as I possibly can. So we settled on taking a 2 hour boat ride that circumnavigated us around the whole desolate and arid scene with burned up trees and dried up lava hills that got us as close as 10 meters away from this natural wonder. Beautiful.Read more