onthemovesince2013: Half Day Hike to Taal Volcano

Taal Volcano Crater Lake

Hosting and organizing a trip is not an easy task especially if you will do it for the first time, all of the attendees are stranger to you and all you have is a contact number of each of them. It was my first time to host and organize a meetup last November 3, 2014. The meet up group, MTAG was found by an Aussie guy Chris, who is having 6-month vacation here in the Philippines. Everyone is welcome to join, suggest, host and organized an event. Since I was the one who suggested the Taal Volcano hike, I was the one who hosted and organized it. Basically I am a quite person that will not initiate a conversation to a stranger but because I was the host and organizer I have no choice but to take the lead. So even at the beginning I feel like I have so many butterflies in my stomach, our first outdoor meetup was really a huge success.

Taal Volcano the second most active volcano in the Philippines with 33 historical eruptions. It is located about 50 km south of Manila. Hiking up to the crater of the volcano is easy. Taal Volcano is closely and constantly monitored by Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHILVOCS) and permanent settlement is prohibited. If viewed from Tagaytay Ridge, Taal Volcano and Lake presents one of the most picturesque and attractive views in the Philippines.

Our meetup time was 10AM at the South West Integrated Provincial Transport Terminal at Coastal Mall, Parañaque. The terminal is for all Batangas and Cavite bound buses. I was glad that my attendees were all on time because I dislike people who always comes late. Among the 12 attendees who have confirmed their attendance only 9 of us attended. Chris, the founder did not attend as well and he just sent me a text message saying that he cannot make it that day. By texting and calling it was easy to meet each of my attendees.

Meet and Greet - inside the terminal's waiting area

From the terminal we rode a bus going to Tagaytay - Nasugbu, the fare is P80 and travel time is approximately 1.5 hours. It was bright and sunny day when we left the terminal but while we were on the way the rain started to pour-down and didn't stop until we alighted the bus at the Magallanes' Square in Tagaytay where we will meet our guide.

We wanted to have lunch at Leslies', a famous restaurant infront of Magallanes' Square because of its bulalo but unfortunately the restaurant was full. So we decided to eat in the other restaurant nearby.

I was really worried because while we were eating the rain still pouring heavily. When I checked the weather forecast for that day there's only little percentage that it will rain. My attendees might noticed that I was worrying so they have told me not to worry because if the rain would not stop we can have an eating and drinking session instead and they said they are also willing to trek even they will get rain soaked.

Luckily, the rain did stop when we were almost finished our lunch. That was my cue when I called our guide to fetch us in 5 minutes after settling our bill.

While we were traveling from Tagaytay to Talisay, Batangas by land, our guide told us more about the Taal Volcano and Lake and briefed us what to expect along the trail while trekking going to the crater of Taal Volcano.

The dormant Binintiang Malaki or Big Leg Crater- From the Tagaytay Ridge View Deck, all of us thought that this is the Taal Volcano. Well it's not, it is a crater where 1707 and 1715 eruptions occurred

After less than 30 minutes we reached the Talisay Resort. One of our attendees, Jenny was already there, she is our 9th attendees. (She's not in the picture above and she is not the one who took it either).

From Talisay Resort, we need to ride a boat and cross the Taal Lake in order to reach the Taal Island. The boat can accommodate up to 6 persons only including the boatman, since we were 9, we were separated in to two boats. Boat ride is 15-20 minutes from Talisay Resort.

boat ride

When we reached the Taal Island, the rain started to fall again so we decided to let it pass for awhile.

while waiting for the rain to stop

When the rain had stopped, we started to trek.

before the trek with our guide

If you don't want to walk, you can rent a horse for P600 back and forth. All of us did walk, it's only 1 hour of walking, the trail is so easy but there are a lot of horses' poop in the trail.