Sorry for the long break, it was such a busy week, with nightmare treks to Montalban and a return to yoga, both of which I will post about in the near future.
But back to Taal, when we finally got to the peak, the whole out-of-breath, dusty-as-espasol, spent-like-a-10-cent-hooker experience was all worth it. Seeing that slumbering caldera, staring right back at us like a single giant emerald eye, was overwhelming and humbling. But after the initial reverie on the wonders of nature, my musings were immediately shattered by the throngs of people at the view deck. We were instantly barraged with offers of either buko juice or softdrinks, both 50 pesos each for locals and 1 dollar for foreigners (parang lugi tayo dun, with the low exchange rate…)
It was like a congregation of nations up there. I saw British, Americans, Koreans, Japanese, Indian, people from the middle east, and Filipinos from different regions. And of course, everyone, us included, wanted pictures with the superstar crater.
Even people on their own took photos of themselves
A view from the top: My buddies Greg, Lennie, and Fritzie
So just when I thought that the view deck was it, which was getting too crowded for my taste with all the tourists scrambling for places to pose in, our trusty guide “pssst”-ed us and asked if we wanted to go further out into the crater lip. He said it was away from the madding crowd, but that we would be walking on rocks and volcanic soil, and not the paved floors of the view deck. Being the eager beavers that we were, we went ahead and followed Eric, our guide. Even on the way up, the view was already picture wothy.
We got to a point in the middle where we had the clearest shot of the crater.
By that time, the sun was going down a bit, and the colors of the crater waters where turning bright green at some parts, and dark green at others. It looked like a witch’s cauldron, with an eerie green potion bubbling inside. Our guide explained that if we arrived earlier, we could actually horseback down to the lake inside the crater and swim! Supposedly, the high sulfur content of the lake water is excellent for people with skin disorders. And true enough, we saw what looked like little dots of people down by the lake. Being so far down, you could hardly make them out. Eric also said that you could only swim in a certain area. Most of the lake is way too hot for humans to swim in. You can actually be boiled alive. We were so envious. We could imagine what sort of photos we could take from down there. But then we saw the end of the trail, and we were happy. It’s a photo shoot waiting to happen!
The red hue of the rock, looked wonderful against the green water and the blue sky. From where we were standing , we could see steam rising from vents in the rock. It was so cool, in a creepy kind of way, that we were standing on the edge of the crater of what our geologist buddy Greg explained as the most active volcano in the Philippines. But eventually the sun was getting too hot, it was beating down on us without impunity, our skins roasting without the protection of sunblock (tsk, tsk, tsk…), so it was time to go back down.
On the way down, with all our adrenalin spent, everyone decided to make the manongs kabayo happy and we all rode our way back down. It wasn’t as dusty and crowded as it was on the way up, but it was torture on my “eggs”. I didn’t know whether to put both on either side of the saddle, or put one on each side. Either way it was painful. The top of my head could feel Giancarlo’s hooves hitting the rocks, the vibrations via my gonads. The “eggs” started out hard-boiled, but by the time we got back to the town, they were scrambled.
We even caught the tail end of a championship basketball game back in town
We bid goodbye to our horses, boarded the boat back to Taal Yacht Club, and like the camera freaks that we were, took last minute pictures of anything and everything until the sun went down and the lights went out.
So we took well-deserved and well-needed showers, dusted off our cameras, packed our stuff, then drove back to Manila. We took a short dinner stop at Rose & Grace at Sta. Rosa, and once I got home, I was asleep even before my back hit my bed. Even in my dreams, I saw visions of me, riding on top of Giancarlo, conquering the slopes of Taal, like the cowboy that I truly am…
(Photo courtesy of Lennie Reyes. Thanks a bunch, Lennie!)
Next stop: Montalban!
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