Popular for visitors of Tagaytay City Cavite, Taal Volcano is well known to have the best view despite being part of the province of Batangas. Despite being small standing at only 5m it has recorded one of the worst eruptions in the Philippines that killed more than thousands of lives.
As of now, the volcano stays dormant and open for tourists to see and experience. And when I say to experience yes you can hike the small volcano and I even reach its crater. Just a quick fact since were talking about the Taal Volcano which is also known as a “caldera volcano”, did that the biggest caldera was recently found in the east Philippine sea with a diameter of 150km and is named “caldera apolaki” that is named after the God of sun and war.
There are 3 ways to hike the Taal volcano, but since I’m coming from our little barangay at mataas na kahoy we took the Brgy. Balete’s trail to the crater. It is the trail used by Philvolcs to get to the crater. The trail is dusty since I think it is to be developed to have road pavements so if it is not cemented right now you should bring a dust mask before going. It’s light and a very easy one trail to the viewing deck and a little challenge to reach the crater.
Along the way, you can pick some aratilis if you like it since its abundant. It tastes sweet almost taste like blueberries and its the first time I tasted such fruit.
At the view deck, you’ll have the mesmerizing view of the crater of Taal volcano and a view of some mountain range around the volcano. There is also a little island inside the Taal crater, I don’t remember what the locals call it but it is known as the “Vulcan point”.
Lastly, our tour on the crater was a bit challenging since it begins downhill to slippery mined stones. The elders say that some times before the crater was mined for some minerals and rocks that feels kind of sad how people destruct God’s creations.
The crater is hot but some locals there who always get there that it is not that hot nowadays, by the way, the locals I’m talking about are the horse riders that use the opportunity to earn through renting their horses to tourists. They tell me that back when they were small kids and walk up and down this volcano, they can boil an egg in that crater. I’ll tell you it’s hot there that if I stay in some parts of the crater my shoes might burn. Also, it smells like sulfur for some parts so you better be prepared.
Well that’s all, thank you for your time and support. Hope you leave a like and a comment.
Meetings with Nature 