TAAL VOLCANO day hike - buwis buhay trip :P

Before I start telling you about our experience, just a quick correction about our common misconception of Taal Volcano. When we visit Tagaytay, we usually take pictures of the magnificent volcano from a viewing deck. I bet this is what you think Taal Volcano is.

This is NOT TAAL VOLCANO.  It's only a part of it.

Taal Volcano is much bigger than you think. Note that the circled crater is hollow.
(Credits to owner Bon Solido. Just edited a bit)

Mind blown? Me too. I think its time to correct our school textbooks.

Moving forward, I've always wanted to go to Taal Volcano because of its intriguing history & mysterious nature. So when I learned that you can actually climb it, I wasted no time and invited my office buddies. We ended up having 14 people coming. From 4 people on our first hike to 14, mostly colleagues... Not bad :) The date was January 19 and we started our travel 5:30 in the morning. We arrived on Taal Lake Yacht Club at 7:00am where Krix reserved a boat ride.


~ The Predicament

There's a storm (Agaton) in Mindanao the same day as our hike and the weather in Talisay (our jump off place) doesn't look good either. This caused the owner of Taal Lake Yacht Club to cancel all boat ride reservations. He simply doesn't want any liabilities or risk it. Our group got really upset but we see his point. The wind is gusty and the waves look unfriendly.

While waiting for the fate of our group with the looming weather on our background, picture muna!
Ate Jhe-Ann, Kim, Toni, James, Eiza, Cristina & me sitting below.

Fortunately, the owner's boatmen mentioned they know some resorts that have bigger, sturdier boats compared to TLYC but they are much pricier. I have to admit, TLYC boats look old and small and can only accomodate 6 people max.

Taal Lake Yacht Club banca. Definitely not a yacht :P

~ Tropical Resort saves the day (almost)

In an attempt to push our Taal trek, we checked out other resorts with the guide we got from TLYC. Some boat service are fully booked with Korean tourists, others just don't want to sail with the bad weather. We ended up with Tropical Resort. I think it's Korean-owned with boat renting service and they agreed to get us to Taal Volcano. But when I saw the strong gust and the waves, parang ako na yung gusto magback out. Hahaha!

Tropical Resort boat ride to Taal Volcano. The lake look so scary from this photo.

Their boat is relatively bigger than the one in TLYC. I think it can accomodate approximately 20 people and they agreed to take us for 4,800 pesos roundtrip (we're 14 people in the group). I think we got our boat service cheaper here 'cause if we got three boats from TLYC for 1,900 pesos, that'd be 5,700 pesos.

Their life vest looked okay too, but personally I think it should be orange-colored so it would be easier to spot when on water. The boat ride was nerve-racking!  The gust was strong. I looked like I had a shower because of the random splashes I got from the big waves. Kulang nalang sabon! Why is it every trip that I go to (first was Pico de Loro monolith), there's always real danger to be dealt with? But yes, these kind of adventures breath in more life in me... But that's another story.

Last picture before braving the scary Taal Lake gust and waves.
Buwis Buhay Group : (top) Cristine, Eiza, Toni, Ate Jhe-Ann, Miah, Kim, Ate Anne, Lyca, me.
(below) RJ, James, Adrian, Krix, Kuya Joseph

~Taal Volcano jump off
Thanks to manong boatman who literally made the boat surf the big waves, we got to Taal Volcano safe... barely! whew. The locals from Taal Volcano's little village exclaimed to us "Ang lalakas ng mga loob niyo!" We were then met by vendors selling souvenir t-shirts, horse ride and face mask for the volcano ashes. We settled down a little bit to prepare and paid the environmental fee of 50 pesos per person. With our face masks on, we looked like we're going on a medical mission... or cancer patients on a field trip. Hahaha. We're all set!

~Start Trek
The trail starts by passing by the back of the village. The path is easy. No need for a guide to find your way to Taal Volcano's rim. The first meters of the trek was awesome 'cause you get to walk through a dug up path of hardened lava. I'm not sure if IT IS lava but it does look burnt. I touched it and it's ashy. I went and picked up what looks like molten stone and kept it as souvenir.

Toni (pink shirt) is the one who shot the picture above and I took a photo of them in return.

~Through the rugged path
This path looks like a glorious volcanic ridge. It's long, rugged, hot and windy; the only challenging path throughout the trail. It's also exciting 'cause you get to see vents or volcanic smoke from holes along the way. It's like a gentle reminder that we're in an active volcano. I imagine they were made by locals for tourists. You will also start to smell sulfur - totally normal.

Volcanic vent. Someone tested its heat and put a plastic bottle inside it.
The bottle melted and deformed in a few seconds.

Krix waiting for our hike buddies.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. The trail is full of tourists, mostly Koreans, so you really wouldn't feel like you're far from civilization. To tell you the truth, we look ridiculous with all our hiking bags and attire while the tourists were in normal clothes. The tourist should have thought we're all worked up :P


~ Taal Volcano Viewing Deck
Picturesque. We can't stop taking selfies once we got to the viewing deck. The only thing that disappointed me is by learning that we can't go near the lake from where we are. The trail to the lake is entirely a different route called "Secret / Kalawit Trail". I should have researched more about this and have known sooner. I brought an egg with me just to try to boil it on the lake. It's a wasted effort - killed my dream of cooking an egg in an active volcano :(

Boiling? No, it's just the strong wind. But it would be cool if the lake were really boiling.
Made the photo big for better resolution and details.

But it was okay! The view was incredible. It's kinda windy though. Cottages are free. There are also vendors selling fresh buko juice for the thirsty visitors, snacks and souvenirs. There's one peculiar vendor that caught my attention though; a woman holding a golf club. Said she can lend us her club so we can strike golf balls which she sells to the volcanic lake. 50 pesos per ball for locals, 100 pesos for foreigners. She even suggested to write our name or our wishes to the golf balls before hitting it. I have to say I hate the idea. Those golf balls will only litter the lake.

We only stayed there for lunch and an hour of wandering around. Lots of extra time to derp around Tagaytay after the trek! The deck is just a couple of meters long. You can never get lost.

Inscriptions are in Japanese. I think some Japanese person donated this steel railing for the viewing deck.

Selfie!! With Toni and Adrian.

Epic group picture before going home. I would like to pretend I'm in the picture :(
James, Miah, Ate Jhe-Ann, Toni, Kim, Adrian, Eiza, Cristina, RJ, Krix

~ Surf Dance, Anchor's Away, Rio Grande all-in-one BOAT RIDE!

Yes, you read it right. It was one heck of a boat ride home. When we got back to the village at the jump off point, we were told by our boatman that our boat sinked earlier when it helped another sinking boat with tourists. It was okay though 'cause we're gonna use another bigger boat. Bigger boat means safer right? Well... hoho! RJ said this boat ride destroyed his dreams trying out any water sports. We're lucky we didn't have to use our life vests. Watch the video to see what I mean:

Thanks Adrian for risking his cellphone for the video.

Fees to look out for:

4800 - Boat (roudntrip)

50 - Environmental Fee per person

500 - Guide

500 - horse ride (optional)

Tropical Resort contact number for boat reservation:

0916-313-8615

0918-338-7279