Unplanned overnight trip or not, we woke up refreshed. Sporting our hastily bought, matching "Tagaytay" t-shirts, we were raring to explore more of Tagaytay. The owner of the hostel we stayed in recommended his cousin to drive us around in his tricycle.
We had no plans to go boating but Neil the trike driver explained to us that it wouldn't cost us too much (₱450) to drive down to Talisay, Batangas where cheap boats for rent could be found to get us close to Taal's Volcano Island.
The thought of getting near a rumbling volcano ( Alert level 2) thrilled us but due to the increasing seismic activity, PHIVOLCS (Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology) had forbidden anyone to horseback-ride up the crater to look at the "lake within an island within a lake" phenomenon. That's just too bad for us, but at least everyone's still interested to see Taal's famous "big leg" up close.
The tricycle ride to Talisay was not for the faint of heart. There were stretches of road that were under construction and I almost choked at the thick fog of dirt that enveloped us when we drove by. Manay Ella and Dit also had to walk for a bit when the trike got stuck on a particularly steep road.
But we arrived at Tantiongco's Resort in Brgy. Leynes, Talisay still in high spirits, with the great view of Taal Lake and Volcano Island encouraging us. The resort offers rooms for overnight stay and boat rental. We just wanted to sail on the lake and get close to the volcano and crater so we rented a boat which we haggled down to ₱1200.
The boat ride was enjoyable and took about 20 minutes to get us close enough to the "big leg" cone aka "binintiang malaki", the famous crater in everyone's mind when you say "Taal Volcano". Honestly, I think it's much prettier and more mysterious from afar.
Lava rocks were also pointed out to us by the boat driver. It was fun just driving around the lake, so close to this famous "smallest active volcano", home to the "tawilis" the only freshwater sardine of the Clupeidae family in the world". How's that for trivia?
When we had enough sightseeing and pictures, it was time to go back to shore and take the dusty ride back to Tagaytay with a quick stop to our driver swore was Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's vacation house. Could it be true? Hmm... debatable, but we snapped pictures anyway.
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