Taal Volcano

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taal_Volcano

Today I had a chance to visit Taal Volcano.  It is a volcanic crater rising out of the middle of a lake.  I didn’t know what to expect.  I had heard that we were going to hike up mountain to view the crater of a volcano.  In actuality it was more of an adventure than that…

My traveling partner and I were picked up at the hotel by our two hosts.  The four of us and our driver made a one hour drive to the shore of the lake where Taal Volcano arises.  This was our transportation to get us across the lake.   

And this was a portion of our 30-minute ride across the lake to the base of the mountain that is topped by the volcanic crater.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cQVvaJq55s

When we got to the shore of base of the mountain, I found out that we were really not going to hike up the mountain.  We were going to ride horses that were going to hike up the mountain carrying us.  These horses were not Clydesdales by any means.  They were almost mule-size.

There were many people who also were going to the summit of the crater.  They were hiking up the mountain.  Each of us rode a horse with a guide walking that horse.  It was a crazy experience for me.  I don’t usually ride horses (ever) and I certainly didn’t feel all that comfortable riding a horse up a mountain.  If I heard my guide correctly, my horse was named Patricia.  The altitude is about 700 feet above the lake level.   This is me and Patricia.  I removed my face mask for the picture.  We were told to wear the masks because of the dust stirred up by the horses.  

The horses took about 30 minutes to get to the top.  What an amazing view!

While we were surveying the landscape, it began to drizzle.  We got under a shelter to escape it.  It didn’t rain very long.  I was not bothered until I realized that I was going to ride the horse down the mountain and I expected the slope to be slippery.  I pictured the horse stumbling and then falling with me stuck on her because of the stirrups.  As it turned out, the slope was not that treacherous after all, at least not for a four-legged animal.

Once we got back down to the shoreline, we rode the boat back to the other side of the lake.

Afterwards, we went to a very nice hotel for a buffet lunch.  Then, our hosts took us to a Resort Spa for a massage.  Then we drove back to Manila.   At this time, the traffic was much worse than in the morning; it took us about 2.5 hours to get back to our hotel.

Tomorrow, the work week begins and I will be visiting the local contractor office and having meetings.  I understand from our itinerary that we will be doing more site-seeing on Thursday.  Yes!