Yesterday I wrote about how lucky I was to find such a great hostel in Manila. Not only do they offer a free walking tour of the Old City, but Our Melting Pot hostel also helps organize other local tours for their guests. A popular option is a visit to Taal Volcano located several hours outside the capital. We can take a boat ride across Taal Lake to Volcano Island, followed by a hike to the very top of the volcano. The cost depends on the number of people who sign up, as we split the price of transportation. Five of us want to go and it costs us $25 USD per person. Not bad for a day-long tour!
We pay a 25-cent “bridge tax” to walk over those planks and get on the boat. This cracks me up.
It’s drizzling when we arrive at Volcano Island and visibility is low. The thought of hiking for 1.5 hours in the rain sounds miserable and I contemplate just staying in the car… but I’ve come all this way. So I (wo)man up, don a poncho, and march onwards.
I dig my fellow passengers. They’re from Canada, the U.K., New Zealand, and Germany. We’re all solo travelers who just happen to be in Manila at the same time.
There’s an option to ride horses up the volcano, but we’re on a budget. I think it’s more fun to walk anyway and take time for photos.
Note the pockets of steam in the photo below. Taal is the second most active volcano in the Philippines with 33 historical eruptions. I cross my fingers that today is not the 34th.
After about 45 minutes of uphill climbing, we reach this overlook at Volcano Island:
These women from Malaysia are also staying at the hostel; in fact, I’m in the same dorm room as some of them. They are part of a bigger tour group so we had no idea we’d end up in the same place today. Small world!
After about 20 minutes of taking photos at the top, we head back down. I love these photos of the lush vegetation around Taal.
For the record, I am so grateful there wasn’t a downpour during our hike. I can’t believe I considered just waiting in the car! Even in light rain this was a fun (and affordable) trip with good company.
