Taal Volcano
A Volcano Inside A Lake Inside A Volcano, An Hour And A Half From Manila And A Permanent Danger Zone Since The 2020 Eruption · Talisay, Batangas
TAAL IS A VOLCANO INSIDE A LAKE INSIDE A VOLCANO. The whole of Taal Lake is itself an old caldera; VOLCANO ISLAND SITS IN THE MIDDLE OF IT, and a crater lake sits inside that - nested, visible in one frame from the ridge at Tagaytay, and about an hour and a half from Manila when the traffic allows. IT IS ONE OF THE MOST ACTIVE VOLCANOES IN THE COUNTRY AND THE POSTCARD VIEW IS NOT THE WHOLE STORY. IN JANUARY 2020 IT ERUPTED, threw ash fifteen kilometres up, closed Manila's airport and buried the lakeside towns of Talisay and Agoncillo. VOLCANO ISLAND IS NOW A PERMANENT DANGER ZONE and the casual boat-and-horse trip to the crater rim that every guidebook described is not what it was. TAAL LAKE HOLDS THE TAWILIS, the only freshwater sardine on earth, and it is endangered. The view from the Tagaytay ridge is what most visitors get now, and it is genuinely worth the drive - six hundred metres up, the whole nested structure in a single frame.
Taal Volcano, Taal Lake, Batangas, Talisay, Batangas, Philippines
THE STANDARD EXPERIENCE IS THE VIEW FROM THE TAGAYTAY RIDGE, about six hundred metres above the lake and ROUGHLY NINETY MINUTES FROM MANILA WHEN TRAFFIC ALLOWS - the ridge road is lined with viewpoints, restaurants and hotels and costs nothing. EVERYTHING BEYOND THAT DEPENDS ON THE PHIVOLCS ALERT LEVEL, which is published and which governs the PERMANENT DANGER ZONE covering Volcano Island. ACCESS TO THE ISLAND HAS BEEN RESTRICTED SINCE THE JANUARY 2020 ERUPTION and arrangements have changed repeatedly; check the current alert level rather than any itinerary written before then. BOAT CROSSINGS FROM TALISAY, WHEN PERMITTED, are weather-dependent. THE HORSE RIDES TO THE CRATER RIM were criticised for years on welfare grounds. Mornings are clearest.