We awoke early in Talisay to start our boat ride and hike to the summit of Volcano Island before the heat of the day and the crowds. It was an excellent decision since once the crowds arrived the atmosphere became thick with dust kicked up by the horses hired to carry almost all visitors to the top. There were eventually hundreds of tourists arriving and an equal number of small horses accompanied by one keeper per horse. The path to the summit was a meandering rut at places half a foot deep in fine dust. Most tourists were supplied with surgical masks to make the thick dust clouds more bearable. The keepers drove the horses at a brisk pace, with frequent switch blows to the rump or even face. Some riders actually were galloping their horses up the pathway! Probably half the keepers rode their horses, seated behind their passengers. Thankfully, most of the tourists (who appeared to be Koreans, Taiwanese, and Japanese), and all the local keepers were quite trim so the horses did not appear overburdened by their loads.

We, on the other hand, joined most Caucasion tourists walking up the hill, about an hour’s easily paced hike. Our trip up was free of horses. Downhill, on the other hand, we were in the midst of throngs of horses both ascending and descending, and we had to suffer the consequent dust clouds.

The hike up was so nice that we stopped many times along the way to soak in the fresh air and the beautiful view of the first crater (this is the one that is usually photograph for postcards). There were many, many birds swooping around us. One was large and a beautiful bright yellow with some black stripes. One of our stops was to eat pink wild guavas and “kamunsil”, a traditional Filipino treat, growing wild, possibly the seeds were dropped by birds. It was a delightful treat!

The view from the summit was of the Taal Lake surrounding Volcano Island as well as the island’s own breathtaking caldera with its own little island. Thus, we witnessed an island within a caldera within an island (Volcano) within a larger caldera (Taal Lake) within in island (Luzon Island, the Philippine’s largest). At the bottom of this caldera we could see steam emerging from vents and boiling pools on the lake shore. The shallow areas near the shore were an eerie yellow color and the atmosphere was thick with sulfur.

We had earlier abandoned our plans to share the cost of a boat to the island with other tourists. The locals have managed to make this very difficult, likely to maintain maximum income for the local boat operators. We later discovered there are public cargo boats that charge local prices to ferry cargo and passengers to the island where there is a substantial resident population. But we saw no tourists using this means of transport. We did invite a German couple to accompany us on our day trip to the island. They had been staying in Talisay for one week and had made the trip several times earlier and served as our guides.

After returning from our outing we decided to proceed to the town of Tagaytay, perched on the high north ridge overlooking Taal Lake. It is reportedly 20 kilometers long with one main road running along the ridge. We stopped at the highest point on the ridge, People’s Sky Park, for the breathtaking panoramic view of both Taal and nearby Laguna Lakes, as well as Mt Makiling. Save for the thick mist, and possibly smog, we could have seen Manila, only 60 km to the north.

Then, late afternoon, we returned to Manila through an area full of pineapple and coconut plantations and plant nurseries.