Trips - Overnight to Taal Volcano

   Saturday, 15 November 1997, at 5 a.m. I met my friends at the BLTB Bus Co. in Cubao. We were supposed to be six strong  but my friend Oboy did not arrive, so we’re down to ‘five strong’. We left the bus station at 5:30 a.m. boarding a bus heading to Lemery. We told the conductor that we would get off at Tanawan (fare P47.50). At Tanawan we took a jeep heading to Talisay. In Talisay, we got off at International near Rosalinas (fare P10.00). 

   From the lakeshore market in Talisay, we took a banka to tourist landing wharf on Taal Volcano (fare P800.00 roundtrip). Our trek started at 10:30 a.m. The trail was easy to find because there are a lot of tourists also heading for the crater. We reached the crater at 11:15. 

   Inside the crater we saw a possible campsite off to the right side. The locals told us that we should take a right from the rim and there is a way going to the campsite inside the crater. By 11:30 we started our trek and at first there was a trail but it disappeared.  We had no choice but to make a path. The vegetation was very thick and there were lots of ants. We took lunch at 12:30 p.m. and started hiking again by 12:45. 

   The soil was dry and with a lot of loose rocks. If only we had a rope we could have reached the site. We had already trekked more than ¼ of the rim before we realized we couldn't reach the site before nightfall.  By 3:00 p.m. we decided to abort the hike and look for a path leading to the beach. We reached the beach at 5:00 and pitched camp there. The people who were already there were very friendly and accommodating. 

   We left Taal 10:30 a.m. the following day. We plan to be go back to Taal this December 6th and we’ll tell the banka to bring us to the other side so that it’ll be much closer to the campsite we saw. They say it’ll cost us around P1200 so maybe we’ll make a group of 12 so that it’ll be easier on the pocketbook. 

Other links on this site: 

• Taal Volcano Trek Guide

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