For our third Philippines hike we decided to check out the top of Taal Volcano in Tagaytay. Since we were going to be all the way down there we figured breakfast at Antonio's was in order. The new breakfast restaurant overlooks the volcano and is beautiful. The service was a little slow, maybe because they were new. And the omelettes were a little salty, but overall a good experience.
A friend had given us the number of a guide in advance so we texted him on the way out of the restaurant and decided to meet him at the bottom of the hill. About halfway down a motorcycle starts circling our car, so The Shark rolls down the window and the driver shouts, "I'm Albert, follow me." The Shark turns to me and asks, "Is our guide named Albert?" Of course I have him listed as "Taal Guide" in my phone and couldn't quite understand what he was saying when we talked. So we followed him and turns out he was our guide. We parked and then traipsed though his house out to the boat.
The 40 minute boat ride was uneventful. Then we arrived. I don't know what I was expecting, but a bunch of makeshift houses and some guys washing their cows in the water was not it. The registration area was in shambles and immediately the sellers swarmed us. Did we want to ride a horse? No. Did we want a mask for the dust? No. Did we want a hat for the sun? No. Turns out maybe we wanted all three.
The hike was brutally hot with almost no shade, luckily it was only about 90 minutes roundtrip. The trail - of a major tourist attraction mind you - was literally covered in horse poop. Which meant lots of flies. And the dust was real bad.
Fortunately the view at the top was nice, despite the shacks selling crap, and The Shark and Sister's Hubby got to shoot a few golf balls into the crater. Oh, and they had buko.
I definitely wouldn't go back, but nice to check it off the list.
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