Taal Volcano

I have always worried that when foreign visitors come to the United States for the first time and come directly to NYC that they think this is America; that there are no places with open spaces, mountains, forests, farmland, or small communities. Given this, I should have known better than to assess the Philippines by Manila.

Yesterday (February 3) I had a wonderful (or wanderful as Charlie, one of my mother's friends, coined) time. Chantale, my pal here in Manila, and I hired a driver to take us to Lake Taal and the Taal Volcano. As soon as Manila was in the rear view mirror I started to relax, the air was cooler (but remember, it's all relative), there were palm trees and open spaces, and small communties.

We went first to the People's Park in the Sky, clearly a local park and clearly where I was the main attraction. This was my first experience being "the other." School children found me fascinating to look at and smiled and giggled a lot. Perhaps they reported on me at home, "Mom, Dad, you can't imagine the big-butted, big nosed, wild-haired woman we saw today." The picture (below) in front of the sign "forgiveness" is at this park, which, as you hiked up to the top of the mountain, you were greeted with such signs -- gratefulness, responsibility, hard work, and right near the concession shops, generosity!

We then drove to a small town, Leynes, from where our driver decided we should rent the boat to take us to the island within the crater Lake Taal. We hopped into a very cool "banca" (see pictures below) and were driven to the island, getting quite wet along the way. At the island, we rented horses to take us to the top of the volcano. Each horse comes with a guide, and mine was a good-looking young man who obviously understands the correlation between flattery and good tips, although I am not sure saying I am beautiful like his horse was the best line I've heard. At the top of the volcano, you drink buca, fresh coconut juice. The view was fantastic.

After the ride back down the mountain, and the banca ride back to Gloria's, we ate a lakeside lunch of fried fish, steamed rice, and fresh vegetables. Uncharacteristically, I drank a beer remembering both the admonitions that bottled water was often tap water put into bottled water bottles (it did appear to be such) and friend Chandler's guidance that beer was always safe! The fish was incredible -- tilapia taken from the lake that morning. I exclaimed about it several times, remarking how wonderful it was to be able to eat right from the water, when finally my environmental engineer lunch companion couldn't take it any more and asked where did I think everyone's sewage went?!

From Leynes, we drove to Tagaytay, where our driver smartly said we should go to the local market instead of the roadside stands. Chantale bought amazing produce for supper that night. Two things there caught my attention --both shown in pictures here. One was the fierce no littering laws and associated fines. Often rural communities don't focus on the need for this. The other was the concrete project that was underway, with a sign reminding us of just who was responsible for bringing this improvement to the community. Ok, so maybe this doesn't have broad appeal, but my fellow policy wonks will find it interesting!

It was a lovely day, exactly the kind of adventure I wanted to have. I learned to get comfortable with the constant 10 peso here, 20 peso there payments for various tips, services, or refreshments. It's part of the redistributing of wealth, I suppose. I learned to speak some Tagalog. Here are the important words you need to know: "Magkano?" (How much?) "Salamat" (thank you) and "Masarap." (This is delicous. I did not have the opportunity to learn to say YOU are delicious.) Stay tuned for my Country Assessment of the Philippines.