So my birthday was on May 14 and my group decided to celebrate by hiking Taal volcano in the Philippines and camping overnight. Taal volcano is an active volcano in a lake with another lake inside its crater. It hasn’t erupted since 1911, but there is definitely steam and the water on one side of the lake is bubbling. I love hiking and the great outdoors so I was game. We left Puerto Galera and mangaed to get to Talisay where we had to catch a boat to get to the island. We ended up staying the night on the main land in a room we rented and stocked up on PB, bread, tuna, crackers, water, and supplies to make smores of course!
The next morning we took the boat and got to the bottom of Taal volcano and started our assent. There were people trying to convince us it was too far to walk and wanting to rent us horses to ride. But we kept on walking and made it to the top in less than an hour. We took some time to look down into the crater from the top, and then we tried to figure out a plan to get down into the crater to camp for the night. The locals told us we needed a guide in order to find the path, but we ignored them and headed out on our own.
For awhile we followed a pretty good path 
up and down the ridge of the volcano. Then we started heading off the beaten path, cause, well there was no path. Chris led the way, blazing the trail for us. We finally decided we needed to go down, but there just wasn’t any path anywhere. We found a place where we thought we could make a path easily enough. Holli headed down first and before long we were all sliding down on our backsides, getting tangeled up in vines, scratching our arms and legs up on thorns and branches, and getting filthy! Then all of the sudden, Holli said there was no way to continue down the huge mass of brush. So we all reluctantly turned around and climbed back up through all we had just come down.
up and down the ridge of the volcano. Then we started heading off the beaten path, cause, well there was no path. Chris led the way, blazing the trail for us. We finally decided we needed to go down, but there just wasn’t any path anywhere. We found a place where we thought we could make a path easily enough. Holli headed down first and before long we were all sliding down on our backsides, getting tangeled up in vines, scratching our arms and legs up on thorns and branches, and getting filthy! Then all of the sudden, Holli said there was no way to continue down the huge mass of brush. So we all reluctantly turned around and climbed back up through all we had just come down. We didn’t want to give up, though. We kept going around the ridge trying to find a path down. We
eventually came across some farmland and a couple houses. At this point we were running low on water and weren’t sure where to go. We tried to ask one farmer the way. He didn’t speak English, but pointed us in the direction to get to the main lake and boats. We didn’t want to give up, but we had no idea where else to go. So we took that path. Nate refused to give up hope, though. He stopped and asked another farmer and found one who did speak English. He said he could guide us to the crater…for a price of course. We bargained for a price we could agree on and took him up on the offer.
eventually came across some farmland and a couple houses. At this point we were running low on water and weren’t sure where to go. We tried to ask one farmer the way. He didn’t speak English, but pointed us in the direction to get to the main lake and boats. We didn’t want to give up, but we had no idea where else to go. So we took that path. Nate refused to give up hope, though. He stopped and asked another farmer and found one who did speak English. He said he could guide us to the crater…for a price of course. We bargained for a price we could agree on and took him up on the offer. A little over 30 minutes later we were inside the crater and setting up camp. Everyone was exhausted and thirsty. We had very little water left, so dinner was small. It’s hard to eat too much peanut butter if you don’t have enough water to wash it down. And only a few of us attempted the smores. We took a bath in the lake. We were on the opposite side of the boiling water and they told us it was safe to swim there. Then we watched the stars for awhile…amazed at the slendor and how much we could see. Then it was off to bed. The next morning, after a packing up and taking a quick picture to prove we had been in the crater, we headed to the boats and water! We made it safely and started our trip back to Manila where we spent the rest of time in the Philippines! It was a great birthday!
VICTORY!
