In search of Volcanoes!
June 6th, 2009
More adventure! Also, a lesson in better planning. We headed out on another rainy day for a trip to a volcano. The directions we'd gotten turned out to be rather wrong and we not only paid more but it took longer than expected (esp. sad- that and the fact that we didn't leave earlier and so were not able to make it to actually walk the volcano.) When we arrived in Tagaytay and were droped off of our jeepney we were lost . . . in the pouring rain . . and virtually none of the locals knew enough English to understand that we were looking for the volcano. But an English speaking girl pointed us in the right direction for a view that granted us a beautiful perspective of white sky - what glorious fog and mist! :s
So, as we trudged down the road, trying to hold our ponchos closed along came our knight in yellow armour atop a motorbike and side care complete with rain flaps. We struck a deal for him to take us to a neighbouring town where we'd be sure to catch a view of the volcano and we were off.
Serene and I crammed into the sidecar and caught a couple of nice views while mostly trying to save our lungs from some ofo the exhaust that created clouds around us. I swear, I'm srue the fact that I've never smoked won't even matter to my lungs at the end of this trip. Even my pores - I scratch my arm, leg, or face (basically any skin that's been exposed) at the end of a day in the city and my nails are black.
Anyways . . .our first stop was a high viewpoint, we stepped out of the cab, the exhaust cleared and I was hit instead with the warm, moist scent of rain water splashing upon the grennery and smoking brush in the distance. And there, on an expansive lake, with small islands surrounding it was my first volcano. In all honesty, minus a fairly clear crater in the centre it didn't look much different from the other mountains or islands but I knew there was active lava there - and that made all the difference!
After a few min. more to enjoy we were off again - lower down to see the volcano from sea-level.
On of those moments when you feel so close and yet so far. I wanted to kick myself for relying on other's info and timeframe rather than figuring it out for myself and making sure we had enough time. It would have been 15 min. by boat by 2hours to get up - time we didn't hae. I could have walked atop a volcano- seen the lava! I cry, I moan, I wail.
But, such is life. It was still a nice place to be - a quaint little fishing village. On the way back I decided to ride on the outside with the driver and what a ride it was! Beautiful - on the back of a motorcycle, seeing hte village, the smiling people as the driver acknowledged his friends along the road - looking out as we got higher and higher up the hills to the rich green and browns around us and the volcanoes and other islands in the distance - wind blowing - only the occasional smell of exhuast, and then a stop for spring waer - out of a branch spout with a later stop to look at the rows of mist changing our previous view into something truly mystical.
More adventure! Also, a lesson in better planning. We headed out on another rainy day for a trip to a volcano. The directions we'd gotten turned out to be rather wrong and we not only paid more but it took longer than expected (esp. sad- that and the fact that we didn't leave earlier and so were not able to make it to actually walk the volcano.) When we arrived in Tagaytay and were droped off of our jeepney we were lost . . . in the pouring rain . . and virtually none of the locals knew enough English to understand that we were looking for the volcano. But an English speaking girl pointed us in the right direction for a view that granted us a beautiful perspective of white sky - what glorious fog and mist! :s
So, as we trudged down the road, trying to hold our ponchos closed along came our knight in yellow armour atop a motorbike and side care complete with rain flaps. We struck a deal for him to take us to a neighbouring town where we'd be sure to catch a view of the volcano and we were off.
Serene and I crammed into the sidecar and caught a couple of nice views while mostly trying to save our lungs from some ofo the exhaust that created clouds around us. I swear, I'm srue the fact that I've never smoked won't even matter to my lungs at the end of this trip. Even my pores - I scratch my arm, leg, or face (basically any skin that's been exposed) at the end of a day in the city and my nails are black.
Anyways . . .our first stop was a high viewpoint, we stepped out of the cab, the exhaust cleared and I was hit instead with the warm, moist scent of rain water splashing upon the grennery and smoking brush in the distance. And there, on an expansive lake, with small islands surrounding it was my first volcano. In all honesty, minus a fairly clear crater in the centre it didn't look much different from the other mountains or islands but I knew there was active lava there - and that made all the difference!
After a few min. more to enjoy we were off again - lower down to see the volcano from sea-level.
On of those moments when you feel so close and yet so far. I wanted to kick myself for relying on other's info and timeframe rather than figuring it out for myself and making sure we had enough time. It would have been 15 min. by boat by 2hours to get up - time we didn't hae. I could have walked atop a volcano- seen the lava! I cry, I moan, I wail.
But, such is life. It was still a nice place to be - a quaint little fishing village. On the way back I decided to ride on the outside with the driver and what a ride it was! Beautiful - on the back of a motorcycle, seeing hte village, the smiling people as the driver acknowledged his friends along the road - looking out as we got higher and higher up the hills to the rich green and browns around us and the volcanoes and other islands in the distance - wind blowing - only the occasional smell of exhuast, and then a stop for spring waer - out of a branch spout with a later stop to look at the rows of mist changing our previous view into something truly mystical.
posted by Charles at 11:50 PM
1 Comments:
Sounds like an interesting day....even without walking the volcanos. Yes, planning ahead sure does make a difference. Mom
Post a Comment
<< Home