Yesterday, I went up to Tagaytay City for a business seminar and a meetup with a friend. Since this place has been too romanticized in my head, I naturally look forward to trips here regardless of agenda (or the lack of it).
Despite the Christmas rush and traffic, the vehicle flow up to the high altitude city was uneventful.
Below are shots of the seminar venue. My friend attended this with me, but we were both turned off by the whole affair because it turned out that the business being offered was a multi-level marketing (MLM) or "networking" business, which is essentially a legalized pyramiding or Ponzi scheme. No thanks, please. We left as fast as we could, despite the insistence of the desperate uplines that we stay and take disadvantage of their ridiculously expensive packages that are priced WAY higher than their true value.
On this trip, I brought my mascots, placed on my newly acquired container and wrapped in a protective towel. They posed a bit inside the car before I proceeded with the seminar scam.
After barely escaping the event with our lives, we went ahead and had a lunch at the picturesque Bulalo Capital with a very excellent view of the famous Taal Volcano and Lake.
Taal Lake with its dangerous volcano never fails to mesmerize me with its enchanting beauty.
A femme fatale that entices everyone who gazes at it, beckoning them to its deadly embrace.
The day blessed us with good weather and a nice opportunity to take nice photographs of the mystical view. Taal is a very curious phenomenon because it is an island within a lake within an island within a lake within an island within an ocean.
Specifically, it is an island (Vulcan Point) within a lake (Crater Lake) within an island (Volcano Island) within a lake (Taal Lake) within an island (Luzon) within an ocean (Pacific Ocean). It is also said that Taal Volcano is not just Volcano Island; the entire Taal Lake is actually the whole volcano known as the Taal Caldera.
Taal Lake hosts one of the only two freshwater seasnakes in the world, the Taal Sea Snake (Hydrophis semperi). The lake used to be part of the sea and was saltwater. Frequent eruptions eventually sealed it off from the sea, by which it gradually became freshwater. The fauna trapped within then had to adapt to the new conditions or die off. Hydrophis semperi is one such species that successfully adapted to the altered environment.
The world's only freshwater sardine, the tawilis (Sardinella tawilis), is another saltwater species that adapted to fresh water. It is a very famous delicacy in the area and is now banned from being fished. A simple ban doesn't prevent the people from still harvesting it, though.
Accounts in past centuries also documented the existence of sharks, marine turtles, and saltwater crocodiles in the area before Taal became a freshwater lake.
Going back to our mascots, they of course also demanded photoshoots at the parking lot view deck.
The large mascot is shown below inside the restaurant.
The little one also had to have her poses, too. Since she was too small and could have been blown away at the view deck, she just contented herself with photos inside the restaurant.
Below is the view of the new flyover passageway at the area when we were driving home.
There'll be more on this trip in the next post or two. Always happy to be alive!