Where in the world is there an island on a lake on an island
on a lake, on an island on an ocean?
 Taal Volcano,
in the Philippines, has been called the smallest active volcano in the
world. It is located about 70-km south of Manila on an island inside a
lake called Taal Lake. What makes Taal Volcano more unique is the fact
that the volcano itself has a lake of its own inside its crater which is
called the "Crater Lake." One can even swim inside the Crater Lake but
don't stay too long because the lake's water is a very diluted form of
sulfuric acid with high concentration of boron, magnesium, aluminum and
sodium in salt form. The first recorded scuba dive inside the crater was
made by a team led by Thomas
Hargrove in 1986 to a depth of about 20 meters or 60 feet. There is
even a tiny island in the Crater Lake which Hargrove's team also explored.
 Pilipinas Sierra's outing last March 2
and 3, 1996 proceeded to the Taal Volcano Crater Lake on the first day
where we arrived at about noon. We were pleasantly surprised that there
were two Americans already having a good time swimming at the Crater Lake
... we joined them pronto and had lunch thereafter. We introduced Thomas
Gebele, a German Student who was with us to the Americans who we found
out later were connected with the U.S. Embassy.
At about 1:30 pm we packed up and trekked back
to the rim and proceeded to the new Taal crater. It's called Mt. Tabaro
and the trek towards it was hot since vegetation was sparse around this
new crater. After a brief summit assault we proceeded to the campsite late
in the afternoon.
We decided not to camp inside the Crater Lake
as originally planned since most of the trekkers preferred to camp at the
Taal lakeshore where fresh fish can be bought from fishermen living along
the lake. After having our dinner, we had our socials where participants
got to know each other better.
Our campsite for the night was located on the
shore of Taal Lake. Unlike the Crater Lake, it is safe to swim here since
this is a fresh water lake. The marine life study of Taal Lake indicates
that the body of water here may have been, in fact, salt water in pre-historic
time. Even today, one can dive to uniform depth of 30 feet all around the
lake bottom and still find traces of an ancient beach littered with seashells.
The whole area itself including the surrounding
province of Cavite and Batangas was once part of an immense pre-historic
volcano estimated to be 18,000 feet high which erupted violently and collapsed
into a caldera with a channel opening towards Balayan Bay. Between 1572
to the present, more than 41 eruptions have been recorded with the great
eruption of 1754 lasting close to six months. Just like Mt. Pinatubo, it
darkened the skies over Manila for days, that people during that time literally
walked around the city carrying lanterns even at 10:00 in the morning.
It is most probable that this eruption finally closed the open channel
to the sea that allowed the accumulation of fresh water from rainfall leading
to the formation of Taal Lake.
With this backgrounder, it is no wonder that
Taal Lake is home to the only known species of sea snake that inhabits
fresh water, Hydrophis semperi. Even the fish called maliputo
and tawilis are saltwater fish-like in characteristics. According
to Peter J.P. Whitehead of the British Museum of Natural History, tawilis
"is the only species of Sardinella that is found mainly in fresh water."
Dr. Dioscoro Rabor even confirms that sharks once swam Taal Lake's water.
He studied their biology personally before their extermination by overfishing
in the 1930's.
 See also The
Mysteries of Taal by Thomas Hargrove
Taal Geology
More about Philippine
Trek Groups and Trips
Return to Philippine
Journeys
robertg@aenet.org
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