Boarding Gate 101

While flying to Zamboanga City from Manila last October I chanced upon this sight from my window seat: Taal Volcano,  showing its caldera and Vulcan Point, an island within the main crater lake. The volcano itself sits on Volcano Island, which in turn is located in Taal Lake, in Luzon island. Taal, located just 50 kilometers from Manila, is one of the Philippines' most active volcanoes, having erupted 33 times since 1572. The last eruption was in 1977. You can view the crater lake and Vulcan Point up close, here . 

Guest post by Mara Ione Sarail Mapun? Where is that?” I get this question a lot when people ask me about my hometown. I’d ramble on and on the island (its location and the culture and the pretty spots...) but since the place is not really in any of the Philippines tourist spots and is in the middle of nowhere, I might as well talk about Atlantis instead. But the island does exist.  Mapun Tawi-Tawi or Cagayan de Sulu) is an island municipality in the Sulu Sea on the southwestern extreme of the Philippines, located very close to Sabah. Or from the way I see it on the Philippine map, the island is located on the Philippine’s “armpit”. Mapun is a volcanic island. The picture above shows Mt. Nanggoy, an inactive volcano near the Sapah Lake. The most popular tourist attraction in Mapun would be the three crater lakes on the west part of the island. Legend says that the three lakes were once volcanoes that erupted together. The first two, Danao and Singuwang, b...

It was still dark when we arrived at Capas Junction in Capas, Tarlac to meet our guide and driver who will guide us to Mt. Pinatubo, the olcano that erupted in 1991. The eruption was reputed to be the most violent in the 20th century, reducing its elevation from 1,745 meters to the current 1,486 meters. Our group, composed of friends from the university, arrived early, about five in the morning after an hour and a half bus ride from Cubao. We set off after registering at the local tourism office, embarking in a 40-minute off-road vehicle ride through lahar-inundated fields and rivers. The place that we are going to visit is the crater lake that formed when the volcano blew a large part of it summit in the 1991 eruption, forming a huge crater that later was filled with water to form a lake. The deepest part of the lake is 500 feet. The trek to the crater lake is not very difficult, although the sky was overcast when we started out and there was a drizzle...

Looking down from the rim, those ant-like figures below are actually people on the beach in Mt. Pinatubo crater lake.

A multi-exposure picture of me jumping into Mount Pinatubo's crater lake

Me taking a few laps in Mt. Pinatubo's sulfur-smelling crater lake.