Weekend Epics

Taal Lake Loop Ride – Taal, Philippines

Taal is a volcano within a volcano located in Batangas, Philippines. In fact, Taal Volcano has recently come alive again and has been listed as alert level 2 by the Philippines Institute of Volcanology and Seismology or PHIVOLCS. The ride around Taal took us most of a day to complete because we took our time visiting some of the places along the periphery of the volcano lake. We started our ride very early in San Pedro, Laguna heading towards Tagaytay City with its panoramic view of Taal Lake. We stopped for a while there to sample the cheap roadside food for breakfast and then rode quickly down to Lemery, Batangas via the notoriously long downhill roads of Payapa. In no time at all, we were soon in the Town of Taal itself marveling at the old Basillica of St. Martin de Tours, renowned to be the largest Catholic church in Asia. The Basilica of St. Martin de Tours stands 96 meters tall and 45 meters wide on a plateau in the heart of the town of Taal.

We chanced upon a small exhibit of vintage cameras at a nearby gallery housed in one of the Spanish houses near the basillica. We couldn’t help it but drop by to at least have a quick browse of the exhibition. We were surprised by the volume of cameras on exhibit along with a large number of vintage photographs from old Manila, including an unbelievable panoramic shot of a bullfight being held somewhere in the old city.

After Taal, we rode through the town of Alitagtag on our way to Cuenca with the 1,ooo meter+ Mt. Maculot with its grand view of Taal Lake and Tagaytay City on the other side of the volcano in the middle. We decided to have lunch in Cuenca before proceeding to Lipa, still in the province of Batangas.

At the end of the day, we had ridden about 200 kilometers to complete the loop back to San Pedro. It was a long and hot ride but it’s a route that begs to be rediscovered after a short rest. The provinces of Batangas and Laguna, with its old towns, lakes, and mountains are some of the best places to experience on the saddle.

More weekend epics to come, in the meanwhile, if you have comments about this story or suggestions for the blog, please visit the brand new Velodorne Digital Community Page. Be the first to post a response!