Imagine a volcano so destructive it didn’t just erase towns—it erased a language.
In 1754, Taal Volcano unleashed a seven-month eruption, the longest and most violent in its recorded history. The blasts buried four entire towns—Sala, Lipa, Tanauan, and old Taal—forcing survivors to flee and rebuild elsewhere.
Here’s the wild part: the people who lived around the old caldera spoke a distinct local language called Taaleño, a unique branch of early Tagalog. When the survivors dispersed into neighboring areas, their speech slowly blended into mainstream Tagalog. In just one generation, a whole linguistic community vanished, not through war or colonialism—but through geology.
One eruption wiped out geography, memory, and even the sound of a people’s voice.
Our family had a little reunion in the coast of Batangas. It came out that we have a relative in the province and they invited us into their home to have some heartfelt journey in the lake of Taal, Volcano.
The whole family traveled together; I even invited Merald to meet my titas and titos. He was very welcomed even though he was shy and quiet the whole time. Couldn't blame him, it's his personality and comfort. We met a lot of new people, I couldn't grasp the structure of the family tree, so I would call these girls my cousin in the nth degree. They were very nice, welcoming, charming, and quite sociable in a comfortable way.
We ate breakfast and cooked some of our baon before we start to walk across the so called "hike" to arrive at the beach -- our entire purpose in the journey.
At first, we walked comfortably in the streets not knowing what will fall beyond us in the end of the road. I was shocked and terrified with the path's condition! Narrow, muddy, slippery, and a tree-clad! A ravine is in front of us and it's the only way we could go down to the breathtaking sparkling water of Taal.
Going down the ravine was dangerous and slippery--I slipped. But going up the ravine was more tiring! It felt like my heart was in a race of beats. I could hardly breathe and my legs were trembling.
Nevertheless, aside from that tiring path, the beach was indeed a kiss of angel. Not the way I expected it to be. But it was like a private beach just for us.
I will not deny I was little ashamed because I thought Merald wouldn't enjoy the travel. But he said he did have fun. It might be not the way we thought it would be. But the experience was one of a kind for me.
It was a little messy, yet fun! I even saw a monkey-- well, not clearly. Thanks to my stupid blurry eyes. But I had so much fun being able to hang out with my relatives and having a time with Merald. Everything seems going well this day, I forgot I had such problems in my real life.
I hope this outing would happen again! I would like to meet my nth degree cousins again >< they are very pretty and nice!
Since I was little all I wanted to do is travel. I love discovering new places and exploring them to the max. Even when I was just 4 or 5 years old I was climbing trees and learning what it means to explore. I loved it, and I dragged my cousin around with me to explore as well. Although, he was not just as excited as me we still thought it fun to play basketball in the backyard. After about 5 to 6 years of that we took a family trip to Tagaytay in the summer after fourth grade. And what I saw is mind blowing and I don’t know what to say on that time because I’m in shock. The wind was so cold I grab on my jacket and start looking the most beautiful view in Tagaytay and that is Taal Volcano surrounded by vast amount of water I don't think a smile ever left my face.
We ran into many different and interesting types of wildlife that added even more to the trip like snakes (Wow how fascinating isn’t it) ( Unamused face) it doesn’t scare me at all. After all that I’ve seen hungry we went to our cabin and all of us eat the foods that we brought though the chicken its kinda cold but still worth it. And after finishing our meals the exploring continues, now I go on a hiking trip almost every spring and fall with my cousins, and every time whether it’s a one mile incline or it’s pouring rain, I am still having the time of my life. In closing, I haven’t traveled all that much, however, that amount I have, I have used in a way to explore everything in sight. I have gone on several hiking trips, some just hiking and others more than that, but every time was the best.
