Tagaytay

Justin was given the day after Christmas off work, so we decided to take a tour of a local area that we had heard about. Tagaytay is a region that is about 1.5 hours away from Manila, and it is most notable because it is the home of Taal, one of the Philippines' active volcanos (although the last time it erupted was 1977).

Tagaytay is also famous for its fruit markets. Its climate and soil make it just perfect for growing fruit, and many people even drive down from Manila to take advantage of the delicious fruit. Our first stop was a fruit market, where we got to try some local produce for the first time. 


We loved the jackfruit (the gigantic yellow one in the above picture), chico (has the most amazing taste - just like honey!), and guyabano (also called soursop). We also got to see how pineapples are grown, which is this area's biggest export. Check out the pineapple fields!
To grow pineapples, they collect the tops off the previous crop of pineapples and just plant them in the ground - a new pineapple grows! They just plant huge fields of tops and the pineapples just grow right there on the ground! I couldn't believe it!

We then went to the People's Park in the Sky, which used to be a building at the top of Mount Gonzalez owned by dictator Ferdinand Marcos, but after he lost power, it became a public spot. Our tour guide told us that Marcos was rushing to finish the palace in time for US President Reagan to visit in the 1980's. Then when that visit ended up not happening, they just quit in the middle of construction and never finished it. So it is this huge empty structure, kind of eerie.


What made it even more eerie was that the weather was gloomy and we were so high up that we were right in the middle of a rain cloud. Absolutely no view from the top of the mountain on this day!
What are they even taking a picture of???
However, we were quite surprised that even in the middle of the dreary weather, the place was PACKED with Filipinos. It is such a famous spot for locals, that they visit even in bad weather!

Inside the empty building, they have set up market stalls and tourist opportunities. One of them is that you can pay a couple dollars to get your picture taken with some local wildlife. We posed with a crocodile and a parrot!

Group photos are a huge part of Filipino culture, and so after the nice photos, a photographer will shout "Wacky!" and want you to make wacky faces. So we did!
Giving the crocodile some cuddles and smooches.
 We then drove back down the mountain to get out of the cloud so we could actually see the view. And what a view it was!!! Taal is beautiful!!


Then our last stop on the way back to Manila was something called "Extreme Fish Feeding." It is located in an area called Laguna, and they have a pond that is stocked with a RIDICULOUS amount of koi fish. Then you can purchase food for them, and watch the zillions of fish go nuts. It was truly amazing. I've never seen anything like it.
Before the madness



So we loved our first adventure outside of Metro Manila! Next time we want to go hike the actual Taal Volcano!

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