Catching Taal
Published Jul 6, 2021 12:12 am
MEDIUM RARE
Jullie Y. Daza
Midnight when we arrived in Tagaytay to experience what we supposed would be the best and worst of Taal Volcano in action. With my biggest burliest buddies Leon and Joselito and their American friend Piggy (more a teddy bear, really), I bundled up my year-old baby and inserted him, asleep in his angel chair, between the two passengers in the back seat.
And we were off to hunt for the most dramatic stories and photos of the eruption.
Alas! The eruption as forecast did not happen. Fortunately, because we had a baby with us, we decided not to wait for the velvet of night to turn into the resplendent silk of dawn, and headed back to Manila.
I remembered this chasing-Taal event (October 1969) with fondness after reading that more than a hundred would-be Tagaytay weekenders had canceled their hotel reservations due to the impending eruption last weekend. What a difference a pandemic makes! Where before – no COVID-19, no cellphones, no time-saving expressways – people looked for reasons to view the eruption from close by, today’s folks turn the other way to get safely out of the way.
We’ve come a long way, indeed. We’ve learned a new word, vog to mean volcanic smog, and we’ve gone beyond stealing Phivolcs’ on-the-ground forecasting/monitoring equipment.
On the other hand, Ms. Z, who did not and does not have the luxury of on-the-spot decisions to drive out of town with her close-in, close-by bodyguards, made the most of her home-alone time in the city of San Juan by viewing some very spectacular sunsets. From her upper-floor condo, she watched the colors of air and heat and light form and melt, from painterly to metallic, becoming more theatrical as their shapes changed, daintily, massively, until awesome.
Fifteen-year-old Paolo, on the other hand, who was alerted to the Taal drama, waited to be struck by the volcano’s temper tantrums as he traveled from Pasig to Nasugbu, Batangas. From Friday when he and his father began the trip to Sunday for the return to Manila, he saw no sign of a heavenly show, “not even when we were in Nasugbu, population 135,000.” Challenging my knowledge of geography, he added, “Batangas is not that near to Taal.” Only in my imagination.
Jullie Y. Daza
Midnight when we arrived in Tagaytay to experience what we supposed would be the best and worst of Taal Volcano in action. With my biggest burliest buddies Leon and Joselito and their American friend Piggy (more a teddy bear, really), I bundled up my year-old baby and inserted him, asleep in his angel chair, between the two passengers in the back seat.
And we were off to hunt for the most dramatic stories and photos of the eruption.
Alas! The eruption as forecast did not happen. Fortunately, because we had a baby with us, we decided not to wait for the velvet of night to turn into the resplendent silk of dawn, and headed back to Manila.
I remembered this chasing-Taal event (October 1969) with fondness after reading that more than a hundred would-be Tagaytay weekenders had canceled their hotel reservations due to the impending eruption last weekend. What a difference a pandemic makes! Where before – no COVID-19, no cellphones, no time-saving expressways – people looked for reasons to view the eruption from close by, today’s folks turn the other way to get safely out of the way.
We’ve come a long way, indeed. We’ve learned a new word, vog to mean volcanic smog, and we’ve gone beyond stealing Phivolcs’ on-the-ground forecasting/monitoring equipment.
On the other hand, Ms. Z, who did not and does not have the luxury of on-the-spot decisions to drive out of town with her close-in, close-by bodyguards, made the most of her home-alone time in the city of San Juan by viewing some very spectacular sunsets. From her upper-floor condo, she watched the colors of air and heat and light form and melt, from painterly to metallic, becoming more theatrical as their shapes changed, daintily, massively, until awesome.
Fifteen-year-old Paolo, on the other hand, who was alerted to the Taal drama, waited to be struck by the volcano’s temper tantrums as he traveled from Pasig to Nasugbu, Batangas. From Friday when he and his father began the trip to Sunday for the return to Manila, he saw no sign of a heavenly show, “not even when we were in Nasugbu, population 135,000.” Challenging my knowledge of geography, he added, “Batangas is not that near to Taal.” Only in my imagination.