After hard work the past six days, Team Philippines took a day trip from Manila and explored Lake Taal, a large freshwater lake which fills a volcanic caldera which was created by volcanic eruptions hundreds of thousands of years ago.

Lake Taal from above

We headed out from our hotel in Tagaytay to a volcanic crater lake within Lake Taal — if that wasn’t clear, we are talking about a volcanic lake within a volcanic lake, think of those Russian dolls, but just with volcanic lakes. The smooth, straight boat ride was lovely, and was just what we needed after rough roads, aggressive drivers, and bouts of motion sickness.

Some of us took horses up the mountain to the volcanic lake (inside the other volcanic lake) and others hiked. But we captured a shot of Team Philippines’ Four Horsemen.

The Four Horsemen (Robbie, Mike, Prof. Alford, and Mauri), that might weight more than their horses…

Once we got to the top, the lake within a lake didn’t fail to disappoint.