Tagaytay

Our car arrived three weeks ago and we have been anxious to take a little road trip out of Manila. Yesterday we decided to drive to Tagaytay City which is about 60 km from Manila. Tagatay is a popular destination here because it has a higher elevation and a cooler climate with wonderful clean air. It was great to escape the pollution of Manila for a while. It was more beautiful than I expected and I'm already looking forward to going back to hike the volcano. The little island in the lake is Taal Volcano. People take a boat ride to the volcano and then hike or ride a donkey to the crater lake at the top. The volcano is actually still active and has erupted several times in the past and killed and estimated 5,000 to 6,000 people. (The most recent eruption was in 1977) Stopping to buy some plants on the way home. Picking up a yummy Buko (coconut) pie at Colette's Bakery. I was focused on taking a picture of the sign to send to my cousin named Collette and I didn't really notice the man selling knives until I looked at the photo. Just in case you're wondering what he's doing with all those weapons. :)

Museo Pambata (Children's Museum)

Siquijor

Butterfly Sanctuary

Chocolate Chip Starfish

Our first day at Coco Grove these cute local boys found a Chocolate Chip starfish, also known as a horned sea star. Adelaide was wary of the starfish at first and didn't want to touch it. (Torah on the other hand immediately tried grabbing it out of James' hand) The next day we found what Addy called a "cute family" of starfish and suddenly she loved them.










She was happy to find a little black sea star too.


We went on a glass bottom boat ride and saw many colorful fish and starfish, including beautiful bright blue starfish.










Addy doesn't usually take naps, but the boat rocked her to sleep. Torah was getting sleepy too so we ended the ride a little early.