tagaytay, taal & merienda

on our way back from laguna, we took a short detour to tagaytay to visit lake taal with its volcano. the taal volcano is the smallest in the world and still active. i remember coming here with my dad 11 years ago, but it's still beautiful as ever. the elevation is fairly high up so there's a really pleasant breeze as you look across the lake.

after checking out the view, we stopped at a little restaurant for merienda. if you're familiar with spanish at all, you'll know that merienda is a little afternoon snack in between lunch and dinner. and it's awesome. you usually eat some bread or a little pastry, but you can pretty much have whatever you want. we opted for some traditional filipino dessert: halo halo, bibingka, caramelized sweet banana (can't remember the tagalog name) and turon. the perfect afternoon pick-me-up.