Exploring Philippines 109 - Taal Volcano Crater (Post 1 - Casa Punzalan)

It was on April 2011 when we went for another summer getaway.  This time around, we planned to conquer the Taal volcano crater.  Everything was perfect except for one thing, the volcano was on alert level two.

Leah was the one who facilitated our place of stay in Batangas.  Before going directly to the volcano crater, we planned to spend a day in the town of Taal and explore it first.  Since it was summer time, almost all of the inns and pension houses in Taal were fully booked.  The only available place was Casa Punzalan located right across Taal church. 

Casa Punzalan is the oldest pension house in Taal, Batangas.  The people managing the pension house are warm and friendly.  It was an ancestral house converted into a pension house in 1998 and is part of Taal’s heritage village.  

Anyway, we were directed to the second floor for our room assignment.  There are five rooms to choose from where the names each of the room were taken from the names of the children of the owner of the house.  From these five rooms, (if I am not mistaken) there are two solo rooms, there are two rooms for couple, and there’s one family room.  The mentioned rooms are either ventilated by electric fan or air-con.  And since there were five of us, we stayed on the air-conditioned family room.

After settling our things inside the room, we roam around the second floor.  Actually, we had the whole second floor by ourselves because we were the only guests that time.  The open space in the second floor is quite wide and makes a good avenue to hold parties.  Since it is an old house, the floor of the second floor is made up of wood and its posts are authentic hard wood which are rare nowadays.  One typical trait of a Spanish ancestral house is its large windows.  Most probably, during those times, they do not have problems regarding thieves that rob their houses by passing through the window.  From what we’ve learned, large windows were designed for ventilation purposes and for enough light to enter the house during day time.


We made use of our idle time evaluating the other vacant rooms in the second floor and taking pictures.  Actually, if you are going to look outside the window in the second floor of this pension house, the majestic and famous Taal church comes into a full view.

After our grand tour of Casa Punzalan, we went out in order to explore more of Taal town.  Since it was already lunch time, our order was to experience the local treat.  Thus, we went straight to the public market which is several meters away from the pension house.

We settled in one of the food stalls in the public market and we did not find any food that is alien to us.  We just made our respective orders and fill our hungry stomachs.