On the last full day of my Luzon journey last year I headed south from Manila to the fishing town of Tagaytay.

Fishing is however not what Tagatay is best known for. The Taal Volcano sits on an island in Taal Lake. The volcano has erupted countless times, most recently in 2020.

Over the years, more than 6,000 people have been killed by its destructive force, and local residents are on almost permanent evacuation alert.

We arrived on a very cloudy morning, however, slowly but surely the cloud lifted to reveal the smoking gun that causes consternation for hundreds of kilometres around.