Beauty and Irony

There was this article about the 12 Most Beautiful Lakes in the World on Yahoo! Travel this morning and one Philippine lake was fourth on the list.  Can you guess which one?  I, for one, was surprised.  The answer:  Taal Lake. (http://travel.yahoo.com/p-interests-40253002)

This, after the terrible tragedy of the Batangas Fishkill that was the headline news for more than a week last May.  The cause was determined to be the sudden decrease in atmospheric temperature that caused oxygen levels in the lake to plummet, resulting in the massive death of thousands of harvestable bangus (milkfish).  What an irony! (http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/10339/weather-change-led-to-batangas-fishkill-says-bfar)

An interesting fact about this body of water is that it is the deepest lake in the country, at 564 feet.  Wow!  Not as deep as an ocean but deep enough to get lost in.  And did you know that the Taal Volcano has an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the World’s Smallest Volcano?  It is described as a “crater on an island in a lake”, but I prefer this one I heard as a child:

Taal – an island in a lake in a crater on an island in a lake on an island in the middle of the ocean.

Try saying that five times!   =)