Tadlac Lake

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This one is not yet in the tourism list of the Philippines. But I had a nice travel and some good stories shared by the locals


The lake is of volcanic origin and the diameter is only about 20 hectares. There used to be some fish cages in the lake until fish kills happened many years ago. Now, its about ten years since the lake was cleared of the fish cages and the sight has gone back to the natural ambience.

What made the trip to the lake more interesting is that a hill that was quarried in past has now become a major nesting site of thousands of blue tailed bee eaters!

Then had a talk with the locals and asked them why it was called Enchanted Lake and Crocodile Lake in the past. Well, the crocodile thing is easy to explain as most lakes in the Philippines used to have large populations of the smallish Philippine Crocodile that seldom reach 2 meters in length.

But the enchanted thing is entirely different. These are some of their stories:

1. One local cought a huge fish that weighted 40 kilos
2. Another recounted an incident when he saw a tube-like water spouting out in the middle of the lake.
3. A woman who was washing clothers in lthe banks saw a hand in the middle of the lake waving at her. She tried to ignore it, but the hand went close to her. She fainted! luckily, another local saw her lying on the rocks and pulled her inland.
4. A group of village watchmen heard a baby crying somewhere near the lake. In the Philippines, that would not be a baby, but something else, somekind of a gnome out to play some horrifying tricks on you. So all the brave men ran away as fast they can! Really funny how they related this one.
5. A german volunteer went out to measure the depth of the lake. It was about 79-80 meters. Nothing happened. The following day, with another local, they dropped a thermometer tethered to a line. Then the line was pulled fast and the boat they were riding on was also moving very fast. When the event happened, they puppled out the line and found it was broken.

Such great stories in the countryside! Of course, modern times have made the lake an ordinary one with those incidents being dismissed as folktales.

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Photos

The hill that was quarried
This became a major nesting ground of thousands of blue tailed bee eaters

A close look at the hill
The exposed walls of the hill where you can see the thousands of bee eater nests.