Hey, Look! The volcano is erupting!

Wed Aug 8, 2007


Volcano Fuego, about 1 hr from here, is always blowing smoke. Sometimes, when it's not covered by our normal nightly rain clouds, we can see a rim of fire on it's crater edge. But tonight was truly amazing. Fuego was erupting! I took tons of pictures, but they don't do it justice and it makes it look so small.

Think about this: this 13,000ft tall volcano (per history, the most active volcano is Central America), is about 1 hr away by car. Yet, we could clearly see it blowing a huge amount of fire into the sky, and presumably tons of lava down the mountain. My uneducated guess is that the fire itself is probably at least the width of 2-3 footballs field put end to end. And I can't even imagine how high the fire was being thrown into the sky. All I know is that I really wishes I could find a way to get closer to it (but not too close), and I know that it felt like I was watching National Geographic on the TV. Wouldn't it be something to be on Volcano Picaya (the volcano I climbed) right now since it sits right beside Fuego? According to some information I found on the internet about Volcano Fuego, the lava travels about 35mph down the mountain, and it can continue erupting for several hours or days. It's been erupting now for about 6-7 hours.

I was so excited about the spectacular light show I was watching, that I had to call someone. But since it was late, I opted for calling my parents. I guess hearing your daughter exclaim, "Dad, the volcano is erupting!" is not exactly what most parents want to here. But I guess by now my folks have gotten somewhat accustomed to me calling with true but outrageous stories. Due to our altitude of 500ft and our distance from the volcano, I assured dad and mom that I didn't think I was in any danger. But wow is it gorgeous and exciting!