Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Isla de Socorro
Socorro Island is 400 miles due west of Manzanillo, Mexico. It is a volcanic island which stands 1000 m above sea level and 4000 m above the ocean floor. It is part of a failed ridge system, yet the volcano remains active.
Excerpt from my journal:
'I can't believe what I am seeing right now. I am on a Mexican WW II navy ship, the sun is rising behind me, revealing the impressive uninhabited volcanic island in front of me. Whales begin rising, jumping, and spouting in all directions. The waves crash against large lava flow cliffs, eroding the coastline into a series of arches, caves, tidepools and impressive cliffs. The island is dotted with red and black volcanic cinder cones and covered by lava flows. The sun rises higher and the sun reflects the ocean's deep blue into our eyes. The water seems perfectly clear. We drift past floating sea turtles. The island seems to be paradise.'
The Island was paradise. Our group hiked to the peak of the volcano in preparation for the measurements we needed to do the following day. The group dropped off their heavy packs and equipment in a forest a mile from the peak, I kept going. I was planing on camping on the peak by myself. When would I get a chance to camp on the peak of a pacific island again? Probably never.
The view from the peak was incredible. I turned 360 degrees and scanned the whole coastline. Yep, I was on an island. 50 miles in the distance I could see another island, San Benedicto. Its volcanic cone was protruding from the low clouds. I watched the sunset, snapped some pictures and found a nice flat place to set up my tent on the windy, dark summit.
The wind flapped my tent all night long but I was nice and cozy. I snaked on some granola bars, read my book, and wrote in my journal. I got over 9 hours of sleep and still got up in time to watch the sunrise. I also had to use the thermal camera to record temperatures of the active lava dome before the sun rose and warmed the rocks. Shortly afterwards, I packed my things and headed down to meet the others and begin our field work.
Socorro was awesome. I want to go back to go scuba diving, which is said to be one of the top spots in the world for diving.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Mexican Travels
Any attempt to describe in words this past week would be insufficient. So I will give you an overview and one story.
One of my best friends from Atlanta came on his spring break from law school to visit me in the heart of Mexico. I picked him up in Guadalajara on Sunday afternoon and we headed out.
Sunday:
Chapala - largest freshwater lake in Mexico
Guanajuato - we slept here and walked around the rich colonial city
Monday:
Cheap tour in Guanajuato. Highlight of the tour by far; 3 buck ghost house with special effects on the wall. Who needs to go to awesome musuems when they have ghost houses to visit?
Next we drove to the mountains where Monarch Butterflies stay for the winter. We camped in the middle of the forest.
Tuesday:
Horseback ride to where butterflies are located. Amazing stuff. Minor galloping of horses. Good warm up for things to come.
Drove to Morelia in the afternoon. Stayed in a hostel and explored the city. Beautiful, european-like city.
Wednesday:
Postcard disaster. Drove to Patzcuaro area. All indigenous natives. Lots of handcrafts and goods. Lots of ruins in the area. Huge mountain lake dotted with islands. George brought an inflatable raft and plastic paddles so we headed out to the islands. What a sight we were to those natives. Planned on camping but we were negotiated to dirt cheap prices on a cabin on the island.
Thursday:
Got up before sunrise and rafted to the mainland. Videos and documentary in the making. Stay tuned. More ruins and traveling through mountains to the famous and youngest volcano in the world - Paricutin. This is where details are necessary.
Parichutin is located 8 km from the nearest village so its a long day if you want to go by foot. The alternative is by horse. Tourism is the locals form of income, although many times they try to rip you off because we are gringos. If you can speak spanish, then negotiation is an option. Thats what we did. We talked them down and in return we got the craziest and fastest horses they have. They told us it usually takes people 6 to 7 hours to go to the volcano, hike up, and down and get back. 16 km's round trip. It took us 3 hours.
We saddled up and headed out. Georges horse was named Pallaso, which means clown. My horse was so crazy, the owner didn't even give the horse the dignity of a name. The horses had a lot of energy and they didn't like being told what to do. At every opportunity, they would start galloping. At first, it was a little nerve racking, but after 10 minutes we embraced it wholeheartedly. We were screaming arriba and andale, raising our hats and galloping for miles. Our guide was far behind, trotting along. We passed a super good looking Polish girl on the way up. She was on her way down. We made it to the volcano base. Hiked to the top. Walked around the crater rim and hiked down. From the top the view was amazing and the lava flows extended several km's in all directions.
We saddled up and not to our surprise, our horses were more than ready to get going again. My horse was competitve and often raced George's horse. At one point, George started galloping ahead. I held my horse back because my butt was hurting but eventually I let him free, full speed. I leaned forward in my saddle, raised the reins in my left hand, raised my huge sombrero with my right hand in the air and passed George in a full gallop. Must have been going 30 mph. No exaggeration.
George passed the Polish girl and her group (on normal horses) in a full gallop. His horse started chasing a pickup truck full of people. I stopped and started chatting with the group for about 10 seconds until my horse broke out into a full gallop. The polish girl must have been thinking, Who are these crazy american cowboys?
Eventually I caught George. We went galloping onwards towards the famous historical monument. A church that remains standing in the middle of all the black basalt lava rocks. The whole village was destroyed by the lava flows, but the church remains standing. We came galloping into the visitor area where 20 or 30 Mexicans were relaxing, eating and drinking. George went towards the stable. My horse went right into the middle of the crowd, I pulled the reins, my horse bucked on two legs and did a little twirl. The whole group just starred at me in awe with their jaws dropped. I raised my sombrero like any good cowboy should and said, "Hola."
The rest of the trip we laughed just thinking about that day.
That night we drove to the beach and stayed in a crappy little place in Playa Azul.
Friday:
We went up the coast towards my home, Colima. We stopped at a sweeet beach called Maruata (famous turtle beach). We spent the day, the night and most of the next day at the beach chilling, swimming, exploring the sea cliffs, and reading.
Saturday: Beach and back to Colima. Party at night. I was the designated driver, what else is new.
Sunday: George left early.
The trip was incredible. I am coming back to travel more. There is so much to see in Mexico.
One of my best friends from Atlanta came on his spring break from law school to visit me in the heart of Mexico. I picked him up in Guadalajara on Sunday afternoon and we headed out.
Sunday:
Chapala - largest freshwater lake in Mexico
Guanajuato - we slept here and walked around the rich colonial city
Monday:
Cheap tour in Guanajuato. Highlight of the tour by far; 3 buck ghost house with special effects on the wall. Who needs to go to awesome musuems when they have ghost houses to visit?
Next we drove to the mountains where Monarch Butterflies stay for the winter. We camped in the middle of the forest.
Tuesday:
Horseback ride to where butterflies are located. Amazing stuff. Minor galloping of horses. Good warm up for things to come.
Drove to Morelia in the afternoon. Stayed in a hostel and explored the city. Beautiful, european-like city.
Wednesday:
Postcard disaster. Drove to Patzcuaro area. All indigenous natives. Lots of handcrafts and goods. Lots of ruins in the area. Huge mountain lake dotted with islands. George brought an inflatable raft and plastic paddles so we headed out to the islands. What a sight we were to those natives. Planned on camping but we were negotiated to dirt cheap prices on a cabin on the island.
Thursday:
Got up before sunrise and rafted to the mainland. Videos and documentary in the making. Stay tuned. More ruins and traveling through mountains to the famous and youngest volcano in the world - Paricutin. This is where details are necessary.
Parichutin is located 8 km from the nearest village so its a long day if you want to go by foot. The alternative is by horse. Tourism is the locals form of income, although many times they try to rip you off because we are gringos. If you can speak spanish, then negotiation is an option. Thats what we did. We talked them down and in return we got the craziest and fastest horses they have. They told us it usually takes people 6 to 7 hours to go to the volcano, hike up, and down and get back. 16 km's round trip. It took us 3 hours.
We saddled up and headed out. Georges horse was named Pallaso, which means clown. My horse was so crazy, the owner didn't even give the horse the dignity of a name. The horses had a lot of energy and they didn't like being told what to do. At every opportunity, they would start galloping. At first, it was a little nerve racking, but after 10 minutes we embraced it wholeheartedly. We were screaming arriba and andale, raising our hats and galloping for miles. Our guide was far behind, trotting along. We passed a super good looking Polish girl on the way up. She was on her way down. We made it to the volcano base. Hiked to the top. Walked around the crater rim and hiked down. From the top the view was amazing and the lava flows extended several km's in all directions.
We saddled up and not to our surprise, our horses were more than ready to get going again. My horse was competitve and often raced George's horse. At one point, George started galloping ahead. I held my horse back because my butt was hurting but eventually I let him free, full speed. I leaned forward in my saddle, raised the reins in my left hand, raised my huge sombrero with my right hand in the air and passed George in a full gallop. Must have been going 30 mph. No exaggeration.
George passed the Polish girl and her group (on normal horses) in a full gallop. His horse started chasing a pickup truck full of people. I stopped and started chatting with the group for about 10 seconds until my horse broke out into a full gallop. The polish girl must have been thinking, Who are these crazy american cowboys?
Eventually I caught George. We went galloping onwards towards the famous historical monument. A church that remains standing in the middle of all the black basalt lava rocks. The whole village was destroyed by the lava flows, but the church remains standing. We came galloping into the visitor area where 20 or 30 Mexicans were relaxing, eating and drinking. George went towards the stable. My horse went right into the middle of the crowd, I pulled the reins, my horse bucked on two legs and did a little twirl. The whole group just starred at me in awe with their jaws dropped. I raised my sombrero like any good cowboy should and said, "Hola."
The rest of the trip we laughed just thinking about that day.
That night we drove to the beach and stayed in a crappy little place in Playa Azul.
Friday:
We went up the coast towards my home, Colima. We stopped at a sweeet beach called Maruata (famous turtle beach). We spent the day, the night and most of the next day at the beach chilling, swimming, exploring the sea cliffs, and reading.
Saturday: Beach and back to Colima. Party at night. I was the designated driver, what else is new.
Sunday: George left early.
The trip was incredible. I am coming back to travel more. There is so much to see in Mexico.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Fuegaso
I took this picture 2 nights ago. Go ahead, pat me on the back. We spent last week camping on the volcano.
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