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.

Fuegaso

I took this picture 2 nights ago. Go ahead, pat me on the back. We spent last week camping on the volcano.

Vuelo

So like I said, I went on a volcano flight early this morning. We brought the infrared thermal camera and circled the peak of the volcano several times. On the final pass, the volcano exploded right towards us! It is a rather slow eruption, so we had plenty of time to avoid flying in the plume, but the pilot was still worried. This flight was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. In the pictures, you can see the dome that is building on top of the crater and you can see the rock falls in the eruption photos. The peak in the background in an inactive volcano where the observatory is located.

Piedras de Fuego

The professor I work for is short on money, so he made this internship program a possibility for aspiring volcanologists so that he can get help for cheap from students like me. In return I am exposed to an active volcano, field measurement equipment and methods, and lab analysis. This past week was really fun and interesting. Several volcaologists from around the world were here this past week doing some collaborated field work and we got to be right in the mix. We spent each day doing field work on different parts of the volcano collecting water, gas, and temperature data and rock samples. The highlight of the week however was our overnight field trip to a place called Playon. But first, a geology lesson...

There are many types of volcanoes and there are many ways volcanoes release their energy and heat. Volcan de Fuego periodically transitions from explosive to effusive.

Explosive eruptions only occur when the magma is silicic and viscous. The magma could contain a lot of gases that expand when they reach atmospheric pressure. If this decompression occurs rapidly, hot ash, rocks and lava could explode and be very destructive.

Effusive activity occurs in almost all volcanic settings and is characterized by passive lava flows and degassing events. The magma degasses periodically and causes a small eruption of gases like water vapor and sulfur dioxide. Effusive activity is also characterized by lava domes.

Currently Volcan de Fuego degasses several times a day and the lava dome continues to grow. Since 2005, the volcano has been building a new lava dome. The lava dome is on the crater rim at the peak of the volcano. As new magma reaches the surface and cools, fresh hot rocks cascade down the slopes of the volcano. These rock falls occur about every 30 minutes and it sounds like an explosion. At night, the hot rocks glow and often cause forest fires.

The Playon is situated just below the reach of the rock falls about 1 km from the summit. We camped there this weekend and remotely measured the gases and temperatures emitted from the dome. The volcano erupted several times while we were there and rocks cascaded towards us every 30 minutes. Each rock sounded like a thunderstorm or an explosion. Around 11 pm we were just hanging out around the campfire and monitoring the equipment when the volcano erupted and the plume rose directly over our heads. It was amazing. The moon light allowed us to watch the whole thing. Red hot rocks (literally) were propelled down the slopes. A small amount of ash collected on my tent and my shoulder. It was the coolest thing I have ever witnessed. This is what I signed up for.

Tomorrow we are going on a plane ride around the volcano.

Lago de Las Marias

Buenas

This week we did lots of lab work and spent a day in the field getting S02 measurements in a small village right on the volcano. It has been interesting talking to the locals about the Volcano because for the most part they do not have any clue about the hazards that loom over their villages. Some think the volcano erupts when the weather is hot, others think that it erupts snow sometimes, others think that the volcano is controlled by the Gods. On our way home we stopped in all the little villages and walked around. Without question we are starred at wherever we go, especially in these small villages on the slopes of the volcano where you don’t often see tourists. Each village without fail, has a central plaza with a fountain, benches and trees, a catholic church with a sweet bell tower, and cobblestone streets.

Last night an annual Colima party called Patetera started. It’s crazy. It started off with a parade which lasted from 9 pm to well past midnight. To name just a few of the things I saw last night: Horses, cowboys, trumpets, guitars, large sombreros, lots of alcohol, dancing, mayhem, drunk fights, thousands of people, people starring at me, police, machine guns, drunk drivers, tacos, the list goes on. It was crazy.

Good times

When I hear the phrase ¨Good times¨, I think of a little melody, ¨Good times, great oldies, Fox 97.¨ It was a classic rock radio station in Atlanta. Needless to say good times are being had here and I am currently listening to Neil Young.

This week we went back up to Nevado for 2 nights for thermal and S02 monitoring. Basically we hitch a ride up the mountain in the back a truck with the local civil protection group. We set up all the equipment, make sure it is working right, get weather data recorded every 30 minutes and hang out at 14,000 ft. It was quite cold and windy. The volcano exploded a few times but it was relatively quite. After 3 days and 2 nights we hitched a ride back down.

Friday afternoon we went to a beach town called Manzanillo. It´s actually one of the largest ports in Mexico. The US gets a lot of its goods through Manzanillowhich is then bused up to Houston. It´s also a huge drug port. Apparently there is a battle going on for control of the port, but for the most part the drug lords and other port officials work together.

That night we checked out downtown, which isn´t much because it a port town. Eventually we found a hostel owned by an awesome Canadian couple. It was seriously the coolest little place. 15 bucks a night, hot showers, pool, breakfast and only a 5 minute walk to the beach. Saturday on the beach was amazing.

The rest of the weekend, we partied. Well as much as we can I guess. Mexicans love a good tequilla and apparently American Football and Applebees.

Pocahontas and Lucha Libre

Jannes and Brandon went to Nevado on Thursday night and did not return until Saturday afternoon. Thus I had the house to myself for a few days.

Thursday night I went to a costume party. I dressed like a mariachi Mexican with a big leather poncho and a big sombrero. My dance moves remained white. Unfortunately I have not yet learned how to dance in the US nor Mexico, but it does not stop me from dancing. I met a cute yet quite girl at the party dressed as Pocahontas. I approached her and said, “Hola, me llamo John Smith.” She didn’t think that was funny. The party was fun though.

Friday I worked in the lab all day. I ate lunch at a place we call the Lunch Ladies. Three of four women make delicious homemade food everyday out of their house. It’s a full meal and it only costs 35 pesos, which is about $3.50. It’s a bargain.

Friday night I wandered around the city by myself. I have found the faster I try to speak in Spanish, the more difficult it is for people to understand me. Go figure. But when I speak slow I sound retarded. Either way I will probably get ripped off from people and I am pretty sure that happened Friday night.

Saturday night was the highlight of the weekend. Brandon and Jannes got back in the afternoon so Victor and Irving took us all to a lucha libre (Mexican wrestling match). I could not have asked for anything more. I wish I could portray what I saw last night in words, but I can't. I got some great footage though.

Technology

Last night BYU, I mean Jimmer, played against SDSU. We tried to find the channel on our friends satelitte dish network to no avail. So we resorted to gmail chat. My dad got on video chat and carefully placed his computer in a good position so that we could see the whole TV in his house on my computer screen in Mexico. Despite the poor quality internet connection, we were able to watch most of the 2nd half and cheer for BYU with Brandon and my dad. I might want to do that for every game.

Tonight Brandon and Jannes are heading up to the Nevado Observatory(I went last week). So I will have a few days to myself. My plans so far are to go to the grocery store. Maybe I´ll find a friend who wants to go for a hike or check out some of the nearby caves or maybe the beach again.

News

Our professor, Nick, is back in town and things are starting to pick up. Tomorrow we head out to the volcano for some more sulfer dioxide measurements of explosions. Saturday we are going to some hot springs associated with the volcano for some measurements. We have spanish lessons once a week for free. We all study at night together. I have been reading some of the scholarly literature on the volcano here. I am trying to decide what I want my project to be on. We now know our way around, we know the best restaurants, we know a good taxi driver from a bad one. We know cool people. My friend George from high school is coming in march to visit. We are going to travel for a week. I have a sweet little itinerary lined up. It includes another volcano, ruins, lakes, islands, rivers, the beach, tacos, and agua frescas. Speaking of islands, I get to take a navy ship out to a volcanic island a couple hundred miles off the coast in March. The only settlement there, is a small Mexican navy base. We will doing some sort of research out there. We have been cooking our own food for dinner. So far I have had eggs and potatoes and yesterday I had some fresh bread with peanut butter, a cumcumber and unripe peach. It was nice. I have had a lot of chances to learn to cook in my life and I have never taken advantage of it. I think now it´s finally time. Tonight I really hope to find a place to watch the much anticapted BYU SDSU basketball game. Go cougars.