Ok I left and went to England for a while but now I am finally back in Mexico!
Its been a great few weeks back. I spent 2 days in Colima before heading out to sea on a World War II minesweeper. We went to Isla Socorro, one a few remote Volcanic Islands out in the pacific. It took nearly 40 hours to get back on land. The island was amazing, bubbling mud, obsidian and fumaroles everywhere (at the summit at least). We spent a while up top collecting self potential and radon data. On another day we took a boat out on the choppy sea to a remote beach, Palma Sola where only the strong swimmers could get off the boat. So off the boys jumped, swam to shore and climbed the cliffs and ran off into the jungle to collect some spring samples. The boat trip took around 2 hours in total, it was a long way round the island.
Here is where the events start to mingle though and I can't remember the exact order of things. I think a flight around the dome came first. This was amazing. So much fun.
After that there was a trip to the Playon. Another fantastic trip. There was two main aims for this trip. 1, to set up the infra sound station. 2, collect rockfall and thermal data. Me and my housemates had a long drive to Guzman and up the volcano. It was Maggie´s first time off road so there was a little tension there, well that and the brakes were known to be unreliable. We made it there in one piece and went our separate ways to do our respective job. Maggie and Dave, stayed at camp to set up the thermal camera (worth more than our lives) and film rockfalls while myself and Holly went to the seismic station to install the Infra sound station (note please read station as 'place with a few poles in the ground'). We spent all day there and were pretty pleased with ourselves as our boss was pretty sure we wouldn't be able to do it by ourselves as it was obviously above our intelligence. Oh and not only did we do it, but we did it double time, so we were extra happy (yet back in the office there was not a single thank you or well done).... anyway back to camp. We were basically camping on one of the old lava flows and sleeping with rocks dug into our backs.... although for what we saw, it made the entire thing worth it, I could of come to Mexico for the year, done nothing at all the entire time but to see this one spectacle and left happy. Incandescence. Its a lovely word. Its a lovely sight. At 3am, red hot rocks being thrown down the volcano to burst and fragment like some upside down fireworks show. This shook us out of our sleep delirum and had us jumping around, howling and screaming with excitement as to what we had witnessed. A similar thing happened the following night. We heard the rockfall from our tent, sounding monstrous. Unzipping our tent, propped on our elbows, mouth wide open, gawking at the volcano as we watched the red hot waterfall coming down the left flank. Much bigger then the previous night.
It made me realise, that if she really decided to blow, we would be screwed. There were several times at night, when you would hear the treacherous rockfalls, the sound so loud, like its coming straight for you (whilst you are unwittingly in its path) where you would get a little scared. But thankfully, lack of sleep making us a bit stupid, we would just unzip the tent, a disinterested peak at the volcano (it takes red to get us excited) then zip back up and rest our heads back down on their rocky pillows. I realise that it may seem a little strange that the most active volcano in Mexico doesn't hold our undivided attention at every shake and tremble but this is what fieldwork, lack of sleep and being incredibly dusty (ashy?) does to you.
Hmmm anyway right now thinking of the Playon has wiped all else from my mind but I did have more adventures to tell....
Monday, 14 June 2010
Tuesday, 16 February 2010
On another note...
....is this honestly what you think you would be seeing on a trip to a Pacific coastal state of Mexico? The rides up and down this volcano has to be one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life. Why can't the rest of life be like riding in the back of a truck?
The first picture is of a toilet by the way! These were taken a few minutes after we reached the entrance to the National Park. It is around here you can go several ways, either up! This way is restricted access, only Protection Civil can drive up there. Another option is to drive along, up and down, this takes you to the caldera wall of the other volcano, Volcan de Fuego where you then climb down the caldera wall to the Playon (this is where the puma incident started out.... and the place I now try and avoid!).
We took the first route. About 10 minutes after this point we had driven to a point just over 4000m!
The reason we went up here in the first place was to collect thermal and SO2 data. You can see the observatory where we stayed in the photograph below (if its THAT small you can't see, it's on the right side of the photograph, you can just about see some antennae).
I want to cry!
I broke my camera on a trip up here.
I was taking pictures in the back of the Jalisco Protection Civil truck when we went over a nastier bump then usual and it got destroyed in the process. My poor poor camera.
Wednesday, 10 February 2010
Adventures from Christmas and new year still to come!
I accidentally left my mac (broken) charger in the bag of a guy I was traveling with for a short while. So the life support for my laptop is either in Singapore or some landfill site somewhere, maybe a landfill site in Singapore... who knows?
But for now: meet Martin, he will keep you entertained
This photo is from Guanajuato, where me and Martin had a bad breakfast before heading to Mexico City (27th Dec I think!). He borrowed my headband to stop his hair getting in his soup... but as we left the market he forgot he was wearing it and was wondering why people were looking at him funny-including myself whilst trying to stifle my giggles
Monday, 7 December 2009
The view from my roof...
This one was taken this morning....
.... and this was was taken the day I moved in (about 2 weeks ago)
Friday, 18 September 2009
My first overnight trip to Volcan de Fuego Colima
After a couple of jostling and jumpy hours in the truck through the windy and eroding roads of the volcanoes (we had to go up Nevado to come back down to Volcan de Fuego), we finally made it to El Playon where we would make our climb down to the playon and camp. When we parked the truck, there was someone else in front of us. I cant quite remember there names, but there was another man from the university and kiwi. They were off puma tracking in search of scats (puma shit)... we talked puma, ate some lunch and went our separate ways...
We had to make our way down a very steep slope, to steep to really walk, so we sat and slid down on the tiniest dirt path through the forest. After making it down, camp was a few minutes walk away. From there we went for a walk and a climb up to the infrared station, passing seismic and weather stations as we went (and when I say 'station' I generally mean one or two antennae and poles sticking out the ground!). At the station there was also some solar panels, one of which was covered in lots of impact marks from previous explosions. We faffed around at the station for a bit, clearing the solar panels and checking the batteries and the modem, making sure it was receiving the appropriate information. Then as we were about to leave the heavens opened, leaving us to stand under the tarp, still getting wet before we could make our way back down to camp. Before getting back to camp, we had a Short walk looking at impact crates and pyroclastic flow deposits. At camp we sat, ate and watched the volcano before it got dark and went to sleep in our tents.
That night, I never slept until just after 7am where I begin to have some odd dream but then we had to get up at 7.30am. There was a lot of thunder, maybe a little rumble from the volcano and a lot of snoring to be heard that night.
After eating breakfast, the group separated and I went to one of the lava flows with Stefan and Nick. We went walking until we came to a wall of lava which we climbed, once at the top of this, there was a massive lava field, just like the wall, made up of massive boulder blocks of lava. I absolutely sucked at climbing and scrambling across this, a lot were larger then me with massive gaps between the boulders, I was taking forever and was getting nervous so I made my way back to camp alone. THIS WAS A MISTAKE!
It took me probably an hour to get off the lava flow, after walking through the trees, I thought I was being paranoid but picked up a a large branch because I didn't feel quite safe. It took me a while but I finally got to camp, I threw my rucksack and branch on the ground and got into my tent leaving my legs and mucky boots hanging outside the tent. That was when I heard something, I didn't know what it was, and yet again I thought I was being paranoid and pulled my feet back in the tent and zipped it up. I started to fall asleep. Then I heard a low growl. Shit.
Something big started to circle my tent, sniffing at it and flaring its nostrils. Then it growled very loudly (almost like a roar but apparently pumas don't roar). Oh crap, I have a pissed off cat hanging around my tent, it knows I'm inside, it can smell me! It paced around sniffed some more. It went quite for a while. I thought the kitty might of left. But then it makes its loudest, longest, half growl half roar like sound right next to my ear, or so it felt like, it must of been right next to the tent, about a metre from the back of my head, I let it sniff around some more and go quite, then I grabbed my hard had and a tent peg (it was the sharpest thing inside my tent) in some pathetic attempt to protect myself if the big cat figured out my tent. The puma must of hung around about an hour to an hour and a half, through all of which I was terrified, cursing it to just hurry up and leave or bring on the fight already (I really did think I was going to end up cat food). But despite all the fuss nothing happened, it just sniffed, flared, snarled, growled while I was curled up in a ball. Eventually the others came back, I was so relieved. I tried to keep calm but ending up bawling my eyes out like a baby as I explained what happened. Of all the freakin' chances, people spend years tracking the pumas of colima without so much as a glimpse and after my first night on the volcano, the feline decides to come and pay me a (much too long) visit.
Anyway we didn't spend too long dwelling on this... although I was asked if I had taken a picture!!?!!??! We packed everything up and made our way back to the truck. The climb was horrendous. The soil pathway was so uncompact it slipped away under foot, the climb was so steep, I had to hang on to whatever trunk, root, plant, branch I could find to pull myself up with the (little) strength of my arms. This took a very very long time, I have never felt so unfit before.
Anyway finally getting back to the truck, we began our drive back. The roads were better thanks to the guys we had met earlier, they had spent a lot of time restoring the road. But eventually we got to a point where the truck really struggled, as we did, it started raining. We ended up stuck in the rain working on the road (there was only one spade so i was digging with my bare hands), it want like this for about 2 to 2 and a half hours, with the truck only moving a few metres back and forth again a few times, the rain had kept up and turned the road into absolute mush, so PCJ (civil protection jalisco) were called to come tow us out.
We eventually got away from that stretch of road after quite some time. It took us a long time to get back to colima and on the way back down we saw a couple of creatures that were either bob cats or these raccoon like things running across the track. Once in colima we didn't stop, we got back to the house about 10.50pm, we ran in, but on some clean clothes and ran back out, still hair covered in mud and soaked through. We speeded to a restaurant. and made it there for 11pm, in time for the cry. Just as we walked in, everyone started screaming. It was Independence day.
We had to make our way down a very steep slope, to steep to really walk, so we sat and slid down on the tiniest dirt path through the forest. After making it down, camp was a few minutes walk away. From there we went for a walk and a climb up to the infrared station, passing seismic and weather stations as we went (and when I say 'station' I generally mean one or two antennae and poles sticking out the ground!). At the station there was also some solar panels, one of which was covered in lots of impact marks from previous explosions. We faffed around at the station for a bit, clearing the solar panels and checking the batteries and the modem, making sure it was receiving the appropriate information. Then as we were about to leave the heavens opened, leaving us to stand under the tarp, still getting wet before we could make our way back down to camp. Before getting back to camp, we had a Short walk looking at impact crates and pyroclastic flow deposits. At camp we sat, ate and watched the volcano before it got dark and went to sleep in our tents.
That night, I never slept until just after 7am where I begin to have some odd dream but then we had to get up at 7.30am. There was a lot of thunder, maybe a little rumble from the volcano and a lot of snoring to be heard that night.
After eating breakfast, the group separated and I went to one of the lava flows with Stefan and Nick. We went walking until we came to a wall of lava which we climbed, once at the top of this, there was a massive lava field, just like the wall, made up of massive boulder blocks of lava. I absolutely sucked at climbing and scrambling across this, a lot were larger then me with massive gaps between the boulders, I was taking forever and was getting nervous so I made my way back to camp alone. THIS WAS A MISTAKE!
It took me probably an hour to get off the lava flow, after walking through the trees, I thought I was being paranoid but picked up a a large branch because I didn't feel quite safe. It took me a while but I finally got to camp, I threw my rucksack and branch on the ground and got into my tent leaving my legs and mucky boots hanging outside the tent. That was when I heard something, I didn't know what it was, and yet again I thought I was being paranoid and pulled my feet back in the tent and zipped it up. I started to fall asleep. Then I heard a low growl. Shit.
Something big started to circle my tent, sniffing at it and flaring its nostrils. Then it growled very loudly (almost like a roar but apparently pumas don't roar). Oh crap, I have a pissed off cat hanging around my tent, it knows I'm inside, it can smell me! It paced around sniffed some more. It went quite for a while. I thought the kitty might of left. But then it makes its loudest, longest, half growl half roar like sound right next to my ear, or so it felt like, it must of been right next to the tent, about a metre from the back of my head, I let it sniff around some more and go quite, then I grabbed my hard had and a tent peg (it was the sharpest thing inside my tent) in some pathetic attempt to protect myself if the big cat figured out my tent. The puma must of hung around about an hour to an hour and a half, through all of which I was terrified, cursing it to just hurry up and leave or bring on the fight already (I really did think I was going to end up cat food). But despite all the fuss nothing happened, it just sniffed, flared, snarled, growled while I was curled up in a ball. Eventually the others came back, I was so relieved. I tried to keep calm but ending up bawling my eyes out like a baby as I explained what happened. Of all the freakin' chances, people spend years tracking the pumas of colima without so much as a glimpse and after my first night on the volcano, the feline decides to come and pay me a (much too long) visit.
Anyway we didn't spend too long dwelling on this... although I was asked if I had taken a picture!!?!!??! We packed everything up and made our way back to the truck. The climb was horrendous. The soil pathway was so uncompact it slipped away under foot, the climb was so steep, I had to hang on to whatever trunk, root, plant, branch I could find to pull myself up with the (little) strength of my arms. This took a very very long time, I have never felt so unfit before.
Anyway finally getting back to the truck, we began our drive back. The roads were better thanks to the guys we had met earlier, they had spent a lot of time restoring the road. But eventually we got to a point where the truck really struggled, as we did, it started raining. We ended up stuck in the rain working on the road (there was only one spade so i was digging with my bare hands), it want like this for about 2 to 2 and a half hours, with the truck only moving a few metres back and forth again a few times, the rain had kept up and turned the road into absolute mush, so PCJ (civil protection jalisco) were called to come tow us out.
We eventually got away from that stretch of road after quite some time. It took us a long time to get back to colima and on the way back down we saw a couple of creatures that were either bob cats or these raccoon like things running across the track. Once in colima we didn't stop, we got back to the house about 10.50pm, we ran in, but on some clean clothes and ran back out, still hair covered in mud and soaked through. We speeded to a restaurant. and made it there for 11pm, in time for the cry. Just as we walked in, everyone started screaming. It was Independence day.
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