Volcan de Santa Maria
Looking down at the Santiaguito dome from the summit of Santa Ana
The start of one of the eruptions of the Santiaguito dome
The smoke clouds went really high
18 October 2009
The weather cleared up for us this weekend as we ventured up Volcan de Santa Maria a 3700m tall volcano 15 minutes out of Xela. We caught a shuttle at 4am and hiked the first couple of hours by torchlight. After a 4hr very steep climb we made the summit where we were just in time to see Volcan Santiaguito (sort of a vent of Santa Maria) erupting some massive smoke clouds. The view was amazing and clear and we saw all the way to mexico, the ocean and the other volcanoes. Volcan Fuego erupted several times in the distance and we saw all the way to Volcan de Tajumuclco which we climbed last weekend.
It is supposed to erupt every 1 1/2 hours so we hung out at the summit and waited for the next eruption of Santiguito. It blew up again twice in 45minutes and sent some more massive clouds and noises into the air.
It was one of the coolest things i have EVER SEEN being so close and seeing all the steam, smoke and rock fly into the air. We were talking to the guide who said if you climb one of the neighbouring volcanoes it rains ash from this one.
No comments:
Post a Comment