Black ash everywhere!

From the institute we recrossed town, with residents waving and smiling to us as we went through. Naturally we all waved back and had a good time observing each other. All the on-foot people from the ship were being accompanied by groups of children as they walked through the town.

As we got closer to the volcano, we drove out across fields of pure ash, surrounded by hills covered in ash. Pic. 1 shows our caravan. The local land owners were counting the passengers to be paid for the use of their land. There were also pick-up trucks of men who were tasked with making the deep ravines cut into the ash, by water running off from the mountains, passable for the vans. Everyone was friendly and waving at the vehicles throughout the entire day.

As we got closer, we left the vehicles and set off on foot across a plain of ash and through a small ravine (pic. 2 shows where we embarked on foot). There were sticks marking the path for us to walk. Soon we were standing across a bay from the volcano (pic. 3). From this point you could hear the rumbling very clearly. Periodically large plumes of smoke would come up. The guide indicated that you could see the flames shooting out of the top at night. That must be quite a sight!