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Volcanoes fascinate me.  This is strange.

You see, I have not seen many volcanoes.  I have never seen a volcano erupt.  Although, I felt the wrath of Mt. Pinatubo when it erupted some years ago.

I was in college in Manila when Mt. Pinatubo, which is located outside of Manila, coughed out ashes that spread across the globe. At about 5:00 p.m., the sky darkened and it began raining ash. By 6:00 p.m., it was completely dark and everything was covered in a thick blanket of ash. By some miracle, my dad found me and took me home. We drove at a speed of about 2 kilometers per hour as our windshield was covered in ash and we could not see where we were going. Mt. Pinatubo buried several towns leaving many dead or homeless. Such was the effect of its fury.

Despite the danger that volcanoes pose and even if I never saw a volcano cough out lava or ash, I am drawn to them.

Before my trip to Indonesia, I have only seen four volcanoes, Mt. Mayon, Mt. Pinatubo, the Taal Volcano and Mt. Sto. Tomas.  So you can imagine what joy I felt when I saw not one, but seven volcanoes, while I was in Indonesia.  Even better, I saw five of them at one time.

I should not have been surprised by the number of volcanoes I saw in Indonesia since, according to this article,

“Indonesia leads the world in many volcano statistics. It has the largest number of historically active volcanoes (76), its total of 1171 dated eruptions is only narrowly exceeded by Japan’s 1274, and these two regions have combined to produce 1/3 of the known explosive eruptions. Indonesia has suffered the highest numbers of eruptions producing fatalities, damage to arable land, mudflows, tsunamis, domes, and pyroclastic flows (104, 186, 84, 13, 76, and 96, respectively). In the first five of these, Indonesia also leads other regions in the global proportion of eruptions with each characteristic.

Four-fifths of Indonesian volcanoes with dated eruptions have erupted in this century, and history shows the danger of volcanoes that have not erupted in recent centuries. Relatively few stratigraphic studies of older volcanic deposits have been completed in Indonesia, and only 0.5% of known Indonesian eruptions have been dated by other than historical techniques, emphasizing the need for more study of the prehistoric record in this region.”

But I was surprised.  More than that, I was awed and humbled by the strange sort of friendship that the Indonesian volcanoes have extended to me.

On the lava trail

This is a picture of Mr. Caloy Chan, the person who brought us to this lava trail.  All around him, the rain is coming down in sheets and steam is rising from the earth.  The jagged black rocks he is stepping on were once hot molten lava. Shrouded in the clouds behind him is the Elusive Superstar, Mt. Mayon.  These were the circumstances we found ourselves in along the lava trail and this is my story.

Although it is not difficult to conceive that people actually hike up to Mt. Mayon, doing it never occured to me.

When Mr. Ketel invited Boktor and me for an ATV (All Terrain Vehicle) ride to the lava trail, I thought that we would just be sitting in the ATV the whole time.  So, I was happy to oblige.  It was much later, when the arrangements were already set, that it dawned on me that the ATV would only take us to where the lava trail begins.  From there, we would need to trek on the lava trail to get closer to Mt. Mayon.  I came to this realization at 2:00 a.m.,  or four hours before we planned to leave for the lava trail.  At that time, Boktor and I were still working, it was raining heavily, I was stressed, tired and wondering how I was going to drag myself out of bed at 6:00 a.m. and will myself to trek under the pouring rain.  I voiced out my thoughts to Boktor and he too was worried about how we would survive the activity. (more…)

For the second time in a span of less than a month, Boktor and I were sent to Legazpi, Albay.

The sun was up when we left Manila and I expected to see the elusive superstar, Mt. Mayon. I am, however, learning that the weather in Legazpi is erratic. When we got there it was raining and Mt. Mayon was completely shrouded in clouds.

During this trip, we never got to see the elusive superstar in all her naked glory. The most we got was a brief glimpse of her mouth and her foot. In fact, I had the feeling that Mt. Mayon did not want to see us this time around. But, I will leave this story for later.

Monk:  Boktor just sent me a picture of the view from his room at Hotel Venezia.  Here it is…

Mt. Mayon:  The Elusive Superstar

Legazpi City, Philippines is on a plain.  From almost anywhere in Legazpi, you will see Mt. Mayon on a clear day.  It is a green mass rising from the ground to meet the sky.  Not being part of any chain of mountains, Mt. Mayon is solitary.  Mt. Mayon’s cone shape is almost perfect and it is undoubtably an active volcano.  Smoke plumes are seen coming out of its mouth. (more…)

The Zip

Mr. Ketel took us to Lingnon Hill from where you can view Mt. Mayon and Legazpi City.  As Mt. Mayon was elusive that day, Mr. Ketel suggested we try the Zip. What is the Zip?  The ends of two parallel steel cables are attached on a post on one hill while the other ends are attach on a post in another hill.  You are then asked to wear a harness.  Carabiners are clipped on to the harness and on the rollers that are attached to the cables.  After giving a thirty-second explanation on what to do,  your are pushed off to zip over the trees.  Weeeee… is what I said in my mind when I did the Zip.  Such fun!!!

If you want to see Pandora doing the Zip, click here.

Boktor (not his real name) and I went to Legazpi, Albay.

It was Boktor’s first time in Legazpi and he was excited about the trip. It was my second time in Legazpi. I was not excited. We were to stay in Legazpi only over night and I did not expect to see much of the place.

Also, my memories of my first Legazpi trip were not so good.  At that time, I was forced to take a ten-hour land trip from Manila to Legazpi as my flight was canceled due to bad weather. After that long trip, I only stayed in Legazpi for less than an hour.

This time, I was really not exited about the trip.

The flight to Legazpi

On my way to the airport, I got a text message from Boktor telling me that the client representative, Mr. Ketel (not his real name), advised us to bring jackets because it was raining in Legazpi. Oh, no!!! Thoughts like “Will the flight be canceled?” and ” Will I be forced to take a ten-hour land trip again?” immediately came to mind. I was really really not excited about the trip.

When I got to the airport, the ground attendant told me that our flight would not be canceled. Phew.

Meanwhile, I learned that before the plane lands at the Legazpi Airport, it flies along side Mt. Mayon, a perfect cone-shaped active volcano and the main attraction of Albay. I was assigned a window seat on the left-side of the plane and discovered that this is the best place to get a view of the volcano. Unfortunately, clouds shrouded Mt. Mayon and I was only able to see its tip.