Continuation from yesterday”¦.

“¦we could see the red sparks shooting up through a huge hole in the ground. The sparks landed on a ledge around the hole, glowing brightly. In the first photo you can see the edge of the peak we are standing, the ledge the molten rock lands on, and the hole the lava and smoke comes from. The second photo is dark, but gives you perspective on distance, although this is just the ambient lava flow, not one of the many big eruptions we will see later. Hopefully, you can get a sense that we are not standing all that much higher than the lava fallout ledge.

From the scattered rocks around, it seems that once in a while they make it beyond the ledge up to where we were standing. What amazed us is Continue reading →

Continuation from yesterday”¦..

“¦We were completely surrounded by the villagers, each of us having several weapons pointed at our necks and chests.

After a very long minute, the villagers spontaneously ran off down the road. We were told to have a seat on a bench. The villagers reappeared and danced several dances for us. The dances were different from anything we had seen before. Most of the group was in neat rows and danced in place, using their weapon as a prop. They all wore ankle bracelets of toasted nuts in the shell, which made a maracas-like rattling sound in time to the music as they moved their feet with the rhythm. There were a few lead dancers who danced all around and through the group mimicking animal movements. Each dance was for a particular animal. In this photo you can see the man mimicking a bird to the right. The music was rhythmical percussion instruments, with the dancers all singing along in a deep bass. The music was powerful.

After the dancing we were led Continue reading →