Lipari: First Volcano day.

I went to a volcano today. On an island part of the Aeolian Islands, called Vulcano Island. It is the southern most island of the seven and it is the first from Sicily. Lipari, which is the island i am staying on, is the second, and then behind Lipari is Salina. The islands then split off in a Y direction, going east is Panarea and Stromboli and then going west is Filicudi and then Alicudi.


These pictures were all taken on the boat ride to the island







This is taken on the walk approaching the volcano.


Pretty good stuff right here...


Here is one side of the volcano. To get a perspective of the size of this thing, we are at the bottom now, while looking up you can barely see the people at the top. They look smaller than ants...they look like fleas.


This is while on the path going up the side of the volcano, alot of wash outs. From water....and LAVA!


Then i was on the moon...


Being on top of the volcano is seriously like being on another planet, it is so insane. This is the great crater in the center of the volcano. It is deep, really deep.

The gas that is coming out of the ground there is sulfer. At first arrival on top of the volcano you think "Wow, it smells like fireworks" and you know, it reminds you of the fourth of july and celebrations and fun times in the summer. Quickly after that you think "Wow, i think im going to be sick." There was a class of students on the top of the volcano when we got there, what this picture is of, is them walking through the gas.


Moon picture.


Yup, after they went through the gas, i got right in there! At the point of taking this picture i have my sweatshirt coving my mouth and nose and i am still coughing so hard and my eyes are watering. You cant breath this stuff in, your body just wont let you. Even with my mouth and nose covered up i would hold my breath but when i would lose that and try take a breath in, i wouldnt be able to.



The view from the top was awesome, at the begining of the day it was a bit cloudy, but in he middle of the day when it was sunny and clear you could see all of the Aeolian Islands except for Alicudi, which is the furthest of the islands.


Here i am again, getting right in there for that perfect picture.


Its like im working for National Geographic now, risking my body for a picture of some sulfer crystals.


It feels great.


Again, moon picture. By this time we have started our walk around the crater.



Now we are on the other side of the crater from where we started.



This picture, i am looking from Vulcano island, straight ahead is Lipari island and then to the left in the distance you see a mountain and that is the first mountain of the two that make up the island of Salina.


Here i am, my name is Lance and i am standing on top of an active volcano on an island that is part of Italy.


This is behind the volcano that i am on. It kind of looks like another volcano, it might be actually, im not exactly sure. But it is definatly a long extinct volcano that now has vegetation growing all around it.



Here you can definatly see Salina Island. It is the furthest mountain to the left.


View, we are now at the highest point of Vulcano island. You can BARELY see Panarea in this photo, unfortunatly it was still kind of cloudy at this time.


Here is the crater again. Almost straight across the crater is where the last picture of the crater was taken.


Soil.


Here we are again, walking through the gas again...




Looking down into the village while we start our decent.


You can kind of see a road down there. Thats how high we are.

So today was pretty succesful. For the first time with my own eyes i saw a volcano then I walked to the top and around the crater of that ACTIVE volcano. First of all, i never though i would ever see an active volcano in my life. Definatly not when i was 22 years old, and certainly didnt think my first volcano expiriance would be half way around the world. So, i did that today. Tomarrow we are going to Panarea and Stromboli, which is another volcano. It is basically a volcano rising out of the sea. Which is very active, as in, the last eruption was this past august and it erupts maybe once every week, and can have multiple small eruptions throughout the day. So tomarrow we are hiking up Stromboli and it will be my first time to see real, real hot magma....lava.

Pretty cool.

I added pictures to yesterdays bog from when i fell asleep at the beach.

Pretty cool.