Cozumel

Approaching Playa del Carmen on the way back from Cozumel

This morning I took the ferry (MX$120) to Cozumel. After dumping my backpack at the Hostelito (MX$30) and having a double expresso (MX$32) at the coffee bean, I took a boat-snorkeling tour (MX$220). The fishies are really cool to see and I got 4 places instead of the usual three because two guests from some hotel boarded a bit after me. It was a good day so far. Later I will head for the bus to Palenque. This will be my night so I will have one more (tired) day for the West.

Cozumel does not feel like Mexico. It just is a warm resort with loads of tourists and cheap local labor.

Chichén Itzá, Valladolid, Tulúm, Cobá

From Mérida I took a bus to Chichén Itzá. It really reminded me of Disneyland. They closed pretty early and since I left Mérida quite late I did not have time to see all of it. It is a bit bigger than Uxmál and there are some pretty cool carvings in some of the stones but it is not that much more amazing. It is just full of tourists in beachwear and mexicans selling local artwork. I liked Uxmál better.

The big pyramid in Chichén - not for climbing

Murals in a wall near the main Pyramid

Valladolid is a rather small town a bit east of Chichén. I stayed at the hostel de la candela (or something similar). Not really exciting, but ok.
On the next morning Andrée, Charles-André and I visited two cenotes which were quite good. The one in town was not really underground for a good part, and you are not allowed to swim, but as a little park it was ok. The second one (a bit west of the town) was pretty big and for swimming. :)

The big cenote near Valladolid

From Valladolid I went on to Tulúm. The town itself is really ugly and I slept at the Cabañas el Mírador, slightly south of the ruins. The beach is white and I could set my tent up for 50 Pesos. Apart from that the place is not great.

Today for the morning I went to the ruins of Tulúm. They are rather small and full of tourist groups. The location directly at the coast is pretty nice.

Ruins of Tulúm and the Caribbean sea

In the afternoon I visited the ruins of Cobá. They are really great! Spread out in the forest you can see several buildings and between them just stroll on a path through the jungle. Way less tourists than in Tulúm and Chichén. A real treat!

Now I will head for Isla Cozumel to get my tourism shock for this tour and hopefully see the Quebec crew and some fishies. From there next station probably is Palenque.

Adiós Mérida

Today I will leave Mérida for Chichén Itzá. Then I will spend the night in Valladolid and continue from there to Tulúm.

The day before yesterday I saw some Flamingos from large distance near Progreso. That trip was pretty relaxing but not really a lot to do and see.

Boats east of progreso, they pretty well describe the level of activity in this region

Yesterday I visited some cenotes near Cuzama with Mario. That trip was really great! If you go to Mérida, you should definitely visit cenotes if you have not done that before. They are lakes in Caves and really beautiful.

The entrance of one of the cenotes seen from inside

In the evening we made some Mexican food with Adjmal, Andrée, Charles-André, Lise. Mario was a really good chef de cuisine. :) Then we walked some squares of Mérida. It was a great day.

Me, Lara, Mario, Lise and Adjmal in one of the sqares

All in all here the ruins of Uxmal and some cenotes are a real must. A walk through the city and the anthropology museum are pretty cool, too.

Uxmal

The ruins of Uxmal are really great. There are loads of carved stones with patterns and two pretty big pyramids. Maybe I will add some photos later, but they are definitively worth a visit.

The well-reconstructed pyramid at Uxmál - no climbing

And it's entrance way up high

Later in the evening I went to town with Charles-André and Andrée from Quebec. There we met with some people from Mérida and first watched them play street theater and then went to a theater with them.

Charles-André and Andrée to the left

The theater crew

In the big theater

Maybe today I will go to see some flamingos.

Merida

On Friday I got my plane to Merida.

View on Fuego and Nevado from the starting plane
If you see sunrise the party was good or you are doing something wrong!

Forest near Mérida

More forest

Outskirts of Mérida

Luggage check

Here I stay at the Nomadas, that Thomas recommended. He lived there for about three months. It is a really nice hostel with hammocks in the backyard.

Merida is a lot more touristy than Colima but apart from that it is really nice. The people here are fun and yesterday we went to a nice museum of anthropology which showed a lot of Mayan exhibits. I can definitely recommend it. The city museum is nice too, but not that impressive.

Today I will go and visit the ruins of Uxmal.

¡Vacaciones!

Tomorrow my long waited holidays will hopefully start. I booked a flight for 7 AM going to Mérida, but did not get a confirmation yet. From there I will explore a bit of Yucatán and then head for Chiapas, Guatemala, Oaxaca and maybe D.F. on my way back, visiting as many ruins and things like that, as possible.
There have been a few trips in the last week, that I did not get to write about. I have the photos on my laptop and will add them when I come back. Then there also will be some more to say about Colima, but first come the holidays.

I hope you enjoy your time wherever you are.

Fuego VIII

I decided to count the weekend at Fuego while installing the radar as one trip, so the trip last Tuesday and Wednesday is my eighth trip to the south flank of Fuego.
On Tuesday afternoon we left with Juan Carlos truck and a TV Crew in their truck for the 1975 Lava flow on the east flank of Fuego.

View back on the ride to Fuego


Algave fields


Juan Carlos' truck


The TV truck


Colima landscape with the volcano in the background

Our own truck is in the workshop since the brakes had completely failed when John drove it down from El Playón on the weekend. When Martin compared his photos of the last two El Playón trips he found an astonishing similarity. For both trips he had a photo of the crew bending over the open truck because it had lost fluid. The difference was power steering fluid and happened up on Nevado at the site of the Observatory on the first trip. This time the breaks failed completely and John luckily was able to stop the truck using first gear and a little upwards slope. Then they had to be rescued by Proteción Civil de Jalisco and spent their Night at the PCJ site in Guzmán. When PCJ put the truck on their place where you can go below it and have a look they had great fun because of the bad state of the whole engine compartment and the hole in the floor below the gas pedal. John brought a still pretty dead truck back on Monday after getting the breaks kind of sorted and since Tuesday it is touring Colima's workshops.
We don't have a working hand break and no spare tire. The seat belt for the co-driver is defunct, too. Our four wheel drive also only is painted on the gearshift. More than half a year ago this has inspired students to draw pictures of the life saving Supertruck that some noble donor is supposed to pay for. We have kind of come to accept that the most dangerous part of our time here in Mexico is going in that truck. The volcano is completely harmless in comparison.


After a good bit of the way up on the east flank we saw this nice eruption while Nick and Juan Carlos were scouting for the right way in Juan Carlos' truck. The radar basically saw nothing of it, or at least this was my impression when I had a look at the data.

Eruption on the way to the '75 lava flow


Definitively wind from north

Lukas and I had joined the TV Crew because their truck hat tires without of any profile and some extra weight in the back really helps when driving on the dirt tracks. We usually do this on the steeper slopes when driving up to the south flank with few people.
When we arrived at Juan Carlos truck, Nick and Erin had already left for the lava flow, so we went there on our own. Juan Carlos stayed at the truck. The sight of the flow is awesome. Loads of rocks with their crazy fracturing and sharp edges. After taking some photos and doing interviews with the TV crew we started to shout for Nick and Erin and could locate them in the forest on their way to the flow. It took them a while to reach the flow and then Nick could give an interview, too.

Entering the '75 lava flow


Rocks, ...



... rocks, ...

... rocks.

On our way down Juan Carlos had to help the TV-Crew a bit when their truck got stuck. When it was already dark we arrived in La Queseria where we ate some tacos and then headed towards the south flank. On the dirt roads Lukas and I joined the TV truck again to help them climb the road. At about 11 pm we arrived at our parking lot and set up the tents.

preparations for towing

On the next morning we went up to the site of the radar. As we expected Nick did not like our bunker, but this time our kind of open construction proved pretty useful since I had forgotten the key to the lock. I could reach for the necessary cables and we got the laptops connected and running without having to take the roof off.

Fuego in the morning light



On the way up


a nice algave-style plant


view down towards south


connected

Lukas and I spent the day at the radar and put up my tarp as a tent.

Shade really helps up there



Our little volcanic motion detector


If you don't have a converter plug, a bit of wire and duck tape do the same job


A later stage of the tent

Erin, Juan Carlos, Nick and the camera man went up to a lava flow that is really close to the crater to get a few rock samples. The other TV guys stayed a bit of time with us and then went down to prepare some food. We watched two little eruptions that our radar seemingly did not detect (maybe closer examinations shows some data) and went down again at six thirty. A bit later Erin and the camera man arrived and a good bit later Nick and Juan Carlos followed. The climbing crew was completely exhausted and badly needed some water and food.

First little eruption


second eruption


Some flowers on the way down


It was a rather uncomfortable ride. Helmets really help.

We arrived back in Colima at about 10 pm and went to the hangar where we had Erin's desperdido. She left on Thursday morning.

Installing the radar

Well I think I owe you some updates between the last two posts. About two weeks ago the radar finally arrived on a Monday. Seems to have been the 18th. So it was only about six weeks for the customs and a month after Lea's arrival. After trying a bit around with the equipment on Monday we went to Fuego on Tuesday, where Lea, Hester, Erin and I hauled the Tripod (pretty massive steel construction, built for the time till the volcano decides to get rid of it) up to the site of the installation. This took us about two and a half hours and was pretty much all we did on that day. We moved the site on wshich we wanted to install the system again by some twenty meters because the previously planned site was too easily visible.

Stick insect pretending to be a stick


Going home

On Wednesday Lea stayed at home and I went up with John, Andrew, Erin and Hester. The first run brought a car battery, a garafon (~20l) of water and some smaller things like a steel rod and cement up to the installation site. While the others installed the tripod, Andrew and I carried the 1.2m satellite dish up. I still can't really believe we got that thing up there but it worked really well.

The driver knows the way

Thursday was a day in the office. Basically trying around with the equipment and going shopping for more stuff to carry up.
Friday Andrew and I went up again. This time with Martin and Adi. We brought another two garafons of water, two batteries and a big plastic box up. You can't imagine how versatile a 114l plastic box can be. By the way, garafons are easiest to carry if you just put them in your backpack and walk up the hill. Putting them on a stick and sharing them between two is more work. Batteries on the other hand can be very dangerous to backpacks. I experienced this on a field trip in the Tuscany where I more or less killed my backpack with a car battery that was leaking sulfuric acid. It took a very good shoemaker to get it back to life. So for batteries it seems to be best to share them between to people on a stick. In the evening Andrew and I stayed in a tent while Martin and Adi went back.

Cooking dinner


My tent in the morning

Saturday was the day of the big group. John brought Gemma, Adi, Lea, Hester and Erin up so we were eight people to carry stuff up. Another 20l of water, two car batteries, two pieces of metal roof, all the electronics (including five solar panels from Hamburg, Nick's panels are still missing) and some more cement made their way up to the site. We spent the day installing everything and in the evening all systems were running. Everybody stayed in their tents for the night.

Eruption on the way to the radar


Fuego in the evening

Sunday the work on the bunker continued while Lea and I tried to set up the radar so it would give us good data. Then we tried to aim it above the crater of the volcano by checking where its beam hit the volcano and guessing from that where we were pointing. We ended up not too far from where we thought but probably still too far to get good data. When we arrived back in Colima we all went completely covered in dirt to Tacos Orientales, our favorite tacos dealer which sells enormous portions. :)

Breakfast


View down on the way to the car


Fuego and the landscape around it


A part of the group decided to walk along the baranca


Adi took a photo of us


The truck was at its packing limit with 8 people and camping equipment

On Monday I went up with Lea and John again. We did the real calibration of our aiming by pointing our radar at a little set of rotating radar reflectors that we set up in 300m of distance and then pointing an aiming scope directly at this reflector. The quality of the aiming of the radar can easily be seen in the amount of reflected energy and since we had a pretty good guess from our experiment on Sunday it took us only an hour to get it to point to the right place.

This tree was in the way of the volcano


An impact crater of a lava bomb


Close-up of fuego. From here it is really impressive


The corner reflector for the calibration with the radar in the background

While I went back to get the reflector, John and Lea brought all our equipment into our newly built bunker. Here it has some protection from the sunlight and other weather effects. The sun is pretty strong up on 2500 m and we had some trouble with overheating of the logger in the start. This seems to be settled now. You can find a bunch of images that were taken during Leas time here in her web album.
On Thursday Lea left again and on Friday I went up again with Erin after going through a complete planning chaos with trip options switching days multiple times.
3A report of that trip is in the last post.
I will add some photos to this post later.