#27 - Two Amazing and Frightening Volcanos

During this first half of 2018, we've visited two active volcanos and witnessed the bright red/yellow/orange lava erupting from both.  In January we visited the Kiluaea volcano in Hawaii, watching the boiling crater spit up lava globules, and we also visited relatives in Vacationland and snorkeled in the Kapaho tidepools there on the east side of the big island.  Then in May we climbed up the Acetenango volcano in Guatemala and spent the night admiring the adjacent erupting Volcan de Fuego which showed regular small, but impressive, eruptions every 20-30 minutes.

Now in June both volcanos have erupted with great force. 

​(Click below right to read more . . . . )

Kiluaea has destroyed 600 homes and counting, and wiped out the Vacationland residential area where we visited Tera's aunt.  The Kapaho tidepools, where we snorkeled, have been inundated with flowing lava and have vanished, buried under new lava that extends almost a mile out into the ocean.

​Likewise, the Fuego volcano in Guatemala had its biggest eruption in 40 years, sending out pyroclastic flow that buried mountain villages, killed over 200 people, and continues to devastate those who lived and worked in that area.  Our daughter Emily was actually in Antigua when the eruption occurred, witnessing first-hand the falling ash that covered the streets, as well as the closed Guatemala City airport that cancelled her departing flight.
 
We grieve for those who have lost loved ones and whose homes and livelihoods have been destroyed.  We are humbled to think we were that close to both places, just weeks before Nature’s fury lashed out in each place.

Kapaho Tidepools, see the approaching lava wall in the background

Kapaho Tidepools, before and after picture