Feb 10 2012 Top 7 / Volcanes

Volcanoes are too fickle and do not understand. I have approached tropical volcanoes, in polar areas, I have seen huge and tiny, burning lava or mud, upholstered in green the bare, craters where there has flourished a garden that could well be heaven and others to find the mouth of hell itself. Some are active, asleep, quiet to the point of awakening. Today select 7 Volcanes, rather than their beauty or their fury, its bewildering variety.

1.- Abacha (Kamchatka)

The Kamchatka Peninsula is starting to become a classic Top 7. Maybe because everything here is exaggerated. Its capital unpronounceable, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatski, is surrounded by volcanoes and the most important being the perfect cone of Abacha, with smoke springing eternal in the snow. It is a giant who watches over the city, a kind of cranky god who threatens to unleash his anger on the latest Russian Russian.

2.-Paricutin (Mexico)

A strange volcano near the remains of another city with an unpronounceable name: San Juan de Parangaricutiro. His story is disturbing. Sprang from nothing, a wasteland of almost sudden and in a few years, the lava swept everything in its path. Today you can walk through solid lava flows buried the surrounding villages. Only the church tower withstood the tsunami incandescent Paricutin. Is it because in Mexico, faith takes it all.

3.-Masaya (Nicaragua)

Near the city of Granada in the field seems to open with an image abyssal. A bottomless crater landscape takes over and nothing is down there because the smoke envelops everything. Huele a azufre, a gas, as if the devil dwell in the Masaya. Around the volcano shows parched field, wilderness, because the burning volcanoes do not like the company of the living.

When we climb Pacaya believed to be reaching the Land of Mordor. It was as if there was over all, the decline of tropical green landscape.

4.-Arenal (Costa Rica)

It has a proud profile, restless teenager. Nothing lives on the slopes, because the lava rocks not stop rolling until the forest and orchards. He is young and so active, impetuous volcano lights the night for tourists. We saw many explosions night, fireworks, vomit fire, that have been carried forward over a bold curiosity with excess.

5.-Ngorongoro (Tanzania)

In no way resembles the giant to the previous. The Ngorongoro Crater is the life, a wild world where grazing wildebeest and lions frolic. You have 260 square kilometers of lakes, Flemish, Zebras, Elephants… It's beautiful from every point of view. Its slopes are cloud forests and jungles, Inside an immense plain, delirium for African nature lovers.

6.-Pacaya (Guatemala)

The Pacaya volcano is the most violent I have ever seen, maybe because I saw him very closely. Guatemala is a country live up to its volcanoes and fluid flow, never stopping. When we climb Pacaya believed to be reaching the Land of Mordor. It was as if there was over all, the decline of tropical green landscape. We approach the lava flows, hear the explosions, assist in the front row at a show that combines the bowels of the planet to the world of the Maya.

7.-Totumo (Colombia)

I want to finish this selection with a volcano that looks more like a joke. The Totumo is tiny, a grain imperceptible on the surface. You can access it by a small staircase ready for visitors. Once up, is hard to resist a mud bath and ash in the crater. It's like swimming in a chocolate cup, just like in the Pacaya. These volcanoes capricious…

What we have left…?

All imaginable volcanoes. The Erta Ale I think a spectacular volcano in Ethiopia, but what can I do?? not yet know. The Hawaiian volcanoes, volcanoes in Nicaragua Ometepe Island, the Monte Kilimanjaro, course, Fuji Japan and the Vesuvius. All of these mythical.