We flew over Sakhalin Island and watched the ice stretching from its coasts. We landed almost dark in the Kamchatka Peninsula. It was cold and cloudy what incentive offered no visual. We traveled by taxi Petropavlovsk city in search of a hotel. Until this place reached Soviet-style square building blocks with no personality. The avenues were still wide but fail to see any tall building, anything above three floors, not to tempt the wrath of the seismic tremors.
We stayed in one of those hotels moody gray with a service. The room was so stale that I thought he was intentionally arranged to displease and run the next day that was, certainly, what we did. The weather played with us. The morning was clear and around a corner I felt the shock of my first volcano. El Koriakskaia se eleva 3.456 meters and is one of the three giants that guard the city.
The morning was clear and around a corner I felt the shock of my first volcano
In 2001 was the last volcanic eruption. We were told the whole town went out at dawn to watch the spectacle of lava lighting the night.
Petropavlovsk is located in one of the most fascinating geographical enclaves Russia. North is formed by the mountain range of volcanoes and southern stretches of the three largest bays in the world, which bears the name of one of the volcanoes: Abacha.
Until recent years no stranger could visit the Peninsula was closed even for Russians. Nadie entraba ni salía de Kamchatka. Even today many people of the Bay are closed to civilians. I wondered what would keep state secrets high in those confines.
Kamchatka begins in the capital but we wanted to explore this volcanic soil where bears, they were hibernating, outnumber people. The agency hired did not know how to assimilate our request. They arranged a driver named Jane and interpreter to go 600 kilometers on the ice covering the roads of the peninsula. Asked an exorbitant price but since we got there ...
Until recent years no stranger could visit the Peninsula was closed even for Russians
In the car barely fit five. We carry the camera equipment and luggage piled on our knees. The average speed would not exceed 50 km / h but it was the only way to reach the remote villages of Kamchatka. Just an hour from the city, nature became definitely crazy. The temperature had reached -20 ° C. It was snowing and a river current carrying ice water. Trees branches were white and had frozen around steaming pools. They were hot springs bouncing ghostly haze amidst a snowy landscape. There were six or seven small pools heated by the volcanic soil of the fund. José Luis presented the report and adjusted the suit on the snowy ground. The water from the hot springs of cold isolating him outside world and recorded Alfonso amused and admired the scene.
We both remembered the beginning of one of the best documentaries ever filmed, Baraka, where a monkey rests on a thermal placid North snowfall also Japan. We had monkey, but we had to José Luis he enjoyed as much as the primate.
The hunter challenged me to bathe Kamchatsky style. Was to dive into the icy river before entering the baths.
Recording ended with the last cut I was already changing me to throw the hot dip. I swam for a while absorbed between the frozen branches. The water was a jakuzzi in the heart of winter. He joined us after a hunter of bears its magnitude seemed a prey and soon the mountains offer vodka. And there were the three drinking a glass of Russian vodka. The hunter challenged me to bathe Kamchatsky style. Was to dive into the icy river before entering the baths. Accepted after rushing the glass of vodka and once recovered from the paralysis of the river received the reward of warm water, Gift of volcanoes. The Baths, the mist, Snow ... it was surreal, perfect.
The worst part was out of there and when we get warm again carry luggage and follow road. Yelizovo was the last town with somewhere to stay that we would see for miles and stopped for a drink. Some women had set up a kind of street market eyebrows covered up but still smiling with those gold teeth so common in Russia. Jane delighted us all the way one tape of music that alternated Juanes topics, Mother Talking, successful and popular singers of the Kamchatka. Sometimes Hubie preferred to continue walking.
It was late when we reached Milkovo. The hotel seemed more like one of those documentaries scientific stations in Antarctica. Everything was sealed and the walls were two feet thick. The outside temperature had dropped to -25 ° C when Alfonso and I went out to buy food.
I had struck a restocked plumes of smoke everywhere from the depths of snow. Volcanic fumaroles were
Upon awakening discovered that the sky was clear and bright crystallites floating air by the action of cold. Two kilometers from the town asked Jane to stop the car. I had struck a restocked plumes of smoke everywhere from the depths of snow. Volcanic fumaroles were. It looked like a controlled fire smoldering points. The contrast was again delirious. Prepare camera equipment and recorded to José Luis by the woods of fumaroles in the weeds white. We try to check the power of the land under the snow hot. In one of the holes introduced a water bottle and a few seconds, The heat melted the plastic. Both cold and heat both a foot away! Alfonso and I encourage you to walk a little further. A sulfur yellow river had frozen in the middle of the vent field. The smoke was toxic and it was not advisable to get too, but we treated ourselves to stroll along the banks of the river dodging the holes off gases. Beyond a range of mountains and volcanoes. Quickly realized that we both had beards and frozen inside our nostrils was frozen produce an unpleasant chill breathing. It had been a 40 minutes at -27 ° C were.
The inside of our nostrils was frozen produce an unpleasant chill breathing
Not feel at all the feet until many miles later, but the valleys we passed through the spirit comforted us. The bluish snow road was a skating rink Jane deftly controlled and always in good mood. We stopped several times more but decided acortar each stop. From unpronounceable volcano Kliuchevskaia es, with 4.750 meters, the highest in Asia and can only be seen at this latitude. It is majestic and deserved a more accessible place to be seen
We heard several times "black shirt" Juanes before returning to stop. Jane stopped the car without protest. We had before us a place that was not marked on maps. More than a place was a moment. Late afternoon and at the bottom of a valley on the road, transporting a stream of ice blocks slowly. From the snowy banks emerged dozens of fine trees, whites. The river turned left and the curve formed was foggy as the baths and was sunlit yellow. About, the solemn presence of volcanoes.
We were there and at that moment and woke up in time to record the collapse sensory yellow haze, the frozen river, volcanoes ... The maps marked places but should provide some more information: "At this point must be at six p.m., December a Monday ", eg.
There is no place for the fainthearted when a car breaks down to -30 ° C, no phone coverage, deserted road
And It se nos acababa Kamchatka. It is a surprisingly active village. It has a school, institutional buildings and some summer tourism. Men and women are brave people strength. There is no place for the fainthearted when a car breaks down to -30 °, no phone coverage, deserted road. In this part of Kamchatka living for generations avenue, an indigenous people by their facial features must be twinned with the Eskimos, an appellation which incidentally, is systematically rejected by the people of the North. In some villages near tanning skins saw them all: deer, reindeer, Arctic foxes, bears ... hunting and fur are activities that fit into the Kamchatka Peninsula.
As we were leaving, a man crossing the town in an armored military, several kids played snow throwing bolazos, naked, in another pool of hot water and a clothes women tended to be frozen before drying certainly. Typically in this part of the world.
