Sunday is culture day!

It's the 70th anniversary of the University of Colima, and to mark it, they are putting on a ballet at the theatre which started today. The ballet was about the changing times in Mexico. It started off with pre-Hispanic dances to traditional drums which was fantastic. Then it went into Spanish times and they re-inacted the birth of Jesus as depicted by Alejandro Rangel Hidalgo (who I wrote a wee bit about last Sunday). During the interlude, a boy lay on the stage in front of the curtain with his radio listening to some of the first radio programmes - Carlos was shocked that he could remember them!! After the break, they danced to songs written by a famous composer Francisco Gavilondo Soler (better known as "Cri-Cri") for children. They were very popular through the fifties.

The Mexican culture and history is really interesting. You can see the influence of the pre-Hispanic cultures mixed with the Spanish everywhere. The entrance to Colima is marked by a sculpture of 2 dogs dancing. Dogs were celebrated by the Nahuatl people (Aztecans). Dogs were companions, workers, helpers through life, so when the owner died, the dogs were buried with them to guide them through the after life. Their belief was that if you didn't have a dog to guide you through the afterlife, you would be doomed to wonder the Valley of Darkness forever. Many of their ornaments were statues of dogs.

After the dance show, we went to the zoo. I always have a bit of a love hate thing going on with zoos. I love seeing the animals, and I know a lot of zoos are doing a lot of good, but I hate seeing the animals in such small cages. Some of the animals today were in ridiculous sized cages.

But it's in a lovely big park with lots of trees everywhere, and we spent a pleasant afternoon wondering around. At one point we were heading along to see the ducks (Donaji was flapping her arms quacking away!), and I saw something fall and hit the water with an almighty splash (more of a smack really). We all stopped and looked, and this dazed Iguana pulls itself out of the water and sits very still for a very long time!! It'd fallen a good 10m from the tree!

We also stumbled across a frog Mariachi band!!

a nice cycle...

Nothing much has been happening. We saw an Iguana yesterday near Minerva's parents house.

Carlos lent me his bike so that I could go to the lab this morning. I have loads to do, so I thought that I'd go in this morning so that I'm not running around like a maniac next week trying to finish things off and suck all the information I need from Carlos!

He looked out the bike for me ages ago, but I've been too scared to use it because of the traffic! They drive a little scarily, not quite as suicidal as Armenians, but scary all the same! I couldn't put it off any longer so I set off this morning. In the cool of the morning when I was whizzing along (mostly on the pavements!) it was lovely. I was thinking to myself, why haven't I been cycling in everyday?? I got to uni with no problems, and managed to get another 5 samples sieved. When I left at 1pm, it was blazing hot sunshine and not a cloud to be seen. It was roasting! I haven't done anything that can be considered exercise in ages, and by the time I got back to Carlos' house, I was dripping with sweating and my face was bright red! That's why I haven't been cycling! But at least I managed it without getting knocked over. Although at one point I forgot which side of the road they drive on, looked behind me, saw nothing was coming and rode straight out in front of a car coming towards me. Oops!

Incidentally, Carlos met Mark Beaumont who is Cycling from Alaska to Patagonia making a documentary for BBC. He is writing a blog and sends his videos to the BBC who update his page. Carlos spoke to him about Volcan de Colima, and showed him some stuff at the observatory, and he filmed it for the documentary. I tried to find it on his page, but I can't view any of the videos here. This is the link to the Mexico part of his journey, so if you have some time and are interested, there should be something there about Colima:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/cyclingtheamericas/2009/09/

Field work done... for now!

Yesterday was our last day in the field :(

It was another belter of a day, and Carlos and I drove about looking for sections further away from the volcano. All the sections we have so far from this trip are close together (within about 5km), as are the majority of all the sections previously described by Carlos, Ivan and Jim. Jim Luhr carried our some of the very first work on Volcan de Colima in 1980. Carlos and Ivan have been continuing his work, and my project is a continuation of his work.

It's good to have sections close together for correlation of the units, but when it comes to working out the volume of the eruption, you need to have a good distribution of samples from units across a big an area. The more distal sections will have smaller pumice and lithic sizes, and should be thinner deposits. However, it all depends on the direction of the wind, the strength of the wind and the topography. If there is a strong wind at the time of eruption, the pumice and ash will be carried much farther, forming thinner deposits over a greater area. Pumice and ash fall from an eruption will generally give pretty even coverage over the topographic highs and lows, as it 'rains' out the sky, whereas pyroclastic flows travel at speeds of well over 100km/hour crossing valleys and climbing up over highs of over 1000m, will leave thicker deposits in valleys and thin deposits on topographic highs. It makes it very difficult to correlate pyroclasitc flow deposits across an area, because the thickness can vary enormously over short distances. Hence sifting through ash looking for charcoal! It makes it a lot easier to correlate if we have matching dates!

We found some good sections, some with charcoal. Those without charcoal, I hope to be able to correlate with other units by doing a comparison of their mineralogy and geochemistry. We'll see...

Carlos and I got a bit fed up sitting in the truck, so decided to walk along a track to find a section. We ended up walking 8km, found a good section and took some photos...

While we were walking I asked Carlos about how he came to study volcanology. He had a bit of a detour in Marine Geology too!

So it was back picking out charcoal this morning and sieving pumice this afternoon...

Julia's world!

What an incredible day! We went up Nevado to find a section where we could see all the units. We found a cracking roadcut, and worked all morning in the baking sunshine describing and sampling it. I'm starting to build up a picture now in my head of the previous eruptions. We collected 16 samples today - another couple of days work in the lab!

Nevado with a wisp of steam from Volcan de Colima behind

Because we finished what we planned to do for the day by 2.30, I persuaded Carlos to walk up to where we could see Colima Volcano at 4000m. We wolfed down our lunch (I was starving!) and set off. I'd forgotten how hard it is to walk at altitude (having a sandwich sat in our stomachs probably didn't help!). After a few hundred metres we were both panting away and Carlos, who is 20 odd years older than me said he needed to take it slower. I decided to keep him company!!

A woman in the tree?

We walked up through pine forests, and it was completely silent. There were no people, no wind, and only the occasional bird twittering away. It was lovely. The peak of Nevado was towering above us, with the brilliant blue back-drop of the sky, not a cloud to be seen. We rounded the corner where you can see right across to Volcan de Colima, and it was completely covered in clouds!!! Ha ha! All I could do was apologise to Carlos for dragging him on a tough 45 minute walk!! But we hung around for a bit and the cloud cleared enough for us to see a ghostly image of the volcano and the fumarole steaming away from the dome. And for me to take another 20 photos!!!

Fumarole on side of dome.....

Through the gaps in the clouds Carlos was pointing out the different lava flows to me, and the second cone on the side of the volcano called "Volcancito" which means "little volcano".

Volcanicito on the left, the rough surface on the slope of Volcano de Colima is a lava flow from 1975 which is split by Volcancito.

By this point my face was beaming and my head roasting. I'd forgotten my sun hat and my sunglasses. And I forgot to bring the keys to the lab so when we got back we had to dump the samples in Carlos' office. I seem to have been in Julia's world all day. Driving up Nevado, Carlos pointed at something in the road, and said "Look, Armadillo". We'd past it by the time I realised what he said! I really want to see an Armadillo!

On the drive home the sun was setting, giving the volcanoes a lovely glow. You can see the fumarole going almost vertical it was so still.

Hopefully fixed the link!

Ok, I have re-done the link to the volcano photos and it should work fine of you copy and paste the link in your browser.

Carlos and I started picking out charcoal today from some of the samples we collected, so that we can date the eruptions using Carbon 14 isotope dating (we don't actually do it, we just collect the charcoal and send it off to a lab somewhere). Any trees and branches which were burnt during the eruption, usually by pyroclastic flows, will be able to give us a date to within 60 or so years, which when the eruptions we're looking at are in the region of 5000 years ago, is pretty good.

At first I was all excited and felt like a detective sifting through dirt looking for critical pieces of evidence! A volcano detective! But after 2 hours of sitting hunched over a pile of ash and soil picking out 1mm size bits of charcoal, the novelty wore off. I wasn't born with patience as one of my virtues!

But I get a break from the lab tomorrow as Carlos and I are heading back up Nevado to do some fieldwork! Hooray!

A cultural lesson...

Man I ate too much today! My stomach hurts. Again. We went to an amazing restaurant for lunch in Comala, a village not far from Colima. It's a beautiful colonial village with cobbled streets and white one-storey high buildings with tiled roofs.

The main square has a big church on one side, shops along 2 of the others side under arches, and this restaurant on the 4th side. We sat down outside under the arches. The waiter asked what we wanted to drink and had to shout above a band which was playing at the next door table. It's a tradition that started here 30 years ago. The men in the village form bands with guitars, drums, violins, trumpets, accordions, and go from table to table offering to play songs. When someone asks them to play they surround the table and belt out traditional music! It's fantastic! And the food just kept coming. Then we went for a walk and bought more food, and then maybe just a little bit more.....

Minerva was telling me this morning at breakfast about the swine flu outbreak. She said everyone was quarantined in their home. No-one went outside. When she did go out to buy some more food, she said the streets were deserted, anyone she saw crossed the road to avoid her, and they all had masks on. Everyone was scared they would catch it. She said the economy was hit from the affects of no-one going out - restaurants, bars, shops. All deserted. She said it reminded her of the Will Smith film, I am Legend - very eerie! People were communicating through emails and it didn't take long for their sense of humour to kick in - emails were flying around with photos from the film of the zombies!

2010 marks the 200 year anniversary of independence of Mexico from the Conquistadors from Spain, and the 100 year anniversary of the Mexican Revolution. 1910 marked the start of 10 years of violence during which 2 million people lost their lives, and the economy shattered. From what I can work out, the leaders of the fighting parties were all assassinated, and the reformists then ruled until 2000, who although had some radical social policies, managed to rebuild the country.

Last night we went to a dance show from the region of Oaxaca (pronounced WaHaka) to mark the anniversary of Independence. Throughout the year there will be lots of festivals and shows. The dancing is very traditional and is well known throughout Mexico to be the most beautiful dancing in Mexico. They have a festival every year in Oaxaca in June, where lots of groups dance and compete. Carlos told me it lasts for 2 days with many dances. He said it is stunning to watch. What we saw last night was just a taster, he said.

We arrived about an hour before it started and already the queue was all the way up the street, around the corner and part way along that street! So many people turned up to watch it. The theatre was packed. All the seats were filled and people were standing! It's very rare for them to come to Colima. The dancing was lovely and their costumes were beautiful... worth the wait.

After the show, all the dancers and musicians pile out into the streets and dance and play in the streets. It's such an amazing atmosphere. Unfortunately we had a sleeping 4 year old with us, so couldn't stay and soak it all up.

Before lunch (well mid-afternoon dinner really), we went to a wee village just outside Comala called Nogueras. It's a really beautiful, tranquil place where the designer, painter and illustrator Alexjandro Rangel Hidalgo lived and painted. He's very famous in Mexico and across the world. He illustrated Christmas cards for UNICEF, of Christmas across the world, always of a couple and how they celebrate Christmas. The detail of his work is incredible. He also depicted Angels of the world i.e. Angel of Kenya, Angel of Japan. If you're interested you can see some of his work here:

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alejandro_Rangel_Hidalgo

Talking of links, check this out for some awesome photos of eruptions!

www.photovolcanica.com/VolcanoInfo/Sakurajima/Sakurajima.html

Family fun

All this week I've been having lunch with Carlos's wife's family. Her mother cooks and the whole family descends! Minerva's sisters and their families, her brother and sister-in-law, and now me! They come any time between 1 and 3, and in total she must feed 10 people everyday! It's their main meal of the day and of course consists of rice, tortillas, beans and salsa and then fish, or meat with a sauce. It's really lovely to be included in this, and they usually bombard me with questions about the UK, about the Volcano - is it going to erupt soon? when? (If only I knew!) They also tell me about Mexican culture and about local cuisine etc.

Last Thursday was the 7th anniversary of a magnitude 7.6 earthquake which destroyed a lot of the buildings in Colima. They sat around at lunch telling me their stories about it. It was about 6.30 pm on a Tuesday when everything started shaking. All the lights went out and most of them ran outside. Minerva told me that it lasted for a minute, and after it stopped she went straight round to her mum's house. A lot of the houses in the street had been flattened, and were just rubble. She was crying for her parents and praying that they were ok. Their house still standing, but with a lot of damage. Luckily, both of them were ok. It was interesting to hear there stories especially in light of the Haiti earthquake. I think that has reminded them of how it was. There are a lot of people raising money for Haiti in the streets - dancing at traffic lights and collecting from the waiting cars.

This morning Carlos and I planned the next week's fieldwork, which made me much happier. I told him what my plans are and he agreed and suggested some sections to visit. Fantastic. The truck is being repaired, but Gabriel, the Director of the Observatory has said we can take another truck but we're not allowed to stay overnight! A bit of a bummer, but he's giving us the truck and Carlos's help for free, and we definitely can't argue with that!

I decided to take a walk into the centre. It's about half an hours walk from Carlos's house. You go from a nice little cobbled street housing estate with orange, mandarin and lime trees everywhere, to something that resembles the United States, to the centre which is very colonial, with run down buildings and again fruit trees everywhere.

The Primavera or spring blossom trees are starting to blossom. They're a stunning bright yellow against the blue sky. Beautiful. I swear I haven't seen a cloud since Ivan left.... is it some sort of sign I wonder?

Passing my days in Uni...

Carlos went up Nevado to try to recover the truck today. Unfortunately because the truck's been stuck up there we haven't been able to go into the field, which is really frustrating considering the weather has been amazing all week! The good news is that the truck is now down in Colima town, but the bad news is that something to do with the radiator is broken and needs to be replaced. So we can't go into the field tomorrow, and then it's the weekend and we're not allowed to take the truck at the weekend, so we have to wait until Monday to go back into the field. Grr.

And doubly Grrr, Carlos watched an amazing eruption from the top with rockfalls followed by a blast. His photos look awesome!

But on the upside, I'm getting a lot of time in the lab to process my samples... and Eric's helping....

Sieving that samples... Eric looking at charcoal

I have to sieve the samples in 10 different sized sieves, and then weigh each fraction individually. From this it's then possible to say something about the size of the eruption etc. I'm also looking at the amount of lithics (pieces of rocks ) present compared to pumice. The lithics can be from the lava dome which was blasted to pieces by the force of the explosion, bits of rock ripped off the conduit wall as the magma rushed past, or from the magma itself. Again the amount of lithics present can tell us something about the size and explosivity of the eruption.

Some photos around uni...

Where I sit and write this blog in the evening. The Observatory. The lab - not so nice on the outside!

Sun, sand, sea, and of course volcanoes!

Man I love this place! I'm sat outside the uni at 7pm in my shorts and t-shirt watching the sun set, with a nice warm breeze blowing through the trees..... Heaven! Sorry I haven't posted much over the last few days. It's been really busy with various things and I never seem to get a minute to myself.

Ivan left this morning, and it's like a switch has been flicked! It's immediately so much more chilled!

I've been staying with Carlos and his family while here in Colima town. They are absolutely lovely. His wife, Minerva, doesn't speak much English, but likes to talk a lot so I'm getting a lot of practise speaking Spanish which is great! Although my grammar is still terrible - I think I might have to do some classes when I get home! And as for his daughter, Donaji, I still have no idea what she says. All her 'R's are 'L's, her 'Q's are 'T's, and there are an awful lot of 'S's thrown in there too!

The Mexican's are really welcoming, friendly people - we went part way up the road to Nevado on Friday so search for a section lower down, and we stopped next to some people eating lunch. We said hello, and they replied with "please, join us for lunch"! Carlos has been fantastic. He and his wife are really looking after me and showing me around. They're really keen to show off Mexico, and a big part of that is the food (it wouldn't be me without mentioning food!!). The food is fantastic! They eat tortillas with everything. And salsa. And beans. It's really tasty.

On Saturday, Carlos was keen to relax. After a bit of a mental week, and his boss going a bit mad about the truck (which, incidentally is still on top of Nevado) I didn't blame him. But Ivan wanted to go into the field and see some more stuff, so we headed off on a trip which turned into a tour of some really beautiful countryside.

We did discover the heart of a volcanic cone, and were treated to some amazing views of the volcanoes!

The volcanoes with Algave - Tequila plants! East side of Colima - you can see lava flows on either side. The centre of a volcano!

Ciudad Guzman - only 25km from the volcanoes. The Churches were partially destroyed in previous eruptions.

Sunday was our day off, and we went to the beach at Manzanillo. It was fantastic! It was 30 degrees and the sea was warm. We then went and ate some incredible seafood in a restaurant right on the beach. I ate so much Octopus my stomach hurt like hell! The other's were wetting themselves!

Donaji with Eric! Donaji, me, and Minerva

Yesterday was spent in the lab in the University of Colima. The observatory shares buildings with the uni, but they don't really work together and a lot of them are doing the same research but with no collaboration! It's nuts, but that's just the way it is here.

We had to sort out all the samples for Ivan to take splits and take them home with him. His luggage never turned up, so it meant he could take a lot more samples home which is great. At the moment I'm going to be working here in the lab doing grain size measurements on the samples - sieving and weighing the pieces of pumice. From this, I'll be able to work out the size of the eruptions, and how explosive they were. We're still waiting to hear the fate of the truck, but the the director of the observatory told Carlos today that if we want to go into the field we can use another if our one is broken. I was so relieved to hear that! I was concerned that I'd be stuck in the lab here for the rest of my stay. Now I can start planning what I want to do!