Clear blue skies and hot sunshine!

After an eventful 26-hour day I finally arrived at my hotel in Colima at 2am. It started off with having to get up at 4am and then being given dogs abuse by the taxi driver for using their company!?! He kept asking why I didn’t call someone else!!! Err is that not the point of taxi’s, to call them out? Then the 4.50 train was cancelled so we had to wait until 5.55 in the freezing cold station and were told we had to get that one because the 6.25 one was also cancelled – note to self, don’t try to travel in the UK when everyone is freaking out over the weather!

So we got to the airport an hour and a half before our flight, and handed our passports to the dude to verify them at check-in. He told us to wait and went to speak with another guy. About 5 minutes passed and they both come over and ask Ivan if it’s his only passport. It turns out because we are travelling through the US, even though we are in transit, because Ivan is Bulgarian and travelling on a Bulgarian passport, he needs a visa. Hence I got on the plane and Ivan didn’t! He had to cancel the ticket and book another one, which didn’t pass through the States. Nightmare! All I could think while running through security (I ended up checking in 45 minutes before my flight was due to leave) was, I hope this isn’t setting the precedent for the whole trip!

The rest of the journey went incredibly smoothly – I got through immigration, picked up and re-checked in my bag, and was through security again in Newark in about 45 minutes! I thought it’d be ages, especially with the Christmas day bombing attempt!

So after 3 flights and a 3-hour bus journey from Guadalajara to Colima (during which I slept and no doubt produced a record amount of drool!) I arrived in Colima and was met by Carlos, who I will be working with for the duration of my trip. We chatted all the way to the hotel, but I’ll be damned if I remember any of the conversation! I think some of it was (inevitably) about the volcano…

I got up this morning to beautiful clear blue skies and hot sunshine (oh yes, summer clothes and sun lotion were needed!!! – sorry to rub it in…). Colima is really beautiful. The town is about 30km south of the volcano, and is about 500 years old. During that time numerous earthquakes have damaged it, mostly magnitude 7 or 8 – big! The last one was in 2003, and walking along every-so-often you come across ruined buildings as a result of it. As with many colonial Spanish towns, every few blocks there are lovely Plazas with trees and flowerbeds, and fountains. It’s very green and lush with Orange trees everywhere, and has a nice tranquil feel about it. Also it’s completely off the tourist map, which is great.

While wandering around looking for somewhere to eat breakfast before meeting Carlos, I got chatting to a shoe cleaner called Pedro. He was telling me about seeing the volcano erupt, and seeing it all red at night, and watching the lava flowing like rivers down the volcano. Awesome!

I spent the rest of the day with Carlos and his family. He has a 4-year-old daughter who decided to read me a story about Jaguars. She can’t read to she just makes it up. My Spanish is pretty good, and I impress myself at how much I understand when chatting to folk, but I have absolutely no idea what she was saying! So I just made ‘mmm’ noises and said “Si” every-so-often!

I caught a glimpse of the volcano this morning! So cool! A few hours later we headed to a restaurant about 15 km away which has incredible views of the volcano, where Carlos would be able to show me some of its features and tell me about its history. It was completely clouded over. Luckily on the way back at sunset the clouds lifted enough for us to catch a glimpse of it… and for me to take 20 photos!!! Fantastic!