When we got there we saw smoke coming up off the ground, and realized that the flow was pretty close. Then we noticed that there were crowds of people much closer than the smoke and that the lava had come as close as a 2 minute walk from the parking lot.
After walking towards the crowd, it got really warm -- like walking towards a campfire. Then it was really HOT and we were standing in front of a lightly glowing
mass about 10 feet away.
People left their offerings for Pele. Most were polite, packets of tobacco wrapped in banana leaves (the traditional), personally created offerings, effigies of past relationships all tossed onto the red glowing molten rock. Some were less respectful, drunk people were running up and putting empty beer bottles in the path of the lava, throwing large rocks at it, and just generally being idiots.
The local tradition here is to run at the lava with a long stick, poke it, and pull out some still gooey magma to manipulate into a shape before it cools. When we first heard of this we laughed, but when we got there everyone seemed to need to have a go. A few families had their children doing it too... Dj needed to give it a shot too.
As it got darker the lava started to flow steadily towards the parking lot and the road.
Soon after that we left, covered in grime and ready for dinner in Pahoa.
mass about 10 feet away.
People left their offerings for Pele. Most were polite, packets of tobacco wrapped in banana leaves (the traditional), personally created offerings, effigies of past relationships all tossed onto the red glowing molten rock. Some were less respectful, drunk people were running up and putting empty beer bottles in the path of the lava, throwing large rocks at it, and just generally being idiots.
The local tradition here is to run at the lava with a long stick, poke it, and pull out some still gooey magma to manipulate into a shape before it cools. When we first heard of this we laughed, but when we got there everyone seemed to need to have a go. A few families had their children doing it too... Dj needed to give it a shot too.
Some more pics:
As it got darker the lava started to flow steadily towards the parking lot and the road.
Soon after that we left, covered in grime and ready for dinner in Pahoa.
1 comment:
looks hot.
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