Sept 22, Thursday

Sept 22, Thursday

Well, I was up, had a quick breakfast and was in the hotel lobby at 6:30 as requested, waiting for my tour to show up.  They showed up at 6:50, and I was the third stop on a 9 stop run.  A few of the people were late so that delayed us as well.  We ended up leaving Manizales about 45 minutes late, but that doesn’t appear to be a big problem for Latin people.   They pretty much go with the flow.   We stopped at least 6 times on the way up the mountain since we were going from an elevation of 2150 meters in Manizales, going up and down a few times, but to a final elevation of around 4800  meters on Nevado del Ruiz (highest elevation 5389).   They told us the various stops would help us adjust gradually to the higher elevation.   But some of the stops were quite interesting and our guide was very information.   We were a very diverse group:  three females from Germany, one guy from Belgium, one guy from France, me from Canada, and all others were Colombians.  16 people in a mini bus.  Once we got off the main highway, the road got worse and worse, but the vistas were out of this world.   By the time we left the tree line, it looked like we were on the moon.   There are two volcanoes in the area, one is dormant, but looks like it recently erupted, and the other one, Nevado del Ruiz last erupted in 1985, created a lot of damage, but the Arenas Crater was hidden behind the snowy peaks.   As of October last year, local volcanologists' seismographs have detected activity, so people are no longer allowed onto the glacier to see the crater.   Also, since 1985 to today, there is only 19% of the glacier left.   A huge part melted when the volcano erupted, but the rest is disappearing due to global warming.   It was a spectacular site to see the serpentine road going up through the lamar.  The road up the mountain had to be rebuilt after the eruption.   Some formations looked like elongated pyramids, others looked like sand dunes, but the majority looked like a giant pile of sand had slid down the mountain.  I took tons of pictures and filmed part of our drive up so that I can remember the wild ride, and then back down that mountain.   The weather seemed to change every 10 minutes:  clouds blocking all the view, rain, sleet, sunshine so it made for interesting photos.  

The people on the tour were all very nice.  I was the oldest one and the guy from France was in his early 50s;  everyone else was in their 20s, many of them students.   These two girls (Laura and Andrea) who are studying accounting at a university in Bogota and on a one-week school break in Manizales, went out of their way to assist me throughout the day. 

I’m having a hard time understanding their Spanish because of the different vocabulary they use (different from Mexico and Spain),  so we had a fun time trying to communicate, mixing my Spanish and their limited English.   Laura gave me a suggestion for a hotel when I get to Armenia; I'll have to check it out on the internet.   After we came back down the mountain we stopped for lunch, and then went to a hot springs spa for 1 ½ hours.   It was so relaxing to float in that water, even if it was just a regular pool fed by thermal flows.

Tomorrow I switch hotels, so will be down in the valley, just outside Manizales, staying at “El Recinto del Pensamiento” which includes a hotel, a garden/park, coffee cultivation, ecological pathways, butterflies, etc.   Should be an interesting time.