Postcard from the Phillipines: Mayon Volcano.

 

I was thinking about what it must have been like, for a teenager from a Mississippi river town like Quincy (a few miles from Huck Finn's Hannibal), to travel to the other side of the world and see a place so foreign to him. Even for me, 60 years later in a much smaller and more connected world, when I was stationed in Turkey there was a continuous sense of wonder. Sometimes scary too (and I'm sure much, much more so for him too, since this was an active war).

This card is a bit of a break. The Mayon Volcano has had a number of eruptions over the past century, and 50 times in the past 400 years. Some amazing photos here. I remember Mt. Pinatubo, which had a devastating eruption a few years ago. Mayon Volcano is expected to erupt again soon, again possibly catastrophically. The volcano is on the Southeastern part of Luzon Island. Here are some beautiful scenes of the volcano now.