I am back in the United States and I will be here until the end of April. I just wanted to post some things about Mt. Yasur while I am in the land of high speed Internet! So I live on Tanna Island, as you all know by now, but what you probably don’t know is that the Island of Tanna has one of the most accessible, active volcanoes around: Mt. Yasur. I had heard from other volunteers in Vanuatu that Tanna, or what some refer to as the “Island of Fire” because of Yasur, was one of Vanuatu’s star attractions. So when I first arrived on Tanna in February, one of my first stops was to go check out the volcano. We ventured to the East of the island where Yasur is located….but upon arriving I was shocked to be presented with what looked like a small ant hill compared to what I had expected to see. Mt. Yasur was tiny, in fact it is only about 361 meters high. For you history buffs you may be interested to know that the glow of the volcano was apparently what attracted Captain Cook on the first European journey to the island in 1774.

So getting back to my first experience of the volcano......Myself and two other volunteers, Brett & Matt, headed up at dusk to go check Mt. Yasur out. It was to have been their sixth time seeing it, but they assured me it never gets old. So we hiked up the side of it and just as the sun completely disappeared we had arrived to the top where tourists view the volcano. Apparently this was the safest viewing platform. I had been informed earlier in the day that depending on wind direction and the force of which the volcano hurled lava, you could possibly be in a direct path of getting hit by some. So needless to say I was a bit nervous as we reached the top of the platform. There were no other tourists in sight so we had the whole massive, lava filled rock to ourselves. I believe there are four vents that go off randomly all day long. Even before we reached the top we could hear the rumbling of Yasur from miles and miles away. I was also informed by Brett that tonight was an exceptional night for viewing the volcano...so I considered myself lucky, not only to be in this spectacular place with friends, but also because I was getting to experience this on a night that was prime for viewing. I have included some pictures of Mt. Yasur for the class to look at.
Like I said I will be in the States until the end of April on vacation, so if you guys want me to answer some more questions or if you would like to know about something specific just shoot me an email and I will try to get back to you guys ASAP!