I Totally Saw Lava!!

Unfortunately, the photography conditions were beyond the abilities of my camera, but I did see lava!! Here are some other things that I saw...

a pre-black-sand beach

a teensy-tiny baby gecko!!

the lava's steam plume and the sun

cocos on the lava field
This field is from the 1983 eruption... really crazy to think about walking on land that is the same age as me...

Seeing the lava was a little like going to a football game when you don't have very good seats (but awesomer). We were really far away, so we could have seen the action better on TV (aka volcano documentaries), but it was stunning to be able to see it in person. It was a little bit like quiet fireworks as the lava splashed up before crashing into the ocean. The other amazing thing about the lava was that you could see the ground steaming all the way up the volcano where the lava was flowing underneath the surface.