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| Looking up through the cone of a volcano!!! |
One very unique feature on Terceira is an ancient (thank goodness) volcano that, due to the way it erupted thousands of years ago, did not collapse on itself and left an open cavern to explore!! According to the guide, it is only one of 2 of this type of volcano in the whole world!! And it is on our tiny island of Terceira.
It is called the Algar do Carvão. It is maintained by OS MONTANHEIROS – Sociedade de Exploração Espeleológica (Society of Speleological exploration). Speleological is an English word but it means the study of caves. Interestingly, the headquarters of this society is just 2 doors away from us in Angra. Their truck is often parked next to where we do and sometimes in our favorite spot.
We went to it twice on 2 consecutive P-days. It is too far for the missionaries to go on their own and so they like having us come with a car. Elders Hobson and Pickrell asked us if we would be interested in going to see it -- which we were. We worried a little big about the rain that threatened, but it wasn't a problem nor did it really matter. The inside of the volcano is constantly dripping with water seeping through the lava!
Here is the first exploring team!! We are at the entrance to the volcano, ready to enter!
Sisters Savage & Harper and
the Martin Family who were visiting Terceira for 3 weeks from our own stomping grounds in Monterey/ Santa Cruz, CA area. Their main goal was discovering family members. Brother Martin's family came from Angra and they actually did find a big family group of cousins (2nd or 3rd) and shared a fun birthday party for one of them.
They also loved surfing the waves on different beaches. And they came along with us and the sister missionaries to hike and explore the Algar. So, the pictures that follow will be a mixture of the 2 trips.
You begin by walking down a long tunnel from the visitor's center to the actual volcano.
Leaving the tunnel you look up and see the opening of the volcano, lighting up the upper portion of the volcano. (the first photo) It is lined with ferns and green and very beautiful!!
Then you look down, and down and down!! There are so many stairs.
The concave circle on the right of the picture is some hard lava that filled a bubble. When a following explosion happened, it 'blew' off the cover, leaving the ball-like sculpture.
Sister Harper is trying to see if it is really chocolate!!
Or she may be trying to catch one of the drops from the ceiling.
Whatever it is, Sister Savage is recording it.
There are several platform type areas (with stair leading to and from all of them). The acoustics are amazing. We understand that sometimes they have concerts there which if they do, we want to go! Sister Savage, who has a beautiful voice, gave us a rendition of Silent Night in the cathedral. It was heavenly!!
This is the very bottom of the cavern (Remember the first set of stairs, this is about 4 more sets of stairs lower)
There is a little lake here. It was pretty low because the real rainy season hasn't yet begun. It can get up to 15 meters deep -- it is only about 3-4 meters now.
Another unusual site -- stalactites made of silicon!! These are not limestone caves, so you don't get the normal calcium stalagmites and stalactites. Instead, there is an algae or some type of bacteria that uses the silicon that is in the water that seeps through the rocks to create these stalactites. They are extremely slow growing.
The only problem now was to go UP the stairs. Lots of good exercise though my knees weren't too happy about it all. (Especially after the hike, which you will learn about shortly!)
The first week, after leaving the Algar do Carvão, we, Elder Hobson and Elder Pickrell, went to the Gruta do Natal (Christmas Grotto), a series of lava tubes going for thousands of feet under the ground.
It is a simple enough place -- a small visitor's center (also managed by Os Montanheiros). There was nothing in the surrounding geography to suggest the tunneling that is below!
Below is the view looking away from the visitor's center.
We were required to wear hard hats. The lava is like knives both on the floor, walls and ceiling. There was one part that had a lower ceiling -- you had to bend over to walk through (though not bad enough to trigger my claustrophobia).
You can see what the tubes look like and the very rough floor. Again, you would not want to trip and fall on this!!!
Every year on Christmas they hold a special Christmas Mass in the grotto.
The second week, with the sisters and the Martin family, we went on a hike named Mistérios Negros (Black Mysteries). It was 5 km long and rated hard. But we were game!!The hike started at Gruta do Natal where the lava tubes are.
It wasn't so hard at first, but we immediately discovered that the flat spots don't drain well and it had been raining the week before. You would be walking along and it 'looked' like grass, but was mostly water. Our shoes got wet very quickly. Fortunately, it wasn't very cold (this was in September). And fortunately, it wasn't the clay mud like in Danville so our shoes weren't all that dirty, just wet.
It was pretty and green!!
But watch your step!
We went around a little lake which was quite idyllic. You just needed to stop and look, and you needed to watch your step to avoid hidden water/mud puddles. (Have I already said that?)
And there is nothing like a lake to attract children!
Going up a hill. That was nice because there wasn't so much standing water!
The name of the trail comes from 3 domes that look black and mysterious with the dark foliage. The trail climbs up between 2 of the domes. That was the hard part!! The trail was clearly marked, but you had to climb over the tree roots and underbrush which were sometimes like stairs
as you climbed up and up.
But it was really pretty -- like some other world.
Notice the yellow and red lines on the tree limb below??? Those are the trail markers. The 2 parallel lines mean go forward. If you need to turn, the red line will show the direction of the turn. If you are not supposed to go there, the lines are crossed. It works very well! We never got lost!
We found a very unique place for family photos!!
More jungle type trails.
We finally emerge out of the jungle and back into more open country.
Open Country with VIEWS!!!!
Then it was time to descend and finish the large circle of the trail. This is cow country and most trails we have gone on include going through or along side a pasture. With the wet ground, this was particularly hard to negotiate!!
Leaving this pasture!
The final part of the trail ran along the base of this mountain. It, too, had a trail up to the top. But, we needed to get to the cars and go to the Algar do Carvão before it closed. And I was really tired!!
Maybe another time!!!
Dennis, when do you go home from your mission? If you're still here when we leave early April can we come see this with you. Would love it.
ReplyDeleteJulie