L'aura del Campo

Unexpected ... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ... Surprise?

Unexpected ... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ... Surprise?

From South Point, we head north to visit the volcano responsible for building the island. Kilauea has been continuously erupting for the past 36 years. We board a small boat and motor to the place where the lava spills into the ocean, boiling the water and erupting steam into the air. The lava flows are slow and deceptively innocent, but their power to destroy is great and we are careful not to get too close. Our guide reminds us, however, that equal to the lava’s power to destroy is its power to create.

In your blog today, share something unexpected. Have you been surprised by someone or something recently?

When I travel I'm dealing with new sights and sounds constantly. So much so that little surprises me.

1. Visiting where my family came from in Sweden. There was little to nothing there.
2. Cape Town, South Africa. Utterly stunning. Too bad I didn't feel safe.
3. Portugal in general. How well I fit.
4. Speaking a few words of Norwegian in Albania and Macedonia. Small world.
5. How nothing ever looks how you imagine it.

On facebook today, someone I know in Costa Rica actually read my flash fiction and commented! This heartens me because as a writer I want to be read. It's one of the reasons I comment so much. It doesn't cost me to show support for other writers.

Volcanoes... I've seen a few. I'd love to see the pahoehoe flows of Kilauea. And 'a'a as well, though I must admit that personally I'm a bit more explosive.

Been to a few volcanoes in Costa Rica: Irazú, Poas, Rincón de la Vieja, Arenal, Barva. I like visiting when they aren't in eruption. Mud pots are fine but hot lava underfoot (Arenal '74) is dangerous and sulfur eruptions (Poas) treacherous.

So the jigoku (hells) of Beppu in Japan were more my style. I'd love to visit a kipuka (island of trees surrounded by lava flows) in Hawai'i as I wrote a poem about them and I'd like to experience them firsthand. I like places where life persists. It gives me hope with my own struggles.

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