Around 2pm on June 2nd a large eruption caused the crater on the SW side facing El Castillo to break off… a large amount of lava came tumbling down with lots of ash and smoke. Around 3pm some men from OVSICORI (the volcano monitoring group who just happened to be at the Observatory Lodge when it happened) came to Butterfly Conservatory doing a survey and asking what we saw, and about the level of ash fall.

We of course saw the eruption which caused the edge of the crater to fall, but it just looked like a large lava flow with lots of smoke, and then big clouds started forming rapidly due to the heat hiding the volcano. No ash fell in El Castillo because it almost immediately started raining from the steam produced, forcing the ash to the ground before reaching us.

Large clouds of steam are still forming all down the SW side of the volcano so can not see the level of activity right now. Anyway, no damage done, just a good show and life continues as usual here in paradise.

Glenn