Geography lessons from the heights
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Chapter XI: About volcanoes and their ashes
La Antigua, Sacatepéquez, Guatemala
Once in the air, the high altitude lessons included a variety of subjects, such as, how to recognize and name the different volcanoes we came across:
“Honey chile, what can you make out to the west, toward your right?”
“That’s a pretty big peninsula and it has two lakes! Oops, I mean, that’s a big volcano, and it presents a double crater, Grandpa.”
“That’s right, hon. It’s a volcano complex, and the lakes that have formed inside the craters are the Chiltepe and the Xiloa Lakes.”
Observe and identify the rivers (the main ones and some that didn’t even figure in the maps), lakes, lagoons, beaches and the assorted geographical accidents in the terrain.
“Down there! That’s called the Masaya Lake. Perhaps because it’s next to a city that has the same name, but don’t count on it,” he explained as he pointed to a small lake to my right, “you’ll probably find it difficult to believe, still, according to the surviving legends, it was born because of a princess in love…”
“I really do find that totally unbelievable.”
In the land of volcanoes’ Chapters Purchase the book