| Being directly in the vent of an active volcano and seeing the lava lake in the Marum
crater was overwhelming. We stood there and felt the earth shaking as lava bombs flew
around us. The noise was so loud that we could barely communicate. The churning magma
was something akin to a giant agitating washing machine. Every step held danger and
excitement as rocks fell and gas jets spewed. Strong whirlwinds of air shot up around
us and obscured our vision. To be confronted with that force of nature was
incredible.
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We needed 55 to 60 porters for the ascent, so we recruited them from different
villages. Unfortunately, when we were down in Benbow crater, some of the porters
decided that to raise their rate
as much as eight times what we had agreed upon. We didn’t want to do it, but we
had no choice. We would have been stranded, and the expedition would have to be
halted immediately. The problem grew worse as other porters heard about the fee
increase.
Matthew Ecreg, our helicopter pilot, recognized that the situation
was getting close to violent, so he offered to fly us out as early as possible
the next day.
The next morning we discovered that some of our supplies
were missing. We knew that we would not be able to stay any
longer. Matthew showed up in his freight plane, but circled our camp at low
altitude rather than land. We didn’t understand why. Then he dropped a note to
us from the plane. It said that the chiefs had banned all aircraft from
landing on Ambrym’s ash plain, and he was concerned that we were being held
against our will. He instructed us to wave our arms if we were in trouble and
wanted to leave. We did, so he landed and evacuated us to safety to another town.
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Everything went OK with the rescue after the ordeal with the porters, but
things got weird the next day. Ambrym Island is known in the region as a center
of black magic. It must have been working when every vehicle belonging to
Matthew’s transportation company broke down. The helicopter needed parts. The
freight plane didn’t work. The boat was out of order. And the water jet and car
were inoperative. I was hoping that the black magic was not being used against
us personally and counted on the friendliness of the people to keep us safe.
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