Concern about Mexico’s Popocatepetl Volcano Changes with the Wind

Incandescent materials, ash and smoke are spewed from the Popocatepetl volcano as seen from the San Nicolas de los Ranchos community, state of Puebla, Mexico, on May 23, 2023. (AFP)
Incandescent materials, ash and smoke are spewed from the Popocatepetl volcano as seen from the San Nicolas de los Ranchos community, state of Puebla, Mexico, on May 23, 2023. (AFP)
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Concern about Mexico’s Popocatepetl Volcano Changes with the Wind

Incandescent materials, ash and smoke are spewed from the Popocatepetl volcano as seen from the San Nicolas de los Ranchos community, state of Puebla, Mexico, on May 23, 2023. (AFP)
Incandescent materials, ash and smoke are spewed from the Popocatepetl volcano as seen from the San Nicolas de los Ranchos community, state of Puebla, Mexico, on May 23, 2023. (AFP)

Concern about the Popocatepetl volcano changes with the wind. While east of the mountain residents swept streets and didn’t remove their masks on Tuesday, here to the west, they casually watched the gas and ash plume emerging from its crater.

The 17,797-foot (5,425-meter) mountain just 45 miles (about 70 kilometers) southeast of Mexico City and known affectionately as “El Popo,” has been belching for days, dusting towns and crops in Puebla in a super-fine ash.

“When nothing is happening we worry,” said a cheerful Viridiana Alba, who has been selling flowers in Amecameca’s central plaza for 25 years. “El Popo,” as the volcano is affectionately known, rises directly across from her stand.

“We know that right now it’s releasing smoke, that’s freeing the energy that it holds,” she said. Ash still rests on the awning that shades her plants from when the wind blew her way last weekend. The town was shaken by the volcano’s tremors, but as long as the ash remains light she believes it will help her plants.

Winds have blown a large plume of ash east over Puebla and Veracruz states and eventually the Bay of Campeche and beyond.

Mexico’s National Center for Prevention of Disasters said in its report Tuesday that small domes of lava continued forming inside the crater that were then being destroyed by small and moderate explosions. It advised that people living in communities near the volcano would likely continue those explosions over the coming days and weeks.

Three days ago “my house shook almost all night, it was amazing,” said Arturo Benítez, a former local official. “The sound of the volcano was strong, it resembled a lit boiler and a lot of ash fell, but then suddenly on this side it settled down.”

That was Sunday, when authorities raised the alert level, while maintaining there is not current risk to the population.

No evacuations have been ordered, but authorities have been driving evacuation routes, preparing some shelters and doing simulation drills.

On Cortes Pass, a small highway that crosses a saddle between Popocatepetl and the inactive Iztaccihuatl volcano, a couple dozen civil defense vehicles and soldiers blocked the way Tuesday.

The road was closed to traffic and most of the cabins that draw tourists were empty.

Cástula Sánchez, 75, who sells food to tourists on the weekends, was confident Popocatepetl would settle down again and the tourists would return. She lives in nearby San Pedro Nexapa where three decades ago lava arrived close to her home before they could evacuate, but they were spared.

Now she runs a local information service from the back of her shop. Residents bring her short messages scribbled on a piece of paper that she then reads over a loudspeaker the whole community can hear. So far authorities have asked nothing of her, just to keep an eye out.

In Amecameca, police handed out pamphlets with tips on being prepared in case the volcano’s activity increased. The pamphlet recommended having important documents at hand, a full gas tank, masks and towels to dampen if residents had to leave in a hurry.

Most residents already know, especially those who remember an eruption in 1997 that “darkened the sky, thundered ... and a muddy rain fell,” Benítez said.

“The pyroclastic cloud came to Amecameca and it was chaos, everyone wanted to leave then and it was tremendous,” he said.

The only time Popocatepetl triggered a red alert on the government’s stoplight-style system since emerging from decades of dormancy in 1994 was in 2000. The volcano’s last major eruption was more than 1,000 years ago.

The activity this time has so far not been significant for locals, but the localized impacts could be real for residents on one side of the volcano while everything is normal on the other.

Benítez who worked years ago as a photographer with federal authorities monitoring the volcano said he thought coverage in recent days had been a bit exaggerated. “It’s not that bad, except if they know something we don’t know, because the activity has lessened.”

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador too downplayed the situation Tuesday.

“We are going to be watching and if there's anything we're going to inform,” he said. “But we feel like there isn't going to be a problem.”



Greece's 'Instagram Island' Santorini nears Saturation Point

Tourists queue as they wait to take a picture from one of the balconies. Aris Oikonomou / AFP
Tourists queue as they wait to take a picture from one of the balconies. Aris Oikonomou / AFP
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Greece's 'Instagram Island' Santorini nears Saturation Point

Tourists queue as they wait to take a picture from one of the balconies. Aris Oikonomou / AFP
Tourists queue as they wait to take a picture from one of the balconies. Aris Oikonomou / AFP

One of the most enduring images of Greece's summer travel brand is the world-famous sunset on Santorini Island, framed by sea-blue church domes on a jagged cliff high above a volcanic caldera.
This scene has inspired millions of fridge magnets, posters, and souvenirs -- and now the queue to reach the viewing spot in the clifftop village of Oia can take more than 20 minutes, said AFP.
Santorini is a key stopover of the Greek cruise experience. But with parts of the island nearing saturation, officials are considering restrictions.
Of the record 32.7 million people who visited Greece last year, around 3.4 million, or one in 10, went to the island of just 15,500 residents.
"We need to set limits if we don't want to sink under overtourism," Santorini mayor Nikos Zorzos told AFP.
"There must not be a single extra bed... whether in the large hotels or Airbnb rentals."
As the sun set behind the horizon in Oia, thousands raised their phones to the sky to capture the moment, followed by scattered applause.
For canny entrepreneurs, the Cycladic island's famous sunset can be a cash cow.
One company advertised more than 50 "flying dresses", which have long flowing trains, for up to 370 euros ($401), on posters around Oia for anyone who wishes to "feel like a Greek goddess" or spruce up selfies.
'Respect Oia'
But elsewhere in Oia's narrow streets, residents have put up signs urging visitors to respect their home.
"RESPECT... It's your holiday... but it's our home," read a purple sign from the Save Oia group.
Shaped by a volcanic eruption 3,600 years ago, Santorini's landscape is "unique", the mayor said, and "should not be harmed by new infrastructure".
Around a fifth of the island is currently occupied by buildings.
At the edge of the cliff, a myriad of swimming pools and jacuzzis highlight Santorini is also a pricey destination.
In 2023, 800 cruise ships brought some 1.3 million passengers, according to the Hellenic Ports Association.
Cruise ships "do a lot of harm to the island", said Chantal Metakides, a Belgian resident of Santorini for 26 years.
"When there are eight or nine ships pumping out smoke, you can see the layer of pollution in the caldera," she said.
Cruise ship limits
In June, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis floated the possibility of capping cruise ship arrivals to Greece's most popular islands.
"I think we'll do it next year," he told Bloomberg, noting that Santorini and tourist magnet Mykonos "are clearly suffering".
"There are people spending a lot of money to be on Santorini and they don’t want the island to be swamped," said the pro-business conservative leader, who was re-elected to a second four-year term last year.
In an AFP interview, Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni echoed this sentiment and said: "We must set quotas because it's impossible for an island such as Santorini... to have five cruise ships arriving at the same time."
Local officials have set a limit of 8,000 cruise boat passengers per day from next year.
But not all local operators agree.
Antonis Pagonis, head of Santorini's hoteliers association, believes better visitor flow management is part of the solution.
"It is not possible to have (on) a Monday, for example, 20 to 25,000 guests from the cruise ships, and the next day zero," he said.
Pagonis also argued that most of the congestion only affects parts of the island like the capital, Fira.
In the south of the island, the volcanic sand beaches are less crowded, even though it is high season in July.
'I'm in Türkiye
The modern tourism industry has also changed visitor behavior.
"I listened (to) people making a FaceTime call with the family, saying 'I'm in Türkiye," smiled tourist guide Kostas Sakavaras.
"They think that the church over there is a mosque because yesterday they were in Türkiye."
The veteran guide said the average tourist coming to the island has changed.
"Instagram has defined the way people choose the places to visit," he said, explaining everybody wants the perfect Instagram photo to confirm their expectations.