Another Volcano Photo

A couple days ago Alejandro took a photo from the roof of his house.  The summer rains and some windy weather had cleared out much of the air pollution.  The clouds in the sky were high enough to allow a fine view of the two volcanoes, Iztaccíhuatl (left) and Popocatépetl (right).  At their elevation (over 17,000 feet above sea level) the precipitation has fallen as snow, and the two peaks are covered in white.

It may seem that I am somewhat obsessed with those two volcanoes... I've posted several entries with pictures of the mountains in the last couple months... and I suppose I am.  I can remember my very first trip to Mexico back in 1973 when I went to school at the University of the Americas.  A bus took arriving students from Mexico City airport to the university campus two hours away in Cholula on the other side of the mountains.  It was one of those rare Mexico City days without much pollution, and Popocatépetl rose dramatically ahead of us as the bus headed east out of the city.  As a native of Ohio, where the highest elevation in the entire state is only 1550 feet, I was very impressed, no, awestruck, by that looming peak.  When we arrived at the campus it was after dark.  The next morning I woke up and looked out my dorm window.  There they were, the two snow-covered volcanoes.  Wow!  The campus also afforded a view of the nearby peak of La Malinche, Mexico's sixth highest mountain.  And sometimes, appearing almost like a ghostly mirage on the horizon, I could make out the white summit of Mexico's hightest mountain, Pico de Orizaba, more than 125 miles away.  This flatlander was constantly admiring the mountains all around him.

Have I already written about this recollection here on the blog?  If so, forgive me, but I am obsessed with those volcanoes.