Within the crater are several of what look like miniature volcanos – hornitos.

These are where the lava itself comes out of the volcano – while we were there this was in the form of regular spurts, up to 10 feet into the air. It looked like these pits had some little fella in them shovelling out dirt, but in fact it is liquid rock. The dark parts on the cones in the picture are patches of freshly “excavated” lava – it goes white when it cools.

Again I was a little nervous about the cones, but fascinated by the activity going on within. Some other people were going a lot closer, but I fear having a chunk of something hot searing its way through my skull and brain so kept my distance and advised Yuki to do the same.

Every time the cones ejected lava, some of the vents would let of a burst of steam then return to simmering away. Some people played dangerously close to these, even stepping inside. Luckily I didn’t witness any scalds.