Philippines attempts to sell deadly volcanoes to tourists

0 Comments | AFP, October, 2007

SANTA JULIANA, Philippines (AFP) — Rickety old jeeps barrel through a dry northern Philippines riverbed, setting off a dust storm that coats the visitors bouncing around on the back seat.

The landscape around Mount Pinatubo is evolving again 16 years after a gigantic volcanic eruption killed more than 1,500 people and sent a cloud of ash into the atmosphere cooling world temperatures for years.

The fine sand deposited by the 1991 eruption over the surrounding countryside is being kicked up by sport utilities driven by adventure tourists coming to swim or ride kayaks on Pinatubo's large, mildly acidic crater lake.

"We have to appreciate the fact that our country has many volcanoes," said Perla de los Reyes of the government's volcanology and seismology...