Here's what the ground looked like at the mouth.

And here's what the crazy Americans look like when they are resting at the mouth of a very active, very hot/cold/ windy volcano.  We weren't too worried about it erupting, can't you tell?  One thing we had to do, however, was protect ourselves when we breathed in the air up there.  The fact that there wasn't much oxygen that high up didn't seem to bother us.  It was when we looked over the edge of the mouth to see the lava that we had to worry.  The sulfur gases constantly coming up from the lava gagged us pretty bad if we didn't time it just right.

And here is what it looks like inside an active volcano:

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