In our last blog I mentioned Eilidh (Alee) who we had first met in a hostel in Colombia, coming to visit us. We have been seeing some of the sights here in Rome with her. I will do a wrap up of Rome in another week as we head home in six days; time flies. So the three of us decided to take a trip down to Naples and visit the site of Pompeii and lesser known Herculean. Naples is situated north of the volcano Vesuvius and Pompeii is on the south side with Herculean on the coast in the middle. We wanted to try and do a day visit so we jumped on the high speed train to be able to make it in an hour and a half. We got to Naples and found the subway that would take us first to Herculean. We got to the sight by noon right on schedule. Herculean was completely cover by a pyroclastic flow to the depth of 40 feet preserving the entire town like a time capsule. A pyroclastic flow is neither lava or ash. It is a combination of hot gases, rocks, water and ash, which when dry becomes pumas. These flows unlike what we see with the slow moving lava in Hawaii, can fly down the side of a volcano at speeds of 400 MPH giving little warning to its victims. The heat of the flow is up to 400 degrees so it does not burn the building but rather cooks them. The worst loss of life due to pyroclastic flow occurred in Pelee in Antilles killing 30,000 and Mt. St. Helen's causing much destruction. The location of the Herculean was completely lost until a well was being dug in the 1700's. As the story goes a new town had sprung up on top of the old one without anyone's knowledge. After the bottom fell out of the well, further inspection revealed statues and many other valuable works of art along with houses still completely furnished. So further looting began and tunnels were dug from one building to another looking for treasure, which much was found. It was not until the 1800's that the early beginnings of the new field of archaeology started to dig the town out. Today about 25% of the town is uncovered and the new town still sits on top of the rest off it. Other tunnels have been dug to look for other structures and an entire theater has been found but is off limits to the public, dang. We walked the streets and entered buildings that still had their original roofs on them just as they were left nearly 2000 years ago. At the bottom of the town, which then would have been the shoreline were several brick boat houses built into the wall. In these brick cave like structures many victims hid hoping to be safe but were covered with the flow and then were cooked as temperatures were said to exceed 400 degrees, sad. Many skeletons were found in the structures and were carefully dug out and then left where they died. We spent a couple hours and then jumped back on the subway and headed over to Pompeii. Unlike Herculean Pompeii was inundated with ash very quickly after the eruption suffocating the victims and then burying them in a coating of ash, which then preserved the bodies like mummies. The ash washed away leaving the buildings exposed to the elements so that the roofs and walls of the building eroded with time and also suffering from looting of building supplies (stones). Some of the remaining mummified remains were later found in the debris when the town was excavated. Both towns have well preserved roads and squares allowing us to see what a Roman town looked like in 70 AD. We were plenty tired after a day of hiking and felt that we had seen a lot in a short time. We would recommend giving yourself two days to tour these sites as Pompeii is a full day in itself. We jumped back on the subway to Naples and then took the SLOW train back to Rome getting back to our apartment at 10pm, a full day of exploring. Eilidh spent a total of four days with us, which we all enjoyed. It is really nice to hang out with fellow travelers and adventurers. All of the folks we meet on the road share our wanderlust and love of adventure. We said our goodbyes hoping that we could catch up with each other again further down the road. We now have our other friend hanging with us for the next week, Colin. We met Colin back in our sailing days. He, like us, was sailing down the coast of Mexico and Central America. Like us he also sold the boat and has continued his travels via backpack. He has been been to Southeast Asia and South America so he, like Eilidh share many of their travel stories with us. We still have a few more things to see here in this next week and will report back to you our readers and fellow armchair travelers. Stay tuned for more Chrysalis Adventures and be sure to check out the pictures in the gallery.