The word ¨volcano¨fills the mind with distinct images of smoking craters, billowing ash, toxic gases and flowing lava. On our travels through Guatemala, Kyle and I have seen some of the country´s volcanoes from afar, in places like Lago de Atitlan and Antigua. They seem to me impressive-looking, yet ordinary mountains. Here in Antigua they have a tour available, a hike up Volcan Pacaya just outside of Guatemala City. Apparently we may be able to see lava. Let´s see if this is for real.
Being the independent, outdoorsy person that I am, I am not quite ecstatic at the idea of hiking with a big group of people and hiring a guide. However, in order to climb Volcan Pacaya, this is what was required. So we made our reservation and, the next day, 14 of us climbed into a van and off we went.
The drive to Volcan Pacaya was scenic enough. We were able to look out over the sprawling madness that is Guatemala City. From a distance, Pacaya barely resembled what I thought a volcano, much less an active one, should look like. We drove higher and higher up dirty, bumpy roads until we finally reached the trailhead. We headed up.
Upon hearing that most of the group had failed to bring the required flashlight, our guide realized that our leisurely afternoon/evening hike would have to step it up a notch so that we could make it back down before dark. I didn´t mind, I was long overdue to a tough hike.
And tough it was. Up and up and up we went. Breaking through the trees, we were given views out over Guatemala City. More hiking and more views, this time of previous lava flows reaching out into the neighboring hills.
Finally, we stepped around a curve in the trail and saw the volcano...
If you look closely, you´ll see the red lava at the far right.
From this point on, we were hiking up the steep side of the volcano, scrambling up volcanic rock ranging from tiny, sand-like particles to boulder-size rocks. And in between were sharp, abrasive rock that was ready to tear apart any shoe that came its way.
Finally we reached a spot where our guide stopped. Being the first behind him, he turned to me, pointed down at a crack between his feet, and said ¨Careful, step over.¨He continued on. I moved forward to follow him and began stepping over the crack when I saw a red glow. There was lava just under my feet! Freaked out, I hopped over. Everyone else was similarly amazed and a bit taken aback by how close that lava was. Little did we know what we were about to encounter next.
Our guide again looked back and me from up ahead and grinned. ¨Finale. Finale!¨He yelled, waving me over. I hurried over to him and found that we were now standing mere feet from flowing lava.
It was unlike any experience I had ever had. It was both exhilirating and terrifying all in one. To be standing on a volcano within 5 feet of a hot torrent of lava; there´s no way to describe it.
I sat down to eat a snack and noticed that the clouds were moving in and the wind was picking up. After whipping across the volcanic landscape, the wind that hit me was shockingly hot and delicious.
We stayed for about 20 minutes until our guide called for us to start back down. Descending the steep volcanic rock was both difficult and entertaining. The clouds were whipping around us. If it wasn´t for Kyle´s shoes in the following picture, I may have lost him!
We continued down and ran into a ridiculously long line of tourists being shuttled up. Our group was incredibly lucky to have had the lava all to ourselves. We watched in amusement as this long line of fifty? sixty? people slowly made their way up the volcanic landscape. Exhausted, they looked enviously at us as we slid downhill. We looked enviously back at them, wishing we could head back up for one last peek at the fiery redness of the volcano.
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