Volcano Pacaya

Guatemala is a land with a lot of volcanoes. Very close to Antigua are three. One of them, named Agua is very popular in photos of Antigua. I see it everyday as I walk to class. It is huge and you can see it from any of the north/south avenues here in Antigua. Volcano Agua is sleeping or dormant, as they say. We hope it doesn't wake up while we are here. Another volcano that is closer to Guatemala City is Pacaya. While Agua is dormant, Pacaya is actively spitting out lava daily. In fact, it is currently one of the most active volcaones in the world. Last night Ben and I were able to visit Pacaya. Here is our story:

After jumping into the van, we rode around town until the van was full of tourists (like us) who wanted to go to Pacaya. The trip to Pacaya was about an hour and fortunately Ben and I were in the front seat. The driver and I talked in Spanish. It is amazing how much I have learned, but the challenge is to recall the right words at the right moments. The trip in the van was pretty uneventful, but it was nice to see the Guatemalan countryside. At times it reminded me of the Dominican Republic.

Once at the end of the road, we stopped in a small village, used bathrooms and prepared to set off. The hike would be 1.25 hours up the volcano with taxis continually offering rides. In this context, taxis are people with horses that are more than willing to let you ride up the hill for a small fee. Pride kept anyone in our group from take this option, but after about half an hour, the pride had worn away for some and horses were there to carry them on. Ben and I hiked the whole way. Not so much because of pride. Ben really wanted to ride the horse but I needed the exercise and we wanted to see how hard the climb was so that we could report back to Becky and Elena. After an hour the trees began to disappear and we came to a dried up lava flow. In the distance we could see the lava flowing. It was about 5 p.m. and was starting to get dark. It was amazing how the lava glowed. After 15 minutes of hiking across grassy slopes we were there.

The closer to the flowing lava the hotter it was (no surprise). Very soon the trail was swallowed up by dried lava and we were walking across lava rock that had flowed just a few days earlier. It was difficult to walk because the lava rock was fragile and very uneven. The volcanic rock type is "Aa rock." With each step you didn't know if the lava rock would hold you or crumble under your feet. In addition, when I went to steady myself, I found that not only was the dried rock really hot, it was also very sharp. I wished I had brought leather gloves. At one point, the lava broke under me and I scraped my leg against some lava rock. Sure enough, it left a nice cut on my leg.

We could get as close to the lava as we dared (or could handle due to the heat). We didn't get close enough to cook eggs, but it was about 3 feet from us. The heat from it was amazing. The lava was moving, but slowly. It looked like a really hot fire, except it was florescent. A friend had told us to see it at night and we think she was right. It was amazing to see.

After about a half an hour of taking pictures and exploring, it was time to leave. Knowing we would be hiking down in the dark, we did have a flashlight and we set off down the trail. On the way down we passed two groups on their way up. From what we have heard people go up at all hours. The goal is to go when it is not raining (we are in the end of the rainy season). For us there was not rain while hiking. God held it off. But once we were driving away, the rain started coming down. We hope that those on the trail were prepared.

We did not climb to the top of the volcano. From what I understand, the lava broke out through the side of the volcano a few years ago. As a result it isn't necessary to climb that far up. In addition, the area around the cone isn't very stable and the gases can be deadly.

While our pictures...are as good as we could do, here are some more impressive pictures and a little history of Pacaya.

http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/south_america/guat/pacaya.html

There is a lot of information on the Internet about Pacaya. If interested, do a search!