Volcan de Pacaya

When we dreamed about Central American adventures, this is a bit like what we had in mind. Pacaya is an active volcano, about a ninety minute drive from Antigua. We've been told that it's the most frequently visited and the easiest hike of all the volcanoes in Guatemala; a perfect activity for our first Saturday after classes. Blow off some steam and give our brains a rest, you know? We were told by the travel agency that the evening hike was the best to take, because the lava is easier to see at that time of the day. "Do we need a flashlight?" we ask. "No. Definitely not." We were also told to meet back at the travel agency no later than 1:45 so that the bus could leave by 2:00. So we hurry up to make sure we're on time, and proceed to be led from block to block looking for the bus. At one point, we were left on a street corner by ourselves for 15 minutes with no explanation of what was going on. Finally, we're led to Central Park where we join several other groups, still waiting for the bus which did not arrive until 2:30. Fine. That is not unexpected for Central America. We pile on the bus with a very interesting assortment of fellow hikers, many of whom had decided not to shower for at least a week prior. The odor on the bus was not pleasant.

After about 30 minutes of driving, the bus suddenly pulls over into a gas station. It appears that the engine has overheated, so the bus driver begins pouring water on the engine in an attempt to cool it off. Do they call for another bus? Of course not! They fixed the problem, or so they thought. So we all piled back onto the bus and resume our trip, now an hour behind schedule. The engine overheated two more times on the way there, and again several times on the way home. It became amusing after a while.

Once we arrived at the base of Pacaya, we were all very ready to stretch our legs and begin our fairly steep climb upward. There were men riding horses all around, calling themselves, "Taxis". In other words, if you were too much of a wimp to finish the hike, you could pay them money to let you ride their horse to the top. All well and good, except horses drop stuff... on the very same narrow path that we were hiking. Yuck. So the climb up was a little harder that we were expecting it to be, but great exercise and the views were incredible.

Once we finished the hike up the mountain part, we began the tedious trek over the porous (and sharp, I might add) volcanic rock. There was a good 45 minutes of climbing over that before we got close to the lava, but man, was it worth it. We got to see several little explosions up close, and a constant flow of lava slowly oozing out of the side of the volcano. People were roasting marshmallows over the steam vents, and our snack of cheese and crackers that we brought became one big lump of gooey food. By the time we finished exploring and taking pictures, it was getting dark. How were we going to get back over the rock and down the steep, sandy, rocky path without the flashlight our tour guide told us we would not need? This, it turns out, was a very good question.

We now know what it feels like to walk down a mountain blind. It was pitch black, and only one little flashlight 15 feet ahead of us gave us some inkling of where our next step should be. The moon was conveniently behind the clouds. People were slipping and falling left and right. And our guide (who makes this trek twice a day, seven days a week) was moving at lightning speed. Our poor shoes... sand all through them, and on the bottom? Horse droppings. Finally, we reached the bottom of the mountain, very proud of ourselves for finishing without breaking any bones, and more than ready for a shower. Climbing back on the bus was a necessary evil to reach the cleansing that was beckoning to us. And let's just say that the odor on the bus.. well, it was worse on the way back. Sweat and horse droppings. A day well spent.

During one of our many stops on the bus, we encountered these three very dirty and poor kids and their pet goats. Reade gave them each one quetzal (about 13 cents to us) which absolutely made their day.






Our "taxis".









This was the view from about two thirds up the mountain. We still had more mountain to go, and then all of those lava fields up the volcano.









We were just beginning the lava field at this point. We still had a long way to go.













We would be right next to all of that flowing lava in less than thirty minutes.




This is our view from the lava fields at sunset. The three volcanoes in the background surround Antigua. The big one in front is Volcan de Agua, the far left is Fuego (also active), and in the middle is Acatenango, thought it is hard to see.





You can see the steady lava flow just behind us.