We climbed a volcano!

 

Saturday, July 23

Today was a wonderful experience visiting an active volcano. 

Guatemala has 37 volcanoes, three of which are active: Volcán Santa Maria, which is far from where we are; Volcán de Fuego, considered the most active in Central America that is also visible from Antigua and from which we saw belching smoke and lava this past week; and Volcán Pacaya, which we visited up close and personal. 

Here is a very grainy clip of Fuego sending up sparks at night.  It's hard to see what it was, but it was pretty amazing in person.  This is not the active volcano we climbed!

Volcan de Fuego smoking as seen from our rooftop.


Climbing Pacaya

The drive to and from Volcán Pacaya was a winding, nauseating trip up and down hills and mountains in a private van.  Once we entered the national park area, Elyse saddled up on a horse and David trekked by foot on a 1500 foot elevation hike to where the cooled lava flows are from as recently as 2010 and 2014.  Our destination was where heat emerges from under the cooled lava, warm enough to roast marshmallows and even cook barbeque!  It rained just as we reached our destination, so there was lots of steam rising from the warm ground.  One small rock which we held was so hot it couldn’t be held still for fear of burning our skin. 

Because of the clouds we were unable see the Pacific, which we were told is possible on clear days.  Even so, the views were awe inspiring.  We looked down on much of the cloud cover, while simultaneously clouds flowed around.  We had magnificent views of the valley below as well as the other local volcanoes.  The cooled lava from different eruptions had different coloration.  Some of the older lava rocks had algae and moss growing on them.  Plant life was also clearly making a come back on the areas that were from older lava flows.  Looking down on the valley, it was possible to see the black paths of the more recent lava flows, with untouched green areas continuing to grow unscathed.  It was reassuring to see life continuing despite such devastation. 

Ma nora hamakom hazeh!  How awesome is this space!  Enjoy the photos!

Base camp before we started our climb

Already seeing lava rock (that's Elyse's horse, Bruno's head on the lower right)

Looking down at one of the nearby pueblos

Stunning views of the other volcanos in the area

Elyse on Bruno

Clouds sweeping in

"Gonna ride my horse down the old town road..."

Lava spills above the clouds

You can't get to the top of Pacaya - too dangerous - but we got pretty close

With our guide, Luis, we made it to the "Lava Store,"  The horses can't go any further and it's all on foot from here.

Multi-colored rock formations

We can feel the heat coming up from under the earth!

Too hot to handle for very long!

My feet are nice and toasty. 
We've read stories about people's shoes melting.
Ours didn't but it was definitely toasty!  And smelled like rotten eggs!  

Warm tushies too!

A little further along the path, someone opened a restaurant - meat cooked by the steaming volcano. 

IT's a tradition to roast marshmellows in the steam vents!

Moss growing in the lava stones.  Life will abide!

The different shades of lava represent different eruptions over time.

Elyse and Bruno - going down on wet mud was a little frightening.

Bye bye Pacaya!  Thanks for an awesome adventure.