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!
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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!
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| Base camp before we started our climb |
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| Already seeing lava rock (that's Elyse's horse, Bruno's head on the lower right) |
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| Looking down at one of the nearby pueblos |
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Stunning views of the other volcanos in the area
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| Elyse on Bruno |
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| Clouds sweeping in |
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| "Gonna ride my horse down the old town road..." |
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| Lava spills above the clouds |
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| You can't get to the top of Pacaya - too dangerous - but we got pretty close |
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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.
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| Multi-colored rock formations |
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| We can feel the heat coming up from under the earth! |
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| Too hot to handle for very long! |
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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! |
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| Warm tushies too! |
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| A little further along the path, someone opened a restaurant - meat cooked by the steaming volcano. |
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| IT's a tradition to roast marshmellows in the steam vents! |
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| Moss growing in the lava stones. Life will abide! |
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| The different shades of lava represent different eruptions over time. |
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| Elyse and Bruno - going down on wet mud was a little frightening. |
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| Bye bye Pacaya! Thanks for an awesome adventure. |
