On Wednesday, September 6, we set off to hike Volcano Pacaya, one of Guatemala's three active volcanoes. It came highly recommended by every traveler who has been through this area, mainly because it has been particularly active in the last month. Pictures we'd seen before hand were incredible -- National Geographic quality stuff with red lava spewing and flowing all within feet of the photographers. Like this one from Tom...
The hike itself, only about two hours, was cake after hiking Santa Maria. The final ascent, however, was quite different. The final 45 minutes was incredibly steep and all black ash -- it was like hiking a sand mountain where every step was slippery and tough. No need for our buns of steel workout the next day, that's for sure.
Unfortunately, September 6th wasn't a day of glowing red excitement. We did get to see a little through the cracks of last week's lava flow. But we also learned quickly that just because the rocks are black or grey does not mean they are cold! Even walking close to the lava flows, you could feel the heat radiating.
It was fascinating to see the effects of an active volcano. The lava flows protrude from the top like little tentacles, slowly (sometimes) moving down into the grassy, lush areas below. The tentacles we saw and climbed on were very neat. They didn't burn up everything around. The grass is still green right until the dried lava. The juxtaposition between the force and heat of a lava river and the lush greenery next to it almost seemed respectful. Granted, pictures in the visitors center of previously destructive eruptions show that the level of "respect" varies greatly. Lucky for us, it was a day of respect.
I don't really feel like getting into the fact that our guide seemed to risk losing his license (in his words) for taking us beyond the designated observation point. I think that because there was no lava, he thought we would be disappointed. To ensure that was not the case, he proceeded to lead us to the VERY TOP where the two main craters were spitting loads of sulfurous gas that had our entire group coughing and covering our mouths before hurrying back down (the hurrying was actually quite fun in the ash as you were almost skiing the entire way down...AND, Liz and I chose to ignore trails and head straight down the 45 degree slope, resulting in only minor injuries).
To get the closest view, the guides would literally hold onto people as they leaned in attempting to peer into the craters in search of lava. It was one of those times that you begin to question the benefit vs. risk of such an "extreme" sort of outing. Maybe that's just us getting old and losing our "edge", but the idea of falling into a crater of lava...well, I'll take old over a fiery death any day!
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