Pacaya
Yesterday I got picked up from work by two
friends that i had met at my conference i went to in march- and we headed out of the city for the day. The took me to Pacaya Volcano, to experiences the wonders of hiking an active volcano. It was actually the most incredbile thing i've ever seen or done. It started with a winding car ride up through the rural base of the volcano parking our car at a little impoverished town. We opened the car door and were stormed with 10 little boys ages 4-7 all holding out walking sticks that they had carved waiting to sell them to us. We spent 5 min testing out each one before we each picked out two and paid the boys Q5 per stick (Q8=$1). We strapped on our hiking packs and took a few sips of water, preparing of our 3 hour hike up the volcano.
I was told this is the easiest volcano to hike in Guatemala, so I was not worried, nor expepcting any difficulty in our journy. Boy was I wrong. Javier set his stop watch as we began to hike, knowning exactly what pace we had to walk and when we could stop and for how long. The first 45 minutes was the hardest physical thing i think i've ever done. Think of a an incline equivilant to flight of stares where the steps are twice as high as the should be...and theirare no steps- its just the ground. After 5 minutes of fast pass walking, i was winded and sweating. Alvaro took my back pack and he and alvaro took turns carrying my load up the hardest stretch of the journey. Thank gooodness.
The entire hike through the 'forest part' you could here the volcano venting and erupting above you. Finally we got out of the forest and could finally see the peak and the area that was all volcanic rock. The lava was ozing down and you could see the smoke coming out of the top. Our goal was to climb to the sumit and look down the top into the crater. Both Javier and Alvaro had done it over 7 times before and said its an expereince of a life time.
We put on gardening gloves (the rocks are razor sharp) let go of one of our sticks and began our climb over and up the rocks. We followed paths called "candels" that are active tunnels of lava but are more sturdy than the loose little stones that can slip and slide beneth you. The higher we climbed the hotter the ground got and at times you could see the red glow beneath you. Then it started to pour. Rain gear out we were surrounded in steam from the rain on the hot rocks. Up we climed until our feet got so hot that we had to turrn around. Our shoes began to melt and we tried to flank to the right and try a different path. Unfortuanly (but super cool) The top started erupting in pretty big spurts into the sky and we realized we couldn't make it to theop today. It was too active. The sun had set arleady, so hiked in t he dark to a flat area in the rocks (where we were safe!) and pulled out a bottle of wine and cheese and bread enjoyed a nice dinner watching the beauty and power of mother nature, with a show of volcanic eruptions and lava flow.
Breathtaking.
friends that i had met at my conference i went to in march- and we headed out of the city for the day. The took me to Pacaya Volcano, to experiences the wonders of hiking an active volcano. It was actually the most incredbile thing i've ever seen or done. It started with a winding car ride up through the rural base of the volcano parking our car at a little impoverished town. We opened the car door and were stormed with 10 little boys ages 4-7 all holding out walking sticks that they had carved waiting to sell them to us. We spent 5 min testing out each one before we each picked out two and paid the boys Q5 per stick (Q8=$1). We strapped on our hiking packs and took a few sips of water, preparing of our 3 hour hike up the volcano.
I was told this is the easiest volcano to hike in Guatemala, so I was not worried, nor expepcting any difficulty in our journy. Boy was I wrong. Javier set his stop watch as we began to hike, knowning exactly what pace we had to walk and when we could stop and for how long. The first 45 minutes was the hardest physical thing i think i've ever done. Think of a an incline equivilant to flight of stares where the steps are twice as high as the should be...and theirare no steps- its just the ground. After 5 minutes of fast pass walking, i was winded and sweating. Alvaro took my back pack and he and alvaro took turns carrying my load up the hardest stretch of the journey. Thank gooodness.
The entire hike through the 'forest part' you could here the volcano venting and erupting above you. Finally we got out of the forest and could finally see the peak and the area that was all volcanic rock. The lava was ozing down and you could see the smoke coming out of the top. Our goal was to climb to the sumit and look down the top into the crater. Both Javier and Alvaro had done it over 7 times before and said its an expereince of a life time.
We put on gardening gloves (the rocks are razor sharp) let go of one of our sticks and began our climb over and up the rocks. We followed paths called "candels" that are active tunnels of lava but are more sturdy than the loose little stones that can slip and slide beneth you. The higher we climbed the hotter the ground got and at times you could see the red glow beneath you. Then it started to pour. Rain gear out we were surrounded in steam from the rain on the hot rocks. Up we climed until our feet got so hot that we had to turrn around. Our shoes began to melt and we tried to flank to the right and try a different path. Unfortuanly (but super cool) The top started erupting in pretty big spurts into the sky and we realized we couldn't make it to theop today. It was too active. The sun had set arleady, so hiked in t he dark to a flat area in the rocks (where we were safe!) and pulled out a bottle of wine and cheese and bread enjoyed a nice dinner watching the beauty and power of mother nature, with a show of volcanic eruptions and lava flow.
Breathtaking.
posted by Katy @ 4:13 PM
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