Wednesday, January 12, 2011

On sunday, we climbed an active volcano...

The volcano could have erupted, how exciting is that! Pacaya’s last eruption was last year, and it displaced hundreds of people! with that in mind, we assembled just outside of down town.

The journey started with some haggling at the travel agencies. Some places started around q100, but I managed to get it down to q80 a head. After we negotiated the price, we added two more souls to the expedition. So we all packed into the van and headed towards the volcano.

[video pending]


Well…it ends up that the buses had to stop further down the mountainside, because only road up was closed for construction. This meant that we disembarked much earlier than expected, and added about 10 minutes to the hike. The early part was pretty tame, walking on cobbled streets and through fields. Then we arrived at the place where the path left the road, and stretches into the clouds.



Seriously, we walked through the clouds. I have not done that many times before, so the novelty has not worn off. They felt cool against the skin, and created the perfect temperature for the wicked ascent. Although the vistas were hidden behind the clouds, the terrain was interesting in itself. The volcanic rock crumbles under foot, making hiking feel like hiking up a near vertical beach.


The most interesting things I noticed. Volcanoes have a bustling stick trade “es muy necesario”. horses are taxis. It takes five seconds to cook a marshmallow to perfection over a flow of magma.

Eery warning perhaps?



also…this guy is crazy! Still living at the foot of a volcano, less than a year after the last eruption.

As we climbed higher and higher, we could see the peak of Pacaya in the distance. Epic.

We turned around, and this is the rest of what we saw.







No comments:

Post a Comment