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Published: June 26th 2007
Volcanic Rock @ Pacaya
crazy that lava ends up looking like this! DAY TWO:
Last night turned out nice. We made our arrangements to visit Volcan Pacaya, returned home around 8pm and were asleep by 10pm. The reason being that we had to get up at 5am to catch our ride to the volcano. We arrived at the volcano which i believe was in San Francisco, and as soon as you get off the bus (which was a billion year old yellow school bus) you're bombarded with teenagers selling you horse rides and small children selling you walking sticks. For those of you planning to do this hike BUY THE STICKS!!! they are 5Q which is equal to about 75 cents and i feel like the things saved my life.
The first part of the hike is a little steep but nothing someone in half decent shape cant handle. Its very beautiful, green, and all that jazz. Watch out for the horse poo tho 😉 Once you make it to the volcanic rock area you think "aw wow, this is cool, take me to the top". The higher you go the hotter it gets, the more unstable the rocks, but this is all to be expected right? All of a
sudden the clouds move and you see the top of the volcano and how much further you actually have to go. Its crazy. They showed us a 'waiting area' if we decided at that point not to go any further, but you think... I've made it this far, whats a few hundred more feet? Well for starters there are no trails and the rocks only gets more and more unstable. I slipped, grabbed on to a surrounding rock and i swore it felt like 1000 pieces of glass shot into my hand. The teeniest, tiniest, but most painful splinters. I bailed. I don't regret it however. Dax made it to the top, got some nice shots & video of the flowing lava - while he's doing that I witnessed a woman fall face first down the volcanic rock. Lots of "Oh my Gawds" and lots of blood. So ya, the way up was crazy, the way down was even crazier and to top it off, once we made it to the bottom, the thing erupted. Not enough to kill us (I guess) but enough to where we could have climbed half the distance and still gotten an excellent show. Oh
well.
There are 20 billion street dogs here, enough to where I've decided to start a photo book. It's likely been done, but not with my pictures 😊 I'm giving them all names associated with the places I find them.
The weather is great. *think Santa Monica in July* Nothing terribly hot and no rain (yet) although its the rainy season.
We gave up our private little villa place in exchange for the Jungle Party Hostel. That means 50 housemates, hammock swings, the latest music, the latest movies, free beer, free internet, free lockers, a sweet courtyard, breakfast in the mornings, etc etc, for um, $7 dollars a night.
We are heading out tomorrow to Lake Atilan at 2pm. Antigua is sweet, but its a little hard to navigate. EVERYTHING is red, orange, yellow and square. There are some really cool buildings and you meet some really cool people here. Definitely an excellent first stop for a day or two. I'm not too excited about the food here yet. Craving a Burrito & a decent mango! Geez!
So, I gotta wrap this up (sorry). Last minute tips - take gloves to pacaya, wear decent hiking
shoes, don't wear shorts & buy the walking stick!
Signing off -- Calone
ps. photos also added to our previous entry. more to come when i have time and internet access.
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donger
non-member comment
"....face first"
damn! that must hurt. looks like a lot of fun. (not the falling face first part.)