A hike up Pacaya Volcano

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It took about 1.5 hours to drive to the Pacaya National Park from Antigua, with the time passing quickly with us viewing the landscape, chatting to fellow GVI organisation volunteers about what we are to expect in our coming weeks and chatting to the other Northern Americans that had joined the tour. A boy, named Jorge, jumped onto the ladder afixed to the side of the Dodge van that we were travelling in, whom we met later as a helper for our journey. Jorge was hired by our guide to show us exatly where the latest flow is. The guide said he couldn't guarantee that we would see any lava, but that there was a good chance that we would.

Our French guide, who spoke good English, introduced us to Jorge and told us that it would be wise to hire a stick form the local children that would swarm us as soon as we exited the van, to aid us in our ascent and descent of the mountain. We paid the going rate of Q5 each for our sticks and organised a horse for a fellow traveller who didn't want to climb the whole way, before we accessed the trailhead. The day had started cloudy with a serious threat of rain, but the dark clouds appeared less menacing and we appreciated the cooler air for our climb. The trail began steeply, but became easier as we walked through humid moutain forest. The plants and trees are different to those that we recognise in the rainforests in Australia and the volcanic soil was black and grey. On our way up, we had good views of the Agua and Fuego volcanoes that are not far away, but are much larger than the one we were climbing. We also saw a very large area at the base of the mountain, where the lava had spewed out onto, in 1997 when a bigger expulsion of lava occurred.

Pacaya is one of the smaller volcanoes in Guatemala, but it has a continuous plume of smoke drifting from its summit and massive lava flows reforming the base of the cone. Once we exited the exiting limit of the mountain forest, we could see where lava had paved its way down the mountain. At this stage, the hike became more difficult as the earth contained smale shale pieces of the volcanic rock. as we trekked higher the rocks became bigger and made the challenge different. Higher again, the rocks became smaller and as they were so loose, this part of the hike was the most difficult. With our trusty sticks as our aids and a slow pace upwards, to allow other members of the group to keep pace, we arrived at the latest lava flow location.

We were warned to keep away from hot areas and if we encountred any sulfur fumes, to cover our noses and quickly move away. We were to use our sticks to ensure that the molten rock that we were walking on was solid. Some of the molten rock is hollow and is a hazard for falling through. The lava that we saw was coming out of the ground in 2 rivers. The heat at the top was nice in that it helped warm the body from the cool breeze that was blowing at the time. There were certain cracks in the earth that more of the heat was escaping from and were too hot to stand next to. If you looked inside the cracks the rock looked like it was white with ash. The lava flowed slowly but steady down the incline of the mountain. Dan and I walked up to the point where it appeared out of the earth. Dan put his stick into the lava, which made it briefly catch on fire at the end of the stick. It was hard and an indent was left where Dan had poked it. The lava wasn't soft so you could get inside it easily, as it really is soft rock and not runny rock, if that makes sense! I wouldn't go that close to the lava, as the heat was too much for me and because I didn't want to risk being so close to something so powerful and potentially dangerous.

We put marshmalllows onto a stick that Jorge has previously cut for this purpose on the journey upwards and he roasted them over one of the cracks in the earth for us. Dan had a turn at cooking the sweets and we all got to munch on some whilst we were there. After taking many photos and videos of the moving firey earth, Dan and a new American friend tried to throw molten rocks into the lava from a safe distance away. Dan eventually landed one directly on top of the lava and it just sat on top without being absorbed into the lava, due to how hard the lava is.

The trek down the molten section of the track was slippery and with movable pieces of molten rock under our feet, but we all managed to make it to where the forest began with only a few slip-ups between the group members. I had a few wobbly moments, but dancey turns and balancing acts with my stick prevented any fall. At the begging of the forest trail downwards, we stopped for a picnic looking over the valley below. OUr French guide, beautifully and quickly chopped up tomates, avocados, basil, red onion, cucumber and capsicum, whilst Jorge helped cut the large bread rolls for us to mix and match what we wanted for our sandwiches. It was lovely sitting out there, but the rain at this point decided to make and appearance and put a dampener on our lunch. It got so heavy, that once we had all eaten our sandwiches, whilst hiding for cover, we needed to make our descent. Waterproof jackets helped most that brought them, but our pants were saturated from the sideways rain. At least, nature was kind enough to wait until we had finished at the top of the volcano!

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