Pacaya Volcano and Antigua

BE SURE TO VIEW THE EXTRA 33 PHOTOS ON THE BOTTOM OF THIS TEXT!! ************************************************


We woke up at 4am and by 5am we were headed out the door to pick up Lydia, Max and Ivy, who were just as tired and exhausted as we were. Not a good way to start off such a physically challenging day.

We arrived in Antigua at the O.X. offices and climbed into their van and made our way to the Pacaya Volcano, signing waivers of release in case we died or got injured. Nice. The van took us up the volcano up to a certain point, and then it was up to us to climb the rest. We had a four hour hike ahead of us (two up and two down), which we thought couldn´t possibly be that bad. We even bought a bag of marshmallows to roast by the lava. This was going to be fun. And it was fun in some parts. But it wasn’t so much fun in others. All of us at one point or another had a moment of panic or neuroticism or anxiety or just plain freaking out.

The hike began on a steep inclined pebbled path. Fabi and I were all gung-ho, trekking up and up and up and up and after like - I kid you not - not even a minute, we were panting and out of breath and yelling out, “Break! Water break!” It was crazy how fast we got tired. There were these guys on horses that decided to walk behind us, surely thinking that one of us would cave and want to take their horse “taxis” up and down the volcano. Fabi was tempted on many ocasions, but I didn´t let her cave.

After the steep pebbled path, the terrain moved to dirt and grass, sometimes inclined, sometimes not, sometimes with steps. And with fog everywhere. This went on for about an hour before it changed to really soft black soil - it had the consistency of sand because when you would step in it, your feet would sink into it. Then, it changed to volcanic rock. This is where things got a little tricky.

Everything up until that point was challenging and tiring, but fun. We were taking pictures left and right, joking around, etc. Once we hit the volcanic rock part, it started off like that, but because the climb was more difficult and dangerous in some parts, things toned down - we had to get serious. Right before we reached the beginning of the volanic rock part, we took pictures by a lonely green sign with an arrow that said, “Dangerous.” We thought it was cute. On our way back, however, we gave the sign the finger.

The volcanic rock is very sharp and uneven - it cuts like glass. And it´s only volcanic rocks of all sizes that make up the floor - no dirt, so every step has to be calculated because not every part is stable. The rocks move around and sometimes give way and you end up slipping. And this is a place where you don´t want to slip and fall, because not only will you fall on razor blades, you may end up rolling down the side of the volcano on top of that.

The first person to slip was Max, and his brand new camera ended up banging into the rocks. Both were fine. But our guide, Sophie, demanded we put our cameras around our necks and use our hands to help us climb. Some parts were harder than others to climb, and on the parts that were easier, we stopped to take a photo or two.

And then as we got closer to the lava, things started to get a little funky. The rocks were more porous and would give way - it was more difficult to find a spot to take a firm, stable step. We had to check every step we took and at times hold onto the rocks to help us along, which proved to be dangerous in itself, as Ivy and I cut our hands in the process. Ivy´s cut was bigger than mine as her cut was on the palm of her hand - mine was on two of my knuckles so didn´t bleed as much. Not only did Ivy and I leave our sweat on the volcano, we also left our blood.

Thank goodness for those walking sticks we rented from some boy at the base of the volcano. The climb would have been all the more difficult without them.

When we could finally see the lava within sight, we had a new element to deal with - extreme heat. The heat radiating from the rocks was insane - you felt it from your feet up to your head. At first it was kind of cool, a “we´re on top of an active lava volcano and feel the heat” kind of cool. Lydia even commented we were getting free facials. But then the heat intensified and our feet started to heat up to the point of being very uncomfortable and we had no option but to keep climbing onto more hot, unstable, razor sharp rocks that gave way.

It was at this point that I started to freak out because it was so hot and I could see the fiery red-orange lava up ahead that broke through the dirt with the smoke billowing into the air and balls of dirt and lava rolling down the side of the volcano towards us, and us climbing up towards them. I started thinking of Diego and the fact that I´m a mother and what the f*ck was I doing on top of a volcano with lava clearly flowing underneath my feet? What if I rolled over and cut myself all over on the rocks? What if a rock gave way and I landed in a pool of lava?

So while I was having my moment of doubt and panic, Ivy got stuck and began to panic. She was stuck on the hot rocks in such a position that she couldn´t pivot herself to move anywhere. And to add to it, our guide, Sophie, told us to stay put while she climbed ahead and made sure things were safe, as we were very close to the lava and she didn´t want to put us in harm´s way. It felt like she was gone an eternity. And we were stuck on this path of really hot rocks and we didn´t know where to go. Lydia had a panic attack as well. She commented that she normally complains a lot but hadn´t complained at all on the hike until that moment. We had to cross a narrow part of rock and she had to literally squat down in order to make it across.

And then to add to my freaking out, Sophie came back down and she took a step on a rock bigger than a bowling ball that gave way and headed straight towards me. I seriously felt I was going to get bowled over by this rock and knocked God knows where. I remember Lydia shouting, “Sophie, don´t come down!” The rock landed about 3 inches away from my feet. And Ivy, well, that just made her panic a bit more. Fabi and Max were really quiet during this part. I don´t know if it was because they were concentrating or because they were freaking out internally, or maybe I just didn´t hear them because I was busy freaking out on my own and watching the others freak out, freaking me out even more.

Then all of a sudden Sophie says, ¨There´s really no need to panic guys.” Uhm, yeah, too late, we´re already there. Then she proceeded to explain that two days ago the path we took to get to the lava was fine, but the lava moves around and things change and now it wasn´t so fine, so we had to go up and around and she was sorry but the hike was turning out to be harder than she expected.

I have to add, that my two cousins who went with us, at this point, were way ahead of us and didn´t seem to have a problem with the climb. WTF? One´s a lawyer and one´s a mechanic - it´s not like they´re Olympians.

Somehow, Ivy was able to maneuver and get herself unstuck, and we continued to climb over and around until we got close enough to the lava without actually melting from the heat to take some pictures and then we climbed over to cooler rocks that didn´t have lava flowing underneath them. We sat down and ate some sandwiches and joked around some, amazed at what we had acomplished, before realizing that we now had to climb back down. Great.

Back we went onto the hot rocks, which were anywhere from 100 degrees farenheit to 250 degrees farenheit on the surface, with molten rock underneath them approximately 500 degrees farenheit. Talk about crazy. Fabi and Lydia were the only ones who remembered to pack gloves so we shared gloves to help with gripping the rocks on the way down. When you climb up, you don´t necessarily realize what´s below you, since you keep looking ahead. When you climb down, however, you see everything below you and how high you are and how far down of a fall you have in store should you slip. So, you´re most definitely going to grip onto the rocks.

Once we made it out of the volcanic rock part, everyone was relieved. But we still had about an hour and a half hike back down. We took a different path than on the way up - this path was shorter, but trickier in the sense that it was inclined quite steeply at times and you literally skidded down. But we didn´t care - this was better than the volcanic rock.

We finally made it back down to our starting point at around 11:45am. Our adventure had come to an end. We actually climbed an active fire volcano and were up close and personal with lava and nobody died in the process. Freaked out, yes. Died, no. What more could we ask for? Maybe having had an opportunity to roast those marshmallows. We were so crazed at the lava point that we didn´t even remember the marshmallows. And were we ever naive to think we would be standing next to a river of lava roasting marshmallows!

Sophie wore a brand new pair of gym shoes on the hike, instead of her usual hiking shoes and guess what? Her soles melted. As in gooey bubblegum-like melted. We all were so glad we invested in a good pair of hiking boots. However, Fabi´s Merrell boots had holes meleted into the bottom of her soles. The rocks were that hot to melt through a pair of good hiking boot soles.

We went back to Antigua and met up with my family to have lunch at El Prado - we deserved a damn good meal after our ordeal. And a damn good meal we had indeed. Then, we still had it in us to walk around a bit and explore, but that didn´t last too long, so we decided to call it a day and come back to Antigua another time. After all, it´s only a half an hour drive from the City. And we really needed to shower as we were covered in a film of dry, salty sweat.

I have to say this climb has been one of the most amazing experiences I´ve had in my life. I kept saying I would never do it again. But now, having had some time to think and write about it, hell yeah I would do it again. Maybe when Diego´s old enough I´ll conquer the volcano with my son. I´m sure he´ll love it.

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