"Feels just like I'm walking on broken glass..."(includes video)

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Lucas and Julio walking on lava

(Sung to the tune from Annie Lennox)

On Saturday we decided to walk on a live volcano.

The rules are a little different in Guatemala so when our guide said that we’d be “playing with molten lava” I wasn’t exactly sure what that meant. It ended up being a great day.

Only an hour or so from Antigua is the trailhead for the Pacaya Volcano. We drove past Guatemala City and up into the mountains, leaving the car in a parking lot full of horses that are available to take tourists to the lava. We decided to huff it up there on foot for a little exercise. We’re sea-level people so the elevation (above 6,000 ft) was something but the trail was in great shape and we all did fine, making the lava fields in about an hour.

Once up there, we scrambled about ¼ mile down a steep bank and over a swath of loose lava rock to where the action was. The lava was very active and we could see it move, oozing, rolling and breaking off sections as it escaped from the base of the mountain. There are no boundaries up there so we could stand close enough to the action to roast a marshmallow! The fog rolled in and out giving the whole setting an other-worldly look. We had lunch and headed down the mountain, diving into the car just ahead of a heavy rain.

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Photos

Got a match?
We don't need no stinkin' matches...just throw the firecrackers (absolutely positively the most favorite toy in this country) directly into the lava and watch 'em go!

Bonus question: Who likes National Parks?
We got the traditional "family in front of the national park sign" picture, just like in the USA!

At the crest of the mountain
I love this picture because it shows our elevation - over 6,000 feet in the clouds!

Now, down into the river of lava
From the crest of our mountain hike, we decended into this river of lava, which comes out of the side of the volcano in front of us.

Red hot stuff
Literally just a few feet away. If you slip and fall, you in baaad shape.

Lucas roasting a marshmallow
The darker stuff is brand new and super-duper hot. The greyer stuff (upon which Lucas is standing) is merely very very hot to touch, but it won\'t melt your shoes.

Comments

[Monica]

Deep Thoughts
You know what Earl (and Jack Handy) would tell you..."If you ever drop your keys into a river of molten lava, let'em go, because, man, they're gone."

[SonjaG]

response
Love it! And just today I learned the word for deep: profundo! This can be used for holes as well...

[Mary D]

Where are the graham crackers?
And the Hershey bar? Lucas could have been the first person to ever make a smore on a volcano. A campfire at the cabin is going to hold no thrill for these kids anymore. Mary