Climbing an Active Volcano

The tour agenda said "climb a volcano adventure"... I assumed something closer to "climb a mountain and see the volcano in the distance"... I guess not!!! Climbing the Pacaya Volcano in Guatemala is one of those things I will never forget, partially for how entirely stupid it seems in hindsight...

The morning started off pretty typical (i.e. nursing a hangover) and, after breakfast and a drive to the volcano, we started hiking up the volcano, led by our local guide. It was quite a nice hike actually... good to get some exercise and be outside on a nice day... We reached a point which I thought was the end... "see lava" I assumed was to look through your binoculars from a nice safe distance (as I had done in Costa Rica for example)...

But no... up and up we went... until we reached the point where "normal rocks" quite clearly turned into cooled lava. And so we went scrambling over the cooled lava - in some places only 10-14 days had passed since the lava flows had changed direction, leaving parts behind to cool!!! Until we reached a vantage point some 3-4 metres away from the "lava river". What an awe-inspiring sight... We just stood there stunned, until some 10-15 minutes later the guide reminded us that lava flows can easily change direction and that perhaps it was time to descend!!! And as we scrambled over rocks, some were warm and some were not... sometimes you would put your walking stick into a crack for support and lose a few centimetres of stick!!! So obviously there were still some patches where there was lava below the surface... I hate to think what would have happened if the rock had broken away!!

Anyhow, the descent was uneventful... but a final glance at the volcano from the minibus showed the volcano covered in steam or smoke or ash... something major had just happened less than an hour after we had left... it was obviously good timing when we decided to leave when we did!!!

So, all in all, one of the most fabulous things I have ever seen - definitely one of the highlights of my world tour -but in hindsight perhaps a bit more dangerous than necessary!!! Anyhow, I'm still here and this brillant tour of Central America goes on...