¡OMG I´m Standing on Lava!

Ummmmm, hey ya´ll . . . lava is hot. Yes, caliente. Muy.

Especially when you´re standing on top of it. Climbing Volcán Pacaya this last Sunday was quite possibly one of the most surreal things I have ever done. Because, well, it´s just not normal to light a cigarette off lava. But that´s exactly what our guide did as we roasted marshmallows above the flowing magma under our feet.

Steph, two other volunteers and I embarked with a tour on the 4 km steep hike up Volcán Pacaya. There are 33 volcanos in all of Guatemala. Volcán Pacaya - about an hour from Antigua, Volcán Fuego - which is very visible from Antigua and is constantly puffing smoke, and Volcán Santiaguito - in the very northern part of the country. Apparently, even though Pacaya is active, the way the crater at the peak was formed it is very stable (well relatively as far as exploding mountains of fire go). As such, it is one of the central attractions for tourists visiting Guatemala and there were probably close to 75 or 100 people who embarked on the sunset tour Sunday evening (yet we all spaced out during the climb to make it possible).

The first 3 km were very wooded and it seemed like any other hike through pine trees and dense vegetation. As we crested the trees, we entered a yellow grassed meadow sprinkled with lava rocks every few steps. Then we hit all lava rock and the last 3/4 of a mile was climbing on sharp and uneven black rocks. (Which don´t feel great when you fall ha. Of course I didn´t fall on the uneven terrain or when we were walking in pitch dark downhill after sunset. No, I fell just trying to slowly walk to Steph to take a picture.)

As we got closer to the top, we could suddenly feel hot air blowing up from the ground and our feet were quite warm through the tread on our shoes.

Then the flowing lava came into view. And it was clipping along at a fairly good rate. We were able to get as close to the flows as desired, yet the main detractor was the heat. Just to stand in front of the flows to snap a few shots was almost unbearable because of the heat. I had to keep hopping about the rocks to keep my feet from feeling like they were burning.

As Steph and I stumbled down the rocks with our group it still didn´t seem real that we had just walked across an active volcano. The sky was an almost pretty, but really more eerie, pink color as we looked over our shoulders at the peak where we had been standing moments ago. The color came not from the sunset, but from the color of the red hot lava reflecting on the dense, ash-filled air.

The hike was great, the views amazing, and the magma roasted marshmallow was pretty delicious. When in Guate!