Volcan Pacaya

One of the most popular tourist attractions in Antigua is the trek to the top of one of the areas active volcanos, Volcan Pacaya. We left the city at 7:00 a.m. for the hour and a half drive to the place where we would begin our climb.

We drove through small towns and country roads before coming to the base of a mountain (volcano?) where we began a 30 minute ascent, ending at the Volcan Pacaya Visitor Center where we met a guide who would lead us up to the top. Steven overheard someone asking about the risk involved in the trek and the answer assuring them that we would not be climbing all the way to the top so there was very little risk involved. At this point, we were also offered walking sticks by little local entrepreuners, but declined, although many in our group chose to use them.

The first portion of the hike was up a steep paved sidewalk through local villages and shaded by numerous trees. Our guide stopped every 15 minutes to allow us to rest and to point out the beautiful vistas of the surrounding countryside. The paved walk eventually gave way to a dirt path through denser trees as we left the villages behind. This part of the path wasn´t as step and was a pleasurable climb. When we reached the area where we came out of the trees, our path continued through a relatively level grassy area with striking views of both the top of the volcano we were about to climb and the surrounding countryside (including various volcanos in the distance). I think I used up an entire roll of film (luckily Steven had a digital).

When we reached the "base" of the top of the volcano, we wondered if this was where we stopped, remembering the assurance we had heard earlier, but we soon found that we were going to climb all the way to the top and we were both thrilled.

The last 20 minutes of the climb was the hardest, but for me, the most enjoyable, because the top of the volcano is covered with tiny volcanic rock and for every step you took up, you would roll back down half a step. At one point, I found that I was literally walking in place, although with great effort. Steven and I were proudly the first two (behind the guide) to reach the top.

When we arrived at what we thought was the top, we were met with the site of an enormous lava flow just cooling from the day before. I was alternatively amazed and slightly disappointed that we hadn´t been there the day before. While we waited for the rest of the group to catch up, we heard explosions from inside the volcano that sounded like the slamming of an enormous door.

When the rest of the group arrived, we started off around the crater to the highest point we could go, but not before our guide, warned us not to run when we heard the explosions because it would be easy to fall down the side of the volcano, ¨Tranquillo, chicos. Tranquillo. No corre. Tranquillo.¨

At the top, we did hear several loud explosions complete with hot lava rocks shooting out of the crater and once we even saw lava. Unfortunately we were only able to stay for about 10 minutes, after which we were herded back around the crater where we started our descent.

While I throughly enjoyed the hike up and the experience at the top, my favorite part by far was the way down. Because they volcano is covered in little volcanic rocks, you slide down more than you walk and if you get your balance right, you can practically ¨ski¨ all the way down. As we sat at the bottom emptying our shoes of a good half pound of rocks, I contemplated climbing all the way back up just so I could slide back down.