Volcan Pacaya
Volano Pacaya, located about 25 km from Antigua, is a very popular attraction. Not only do you get to climb a volcano, but you even get to climb an active one... Smoke, heat and lava streams await you close to the top, and the views of the other tree volcanoes (Agua, Fuego and Acatenango) are impressive. All in all it was a really trippy experience: probably the only time I will stand on rocks younger than I am.
It is also a little strange for the social environment. Us gringos get driven by private shuttle bus (15 per group) to a little town about half way up the volcano where armed guards watch to make sure that the hand-off between the driver and the guide goes well. It is hard to feel like you need protection here since we literally tower over people, but I guess the presence of firearms changes that equation. All the while, undernourished kids are swarming around trying to sell walking sticks and bags of marshmallows for a quetzal or two. Once the group gets out of the little town, two or three locals follow with horses that they call "natural taxis" to pick up people who decide that the ascent is too much (it is not that bad: 3 km w/ 800m vertical). Packs of hungry dogs follow every group, waiting to pick up whatever might be dropped.
We got there pretty early in the morning. I think we were the second or third group, which is nice because it means we also got there before a lot of the vendors and other tourists and you could almost imagine that the area was pristine. Since the lava is always flowing, there are relatively few traces of human impact anyway. The views were stunning from the top, or at least from the point that is the highest you can safely go. We could see the other three volcanoes around Antigua. The rock was really strange and I don't really know how to describe it. It was like ice flows, but black and covered with little spikes of rock. You'll have to look at the pictures... It was very hot and flaky. Sometimes, a layer would give way under your feet and come to rest on the layer below, quite a scary thing. Vents of hot gasses can open without warning and at one point one shot a jet of hot air on my feet that almost made me jump.
Anyway, the lava itself was another sight to see. It looked like a stream of thick, glowing red syrup flowing through a trough of black muck and with chunks of black dirt floating in it. The guide got close enough to a vent to pick some lava up on the end of a walking stick. One Japanese guy whipped out a folding, mechanical marshmallow roasting device (not kidding) and roasted marshmallows over the lava. That didn't work out too well because the marshmallows kept catching fire.
Anyway... this time enjoy the pictures of some really young piles of stones!
