WHOS IDEA WAS THIS ANYWAY?

volcan Agua in the foreground and volcan Fuego in the background

Long ago, when planning this trip and we were pouring through blogs and travel books, we came upon Volcano Pacaya.  Photos of people walking around fiery magma and roasting marshmallows over a river of flowing lava looked like a fun thing to do.  So once we got to Antigua we knew we had to book it.  We almost never went on this tour.  We ended up booking this trip twice and drivers showed up at our door three times. The first time, they showed up at six a.m., waking our entire building and we weren't even booked.  The following day, when we were suppose to go, there was a roaring party that went until thirty minutes before we were suppose to get up, we ended up sleeping in and missing the tour bus.  The third time we thought it wasn't going to happen either as the driver was forty-five minutes late.  During that wait, we wondered if this was a sign and if we really should be going at all.

some of the lava from the last eruption spilling out into the valley

me and my saviour Camaron

We were happy we didn't drive there ourselves.  It was an hour and a half of chaos and treacherously steep roads.  Once we arrived and peeled our fingers off of the dash we took a look at the volcano we were about to climb and said - oh good, this is going to hurt.

As our group was getting ready to start the climb, many men with horses came up to us and told us, "muy dificil".  The majority of our group said nah, we don't need a horse.  After about ten minutes of a vertical climb, almost everybody was on a horse.  Justin being stubborn, hiked.  For me, it was the best money ever spent.

During the hike I looked at Justin and saw his purple face and I kept telling him to get on a horse but by then all the horses had riders.  I knew that Justin was almost at his limit when he handed me the back pack.  He would come up to me and say, "Whos f^@$! idea was this!"  I just smiled at him and handed him some gatorade.

trying to smile

We reached the lava field and I said good-bye to my horse Camaron.  We took off on foot across this vast field of rock.  It felt like we were walking across the worlds biggest barbecue, each step went crunch like the sound charcoal briquettes make.  Our guide handed us a hand blistering rock that our group played hot potato with.  He then led us to a chasm that we all entered, it felt like we were in a sauna without the steam.

entrance to the sauna

inside the sauna - very, very hot!

The lava we came to see was not there.  We have been told that there hasn't been any since it erupted in May 2010.

priceless expression 

trying to smile, about to die

We thought we were done with being mountain goats but then our guide said that we were going to another peak higher up.  The group collectively sighed and dropped their shoulders and we began to follow him, begrudgingly.

near the peak,  Justin trying to catch his breath

The second leg was a killer.  Straight up, with ankle deep soft volcanic rock.  We stopped many times to catch our breath and to try and slow our heart rate.  Once we reached the top we were rewarded with incredible views of the valley below.

What goes up must come down.  It was a knee jarring, tumbling, stumbling experience shared by our group. You could feel the temperature rise as we were descending.  Once we reached the bottom we were starved and shared our snacks with some of the local kids.

Five kilometers up and five kilometers down.  At the highest we were about eight thousand feet.  Incredible views and an experience like no other.  It was a tough day and one that we will not soon repeat.