So it’s been a whirlwind of a time in the US. Saw my family, connected with several friends new and old, bought lots of stuff for Andiamo, hit both coasts, and, regrettably dealt with a pretty heavy blow of sadness over the loss of my mom. It’s been a tough past couple of weeks, but keeping busy and moving has helped somewhat.
Now’s a good time to thank EVERYONE who’s called, emailed, and messaged me with their thoughts, love and sympathy. It’s been comforting to say the least, and has made going through this whole thing just a little bit easier.
So after a couple of days in Fort Lauderdale hanging out with Steffen, and doing some last-minute boat-stuff shopping, I made my way to Miami to catch my flight back to Guatemala City last Saturday.
Due to a major traffic snafu, as well as some forgotten directions to the airport, I BARELY made my flight. Lucky for me, I saw the right people at TACA, and they got me and my bags on the flight despite my horrific tardiness.
It was nice to be headed back to Central America. Mitzy, one of my Guatemala City friends, was at the airport to meet me. Which was a great help, being that I had 2 huge rolling duffel bags full of stuff, plus my backpack and computer bag. Mitzy said the gang was going on a nice little adventure on sunday, to which I was invited to come along. Who am I to say no to that?
The plan was to first head over to Antigua to hang out with Liza, another one of the now-ubiquitous “Guatemala City Gang”, who has an absolutely INCREDIBLE house there. Always a great time to be had at Liza’s wonderful house. Though I’d been there a few times before, this will have been the first time I actually stayed there as a houseguest. I was so spoiled.
The next morning, we were to head over to Mt. Pacaya, an active volcano about an hour out of Antigua. On the way there, Mitzy and I would meet up with the rest of the Guatemala City Gang, and even more people I’d only recently met. We met up with Rocio, Rosie, Annie, Maria, Caterina, Campollo, and Andres (Rocio’s boyfriend), Manuel (who’s from Chile, and currently dating Maria) and Anna-Fernandina, Campollo’s new gal-pal, who, interestingly, is also Monica’s (my friend from Tranquila bar on Utila) cousin! Small world it is indeed.
Anyway, after meeting up en route, we made way for Pacaya National Park, where the trek up Pacaya would begin.
I have great video of the whole adventure, which I’ll be posting up very soon, btw. Photos are already posted on the gallery.
The trek up the mountain in the beginning wasn’t so bad, but as we got closer to the top, it became more arduous. we got to the foot of the top cone after a good hour of hiking up. The weather was incredibly clear that Sunday, which was a relief because Guatemala has been getting MAJOR rain lately.
From this plateau, we can see the majority of the lava flow that stemmed from vents in the cone. The lava flow was incredibly fast and voluminous, and HOT.
Now, a side note…
I’ve been to Kilauea in Hawaii, twice. Kilauea is known as the world’s most active volcano. Currently spitting out lava that’s adding more landmass to the Big Island at the rate of 3,000 acres per year since 1984. Seeing it both during the day and night have been among the most awe-inspiring experiences of my life. I wasn’t expecting Pacaya to be as nearly exciting as this, but boy… what was I thinking?
Some of the crew decided that this point was as far as they would go. Manuel and I decided we wanted to keep going. Maria agreed to keep going with us, as well as Mitzy. So the four of us continued on the last run up the cone.
This part of the hike was REALLY steep, and comprised of climbing up loose lava rock, gravel and soil. It was tough. I was exhausted barely one quarter of the way up. Mitzy was slightly ahead of me, and I shouted up to her to keep going, because I was done. Mitzy wouldn’t hear of me quitting, and made me trudge on. After improving my climbing technique a bit, by stabbing my feet into the loose gravel, my feet could actually keep some traction. I managed to make better progress before dropping dead of exhaustion.
Finally, Mitzy and I made it up to the top of the cone! Maria and Manuel were already there waiting for us. Up here, there were several steam vents that spewed out tons of steam made by water vapor brought on by the rains. There was also a huge fissure on one side of the cone that spewed out some serious sulfuric gas. One breath of this stuff, and you were coughing and heaving like an asthmatic. The heat was pretty intense too. Luckily, the winds blew south and directed most of the steam away from where we were.
We had to run alongside this fissure to get to the other side, so we can venture up to the crater at the top of the cone. The crater was about 50 meters wide, and there was so much heat and gases coming out of it, that it howled with a ultra-low bass drone. It was really incredible. I walked up to the edge of the crater where I saw some other people going. With my camera in hand, I headed toward the edge and looked down.
It was incredible. The crater tapered inward in size towards a hole about maybe 10 meters wide. There were several small vents and ports where gases spewed from. Through the bigger hole, you can see nothing but bright red from the magma building up pressure inside! And blinding HEAT! It was incredible. You can feel the rumble of the building pressure just below your feet. And every once in awhile, the crater would spit up a glob of magma with the steam. I was stunned by the sight. It was almost as incredible as watching the lava flows pour into the ocean back at Kilauea.
Mitzy freaked out the first time she saw the crater spit up magma. I told her that it was ok for her to come up along the side I was in and look down, because she really needed to see it. Well she did, before freaking out some more at the flying magma (which becomes lava once it’s outside the crater). After a good minute or so gazing at this amazing sight, we decided that it was enough, and it was time to head down. We had to run back across the sulfur vent without breathing too much. About here I took a bit of a slide, and landed my wrist on some very jagged lava rock. Cut me good.
Coming down from the cone was clearly faster than going up. Basically, we “skiied” down by sliding our feet from one side to another, not unlike the downhill maneuver you do when you ski down a slope. A few minutes later, we were back with the rest of the posse, telling them about the huge thrill we just had.
The plan was then to go down to the Caldera Lagoon, where there was another park where you can take a zip line over a jungle canopy. This sounded really exciting, but by the time we got down from the mountain, it was kinda late, and everybody was pretty spent, so we scrubbed that mission for now. I believe that they will be doing it next weekend, more than likely without me, as I’ll be back on Andiamo on the Rio Dulce.
So, as has been the case lately, a slight detour on the way to or from the Andiamo yields another unplanned yet nonetheless incredible adventure. Gotta love it when that happens.
So after another night in Antigua, I’m back in Guatemala City, en route to Rio Dulce. I should be there by tomorrow PM, and I’m looking forward to it. It’s time to be home again.
Stil working on my mom’s life story. Hers is a bit more of a challenge to write for reasons you’ll see when I finally post it. Should have it up in a few more days.