Volcán Pacaya

On my last day in Guatemala I planned on doing the volcano and actually getting up on time. The tour was booked through the school and cost $40 US. The benefit of booking through the school and going with Rolando was not only was Rolando an awesome tour guide but there were only 6 of us on the whole tour and all of us were from the school and knew each other.

I had heard mixed reviews about whether or not to ride the horse up the volcano as opposed to the 1 1/2 hour hike. But my asthma was already taking a hit from being cold for almost 2 weeks straight and I was pretty sure I suffer from altitude sickness which my sister can account for on drives in Hawaii. So, for 80 quetzales ($10 US) I was getting me a horse!

I met a great girl, Lin, also from New York that was smart like me and opted for the horse!


This was a view about halfway up of a lake area:



Everyone who had a horse also had a handler or whatever you would call them. This little boy was one of them taking a little break on the way up.



The horses took you to this top platform areaish in which you were dropped off to walk across the lava yourself (darnit). Here are a view pics from that top part:



Baby horse in training:




There were a handful of stray dogs at the top that liked to follow you and eat whatever food scraps you would give them but they also liked lounging on the warm lava rocks:


It's kind of hard to tell from this picture but the lava rock here had like a rainbow of colored flecks in it. Very pretty.


Our guide showed us lava flowing through a crack in the trail. You could walk around certain parts of the volcano and be cold and then once you were anywhere near the lava you definitely knew it! You could often see steam vapors coming up through the rocks.



We made it to some flowing lava which you can see in the next couple of pics. It wasn't two minutes before this pic was taking that there were a TON of people standing there looking at the lava on the OTHER side. The lava moves slow but yet fast. Very strange.

The people in the bottom left look soooo small!



More lava:



I was NOT feeling so well at this point. I officially know I suffer from altitude sickness! Thank goodness I was with such great people on the hike. They really took care of me when I was hunched over dry heaving on the lava rocks! However, I booked it up there, saw some really cool lava flow and booked it down. :)

This is me with my new friends Melody and Lin:



Our guide Rolando was ever so nice to roast us some marshmellows!


My first smore! Notice the little cut on my palm. I slipped on the rock and scrapped my other arm up pretty good. The lava rock hurts!