Climbing an Active Volcano

Finally, the day has come for us to climb an active volcano called Pacaya. There’s another volcano, Fuego, that’s also active, but it’s too dangerous to climb. Honny is really excited about this, while I’m a bit worried about getting lava or glowing rocks on me... But it’s definitely going to be an experience like no other. We’re going with a group because it’s important to have security personnel with us, as there can be attacks. The trip costs 64 quetzales. It doesn’t start until 2:30 PM, so we have a few practical things to take care of first. From 7 AM to 1 PM, we were busy sorting out those practicalities. We arranged a full-day hike up the Acatenango volcano for tomorrow, which is supposed to be quite a challenge since you start the ascent at the foot of the volcano. It costs $60 per person. At the top, you can look down into the crater – wild! We met the guide who will take us up the volcano, so we felt we could trust this company. That’s really important, as there are quite a few attacks on volcano climbs here. We also need to bring our own food for the whole trip, so we headed to the local supermarket to stock up. It’s especially good to have bananas with us, as they help with altitude sickness. We also bought bread, spreads, a bunch of water, and some granola bars. We also needed to arrange our flight tickets to Belize and back to Mexico City. That turned out to be a bigger and pricier deal. We booked our return tickets to Mexico City online with the budget airline Clickmexico for 750 kr each. Luckily, we didn’t need cash for this, as all the ATMs have run out of money again, and two banks have even gone bankrupt. The flights to Belize were trickier. First of all, they’re pretty expensive. Secondly, you can’t fly directly; you have to stop in Flores, Guatemala. After a long negotiation, we ended up buying tickets to Flores and then taking a bus from Flores here in Guatemala to Belize. We didn’t have enough cash to pay for the tickets, so we had to settle for putting down a deposit. Thankfully, they allowed us to do that. You can also pay with a VISA card, but there’s a 12% tax on top, which makes it not worth it. Finally, it was 2:30 PM, and we set off towards the active volcano Pacaya, which is located in a national park. Here, you have to pay an additional 25 quetzales per person for entry. Remember, it’s a good idea to bring a flashlight since it gets pitch dark when you’re climbing down. The ascent took about 2 hours. We could have done it faster, but we were in a group with some slow Americans, and in the end, the wife opted to ride a horse up. That didn’t really speed her up much :) In some places, it was tough to walk due to steep slopes and roots, so riding a horse wasn’t really an advantage. I also felt sorry for the horses. They were thin and needed new shoes. Honny and I led the way the whole time. That kept the group moving, which otherwise would have taken breaks constantly. I thought it would be a tough hike, but it wasn’t so bad. We’re getting in shape since we walk a lot every day. But it was totally worth the hike to get up to the volcano. The view was stunning. The first part of the hike was through the forest. As we got closer to the volcano, all vegetation stopped, and only hardened lava remained. We climbed over huge chunks of lava that had slid down the side of the volcano. From the cracks, we could feel the heat from the lava below, which was still warm. Many people end up melting their shoe soles by stepping on hot lava, but we managed to avoid that :) At the top, we stood only about 1-2 meters away from the flowing lava, which felt great in the chilly evening air. We didn’t even notice the sun setting. It was just so beautiful up there. Our guide was busy rounding up the whole group so we could head back down. Again, it wasn’t an advantage to be on a horse in pitch darkness. You couldn’t see the trees you needed to duck under, and the horse couldn’t see where it was going. The silly Americans looked a bit ridiculous. On the way down, if we looked back, we could see how the volcano lit up the evening sky, which was completely red. It looked like a little fire. We brought down two pieces of lava with us. They were still warm when we picked them up.