Pacaya Volcano

The BEST Adventure YET!!! It is hard to believe the amazing experience we just had. It was an afternoon tour to Volcán Pacaya (2552 m); the only active volcano near Antigua in San Francisco de Sales. There was a group of 14 us that the driver picked up from Antigua. When we arrived at the small mountain town of San Francisco de Sales we were bombarded by children trying to sale us walking sticks.

Local boy selling sticks for Volcano hike in San Francisco del Sales

We were all like “we don’t need those we are young, athletic we can climb this mountain” which proved to be true for us but some people in the group should have gotten one. Anyways we started our 1 hour hike up the mountain on a narrow, steep mud path through the dense jungle.

View of Guatemala City from Pacaya Volcano

Our guide brought his two dogs so we had them to lead the way half the time. Haha. Out of breath and at the top of the mountain we were stunned by the awe-inspiring view. We were just below the volcano base and just above all the dense puffy clouds. Ryan got amazing photographs.

Clouds at the base of the Pacaya Volcano

View of Agua Volcano from Pacaya Volcano

Debb & Ryan at the base of Pacaya Volcano

Debb, Ryan, Daniel & Craig at Pacaya Volcano

Turning around 360 we stared at our next challenging climb; up the volcano’s vertical cone. We thought we were done with the hard part but not even close. The cone is covered in black basaltic rock that is shed from the crater and is like climbing up a giant sand dune or snow covered mountain. The 20 mph cool winds didn’t help much either. In Spanish the guide told us “one step forward, two steps back”. It took us about another 30 minutes to climb from the base to half way up the volcano cone where the lava was flowing out of the mountain. Higher up we climbed the fine basaltic rock gradually started turning into a black sharp volcanic desert. We knew we were close when we felt and smelt warm sulfur gases coming from the cracks in the rocks. Just up one more level and around one more corner. One more deep breath. One for leg cramp. There it was red hot flowing lava!! Only in Guatemala does the guide say okay go for it. In small groups we climbed as close to the lava as our skin would allow us and took a few pictures before the sole of our shoes melted off. This actually happened to one guy in our group.

Lava from Pacaya Volcano in Guatemala

Lava from Pacaya Volcano

Standing next to the lava and thinking about the challenging climb we just completed Ryan and I agreed this is why we are on this trip.

Ryan touching the Lava

Once everyone had taken their pictures with the lava we were on our way back down the mountain. It was dark by this time and the now cold winds were picking up to 35 mph on the volcano cone. We had 5 flashlights to share between 15 of us; luckily it was a lot easier to slid down the basaltic rock and down the narrow mountain path. About 45 minutes later we were at the bottom of the mountain and on our way back to Antigua. Even though we were super excited about our volcano climb we were also all very exhausted from the climb and still tired from the barely any sleep the night before. Needless to say we got back to Antigua had McDonalds for dinner and went straight to bed still with a grin on our faces!!

Guatemala, Guatemala