Volcan Pacaya

There's almost definately an accent or two in the name, but it sounds how it's spelled.


I came back to La Antigua specifically to visit/climb this volcano. Guatemala has three active volcanoes - I have now been up close to two, and this morning I watched the third erupt as I went for a morning stroll.


I should correct myself actually - what I have seen are technically not classified as eruptions, they are called explosions. An eruption is what you walk accross on the way up Pacaya. The volcano's last major eruption was in 2004, when it went off in an eruption that was visible from the capital city. It has been active for almost two years (if memory serves me correctly) which means there has been continuous explosions and lava flows.


To get to the lava flow, or one of them, you walk over the now cooled remains of the 2004 eruption, which is like walking on the moon, or at least what I imagine walking on the moon would be like - only it's hotter here.


The first couple pictures are of the cooled lava flow - and the peak in the distance is the actual crater of Pacaya - it doesn't sound the same as Santiaguito though - Santiaguito had a deep rumbling sound, while Pacaya had more of a quick bang-whoosh sound to it. But looking up at the sound we could see lava and rocks firing up out of the little peak - which was especially cool once it got dark.


Eventually we rounded the corner and were greeted with a gust of hot wind as we neared the flow. There are no restrictions here - and so I was able to stand about two feet away from a lava flow, and poke around in it with a stick - lava is suprisingly heavy. The heat, of course, is extreme - and under your feet you can see more lava below through cracks in the cooled top crust - it is over these cracks that you can cook marshmellows. Lava cooks'em great too. Luckily it's so hot they cook almost instantly, because standing in one place for too long would result in melted shoes.


All in all, it's an amazing experience - and hiking back down in the dark with the volcano going off in the background is excellent. I would like to thank Pacaya for being nice while we were there, since running away from an eruption - over the last eruption - would have been impossible.