Adrian vs the volcano V: lava poking time!

Ever since my first Central American volcano visit when w went to Mt Arenal in Costa Rica and were told that if you looked just right squinted a bit, and used your imagination you could see lava on the volcano at night, only to be thwarted by a constant cloud cover, I was sustained by the promise of a fellow traveler that when I got to Guatemala I would be able to poke the lava with a stick.

After 3 months and hundreds of miles traveled, that dream finally came true when I did a hike up volcan pacaya, a volcano near Antigua, Guatemala. Our trip got off to a bit of a rough start: our ride was 20 min late (making us worry tnat it wasn't coming), and then when it did come we saw that our "tour bus" was actually a Hyundai Accent where we had to cram in 4 passengers. The car itself was basically held together with electrical tape, and we had to stop several times to poke at the wheels or wipe off the engine.

Needless to say, we were quite happy to arrive in one piece at the mountain. There we were immediately mobbed by kids trying to sell us walking/lava poking sticks. I procured my stick, and we were off! No sooner had we started hiking then it began to pour. On the bright side, I was finally able to use the poncho I had been schlepping around through all of the sunny weather this past 3 months.

Luckily the rain stopped after about 20 minutes, and then when we were abo0ut 15 minutes from our destination, the clouds rolled away, granting us a great view of the volcano (we didn't go all the way to the top - way too dangerous). Now we started walking over a lava field, and could occasioonally glimpse a red glow in fissuers below us. Suddenly we came to what we'd been looking for: a huge pool of lava - you could see it slowly flowing out and down the hill.

So, as you have hopefully guessed, I was not content to meerely ooh and ahh at the lava. After all, I'd paid 6 Quetzales (75 cents) for my lava-poking stick and I planned to use it! I tentatively made my way close enough, shielding my face from the heat, and poked away. It was everything I'd hoped it would be - a pyromaniac's dream.

Satisfied, we hiked back down, bundled back into our luxurious sardine-can-with-wheels, returned to Antigua, and started scheming about our next volcano hike (it's addicting!). Pics below:

hiking into the fog

volcán pacaya

cool lava cave

Lava! Coooooool!

me with lava

lava close-up

it's lava poking time!