Antigua is a lovely colonial city to explore. The cobblestoned streets winding in and around abandonded monasteries, churches, and city buildings were easily the best and worst feature of the city. I tripped at least once a day and that was with Chako's on! Try running a half marathon on it's uneven surface--they held one the day I left for Xela with about 2000 runners. But on this Saturday morning, I wandered around making last minute transportation arrangements and catching a late breakfast at La Fuenta. Mmmmm coffee. The open air courtyard with bubbling stone fountain typical of most hotels in the city made for a relaxing place to sample a typical guatemalan breakfast of fried egg, black beans, white cheese, plantain, and fresh baked bread. I hoped for tortillas but the bread was very tasty. At 2pm Vic, Derrick and I joined a tour group to Volcan Pacaya. Pacaya is one of the country's four active volcanoes and fairly easy to climb. It's a 2500m or so to the summit. Our tour guide, Hector, took a pretty fast pace for the first 100m and navigated the lava rocks like it was nothing more than a stroll down any sidewalk. Felt pretty winded really fast--think that was their plan so you pay extra for the horses following the group up the path. But, the more they offered to have us use a caballo, the more I was determined not too. Though I probably should've eaten lunch before climbing a volcano. A few of the girls in our group did end up riding horses to the base of the lava rock but they were also pretty dehydrated from days of gastro problems and no sleep.
The morning rain made the views around Pacaya very misty. Fog covered just about everything in every direction on our way up. The base of the lava rock meeting the grassy slope of the hillside, combined with the blanket of fog gave a very ethereal feel to the place. When we began scrambling over cooled lava resembling a lunar rock landscape and snapped a few pictures on the purple hued formations, I was really glad I had decided to climb the whole way.
Just as we reached the summit I looked up to see smoke and softball sized boulders erupting from the crater lip. The group ahead of us was there and we had a few tense moments as we witnessed the group begin running en mass down from the mouth of the crater while our tour guides shouted "Peligroso! Peligroso!" and directed us away. One of the girls in our group got hit on the shoulder by a volcanic rock--she was okay but will have a bruise for sure. After all was quiet we ventured closer to the top and were able to get surprisingly close to actual lava flow. See the pictures of me smiling away as people poked the lava with sticks and roasted marshmallows. Really the top smelled like toasted marshmallows mixed with sulfur. In places you could stand on cooled lava rock and look down to see red hot lava flow beneath. I was not too keen on standing in such places for extended periods of time, especially when I started to smell melting plastic and rubber from our shoes and the heat was too much for my exposed ankles. Next time I'll remember not to wear capris.
The descent in the dark was much easier than the climb. And the fog lifted to reveal views of the surrounding hillside farms and guatemala city lights. My new headlamp and rain shell came in really handy that day. (Thanks Dan!) When we got back to Antigua, I found that Amie was just leaving and we would miss seeing her. Que lastima! We ate at La Fonda del Calle Real under some pithy spanish sayings such as "It's easy to kill for a woman, but hard to live with her." Funny. Pollo pepian, traditonal dish that was a cross between a morrocan tangine and indian curry was yummy. And we had the salty salty guacamole with homemade tortillas and lime juice mixed with soda. Vic and Derrick made sure I got home safely--the streets were totally empty at 10pm except for few odd people. One more night at Dorris' place and on to school in Xela tomorrow.
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