On November 9th, 2019 I hiked up an ACTIVE volcano! I know what you’re probably thinking, “How and why would she do something like that?”
Well, I’m first off, super adventurous at heart and that is something I have found out more as I’m on this amazing World Race. Second off, I was told that I would get to roast marshmallows over lava at the very top of it. So why the heck not do it? I would rather have an adventure with my community of people than stay at home or sit on my butt in a cafe somewhere for Wifi. Not to say I don’t like doing that, I love doing that. My whole squad was already doing it so I said, “Why not?!”
This volcano I heard from day one of being here in Guatemala that you can ride a horse up and down and ever since I heard that, I knew that I would do it at some point! If you know me at all, you know how much I love horses! If you don’t know me at all, I love horses! However, the person on my squad that put the hike together for us told me that the travel agency she contacted didn’t mention any horse rides up so she didn’t think it was an option. I for one, didn’t like that answer and was determined to ride a horse up.
I knew how much the horse would cost so I brought enough money for it, having a feeling I would be able to ride one up.
So we get to the base of the volcano where we pay the entrance fee and prepare to hike up. Driving up I saw all these horses saddled up and standing there waiting for me to come get on them!! I was like aha! I’m getting a horse and there ain’t nothing anyone can do to stop me!
I knew that I knew that I was going to ride a horse and I was so willing to pay for it. I partly didn’t want to be the only one to be riding a horse though so my teammate, Amber, said she would do it too so I was like, awesome! BUT… the entrance price ended up being so much higher than we expected so she couldn’t afford it anymore/wasn’t willing to pay for both. So guess what! I ended up being the only one interested in riding a horse up the volcano! I almost let that stop me from doing it too. My thoughts were, “Should I not do it so that I’m not the only one to ride a horse on my squad?” I was afraid of the attention I would get from being the only one to do it. But ever so quietly the Holy Spirit whispered to me, “Don’t feel pressured into doing what others want to do by them not wanting to do what you want to do!” I was like, “oh man okay, yes sir!”
I went against the flow of my squad completely! Which, y’all should know that when it comes to things that are unsure for me, I tend to go with the flow rather than against the flow, so this whole thing was a big thing for me to do!
I made sure that me riding a horse without another squad mate would be okay with my amazing squad leader, Connor! He told me that he was fine with it, so I was in the go! I got super excited!
When I finally got on the horse I would ride up the volcano on, I got the biggest smile on my face and it stayed there the entire way up! I didn’t, however, stay the only person riding a horse up the whole time. My teammate, Chelsea ended up getting on one because she was struggling with hiking. They of course charged her a bit less money since she didn’t start on one. I was happy to have some company too even though I would have been perfectly fine riding a horse in silence, surrounded by Guatemalan strangers on horses.
Before I was even all the way up to what they called the base of the volcano, I could see the lava falling down the top of the volcano! I got so excited! I’ve never in my life seen lava with my own eyes! Also the view was amazing the whole way up, but it got better and better!
Fun fact: Guatemala’s elevation is 4,429 feet and this volcano is 8,373 feet. It erupted 23,000 years ago for the first time and has erupted at least 23 times since the Spanish invaded Guatemala.
When we got to what they called the base I had to get off the horse I rode up. I said goodbye to the pretty horse and thanked the owner that led us up the volcano. There was a store called “The Lava Store” that had a whole bunch of necklaces, rings, and earrings of the hardened lava in beautiful designs. The view from there was also super amazing but like I already said, it just kept getting better! We weren’t done with the hike at this point either. We still had to hike up the hardened lava rocks to get to the lava where we would roast marshmallows over.
The lava rocks are very light and black and some are big and some are small. I loved climbing on them. The farther up we climbed them, the hotter it got. I started the climb up these rocks cold and by the time we went back down, I was sweating! The rocks that were a bit white were the hottest and we were told to stay away from those. We found a hole where there was red, hot lava! It was quite possibly the coolest thing I’ve seen!
Looking over the cool hole of lava, one of my amazing squad leaders dropped his sunglasses off his head into the lava and it caught on fire! It was low key funny! It was a great opportunity for an unforgettable memory and video though!
I’ve never been so in awe of a view in my life. All I could say when I looked at the amazing view was, “God. Is. Good!” He really is good! He created man and also the amazing views like Volcan Pacaya! I have no other words to express my amazement of God’s creation! Thanks God!
I hiked the way down the volcano because I would have had to pay more money to ride a horse down too. It was okay because I knew the hike down would be faster and easier than going up! The hike up took an hour and a half. The hike down took an hour! I had no regrets in the long run with paying to ride a horse up.
God knew how much I wanted to ride a horse and He allowed me to do what I wanted, showing how much He cares for what we as humans care about! Even the smallest things! If this story doesn’t show that, I don’t even know what does!
