Today we drove about 2 hours to climb Pacaya Volcano, FYI it
erupted last in May of 2010. After waking up at 5 am and eating breakfast we
had one bus and 2 vans drive us to the place. The ride had its funny moments
from buying sticks to poke the lava which Addie thought they said llama to our
driver hitting the brakes about every 10 seconds. But let me tell you the view
was beautiful! W finally reached our destination and had the option of riding
horses up the volcano or hiking up; I chose the horse. I paid 100Q for it,
which is about $12. The horse’s name was Norditto and the guy who owned him was
named Joel.
We
started out and the trail was already steep. I spent a lot of time leaning
forward on the horse so he could make the climb. The views were absolutely
breathtaking as long as you didn’t look down at the thin trail then it was a
bit frightening. About half way up I switched with Tracy and I walked because
her asthma was getting pretty bad. Then the climb got brutal, it was definitely
way easier on a horse. With slow and
careful steps I chugged along, only slipping once. It took us about 2 hours to
climb up. We didn’t go to the top because it had just recently erupted and
smoke was still coming out of it.
The
best part of the hike was roasting marshmallows over a hole with magma in it.
Seriously my mallows we done in 3 seconds!! And they were delicious! A couple
of us ventured into a cavern of sorts because it was hot in there compared to
the chilly wind everywhere else. We declared truth on top of the volcano, took
plenty of sweet photos, and ate lunch. Then we began the precarious walk back
down. Again we had the option of riding horses or walking and since I
practically fell into the cavern that I previously mentioned and we were
walking on jagged unstable lava rocks, I chose the horse again. Only this time
we had to lean WAY back to walk down and it took about an hour.
This
was seriously one the best days of my life and I hope I never forget it! AND
its only day 3 on the race!
PS I promise pictures soon! The internet is a bit slow at the moment
