Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Rain, fire, mist and smoke - Volcano Pacaya. These are some of the ingredients available on the overnight trip to Volcano Pacaya, which lies nearly exactly in the middle between Guatemala City and Antigua. No doubt this was one of the better excursions which I have ever done. In fact, in many other countries the trip - or at least the way we approached it - would not be allowed for safety reasons. Whilst being mostly overwhelmed with the sight of lava continually streaming down the mountain side about 40 meters away, I constantly had to remind myself that I was actually witnessing one of the most profound processes of earth - the actual recycling of earth itself. It was beautiful and strange, and fun and funny all at the same time. Fun and funny, because we could actually get so close to the lava that we were able to braai marsh-mellows - witness the pics. The lava moves around every day on this volcano (i.e. because this volcano does not "erupt" as such, but rather 'leaks' from the side, it moves around every day, and the guides need to go off looking for the lava. Sometimes there is a lot, sometimes very little). But we had some lava angels smiling down on us, because - shortly post a torrential downpour that saw us trudging for 45 minutes through thick mist and apparently ceaseless rain - the sky opened up; the one side of the mountain was a technicolour wonderland with red, orange and yellow flows, slowly treacling down the mountain side. We were all reluctant to leave when the time came (by now the heat from the lava had dried out or clothes entirely, and we were rather cosily ensconced on a piece of mountain side that could - technically - blow us all to smithereens) but we had an hour and half trek back to camp. There the guides prepared our basic but tasty meal, and we hauled out the super-sized bottle of rum, Coke and limes that we had laboured up, in farewell celebrations of two friends (Vikki and Femke) who were leaving Antigua the next day. Many Cuba Libres into the night; discussing top five songs-books-movies-artists-writers etc. we decided - in honour of the very space we were inhabiting - to make our own fire. This is somewhat difficult on the edge of the rain forest, three hours after the skies dumped the greater part of the Pacific on our camp site. We tried all avenues, even using two bags of over sized marshmellows, to get the fire going. We generated very little fire, and a rather large amount of smoke. About 4am, we had to give up (in more respects than one) and left it to the gods in the rumbling stomach of Payaca to make fire. We used the next three hours to prove that it is impossible to have six people in a four person tent, and have a good rest. But then again, no rest for the wicked, me thinks.
- comments