Un volcano activo

Yesterday we had an amazing natural experience. We climbed the volcano Pacaya, at 2552m, and here’s the catch: the volcano is active!!! Yes, as in alive, hot, running lava, the possible sudden eruption (okay. Maybe not! They have it very well under control. But still…)! It was thrilling!

We drove from Antigua to the foot of the volcano, entering Pacaya National Park. From here we would walk to the top with our guide. Before we started we knew that we would climb an active volcano, but still you expect the same “wild” experience that are offered so many other place, where it often turns out to be a safe tourist attraction. But this was different…

We started out walking through something that could look a bit like rainforest. On our right-hand side we had a nice view to the other two volcanoes in the area.

As we got higher up, most of the big trees were gone, and only a few bushes and grass was left. It then got really foggy, and we realized that we were walking in a cloud. A bit further and all the bushes were gone and we were completely gone in the skies.

And then came the wind. See, the wind is normally blowing at a lower altitude than the height of the volcano, but the only place for the wind to pass was over the top of Pacaya. This created an extremely hard wind blowing upwards, just a bit over the ground. You could literally see the clouds flying towards you. And trying there best to carry you along.

At this point there was only black sand left; no trees, bushes or grass.

Then we started to climb the last part. The winds were so strong that you would fall over sometimes. Sand was blowing everywhere (something we would find out when we cleaned our ears later that day!).

When we finally got to the top we got our prize. At the top of Pacaya there is a small hole and once every couple of minutes red, hot lava would flight out, meters up in the air, turn to a black mass once it gets contact with the cold air, and then land somewhere around the hole.

We were only 10-20 meters away, but the strong wind made sure that the lava always flew in the opposite direction. Still it was exiting to be so close. It was hot up there, despite the winds. If you stuck your hand into the sand it would warm up right away.

The climb down was really fun, because having the wind in our faces now you could run down the side of the volcano, but never getting to much speed like you normally do; the winds would keep us at a slow speeds.

It was difficult to capture the amazing views and the hot lava flying around, but we took quite a few pictures and hope you can see a bit of what we saw!

http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/rgrunnet/album?.dir=5de5

(If you read this right away, check back again later. Then we'll add some more pictures and put some proper titles for the pictures)

(There is also a few pictures at our dinner, which we ate together with a lot of guys from Israel. They all stayed in the same hostel and did a complete Kosker meal, complete with prayer. Quite interresting...)