My First Volcano Hike: Pacaya

Thursday, we had a day off of school because of a Guatemalan holiday.  So naturally, a few of us decided we should go on an adventure—preferably hiking.  There’s a volcano (well, there are several) about an hour’s drive from Guate.  So we spread the word, and sure enough, plenty of people were interested.  We talked to Annette, one of the new teachers who has been working in Guatemala for the past 3 years with an organization called Young Life, and she just so happened to have a contact for a driver and a guide for us.  The driver had a 15 passenger van and charged $125 for the day.  We easily came up with 12 people who were interested in going, and we made it happen.    Talk about a reasonable price!  And when Annette told me the guide’s fee for taking us up the volcano—the equivalent of $12 US, my first question was, “Per person, right?”  No.  For the whole group.  We tipped a little more, because isn’t a 4 hour hike with 12 people worth a bit more than $12? 

The whole trip came together really smoothly and easily.  We left our homes at around 8:30am and got out of the city.  Our guide, Fredy, didn’t speak much English, but there were enough of us on the trip who understand that we could translate for the others. 

The hike started in the forest, with plenty of stops at look-out points affording us fantastic views of the surrounding countryside.  Fredy pointed out various types of trees and points of interest along the way. 



Then we came to the summit, where dirt and grass gave way to rocks and ash.  We were now walking on the area which had been covered with lava in the 2005 eruption. 



We traversed the rocky area on the loose gravel, stopping to spell out “CAG 13” with larger rocks, and then stopping at a steam vent to roast marshmallows.  It wasn’t hot enough right there to catch them on fire, but they did get nice and soft and delicious.  We were pretty excited about our marshmallow roasting experiment. 




As we walked along, we heard a rumble and turned toward the crater to see it spewing rocks out its top!  It was possibly one of the coolest things I’ve seen in my lifetime, knowing that we were that close to an active volcano, and it was active enough to puff rocks and smoke.  (We later found out that a few hours after we left, Pacaya erupted, spewing red-hot lava.  32 people were evacuated.) 



As the clouds rolled in, we walked into the mist along a ridge, then came to the “skiing” part of the trail.  There, the path became very steep, and covered in loose dirt and gravel.  We sort or ran/slid down the hill.  No one lost their footing or fell, and we all came to the bottom and had to empty out our shoes.  Being in the middle of the cloud during the experience added another dimension, because all we could really see was the path in front of us. 



After we bid Fredy good-bye at the bottom of the mountain, we finished the day at the Santa Teresita Spa for a good meal and then swimming in the thermal hot springs.  It was relaxing and just what we needed after a good hike! 


Tired but refreshed…ready for another day at school!  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cambodia: Reflections and Highlights

Image
I was really excited to visit Cambodia for a few days and hit up Angkor Wat and the other temples in the area.  Cambodia felt like my kind of adventure--and I can’t even really say why.  But I was excited.  I was excited for our hotel there--a full-out boutique hotel (not a hostel), with AC, a swimming pool, breakfast included, and airport pick-up for free--which cost us a scant $20 per night.  And we’d read about a lot of great tours we could take with local guides.  Flying in and flying out, this leg of the trip would be a breeze, and hopefully everything would be as cheap as the hotel.   The Mango Rain Boutique Hotel Our flight to Cambodia was unlike any other I’ve ever been on.  There were only about 20 of us on the flight--which would not have been strange, except it was, because we were on a full-size plane that could have seated 200.  The 20 of us were mostly grouped together towards the back of the plane.  Second impressive t...
Read more

DI Globals 2016: A Tale of Two Teams

Image
For the past 3 years, I have acted as a team manager for Destination Imagination at my school in Guatemala, and each year, my team has earned a trip to Global Finals in Knoxville, Tennessee.  This school year, I was blessed to manage the exact same team I had last year—the Aguaguates, the most wonderful group of kids any DI team manager could wish for.  This group, all 7 th graders this year, has everything needed to not only excel at DI, but also make a team manager’s job almost unnecessary.  They have amazing team chemistry, and they understand the importance of teamwork.  They’re crazy creative and hilarious and amazing actors when they get on stage.  They push themselves to improve their performances.  They know what they need to get done for DI, and they create their own practice schedules.  In short, they are a DI dream team, not to mention really, really great people .  This year though, I took one look at the school calendar and deci...
Read more

Yearly Update: The Journey to 30

Image
Over a year has passed since my last “update.”  And the year I was 29, despite the fact that I lived close to home rather than abroad, was anything but boring, so there’s no real reason for the lack of blog posts.   The year I was 29, I survived what may have been my most difficult year of teaching yet.  Many overseas teachers say, “Teaching in the States is so much different than teaching abroad.  You’ll see.  That’s why I went overseas; I’d never go back to teaching in the States.  It’s just...too much.”  Well, they’re not wrong.  I admit, I thought that with five years teaching experience under my belt, my first year in the US, my first year at the high school level, would go rather smoothly.  While in a sense it did (no concerns about the quality of my work from administration or complaints from parents), it was mentally and emotionally very taxing.  Even this year, my 2nd back in the States, I’m still adjusting to and coming t...
Read more