After another interminable journey in a cramped minibus we finally arrived in Antigua, a beautiful colonial town nestled between several volcanoes, not far from Guatemala City. Although it was pouring with rain I immediately got a great feel for this little town, with its cobbled streets and colourful buildings.
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| Antigua |
Before climbing the volcano I took a rest day where the group of us chilled, caught up on bits a pieces, took a wander around town and took a small hike up to a viewpoint of the city which was absolutely beautiful.
Finally I got the courage up and after yet another early start I took the bus to the Pacaya volcano. It is one of the three active volcanoes in Guatemala and its latest erruption was only 3 months ago destroying the surrounding villages but thankfully sparing any lives. The lava reached distances of 42Km and the smoke 2 Km and it reached temperatures of 2000 degrees. With this in mind, a group of 5 of us took a 7 Km round trek up the side of the volacano to the crater. The scenery around us was desolate, the ground we trod on was black and around us a few trees and plants were slowly growing back.
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| The crater formed by the lastest erruption. |
From the highest point of our climb we got incredible views of the region, including some of the other volcanoes, one of which called Fuego could be seen spewing smoke! We then climbed down into a collapsed crater which was still hot, with smoke rising eerily from the black rocks. Although there was no fresh lava, we did see some red hot rocks, and even toasted some marshmellows and fried an egg on some of the hotter rocks!
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| A marshmellow on fire because of the heat. |
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| Fuego Volcano errupting |
It was an incredible experience, quite unlike anything I had lived before and it was amazing to think we were actually standing on an active volcano which could errupt at any point! Just a quick mention to Mamie my grandmother who has always dreamt of climbing a volcano and who I thought of the whole way!
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| Emma and I enjoying a few well deserved drinks |
Love Soph xxx
Wow, Soph!!How amazing. Really missing you guys and our travels. Saw so little of Guatemala..Loving the posts,
ReplyDeleteBig Love Pen xx
Loved the journey and the pics. Thanks for creating it! It is on my list.
ReplyDeleteDan Rodgerson