Antigua: What a Lava-ly Climb

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Day 83 – Sunday 11th December 2005

The student hotel I was staying at included 3 meals a day Monday to Saturday, but on Sunday I was left to fend for myself. Therefore the three of us who were staying at the hotel all went out for breakfast. Which was nice. I needed a hearty meal as I planned to climb the nearby volcano Pacaya in the afternoon.

The volcano had 3 main draws to it. Firstly, at 2500m ASL it stands 500m shorter than my previous attempt at climbing a volcano. The climb was supposed to only take 2 hours instead of the 3 and a half it took to climb Volcan San Pedro. This logically meant it wouldn’t be as tough. Secondly, I would get to see the sunset from atop the volcano, which I had been told was incredible. My final good reason for climbing the volcano was that it is active. Which meant I would see honest to goodness lava. That alone was reason to climb it in my opinion. I bought my ticket and headed for a pre-climb Burger King (told you this place was touristy).

One pm came around and I – armed with 6 bananas I bought for 3Q – caught the bus that drove the group (all 40 of us) to a village on the side of the volcano that would be our starting point. When we arrived we got out of the bus and were bombarded by kids trying to sell walking sticks to aid climbing. Confident I’d make it to the top without one I declined their offer, but I did admire their persistence.

As part of such a big group the climb was pretty slow as different people had different speeds of walking. Thus after 20 minutes the group was pretty well spread out and it became necessary to stop every now again to allow the concertina to close. Being fresh from no having done no exercise during the week, together with having Volcano San Pedro under my belt, I found the climb to be pretty comfortable. The first part was on well trodden path and climbed only gradually, and there were a few stops where it was possible to admire the scenery. It was only when we reached the point where the volcanic rock took over from the vegetation did the climb become more challenging.

Standing at the foot of the final cone there were views of Guatemala city and the surrounding country in the distance as we looked down upon it from virtually cloud level. The tip of the cone of Pacaya was shrouded in the clouds, which were increasing every minute. So reason number two for climbing the volcano (getting to see the sunset from the summit) was out of the window. At least the lava would be there.

As we began to make the final ascent we walked up and over a ridge. Soon after reaching the ridge we were enveloped in the clouds and the wind picked up considerably. This combined with the sudden drop in temperature made the going a lot harder and I donned my wooly hat and raincoat to shield me from the cold and wind. The barren landscape – jet black rocks, clouds reducing visibiltity to about 25m – had a very eerie feel, not least because it was so desolate.

We soon reached the foot of the cone proper, and here the footing became unstable. The surface consisted of millions of tiny rocks which when stepped upon slid down the cone, taking my feet with them. As a result climbing this final stretch was like climbing a sand dune. With every step I took, my feet slid back down under the rocks. It took almost 30 minutes of walking and slipping like that to reach stable ground. By this time the wind had turned into a gale, gusting so hard it was difficult to even stand up. With the increased wind came further drops in temperature. I had my coat on but some people only had t-shirt and shorts. They were nails!

When I finally reached the top I wasn’t disappointed, I got to see lava. The crater in which the lava lay was only about 2-3m in diameter and it resembled a giant BBQ, but the heat it gave off was something else entirely. I took the obligatory photos and posed alongside it. I also managed to find a spot where the wind wasn’t too gusty and the warmth of the volcano heated me up.

After about 10 minutes I was ready to climb down. The stones which had made the ascent so awkward turned out to be great to slide down! I was able to stand with my back to the mountain, balance on my heels and coast down as if I were on an escalator. This was great, however when I got to the bottom I looked back up at the volcano and half of it wasn’t there anymore, it had all accumulated in my shoes!

By this time it was getting dark, and we had to walk down in the rapidly deteriorating light. I didn’t bring a torch, so after about 15 minutes when it was pitch black it was a matter of guessing where to put my feet! It took about an hour to walk down and its a miracle no-one in the group twisted an ankle or something but we all made it down unscathed – almost!

On the way down, one lad who had been a bit of a nob the whole day tried to be smart and ran ahead by himself, thinking he knew the route. Of course he managed to get himself lost and spent about an hour running around the mountain by himself in the pitch black unsuccessfully looking for the correct path. I guess the possibility of being lost shit him up because when the guides eventually found him he wasn’t such the big man anymore, and he got aboard the bus very looking very meek and timid!

Once all members of the party had been accounted for, we made our way back to Antigua, however it was pretty late and all I did was have a shower to get rid of all the volcanic dust and went straight to bed, satisfied Í’d climbed my last volcano in Guatemala.