Flowing Lava & Melting Shoes

Lots of lava:



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Just outside of Antigua is Volcan Pacaya - a rather large, rather active volcano. One of the world's most active in fact. After being dormant for a century it erupted violently in 1965 and has been erupting continuously since then - in 1987 eruptions destroyed 63 homes and 3,000 people were evacuated, multiple lava flows up to 400m long regularly run down its slopes and lava fountains seen on the volcano over the past few years have reached heights of 800m. Apparently, such latent danger constitutes a tourist attraction in Guatemala and no self respecting backpacker is able to leave Antigua without undertaking a climb to the top of said volcano and having a bit of a play amongst the lava flows. (I know this, for I tried).

Having failed to convince Rich of the potential risks involved in climbing up a volatile exploding mountain I found myself on a bus heading towards the looming behemoth. Upon arrival we were greeted by our cheery tour guide (who presumably has some telepathic link with the goddess Pele which prevents us from meeting a fiery end on his tour). Stage one of volcano climbing involves the relatively mundane hike up to the lava field, the expanse of solidified lava flow that emanates from the crater. However, said hike is 3 kilometers straight up, so any feeling of relief at not yet being within spitting distance of the crater were obliterated by feelings of pain and an inability to breathe.

After 2 hours of climbing, followed closely the whole way by a local woman leading a horse and regularly gesticulating towards it asking "taxi"? we reached the lava field. If you're wondering what a lava field looks like, think of Mordor from Lord of the Rings. It looks like that, only mercifully without the lava in the sky on the day we visited. I'd heard that you have to be extremely careful when walking on lava fields, as the lava rock is razor sharp. I decided to test the extent of this sharpness by stumbling slightly at one point and brushing my knee against it. As the disproportionately large gash on my knee and tear in my trousers will attest, yes it is very sharp.

Moments later, we were presented with the reward for our labours - our first glimpse of a river of flowing molten lava. It's difficult to describe what it feels like to stand next to flowing lava. This is largely because whilst doing so I was distracted by thoughts such as "are my shoes melting" "is that man cooking sausages?" and "should I really be standing on this see-sawing piece of rock with a glowing orange crack in it?" Melting shoes is a genuine problem - we were told in no uncertain terms to wear sturdy hiking shoes because the crust of hardened lava you're walking on often has molten rock just underneath, causing many adventurers to take misshapen-soled shoes home as a souvenir. Even if your shoes manage to survive, its still impossible to stand still for more than a minute near the lava flows unless you want to simulate the opening moments of being burnt at the stake.

After some time contemplating the resemblance of your surroundings to your mental image of hell and watching people disregarding all common sense and personal safety to get the perfect lava photograph, we were told it was time to start the hike down. As relieved as I was to be moving away from the hot, unstable razor rocks this relief was tempered by the fact that while we were transfixed by the pyrotechnics the sun had set and we were now climbing down the volcano in darkness. By the time we finally got to the bus I was thoroughly convinced I deserved a medal. All in all, it was a once in a lifetime experience.