Our group below the summit of Volcan Pacaya

Wednesday 15th September 1999

From Livingston, we decided to head towards Antigua. We got to the dock at Livingston and caught a collectivo boat to Puerto Barrios across the Bahio de Amatique to Puerto Barrios. From there, we managed to catch a bus heading to Guatemala almost immediately; we were expecting to have to wait for a couple of hours. We reached Guatemala in mid-afternoon, went for something to eat and then caught another bus to Antigua, again almost immediately - if only all our journeys were as easy. We arrived in Antigua and immediately acquired a follower in the shape of a little kid who wanted to take us to a hotel. We opted for a bargain-basement hotel, the Posada Ruiz, at a cost of all of $4 a night. Almost straight away we were approached by an Australian trying to get a group together to climb a volcano early the next morning. After a short time considering our options, we decided to go for it, and so found ourselves getting up at 5:30 in the morning on Guatemala's independence day to climb Volcan Pacaya, an active volcano about an hour and a half drive from Antigua. As it turned out we were very lucky with the timing, as the weather started to deteriorate almost as soon as we began to climb back down, and the people coming up after us could not have got much of a view, and probably got soaked as well. Also, when we climbed the volcano was largely deserted; on the way back down, we met a constant stream of people climbing up.

The view from the volcano was stunning

The climb up to the summit was not particularly arduous, except for the fact that for a long stretch we climbed through what was effectively volcanic scree, deep piles of small, light volcanic rocks. However, once we made it up to the top, the view made it all worthwhile, although the sulphur fumes at the crater rim were unpleasant, and made it difficult to breathe. Fortunately there was a breeze blowing which served to blow away the gases from time to time. It was a very unusual experience to walk along a volcano. At various points the rocks underfoot were fairly hot, and one of our party subsequently discovered that the sole of her boot had melted. On the way back down, I met a Mayan girl who was walking around barefoot - she must have had tough feet!

"Made it ma, top of the world!"

It was not reassuring to read in the leaflet given to us at the entrance that the volcano had had 14 "major" eruptions in the last ten years, although the only sign of any such thing we had was the cooled remnants of a recent lava flow.

Lunar landscape on Volcan Pacaya

Guatemala index | Travel index | Family history | Romany | Main index