Volcan Pacaya

On the group's day off, we took them to Volcan Pacaya, the most active volcano in Guatemala. A very steep two-hour hike found us at the foot of the crater, where the lava pours down the side and creates a lava field. There was no river of lava flowing through the field while we were there, but there were several areas where you could stand on very hot rock and look through openings to see the magma below. Some of the campers stuck their walking sticks in and lit them on fire.





One of the Mission Discovery staff here in Antigua, Jimmy Rivera, got a little too close and singed his arm hairs.



An eruption a while back that destroyed the original paths to the very top and a recent incident involving a hiker who broke his thigh bone have caused the guides to stop taking groups to the crater area, but we did see an eruption from where we were.





Nearby there was a geothermal power plant.



From Pacaya you can see Volcan Agua to the north, which is the same massive volcano you can see in the south when you're in Antigua. Far beyond Agua and a little to the left, Volcan Fuego is also visible when cloud cover is very light. In the first of these pictures, you can see the side of Fuego in the middle of all the clouds.




On the hike up there were hundreds of these fuzzy caterpillars everywhere, especially on mossy tree trunks. Our guide said at night they glow in the dark.