Pacaya!

Okay, I finally have the time to post this! Yes, I know it is way over due. So, when Dustin was here, we took a morning and climbed an active volcano. The volcano is some 2500 meters tall and it has been active since 2000 or so. I can't really remember all of the details...ask Dustin for his slideshow on it.

Anyway, we got up at 5 a.m. and headed out to climb a volcano. It was a very interesting experience. We went with a little group in a van for about an hour. As we drove, we got higher and higher. Poor Katie was rather car sick by the time we finally made it to Pacaya National Park.

So, we start off up the volcano with our group.....

I thought I was going to pass out the first 5 minutes of climbing.

The trail started STRAIGHT up!! Oxygen levels are lower up there too...I thought I was going to pass out! Katie almost jumped a little guy for his horse..haha. She was on the horse about 5 minutes into the hike. I would have joined her but I didn't see any other horses for rent.

Still climbing. See how steep and rough it was? Notice I had the water out..this was about 7 minutes into the hike. haha.
One of the views along the way
This little guy rescued me. Katie's guide noticed I wasn't going to make it to the top so he found me a horse to rent. The price of the horse was well worth it!
Poor Dustin didn't have a horse (but he did have our backpack...heehee). =(

Katie is a pro at this horse riding thing.

We finally made it to the top! The view is absolutely astounding...a real volcano! Katie and I got a little carried away taking pictures. Then, we noticed that our group was no where in sight.

See those little people down there? That was our group that we were supposed to be following! We had no idea that we were going all the way down there! So, since they were long gone, we had to try to figure out how to get down there without killing ourselves (no easy feat, mind you).

Guatemala doesn't quite have the same National Park safety standards as the U.S.. The "trail" down to the lava was straight down grass. At one point, Katie and I are trying to make our way down by sliding and holding on to chunks of grass. One wrong move and we would fall all the way to the lava....and die...seriously..

Hugging the extremely hard and pricky lava on the way down.

Have I mentioned how rough lava rocks are? They are kind of like huge things of large grade sandpaper. Oh and it's layers upon layers so the rocks can easily give away. It took us FOREVER to finally catch up with the group. I had to test each step to make sure it would hold my weight. Ai yi yi

Finally! We made it to our group! Of course they were all ready to head back by now...but we had enough time to take pictures. That's all we wanted. =) Yes, the lava was extremely hot. I thought it was going to burn my arm while I was taking this picture.

We can't believe we made it!

How I spent my time....it was so windy! Let's just say it was a good thing I had on a slip because wow...my skirt was a little too light weight.

Oh yeah, champion volcano climbers...that's us!

Graceful, aren't we? This was the I-may-fall-and-roll-onto-the-lava-at-any-time walk. =) Coming up was much better than going down but wow...it was still a feat.

Katie and I didn't have horses for the way back down the volcano. Man, it was a work out. Even going down was straining the calves. Poor Dustin was worn slap out.

Here is a video of the lava we were standing a couple of yards from. You can get an idea of how fast (or slow) it is moving.