Conquering the Volcano!

On Sunday, Catherine and I decided to step up our adventurous spirits just a tad. We thought it could be fun to hike an active volcano. The drive wasn't as sketchy as our last one and a bit shorter as well. Upon our arrival to the national park entrance, we were surrounded by an overwhelming flood of children trying to sell us "hiking sticks." Being the wise Americans that we are, we of course, decided that we wouldn't need them...even though they kept insisting that we would. We were wrong. Dead wrong.

The first part of the hike was chill and was pretty similar to a hike anywhere. The closer we got to the top of the volcano, though, the crazier it got. Instead of being surrounded by grass and trees, we were now surrounded by very rough and unstable pumice....not the easiest to hike up....or down for that matter. You wouldn't have known by watching our tour guide, Nelson, though. He was bounding all over the place with the confidence of a mountain goat. At one portion, near the top, he asked if we were interested in skiing. At first I was a little confused, but he laughed a little so I thought he was joking. Next thing I knew, we were at the top of a steep area watching him "ski" (which was just a sprint down the constantly shifting pumice... very similar to running down a sand dune. A much more rough and unforgiving sand dune.) and explained that we would all be doing the same. So we did. I'm not gonna lie, I was very nervous, but when it was done it was awesome!

After much more treacherous hiking, we made it to the "La Playa de Pacaya" as Nelson kept referring to it. Shortly, upon our arrival we saw our first bit of molten lava! It was crazy hot up there and crazy windy. There were times I felt as though I might be blown into the hot lava, but it was all very worth it. Some people were roasting marshmallows, some were trying to light their cigarettes on the lava, but mostly we were all just in awe of our surroundings. Catherine and I just took pictures. Here are some of them. Enjoy!

Peace,
C & C