¡Buenos Dias! Today we were lucky enough to sleep in until 9am. Breakfast was served on the terrace as usual, and the meal consisted of eggs, cheese, tomato, and strangely enough hot dogs! The Bills met us at our hotel at 10am to load up the bus and head to the Pacaya volcano. After about a 45 minute drive, we arrived at the starting point of the hike. When the people there saw us pulling up onto the parking lot, they converged on us and one even jumped onto the back of the bus! They offered up tours, guides and even walking sticks.Our hike was gradually getting steeper, which was aided by the fact that we were taking shortcuts that cut the corners of the main trail. After about an hour we reached the height where you could see slow flowing lava a year ago. However, over the past 12 months, the volcano has grown due to its numerous small eruptions. Our guide said the volcano has grown 500 meters since April 2008. So we continued our treacherous hike while Volcan de Fuego, one of the other three active volcanos in Guatemala, was letting off smoke of its own.
We began to climb up the sharp volcanic rock. We could feel the heat rising from the solidified lava, so we all wanted to keep moving. Since we were climbing on newly formed volcanic rock, we were prone to stumble and fall as the rock was not completely stable just yet. Our mission was to see, from a distance, the elusive actual flowing lava. Since the lava doesn’t follow one specific path, it was tough to find. We saw some hot spots and felt the rush of heat coming from below, but we didn’t get a peek of actually flowing lava.
Bill McGahan, however, was fortunate enough to get closer look. We had a brief stop for lunch near the crater and then began our descent down. While taking a break from climbing down, Emily decided to entertain us with some dancing on the mountain which we were glad to see since she didn’t make it out to the discoteca later that evening. Don’t worry- Emily’s explosive dance was caught on tape!After reaching the bottom of the volcanic rock, we split into two groups: one led by Bill McGahan which moved down the hill making quick time, and the other by Emily, Mr. Searl, and Dr. Clarkson. Even though it was a challenging day at some points of the day, we enjoyed the experience of hiking up an active volcano came away with a very positive feeling.
The hike, having taken longer than we thought, gave us only a short time to shower before our 7:45pm dinner. We walked through the Parque Central in Antigua to reach Posada de Don Rodrigo where we had an incredible dinner. Halfway through the meal, Guatemalan dancers came out in traditional bright colored outfits and a mix of carnival-type masks to put on a dance show. Toward the end, they grabbed members of the audience, gave out maracas and tried to teach the people how to dance. They tried to get Katie on the dance floor, but she held on to her chair so Julia Bowen was
escorted onto the floor. Weston wanted to show his moves too, so he jumped up to help out Julia Bowen on the dance floor. After a delicious dinner (truly an incredible meal!), we went to a local coffee shop to grab desert. Once we returned to the hotel, Dr. Clarkson said a goodbye speech, since he had to leave early the next morning to head back to Atlanta.After the goodbyes, we headed back into town to find a discoteca with Mr. Searl (no sneaking out for us!). Luckily we found one right around the corner, where we enjoyed a live band that banged out a variety of mainstream songs in Spanish from ska to merengue to reggaeton. At first we were on the outskirts of the dancing circle, but with the jumping up and down, within minutes, we were quickly in the front row where we almost fell on stage! After a few songs we returned, tired from the hike and eventful evening. We fell into bed, and went to sleep.
Hope all is well in Atlanta. Adios!
Julia Bowen and Katie
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