My latest volcano adventure.
Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2006 7:17 pm
I organized a trip with some friends from work to a nearby volcano that is active and lately has had a lot of activity which produces a lot of lava. The volcano has been getting exposure all over, news, hiking associations,etc because it was "supposedly" quite a spectacular sight to hike up in the afternoon and see the monster in action at night.
So, we went, 11 of us left the city at around 5:30 pm, it's an hour drive to the Pacaya volcano. We started he climb at around 7 pm. That meant we had about 1 hour of sunlight to get to the camping spot, set up and wait for it go get dark. The hike took a little longer than that so it was already dark when we reached the top. It was pretty foggy also so we kinda got lost for a few minutes lol.
Anyway, we found a place to camp, set up our tents. By this point it was VERY windy and cold so we changed clothes, ate something and climbed further up to see the show. It was AMAZING, we were high, meaning far away from the lava but we could still feel the heat it produced. After about an hour of just staring at the show, we heard from some fellow hikers that you could go down and see the lava rivers up close. A few of us decided to go down. It was again very windy, foggy and we were going down a volcano; at a spot that was VERY steep, loose soil and right next to a sign that said "DANGER: Hiking NOT allowed".
You only live once right?
Anyway, we went down and came across a bunch of cold, hardened lava, jumped on top of it and started walking. In between the cracks you could see the hot lava going thru right under us! We went out a little bith further until we reached a kind of small ledge. The "ledge" was actually one of the starting points of one of the lava rivers!!! So we were standing inches away from the lava, watching it slowly flow. I just stood there completely AMAZED. Mother nature's force at it's max right in front of my eyes.
So we stayed there a couple of minutes until some of my friends started complaining their shoes were getting warm and melting so we left and climbed back up.
After that, we "tried" to sleep. This was close to 1 am. I say tried because to my luck, my tentmates SNORED very loudly. The wind kept rattling the tent and we had some "neighbors" that just partied all night...meant constant singing, yelling, laughing, etc.
So I didnt sleep at all. 'round sunrise(6:00 am) we decided to go out and check it out. It was still very foggy and cold so we didnt really get to see anything. Se we just decided to go back up, check to see if the rivers were still flowing...they were. We stayed for maybe half an hour more taking pictures, ate something, packed up camp and headed back down.
I was at my house at 11 am, sore, tired and with a hurting knee. I just showered, changed and left for another activity I had...LOL I know, I'm nuts :wah:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jaggedlit ... e2&.src=ph
Here are some pictures, I took some small videos that i'll try and upload a little later. Some were taken with my camera, some with my cell phone.
I hope you like it!
So, we went, 11 of us left the city at around 5:30 pm, it's an hour drive to the Pacaya volcano. We started he climb at around 7 pm. That meant we had about 1 hour of sunlight to get to the camping spot, set up and wait for it go get dark. The hike took a little longer than that so it was already dark when we reached the top. It was pretty foggy also so we kinda got lost for a few minutes lol.
Anyway, we found a place to camp, set up our tents. By this point it was VERY windy and cold so we changed clothes, ate something and climbed further up to see the show. It was AMAZING, we were high, meaning far away from the lava but we could still feel the heat it produced. After about an hour of just staring at the show, we heard from some fellow hikers that you could go down and see the lava rivers up close. A few of us decided to go down. It was again very windy, foggy and we were going down a volcano; at a spot that was VERY steep, loose soil and right next to a sign that said "DANGER: Hiking NOT allowed".
You only live once right?
Anyway, we went down and came across a bunch of cold, hardened lava, jumped on top of it and started walking. In between the cracks you could see the hot lava going thru right under us! We went out a little bith further until we reached a kind of small ledge. The "ledge" was actually one of the starting points of one of the lava rivers!!! So we were standing inches away from the lava, watching it slowly flow. I just stood there completely AMAZED. Mother nature's force at it's max right in front of my eyes.
So we stayed there a couple of minutes until some of my friends started complaining their shoes were getting warm and melting so we left and climbed back up.
After that, we "tried" to sleep. This was close to 1 am. I say tried because to my luck, my tentmates SNORED very loudly. The wind kept rattling the tent and we had some "neighbors" that just partied all night...meant constant singing, yelling, laughing, etc.
So I didnt sleep at all. 'round sunrise(6:00 am) we decided to go out and check it out. It was still very foggy and cold so we didnt really get to see anything. Se we just decided to go back up, check to see if the rivers were still flowing...they were. We stayed for maybe half an hour more taking pictures, ate something, packed up camp and headed back down.
I was at my house at 11 am, sore, tired and with a hurting knee. I just showered, changed and left for another activity I had...LOL I know, I'm nuts :wah:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jaggedlit ... e2&.src=ph
Here are some pictures, I took some small videos that i'll try and upload a little later. Some were taken with my camera, some with my cell phone.
I hope you like it!
babyrider jaggy always goes on trips like this she wants to come here and bungee off the golden gate and she wants me to bungee too i'm too chicken 