The Godess Awake

Travel tests you. It tests your endurance, your patience, your tolerance and sometimes you’re faced with a test of your bravery. When faced with the opportunity to climb an active Volcano you either do it, or you decide to never again speak to those travellers who witnessed you wuss out. No matter that you’ve been informed that two people had died on that volcano the week before. (a German tourist and guide). No matter that you’ve been warned that Volcano could erupt at any moment. No justifications can be used to excuse you from climbing of that volcano. That’s what you’re travelling for right? New adventures. Testing your limits. Think of the profile photo opportunity!
Pacaya is an active Volcano in Guatemala that is about 30 kms from Guatemala City although most backpackers reach it on day tours from Antigua (not many backpackers bother with Guatemala City, myself included). Volcanoes dot the landscape throughout Central America, however Pacaya is special. Pacaya is alive. It’s always tricky when travelling to sort fact from fanciful propaganda spouted from opportunistic tour operators. Propaganda which is then gleefully regurgitated by backpackers along the tourist trail. I’d already heard stories of backpackers being attacked by jaguars on Amazon tours, or sharks while scuba diving off the islands of Honduras. So when told that climbing Pacaya was dangerous. I was concerned but sceptical. I’d heard that I would see lava! I was sold and happily handed over the US$25 for the bus and guide combo.
In truth the fear only started to set in after the two and a bit hour approach to the top. The first foretaste of the peak of Pacaya was surreal. The guides time the walk so that you’re there at sunset when the colours are their most striking. Rising in front of me was a fairy tale shaped volcano. Triangular, covered in what looked like black sand with rivers of red-hot lava snaking their way from the peak down the surface. Tour groups already dotted the landscape. Some seemed to be marooned between those beautiful serpents. Fear hit me. It did not look safe. People should not be that close to lava but I was drawn like the proverbially moth (and a need to prove I wasn’t scared).
It was an afternoon montage of ridiculous, surreal images. My feet inches from the lave that ran under the rocks I was standing on. My shoes literally melting. Tackily roasting marshmallows over the lava. Watching large rocks which blocked the path of the lava seemingly disintegrating as the lava worked through them.
It is one of the most dazzlingly beautiful sights I’ve witnessed. However the riskiness of the trip was underscored when the next week the Volcano erupted showering the landscape with dust and killing at least one person. Pacaya is spectacular but should be treated with respect.