Jen and I got up early to make sure we will make the 6am pickup but the shuttle somehow did not see us sitting on the sidewalk waiting (as if we blend right in with the rest of the Guatemalans on the street) so we have decided to go on the 2pm tour. Jen will stay for an extra night which is bonus for me! So we had quite a few hours to kill. Even though it’s only 6:30am a lot of people are up and preparing these “carpets” on the streets. They used colored saw dust and paper cutouts to make different patterns in a long rectangular frame about 20 ft long x 4 ft wide. Some are bigger. These mark the route that the processions will go through. The processions include these huge platform made of wood on top of which full size figures of jesus, mary or whatever saints are stood, and the underneath there are handles and cushions for people to carry over their shoulders. Each platform probably needs like 50+ people to carry. The processions will walk through the street right over those carefully prepared “carpets” and then cleanup crew from the municipality will follow right behind to clean the mess up. They do this all day long passing through the whole city. It looks so heavy especially on these group of school girls wearing uniforms. Also there are these men dressed in purple cloaks all over who are supposedly helper I assume. They are everywhere and they look a little spooky to me. There are bands following the processions and the streets are filled with spectators. This is only the start of the holy week so it will only get crazier and crazier.
It’s finally 2pm and we got our extra water in our backpack for this hike to Volcan Pacaya. I’m quite excited to see an active volcano. Our group of about 20 consists of purely gringos. We had a guide who speaks mostly spanish. As soon as we got to the trailhead, these local kids came selling wooden walking sticks for Q5 which the guide said was a good idea. After we are done we would return these sticks so its really Q5 to rent one. There are also mules you can ride, but nobody wants to be seen as WEAK? The mules and their owners follow our group as we hiked up and reminded us of their service as we are ascending saying “taxi, taxi?”. Hee hee. After about an hour we got to a ridge top where we couldn’t see much around because of the fog. Slowly the fog dissipated through and in front of us appeared the Volcano Pacaya where you can see white steam coming out. To the one side of the summit there was a lower cone where you could see molten rock coming out. It looks quite far from where we were, but we could see bodies like ants who are climbing to the red and orange magma. To get there we need to go down a slope and then hike up. I'm so glad I had the walking stick for support as we slided down the slope made up of volcanic rubbles. It’s almost like skiing except the little sharp rocks keep getting into my shoes. There were no trails to follow really and I was being very careful not to fall. This English girl slipped and fell and cut herself on the sharp rocks with blood all over her one arm and one knee. Yikes. That girl still made it all the way to the top where we were only 10-15ft away from lava flowing down. You can feel the tremendous heat. I have never seen molten rocks before which was pouring out slowly but at the same time you feel the power in it. The sun was setting and it got darker and darker but the lava glow contrast better too in the dark. I was staring at it like when I do at a campfire only this is more interesting and beautiful. The guide was hurrying people to finish taking photos as we still had to hike back down. Not everyone has flashlights but the moon was bright which helped a lot. I was thinking this can only happen here but not in the USA as the tour operator will totally get sued for bringing people down volcanic slope with no trails in the dark. I was glad when it was finally over and it was almost 8:30pm. I was more tired than I was hungry. Plenty of restaurants were still opened at 10pm when the bus dropped us off back in Antigua. We chose a Chinese restaurant which was filled with the men in purple cloaks. The table at the corner was so loud drinking and laughing. Jen and I were both exhausted. She had to catch early bus back to Xela. I was planning to visit a spa before heading to the airport to catch my flight to Flores my next destination for the next 2 weeks. I was a little nervous not knowing what to expect there but I’ll soon find out.
