Excellent weekend! Saturday afternoon we took a trip to the active volcano Payaca. We got collected in a minibus and then drove around various bits of town picking up other intrepid explorers before heading off on a couple of hours drive to the other side of Guatemala city.
On arrival we followed the excellent directions up the mountain side on quite a long slog - maybe an hour and a half. Which took us up through the treeline and up to the lava flows.
Some spectacular view were to be had on the way back from the way we had come. There were also some very friendly chaps following us all the way up on horses. Whenever one of the party fell towards the back of the group and started to lag behind they would be chivied up by these laughing fellows offering them a "taxi" ride to the top of the trail.
Once through the treeline we had to cross over the previous lava flows. The rocks are actually quite hot and every so often there is chasm that belches a strong smell of sulfer and you can feel a strong draft of heat coming up. There are stories of people's shoes melting as they cross this area!
Finally as the sun was setting we caught sight of the lava flow! It was actually flowing very fast with flaming rocks tumbling down and small fires popping up on it's surface.
Then as the sun was finally setting we started back down the volcano. Recrossing the lava field was fun in the dark. The rocks are very unstable and sound like they are hollow as you walk on them - doesn't inspire a great deal of confidence! Luckily the old head torch came in handy, so thankfully there was no horse poo on the shoes when we finally made it back to the minibus. Then it was back to Antigua for some food and collapse into bed.
