Lava

For our last day in Guatemala, Sean and I went on a sunset hike up an active volacano about an hour and a half outside of Antingua.

When we got off the bus at the trail head, a group of kids came running up to sell hiking sticks. I had heard that you can use the stick to poke the lava flows and they'll catch on fire, so of course we had to get one for each of us - the best 5 quetzales I've ever spent!

We hiked up a steep trail for about 45 minutes (I would have preferred an hour, but the guide was practically running to get us there before it got dark) to a great lookout point over a field of volcanic rock with a view of bright red lava flowing down the side of the volcano.

We then went down to the field of black rock. Some of the rock had been lava as recently as 21 days ago and some was much older. It was a bit tricky walking on it because the rocks were really sharp and loose and some of the bigger rocks were hollow, and when you stepped on them they cracked and broke - not to mention the guide was still running.

The closer we got to the red lava flows, the hotter it got. Many of the rocks were steaming and in a couple of places you could look down below your feet into crevices with hot red patches. We of course stuck our hiking sticks in there, and yep they totally caught on fire!

We hiked right up to the lava flows and made it in time to watch the sunset. I still can't believe they let us get that close to the lava. It was crazy watching how quickly the lava flowed and changed paths.

Sean, of course, had to hike up a little higher to get closer to a big lava lake thingy (that's the technical term). I chose to stay where I was by the lava river since I had already burnt a small hole in my shoe and was terrified of the rapidly changing flows. Sean made it back just fine in time to catch the guide hiking back.

We weren't in such a rush hiking back down, but it was a bit tricky since the guide didn't have any flashlights with him and it was pitch black out. Fortunately I had thrown my headlamp in my backpack, but that was the only light for our group of 15 people. It helped me avoid the piles of horse crap along the trail, but the rest of the group wasn't so lucky - sorry guys.

Back at the trail head a young boy collected the sticks back to sell again tomorrow. He was really quite clever and also asked if I wanted to give him my headlamp so I wouldn't have to carry it in my suitcase. He said he could use it to get tips from guiding hikers down. He even tolerated my education is freedom speech and agreed to study really hard in school and follow his dreams, so clearly I had to give this cutie the headlamp. These kids are smart and know a sucker when they see one, so as we were waiting for the bus and got some fruit out of the backpack there was suddenly a large group of kiddos around us offering to study really hard if we would share. So, no fruit for us. When we got in the bus I remembered that we also had some bread in the backpack so we snacked on that, and not two seconds later a kid was at an open window asking if anyone had bread. Being the kind person I am, I slouched down in my seat and told Sean to hide the bread until the kid went away. I have my limits.