Our trip to Volcan de Pacaya began at 7am this morning (Saturday, Dec 10) with a beautiful clear sky except for the volcano we were going to visit. This is a picture from the school we teach at, the Christian Academy of Guatemala. (Aaron stayed home with Lily to work on exams & take care of her...I love you, Honey...thanks for your sacrifice.)
A zoomed in view of where we were going.
After about an hour and 10 minutes of driving we arrived at our parking lot about half way up Pacaya. The road going there is highway until about the last 30 mins, then it is a decent 2 lane (watch the 3-foot wide potholes) and then it is a winding gravel, supposedly 2 way, road mostly going up for the last 15-20 mins. Talk about dusty! Then you end up here at the base of the hiking trail. Quite an adventure already!
Then you navigate through the horses and find a guide at the "visitor center" which is a covered pavilion with bathrooms (Yeah...even had toilet paper) and a lot of children clammering at you to see if you would like a walking stick (Best 80 cents I've ever spent!).
Then you start up the trail. There were about 30 guys at the bottom of the trail who try to get you to rent a horse to ride up and have quite a knack for it. These 2 followed us up the mountain, whistling while they rode (I'm sure just to show us how much easier it would be with horses) until they finally figured us gringos might just make it and headed back down for some other targets. We were sucking wind pretty bad the first very steep stretch but were as determined not to ride horses as they were to get us to ride them.
Part of our trip around the mountain was through this wooded area. Very steep but very Appalachia.
Except for the view...clearly Guatemalan. The mountain on the left is Volcan de Fuego (Fire Volcano) and on the right is Volcan de Agua (Water Volcano). The one in the middle I can't remember the name. We can see Agua from San Cristobal where we live.
About half way up was this little hut (not sure it's use). In the background you can see the lava flows (steam coming from the mountain) and the boulders bouncing down the mountain (dust trails made by their journey).
And then we walked into the lava flow (at least the older part). What a climb it was. But so dusty...we couldn't believe the dust! Below is a view of the lava actually flowing down the mountain (we walked to about 30 feet away from it...you can't do that in the US) and below that picture is a video of the lava flowing that we watched about 10-20 yards away. Very surreal and very cool (but the breeze blowing from the direction was very warm). It sounded like crackling and reminded me of those rainsticks where the little beads inside bounce down the spines inside. Amazing to witness the sights and sounds of an active volcano. Go God!
Then we turned around and looked over the valley and Fuego was en fuego (on fire...or at least smoking great puffs).
This is our rowdy bunch with the fresh lava in the back. From left to right...our guide, Ivan Ediger, Petra Wirrell, Dad, Caden, Charles Wirrell, Mom & Maya.
Maya climbing a volcano and loving it...What a view!
Here I'm trying to capture the terrain we were walking up. Each step was about one up and and half back down.
This is as far as Caden, Maya & I made it. Everyone else got a bit farther up the hill. But at this point it was about a 60 degree angle ascent, and the rocks had grown from pebble and gravel sized rocks to rocks the size of a football or greater...and very loose! You really wanted to be the first one up so you didn't have to dodge the boulders dislodged by those above you!
It was a beautiful day...we spent about an hour up there just taking in the scenery. You just never know what tomorrow may bring...especially with a live volcano!
On the way down we stopped at some amazing rock formations which cooled under ground slowly and then were un-earthed as the wind blew and ground shifted.
The Vanden Bosch/Klanderman crew, dusty but in awe of the amazing creation God made and he keeps making each day!
At 6:20 am on Dec. 18, 2008 we, the Klanderman family and our adopted parents/grandparents Greg & Gail Malczewski (Mall-chess-key)--who are also our host family for this year, left on an adventure to explore some of this amazing country we currently call home. The day was beautiful about 60 degrees or so a little cloudy and perfect for driving. After only two potty stops and many semi-trucks to pass (only one construction zone...you should see the vendors at that stop in traffic) we arrived at our first destination, Rio Dulce (it's called Castillo de San Felipe on our map)about 1pm and that's when the rain began! We found a sign for a turn to the place we were staying at called Hacienda Tijax...but the winding road led us to a dead end. So after some Spanish pantomime with a nice gentleman we understood that that was the right road but we needed to find another entrance. So we drove back the way we had come in and found a road that seemed to lead in the right direction and seemed the same concrete consistancy (lesson #1 in Guatemalan navigation...signs mean nothing...use all visual clues to find your way) and when we followed it back to where there seemed to be no more road...there we were following a little very rutted 2 track through a gate labelled Hacienda Tijax. This 2 km road led us to a parking lot, which lead to a walking suspension bridge through a swamp. (Did I mention it was raining at this time?) The very slippery wooden hanging bridge meandered through the mangrove swamp for quite a ways (all the time you are wondering...where are we going?) and then you come down the last bridge to a concrete path way and find yourself in a very jungle type area with little buildings around every turn. We found the main desk which after some more poor communication in Spanish found our reservations and the lady who did speak English led us to our living space. (Notice: These pictures were taken the following day after the rain stopped.)
Here is the path that led to our Bungalow...Through the bushes (which were soaking at the time)...
And you enter the bottom living area which consisted of an open area where we could rest in a hammock (the bathroom was just to the back and to the left) and
....there was an area for eating and a kitchen area for cooking (with no utensils...we had to ask at the front desk).
Upstairs we had two bedroom areas (each with a double and 2 twin beds complete with mosquito netting...thank goodness) and after Amy killed the very large spider in one corner of our sleeping quarters they were clean as a whistle. We had sandwiches for lunch, played games most of the soggy afternoon, and ate breakfast burritos for supper. After which we played some more games and then went to bed. The rain (which we did not expect at all because we figured since it was dry season in Guatemala City, it must be also in other parts of the country...wrong!) continued on through the night and was very loud because the roof was tin. Also there were these huge bangings on the roof during the night that woke us up and scared us out of our wits. The next morning we realized that this was the culprit...
...a large coconut tree growing over our roof...lost a few of its precious fruit during the night. Must have landed right above our heads. Quite an experience. Not something we experience everyday in our neck of the woods.
This is our bungalow from the outside. (Great birding...which I'll talk about in our next blog.)
And despite the many unexpected things of the first day and night of our trip we really did have a great time and especially enjoyed the hammock and sharing in this day with family & friends.
