The day after cooking class and our party night, we hiked Volcán Pacaya. Fortunately, the shuttle pickup wasn’t until 2p. After a 90-minute drive we met our guide Luis. The hike up took about an hour with a steady and steep ascent. Near the start were fields created to grow crops in the fertile volcanic soil.
It’s an active volcano, so this isn’t a hike to the crater, just a viewpoint. As we ascended we could hear the eruptions. They sounded like cannon blasts accompanied at times by the hissing release of steam and ash.
I’d never seen an active volcano before. Well, not like this at least. I’ve seen Mt St Helens blow off some steam over the years in Portland, and we saw lots of simmering steam and ash at Volacanos Nations Park on the big island of Hawaii.
Not to overuse the word, but an active volcano is quite awesome.
Credit to Leena for the patience to get this great shot during an eruption. They were sporadic and usually several minutes apart.
In this shot you can see a previous spout of steam dissipating on the right while a new one spouts.
Luis was very excited for us as the clouds cleared in the late afternoon. It had been many weeks since the volcano had been so active with eruptions with clear sunny skies for the view.
Brief video of one of the eruptions.