My week of travel - Pacaya active volcano

Pacaya

There are 34 volcanoes in Guatemala - and Pacaya is one of the active ones. It erupted in 2010 - so unfortunately there was no lava that we could see, but it was still an awesome experience.

There were guides with horses for those who didn't want to make the trek. I absolutely refused to use them, I love horses, and these ones were scraggly, and looked so unhappy. One big fat rich guy got on one and by the time the horse got to the top with him, it was breathing so hard it was trembling, and was completely covered in sweat. Poor little guy. (The horse, not the man).

Now, I'm not one that likes exercising. In fact, I hate it! I hate steps and I hate walking up hills! But I sucked it up (taking a stand on the poor horse's behalf) and managed to climb up the volcano all by myself without complaining ;) Halfway up the guides kept asking, "Do you want a horse now? How about now?" and I just pushed my sweaty hair out my face and soldiered on. 

I was too busy puffing and trying to look like I wasn't too unfit to take many pictures, but here are a few of the trail. It doesn't look to steep but maaaan my calf muscles were feeling it after an hour!

And the first view of Pacaya itself - it was originally pointed at the top like a normal mountain but it blew itself to pieces in the last eruption recently.

Pictures of the old lava fields..

Pumice rock, a piece of volcano that fits in my hand :-)

Apparently a world famous shop according to the sign...

Roasting marshmallows in the heat of the rocks!

I lost my legs! Haha jokes.
Just chillin' in a natural sauna, aka heated hole in the ground.

The volcano just casually doing volcano stuff...

We stayed at the top until sunset (arrived about 3.30pm) and it was just breathtaking.