Volcano Hiking in Guatemala

Hot, Cold, then Hot Again

I really love volcanos, partially due to my PhD in geology.  It's probably obvious by now that I don't just love learning about volcanos, but visiting them also.  I've already written about visiting volcanos in California, Hawaii, and New Mexico.  Today I'm going to add a post about a volcano I visited in Guatemala: Pacaya Volcano.

Happy to have reached the lava fields near the summit of Pacaya Volcano.

I visited Pacaya Volcano while on a Panama Canal cruise with some family.  We docked at Puerto Quetzal on the Pacific coastline of Guatemala.  I was lured to this excursion by the promise of seeing flowing red lava rivers, something I tried but failed to see at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.  The description warned of a strenuous hike, but I was undeterred.  I wanted to see red lava.  So I laid down my $110 at the shore excursion desk and signed up for the hike.

Other Guatemalan volcanoes can be seen from the hike up Pacaya.

In port we loaded onto our bus and listened to our guide talk about the various volcanoes we could see from the bus.  Guatemala, for being such a small country has quiet a few volcanoes, twenty two in all, seven of which are active including Pacaya.  These volcanoes are a product of tectonic plate subduction.  The Pacific Plate, which is a very dense oceanic plate, constantly collides with the terrestrial (land) portion of the Caribbean Plate.  Since the Pacific Plate is more dense than the land mass it is running into it slides and sinks below the land mass of Central America, bringing with it portions of the moist ocean floor.  Water entrained in the ocean floors gets nice and hot as the plate descends into the hot earth's interior melting much of the rock around it forming magma.  The magma continues to expand looking for an exit from its harsh rock prison, eventually erupting on the earth's surface from a volcano.  This process constantly occurs on Guatemala's Pacific coast, giving rise to its line of volcanoes on that side of the country.

Fumerols can be seen at Pacaya's summit when the cloud cover lifts.

Pacaya is one of the more active volcanoes of the country, making it a more likely candidate for seeing flowing red lava.  When we unloaded form the bus we were immediately ambushed by a hoard of children trying to sell us walking sticks.  I never hike or trail run with a walking stick so I declined repeatedly.  After ten minutes of begging no I gave up and bought one for $2 so I would be left alone.  The walking sticks are not the only thing peddled to hikers of the volcano.  Cowboys constantly try to rent horses to tourists who lack either the mental or physical constitution to make the stair-like one mile hike to the summit.  More than a few in our group would be riding a horse to the summit.  As we hiked on some would fall behind then inevitably end up on a horse.  Some didn't even make it one hundred feet before they mounted a steed, holding onto the horn of the saddle as the cowboy led the horse up the hillside like in a pony ride meant for five year olds.

The steepest part of the hike is downhill, and proved to be an issue for some in our group.  I just ran down.

My biggest challenge was regulating my temperature, which is why I wore layers.  The lowlands of Guatemala were moderately warm, but the summit of the volcano would prove to be chilly due to the elevation, unless I was standing near a fumerole (a vent in the ground releasing volcanic gases like carbon dioxide) or steam vent.  Then it was hot again.  I rather enjoyed the hike as it let me burn off some of the cruise food I had been indulging in.

Enjoying our break knowing the rest of our hike is downhill.

I was pretty disappointed though to reach the summit and discover there were no rivers of lava as described in the brochure.  Having hiked many volcanoes, seeing lava the key reason I decided to hike this one.  We would complain to the shore excursion staff later, who gave us some of our money back.  Volcanoes are unpredictable beasts who ebb and flow lava, rock, and ash as they chose.  So it's not the volcano's fault, but the person who wrote a description promising sights they could not guarantee.  On the plus side, I did get to collect a few volcanic rock specimens to add to my collection and David got to roast a marshmallow over a fumerole.

Our trek ended with a quick hike down the mountain in the opposite direction.  A few people slipped on the steep downward grade and ended up with assistants to our guide helping them down the slope.  Never the less, the descent required a fraction of the time of the ascent.  

David roasts a marshmallow above a fumerol on Pacaya.

On the way back to the cruise port, we stopped for a lunch (included in the tour).  We were given a choice of three options.  I don't remember what they were since they all contained meat.  I'm a vegetarian and requested a special meal.  I'll eat just about anything as long as it does not have meat.  I wound up with a beautifully delicious and appealing salad.  I don't remember all of the toppings, but I do remember generous helpings of black beans, avocado, and corn.  I could almost feel all of these nutrient dense foods repairing muscles after the steep hike.  I've had a variety of included meals on shore excursions, which range from canned tuna with cracker (I did not eat) to buffets of local specialties.  The meal I had in Guatemala was hands down the best of any of them.

We spent some time wandering around the port when we got back.  The port at Puerto Quetzal is really nice.  There is plenty of green space, with patio tables and chairs and hammocks for anyone to use.  We sat at a table in the grass adjacent to a grove of coconut palm trees and sipped rum and coconut water out of a coconut.  The weather was perfect, with blue skies and not too hot or humid.  We sat there until last call to board the ship, it was just so relaxing.

As a whole Puerto Quetzal was a great port, and many other interesting shore excursions were offered aside from the Pacaya Volcano hike that I would be interested in.  Despite my disappointment of not seeing flowing lava at Pacaya, I would visit Guatemala again to sample its other offerings.