Antigua and Hiking the Pacaya Volcano

Pacaya Volcano

After a 3.5 hour shuttle from San Pedro La Laguna I arrived in Antigua around noon.

My plans here include one day to see the city and one day to hike nearby Pacaya Volcano.

Built in an earthquake-prone region, Antigua was founded in 1524 and it was subsequently destroyed by fire caused by an uprising of the indigenous population. It was re-established in 1527 and entirely buried as a result of earthquakes and an avalanche in 1541. Built again, it survived natural disasters of floods, volcanic eruptions and other serious tremors until 1773 when the Santa Maria earthquakes destroyed much of the town.

At this point, authorities ordered the relocation of the capital to a safer location region, which became Guatemala City, the county’s current capital. Some residents stayed behind in the original town, however, which became referred to as “La Antigua Guatemala”.

Central park.

Dirty fountains!!! haha

Views of one Antigua's 3 surrounding volcanoes in the distance.

View from the roof of my hostel

Most of the surviving buildings date from the 17th and 18th centuries and are considered magnificent examples of colonial architecture in the Americas. Distinctive characteristics of this architectural style include the use of decorative stucco for interior and exterior ornamentation, main facades with a central window niche and often a deeply-carved tympanum, massive buildings, and low bell towers designed to withstand the region’s frequent earthquakes.

The city lay mostly abandoned for almost a century until the mid-1800s when increased agricultural production, particularly coffee and grain, brought new investment to the region. The urban core is small, measuring approximately 775 meters from north to south and 635 meters east to west. You can easily walk anywhere you need to go here.

Its a nice little town...walkable but with lots of great restaurants. I stumbled on a Mcdonalds, 1st one I've seen anywhere in Guatemala so far, and it is the most beautiful Mcdonald's I've ever seen! The restaurant opens up into a beautiful courtyard with gardens and fountains. I always indulge in their apple pies whenever I leave North America...It's one of my favorite things but sadly in the early 90's all of North America switched them to baked apple pies.... which are not good....BUT, everywhere else in the world they still have the old school deep fried ones! Yummy!

Yeah!!! Deep fried trans fat goodness!!!!

Once I arrived and checked into my hostel, I signed up for an afternoon trip to hike the Pacaya Volcano...I was originally going to do it the next day but figured that since half of the day was already lost to traveling I might as well do it now and then on day 2 here I can sleep in and wander around town at my leisure. I had an hour to grab lunch, pack my bag and be ready for the shuttle pick up at 2pm.

The Pacaya volcano, about 1.5 hrs form Antigua, is one of Guatemala's most active volcanoes, and its frequent eruptions are often visible from Guatemala City.

Pacaya rises to an elevation of 2,552 meters. After being dormant for a century, it erupted violently in 1965 and has been erupting continuously since then.

Much of its activity is Strombolian ( short-lived, explosive outbursts of pasty lava ejected tens or hundreds of meters into the air ) but occasional Plinian (powerful convecting plumes of ash ascending up to 45 kilometers into the stratosphere) eruptions also occur, sometimes showering nearby areas with ash.

Cool skies!

Several years ago you used to be able to see lava on this hike but, sadly, none currently. However, it did erupt Jan 13-20 of this year and lava was ejected 70 meters high with flows reaching 2.8-3 km long. Bluish-white gas plumes rose 300 meters.

I JUST missed it by a few weeks. There are lots of hot steam vents near the top that are hot enough to roast marshmallows on though and the hike was super scenic.

Day 2 in Antigua, I had the best shower ever..... I washed half of  the volcano off of me (water was cold that night so had to hold on till the am...I'm a fare weather bather), and I found a little laundry place near the hostel where I finally washed some clothes. It's been cool here in the evening and my long sleeve shirt/hoodie and pants are the uniform of choice every night....not to mention my socks, post volcano, really needed a wash. It was a real treat to wear fresh smelling clothes again!

I am currently in Honduras. I took a 6 hour bus here...starting at 4am (ugh) and after bribing the Guatemalan border guards to let me leave the country and the Honduras border guards to let me into their country (super corrupt here!) I arrived around 11ish in the charming town of Copan Ruinas.

Tonight my plans include dinner and early to bed. I spent all afternoon today in the Mayan Copan Ruins and tomorrow am heading to a Macaw sanctuary. It's a bird watchers dream here!