roasting marshmellows on molten lava

the day we climbed the volcano pacaya was definitely one to remember. first we drove for an hour outside of pacaya to arrive mid-way up the volcano. at the bottom some really sweet faced kids were competing to sell walking sticks which they assured you were Necessarrrrrriio! (necessary) although kids working is usually hard to see, the selling of walking sticks was actually more like a lemonade stand. the kids were giggling a lot and joking around with us!

the hike up took an hour and a half through forest up to where the sand path turned into volcanic rock. a path we followed for the last section was from a volcanic eruption only a year or two ago which got you thinking.... why are we here?

the closer we got, the freakier the path (or lack there of) soon we were just balancing our steps on top of volcanic rocks which were piled on other volcanic rocks all shakey-like. and oh yes, it got even more exciting when you realized that most of the time the rocks that were formally on top of other rocks were simply on top of real live hell´s oven hot molten lava! i am one of the more clumsy people around and it was more than unnerving for me to choose steps as we got up to the lava because in other places i may have been able to steady myself with my hands on the ground but here you didnt know which rocks might burn your hand off! people´s shoes were literally melting to the rocks!

the lava was awesome, red got a lot closer than me. it was hard to get a good look though because of the extreme heat just radiating all around you up there. it was pretty thrilling though, knowing that there is absolutely no reason that the thing wouldn´t blow up at any time! i think i got my life´s fill of lava that day.