Pacaya Volcano, Antigua, Guatemala

Guatemala has a lot of volcanos. Active ones.

Pacaya Volcano in Antigua is pretty impressive. The hike up is taxing -- there are horses that will gladly huff and puff you up instead of you doing the huffing and puffing. I'm a wimp -- I took "Tamarinda" who seemed to have made the uphill trek more than once. I figured living with "horse-butt" for a day was better than total exhaustion.

The horses don't go all the way up, there is still about a 20-30 minute hike through the lava fields. I'm not kidding when I say lava fields, there were lava flows the day I was there and some brave souls were actually roasting marshmellows on sticks in the heat. The sticks never made it either, that lava is blazingly, unbearably hot. The soles of shoes were melting.

To get within mere inches of flowing lava is a lifetime experience. I'm not sure where else in the world you can get this close to Mother Nature without having fences and "Stay Back Hot Lava" signs. Here, there are none -- if you fall in or get yourself scorched, well I guess you're an adult and should known better. Lava is hot and there is no fooling around with it.

The ride back down at dusk was nothing more than spiritual. The whole top of the volcano was glowing red and there were flows of lava in streams rolling rocks along with it. I was beyond awe-struck and gaping. This is once-in-a-lifetime changing your inner self stuff going on here.