Jan 4 - Pages take on Volcano Pacaya

We decided we´´d try to hike up the volcano and check out some lava.
Nice idea right.
Sure, but we had to get up at 545 this morning. Not cool!
Got our shuttle and drove 1.5 hours to the base of the volcano. when I say base, I mean base. Mel and Nelson, take the Thailand hike and cram it into 3 hours.
It was a long and uphill battle , our group of about 20 kept up a steady pace..It was not bad til you got to the foot of the volcano where it was all loose volcanic rock. There were a couple of mini rock slides while I was going up. Casey was ahead and yelling for me to come meet him up there. I tried 2 times to get up, there were other people who did not go either. Anyways! Casey conquered the mountain, got right up close to the lava and managed to turn his face into a tomato for at least the time he was up there. Lava comes out at 1000 degrees, so don´t fall in! He poked the lava with his walking stick, his face and hands were burning from the heat, and his legs even through his pants. His cool used market boots melted from the hot liquid magma¨. Shoes were melting and people had to leave and go back down. It was very windy so the group could not stay up there long - the wind was blowing the heat from the lava in their direction. The hike back down was very, very steep, like really, don´t fall or it´s a long way down. We hiked up where we came from, so it was no easier going back. Back to the hot bus, with no air circ. I know, boo hoo!!!

Got back at about 230 and chilled out, got cleaned up and decided where to go - or stay.

Decided we wanted to see more of Belize, so we are headed to Puerto barrios still in GUA tommorrow, to then ferry over to Punta Gorda, Belize. We´ll hit the south part of the country and then pop over to Tikal and Flores in Guatemala.

Travel day tommorrow, we may not blog for a couple of days.

Hope everyone is well.

Enjoy your first day back to work ;)

Casey and Stef