Earthquakes and Volcano Pacaya

All´s well here, although we definitely felt the ¨tremblor¨ (a mini'earthquake) here a couple days ago at 1:30 pm local time (3:30 EST?). It was pretty cool, the first one I´ve experienced, and I´m grateful there were no injuries or serious damage.

What almost killed me was taking a 3-klick hike up Volcano Pacaya the following day... The official height is 2,550 meters... a long way above Florida´s sea-level! For more info on the volcano: http://www.aboutguatemala.com/archives/parque-nacional-volcn-de-pacaya.php

I hiked and climbed (more like dragged my 51-year-old bag of bones) all the way up, though, with a young Guatemalteco offering me ¨horse, mister, very easy with horse¨ for two-thirds of my journey. I guess I just wanted to prove I could still do something like this, though training for it a little more than my usual 30-minute morning walks would have been a great idea)
I didn´t bother with the last 60-or-so feet, to where the lava was actually burping and spitting... some of the younger (spelled S-T-U-P-I-D ???) kids went up and stuck their walking sticks (¨stick, mister, only 5 quetzales?¨) into the lava or roasted marshmellows... In all it was a very interesting experience and I´m glad God saw me up and down the mountain without any major accidents or heart attacks.

I wish I´d taken more photos, but it was almost all I could do to walk up the ¨hill¨ (though I did have enough energy to joke with the youngster about carrying my dead body down the hill on his horse.


Veronica, a house-mate at Casa Hernandez, taking a ¨taxi¨ up Volcano Pacaya.


Augustino, our guide, helping Tina, a Colorado teacher, down the crumbling pumice slopes of Pacaya.

The youngsters playing with lava at a fumerole.

A view from near the top of the volcano.