At noon Scott and I piled into a tour van with about 10 other tourists from various parts of the world to head to “the new forming volcan” as our long-haired, Spanglish-speaking tour guide put it. Along the way we saw piles of black volcanic ash from the recent explosion of Pacaya, a volcano closed to tourists since the explosion, but lucky for us, we were the second tour group ever to see this new site.
At one point the rain began to pour. Our guide pulled over at a mom and pop store. He ran in and then ran back out, having bought “all of the store’s rain protectors.” He sold them to everyone in the van. They were basically colored trash bags. The rain cleared up within moments and we never used them. What a ploy! We all laughed about it.
After two hours in a stuffy van, we said goodbye to the road and drove onto rolling farmland. Eventually, we approached a makeshift gate with a cowboy on his motorbike and a few kids (probably around 12) trying to look intimidating with their machetes. Well, they were and we paid a fee to drive onto the land in order to view the volcano.
We got out of the car and walked to the lava sight. I saw clouds of smoke and felt the heat as we approached. It was unbelievable! Little red hot amber rocks were falling everywhere from a glowing-red blob. The newly forming rocks made a crackling sound like a roasting fire as they turned black and rolled down the blob, often catching the grass on fire before settling.
In the US, there would be an observation sight and binoculars for sale to view such a geologically active site. Not here. We walked right up to the blob (not the smartest thing I’ve ever done). As I watched Scott film video footage downhill from the lava flow, a newspaper headline kept flashing through my mind “Playing with fire: tourists killed in lava flow after getting too close.”
As we left, a Guatemalan family from the area stood on a hillside and stared at the flow. I don’t know what they were thinking. For the nearby villages this could mean relocation as the lava engulfs their land.
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