Volcan Pacaya, Guatemala: Climbing One of the Worlds Most Active Volcanoes

I knew that when I came to Guatemala, one of the things that I had to do was climb a volcano. Lucky, Guatemala has over 30 volcanoes, 3 of which are currently active including Volcan Pacaya, which is considered one of the most active volcanoes on the planet.

Volcan Pacaya sits at an altitude of 2,552 meters or 8,373 feet as it looms over the western highlands of Guatemala venting sulfurous fumes and churning pockets of hot lava. Pacaya (a little info from Wikipedia here) first erupted approximately 23,000 years ago and has erupted at least 23 times since the Spanish conquest of Guatemala and after being dormant for a century, it erupted violently in 1965 and has been erupting continuously since then. The hike up to the summit of Volcan Pacaya takes about 2 hours and a guide is required for the climb to navigate the barren planes at the base of the volcano, as well as the steep climb up to the summit.

Even though I’m deathly afraid of heights, I decided a few days ago that I was going to go for it and actually take on climbing Pacaya. So, I was really excited, and up bright and early at 5am Sunday morning to meet up with the tour group and catch the shuttle to the Volcano. Once we had arrived, we met with our guide and set out on the trail to Pacaya, which is a 30 minute hike up from the entrance of the national park through various fields and forests, and up to the base of the Volcano. This is actually where I started filming, and as you will see, where I was in total shock at the massive size AND intimidating slope of the volcano. So rather than spoiling it with any additional elaboration, just watch the video and you can see for yourselves what its like to climb one of the worlds most active volcanoes!...

PS- If trying to view with Internet Explorer click the "Byvid7 link" on the video. For some reason Explorer is cutting off my videos when viewing my blog. FireFox works perfectly, so i would recommend using that instead.