Volcanos at Antigua

 Sunset in Flores, Guatemala

I stayed one night in beautiful small island (La Flores) in Lago de Peten in Guatemala. Then I had a long 10 hour traverse to another side of the Guatemala. I was not having any christmas party feeling at the bus, but I know it´s just christmas party time at it hottest in Finland. Therefore my greetings to all who have had fun parties and probably some kind of hangover next day.

My christmas greetings together with Guatemalan snowman

Now I´m at Antigua, a small pictoresque town near the capital Guatemala City. Antigua is located next to three volcanos Agua (Water), Fuego (Fire) and Acatenango. There are 63 volcanos in Guatemala and three of them are active: Fuego, Pacaya and Santiaguito.

Volcanos Fuego (on the left), Acatenango (middle) and Agua (right)

Today I climbed (or actually walked) to active Volcano Pacaya to see the lava and feel the heat. It was amazing 2 hours climb from 1900 meters up to 2400 meters. Pacaya is 2552 meters high, but it was not safe to climb up to crater. At 2400 meters we saw just a few meters away lava flowing and heat burning our feet. Wooden sticks started to burn if they were sticked to lava. Heat was nearly unbearable.

Volcan Pacaya in action

Lava flowing towards just few meters away

Antigua is nice town and the area pretty much cooler than in caribbean side, because of the elevation. Nights feels even a bit cold up here, when I have already used to tropical climate in Mexico and Belize. Anyway I´m going to stay in Pacific side for a while and continue tomorrow to El Salvador.