Pacaya Volcano and the Portal to Hell

When we got out of the van we were immediately surrounded by a dozen boys wielding large sticks. Let me explain.

We were in Antigua, Guatemala, in 2008 and we took a day trip to Volcán de Pacaya, an active volcano nearby. It’a not Volcán de Agua, the large one looming over Antigua, but more to the southeast. And it’s active. And active means lava.

The lava at Volcán de Pacaya comes out near the top, pretty standard for volcanos. So you have to hike up the volcano to get to the place where the action is.

After the 45 minute drive from Antigua our van arrived at the parking lot. When we got out — I already mentioned that. The boys were touting the sticks for the hike up. They’d sell you a stick, you’d take it up and down the volcano, then they’d take it back. So not selling as much as renting. Informed ahead of time, we bought a stick. Why? To poke at the lava.

After the trivial hike up a generic trail we crested a ridge and saw the side of the mountain filled with a blight of black rock. We’d found the business end of Pacaya. We gingerly made our way through the cooled lava that cut into our shoes with its glass-like edges. Then we got to the portal of hell — a gaping mouth about three feet across out of which protruded a red hot tongue of lava. As it came out the surface of the lava flow cooled and darkened, but underneath it glowed like seething rage.

The heat hurt our faces, we had to retreat. It wasn’t like Phoenix hot, or even oven hot. It was a wall of unbearable sensation — more akin to loud painful sounds than temperature. The five feet of the rental stick was not long enough for me to bear placing it in the lava.

As our conversation died down we heard the sounds. As the lava oozed forward, the movement shifted and twisted the cooled crust, breaking and scraping the new rock. Cooled pieces dropped off the front, clinking as they hit the other rock. And then those fallen pieces were slowly crushed and ground by the smothering lava, sounding like breaking glass underneath.

But even a visit to a portal to hell has to keep on schedule. We withdrew to the ridge for lunch before hiking back down to the van. The boys awaited and I returned my uncharred stick to its rightful renter. Then rode back to Antigua.