So I went in to Antigua for a few days.
I had some junk food, looked at some good art galleries, had a very nice dinner in a quiet restaurant with a friend, stayed in dingy hostels and met assorted travelers. All in all, it was good to get away from San Pedro and I enjoyed Antigua more than I expected. I had been there last year (or is it the year before now?) and I admit that I was a bit dissapointed... Last time, the "blah" in the guide books and all the talk from other tourists had my expectations too high. But this time it was good :) There were less tourists in town due to it being rainy season, and I already knew what to expect. So, I wandered around quietly for a day or so and enjoyed the architecture and art.
The view from the courtyard into my hostel room.
Then a couple of other people that I met at the lake showed up and we booked a trip to the local active volcano...It takes about half a day to go climb it and see what the lava is doing.
Again, I did this last year, and again, I was a bit dissapointed since there was no flowing lava at the time...just some tumbling red rocks.
This time it was better but still not perfect... There was flowing lava for sure, but it was not possible to get as close to it as I wanted. You see, not surprisingly, molten rock is rather hot! - Actually its Basalt in this case and I am told by a reliable source that the flowing stuff is at about 800 degC - And even the just setting stuff is only slightly cooler at about 700 degC! And thats quite "toasty"!
So the challenge in this case was that the flowing stuff was going over the top of stuff that had set just a few days before. The few day old stuff is only really only set on the outside and is still quite dangerous to prance about on, and its more than just a little hot on the inside as well.
The upshot of that of course is that I couldnt get as close as I wanted.
We did however get close enough to happily toast marshmallows in about five seconds each and to make popcorn - though it was a little tougher and took a few minutes to pop.
Its actually quite scary standing there on the crust of the lava... which is really rugged and sharp and will definitely give you some very nasty cuts and bruises if you stumble on it! You can feel the huge amount of heat coming of the ground you are standing on. The people wearing shorts couldnt stand it for long at all (burning their skin!) and had to go find some cooler ground to stand on. People with good quality boots were fine but the ones with cheap runners on had a similar problem in that the soles of their shoes were melting as they stood on the hot stuff! :)
And when the wind gusts moved in the right way, a pocket of hot air would form and you would occasionally take a breath of really hot air into your lungs that was up around 50 degC or more (definitely well over 40 degC and I think you would get burned lungs at about 60 degC but Im not sure). When that happens for a couple of breaths in a row, you really get a surge of the old animal instincts that tell you to "get the F##K outa there!",
But we all survived and had some fun and even made "ash angels" on the way back down.
Like I said thiough, it was not as close to the lava as I hoped to get, so I shall have to return another time :) The plan will be to try to go when the new lava is flowing over significantly older lava. That way I should be able to get right "up close and personal" with the molten rock... though likely only for a few seconds since 800 degC really does radiate out a lot of heat!
