The truly magical moments happen when you stumble across something unexpectedly wonderful. When you go you don't expect much but when you leave your mind is thoroughly blown.
In 2006 I spent two weeks in Belize and Guatemala. Near the Guatemalan tourist hub of Antigua I had my favorite unexpected travel surprise. I did a one-day trip to hike up an active volcano. In Costa Rica I had visited an active volcano called Arenal. There minivans take you to a viewpoint a few miles away. You go there at night so you can see the red lava against the night sky. I enjoyed it. I had never seen lava before.
I expected a similar deal in Guatemala. We hiked through a thick fog that obscured views of the mountainside. I began to get a little grumpy since it seemed we were going to hike all day and not see anything.
Suddenly we were in the clear. We could see the mountain.
In Costa Rica I was miles away. Now I was on the mountain itself. In Costa Rica the lava was visible as thin, red ribbons glowing in the darkness. Here there was a river of lava rolling down the side of the mountain. There were no safety precautions whatsoever. I could have walked up and jumped in.
First we had to hike through a fantastic landscape like something out of the movie "Alien". Previous lava flows had cooled into bizarre shapes and patterns. Thick fog added to the creepy atmosphere.
We walked across a cooled lava field that crumbled beneath our feet. Veins of molten lava ran through the rock directly beneath our feet.
I got as close as I could to the lava flow but it was unimaginably hot. How hot? Look at my face.
For the love of God, take the @#%&ing picture already!
This was about as close as I could get. (You can see the river of lava over my left shoulder.) The thick Vibram soles of my hiking shoes were no match for the mountain. The ground was so hot the rubber soles started getting gummy. As we left we could look back at other tourists inching close to the lava flow, which is flowing straight down through the center of the photo.
While we were hiking the other hikers and I wondered what would happen if the volcano erupted in earnest. Last week Volcan Pacaya erupted.
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=357691&CategoryId=12394
A volcano also erupted in Ecuador, not far from where I hiked in 2004. And we all remember the volcano in Iceland which tied up air travel for weeks.
The death and casualty tolls are pretty low. At least 9 children are missing. More than 20 people have been injured. Thousands have fled their homes or were evacuated. Sad news, but this is literally a disaster waiting to happen. Small villages dot the side of the mountain. It is close to Antigua, the second most popular tourist destination in Guatemala, after the Mayan ruins at Tikal. I'm glad I saw it when I did!
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