Thursday, April 30, 2009

last time to board the ship...

We left Puerto Quetzal (Latitude: 13 degrees 55.65' N, Longitude: 90 degrees 47.24' W) about an hour and a half ago. We will be transiting the Panama Canal in two days. It was quite emotional for many getting on the ship today as we realized this was our last time to board. The next time we get off, we will not be getting back on.

Guatemala was a great experience. Many people went to Antigua http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antigua_Guatemala expecting to stay for the day, and decided to spend the night. Others went for one night, and elected to spend two. Hearing them talk today, I wish we had gone, but we will have to add that to our list of things to do "next time". This often happens -- we are very happy with the things we decide to do, but when we hear others talk about what they did, we think maybe we should have done other things. Obviously, it's impossible to do everything!

I did hike Pacaya Volcano http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacaya as planned and it could not have been a better day. There are three other volcanos visible approaching Pacaya: the Volcan de Agua http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volc%C3%A1n_de_Agua or Vocano of Water, the Volcan de Fuego http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volc%C3%A1n_de_Fuego or Volcano of Fire and Acatenango http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acatenango. Pacaya is quite near Antigua, although we did not go through the city to get there. There were about 25 people on this trip, a mix of students, faculty and family members -- the youngest two were 8 and 13 and I think I was the oldest.

We had a wonderful Guatemalan guide on this trip, Chickie. Our shipboard "daughter", Victoria was on this hike too. I'm not sure I have mentioned in the past that Victoria has an identical twin sister, Stephanie; she was also on the hike. I have included a photo -- Victoria is on the left, Stephanie on the right, and Stephanie's boyfriend, Patrick is in the background. Sorry I did not get one with Patrick more in the photo!
I didn't realize until much later that armed security guards had accompanied us from the ship, as they apparently did on all the SAS trips in Guatemala. They were in vehicles that followed the buses. I guess that people in Guatemala realized that if they expected to succeed in tourism, they needed to protect tourists from being robbed and assaulted, and now many of the tourist agencies provide protection as part of the package.

The bus drove us into the hills near the volcano to the start of the hike. For five quetzales (about 65 US cents) you can "rent" a hiking stick from one of the young Guatemalan boys in the area. Since I usually hike with two poles, and since I had read that it was better to have a hiking stick given the terrain, I rented one from a very persistent young man who introduced himself as Francisco. Our group set out, accompanied by other enterprising young men offering "taxis" (horses or donkeys to take you to the top) as well as by our armed guards (photo of one of the guards and a self-appointed "guide" whose name escapes me at the moment) and climbed for a little more than two hours to reach our destination. It was not an especially difficult hike for me in terms of the climb, although I was the slowest, but then I am used to hiking in the Rockies with people in their 60's and 70's (who are also faster than I am), not university aged people! There was one down slope that was very steep and covered with loose cinders and ash, and I found it difficult, although I think I could have skied it easily ;-) and the areas where we were climbing across solidified lava were challenging.

We were told that although hikes of Pacaya used to go to the cone, earthquakes in the past had changed the mountain so that it was no longer possible to go that way but that we would go toward one of the two additional cones that had been created. The original cone is now where steam escapes from the volcano, and lava can be seen flowing from other cones. When we reached the top of our climb, we did indeed feel heat from the rocks and see lava flowing. Students roasted marshmallows from the heat before we came back down a bit to eat the sack lunches provided by the tour agents. After lunch and just before we started our descent, we noticed that large amounts of lava were starting to flow from one of the lower cones, an amazing sight and one we had not expected to see. Here you can see photos of the smaller lava flow as well as the one we saw just before leaving.

We took just over an hour to come back down and left to come back to the ship shortly after that. We were all anxious to get back for showers -- I'm sure the ship's gray water contained lots of volcano ash last night! I was falling asleep and went to bed at 7:00pm and didn't wake until 7:30 this morning, although Victoria and Stephanie and some of the others got up this morning for a mountain biking trip! Ahhh youth!

Tomorrow is a study day with the last of the exams on Saturday. John and other faculty are busily grading in order to have everything in on time. The Abassadors Ball is on May 3, the same day as the Panama Canal transit. You can watch us pass through the Panama Canal -- the link is on the right side of this page.

Happy Birthday, Sharla! I know you will be around for many more "big" ones!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Theresa,
What a wonderful account of your volcanic hike. I have a mental imagine of you trying to ski on the loose rock and ash...it would have been such fun to try! Must have been bitter sweet to return to the ship knowing that your voyage is almost at an end. Thank-you so much for 3.5 months of blogs and for letting me follow along..it has been a privilege. Enjoy the last few days of your amazing adventure.
Love, Jackie