Picaya Volcano

The great thing about going through an organization like Maximo Nivel is that they don't only set up tour homestay and volunteer work, but they also offer many other opportunities. During my stay here I've been able to take Spanish lessons with a Spanish teacher originally from Guatemala (she speaks very little English- forces me to actually try my Spanish) and also take different excursions to see other parts of Guatemala. The excursion I'm going to talk about right now was a hike to the top of Picaya, a volcano 45 minutes away from Antigua. After our morning volunteer work  Thursday afternoon, myself and 8 other volunteers with a guide from one of the villages located on Picaya trekked a steep incline 3 kilometers to the summit.     The hike was pretty difficult, and unfortunately my asthma/allergies finally got the best of me and I had to stop climbing.  The good thing was that I didn't need to turn back and go down the mountain, I just had to grab a 'taxi'. A 'taxi' up Picaya actually meant grabbing a ride on a horse and being led up the mountain.  Local boys follow groups of hikers up the trail with their horses, just waiting for opportunities to say "taxi for you miss?" and offering their services for cheap.  Myself and two other girls who weren't feeling well rode up the trail on our horses while the rest of our group trekked onward.    Once we got close to the summit, we were forced to drop our horses and walk up the wasteland that was at one point molten lava.  The last eruption on Picaya was in 2010, and prior to that was an eruption in 2006.  The eruption in 2006 left a lot of hard molten rock covering the summit, and the ash covering the rock was from the more recent eruption.  It was a crazy site - it looked as though we were on another planet.  There were no plants or animal life anywhere, and we were up so high that you could only see the tops of the other mountains in the distance.      There was a small shack at the top of the mountain where they sell jewlery and other little trinkets that involve lava from the eruption in 2010. I bought a 5 cent coin (which is actually less than an American penny) that had lava covering the majority of it - the only visible part was the palm tree symbol. The also allowed the hikers to roast marshmallows over a campfire; not many people can say they roasted a marshmallow at the top of a volcano! It was an exhausting day, but absolutely amazing.