¡Puchica!

I just had one of the most unforgettable days of my life. I think climbing that volcano can rate as the coolest thing I have ever done in my entire life so far. Nothing could have prepared me for how spectacular it was going to be! And you know, I'm not a very outdoorsy type, but I sure do enjoy the odd adventure or two. And this was definitely that.

First of all, the volcano is still active, which is something I hadn't known previous to going. Secondly, the last time it erupted was in April. Thirdly, it is so active at the moment that we weren't allowed for security reasons to go all the way up to the crater/mouth bit. Right now, there are some villages in the area who are on a 15-minute evacuation order at in case she blows! The lava flows at 3 metres per hour, which is pretty bloody fast when you think about it...

It was a tough trek. The inaugural trip of my new hiking boots was blistery and painful. The incline was steep, the weather hot, the wind strong. There was one bit where the rock (the cooled lava) was so slippery that we had to turn around and come back. It was like trying to climb shale. I packed out (of course) and have quite the battle wound on my leg, but it was SO worth it in the end.

First of all, the closer you get to the summit, the hotter the rock gets. The lava flow from April was STILL HOT UNDERNEATH!!! From April! So there were patches where it felt like you could look right down into the Earth's core. It was spellbinding. And as if that wasn't all cool enough, we turned a corner and there was spewing lava. WE SAW LAVA!! Molten, hot, spewing magma. (God, i love that word. And I always have to say it like Austin Powers...) Does it really get any better than that?!?!?! I couldn't believe it! We got up so close that we could HEAR it flowing. And it looked like a gigantic orange tongue. We put one of our walking sticks into it and it burst into flames! It was ¡puchica! Puchica is my word of the day (It means WOW! in Spanish.) Each step was more spectacular than the next.

And our guide was awesome. He and his adorable, dirty 8 year-old son do the trek 3 times a day. They get about 300 visitors each DAY. We went earlier than most and were so pleased to feel as if we had the whole volcano to ourselves. The vistas were unbelievable and I have some rock star pictures in which I have no doubt never looked worse, but in which I am STANDING NEXT TO MAG-MA so it's all good.

Todo es bueno.