- Jan 28 2025 - Pacaya Volcano, Guatemala
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- I've been really looking forward to
today for a while. The ship stopped in Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala
where we were greeted by towering volcanoes. I had plans to join
the excursion to go to Pacaya volcano today. Pacaya is a place
I've been before, in fact I was the first person to ever set
foot at the bottom of its summit crater back in 2016 when I filmed
a TV commercial inside, so it was nice to go "visit an old
friend" today. We took a coach to the national park and
started the hike. Most of it was through the jungle, and it was
much cooler than I was fearing, along the coast it was a real
scorcher. From time to time we would get glimpses of the other
volcanoes in the area, including Fuego, the most active in the
country. There was a consistent plume of steam and gas coming
from the summit, and from time to time round lenticular clouds
would form over the nearby peaks.
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- Once we got to our Pacaya viewpoint,
I was reminded of how massive the volcano is. I couldn't believe
that I had not only been to the summit, but down inside the crater!
I could see a little bit of sulfur dioxide gas coming from some
vents, but other than that, Pacaya was quiet. I was also hoping
that Fuego would have an explosion while I was there, but Mother
Nature did not provide today. The hike back down was great fun.
The ash and scree on the steep slopes were fun to "surf"
down. I've done this on many volcanoes. That stuff is hard to
hike up, but so much fun to slide down. The only problem is the
tremendous amount of ash and rocks in my shoes!
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- Back at the dock, I took some time
to look around, and there were lots of iguanas sunning themselves
on the rocks along the ocean. I spent some time photographing
then until it was getting close to final call for getting back
on board the ship.
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- This evening, I was treated to a Green
Flash at sunset. This was the second one of this voyage. The
colour of the sky was a brilliant orange as the sun briefly turned
green as it dipped below the horizon. We also had a good view
of the Earth shadow shortly after sunset. A good day.
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