Pacaya, one Guatemala's youngest volcanoes, offers climbers a unique look glance into the geologic bowels of the earth. A relatively easy climb of 1 hour brings us to the fertile shelf just below the cinder cone called "la Meseta." From here we get an awesome view of thousand year old lava flows. Hiking the volcanic scree up to the cone is a harder proposition but rewarding nonetheless. Depending on levels of activity we can walk right up to the rim of the crater and look in. We'll have a sack lunch on top enjoying the views before we make our way back down.

Pacaya is a fairly popular volcano amongst the travelers in Antigua. We leave early to avoid the "cattle rush" of climbers from Antigua in efforts to have the volcano all to ourselves.