El Volcan

Today we hiked a volcano named Pacaya. The first time that I saw a volcano in real life was on this trip, so needless to say, this was the first time that I hiked up a volcano.

This experience was incredible. Although I was sick and thought at times that I couldn´t make it to the top, I knew that I wanted to make it to the top for personal satisfaction. When we reached the top of the volcano, we had to walk on hardened lava. We could see fresh hot molten lava flowing downward; in fact, we were only about 20 feet from the flowing lava. The lava was incredibly hot; the temperature of the lava was overwhelming. Our tour guide stuck his walking stick down a small crack in the hardened lava that we were walking on. When he did so, his stick literally caught on fire. We were all able to bring back some lava rocks with us. I am sure that as a future science teacher, I will be able to use my lava rocks. :)