One last look at Antigua before the Mt. Pacaya pictures.

....like this one.

It's a pyroclastic cloud!  Just kidding...

Mt. Pacaya

A year ago about to the day that we hiked up the volcano, Mt. Pacaya erupted.  A year later, the vegetation had started growing back somewhat, but abruptly stop where the slope gets steeper.  The trees and grass still weren't growing everywhere yet, as shown here.

This pic shows the trails where the daily groups of tourists walk up the volcano.  The guide and his 10-year old or so son walk this hike about a half dozen times a day, and after one time, I have no idea how they do it so much. And we only hiked halfway up the ~10,000-foot high mountain.  Luckily for us, we rode the bus up the first 5,000 feet.

Here's a few pictures  taken from about where we stopped walking on grass and solid ground, and started the 35-degree slope hike.  If the ground was more than loose volcanic rock, about a foot deep in places, then maybe the trek would have been easier.  But what we got to see at the top was well worth it.

Looking back down the way we came...

Looking up the volcano...

See the trails in this picture, also.

...and looking back down.

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