11 February 2010

Hot Lava and a Burned up Computer

January 29, 2010 I was invited to get up early and leave at 5:00 AM to join 3 other men and climb Volcán Pacaya, one of the several active volcanoes of Guatemala! It was a beautiful morning as we set out, beginning our climb just a bit after 6:00 AM. I was in the company of two fellow CAM missionaries, John Conner and Glenn Stewart, plus a visitor from the States, Craig Minnich.

Sunrise on (l-r) Volcán Fuego (active) Volcán Acatenango & Volcán Agua

We saw a beautiful sunrise with our view of the surrounding volcanoes, while we were in the shadow of Pacaya for the entire climb.
Surveying our route with Pacaya towering over us

John and I led the way as we climbed over the first ridge in the photo above to not too far below the summit. Much of the climb is through loose volcanic gravel, meaning two steps up, slide one step back!

Crossing a field of loose gravel

This is a lot steeper than it looks!

Yes, that's hot!

Fresh, red hot lava!

We had a great morning, and due to the need to meet a team at the airport later, I was actually back home after our climb before 11:30 AM!

That was a fun day. Later though, after a power outage at our home, our family computer finally died! Not from the power outage (we don't think) because it was not on and was plugged into a surge protector. But, it was old and had been less than working at it's best for some time. So, we are currently shopping for a new computer. Not what we were planning to do, don't really have the funds for it, but when is a good time? But, Sandi as usual had the most logical solution. Our "work" computer is also almost 6 years old, so she suggested upgrading the "work" computer, then moving our current work computer to the status of family computer. Good idea. And, the good news is that you can get a pretty good computer these days for a lot less than we paid for the computer we have now!


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