Volcan Pacaya

Author:	Green Tortuga
Location:	Ruins Antigua, SAC (Guatemala) [MapQuest] [Google Maps]
Plant Date:	June 14, 2002
Clue Last Updated:	September 21, 2004
Status:	active (Last found: Aug 19, 2007)

This is what my guidebook says: "Because of its status as the only active volcano near Antigua, Pacaya attracts the most tourists and most bandits. The situation is improving, however, since each group is now accompanied by a security guard (little comfort when he turns out to be prepubescent). Guards or no, a hike up Pacaya still entails risks. Still, travelers now are more likely to be hurt by flaming rocks and sulfurous fog than criminals. Climbers have even suffered serious, even fatal injuries when the volcano erupted unexpectedly while they were near the summit. In early 2000, the frisky Pacaya was upgraded to orange alert status."

If you're like me and see words like bandits, sulfurous fog, and flaming rocks, you jump at the chance of going, which is exactly what I did. =) And it was nothing short of an awesome experience! I didn't see any bandits or flaming rocks, but there was definitely plenty of sulfurous fog that's pretty wretched to inhale.

The hike is fairly strenous, but for those faint-hearted folks out there, I actually hid in the box in the city of Antigua in a little-known ruin. I'd have hidden the box AT Volcán Pacaya, but when you're in a group of 30 people with armed guards, it's kind of hard to be discreet hiding boxes or finding them later.

Clue

From Parque Central, hike one block west to 6a Av Norte, then head north past the La Merced church to a major (and somewhat confusing) intersection at Calle Ancha de los Herreros. Continue following the road that goes more-or-less straight ahead. It'll curve a little bit, but just as it does, another road forks off to the right. (Sorry, don't know the name.) See those ruins just at the base of the mountain? Your letterbox is near.

Enter into the "main" room. It'll be very large, and on your left will be a small "door" that leads to a much smaller room. Enter the smaller room. The letterbox is hidden under a pile of rocks in the northeast corner of this room. If you forgot your compass while traveling to Central America, that's the corner near the door towards the back of the ruin. There is a LOT of trash around this area (it's a popular place to dump garbage--entire bags of it), so you may have to dig around through some trash to find the actual box.

Hike Length: 0.3 miles
Elevation Gain: 50 feet