We climbed a bit over 1000 meters to get up to the recent lava flows and did catch a glimpse of some red stuff up at the top which got clearer as we moved round.
The raw lava stone is pretty light weight, but very sharp. Makes for quite difficult walking. You can see here that the 'flows' are made up of lots of fairly small round-ish rocks, and from the videos you can see how then get formed!
On the lower slopes, there is a geothermal energy plant. If I understood our guide right, it was built by the Chinese and is owned by Israelis.
On the climb there were a number pretty flowers and butterflies, and a couple of enormous beetle grubs. Why the birds don't have them I'm not sure.
We also saw a fair few Black Vultures soaring and circling.
From Pacaya we got great views of Guatemala City, Volcan de Agua (dormant), Volcán de Fuego and Volcan de Acatenango.
Looks amazing Moo, enjoy!
ReplyDeleteAbout the grubs and why the birds don't have them... I've heard eggs (that hatch to the final form with no larval state) are better for social creatures that can share incubating duties, and for creatures higher on the food chain that can put more resources into each egg given the higher likelihood of each surviving to adulthood.
ReplyDeleteAnother cracking set of pics. I particularly liked the video of the lava lumps tumbling down the scree slope. Can't help with identifying the butterflies but the raptor is probably a juvenile Turkey Vulture - Turkey, not Black, by shape of tail and juvenile because it does not appear from the pic to have developed the adult's distinctive red face. Keep them coming. Love Dad
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