We all got up for a 6:00 breakfast of pancakes and coffee. In spite of the early hour, everyone was excited. The day was spectacularly clear as we left the hotel and everyone got their first view of Fuego. John Lyons, his girlfriend, a new post-doc at the University of Arizona , and another friend Derek, joined us. John and Derek are Peace Corps volunteers. John is also a Michigan Tech Grad student doing his dissertation on Fuego so he is based at the Fuego Observatory. We got a little lost trying to find the right roads to Pacaya but made it to the Pacaya National Park by 9:30. Unlike in the 1970's, there were several hundred people climbing the mountain. There were lots of Cruz Roja people training as well. The day was clear and cool with a good breeze. The new trail is forested, most of which has grown since I was last there in 1976. It reaches the Cerro Chino crater on the northeast side. I had a great view of the south-central Guatemala field area.

I was impressed by how much the MacKenny Cone had grown in the last 30 years—actually, it was just called MacKenny Crater back then. I thought about a few wild parties I attended at Alfredo MacKenny's home. He showed home movies he had taken of Pacaya's many eruptions since 1962. The climb up the cone was hard on me (as usual). My shoulders ached from my walking sticks. The summit crater was putting off a lot of steam. There was a slight smell of H2S and a faint taste of SO2. Amanda went into the surprisingly small crater and experienced a burning sensation in her throat, suggesting the presence of HCl. The view of the other volcanoes, Guatemala City , SE Guatemala , and eventually the ocean was superb.

We descended below the crater and I talked about the Southeast Guatemala project and the Dartmouth map area, realizing, for the first time, what a significant undertaking that was. Little has been doine in the Neogene volcanic rocks since then. So far my work has endured the test of time well. Neither Chad nor Stan were able to make it to the summit. I met Stan on the rim of Cerro Chino and we walked down together, arriving about 20 minutes after the others at around 3:00. I was thirsty, beat, and sore but rather exhilarated.

After drinking a soda, we decided to go to a pizzaria (El Napoli) in the town at the base of the mountain, San Vicente de Pacaya. We hired a kid to watch over our vehicles while we ate. It took awhile to make 9 pizzas, but they were good. Everyone was in a festive mood and the proprietors were certainly happy to have our business. Dusk was arriving when we left, effectively, negating any hope of collecting 1974 Fuego ashes on the other side of Agua, so we returned to Antigua over the same route we used in the morning—without getting lost.

Back at the hotel, my stuff had been moved upstairs where I roomed with, David, Zack, and John. The shower felt really good. Many of the students walked down to El Centro , but I was too sore to accompany them. Instead, I wrote in the comedor and Felix, the night manager, made me some cuba libres. It was surprisingly cold so I didn't get as far as I hoped but went to bed to warm up instead.