Dozens of masked Salvadorenian men run down the street towards us. The smell of gas and burning lingers in the air. A guy stumbles into me and I fall. The heat from his body is overwhelming. I panic when I realise his head is on fire, and my plastic rain poncho starts to singe. The paramedics take him away.
An hour later, shit gets real. Flaming balls of fire are haphazardly thrown into the crowd taking out whoever is in their way. A tree full of children catches on fire. After a few close calls I cop a rebound on the leg, but come out on top.
We are at the annual Nejapa bolas de fuego festival.
Earlier, when we asked our guide how many people die from the annual event, he changed the subject. I can now see why. The festival started more than 100 years ago and replicates the Volcano El Playon eruption, but it looked more like a riot to me!
Photo credits to Aidan; http://seasnsky.tumblr.com/
San Cristobal volcano erupted early september. To celebrate, Aidan and I decide to climb the closest volcano to it… Telica. There we saw lava and San Cristobal up close, smoking peacefully.
San Cristobal Erupting 8th September (obviously not my photo)
The hike up to telika 9th September
At the top…
San Critobal Smoking peacefully
quizas que si 
Those are some crazy photos. Were you scared while at the festival?
Not as scared as I should have been…
looks great fun! Seggie
[…] I could get into an active volcano crater. I have looked into one before, which I wrote about here, but we had to go at night to spot the lava. This time, the lava was a mere 100m away, it was […]