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What is the most active volcano in Central America, in terms of eruptions, explosions, lava, gases, etc.? Is it possible to visit it?

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By "Central America" do you also wish to include Mexico? By most standard definitions Mexico is in North America, but it's still extremely common for people to refer to it as being in Central (or even south!) America. – hippietrail May 15 '12 at 10:48
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@hippietrail: I was thinking south of Mexico, but feel free to mention ones in Mexico too. – jrdioko May 15 '12 at 16:38
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Popocatépetl is very close to Mexico City and is quite often in the news for being active, in fact it was in the news again just the other day! I don't know how active it is compared with the volcanoes in Guatemala suggested in the other answers though. I also remember one by a lake in El Salvador that had erupted causing lots of destruction not long before I was there roughly five years ago, but there's so many volcanoes around lakes there that I can't remember which it was. – hippietrail May 15 '12 at 17:37

2 Answers

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There are probably two acceptable answers here:

  1. Pacaya - an active volcano in Guatemala, it's erupted 23 times since the Spanish conquest of Guatemala. It then erupted in 1965 and has been erupting basically continuously since then.

Pacaya

  1. Santa Maria - also in Guatemala (which makes it easy for you), which appears on this list of 10 most active volcanoes in the world. While currently the most activity is lahars (mud flows) there are also regular lava flows.

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I'd suggest Volcán de Fuego near Antigua in Guatemala. It's active all the time but only at a low level -- great if you want to reliably check out some lava flows without making the evening news. It's just outside of town too, very easy to get to from Antigua which is a great place to visit. Volcán de Agua is also very near by but it's been inactive since the 1500's.

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