Hiking Acatenango Volcano | From Behind the Lens..
- Rob Molyneux
- Oct 17, 2018
- 4 min read
After much deliberation and researching this hike, toying up between a couple of horror stories and drooling over pictures online, we decided that there was no real decision to be made. We were going to hike Volcan Acatenango and spend the night sleeping at the top! Standing at 13,041 ft / 3976m tall, this volcano was the first real test for us hiking at high altitude, and lets just say it wasn't just the views that took our breath away!
Starting at our hostel back in Antigua, were unfortunately we didn't get the best of nights sleeps the night before (Thanks to the abnormally loud walrus, snoring in our dorm room), but we woke up, packed and ready for the pick up. After leaving Antigua early in the morning you are dropped off at a few small huts on the side of the road to meet your guides, and to pick up the rest of your kit. If you have forgot to bring some essential items like gloves, hats or even a walking pole (or a big stick in this case), there are a few local women who can help you out at a small price.
Before you set off on the hike, you will see the group returning from the hike the day before, who will no doubt be either emphatically relaying there adventure from the night before, or fast asleep on a nearby rock! That's right, this is a really tough hike, so make sure that you are prepared for this, if you do choose to give it a go! Now its time for the sleeping bags and tents, yeah, you have to carry these too! So if you're a big guy, everyone will be looking to you at this point.. With everybody ready, and each person carrying around 15 kilos (Some more than others), its time to start the hike!
The amazing thing about hiking this volcano is the different landscapes that you need to pass through to get to the top, starting the trek through farmland, in the intense sun, you then need to pass through winding tropical cloud forests, which provide you with well needed shade from the midday sun, before then reaching the sparse high alpine forest. If you have had good weather, this is where you will get the first glimpse of the six volcanoes that surround you! Then finally after hours of hiking, and a quick lunch with a volcano view of course, you now have to jump the last hurdle of the day, the windswept volcanic landscape of the hike. Taking one step forward and sliding two steps back on the volcanic ash will become extremely tedious, but once you reach the camp, you will be astonished at what appears through the clouds in the distance. Well, this is what we have been told.. We arrived in camp to a cloud of thick fog, not being able to see a single thing in the distance. So we began to set up camp, and welcomed the weight of our bags being lifted off our shoulders and pitching up our home for the night on the ashy floor on the side of an active volcano.
As you can imagine, after hours of gruelling hiking, and then arriving to camp to see nothing but fog, everyone was pretty tired and rather underwhelmed to say the least. That was until we then heard a huge rumble that shook the ground, and the fog and cloud that surrounded us, instantly disappeared and we were left with the clearest view of the erupting Volcan Fuego! This volcano looked to only be a few hundred metres away, and seemed to appear from absolutely nowhere, was now billowing ash clouds high into the sky right infront of us! We were all left standing there gobsmacked at what we had just witnessed to then turning around to see numerous other volcanoes standing prominent all around us! This was truly the land of volcanoes and we were standing tall above the clouds looking over them all!
Luckily for us, this wasn't just a one off, from then on Volcan Fuego erupted every half an hour or so, and even luckier for us, these eruptions where only small eruptions that have been constant for many years and were no threat to us. As impressive as these eruptions are, believe it or not, the main event was still yet to come..
As soon as the sun sets on what was an incredible day so far, and the night falls, these ash cloud eruptions turn in to spurting lava! Spraying high, lighting up the sky around the volcano and the stars! Unsurprisingly, we didn't get much sleep that night, sitting in our tent waiting for the next rumble to come, to witness eruption after eruption! This night will stick in my memory forever, standing on the side of a volcano, under a blanket of stars, watching another volcano erupt in front of us, has to be the surrealist moment ever!
Although it wasn't over yet, we still needed to summit the volcano.. The next morning, you will be woken early to hike the last 45 minutes to the summit and witness the sunrise from the top!
This whole experience is still to this day the best thing that I have ever done, and I think that it will be very hard to ever forget it! As you can see from the picture above, the sunrise wasn't too bad either!
You just need to do this! But before you do, here is a look from behind the lens..
*August 2018 Update: As I said in the Antigua blog post, we spoke with many Guatemalans about the fear that one of these volcanoes are due to soon cause major destruction with an extreme eruption that has not happened for many years. Sadly, around a year after we climbed Volcan Acatenango, the neighbouring Volcan Fuego did just that. Leaving 62 fatalities, hundreds injured and nearby villages destroyed, it is so sad to think that something so majestic can cause so much pain, but also a huge reminder of their ever present danger! Please make sure to check with local tour agencies that it is safe to now hike Acatenango again!
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