I had read about this hike before our trip but was not planning to do it. Overnight backpacking is more up Bill's alley than mine. My typical camping rule is "bathroom required," and there are no bathrooms on a volcano. :) But in the end, Bill got sick, we only had a few days before we flew back home, and it just looked too cool, so I signed myself up for this adventure and hoped for the best. It was a volcano weekend - we'd just visited Volcano Pacaya the day before.
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| View of Volcano Fuego from camp on Acatenango |
I booked with a tour company called Wicho & Charlie's, liked their social and eco-conscious approach which even included all plant-based food. When I arrived there at 7 a.m., they handed out little juice shots - beet, orange, and ginger - to help with the altitude (not sure if that works but it was delicious), and then we got to "shopping." Temperature at the top of the volcano can get down to 30-40 degrees F, so they recommended everyone choose 3 layers from their coat racks to bring for warmth. They also loaned us gloves, a hat, a scarf, and a buff. I wore leggings and a long-sleeved sun shirt, and had an extra layer of pants and long-sleeve shirt with me along with clean socks, undies, a rain jacket, and of course my huge hat. I rented hiking poles (very glad for those later), and filled up 3 of their reusable 1.5L water bottles as recommended. Of that water, everyone had to share 1L at camp for cooking. They also gave us each a bag with lunch and breakfast in reusable containers, and asked us to make our own bags of trail mix from their trail mix bar. We didn't have to carry anything for camp (tents/sleeping bags) because they have a permanent camp up top.
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| Packing up |
We had some breakfast, listened to their orientation, and then piled into a shuttle for the hour-long ride to Acatenango. There were 17 people in our group, mostly from all over Europe (UK, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Austria), a few Americans, all younger than me. Nice group with lots of interesting travel stories. We met our local guides at the entry and started the hike about 9:30 a.m. They told us we'd arrive by 3:00 at the latest, after working our way up the three different sections of the mountain, ~5000 ft up to the camp at 12,000 ft.
The first section was mostly sunny, partly farmland. It was uphill immediately and consistently, so we were breathing hard right away. They'd stop every 20 mins or so with the group for a rest, and people eventually spread out into little clumps with different guides at different paces. I was toward the middle-back of the group: couldn't keep up with the >6' tall Germans and Norwegians, but wasn't struggling with altitude sickness like some of the people who'd just arrived in Guatemala. (The guides carried altitude sickness medicine, which helped.) I was surprised to find that overall, it was doable. They'd told us there were no technical sections of the hike, just "5 hours of walking mostly uphill." I was tired but not exhausted - never felt like it was too much or like my legs ran out of gas, just took breaks when I needed them and made sure to drink water and eat. I probably couldn't have done this two or three years ago, but current me was good! By the end, I was thinking this mountain climbing stuff wasn't so bad. :)
We also stopped often for pictures since the view was so beautiful. The middle "cloud forest" section looked a lot like the cloud forests that Bill and I visited in Costa Rica, with the mist of the clouds blowing across the tropical trees. You won't have any trouble identifying the cloud forest section in the video below. Above that, the 3rd section looked more like a mountain in NC or MI, lots of pine trees and ferns. The views from that height were amazing.
Finally, we came around the last corner to camp and saw Fuego right in front of us. Perfect timing: some small clouds blew past and right on cue, Fuego spit out smoke and ash for us. Everyone was blown away by the view and plunked down into camp chairs to watch the show. The volcano erupted nearly constantly. During the day you couldn't see the lava, just smoke and ash followed a few seconds later by a rumbling and low whooshing sound, almost like far away thunder. One cloud of smoke and ash would barely start drifting up and dissipating before another would follow.
We had 2 hours to rest before the second hike of the day. This one was optional, and I opted out. It was a 4.5-5 hour trip over to the connected volcano Fuego where you'd see the sunset, watch Fuego erupt from that closer viewpoint, then hike back in the dark with just headlamps. Cool, but no thanks. In the pic above, you can see the ridge where they hiked along the right side of the volcano. They stopped about where the flat part on the right side ends.
I stayed with another woman and a guide at camp where we had a perfect view of the volcano. The guide built us a campfire and served up some dinner (a tasty Guatemalan tomato-lentil curry with rice), marshmallows, and hot chocolate. As soon as it got dark, it was like 4th of July fireworks - we could hear people ooh'ing and aah'ing from the camps above and below us, or yelling "Lava!" after the biggest eruptions. Seeing the bright orange lava constantly shooting up was amazing, especially when it was enough to run down the sides. We had a triple light show from the volcano, a nearly full moon, and lightning in some nearby clouds. (No rain for us, thank goodness.) In addition to the active volcano, we could see inactive Agua ("our" volcano that we could see from the AirBnB pool in Antigua) and Pacaya (the marshmallow roasting one from the day before) on the left.
Eventually, we could see the light from headlamps way in the distance as our group made their way back from the second hike. They finally returned, exhausted and starving, right as we were ready for bed. Some of the closer pics of eruptions are shared from people who did this hike.
We slept in A-frame huts that had 8 beds, each with a 0 degree sleeping bag, a pillow, and an extra wool blanket. Couples could also rent two-person huts instead. With all the gear, I was plenty warm while sleeping. I did wake up a few times when I heard a small mammal snorting around the edge of the hut. (What the heck was that? I forgot to ask the guides.) I could hear the sound of the volcano erupting from bed, so cool.
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| Inside the A-frame sleeping huts |
Another hiker's alarm woke us up for the 4:00 a.m. departure for a sunset summit hike - only 45 mins up Acatenango for this one, so I was all in. I was happy to wake up without any sore muscles save for tired ankles, but then I heard the rain. Our guide came by and told us the sunset hike was cancelled - too dangerous with the rain, plus we wouldn't be able to see anything from the top through the clouds anyway. We were bummed to miss the view from the summit (all the way to the Pacific, to Lake Atitlan, to other surrounding volcanos), but glad for the extra sleep. When we woke up a few hours later, it was still so cloudy that we couldn't see anything. Here's the view from the same campfire location with the volcano behind me:
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| Check out that nice volcano behind me! Darn clouds. |
It cleared up pretty quickly, so we had nice views again while our guides served hot coffee, tea, and breakfast burritos (yum), then we packed up to head back down. I expected the trip down to be tough, so was pleased when we made it through the top section pretty quickly. That top part included sections where you're basically walking next to a wooded cliff, so I was extremely glad that wasn't slippery. And such a great view! Temp was really comfortable once we left the chilly top of the mountain too.
The cloud forest section got harder, steeper and more slippery. I only had my old walking shoes with me (again, wasn't planning to do this hike), and without any tread, I was struggling. I fell a few times on that section, but the bottom farmland part was by far the worst. One section had a slim gravel path between two barbed-wire fences - NOT a place I wanted to fall. Some in the group skipped down the paths like mountain goats, but it took forever for me to inch down the last half of the mountain without killing myself. I cut and scraped my hands multiple times before remembering that I had gloves with me to help protect them. I also fell hard once on my butt and a week later, still have a huge purple bruise as a souvenir. We arrived at the bottom after 2.5-3 hours, and my step counter showed about 50% more steps coming down than going up, due to all those cautious short steps.
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| No bueno. |
I was SO HAPPY to be done with that hike down. I was wrong the day before, mountain climbing (down) sucks! 😂 It was not fun, and my legs felt it for the next few days. Was it worth it? 100% yes for how cool it was to see an erupting volcano up close.
By the time we finished our hour shuttle ride back to Antigua, I felt better but was ready for a hot shower. We turned in our gear and drank a congratulatory beer before heading back home. I got back to the AirBnB, caught up with the fam about our separate adventures, then showered and crashed while they swam. By dinner time I was recharged and ready to celebrate our final night in Guatemala with a nice dinner out at a yummy Italian place (post-hike carb-load??).
All in all, I'd definitely recommend this trip and the tour company, but only with good shoes. :)