The highest I've Ever Been (Altitude)

When the alarms began to ring just before 4am, I was exhausted and tired but knew this wasn't an opportunity to miss. After dragging myself out of bed and collecting my warm gear, we began the ascent. It was a hard and testing hike that was even more difficult, having woke up not 20 minutes earlier. Yet we knew it would be worth it. I wasn't feeling great the whole walk, which I suspect was due to the altitude (3,900m), but pushed through. Unfortunately, we couldn't see fuego for most of the hike but were able to watch it briefly in the morning as we collected our gear. This meant we weren't sure of the activity we would get from the top. Even without the views of fuego, the sunrise was a once in a lifetime thing to witness. In the forefront, we had Volcan de agua that split the clouds and provided a beautiful view with the sunrise behind it. Next to us, we had the active volcano fuego spitting out rubble and smoke. In the background, we had the series of volcanoes that lined Lake Atitlan. We had spent many days admiring these from the lake, and now we stood above them, looking down as though they were nothing more than a mole hill. Every moment, the sunrise changed the complexion and colours of the sky and, thus, the whole experience. Endless amount of photos were taken at every instant before you realised it would be better to just sit and enjoy it all. Although Fuego wasn't incredibly active, we still got to see some eruptions from the top. Once the sun rose and the skies lit up, it became much harder to see the lava that it ejects, but we could still see the smoke and ash fill the horizon. It is difficult to describe the feeling. Spending 2 days of your life for maybe 45 minutes at the top, but it was easily worth it. It's easily a highlight of my trip so far. Sadly, after some time, we had to head back to camp and enjoy breakfast and a well needed coffee. We then got to see some of the hikers from the fuego journey the night before who didn't make it up the mountain for sunrise. They looked exhausted. Reaffirming the decision. We could then begin the downhill. Although incredibly slippery at some points, the excitement to get back home and into a shower meant that you were almost throwing yourself down the mountain at the thought. Yet, somehow, we avoided any major falls and arrived at the bottom safe. Our lungs would be black with dirt and ash, and our legs could barely hold us, but we arrived safe and sound and in desperate need of a clean. We boarded our shuttles back to the hostel where we gathered our bags, ate our well-deserved (and much needed) pizza, returned our rented gear, and left. The hostel offered a shower, but we knew from a couple of days before that that they were shit. We instead chose to check into our new hostel that looked much nicer. Unfortunately, we were a bit early, and we had to sit around a bit before we could check in. But, when we could finally use the showers, it was an amazing feeling. I stood in silence for many minutes just hoping the water would remove each layer of dust that had accumulated on my skin. My feet had captured so much dust I physically couldn't remove it. But it was a great feeling leaving the shower, clean for the first time in 2 days. Although we planned very little, we did want to have a meal to aid our recovery and ended up exploring quite a bit of Antogua. Mostly because we are indecisive, but also because the town is incredibly beautiful. Our legs kept us going enough that we found a nice place for a feed. Not long after that, we headed back to sleep.Read more