The Americas

The first part of our day was spent at the nature reserve just outside of Pana. After a sleep in, we gathered our stuff and arrived at the gate just as it opened. This ended up being a great idea as we had the whole place to ourseleves. This meant that when we found the monkeys, we could take our time and enjoy it. We first spotted Coaties, which are adorable little dog/ant eater hybrid-looking animals. After spending some time watching them, we saw our first spider-monkey swinging from the trees toward us. I was so glad we saw one as I think they are the goofiest, yet cutest animals around. We got some hilarious photos that show exactly this. After some time admiring them, we moved on to the rest of the nature walk. Although not seeing any more animals, the forest was beautiful, and we enjoyed it thoroughly still. At the end of the walk, you arrive at the butterfly sanctuary. This was also quite amazing due to the colours and patterns that the butterflies reflect throughout the whole room. Although hard to capture in a picture, seeing them flutter and buzz around with all their colours was amazing. Sadly, though, this was the end of the nature reserve, and we then began to walk back to Pana. We had organised to see Corrie and Kaz before we parted ways, and although we were very early, we figured we would go and sit down at the cafe and wait. Luckily, we did as not long after, they arrived too. This gave us an extra couple hours to chat before saying our goodbyes. Yet, once again, we decided that we would manage to catch up briefly while in Antigua. After our extended coffee break, we then both had to head off to catch our respective buses, ours to antigua, and there's to El Paradon. We then boarded our shuttle for the 4 hour journey. Although painful, we arrived with enough time to explore briefly after dropping off our bags. Though we wanted to explore more, we had a lot of preparation to do in anticipation of our big acatenango hike. As such, we got some snacks, toiletries, and little cesaers pizza. We wanted to load up on calories before our big walk, but we grossly underestimated the size of the pizza. We could both barely eat half before being sickly full. Luckily, we could store it at the hostel and enjoy the rest when we finish the hike. Perhaps the greatest idea we have ever had. We then got ourselves to bed to enjoy a good sleep before the big day.Read more

Acatenango is a world-famous hike on the active volcano of the same name. Despite this, the excitement comes from the neighbouring volcano, fuego, that is almost always active and spitting out smoke, ash, and lava. This means that the view from atop Acatenango gives amazing views of all of Guatemala while also being able to watch an active volcano. Despite this, you have to work for your view, and the hike is meant to be brutal. As such, we had to ensure we had all the kit to get up there safely, and luckily, our hostel, which also organises the hike, has plenty of gear to borrow. I grabbed a more suitable backpack and some pants and began to pack. They gave you food and water to drag along with you, and before we knew it, we were on the bus on the way to the base of the mountain. Although we paid slightly more to do it through this hostel, we are the only group to cut 45 minutes out of the beginning of the hike and start higher up the mountain. Something i was very grateful for at the end. We then completed about 4 hours of gruelling uphill walking through dirt, rock, and dusty volcanic ash. The people coming down kicked up all the ash, and you had little choice but to breathe it in as you're constantly gasping for air at the high altitude. We had plenty of rests to break up the constant and intense uphill climb, sometimes needing to use our hands to scramble up the mountain. It was all worth it when we first broke through the tree cover and realised that we were already significantly above the clouds and could look out over the constant white. This was also the point of the hike that was no longer uphill. All flat from here. This is also the point where we were walking along pure black volcanic ash, hinting at the fact that we were close to the final destination. Then, as we rounded the volcano, we got our first glimpse of fuego, and in fitting fashion, it was spitting out a huge cloud of volcanic ash. Excitement grew, and we forgot about the pain in our legs and lungs and pushed through to camp. The viewpoint from our campsite was amazing. We were incredibly excited to spend the night watching it erupt. We were then given the option to complete a hike that takes you within 200m of the lava as it lands on the face of the volcano. Although I would have been keen, I was exhausted, and the additional 4 hours of hiking would be all up and downhill. Half of which in the dark. I'm glad I decided against it as those who did it, wouldn't return until well after 10pm, and wouldn't sleep for another hour or so. Many of who didn't make it to the sunrise hike. Meanwhile, in the relative comfort of the camp fire, we could watch the volcano splutter and occasionally explode in a massive display of earth power. I was much happier enjoying that view than suffering in the pitch black. We then enjoyed some noodles for dinner and went to bed earlier enough to ensure we wouldn't be too tired for the sunrise hike. I didn't sleep great, as 10 of us were crammed into a little shed thing, but I didn't expect much else.Read more