Antigua & Acatenango for Christmas

📌 A quick transfer to Antigua from the lake and we were keen to see this renowned area of Guatamala. The town was beautiful, a former Spanish colonial town with colourful shops and houses lining the streets that was surrounded by several volcanoes in the distance. We spent 2 nights enjoying Antigua, browsing the handicrafts shops, the beautiful cafes and some great food.

📌 The highlight of the area and the main drawcard was hiking Acatenango. We started early and headed to the guide's house outside of town for breakfast and preparation. Starting at 2600m above sea level we began the hike not really sure how difficult it would be due to various reviews online. It was a beautiful walk, walking through dense cloud forests and then with ascent moving into pine forests. The visibility was terrible as we ascended into the clouds, it was quite strenuous but before we realised we were at the top! Definitely not our hardest hike but you could feel the altitude due to the rapid increase so quickly.

📌 We were sharing with a Canadian woman and we sort refuge in our thin walled tin shelter which kept the wind out but not much else 😅 As we sat there the clouds parted after a while and the volcano was in sight!! We were then treated to a couple of beautiful eruptions so the wind and cold was less bothersome with all the excitement. As the sun set began we headed up to a vantage point (opting to skip the longer hike to get closer) and it was incredible, particularly as it got darker because we got our first glimpse of lava!!! 😍 We had a very cold windy night with visibility shifting but one benefit of the lack of sleep was the occasional look out the window to see a lava eruption 🌋 A rough night was soon forgotten as the sunrise was incredible again! We were so lucky and this was one of the most incredible things and Christmas eves/morning we have done as travellers.

📌 We headed down happily as the altitude effects wore off (very puffy hands!) and chilled on Christmas day in a luxury accommodation before heading out for dinner where the streets were packed with a parade. We settled for Italian as there wasn't much open before crashing for a 11 hour sleep. Boxing day was just as chill, with coffee, a brewery lunch and meeting the G adventures tour for our next journey.Read more