Volcán Acatenango

We got up early because we needed to be in a hotel lobby by 7:45 and repark Ruedi beforehand. This all went pretty well and we were picked up by the tour company on time to bring us to the trailhead leading up to the active volcano Acatenango, the 3rd highest volcano in Guatemala. A trip we've had in mind for a few days but postponed it because I wasn't feeling well. So today we tackled the ascend to the volcano even though I wasn't at a 100%🌋
We were dropped off close by to the place where we had slept two nights ago and there were already quite a lot of people waiting, overall we were a group of 34. Many Germans and Dutch people but also a few from Spain and France and even one from Liechtenstein 😁 We were provided with some equipment and lunch provisions before being sent on our way up the volcano...

And it was extremely tough to climb! Almost everyone in the group struggled in the first hour as it was so steep and the underground was loose gravel and dirt. Then it changed to a section with staircases but with higher than usual steps which went hard on the strength of the upper legs. After a toll section to enter the National Park, the trail changed to rather switchbacks and a lesser angle. We also made a lot of breaks to adjust to the height without getting altitude sickness. It went better than expected and after 6 hours we reached the basecamp at 3640m, where we had started at 2360m.
The view from the basecamp over to the volcano was stunning, we even saw two eruptions 🌋 The backdrop of the sunset and mighty clouds made it spectacular!
We settled into our tents and sorted out what we're going to need for the second part of the tour, the hike closer to the eruption area. Usually the Acatenango erupts about 3 times every hour so we were told that we would see lava just 300 metres away. But this turned out to be a lie, same as that the hike was pretty easy and not very challenging and that it takes 3 hours... When we started it already got dark and the "trail" was a messy, steep dirt way without any switchbacks and slippery. All people in the group fell several times and it was pretty dangerous. A girl had vomited and the group was extremely exhausted after returning to the basecamp after 4.5 hours at 22:30 with 600 metres of altitude more. We just grabbed a quick dinner and a hot chocolate before going into the tent. We both were physically and mentally absolutely exhausted and had been looking forward to the bed for hours... We had reached our goal to hike on a volcano ☺️Read more