Hiking Volcano Acatenango

The group triumphantly at the top in the middle of the crater

I hiked a second Volcano in Guatemala! It was hard! A group of PCVs and I arranged the trip through O.X. Tours (located in Antigua). Volcán Acatenango is only about an hours drive away from the center of Antigua. The whole trip too 12 hours. We left at 5am, got to the trail-head at 6am, started hiking and with only minimal breaks arrived at the summit at 11:30am. We had lunch in the crater at 13,000ft, left at 1pm, got back to the vans at 4pm, and were back in the hostel in Antigua exhausted and covered in dirt by 5pm. I was asleep as soon as I rehydrated, took a much needed shower, and had a good dinner.

In the hike we ascended 6,000ft over roughly four miles through four different temperate zones (high farmland, cloud forest, high-alpine forest, and volcanic) and returned the same way. The tour company had warned us that the climb is steep and to prepare ourselves mentally for a very physically demanding hike (especially the part they affectionately call purgatory which is the last bit before arriving at the top).

It was really cloudy by the time we got up there, but there was still a great view of Volcán de Fuego (Volcano of Fire) that seemed surprisingly close by. Fuego is an active Volcano and while we were there coughed up huge plumes of smoke. The last time Acatenango erupted was in 1972.

Some of my crazy friends completed the O.X. challenge
they ran around the perimeter of the crater

I like being able to look down upon the clouds

I almost felt like the walk down was harder. Although it probably had something to do with the fact that by that
point we had already hiked 5 hours up 5,000ft

I would never do it again, but I'm glad that I did it.