Sleeping at 3600m above sea level.

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So have had a busy week since my last update! My Spanish appears to be coming along well and teaching the kids last week was good. Even managed to make the older kids sit a test and not cause too much trouble whilst doing so!

Other than the usual Antigua stuff this weekend I hiked Volcan Acatenango which is next to Volcan de Fuego, a very active volcano! Started the hike Sunday morning aiming to get to base camp, at an altitude of 3600m above sea level, for around 3ish. We were quite worried as the weather was awful to say the least with visibility down to at most 30m. Not good visibility when you are planning to view a volcano 2km away. Anyways the hike started through hillside farmland with very steep gravel path, horrendus to climb! I won't lie, I struggled big time on this bit even with the walking sticks the locals had provided us. A case of 1 step forward and then sliding back about 5. From here we hiked into a sort of rainforest which again was tough but nothing like the first part. We stopped for lunch here of awesome veggie sandwiches and Guatemalan apple juice. At this point we were starting to really worry as the visibility was getting worse as the day went on. Either way we had started now and still had a ways to go. From here we hiked (and fell over a few times) for another 2 hours or so and then...the clouds started to clear! We could see Volcan de Agua in the distance and knew that if the weather was to stay this way or get better we'd have front row seats for Fuego. After many more water breaks we made it to base camp. The view was just incredible. The clouds had practically disappeared and we had a perfect view of the volcano and even all the way to Guatemala City, some 60km+ away!

Once we set up camp our local guides minus one made their way back down, crazy if you ask me to hike all the way up this pain of a hike to just go straight back! Within 10 minutes Furgo let out a loud rumble and spewed a whole load of ash into the air which was great!

Time to get some firewood and get camp built before dark. Sixto, our local guide, scaled some tree and went mad with his machete and got us a shit tonne of firewood for the night. From here to sun began to set and was absolutely stunning...not to mention Fuego erupting every 30 minutes or so!

After sunset we had dinner and I went for an early night as I was exhausted. In the middle of a dream I could hear this loud rumble which woke me. Looked out the tent and it was the biggest eruption yet with lava and everything coming out the top (sadly there was not enough light to get any photos of this 😞((((). So back to sleep and not even 20 minutes later even louder rumble and even more lava and rocks flying out the top. Beautiful is all I can say about it.

So Willy from the tour company woke us up at 4.30am to hike to the summit. Sadly on my part I had inhaled way too much smoke from the fire the night before and asthma would not let me walk more than 10m without needing a break. Not wanting to hold everyone up so they could make sunrise I decided I'd head back to camp and watch sunrise from there, after all the view from base camp was bloody incredible as is! So looking at the stars and out east the sun slowly rose with Fuego stirring a few times also. Before long it was daylight and a beautiful clear day. After freezing for most of yesterday I was able to actually wear just a tshirt and jeans for the hike down

Packed up camp and had breakfast and made our way back down via a different trail that only the locals use so quite overgrown. About half way into our descent we found a vine that we all wanted to swing on. It seemed to hold everyones weight, until my go of course! Despite being lighter than all the other men on the tour I swang out once, missed the landing, so swang back out and then SNAP...on the ground banging my head on logs. It was pretty hollow so all good! We walked a few more minutes and theres a much higher one to swing. Despite falling I'm doing it and I swing out over about a 6-7m drop. Much fun (I am doing good at facing my fear of heights on this trip).

An hour or so later we're back at the van very dirty and very tired. All in all an awesome weekend.

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Photos

Volcan de Fuego
Fuego from base camp.

Fuego Erupting at Dawn
Nice wake up call.

The Vine That Didn't Break
This vine held out at least!

Fuego Erupting
And it erupts!

Fuego at Sunset
Bit smokey from the fire

Sunrise
Sun rising.

Poor Visibility!
This was on the way up.

Comments

[Gen]

So jealous!
This was interesting to read :) Seems like you're enjoying yourself, anyway. A bit scary about the steep gravel path though - I've been on walks like that before. Being able to hear and see Fuego erupting sounds really spectacular! Stay safe.