This was my first international hike. I mean, I’d done hikes in Canada before, but that doesn’t really count. I’d seen tons of videos of people hiking a volcano on Instagram, thought ‘easy, I could do that’, asked around to see who’d wanna go with me, and soon found myslf gasping for air in the middle of an organized hiking group en route to Volcán de Fuego.
A shuttle bus came to pick us up from Antigua at 7am. They made their way through several designated pickup spots and grabbed all the hikers to head to their facility. Immediately, Justin and I started mingling with the people at our stop. Then, we met everyone for breakfast and geared up for the hike. The whole environment was super social and fun! You got to meet cool people from different parts of the world, all gathered to hike the volcano together, that day. I immediately met people from PA, NJ, Seattle, Canada, all the places I’d once called “home”. During the next 24 hours, I got to meet all these insane people with cool stories and made some friends who we hung out with for the entire rest of our trip. There was a dude from Albuquerque who worked for Red Bull and coordinated all of their cool events in the area. There was a consultant from NYC. There were these two mid-40s avid hiker dudes from New England who brought tequila shooters with them to enjoy at the top. Summit tequila, as they called it. There was an HIV/AIDS researcher from Toronto. Regardless of the person, everyone had cool stories.
When I think about what I want out of life, it’s that. Great company, great stories to tell. The ability to say that I accomplished great feats, like summiting a volcano and watching an eruption up close from 12,000 ft above sea level.
Anyway, after breakfast, we hopped in a large van and drove 5min to the trailhead. At the base, there were many different tour companies all congregating in the same clearing, awaiting their returning hiking group that stayed at basecamp the night before, and sending off their next crew to hike up. This was a super busy, chaotic area.
Once we started the hike, things got way calmer. The hike started out through the woods in this bamboo farmland area, and then started its infamous steep ascent to the top. All the cool people I hung out with were in the front of our hiking group with Justin and I! That’s how we got to know each other. On our hike that day, there was a “leading” front group of people, a “middle-of-the-pack” group, and a “take-your-merry-time” group at the very back, each with their own hike guide to ensure everybody was okay. If you were unfit for the hike and walking too slow, they kicked you off the group and you’d have to head down to base. Over the course of this hike, I experienced each pack. Going up, I was toward the front, chatting with others who’d all done insane hikes stateside… think Angel’s Landing, Half Dome, Grand Canyon rim-to-rim, and mingling. When we were returning from Fuego later that evening, I was toward the back, all exhausted and almost out of water. On the descent back to the trailhead, I was toward the middle!
Eventually, we got to a decent stopping point, which also had a food stand? How did they bring the food up there? No idea. We bought Gatorades. They also had beer. The tour guides joked that if the conditions weren’t right to see Fuego’s eruptions, drinking enough beer would help us picture it. From there, it was a gradual ascent up to basecamp.
This is the point where your choice of tour group really matters. The one we chose, V-Hiking tours, was a middle tier group. The basecamp was cozy but no-frills. The food was awesome. The best part was their timing of the hike. When we got to basecamp, it was too cloudy to see anything. We didn’t see the glamorous views of Fuego erupting that we’d seen on social media. While we were all dispirited, the tour guides gave us our lunches, assigned our rooms, and informed us the conditions aren’t right for Fuego but that they’d re-evaluate in a while and let us know.
We ate our food, socialized, retreated to our tents, and also played with the pups. The tour guides had dogs that followed us all throughout the hike. They were super cute.
After a couple hours, I was hanging out in this circle with a bunch of others I’d mingled with on the hike up, just shooting the shit. It was at this point that one of the guides came over and announced that we’d be able to hike to Fuego! We looked behind him and realized we could see Fuego now. It’s crazy how quick the weather can change near mountains (honestly the same is true of hikes around Mt. Rainier).
The basecamp sits on Acatenango, a nearby mountain, but the star of the show is Volcán de Fuego, which is visible from basecamp. The hike there, though, involves a steep descent down and then a strenuous climb back up. If there was one part of the hike that I truly detested, where I truly wished I was doing anything else, it was this. I was questioning my life choices at multiple points during this hike.
Towards the end, we got to this part of the mountain that had steep dropoffs on either side. As fate would have it, this is right when the sun completely set as well! We had zero visibility in every direction and had to rely on our headlamps, and the hike guides were also signaling us to go towards the slope? The steep descent down? I was scared. This is when I almost tapped out. Turns out they wanted us to just huddle down there, protected from the wind, while they dealt with a medical emergency towards the rear of our group, but my Spanish was nowhere close to parsing any of that. I was scared, I was telling Justin I wanted to tap out, Justin was trying to calm me down, I couldn’t see anything, couldn’t see the volcano, everyone was super confused, it was really chaotic. I wished I was anywhere but here.
Then suddenly I heard a ton of commotion and people yelling behind me. I turn around. I see this… up close.
Don’t let people fool you. Being up there is scary. You’re so high up. The towns you stayed in before, Antigua, the other place with the hike company’s base, yeah those towns are all illuminated off in the distance. The lights from those towns look like specks of sand on the ground. There’s fierce winds blowing in your direction… kinda feels like you’re in a wind tunnel even. The clothes you chose to wear to repel sweat and keep things breathable, they don’t work in the wind at all. So you’re freezing your a** off unless you came prepared with layers. There’s lots of people, different tour groups, all occupying a small flat area on the mountain, taking pictures and watching the eruptions. My phone died on the way up there. So it’s chaotic.
But man was it worth it. You’re right up there with the volcano. You can see the volcano erupt in glory every 10min or so and spew molten rock that slides its way down the face of the volcano. It’s majestic. And you’re enjoying it with the bestest of company, all these incredible folks you met just hours ago over a shared passion. It’s truly a surreal experience. It almost feels like man wasn’t made to be up there. Oh and you can see fireworks going off in those small towns in the distance. They look miniscule, too. You are 12,000 ft above sea level, after all.
After taking our fair share of pictures, we sat down and watched the eruptions for another hour or so, before our tour guides instructed us to head back to basecamp. The retreat back to basecamp was swift; everyone was tired and hungry. There was food (and wine!) waiting for us back at our campsite.
Everyone hiked down as fast as possible and made the ascent back up to basecamp, which was grueling. This is when I was toward the rear of our group, taking as many breaks as possible, just trying my best to stay together and make it back. The view of the lights at basecamp getting closer and closer as we hiked up there helped as well.
Once we got back, things felt so peaceful. We all came there to conquer this hike, now we’re done. It’s dark, lights are down, the food and wine are flowing, everyone’s just socializing and processing the gravity of what we’ve all accomplished. My new friends and I huddled around, had our tomato pasta with chicken and wine, chatted for a bit, fed our leftovers to the pups, and retreated to our respective tents to sleep.
We got back from the Fuego hike around 10pm. There was also an optional hike up to the summit of Acatenango in the morning, which would require you to wake up at 4:30am and quickly prepare for this strenuous hike. We’d heard that most people do the Fuego hike and sleep in the next morning. Out of our 30-person hiking group, only 4 did the Acatenango hike the next morning. Apparently it was steep. One part was so steep that you had to run down? I have no clue.
I woke up around 5 in my comfy sleeping bag to sounds of Fuego erupting in the distance and ruffles of fellow hikers waking up as well. This was the most peaceful, calming sunrise I’ve ever witnessed. On one side, you see Fuego erupting and spewing its hot, molten rock down its slopes. On the other side sits Volcán de Pacaya, equally majestic and calm. Everyone’s slowly waking up for the day and brushing their teeth, assessing the extent of their lower body pain, taking in the scenery, taking pictures. It felt really calming to be there.
Someone in our group had a drone and started filming the scenery around us. We huddled around his display for a while to see the views from a bird’s eye view.
Once the folks summiting Acatenango returned, the tour guides made us coffee and brought out cookies and banana bread! We all hung out, enjoyed our food, took in the breathtaking views. There’s something really calming about these majestic volcanos in the morning fog. We could even see people hiking Fuego in the morning. Different tour groups do the hikes at different times, I guess.
The descent back down to the trailhead was mellow. We took our time going down. Some of our new friends were also joining Justin and I to our onward destination (Lake Atitlán), while others were leaving us. It was bittersweet. The hike down offered equally breathtaking views of the mountains and countryside around us.
When we all got down to the trailhead, the tour group organized a goodbye breakfast for us as well! That was it… we then packed up our stuff and went our separate ways. Overall a 11 out of 10 hike.
