We arrived in Guatemala and headed to the old colonial city of Antigua, full of hostels and churches. I managed to try all sorts of foods from the local pepián (chicken broth) to a shepherds pie, and have a wander under the famous arch to the ornately decorated church of La Merced (photo below). However, the biggest attraction of this pretty town was its location in amongst a host of volcanoes, a scenery we admired each morning from the hostel rooftop. It was our plan to climb one.
We started off at 7am, gathering our gear and beginning our trek up the (dormant) Acetanango Volcano. We maintained a good position at the front of group, along with some other students from Scotland and Northern Ireland (representing all Celtic Britain!) The trek was steep and took five hours in total, but regular breaks spurred us on and we even bumped into a friend from Surfside Cafe back home. The trail flattened out for a while after lunch, which allowed us to catch our breath before the final climb to Base Camp. The air was noticeably thinner at this altitude but we all arrived very chuffed with ourselves, as you can see in the photo!
Base Camp centred around a fire for the evening, as we toasted marshmallows and watched the neighbouring Fuego Volcano erupting all night long. During the daylight we could only see the smoke appearing from its summit, but we had a gorgeous blue and purple layered sunset and then by night we watched as lava spurted out and ran down its sides. The distance meant that we always saw the eruption before hearing the rumble and roar of the lava, and even from this far away it was incredibly impressive. The eruption continued all through the night, with some particularly huge ones happening in the early hours of the morning.
As the main photo suggests, the sunrise was absolutely cracking! We left at 4am to scramble to the summit at 3,976m over ash and rocks. The altitude meant it was absolutely freezing but all the exercise meant we were also boiling – it grew increasingly difficult to regulate body temperature. When we arrived at the summit of Acetanango, the clouds cleared and we had a spectacular view of the sky as the sun made its appearance. Needless to say that the trek down was nowhere near as difficult as going up but we left as two very tired and awestruck humans!
holahola2019 