Climbing Acatenango

Acatenango - Strato Vulcano - Antigua - Amazing view on Fuego

During this quarantaine I am sitting at home, thinking back of all the adventures I had the last couple of years. I have visited many countries and writing about my experiences brings me joy, especially when I can share it with other people. Today I found this website travelfeed.io and I think this could be a match made in heaven. I can not wait to read all the travel stories of everybody to get inspired for my future trips. Hopefully I can also inspire you:)

One year ago, in January 2019 I was traveling in Guatemala. This country was not well known to me, but I was surprised by the beauty and the variety of it´s nature. In my first blog I want to share my experiences of climbing to the top of the Acatenango vulcano (3976 m). This vulcano is great to climb and you can reach the top in a few hours. I booked my trip to the vulcano in Antigua and the costs were 75 dollars. This included transport, an overnight stay at the vulcano + lunch, diner and breakfast. I really recommend you to stay a night at the vulcano, because of the view you have on the Fuego vulcano. This vulcano is very active and will erupt multiple times, especially at night you will have a wonderful show you will never forget.

In the morning we met at the meeting point, where we received a briefing about the tour. We also had time to find ourselves some good warm clothes, which you really need during the climb. It can be very cold at the top. After we packed our bags we drove to the starting point of the climb, which is at 2500 meters high. This means you only have to climb 1500 meters, but this is still very tough. For the climb we got divided in 3 groups; the fast, medium and slow groups.

After a few hours of climbing we reached basecamp at 3750 meters. Here we had some time to relax, before reaching out to the top. We left on time to see the sunset. The last part of the ascent was the toughest part. After less then one hour we finally reached the top. And wow.... The views were breathtaking.

After the sunset we descended again to basecamp, where we had a breakfast with the view on the Acatenango vulcano. This vulcano was erupting multiple times. This continued during the night. The whole night it sounded like thunder was striking.

The next morning I woke up exhausted, and we still had to descend. Fortunately it was a lot easier to go down. Satisfied we got dropped off at the meeting point again. I went back to my hostel, sat down on a sofa and didn´t move my legs for the rest of the day.

Some more photos of the views

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