Video: Acatenango and Fuego Volcano Trek
The Acatenango reaches up 3,976 meters, making it the third highest peak in Central America. On a clear day, you can see the summit framing the distance beyond the cobbled streets of La Antigua. However, we were more enticed to make the trek to the top in order to see the active Volcán de Fuego, whose peak is just a few kilometers away. Fuego regularly releases steam and ash into the sky. I dragged the drone up to the top and grabbed a few scenes which you can see below:
The Volcán de Fuego famously erupted in 1717 and along with strong earthquakes destroyed the Spanish colonial capital, Santiago de los Caballeros. The Spanish endured more seismic activity but later in 1773 abandoned the site and moved to what is now Guatemala City. Fuego more recently exploded on June 3, 2018 sending lava and ash down onto the villages below its southern end. We could see the scared earth from top of the trail.
Acatenango (left peak) and Volcán de Fuego in the distance from Antigua. Acatenango is the 3rd highest volcano in Central America.
Remains of a Spanish church left behind when Ciudad de Santiago de los Caballeros de Goathemalan (City of Saint James of the Knights of Guatemala) was moved from where Antigua is to where Guatemala City is now. Antigua is a UNESCO world heritage site and has about 35,000 people living in it today.
Acatenango is still a major volcano, although it has not erupted since 1972. Various guidebooks and travel blogs tell stories of how difficult it is to get to the top--but most people were saying that they made it. The altitude is an issue, although Antigua itself is already quite high at 1578 metres. We weren't sure how the kids would handle that. We decided to go on the overnight route which would give us more time to acclimate and more options in case we had to split up for the summit. This would mean camping at the basecamp.
I did a trawl on the internet for guides and found a great local company Aprode. Along with being expert in the area, Aprode members run community programs. After sending an email for info, I was quickly in contact with owner Elvin via WhatsApp. Elvin was very responsive and we sorted out the details for our adventure easily. He met us in Antigua and took us first to his home for wonderful breakfast and then to the trailhead along with our guide Juan Jose.
Fuego greeted us with an eruption that we could see from Elvin's APRODE home.
Ready to leave for the Volcano with our local APRODE guide Juan
Our main concern at the start was the likely rain storm that would hit in the afternoon. Ideally we would need to be at the basecamp by 14:00 to be able to get under shelter. The rough plan was that the hike should take us about five hours. We got onto the trail at 09:30, so we were cutting it tight against the weather. The night before it rained hard for about two hours and we didn't want to be exposed for something similar.
The trek to the top of Acatenango starts steep and with the altitude and weight of your pack, gets your heart pumping and head pounding. You hike through cornfields, jungle, forest and lava sand to make it to the summit at nearly 4,000 metes.
We were really happy to take a break at Stop 3!
Juan Jose gave us the briefing, explaining that there are six stopping points along the route to the basecamp. My Garmin watch marked the starting point at 2,164 meters. The first section the trail to Stop 1, was steep and in combination with the altitude and our backpacks immediately gave us the understanding that this was going to be a challenging day. I did also decide to take the dji mavic pro drone in my backpack which added quite a bit of weight (but check out the video that I think was worth the extra effort). Through the way up, we passed through first the corn fields that had been claimed from the jungle. Then as the trail moved more into the park protected area, we were in the jungle. The first 90 minutes were hard going for all of us.
The trail was consistently steep, but nothing treacherous. Just heart pumping.
After Stop 3 we were in the forest filled with ferns and pine trees. The pines slowly thinned out until we reached the basecamp at 3,521 meters. Above Basecamp the terrain is volcanic rock and sand.
We just made it to shelter before the downpour. It is rainy season here afterall.
It took us a total of 4 hours and 43 minutes to reach the Basecamp, which was 7.44km from the trailhead and 1,337 vertical climb. It was definitely a tough hike, but fortunately we made it just before the downpour. Aprode set us up in a very good tent and had added an extra plastic sheet over the fly to keep us dry. The rain was heavy, but stopped after about an hour. We huddled in the tent and rested our weary legs beneath the sound of the raindrops pelting our tent. It cleared-up quickly and we were then treated with a pretty large eruption from Fuego, 2.5km away, but which looked like it was right outside our tent. Fuego is attached to Acatenango by a saddle-ridge, that when out there on a day with better weather, you could get over to in about 90 minutes and stand almost below the Fuego. It would be an epic spot to watch the sunset.
Volcán de Fuego eruption - Vulcanian Eruption
Our tent at the Aprode Basecamp area. Aprode kept us dry and warm - and well-fed. Great local guides from nearby community. Agua volcano in the distance.
After the excitement of the eruption, we began to feel the cold area come down the volcano. We moved to the fire for warmth, however it was a smokey situation as the fire wood, although covered, was damp. The Fuego was soon covered with a thick shroud of cloud, despite our hopes for seeing more eruptions and possibly colourful pyrotechnics, and remained concealed until just before dawn the next morning. By 23:00 it was raining heavily again, but we were snuggled in inside the tent with a few extra sleeping bags over us.
04:05 pre-dawn overlooking Fuego from Basecamp.
On the way to the Acatenango Summit - almost 4,000 meters high. The last 300m were the hardest in the cold, dark and early hours.
Volcán de Agua and Antigua to the left
The plan was to get up at 3:50 and hit the trail to the Acatenango summit. Sunrise was to be at 05:48 and we would need 90 minutes to cover the last 1.6km with 350m vertical. We had no idea what we would encounter up there. It was getting cold at Basecamp at about 5 degrees centigrade. The top was almost certainly going to be below freezing and quite possibly raining and/or very windy. We put on our headlamps, hats, gloves and all the layers of clothing we each had. The terrain was very soft, like corn-snow, and the altitude and thin air made it had to make quick progress up. However, we are a determined team and we talked each other into moving forward in the darkness illuminated by our headlamps and an almost full moon.
When we made it to the top, the sun was just coming up through the clouds and flooding orange light across the sky. The Agua volcano was glowing in the light, the bottom of it covered in a skirt of fluffy clouds. It was very windy at the summit and bitterly cold. We could see the inside of the crater, where recently a group of six people died of hypothermia while staying overnight there. We stayed at the summit for 15 minutes until the clouds obscured the sun and it seemed to get even colder.
Sunrise from the top of Acatenango. Agua volcano silhoutted in the distance.
Freezing cold at the top
We now had almost 2,000 vertical meters to go down on the the trail covering almost 10km. It was certainly going to be easier than going up. The summit section which took us more than 90 minutes to go up, was easily covered in 20 minutes going down. The soft lava sand allowed you to take giant bounding steps and land softly forward. Some people were almost floating down. When we reached Basecamp the sky was clear and we had amazing views of the Fuego, Agua and out to the Pacific Ocean.
06:30 back at Basecamp looking over at Fuego and beyond to the Pacific Ocean.
panorama across the Basecamp view showing Agua on left and Fuego on right.
Even More photos from our Acatenango Hike below
Acatenango Hike Notes:
- About 10km trail hike to the summit from the trailhead. Basecamp is about 7.5km. If you have good weather, take a shot at the Fuego saddle-ridge off the side of Basecamp to get even closer. The guides can make it Basecamp in less than 2 hours, it took us almost 5 hours including a lunch break.
- Most of the trail is steep with the section from Stop 6 to Basecamp being flatter.
- It was very cold on the Summit with high winds. The temperature at the start was about 24 degree celsius, so a big difference. If you go on this trek, you need a lot of layers, hat, gloves and good hiking shoes.
- Everyone told us to bring a lot of water. It is heavy and we only drank about 1.5 litres each. Our guide and porter had brought up water for cooking dinner and breakfast.
- Be careful when choosing a tour operator, our friends at Aprode were great. Very good equipment. They rented us gloves, warmer jackets and better backpacks. They are all local people and use some of the proceeds from trips to support their local community.
- Intense video of the June 03 Fuego explosion is here: https://youtu.be/3N_HMWkY3J0 . They say that a lot more people must have perished than the official count. It happened really fast and the people were not warned effectively despite having notice 8 hours in advance.
