if you wanna

if you wanna hike the acatenango volcano in guatemala erupting up close, this is everything you need to know. this excursion starts in antigua, where there is no shortage of guides offering daily tours to complete of the hike. on the day of the hike, you'll pack all of your gear, get organized as a group and take about an hour long bus ride to the start of the trail on the volcano. from there it's of steep hiking for the next 12 hours. this hike has a fitting reputation for being extremely difficult, but the guides do a great job controlling the pace and taking plenty of breaks. in my opinion, the hike can be broken down into four different parts. the first is to climb up to base camp. this is where overnight serves as the final destination for anyone who doesn't want to complete the next two sections, the additional hike to and from fuego where you get eruptions up close. personally, i found this to be the most difficult part of the entire excursion and i was both shocked and impressed by all the people i saw completing it. after a couple of hours we finally reached the fuego viewing area. grateful for every extra layer you packed between the sunset, elevation and wind. it gets extremely cold up here. the incredible thing is that fuego is almost constantly erupting. so if you have a clear view and spend around 40 minutes there, you're almost guaranteed to see multiple eruptions. after that, you'll hike for a couple more hours in the dark back to base camp where you'll enjoy views of the volcano erupting all throughout the night. the next morning is another optional hike, waking up at and climbing about an hour to the summit of acatenango for sunrise. a lot of people chose to sleep through this, but you're only once, the sunrise views are absolutely spectacular, so i definitely recommend doing it. after a half top, you'll return back to base camp, have breakfast, and then begin the final descent down the mountain with a few breaks along the way until you're back where you started.