The Complete Guide to Hiking Acatenango Volcano (Near Antigua, Guatemala)
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Loading... - Omari Hussein
- 20 Apr 2023
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If you’re staying in the beautiful town of Antigua, Guatemala, you’ll definitely be enamored by the city’s centuries-old cobblestone streets, quaint restaurants with verdant courtyards, and smiling and gracious local people. However, turn your head to the sky and you’ll be in awe of the massive volcanoes that lie on the periphery of the city. There are four main volcanoes that can be seen from the city: Volcan de Agua, Volcan de Fuego, Volcan Pacaya and Volcan Acatenango. Out of these four, only one can be seen erupting regularly. In fact, Volcan de Fuego erupts nearly every 20 minutes, emitting a dark cloud of volcanic ash into the sky.
For whatever reason, the impulse of some of us humans (including myself) is to look at an actively erupting volcano and think, I’d like to get as close as possible to that. So, when I found out that you could hike up onto Volcan de Fuego and get a front-row seat for those massive eruptions, I was delighted. However, in order to get to Volcan de Fuego, you first need to hike to a base camp near the summit of Volcan Acatenango. This is one of the most popular hiking tours in Antigua (for good reason) and there are a ton of tour companies that will take you to Acatenango and then over to Fuego.
According to a few of the other foreigners I talked to, it’s actually illegal to hike onto Volcan de Fuego. However, in the case of our tour company, they were willing to take us outside the confines of the law for the affordable price of an additional $25 per person. In my opinion, that was a small price to pay for the once-in-a-lifetime experience to see lava exploding out of a volcano up close. If you’re in Antigua, I’d highly recommend you make this trek. But, there are some things you should know before you hand your money over to a tour company. Read More…
