I Hiked Up Six Volcanos In Guatemala

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Looking out over the lights of Xela during our night time hike up Santa Maria Volcano — Me, the author, halfway through a Guatemala volcano hike in the middle of the night

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Agreeing to climb a Guatemalan volcano in the middle of the night with strangers I’d found on the internet terrified me. But by sunrise it had become the start of a much bigger adventure across Guatemala’s dramatic landscapes.

The pair of ragged mongrels charged across the dusty parking lot, yapping at our feet and spinning ecstatic circles in the puddles of light from our head torches.

“Perfecto!” said the random man from the internet. “Here are our guides. They always turn up when we hike this volcano. So don’t worry, if you get lost in the dark, the dogs will show you the way.”

Climbing one of Guatemala’s toughest volcanos in the blackest depths of night, with a group of strangers from Facebook, had not been my plan when I arrived just three days earlier.

Sure, the country’s undulating landscapes and high-altitude hiking trails were two of Guatemala’s highlights that had sparked my wanderlust, but I’d hoped to settle in and acclimatise before attempting to conquer any of its peaks.

But when a woman I’d found online invited me to join her obscenely early one morning to scale Santa Maria, Guatemala’s fourth highest volcano, in time for sunrise, how could I say no?

Never mind that I didn’t know her from Adam or that the guidebooks say it’s dangerous to hike in the dark. It was an opportunity to explore and so, terrified, I agreed.

Volcan Fuego, the most famous volcano in Guatemala — Volcan Fuego, one of the most famous volcanos in Guatemala

Land of fire and brimstone

Guatemala may be relatively small, but it’s home to one of the highest concentrations of volcanos in the world.

The country sits on the Central American Volcanic Arc: a 1,100 km-long active subduction zone that runs down the spine of the continent and gives the region a turbulent landscape of soaring triangular peaks.

The tallest volcano in Guatemala is Tajumulco, which at 4,200 m is the highest point in Central America. But the country also boasts about 35 others, four of them active, making it an inspiring destination for anyone looking for adventure.

The lure of adventure

As a photographer and fairly average hiker, I find volcanoes irresistible.

Not only do you get a blood-pumping climb with guaranteed epic views, but the trails are usually steep and short, meaning you can bag a challenging summit and still be back in time for dinner.

Best of all are the active ones, with smoking fumaroles and oozing streams of incandescent lava, where you get to peer into the Earth’s beating heart, see the lifeblood pumping within her veins, and come home dazzled by nature’s unstoppable power.

Also me, at the top of Nyiragongo volcano in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Hike a Guatemalan volcano at night? Are you mad?!

And so it was that I headed to the city of Quetzaltenango, in Guatemala’s western highlands, to begin my volcano pilgrimage. First up, that midnight trek up the 3,772-metre Volcán Santa María. Having just arrived from completely flat, sea-level London, I felt ill-prepared.

“It takes about four hours to reach the top. We’ll stop for a break in one hour,” said the random man from the internet, who turned out to be Rony Turnil, a 39-year-old hardware store manager from Quetzaltenango (known locally as Xela).

In his spare time Rony’s a hiking junkie; he’s scaled Santa María over 100 times and regularly leads excursions, not for money, but simply for the joy of walking.

Santa María’s last eruption, in 1902, lasted 19 days and was one of the most violent of the 20^th century. 120 years later it’s a sleeping giant, its lava-crusted flanks now forested with pines and its steep pathways crisscrossed by giant basalt boulders and rambling tree roots.

Rony and his friends set a snappy pace and soon disappeared into the blackness, leaving me and one other woman straggling behind.

Sunrise at Volcan Santa Maria in Xela Guatemala — Hiking up a Guatemala volcano in the dark is not for the faint hearted or weak-kneed!

But we kept plodding steadily upward by the light of our headlamps, the only sounds the crunching of our feet on the dusty path and the dull pounding of my pulse in my ears.

When the trail divided we took the route that looked easier, and whenever we were in doubt, there were the reassuring eyes of one of our canine guides gleaming in the torchlight, just as Rony had predicted.

And gradually the carbon black of the sky gave way to ballpoint indigo, and then shades of rose and amber, and we reached the summit just fifteen minutes before the new day curled its gilded fingertips over the horizon.

As the morning warmed, I stood triumphantly on top of my first Guatemalan volcano and admired the jagged evidence of the country’s explosive past spread out below us. To the east, ‘Volcano Alley’, a chain of eight peaks stretching for 50 miles towards the city of Antigua.

To the south, the lights of Quetzaltenango, overlooked by volcanos Almolonga and Siete Orejas. And just below us to the west: the smoking cone of Santiaguito, the offspring of Santa María’s last eruption, which has been constantly churning since 1922.

Me at the top of the volcano Santa Maria at sunrise - it was worth it! — At the top of the volcano Santa Maria at sunrise – it was worth it!

The smouldering sisters of Antigua Guatemala

With one Guatemalan volcano in the bag and now acclimatised to the altitude, it wasn’t long before I headed to the colonial city of Antigua for my next two: the twin peaks of Acatenango and Fuego.

Volcán de Fuego, whose name aptly means ‘volcano of fire’, is one of the world’s most active, spurting out red-hot lava bombs and ash about every 15-30 minutes.

For me it was the ultimate goal: the chance not only to witness the incomprehensible power of an erupting volcano, but to photograph it.

To see Fuego’s five-star fireworks display, you need to hike up its next-door neighbour, Acatenango, where several tour companies have campsites offering front-row seats to the action.

You can curl up by the campfire and watch all night, or if you’re craving more adventure, you can hike for another two hours up Fuego itself, to watch the drama unfold from a nail-biting viewpoint just 500 metres from the exploding crater.

But frustratingly, when we reached basecamp after a four-hour uphill slog, the view was completely obscured by a blanket of white.

“We have to wait,” our guide, César, told us. “If it doesn’t clear, it won’t be safe to go to Fuego.”

After several hours the clouds dispersed, revealing the star attraction directly opposite us, dozing quietly for now. I was torn. Part of me wanted to wait in camp for the show to restart, but I was also afraid of missing out on an even better view.

Me, the writer, looking towards Fuego Volcano in Guatemala — Volcan Fuego is one of the world’s most active volcanoes – and it’s in Guatemala

In the end FOMO won and I went: slip-sliding down the precarious trail as the sun began to set, before struggling up the side of Fuego as the last flecks of daylight drained from the sky and – devastatingly – the clouds returned.

The final ascent to the viewpoint was terrifying: traversing a narrow ridge by torchlight, trying not to lose the ghostly figure of the person in front as they were swallowed by the fog.

Tired, hungry, and sandblasted by a bitter wind, we hunkered down and prayed to the volcano gods for the sky to clear and the sleeping beast to awaken.

But they weren’t feeling generous, and after 45 minutes of fruitless waiting, we gave up and struggled back to camp – where a very welcome dinner of hot vegetarian chilli was waiting for us.

And by now the curtain had finally risen, and the diva was warming up for the Oscar-winning performance we’d been promised.

A dozen times, Fuego launched blazing projectiles into the night sky with a thunderous rumble, while I, wrapped in a blanket and battling ice-block fingers, stayed up late into the night to shoot image after image of this breathtaking display of firepower. The cold and exhaustion just made the experience more intense.

Incredible eruptions from Fuego - one of the Guatemalan volcanoes — Incredible eruptions from Fuego – one of the Guatemalan volcanoes

Barbecue with a difference at Volcan Pacaya

I decided to stay in Antigua a little longer for my fourth peak.

Pacaya is Guatemala’s most popular volcano. Walkable in under an hour, it’s the easiest way to get close to an active volcano.

For over 15 years Pacaya erupted constantly, an open wound oozing streams of sticky lava slowly over the landscape. But a couple of years ago the activity stopped, and now the gash has healed over in a crusty scab of iron-red and sulphur-yellow.

“Don’t be fooled by its calm appearance,” said our guide, Ruby Santamaría. “Below the surface Pacaya is still active and could erupt at any time, which is why it’s illegal to climb up to the crater. Some people still go, of course, at night when they won’t get caught. Idiots.”

We edged round steaming vents, and Ruby showed us how we could toast marshmallows on the rocks, the blistered pink sugar tasting all the sweeter for having been burnt by the heat of the Earth.

There’s even a guy who’s built an underground pizza oven – but reservations for volcano-toasted pizza book up fast so I didn’t get to find out if it was any good.

My third and easiest Guatemala volcano hike: Pacaya near Antigua

Into the clouds at Lake Atitlan

45 miles west of Antigua, three volcanoes rise over the shores of Lake Atitlán, creating a vista so impossibly picturesque it’s ‘too much of a good thing’, according to the writer Aldous Huxley.

The lake itself sits in a volcanic crater, created by a monstrous eruption about 85,000 years ago; today the peaks of Atitlán (3,537 m), Tolimán (3,158 m) and San Pedro (3,020 m), forge a majestic frame around the still waters.

I headed for the most popular, San Pedro, which offers a strenuous 4-hour hike up to a cliff-edge with spectacular lake views.

There are frequent warnings of robberies on the jungle trail, so I joined a group led by Nicolas González, a weather-beaten Guatemalan with several missing teeth and a sardonic roll in his eye.

With his no-nonsense encouragement we comfortably smashed out the 1200m of elevation gain, but again we were foiled by the rainy season, and by the time we reached the summit it was already enveloped in thick cloud that turned the trees into eerie shapes and whited out the view.

A sign points the way to the top of San Pedro volcano in Guatemala

The sacred volcano of the Gods

Finally, a month after I’d first arrived, I headed back to my starting point, Quetzaltenango. I still had the big one to tick off my list: Tajumulco, the highest peak in Central America.

I messaged Rony, my guide from Santa María, to ask if he’d take me.

“It’s too dangerous,” he responded. “There are bandits on the mountain, and no one is going.” Tajumulco is close to the border with Mexico, and there were reports that fighting had broken out between local militia and Mexican gang members who were hiding out in the area.

I even heard a rumour that a group of hikers had been trapped up there for an entire week before they could escape.

So Tajumulco was a no. Instead, Rony took me for a very different Guatemalan volcano experience, not a boiling cauldron of fire and brimstone, but a sacred space where for centuries Maya people have come to talk to their Gods: Cerro Quemado.

My lovely hiking guide Rony - who I randomly found on Facebook — My lovely hiking guide Rony – who guided me up several volcanos in Guatemala

Cerro Quemado (‘burnt hill’), is a plateau on the extinct volcano Almolonga, which looms over the city of Quetzaltenango.

Maya people consider it one of the holiest places in Guatemala and worshippers come from across the country to hike up and leave offerings or request blessings from the divine powers.

It was Sunday, and we followed a steady stream of visitors in their church best – freshly-pressed outfits and polished shoes – as they scrambled over the blocks of ancient lava to reach the sacred area.

‘Jesus lives!’ declared graffiti on one boulder, while on another, ‘Thank you, Juanito Noj, for what you have given us.” A prayer to the Maya spirit said to live in the volcano.

All faiths are here: Indigenous Maya worship side by side with Catholics and Evangelical Protestants; a Jewish flag and Star of David stand at the top of the volcano.

Worshippers on Cerro Quemado in Guatemala

Religion in Guatemala is a hybrid of many beliefs and practices, ancient and modern, and all of them have a place on this sacred mountain.

“Everyone’s here to pray for different things,” said Juanita Salvador, who sat on a rock clutching a Bible, a bottle of holy oil, and a notebook. “Some people pray for a loved one, for health, or a way out of debt. Some are here to show gratitude for their blessings.”

I asked Juanita what she was praying for and she told me she represented members of her congregation who couldn’t make the pilgrimage themselves. Her notebook was packed with their requests like a postal service to God.

It was a very different volcano experience, a moment not of awe and wonder, but of introspection. Surrounded by Guatemalans at their most vulnerable, some grieving, some hopeful, I realised that volcanos can move people in many different ways.

Sometimes you can stand at the summit and feel invincible; sometimes, you just feel humble.

Juanita, who I met on the Guatemala volcano Cerro Quemado

How to climb Guatemala’s volcanos

Santa María

Santa María can be reached from Quetzaltenango. Monte Verde Tours offers hikes leaving at 5 am and returning around 2 pm, or take a taxi or bus to Llano de Pinal and follow the trail.

Acatenango and Fuego

Dozens of companies offer 2-day hikes to Acatenango and Fuego, departing from Antigua and spending a night on the volcano. Tours meet around 7 am and return by midday the next day.

Pacaya

Pacaya is easy to do alone; simply take a taxi to the park entrance and follow the path. Alternatively, Pacaya tours from Antigua run twice daily, at 6 am and 2 pm, and last about four hours.

The writer, photographed the next morning at the top of Santa Maria volcano in Guatemala — At the top of Santa Maria volcano in Guatemala

San Pedro

Due to reports of robberies it’s best to go with a guide; group hikes up San Pedro leave from San Pedro La Laguna around 7 am and return by lunchtime.

Cerro Quemado

Take a taxi from Quetzaltenango to the town of Canton Chicua, and then follow the streams of people heading up the volcano. It takes about an hour to hike up, and the busiest day to go is Sunday.

This article was first published in The Great Outdoors Magazine.

I Hiked Up Six Volcanos In Guatemala - Here's What Happened

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I Hiked Up Six Volcanos In Guatemala – Here’s What Happened