Santa Maria Volcano In Guatemala: How To Hike This Epic Peak

This is the story of my sunrise climb up the Santa Maria Volcano near Xela in Guatemala. If you’re looking for practical information about how to do the Santa Maria volcano hike, skip to the FAQs at the bottom.

The night before I climb Volcan Santa Maria, my sleep is wracked by a terrifying dream.

I dream I’m in a meeting hall, with a parquet floor and trestle tables round the walls. I’m going round the room, frantically asking people if they can help me think of an excuse to get out of doing the volcano hike, but no one can help me.

Then, a huge hurricane blows up. Pounding wind and hail smashes all the windows and rages through the hall, and I and a few others are forced to shelter under a table. Everyone is terrified, but mostly I’m relieved that I don’t have to climb the volcano anymore.

And then my alarm wakes me, and it’s 1 am, and shit just got real. I’m about to go and climb one of Guatemala’s most difficult volcanoes in the middle of the night.

Discovering the Quetzaltenango volcano

I had not planned to hike up Volcan Santa Maria when I arrived in Quetzaltenango (locally nicknamed Xela) just three days previously. I was there to volunteer and study Spanish, and while I fully intended to use my time off explore the various attractions Xela has to offer – which include several volcano hikes – I hadn’t got as far as planning what, or when, or how.

I certainly wasn’t fully acclimatised to Xela’s 2330 m (7640 ft) elevation, nor was I mentally prepared to take on something as challenging as a midnight volcano hike so soon after my arrival in the country.

But I was alone in a strange city and a weekend stretched out wide ahead of me, so I looked around for tours that might offer me both the chance to explore my surroundings and a way to meet fellow travellers.  

Weekend tours from Xela

There were a several options: a trip to the largest waterpark in Central America organised by my Spanish school, an excursion to visit local villages and hot springs, a day trip to see a famous yellow church, or even a two-day hike up Central America’s tallest volcano, with camping overnight at the top.

I certainly didn’t feel prepared for the latter, so I booked the hot springs tour and packed my bikini, ready for a relaxing soak.

But then I got a text from a girl I had exchanged a few messages with on a local Facebook group, telling me that she was going to hike Santa Maria Volcano in the middle of the night with a guy she had just met that morning, and did I want to come?

Read more: The Complete Guide To Xela Guatemala: Things To See And Do

It seemed bonkers. Climbing a volcano in a strange country with a bunch of randoms off the internet. At two o’clock in the morning. I’d have to be insane to agree!

But travel is about taking risks and opening yourself up to new experiences. And I’m trying to face my fears and say yes to more things. So I spoke to Kylie, my new Facebook friend, on the phone, and then I talked to the guide, Rony, and they both sounded like decent, sensible people, and so I took a deep breath and said ‘Oh f*ck it!’ and agreed.

The fear of the Santa Maria volcano

I’ve climbed volcanoes and done scary challenges before, so it’s not like I’m inexperienced. The highlight was Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of Congo, home to a spectacular lava lake. And there was Kilimanjaro, a very long and challenging 8-day hike up to the highest point in Africa. I’ve even jumped out of a plane!

But the most memorable was the utterly petrifying Ol Doinyo Lengai in Tanzania, a volcano hike so steep and slippery that after I finally made it back down in one exhausted piece, I swore I’d never climb another volcano ever again.

So when I googled the 3,772-metre Volcan Santa Maria and found online reviews that described it as “one of the hardest volcanoes to climb in Guatemala” and told me that “climbing the volcano is extremely difficult not only due to the altitude but also the steepness of the terrain,” I began to panic.

What had I just signed up to? Was I in for another near-death experience? Why, oh God WHY, had I not just stuck with the nice safe day trip?

Surely it would be better to wait until I’ve acclimatised, and do the hike another time, with a reliable tour group, and a later departure so I won’t have to do it in the middle of the night? Is sunrise all that important anyway?!

Was it too late to back out? Could I call up the now-cancelled hot springs tour company and rebook?

I nearly did, you know. It was only the fear of missing a great experience and embarrassing myself in front of my potential new friends that stopped me. FOMO is a powerful thing.

And so I tried to ignore the gnawing anxiety, repacked my backpack with water, snacks, and a heavy coat I’d borrowed at the eleventh hour from the administrator at my Spanish school, and went to bed at 9 pm.

Not that sleep was particularly forthcoming.

Getting to Volcan Santa Maria Xela

There are 37 volcanoes in Guatemala, four of them active. The highest is Tajmulco, which at 4,200 m (13,780 ft) is also the tallest peak in Central America.

Santa Maria is only the fourth tallest, but it’s known for being particularly steep and challenging. It’s also a sleeping monster – now dormant, its last eruption in 1902 was one of the most violent eruptions of the last 200 years.

So along with the dark and the steepness and the altitude, I just might have an earthquake or even a surprise eruption to contend with.

Beginning the Santa Maria volcano hike

With the terror from my dream still chilling my blood, I’m picked up from my hostel by my new Facebook friend Kylie and our guide Rony. Also in the car is another Bela (but male) a former photojournalist from Hungary.

As I squeeze into the back my legs are already hurting before we’ve even begun. Yesterday morning, not knowing I was about to climb a volcano, I did a HIIT workout in my hotel room involving a lot of squats and lunges, and I’m certainly feeling the effects.

So here’s my top tip for climbing a volcano in Guatemala: don’t do a workout the day before!

We drive the 30-minute drive out of the city to the small town of Llanos del Pinal, where we leave the car in a tiny wire-fenced car park. Here we’re met by six other intrepid hikers, and two friendly street dogs who greet us enthusiastically, tails windmilling with excitement. I ask their names.

“I don’t know,” Rony replies, “but they’ll be coming with us all the way to the top. You don’t need a guide; the dogs will show you the way.”

And so we set off, in ones and twos, each following the light cast by the headtorch of the hiker in front. The trail slopes gently uphill, a narrow, dusty path pitted with small stones and bordered by grassy verges. Overhead the sky is painted with patchy clouds; occasionally a bright three-quarter moon peeks out and casts some extra illumination on the proceedings before being obscured again. But for the most part I can’t see much, just the heels of the person in front of me pushing purposefully forward.

Our Santa María volcano guide

Rony sets a brisk pace. A Xela local all his life, he first climbed Santa Maria in 2001, and loved it so much he kept going back. This will be his 94^th summit, and after he’s done it, he’s going home for a nap and bagging another peak with a different group this afternoon. I honestly have no idea where he gets the energy, but his legs must be made of steel.

I, meanwhile, am already puffing like a steam train, pressured into keeping up with the pace of the group by the two Guatemalan women right on my heels who are gossiping away merrily as though the altitude means nothing to them. I’m managing to keep up for now, but I know things are only going to get worse as the incline becomes steeper.

So, when we stop for a water break and a rest, Kylie and I reposition ourselves at the back of the group. I may be one of the slowest, but I don’t mind. Far better to go at my own comfortable pace than kill myself trying to keep up.

The Santa Maria climb continues

Soon the trail takes on a steeper incline and the grassy verges are replaced by twisted trees and spiky grasses. As the gradient becomes more challenging Kylie and I are soon left behind by the rest of the group, but we’re not too worried. The only way is up, as Yazz and the Plastic Population famously sang.

Occasionally, a helpful arrow painted on a rock shows the correct route. When the path splits, we take the fork that looks easier. It doesn’t matter; they all converge again eventually. All roads lead to the top.

Litter on the Santa Maria hike

There’s another indication that we’re going the right way: the huge amounts of rubbish. Like an eco-unfriendly version of the breadcrumbs left by Hansel and Gretel, the frequent glinting in the light of my headlamp of foil crisp packets, plastic water bottles and discarded biscuit wrappers tells us we’re treading in the footsteps of many climbers before us.

It’s helpful, but it’s also deeply depressing. There’s nothing more likely to ruin your enjoyment of nature than seeing the disgusting detritus left by hundreds of hikers with no respect for the beauty of the natural environment.

Later Rony tells me that every year he organises a team of volunteers to do an annual clean-up. Last year they collected 60 sacks of rubbish, carried down two at a time by a huge group of local hiking enthusiasts. This year he estimates he’ll need at least 50 people to clean up the mess left by the steady stream of litter louts.

The bright lights of Xela Guatemala

We plod ever upward for over an hour. At any moment now, I think, we’ll catch up with the group waiting for us at the next rest stop. But we never find them. So we keep going, one foot in front of the other, until we reach a place where the trees part and we can see the lights of the city of Xela spread out below us. It’s the perfect place to stop for a water break and a photo. By my calculation we’ve been going for two hours, so we should be at least halfway there.

And so far everything seems to be OK. The climb is challenging but manageable, and if it continues like this, all my fears will be unfounded. But I don’t think we’re out of the woods yet – quite literally. I remember from other volcano climbs how the trail tends to get steeper and more terrifying the closer you get to the top, so I’m fully expecting that at some point we’ll clear the safety of the trees and enter the danger zone – a sheer, barren wasteland with nothing to break your fall should you take a misstep on its treacherous surface.

To avoid spiralling into fear I try to focus on positive things: the reassuring puffing of Kylie behind me, the pattering feet of one of our doggy friends who has come to join us, and the thought of the deep bathtub in my hotel room, which I’m going to make full use of as soon as we get back.

Climbing Volcán Santa María: dawn breaks

When you’re struggling uphill in the dark, mostly just looking at where you’re putting your feet, it’s easy to lose track of your surroundings. So it takes a while before I notice that the sky has changed from coal black to an inky blue, and a warming stripe of orange has appeared on the horizon. The approach of dawn is a miraculous thing; it tells me that we must be getting close to our goal.

The colours shift from indigo to violet to magenta so rapidly that it’s a challenge not to keep stopping for photos. But we need to keep going, because now we’re racing against the clock. The entire point of dragging ourselves out of bed so stupidly early is to be able to watch the sunrise from the top of the volcano; how disappointing would it be to miss it because we were too slow?!

So we pick up the pace, huffing and puffing our way up through what we can now see is a forest of looming pine trees. The trail has taken on a ferocious steepness now; I’m frequently forced to use my hands to scramble up over large boulders, and I know I will feel some of the bigger steps up in my glutes tomorrow.

But I’m emboldened by the light at the end of the tunnel, or to be more accurate, the light behind me in the east, and eventually we reach the treeline, and, just a short distance beyond, the summit of Volcan Santa Maria, where Rony and the rest of the group are waiting for us.

Read more: A Perfect Guatemala Itinerary In 10 Days, 2 Weeks Or 3 Weeks

Sunrise at the summit of Volcan Santa Maria

Completely by accident, we’ve timed it perfectly. There’s no waiting around: we arrive at the top about 15 minutes before sunrise. There’s time to catch our breath and take a few photos of the blooming dawn sky before finally a tiny speck of fiery orange breaks over the horizon.

It’s 5.45 am, and I’ve already been up for nearly five hours, but I feel invincible. All my fears were entirely unfounded; all the stress and trauma a total waste of time.

As the newborn day blossoms from vibrant orange to gentle pink I take in the glorious 360-degree views.

To the east we can see Guatemala’s ‘Volcano Alley’, a line of seven misty peaks lined up one in front of the other like triangular dominoes: Santo Tomas, Paquisis, Atitlan, San Pedro, Toliman, Fuego, and Acatenango, 48 miles (78 km) away near the city of Antigua.

In the centre, a shrine of flowers and notes bears testament to the fact that this volcano is a sacred site for local Maya communities, who come up here to make offerings and perform ceremonies.

To the north, the streets and houses of the city of Quetzaltenango spread out like a child’s car play mat, and surrounding it are more misty volcanoes, with mysterious-sounding names like Chiquabal, Almolonga and Siete Orejas.

And in the west the volcano we’re standing on casts a perfectly triangular shadow on the landscape, and next to it, almost directly below us, a huge plume of smoke hangs in the air like fairground candyfloss. This is the breath of Volcan Santiaguito, just a mile away from where we are standing.

At 2,500 m Santiaguito is a smaller and much younger cone, created in the wake of Santa María’s 1902 eruption and still constantly erupting. Even from more than 1,000 m above, we can hear its roaring and churning carried up on the still morning air.

Breakfast on top of a volcano

Forget breakfast television, there’s no better entertainment while you eat your packed egg sandwich than a live broadcast of an erupting volcano. We arrange ourselves on rocks to refuel, enjoying the spectacle and posing for more photos. Away from the sunny side there’s a chill in the air, and finally I’m grateful for the heavy coat I’ve carted all this way. We’re lucky though, Rony tells me, usually it’s much colder up here, with serious wind chill. He’s rarely seen weather this good at the top.

Read more: Visiting San Andres Xecul, Guatemala: Home Of The Famous Yellow Church

And best of all, we are the only ones here. No one else, it seems, was insane enough to get up so early and hike all night to see this astonishing view. But it was absolutely worth it.

The only thing spoiling my enjoyment is the litter scattered everywhere and the painted graffiti all over the rocks, a depressing sign of years of neglect and lack of respect for this incredible place. Rony seems determined to change things, but I don’t know how much influence one man can have.

Volcan Santa Maria: the descent

When we’ve had our fill of photos and sandwiches it’s time to start our descent. Back we pass through the pine forests we glimpsed earlier in the semi-darkness, illuminated now in the warmth of the early morning sun. Now we can enjoy the landscape of towering trees, spiky grasses and tangled roots, as well as the views out over Xela and the cheerful chirping of the dawn chorus.

Now we can see just how steep and slippery the route is: several times there’s a skid and a yelp as someone slides on the dusty path. Rony lends me his walking pole which helps a lot, but even so I go over a few times, and soon all of us have grubby bums and filthy hands.

Lower down we discover farmland that I never knew existed: fields of cabbages and maize, and farmers bringing their livestock to pasture. We greet a man and his son with two cows, a woman driving a herd of fluffy sheep and black-coated goats, and another local woman with a basket of flowers on her back, heading up the volcano to offer them to the gods at the top.

We meet more climbers too: intrepid enough to do the hike, but not quite mad enough to attempt it in the dark. We offer a friendly ‘buenos dias’ and a few words of encouragement, but secretly I’m feeling incredibly smug. We were the only ones who got to see that glorious sunrise, and now we are heading back home for tea and that much-needed hot bath, while they still have a fair way to go.

And when I look behind me at the peak, it’s engulfed in cloud. All that way, and they won’t even see anything.

Turns out going up for sunrise really is worth it after all.

Climbing Volcán Santa María: Facts and FAQs

Volcán Santa Maria: key facts

• Height: 3,772 m / 12,375 ft
• Last eruption: 1902
• Is Santa Maria volcano still active? Volcan Santa Maria is considered active thanks to the activity of Santiaguito, which is part of the Volcan Santa Maria area. But the peak of the volcano that you climb is not currently considered active.
• Distance: 8 miles / 13 km
• Total walking time: About 6-7 hours
• Ascent time: 3-4 hours
• Descent time: 2-3 hours
• Elevation gain: 1,230m
• Difficulty: Moderate to difficult
• Trailhead: Volcan Santa Maria Park Entrance (or Llano de Pinal bus stop)

Where is Volcan Santa Maria?

Volcan Santa Maria is in Guatemala in Central America, about 6 miles or 10 km from the centre of the city of Quetzaltenango (aka. Xela) in western Guatemala.

Volcan Santa Maria weather

In general, the weather in Xela and the surrounding area is much colder that in the rest of Guatemala because you are in the highlands. Days can be warm but nights are distinctly chilly, even in the city.

And the weather at the top of the volcano is colder still! You should definitely bring layers and warm jacket for the top, where the wind chill can make the temperature drop to below zero degrees (32F).

Of course weather is unpredictable, but local reports say that typically the sky tends to be clear in the early morning, but it clouds over by around 10 am – which is exatly what I witnessed. This means that if you want to see anything from the top, you will need to start early.

But you should always check the weather forecast the day before. If it’s going to be bad weather or rainy, the trail will be slippery and treacherous and you won’t see anything from the top, so there’s little point in going.

How long does it take to hike Volcan Santa Maria?

Depending on your fitness and balance, it should take you about 3-4 hours to climb up, and about 2-3 hours to descend. We did the climb up in 3 hours 25 minutes, and down took us about 3 hours.

Read more: Backpacking in Guatemala: All You Need To Know Before You Go

Read more: Is Guatemala Safe? 60+ Practical Tips For Safe Travel In Guatemala

Read more: Yaxha Guatemala: The Magical Mayan Ruins You Need To Visit

On the other side, looking north and west from Volcan Santa Maria, you can see Chiquabal, Almolonga and Siete Orejas, and of course Santiaguato, which is right next to Santa Maria.

Read more: A Colourful Guide To Flores Guatemala: Gateway To The Maya World

What to pack for the Santa Maria Volcano climb

• Clothes: wear lightweight hiking clothes as you will get hot while climbing! I wore sports leggings, a t-shirt, and a light jacket which I soon took off. I also carried a warmer coat, gloves and a beanie for the top.
• Shoes: you don’t need hiking boots; sensible hiking shoes or sports trainers with a good grip will be fine. You will get dusty though!
• Food: I recommend 2 litres of water, plus a packed breakfast and snacks. I had two rounds of egg sandwiches, two cereal bars, and some biscuits to share with the group.
• Accessories: don’t forget a hat and sunscreen for after the sun comes up, your camera, and if you like walking with poles, bring those. I found having one very helpful on the descent.

Where to stay in Quetzaltenango Guatemala

I stayed at the beautiful Hostal Mucha in Xela. This is a very central and absolutely beautiful boutique hostel with huge rooms with private bathrooms, two peaceful courtyards and a communal kitchen and dining area. Essentially it’s a hotel but at hostel prices; it’s very quiet but a really lovely place to stay and a total bargain too (I paid just £20 a night!).

Other popular places to stay include Kasa Kiwi and Casa Seibel. These are both more typical hostels with a fun, sociable vibe and an in-house travel agency to help you plan your adventures.

And that’s it! Thanks for reading! This was just the first of many Guatemala adventures to come, so make sure to check out my other Guatemala posts in the Destinations tab!

Did you find this post useful? Have questions? Come follow me on Instagram, Threads or Twitter (X) and share your thoughts!

Where to next?

If you’re planning to hike volcano Santa Maria in Guatemala you definitely shouldn’t miss some of my other posts. There are tonnes in my Guatemala archives, or why not try one of these?

• The Thrilling Volcan De Acatenango Hike In Antigua Guatemala
• A Review Of Villa Bokeh, A Luxury Hotel In Antigua Guatemala
• A Guide To Flores Guatemala: Why I Loved This Maya Town
• Yaxha Guatemala: The Magical Mayan Ruins You Need To Visit
• Is Guatemala Safe? 60+ Practical Tips For Safe Travel In Guatemala
• Backpacking In Guatemala: All You Need To Know Before You Go
• A Perfect Guatemala Itinerary In 10 Days, 2 Weeks Or 3 Weeks

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