Volcan AcAtenango

Acatenango. Man, this must have been just one of the coolest things that I have ever done in my entire life, let alone in the country of Guatemala, or in my travels in Latin America. It's is absolutely unique, it's physically difficult, and with that — extremely, extremely rewarding. It's mind-blowing, it's scary at times, you'll make great friends, and it's just a next-level experience.  ​ So if you haven't already heard of Acatenango, it's not a place, or a city, or anything like that, it is an active volcano lying in the backyard of Antigua, Guatemala. It's so active that it is erupting. Literally ERUPTING molten red and yellow lava daily. Now those eruptions don't look like much during the day — plumes of smoke and all that, but during the night, these eruptions create mesmerizing clouds of red hot lava in the air.  ​ This is the top thing I would say that there is to do in the entire country. The experience is a long and extremely tiring one though. You get all the way up to 13,000 ft of elevation. The experience is pretty much this.   1. You leave with your tour operator early in the morning. Maybe 7 or so in the morning from Antigua.  ​ 2. You arrive at the base of Acatenango, and hike up about 7 hours until you get to wherever the lodging camp is for your tour operator.  ​ 3. Now you have the option, — you either choose to climb to the top of Fuego (the actively erupting volcano), or you stay there at base camp on Acatenango. When you get up here you will already be physically exhausted. It's about 5 miles or 9 km's practically straight up to get to base camp and it is HARD.  ​ 4. If you decide to go for it to go up to Fuego then I salute you. But also you should do it. If you don't, you're missing out. So if you aren't already physically exhausted you will hike back down towards Fuego (a separate volcano) for about 1.5 hours, then back up Fuego for an hour. Granted all of this is going to be happening in the pitch black of night.  ​ 5. After about 2 hours or so you will arrive at the top of Fuego. Exhausted. My legs hardly worked. But you will sit up there and watch the volcano erupt from about 700 meters away. It was stunning — I even got hit with some hardened shards of volcanic rock. Not hard, but it was cool to know we were that close.  ​ 6. After spending some time watching the unbelievable eruption, you turn around and hike back to basecamp. You'll get back around midnight.  ​ 7. You're back at basecamp, and you have hiked for about 12-15 hours give or take. It was the hardest physical thing I had done in a long time.  ​ 8. You have now the option to either sleep, or continue to watch the eruptions.  ​ 9. At around 4 in the morning, you then have the option to join the hike up to the top of Acetenango. It's about an hour hike, and you are up there for sunrise. If you do the Fuego hike, I would imagine that you won't have it physically in you to do the morning hike, but some people do all 3. And I salute them. I couldn't do it.  ​ 10. After you watch the sunrise at the top of Acatenango, or sleep off the pain from the day before, you make the long and grueling, however less long and less grueling trek back down to the bottom of the volcano. — Where vans are waiting to take you back to your hostel.  ​ That's it. Two days, a lot of hiking, and one of the best memories you could ever imagine having. It's a 'must do', but just be ready, it is gruelingly difficult. I highly recommend everyone who comes to Guatemala puts this on the top of their list.  ​ More on the accommodation up top, and tour operator recommendations below.