We arrived in Panajachel, on the banks of lake Atitlàn and, by one of these magical coincidences (and the help of Zenly to notice them!) we bumped into my ex-colleague Colas, and his friend Thomas also traveling in the region.

We got there on a week end so we could witness the outdoor mass and religious bands on the bank on the river on Saturday, and on Sunday we went to the big market of Chichicastenango.

It took us 3 different “chicken buses” to get there and as many to get back. After buying an embroided guatemaltese dress impossible to fit in her overweight backpack, Mary solemnly promised this was the last thing she’d buy until the end of the trip!

The next day we visited the natural reserve and flew over the jungle on big ziplines crossing the valley and offering a spectacular view on the lake and the volcanos! There’s also a mariposarium where we saw big butterflies and their fascinating transformation from worm to winged beauties!

So far so good and the next day we were moving to our next chill spot around the lake, in San Marcos.

That’s when Colas said they were going to climb the volcano and we should all do it together. So we said yes of course!

I saw a few volcanoes around the lake and thought it would be a cool hike 🙂

But he really meant the Acatenango volcano, near Antigua, 3 hours away, and we had to sleep in Antigua to leave early in the morning, and stay overnight on the volcano to get back down the next day.

So we barely had time to check in and leave our stuff in San Marcos, then return to Panajachel with empty backpacks to catch the last bus to Antigua, where Colas had booked another hostel for us. The next morning we were on our way to climb the mighty Acatenango.

This hike is notoriously not a casual walk in the park; it’s a 5 hours steep walk straight up over 1500 meters of elevation, up to 3600 meters in altitude.

We were mostly worried for Leo; the poor baby, it’s a tough walk for a 10 year old kid!

Well, the poor baby walked straight up with Colas and Thomas, telling jokes along the way, while Mary and I were painfully lagging way behind, all the hiking groups passing us one by one!

I had cramps in both my thighs and Mary got sick with the altitude; feeling headaches and nausea 😦

We reached the camp an hour after everyone else and poor Mary went straight into the tent to try and sleep.

At least, she didn’t miss much of the view; it had been foggy the whole way up and the camp was inside a big grey cloud so we could barely see the landscape!

The wind was raging and the temperature was below zero. Only once in a while, the wind would manage to clear the sky for a split second and we would get a glimpse of the Fuego just next to us. As I was desperately waiting behind my camera viewfinder, I was quick enough to capture some of these brief instants of clarity!

There was an optional extra hike in the night to get closer to the Fuego. At this point, with the night falling, the dark cloud surrounding us and the wind and rain slapping our faces, it looked very much like a suicide mission. Nonetheless, a small group of intrepid hikers, including our friends Colas and Thomas, went disappearing into the heavy fog.

After 3 hours, I was ready to report them missing, when we saw them come out of the darkness, pale and exhausted. But they actually saw it! They were lucky enough to walk out of our big cloud and get a real view of the erupting Fuego.

Even the strongest hikers of the group said it was probably the hardest walk they had done.

When dinner was ready, I encouraged Mary to try and eat something, to recover some strength.

I the middle of the night, the nausea became too strong and she vomited everything. She didn’t have the time to open the tent! We tried to clean up as we could with 2 rolls of toilet paper!

The next morning, we were supposed to wake up at 4am to climb a bit more and see the sunrise from the summit, but the clouds were still there and the wind was still raging, so that part was aborted.

Mary was still feeling sick in the morning, but she was able to walk, so one of the guides accompanied us to descend ahead of the group, so we’d have time to walk slow.

Walking down was a lot easier than climbing, but still it was very steep and slippery, and after a couple of hours quite straining for the legs.

We made it alive down the volcano and returned to Antigua with the rest of the group. After a good bye lunch with Colas and Thomas, we took the shuttle back to Panajachel and the boat from Panajachel to San Marcos, and finally crashed miserably in our bed!

By chance San Marcos is a good place to relax. It took another 3 days for Mary to get rid of the nausea and finally feel better.