If you will meet people before going to Guatemala - all will tell you that Acatenango trek is a must do. And it really is - from all the things we did there - I remember this trek the most. Probably, because it was the hardest thing I have done in the last year and also for 5 days after it - every step I took reminded me of it. There are many places where it is possible to book the trek - I went with Tropicana hostel tour, it is definitely not one of the cheapest ones, but it is well worth the money. The biggest differences between the tours are the equipment included, the clothing that you can rent, and, in my opinion most importantly - where you will sleep at night. With a lot of tours you will have to sleep in a tent, but Tropicana tour lets you sleep in a shed. It might not seem like a huge improvement, but it is very cold and often rainy on the volcano and I have heard stories of people being wet all night long. Also, being elevated from the ground makes it much nicer.
On day 1 at 8am there is breakfast at the hostel, while eating lovely pancakes you get a form you have to sign - saying that you take full responsibility for yourself incase something happens to you - pretty standard - I should just sign it every morning from now on. After breakfast they say to meet down in the lobby at 9am to rent out any necessary clothing. Knowing that there are not that many good things there - at 8:35 I was already standing there, waiting to get everything and I still was not the first one. I previously heard stories about how cold it would get, so I rented everything they had - jacket, pants, scarf, gloves, hat and I would recommend everybody to do the same - it really will be freezing at night.
After 9 am you are taken to a shuttle where you go to the base where hike starts from - there you have an option to rent sticks to help you hike - even though you think you will lose some coolness points (and you will) - do it, be a daredevil, rent two sticks - they make the climb much easier. And if you want to spoil yourself rotten - you can also give your bag to portier for extra 200GTQ - looking back at it now - doing this would have made me a much happier person during the climb. The bag contains all of the clothing for the evening, 4 liters of water and your lunch and dinner, mine weighted approximately 9 kg.
How hard the trek itself is depends very much on where you come from, I come from a very flat place, that is not above sea level at all, so even when I got to Antigua - getting used to altitude took me 4 days. Also, two days before going on the trek - I met a Canadian, who had just finished his and who took pills for altitude sickness, because he did not need them anymore- he gave the pills to me. And I gladly accepted, because he is a Canadian and if you can not trust them - who would you trust? So the trek itself starts at 2500m above sea level and on the first day you get to 3500m asl, where you spend the night. On the second day you climb 500m more for the sunrise views. I would not say that I am in bad shape, although other people might say that, but I am definitely not used to hiking and the problem is that the only thing that trains you for hiking is hiking, especially at an altitude like this. The hike was a huge struggle for me, because usually by the time the end of the group got to the rest points - the front of the group got up and walked further, so the rest was for a very short amount of time. I got tired of climbing after the first 15 minutes and the feeling did not go away for the rest of the hike - which was around 6 hours. After around ¾ of the way - I just sat down and started to cry - I did not want to - it just happened, the guide felt so sorry for me that he carried my bag the rest of the way. Some would say it was a defeat, but I would call it a victory in some twisted way. The hike was so much easier without the bag, that is why I wished I would have given it in straight away.
While hiking we had nice, sunny weather, but when we reached the top - everything was cloudy, windy and already very cold. We got pasta for dinner, some red wine that came from a box - it had never tasted better, after that guides lit the fire and got us some hot chocolate and marshmallows. While we sat there for hours - the volcano was not visible even for a second, I thought that I had climbed this for nothing and went to bed, but an hour later people started screaming and getting everybody up - sky was finally clear to see the volcano erupt - success, all I needed from this trip. To see an erupting volcano - added and crossed out of my bucket list at the same time. There were some people who really wanted to go to Fuego - to see the volcano closer, it is a tour that they do if weather is good enough, but you could see that the guides really did not want to do it. Around 10pm, originally they were supposed to go at 6pm, they went, only for it to be very cloudy and seeing anything only when they were half way back on the trek. People who went said that it was the hardest thing they have done in their lives. I probably would still be up there if I went.
In the morning guides wake you up around 4am to do the sunrise hike - woke up and saw that it is still raining and cloudy - some people went on the trek only to come back 20 minutes later, completely wet, because the guides said it was too bad of a weather to continue. In the morning they made us breakfast - oatmeal, gave us coffee and an amazing banana bread. At this point everybody is freezing so badly that the dream is to get your stuff and get down that volcano. As it has rained a lot - everything is slippery and sticks are life savers. And I only fell twice, which, for how clumsy I am, is a very good score. Going down is a lot faster, but it is also very hard, because you need to use every muscle in your legs. We get down to the base stop and see the new group going up - poor people who have to do this when it is all slippery, muddy and rainy - hope they have better weather at the top than we did. 2 hours later we are at the shuttles - at this point I think - never again. And that I also need to find the girl in the hostel that said to me - “ If I can do it, anybody can do it”, like, no. Okay shower and nap - then I will be ready to play beer pong. (Editors note: they lost beer pong tournament
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