Fuego's On Fire 🔥

We left late that afternoon to get to the town at the base camp of the Volcano, a good early test for Franky fresh out the mechanics. We pulled into a mountain village as the day ended and found the local guide company who was taking us up the next day. They had us camp up on the local neglected football pitch and after a quick brief for the morning we settled into dinner, joined by one of the live in volunteers, an Aussie girl with some entertaining stories of travels through Mexico, and crashed early to prepare for a couple of days on a mountain.

Bright and early the next morning we packed up and joined the rest of our tour group for a communal breakfast while the guides hung around, prepping gear, food and walking sticks. We were a mixed bag of cheapskate travellers as this tour was half the price of anyone else’s, from an older Polish couple to young French girls and all sorts in between. We got dropped 10mins up the road on the trail head, guides briefed us on the day ahead but the most important thing was sticking with the group. There were a lot of people of the hillside and it made the day’s hike slow, almost at a pace of 20mins walking, 20mins rest for the best part of 6hrs. The hike itself was a breeze considering we were aiming for almost 4000m at the camp. The pace meant I was able to make friends with everyone involved, guides included and we slowly plodded uphill.

Jelly smashed it, especially considering I had spent 3 days pointing at the summit from town trying my best to talk her into it. Even the night before she was adamant she wasn't going near the steep,

slippery hike but after a beer and promise of great views and a cosy camp she agreed. The trail was well trodden and dusty, then followed through thick jungle which finally gave way to pine forest. The trees must have helped with the altitude as we didn’t struggle as much as we should have being so high. The last of the path was steep scree and every pace slipped down, two steps forward, one back but we rocked into camp around 3pm and the whole group slumped against the huts in our penthouse camp above the clouds and the rest of the tour groups below. Some people cried they were so relieved to finish the hike – Jelly and I just cracked the bottle of rum we smuggled up and settled in to watch the lava firing off from the volcano nextdoor. The view was incredible, words cannot do it justice. The last couple of hours above the cloud line we were staring at the perfect 3000m cone of Volcan Agua, then swung round a corner to the thundered vibrations of a huge explosion as Fuego came into view, welcoming us with the spew of smoke and debris.

We spent the evening and night staring out over this natural wonder just across the saddled ridge between Volcan Acatenango and Fuego. Every half an hour the Volcano erupted, sending smoke

billowing into the sky, huge rumbles through the air and once the darkness set in you could see the lava thrown over the edge and race down the sides. Nothing like anything we’d ever seen before, every eruption sending excitement and cheers through the camp. The guides cooked up dinner, stoked a fire and passed around the whiskey. We had a laugh and got to know the others before finally dragging ourselves away from the fire show and into bed in small triangular tin huts, 4 berth for warmth. All night long you could hear and feel the lava shooting from the top opposite!

I woke with 3 others in the morning before the day had broken. One of the funny French girls and a lovely Canadian couple we had bunked with. With the guide and a trail of other morning hikers we summited the Volcan Acatenango that we had slept on. An hour of scree slope in the dark but by 6am we were circling the rim of the 3976m Volcano. We sat together huddled under a rocky outcrop on top, well above the sea of clouds and views over the surrounding peaks, with fire shooting out the top of Fuego in the morning light and the amazing colours of the sunrise over Agua to the East. An absolutely insane experience, to see, feel and hear the explosions of lava. Whilst we had hiked another hour up, Jelly had stretched out in bed for a sunrise and volcano eruption view from bed, glad to have the three other bunk mates out! Minds blown from the view up top we skated and slid back down the to base camp for a quick coffee and breakfast with the rest of the group and slowly made our way back down to basecamp and our ride to the village. A wonderful and unforgettable experience, in the end Jelly was chuffed she came!

Back at Franky by mid afternoon and feeling fresher than expected we took advantage of a hot shower, as we were stinking and dusty, then hit the road. A 2hr journey down one volcano, through the

countryside and chaos of some town centre roads, straight through the middle of another market, down a canyon, up a hillside to arrive on the rim of a massive volcano crater, we skirted the edges before dropping into the biggest and most accessible town of the famous Lago Atitlan. A crater so huge you would not know it was a crater, 20kms across, surrounded by smaller beautiful volcanoes and mountains, dotted with ancient towns, sunken ruins and newer rich hippy hotspots. Created by a supervolcanic explosion 84,000 years ago so big that debris has been found as far away as Florida and Ecuador.

We pulled up at yet another derelict football pitch on the edge of town but also on the edge of this great lake. With lovely locals about, some small tiendas and penny toilets we camped up here for the next 3 nights with waterfront views and spent our days exploring different corners of the lake. The water was beautifully clear, the mountains gave a wonderous backdrop, locals beautifully colourful, bringing fresh produce to market on their heads and small taxi boats scatteted all over. From hot springs, jetty swims, private bays, nature reserves and boat rides to other settlements, we had plenty to check out. Only intending to stay a couple of days we were caught like many others by the tranquillity of the place and spent some days relaxing, swimming, exploring and free camping on the ancient lake. A week of insane natural beauty from volcano top to lake side, we felt very blessed and ready for the next adventure but realising we were quickly running out of time we made plans for our Guatemala exit.