Acatenango Part 2 - The final ascent

Having had a generally sleepless night, I awoke to the sound of my alarm at 4am. The wind was howling outside our tent but I gathered my things together and got ready to go to the top of Acatenango.

As I stepped out of my tent and called out to our guide, I heard a reply of “Not possible! Too many clouds and wind!” After a bit of persuasion we decided that we would leave at 5am and still try to get to the top for sunrise – which seemed reasonable.

It was very cold – the wind was not helping matters as the temperature dropped to the extent that a woolly hat and gloves would have been ideal – unfortunately neither of which I possessed. We clambered to the top – as the clouds continued to roll past and were rewarded by very brief moments of clear views. Most of the time, the clouds filled the area and the howling wind made it very difficult to wholly appreciate where we were.

But when the clouds cleared, we were able to see the nearby volcanoes Agua and Fuego. Unfortunately for us, we were unable to see the lava spewing from Fuego but the views of the Pacific and Lake Atitlan allowed us to appreciate where we were.

      

Two weeks earlier, there had been a couple of people who were climbing Acatenango and due to the clouds and the cold weather, they got lost. One person had passed away. To mark this event, a cross had been erected at the top of the mountain in memory of the man.

 

Climbing down the mountain was actually a lot easier that I thought it would be. With the ash-like nature of the soil which would haul you back a step every time you climbed up a step, you were able to slip down one step further every time you climbed down! Someone joked that they wish they had brought a snowboard with them…it does seem like that would be the ideal way to descend.

When we returned to our tents, we rested for a short while before continuing our descent. The way down was much quicker and continued to reward us with beautiful views. The ash like consistency continued but sometimes the harder ground was slippery and the treacherous nature meant lots of people were stumbling and slipping.

As we got further down, we returned to the jungle-like atmosphere and it wasn’t long before we were back to where we started. By now it was only 11am and the drive home took about 1.5 hours.

  

I ate lunch and rested for a while before going to meet Grant (and Anna) before they set off on the rest of their travels the next day. It had been a long day and after I returned for dinner, I noticed that there were four more volunteers who had joined the house. They were from all over the world! Brazil to Germany, Australia to America!