Photo Link:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Roz35Y5FqidnJbi19
After Mexico, I took a cheap flight to Guatemala – this is one of few countries that accept COVID vaccines in lieu of a PCR test to enter, so was nice to use that. Went straight to the colonial capital of Antigua, which was a nice little cobblestone street town. Reminded me a ton of San Cristobal in Mexico – similar cobblestone streets, red tiled roofs and yellow painted buildings galore. There were also a couple of cool ruins here from an earthquake in the late 1700s – a hollowed out/destroyed cathedral and covenant. Reminded me a bit of the destroyed Portugese church in Goa, where the roofs had collapsed but the shell of the structure was still here, though in this case the carvings were still intact as well which was nice. Overall was definitely a nice little town to spend a couple of days walking around in. One unpleasant surprise was that this was noticeably more expensive than Mexico (not counting Tulum/Playa del Carmen as that is America), which was surprising given that Guatemala is a poorer country. Obviously still cheap here but just not what I was expecting.
I took two day trips here – the first was to the Pacaya volcano. The actual hike up the volcano was closed because of the constant streams of flowing lava, which we could see in the distance and was super cool. So we had to make due to with the magma that we could walk to. Just a giant pile of smoldering rock, which would occasionally break off to show the flaming hot lava inside and the fires burning. Was definitely a super unique experience given how I have never seen lava before.
The second day trip was one of the coolest things I have ever done. We did an overnight hike up Mount Acatenango (starting point of 2.5k meters, peak at 4k meters, overnight camp at 3.6k meters). Was definitely a tough hike given the elevation and because we were carrying like 10+ kg worth of stuff in our backpack, but totally doable and honestly great practice for Kilimanjaro in June with my sister. The view from the campsite was out of this world – clear view to the neighboring Mount Fuego (literally Fire Mountain), which was erupting 5+ times an hour. Was just so so cool to hear the loud boom constantly, followed by the billowing smoke. And in the nighttime, you could see tons and tons of lava flying out and sprawling over the mountainside during every one of these explosions. Just one of the coolest things I have ever seen. Funny thing is that not to long ago, one of my absolute top bucket list items was Virunga National Park in the DRC to both do a gorilla trek and to see the world’s largest lava lake. And in the past couple of months, I have done a gorilla trek in Uganda and now seen lava up close in Pacaya and explosions in Acatenango.
The night sky here was also pristine. Maybe not to the level of Wadi Rum but still it was just outrageously good. And even before nightfall, it was just so cool to be literally above the clouds and see the clear sky above you with the various different mountain and volcano peaks sticking above the clouds. Totally surreal. I have also gained massive respect (even though I already had a ton) for Frodo and Sam in LOTR for hiking up a volcano barefoot while carrying way more gear than I did here.
The next morning, we got up at 4am to climb the final 400 meters to get to the peak of the mountain. This was a solid hike up, and the sunrise view was stunning. Also caught more explosions here obviously, but from a higher vantage point which was nice. After this, we went back down to camp, had breakfast, and then went down to leave. My climbing group was a pretty cool group of people – there was a 50+ year old American who was retired and a professional youtuber who made videos for older folk who want to travel, a professional travel TikToker (who was surprisingly a cool guy), 3 European girls who worked in Central American embassies who us 7 Americans collectively referred to as “The Spies” since we wanted to believe they were involved in clandestine activities, a doctor from NYU Langone, and this really crazy LA dude who does all sorts of crazy endurance things – Iron Man competitions, mountain running, sky diving, base jumping, etc. as almost a professional. He was the only person in our group who was not once out of breath during this hike.
We all went out that night (with other people from the hostel) to celebrate. So there is currently a 9pm curfew in Antigua due to COVID. While out, me and two of the other American guys began talking to a local Guatemalan dude who seemed nice enough and some of his friends. It came to 9pm and we were ready to leave, and he just said “don’t worry”. We then stayed in this bar til midnight and bar hopped around until 7am before getting back to the hostel…this guy would literally just knock on the doors of closed and locked bars, talk to the security guard, and then get us in. It turns out that he was a member of the family cartel that literally runs this part of Guatemala (he even has an official Government job), so I guess it was pretty cool to go bar hopping with a cartel guy.
In all honesty, more people from the US need to do this. It would be so incredibly easy to hike Acatenango over a 3 day weekend. Fly into Antigua (with a worst case 1 layover in Miami or ideally direct) on a Friday evening, leave for the trek Saturday morning and come back Sunday afternoon and fly out Monday afternoon/evening. And the trek is <80 USD with everything included. Just such an awesome, cheap, and easy quick trip for really any American to take, especially since Guatemala now accepts vaccine cards and basically everyone I know my age is vaccinated by this point.
After Antigua, I took an overnight bus up to Flores to continue my time in Guatemala.