"Maybe you can educate my mind.  Explain all these controls.  Can't sing but I've got soul.  The goal is elevation... You make me feel like I can fly, so high.  Elevation."  

-U2's Elevation

This weekend I joined 10 other male teachers from school in the hike of a lifetime.  As we've written about, Guatemala's landscape is dominated by a series of 33 majestic volcanoes.  The most popular one to climb is Pacaya (8,370 feet), which Sarah and I climbed in September and Kati and Paul conquered in November.  Currently, Pacaya has a fresh stream of lava flowing down its side, which can be seen at night from high level apartments in the city.  Volcan de Agua looms over Antigua at over 12,000 feet, but the biggest volcano in the area is Acatenango at 13,041 feet.  Our mission was not only conquer Acatenango, but also its erupting neighbor, Volcan de Fuego, in 2 days.  Here is a photo of the twin towers I took from a car while driving to the coast a couple weeks ago.


The dormant Acatenango (right) and smoking/active Fuego (left).

A van picked us up at school at 6 am, and we were at the trailhead by 8:30.  We started at 7,875 feet, and set off to climb about one mile straight up to the summit of Acatenango.  We had 2 guides, 2 dogs, and 2 porters.  Thankfully, the porters helped lighten our load by carrying some of our tents and water.  The changes in landscape as we progressed up the trail was amazing.  There were no switchbacks or carved stairs - it was all straight up!  It started out as a soft volcanic ash trail among fields of flowers.  Then it switched to a cloud forest with thick trees and vegetation.  After stopping for a hearty sandwich provided by the guides for lunch, the trees thinned out and the trail wove through tall grass.  Finally, we could tell we were getting close when all vegetation slowly disappeared.



The temperature dropped as the altitude rose.  When we reached Acatenango's first peak at over 12,700 feet, we took a break and threw around a football one of the guys had packed.  Then came the toughest part - the last 30 minutes to the summit.


Almost there!

20 steps... rest... 20 steps... breathe...  Six and a half hours later, at 3:00, we had done it.  Above the clouds, at over 13,000 feet, it truly felt like the top of the world.  The adrenaline kicked in as we dropped our packs and climbed the final slope.  Mission 1 accomplished. 


This looks like we are on the moon or something.

The payoff was a spectacular view of several volcanoes poking through the clouds - including Fuego, our day 2 mission. 



Next up was a descent down the other side of Acatenango into a little valley that connects the two volcanoes.  The "saddleback" is called La Horqueta, and this is where we would set up camp for the night.  The downhill climb was quite tricky, as it was more like sliding or even skiing on the deep volcanic ash.  After two hours, we had reached camp and a warm fire greeted us thanks to a pleasant surprise provided by the porters.  The guides brought some cooking supplies, and we inhaled a well-deserved spaghetti dinner.  As our legs tightened up, Fuego seemed to chuckle at our pain the near future would bring.  We would not be able to summit Fuego, since it is currently erupting - at times violently.  A few thunderous explosions reminded us of this fact.  The guide explained reassuringly (I think?) that Fuego's lava has been directed towards the opposite side of our camp for a quite a while now - evidenced by the shrubbery along our side. 

The wake-up call came at 4:30am, and our headlamps led us up Fuego.  As we reached the top of the "fake" summit, we took in the sight of a lifetime.  Up ahead, mother nature magically displayed natural fireworks out of Fuego's crater.  As the show came into view for each climber, you could hear the appropriate gasp.  We then traversed along the mountain's ridge and got as close as we could to the performance (the guide claimed that at this distance we could survive a major explosion with a sprint back down the ridge...ok, all I know is that in the States we would never get close to this thing.) 

The view from over 12,000 feet on top of Fuego was absurd.  Not only did we have the mesmerizing sparks shooting out of Fuego (with the corresponding roar from deep inside the earth), you could also see the glow of the lava flow down the other side.  Not to mention the already defeated Acatenango to our left, and we were also at eye level with Volcano Agua with the sun rising directly behind it.  In the opposite direction we could see the three volcanoes that surround Lake Atitlan and finally, Volcano Santa Maria could be seen in the far distance - on the border of Mexico!  A couple photos give you a taste...


Fuego's fireworks


Sunrise behind Volcan de Agua.  So amazing it looks fake!

After the sunrise was complete, we realized how painfully cold it was and made our descent back to camp.  After some breakfast and packing up, we had to make our way back to the other side of Acatenango.  No, we did not climb it again, but instead, climbed about 2/3 of the way up before traversing around the side of the mountain.  This was a beautiful hike through a very diverse landscape - complete with a couple small, required jumps into volcanic ash and a somewhat nerve-racking high-wire act across a makeshift log bridge (the dogs weren't too thrilled with this challenge).  The weather was perfect as we peeled off layers and made our way through a pine forest.  The relatively flat trail around the mountain felt like a leg massage compared to the rest of the hike.  Our final descent down the other side was no picnic, as the quads and toes burned with every step/slide.  The brakes were getting pretty weak, but we made it.  After 15 hours of hiking we made it back to the van at 12:30 on Sunday.  Looking back at the volcanoes, we wondered how we did it.  Our legs were done, but we felt like we just conquered the world, so it was well worth it...  yet would I do it again?  No way.

A massive plate of chicken curry and vegetables in Antigua went down pretty easily before heading back into the city.  As we approached, a heated debate raged about the best route to take.  The usual heavy Sunday traffic from Antigua would surely be even worse given the road closings due to President Bush's visit to the Land of Eternal Spring.  From here, America's declining world image could not be more evident.  During our leader's Latin American tour, perhaps Fuego's show symbolized the fireworks of protest, which were not quite as beautiful, but potentially as dangerous.  One thing is for sure - neither will be forgotten.