Possibly. But after completing it, I decided that next year I want to hike the two taller ones...and the 33 others I've yet to climb.
I've always liked a good challenge...after it's over.
Acatenango. 3,976 meters tall. Temps at the top often below freezing and somewhere around 90kph winds. Next door to the famous fuego, known for spitting fire in the night and smoke in the day...though of course we went two days late, missed the activity and saw only a sleeping fuego.
Nonetheless, it was a beautiful adventure that I wouldn't hesitate to do again if someone offered me $500 and a mule to carry my 50 pound backpack.
It started as simple thoughts. "Oh, look at that pretty volcano up in the clouds. Oh, you can climb it? It takes 5 hours? Pretty much straight up? Its freezing cold? Your muscles hate you for the next three days? Oh yeah, sounds fun!"
I played with the idea for a month, arguing that I didn't have good enough shoes. But then I met Jess. She made me laugh. She said she was going to climb it. Then I met Vi in the gym (prepping for the hike!) She said she was going to climb it. I wasn't about to be the loser...
So we signed up together, got some yummy food, packed our bags, and sat looking at the volcano when Jess voiced my thoughts..."WE'RE GOING TO CLIMB THAT!?!?!"
No turning back. We quenched our fears and hopped in the van with 6 other adventurers and two local guides.
First, a stop at the guide Guilmer's house to get our tents, mats, meals, and sleeping bags and make sure we had everything we needed (he gave me his own shoes to do the hike. My one excuse was worthless.)
Guilmer is cool. Unlike other tour companies, he and his brothers personally do the tour and all the money goes to local schools and families. Every tour that they do, they have a local child come to rent out the hats and gloves - the money goes directly to the child and their families. We get great guides and help the locals. Win win!
So we jumped back in the van to drive to the base of the beast. Not going to lie, I was pumped. I couldn't contain my energy so I let it out by singing and making stupid jokes with Jess. I was convinced I was annoying everyone, but Lauren told me not to apologize for my enthusiasm. Yes! Right then, I knew we had a good group.
Phase one: Excitement shattered by, "Why on earth did I think it would be fun to trek up a 90% incline with a 50 pound backpack!?" I'm not kidding. Within 100 steps UP, my calves HURT. I started to understand why they say 50% of people don't make it.
We climbed slowly up the ashy, gravely incline - one step forward, half a step back. Ten minutes in, we stopped for our first break. We dropped our bags, stretched our legs, and cried. Okay, not really, but I think some of us were pretty close. Someone asked me what I think about for motivation and I replied, "Quitting is not an option. It's just not. We are going to do this."
Phase two: After an hour or two of the slippery black gravel, and few minutes past cows and through corn fields, the ground started to harden and trees started to thicken around us. Our legs started to accept the feat ahead of us, and our minds settled on the top. It got easier. Walk a bit, stop a bit. We passed groups going down who wished us luck. We stopped for a much needed lunch. Every so often clouds would engulf us, then quickly blow away, revealing a beautiful view of fields and mountains in the distance.
We entered thick woods and I got enough control of my lungs to strike up a conversation with Guilmer's brothdr, Jaimie. He told me stories of his life, entering the USA, his job working in a huge meat processing company and family there, and being deported back to Guatemala, never to see his wife or two kids again. The last time he saw them they were 8 and 11, sleeping in the early morning before he left for work when immigration came. It was HEAVY. Not exactly uplifting volcano climbing talk, but it was beautiful and helped pass the time nonetheless.
Through the woods, the air got thinner and colder. We put layers on and took them off as we sweated from the work yet chilled from the cool air.
Phase three: Eventually we reached a "road" that flattened out a bit and wound around the volcano instead of cutting straight up. We accepted the challenge and emembraced it. Jaimie showed us the site of a plane crash and pointed out cities in the distance.
Finally, finally, we reached base camp. We hit high fives and pitched our tents before collapsing for a nap. The clouds flew in and flew out, revealing the volcanos fuego and agua and the ocean beyond.
Dinner was wonderful. We huddled around a fire, bundled in half our layers, talking and joking and talking about how we chose the best guides because they made us beans and pasta and hard boiled eggs and hot chocolate along with roasting marshmallows for desert.
Clouds gathered blocking our view, but cleared just enough for a beautiful sunset.
We retreated to our tents early, sleeping by 8:00 to be up at 4:10 for sunrise. At midnight Vi and I climbed out of our tent to see a perfectly clear sky and a million twinkling lights below. It wasn't as cold as we expected, but fuego was still silent. No lava sighting for this group.
4:10 am. Alarm goes off and Jaimie eagerly sings "buenas dias!" To each tent. We groan in protest as we are instructed to dress warm for the summit. We slowly pull on all our layers and start the final climb, thankfully without our packs.
This was the hardest. Our already weary bodies argued with every step up on the pure gravel. We slipped. We froze. We kept going light started to show behind fuego. Two people cried. I reminded myself that quitting wasn't an option, but I won't pretend it didn't cross my mind. It. Was. Hard.
But it was worth it. The feeling of reaching the goal is one of the best in the world.
The feeling of knowing you pressed through the pain is exhilarating.
The feeling of looking out and seeing the world from 4,000 meters...there's nothing like it, and the pain is forgotten. (Someone said it was like having a baby. Ha!)
To say the top was cold was an understatement. It was freezing, and there are ice crystals in my pictures to prove it. Taking pictures with numb fingers was almost as challenging as the climb, but we knew we would regret it if we didn't take a million pictures of the volcanos, ocean, cities, and lakes below us.
My whole group made it to the top, but shortly after arriving, they decided to head back to warmer ground.
And suddenly, the climb was over. We slipped and slid back down the ash, laughing as the guides ran full speed. We packed up our tent and said goodbye to the breathtaking view. The downhill is a whole 'nother challenge...and 1/4 of the time. Our thighs burned from fighting against gravity, and my pack (they were nice enough to make me carry the whole tent) started to feel like it was full of bricks.
But we made it. And I even got a picture with a cow which basically made it worth it in itself. Ha. Just kidding. But really.
So that was it. We came back to Antigua, said goodbye, and went our separate ways to enjoy Christmas with friends. :)
Feliz Navidad y Feliz Año Nuevo!!
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