A big part of volunteer life in Guatemala involves trips; weekend tips, day trips, night trips. Many of the larger trips that are available often take up most of the weekend and require transportation back during a week day. This of course would involve missing a productive day of both construction and classes, the main reasons for my presence in Guatemala. Wanting to minimize the loss of week days to trips, I set out to discover trips that would avoid this. Fortunately I already knew that I wanted to pursue hiking of some natural wonder due to me enjoying the hike that I did in Semuc Champey so much. Guatemala is fortunately blessed with an abundance of volcanoes, many of which are imminently hikeable. I had always admired people who recounted their tales of climbing of mountains such as K2, the inescapable but mysterious drive that pushes them to reach the summit, despite all the hardships. In my mind the sheer awesomeness of climbing a volcano, mattered much more than that they were fairly short. To boot there are 4 volcanoes in Antigua's vicinity, Fuego, Acatenango, Agua and Pacaya. Wanting to pack in as much as possible I became enraptured by the idea of ding 2 volcanoes in 2 days.
Asking around it immediately became obvious that without a big group of people, Agua would pose severe security risks and the most likely outcome would be that I would get robbed. Fuego and Acatenango are neighbours, so scaling one would give you a great view of the other. Every day after having had dinner, i would venture forth into the darkness, searching out specks of light that might be still open agencies. Due to the sheer number of tourists in Antigua, a myriad of tourist agencies have also sprung up to serve them and offer trips to many different places, both in Guatemala and other countires in Central America. Finding tours to Pacaya was easy enough as all the agencies offered it, and it was simply a matter of price. The other volcanos were either not on offer or required you to sign up with a certain number of people or were simply outrageously expensive. I kept asking around until someone who was departing in the coming weekend handed me a brochure for a travel agency that had fairly reasonable prices on it, such as 8 dollars for a Pacaya tour versus 10 with other agencies. Intrigued I set out to find it on Wednesday night. Having told myself that I simply needed to walk straight, I for some reason convinced myself that I needed to turn left instead. What followed was me walking in some sketchy parts of Antigua, until I reached a part that did not even have the trademark cobblestone streets. I kept walking until I finally walked along the church where me and freddy usually wait for the bus. never have I ever been so happy to see a church!
The next day I tried again and succeded because I walked straight where I was supposed to walk straight. I was quoted a very attractive price to climb up Acatenango, considering that the whole trip was likely to take approximately 12 hours. Buoyed by my find I counted my quetzal reserves and I decided that I needed to change some of my Canadian dollars. Friday afternoon, I ran to the bank where i had exchanged my euros. They informed me politely but firmly that this was not possible. I then tried walking to Citibank, reasoning that a branch of such an international bank would surely be able to convert my hardly exotic Canadian dollars. Reaching it at 20 minutes past one, I saw a notice posted on the door that the bank had shut at one and it would remain closed for the following 2 days. Growing increasingly exasperated since I did not want to arrive at the travel agnecy too late and discover it was not possible to book anything at such a short notice, I returned back home and decided to extract money from my card. I had by then also realised that any currency exchange required your passport which I had not brought along either.
Having run out of time to get some money from my card before my Spanish classes started, I resolved to completing the necessary tasks after they would finish ie after six. By five however the sky had turned as gray as the cement mix at my construction site with rain pouring endlessly. Now I had already walked in the rain twice without appropriate clothing items and both times I had to take my t-shirt off, for it became heavy with all the water it had absorbed. having taken a tuc-tuc home and then having run back to find an ATM, I had doubts. Certain ATMs had either experienced card theft or card cloning. Additionally I was uncertain as to whether local ATMs would accept my Canadian debit card. I also had a credit card but I was not 100% sure of the PIN, making me quite anxious. Nonetheless I stuck my card in the ATM, pressed the buttons on the side and accepted the charge. The ATM refused to hand out more than 1000 quetzals and I had a moment of panic, figuring the machine had swallowed up my card. I almost puched the machine out of frustration until I remebered I had actually put the card back in my wallet. Walking out both the person using the neighbouring machine and the security guard gave me looks of bemusement and suspicion.
Finally, having reached the Shibusin agency the good news was that they were still open. The bad news was that the woman who had given me a quote for Acatenango had failed to actually ask and double check the quote she gave me. As she did so in front of me, I could understand from the tone of her voice that she had made a mistake. Putting the phone down she said that I actually needed two more people. Disappointed I admonished her in Spanish, telling her that what great hopes I had for the weekend and that i was the only person I know crazy enough to do 2 volcanos in 2 days, one of which required 5 and a half hours to climb.
I still booked Pacaya though, and woke up at ten to five in the morning to prepare myself. The day was very cloudy so brought no sun screen, just water and something to wear if the weather was cold at the apex of our climb. I was the last to be picked up and the drive took longer than I expected. I was joined in my challenge today by two dozen other tourists, making me grumble at the touristy nature of this trip and how much more challenging and personal hiking Acatenango would have been. This feeling was amplified as children started to offer us crude, wooden walking sticks and a legion of horses greeted us. As all of us commenced the climb we walked among horse poop, old and fresh, with the first quarter of an hour spent carefully managing to avoid stepping in some of the more obvious piles. Walking on, the climb started to strain me slightly and I gasped for air despite not being that tired yet. Onwards and onwards we climbed with varying inclines, but always circling upwards, making me question why people dont just try to walk straight up. However incredible views of the other 3 volcanoes started to appear on the horizon, giving me a welcome excuse to stop and take photos. I was already at an altitude above some of the msit that was forming, which as it did would move quite rapidly to obscure the views, requiring me to snap even quicker.
Finally I reached the dead zone, where there was no more vegetation, just heaps of volcanic rock. Pacaya is an active volcano and has been continously active for quite some time, meaning tourists are only let up to a certain distance deemd safe. One tourist had ignored the distance and simply walked abit closer not even to the summit and had died after being hit by a rock from the volcano. Nonetheless, I still got a great view, and the I could see smoke from the top of the volcano. Pervasive mist had started not only the volcano but also the tourists, and you could physically see patches of mist glide through the air. the guide led us up a very steep crater, at the bottom of which was a dense forest, shielded from the volcanic eruptions.
Knowing now that we were about to head back, I was looking forward to the descent, usually something much more painlees than the ascent. But I was wrong. The guide did not take back down the winding path around the volcano, but rather directed us to run down the volcano! The first part was down a wide patch of a thick layer of volcanic rocks and dust. It was steep enough that many were able to jump down with both feet, sprint down, but only suffer from boots filled with dust. The second part was more thrilling because it was more dangerous. A steeper descent, with a much narrower path, and a thinner layer of dirt that allowed us to slide. Instead of running, sprinting and jumping carelessly, the feeling was as if gravity was tugging on you, and all you could was try to balance yourself. Several times I was unable to do so and landed on my backside, sliding down uncontrollably, and trying to get myself back up by using my hands to slow the descent. I had not done anything similar since I was a young boy and it felt incredible.
The rest of the descent was fairly mild and we swiftly climbed back on to the bus that brought us there. The kids that had tried to sell us sticks before the climb, were now of all things in a football mad country, playing baseball, with one of the sticks they tried to sell us. Despite the unsuitability of the equipment the kids were able to make some good hits, and several of the American tourists joined in the game. Despite me not feeling tired, I dozed off on the bus, banging my head on the window, yet stll feeling content by the whole experience and feeling determined to climb the highest volcano in all of Central America; Tajumulco.
