Acetenango Volcano Hike Part 1 (Failure)

5 Apr 2021 by Amby

Antigua

Guatemala

Wicho & Charlie's

Sev and I spent five weeks in Guatemala, and the whole reason we went at all was because some of my friends had posted these amazing pictures from volcano hikes near Antigua. They looked so cool, I simply had to go. And our hike up Acetenago and Fuego did not disappoint! Well, that’s not entirely true.

The dog at Wicho & Charlie's

We had booked the hike for our first weekend in Antigua with a few of our friends. We used Wicho and Charlie, a volcano tour company in Antigua that had cabins on the mountain for guests to use with a great view of the erupting volcano, and provided all the cold-temperature clothing and food necessary for the two day, one night hike.

Sev and I woke up early to arrive at the Wicho and Charlie meeting area around 7:30, and Sev made a nice pasta breakfast before we left (thanks Sev!). We also provisioned ourselves with chocolate and other snacks for the hike. At Witcho and Charlie you can pick out a bunch of clothes to stay warm, kind of like shopping, but everything is used. Then they gave us a backpack and hiking sticks and run down how the hike was going to go.

We left around 8 am by van and made it to the start of the Mount Acetenango trail around 10. That’s when things started to go sideways. Guatemalan authorities had suddenly closed the mountain to visitors. There had been a new government directive, in light of COVID and the approaching Holy Week, which limited the number of tourists to 100 per national attraction. This directive apparently was extended to the giant mountain. So we were turned away before we even started.

Sev and I spent the rest of the day watching movies and eating the chocolate we had packed for the hike. We also walked to a town square in Antigua and saw Fuego erupt from a (very great) distance.