The sound of my alarm pulls me out of the deep peaceful sleep I’m in and brings me back to reality. It’s 6am and we are climbing Acatenango Volcano today! As I slowly wake I’m feeling a bunch of mixed emotions, excitement and complete anxiousness. I can’t believe I’m doing this…… We arrive at “OX” adventure touring around 7 am and get the lowdown on how the next 24 hours will progress and how we need to pack our backpacks. Then we all hop into a couple of small buses and head out to the starting point, I feel a hint of excitement as we leave…. ????
When the bus doors are opened we are bombarded with people hiring walking sticks. After careful examination I pick mine and then grab my carefully packed backpack. I look over at David who is slightly struggling with his backpack, being the gentleman he is he has packed a lot of my things and not to mention a lot of the group food into his backpack making it easier for me to hike up this crazy volcano. ????
The hike starts with an altitude of 2,400 meters. I am exhausted after the first ten minutes and wish I had grabbed two walking sticks instead of one, it’s going to be a long day!! This is intense, mentally and physically I am already in pain. David hands me his walking stick along with a look of you can do this!! I think I am the only one who seems to be sweating profusely. Our first group stop couldn’t have come any earlier and I take the biggest guzzle of water as my throat is completely dry. I turn to David and whisper in his ear “ I think I’ve made a massive mistake” he laughs at me and encourages me to push on. Seriously without his constant encouragement and occasional bum push I don’t think I would have made it!! We then set off again up the steep incline and as the altitude slowly rises so does my tiredness. The muscles in my legs are quivering, my arms ache and my hands hurt from the walking sticks, I’ve discovered muscles I didn’t know I had. The voices in my head are telling me I’m crazy and I have to keep reminding myself that I can do this and then I start to sweat again. ????
It takes us about six hours till we reach base camp traveling through farmland, cloud forest, high alpine areas and over volcanic soil. The view of Volcano Fuego is insane and as she screams out a loud roar we can see the lava ooze out of her she looks amazing and nothing like I’ve ever seen before and I’m so glad I’m doing this!! Hikers amnesia they call it : “The minute it’s over you forget the pain, you forget the misery of scaling that mountain with a heavy pack strapped to your back. You even forget how utterly exhausted you are!!” After claiming our tents, the people we choose to share our tent with and the setting up of our tent areas we all relax drink some wine and later enjoy a rather large portion of pasta for dinner. The light show of Volcano Fuego is fantastic screaming at us all night but I’m tired so very tired and in bed by 8pm!! I sleep on and off and again am marveled by the fact that David can sleep peacefully in any situation….. I do hope the lovely young couple we are sharing the tent with are okay with his snoring…
Then morning comes and we are woken by a knock on the tent frame . It’s 4am and we have fifteen minutes to get ready for the hike to the summit. It takes my body a little time to wake up as it’s telling me to get back into bed, you haven’t had your coffee yet!!! I ignore the voices and keep going. Surprisingly I’m managing this hike quite well. With only a few stops for more breath and through the most difficult volcano dirt I shuffle my feet to the top. With a final altitude of 3,971 meters its windy, freezing cold and I find myself putting on all the layers I’ve taken off on the way up and there it is in all its glory that view, that landscape, that sunrise!!! Holy moly I think to myself, this is why David and I are here. Why the aches and pains I’m feeling all throughout my body don’t mean a thing right now. It’s something I cannot even put into words but truly an amazing sight. We sit in silence on the top of Volcano Acatenango watching in oar. Wow!!!!!
Then we start making our way down the summit back to base camp for breakfast and to pack up. We slip and slide most of the way down, a snow board would have been handy! ???? We finally arrive back at base camp and I enjoy a well deserved cup of coffee.
The hike back down to where it all began takes us about four hours. Sometimes I think it was better climbing up this volcano than coming down what with the sliding and slipping, the extremely steep decline and the ache in my toe that’s killing me!! My knees are in absolute agony and I’m concentrating so hard not to slip over. I can hear David behind me slipping and sliding all over the place, we seriously need to get him a new pair of shoes….. Finally we make it to the last stretch of this gravel road and I can feel the pain in my body escalate…. and my toe god damn it is still killing me!!!!!! The pressure and angle of my foot has thrown my toes into the top part of my shoe causing excruciating pain. She’ll be right I say to myself as I raise my walking sticks with absolute pride “ I made it” I scream crossing over the last bit of dirt. Walking across the road to hand over my backpack I can feel my legs shake beneath me and the bus ride back to “OX” is a quiet one.
I’m glad I did this extremely difficult hike. I proved to myself that I can do it, that put into a challenging situation I can work through it and my relationship with David is stronger and more supportive than I really ever gave it credit for.. ????????
Tomorrow is going to sore day and I wonder how I’m going to kick my leg over on the motorbike when we leave Antigua ????????????
