I Hiked an Active Volcano in Guatemala 🌋
Mango Volkan
Waking Up in Antigua 0:00
You wake up in Antigua, staying at Adra Hostel where you have made friends from the Netherlands and Wisconsin. After a night out with Guatemalan friends, you pack up and head for Panajachel, known as Gringotenango, eager to see Lake Atitlán and its volcanoes.
Lake Life and Retreat Prep 6:00
You take a boat across the lake to San Marcos, wandering through cafes and meeting travelers preparing for a yoga retreat called Gaia Circle, hosted by Bill, Alejandro, and Yiannis with eight participants. You settle into a tent at a retreat center in Tzununá with a direct view of San Pedro volcano, and the retreat soon begins with yoga, a cacao ceremony led by a Guatemalan shaman, and a sweat lodge called a Temazcal.
A Tattoo Before the Climb 29:05
In San Marcos you get your first volcano tattoo from an artist named Diego, done freestyle over a fresh coconut, with the design drawing on Aztec ornaments. That night in Antigua you walk the busy Friday streets, skip the drinking, and find meaning in an alchemical image of a serpent and a volcano, reading it as a symbol of built-up energy finally exploding into transformation.
Climbing Acatenango to Fuego 31:01
You join about thirty to forty people on a bus to Acatenango, planning to camp overnight before pushing on to see Volcán de Fuego. The climb proves brutally hard, through jungle terrain and freezing air, and you call it the hardest climb of your life. Reaching the trail toward Fuego after an hour and thirty minutes feels like one of the most powerful places you have ever stood, and afterward you settle in with your Dutch friends to eat what you call the best food you have ever had.