climbing up to 3 976 meters - Acatenango

After the Pacaya-weekend I had the opportunity to drive the next weekend to Guatemala City and climb the next volcano named Acatenango.

My alarm woke me up at 4:20 am on Saturday (22nd of January 2011) and we started our drive at 5am. I was really tired, and it was cold.
Our climb started at around 7:30 am, and I everytime feel going to die in the first 30 minutes.

start of the trip

Now I could explain something on my own about Acatenango, but the writer on Wikipedia made it very well and understandable, even for not so good englisch-speakers, so I will copy it...

Wikipedia:
Acatenango is a stratovolcano in Guatemala, close to the city of Antigua. The volcano has two peaks, Pico Mayor (Highest Peak) and Yepocapa (3,880 m) which is also known as Tres Hermanas (Three Sisters). Acatenango is joined with Volcán de Fuego and collectively the volcano complex is known as La Horqueta.
The Fuego-Acatenango massif comprises a string of five or more volcanic vents along a north-south trend that is perpendicular to that of the Central American Volcanic Arc in Guatemala. From north to south, known centers of volcanism are Ancient Acatenango, Yepocapa, Pico Mayor de Acatenango, Meseta, and Fuego. Volcanism along the trend stretches back more than 200,000 years. Although many of the centers have been active contemporaneously, there is a general sequence of younger volcanism, from north to south along the trend.

how steep

 I think I needed in the end 5,5 hours and I almost have been the first of our group on the top. But only because two guys get lost after the first 15 minutes and were waiting one and a half hour for us somewhere we never passed.
You have read that Acatenango has two peaks, but I didn´t know that. I reached the first on my own, so happy being on the top, I started making photos and walked around. In the morning the sky was clear, but during climbing the sky got covered with clouds. And the second peak was inside the clouds. But then came wind and blow the clouds to the side, so I could see the Pico Mayor and couldn´t believe it...
There was another Peak, so much higher then the one I was standing on at this moment. And I saw people climbing the other one, they seemed tiny like ants!!
I started swearing in german: Scheisse, das kann doch ne wahr sein. Was isn das?

Marvin, Jonas, Emperatriz, Kenny and me

But I didn´t stopped, because everytime I stopped, I needed time to warm up my muscles again and it was harder to climb.
So I moved on and walked down the first peak to finally climb Acatenango. The highest peak was only made of sand and some bigger stones at the top. With every step I slidded down a bit. Half way done, I saw two guys coming around an edge of the first peak (a very strange direction)...after a while I realised, that this were Marvin and Jonas. I thought they were waiting since a long time on the top. But I coulnd´t hold my advance. They are both sportsmen and passed me very soon (and so easy). I arrived the peak maybe 10 minutes after them.

half way done of Pico Mayor and view to the first peak

This peak was so different from Santa Maria, because there were no plants at all. Sand and more sand, nothing but sand. And clouds all aroud us, so we coulnd´t see any other volcano around. Kenny and Emperatriz reached the top probably 20 minutes after me. Jorge stayed at the first, lower peak. We made pictures and suddenly heard a bang and saw a brown cloud rising between many white ones. We saw an eruption of Fuego, the neighbour volcano. How amazing was that!!! But you can´t imagine how cold it was up there, at 2pm. It was freezing, but I burned the skin in my face.

Fuego eruption

next volcano - Pacaya

Last weekend on Saturday the 15th of January I went to Antigua with an australian friend. We met up with a friend of her, coming from the capital and drove to the volcano.

Pacaya is still active and the climb is very easy. Around the volcano is the Pacaya National Park and it wasn´t allowed for us going there without a guide.

The volcano is 2 552 meters high. When you climb you are mostly walking on old ash then soil. Trees have no crown, only a few branches at the trunk. Our guide told me that the crowns burned up during the last big eruption in May 2010.

I can´t say something like, we needed only 2 hours to climb, because you can´t reach the top (and we went very slow). We went up to a point from where we were able to have an awesome few to Fuego and Acatenango (other volcanoes) and a great few over Guatemala City. This city is huge!!!

Then we went a bit down, made it like sandsurfing, crossed the solidified field of lava to two holes with so hot steam coming out of the earth. Our guide was very happy, that we bring some marshmallow. He speard them on a branch, holded the branch for 3-4 second into the hole and voilá - done!! They also seemed a bit burned, after this short time!!

More about Pacaya, wikipedia ;)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacaya

the marshmallows

me in front of Pacaya

me, Emanuel and Alia

4 volcanoes

Pacaya

xmas

Just to let you know a bit what I did for Christmas. We were out the 24th december, had some firework at parque central in Xela (Aaron felt like a little child buying all the firework stuff, haha) and then we went to La Rumba to dance a bit. But we were almost the only ones, so not so long night!

Next day I invited last minutes some friends to my house...actually Ivos apartment, where I slept for 3 nights. We cooked spaghetti with Marcus, Ryan, Alex, Steve, Ivo, it was like a great christmas dinner. We didn´t went out, because we knew, that we are going to the beach the next day.

So we drove with Marcus car (good thing that he is driving from the States to Peru and is right now in Xela) to Tulate, a more unknown beach at the pacific coast, but so much better than Champerico!!
Less trash, more nature and the sand was less hot! We also had a good time coming back from drinking some beer and seeing the car inside the water.
I was really relaxed in the first moment:
Marcus, your car...
Yes, what is? Is it inside the water?
Aehm, yes...
What?????? Shit!!!!
And we started all running, thinking, shit shit shit shit. I stopped a bit in front, Marcus and Alex were running and safing the car from the ocean. It was a bit wet inside with the side to the ocean. I made some pictures, which was good, now we can show all, that we didn´t think in the flow. And everbody is laughing a lot about that!

just arrived

ahhhhhhhhhhhh, the car

the group: Steve, Ryan, me, Marcus and Alex

crossing the river to go to the street