Our time in Antigua was mostly taken up by a hike to the top of Acatenango volcano. From Acatenango, it's possible to get great views of Fuego Volcano which has become quite active over this past month. The opportunity to see an erupting volcano up close was the deciding factor in going ahead. We were part of a group of 13 hikers and one guide, with the plan being to hike most of the way up Acatenango in one day, camp overnight, then head to the summit for sunrise. The walk itself shouldn't have been particularly gruelling for us, we have hiked further and higher in single days before, the challenge in this case was the damn rain coming to the spoil the party in the afternoon. The clouds simply opened fire on us about an hour before we were to end the first day, leaving us saturated, cold, and still needing to set up the tents while it was raining. Nevertheless, being in a large group made us feel like we were all suffering together and helped to keep up morale as we huddled inside the tents in our only change of dry clothes.

The sunrise views at the top in the morning were spectacular and we were lucky enough on a few occasions to see lava rocks being thrown into the air during particular eruptions. Sonja had a particularly scary and unlucky experience in the evening of the first night, which left Jansen and the rest of the hiking group very concerned for a few hours. The email she sent her family is below:

Another day - another life threatening hike.

It's almost like these hikes are trying to outdo themselves now and I think I really should stop after this last experience.

We decided to do an overnight hike to Acatenango Volcano from Antigua, Guatamala which is next to, and higher than a volcano, Fuego, which has been very active over the last month. We had to absolutely beg our way into a group that was already full but I was dead keen on it since some people I had met the day before (hiking another volcano for sunrise at Lake Atitlan) were going and they told me all about it.

The first day was never going to be easy because thunderous rains were forecast from 9am to 9pm but we actually got lucky and they were only really severe from about noon to 3pm. After we set up camp in the rain and squeezed 4 people into tiny tents to thaw and dry the rain stopped and one guy was going to pay the ONLY guide $40 to take him right up to Fuego itself. I needed no more convincing and sprang out of the tent to join them. Surprisingly, only three people of the group of 13 actually chose to go. After getting right up close to an eruption, and feeling shock waves thunder over us, the sun set, the clouds came in and it was dark. This was when we all became aware that the guide was struggling a lot with his leg, he had no safety, navigation or emergency equipment whatsoever and between us we had half a packet of Oreos, a bottle of water and three torches. The guide instantly got lost and, after we had all been sliding down a scree for a while we climbed back up to the volcano (at least it wasn't hard to find) and started again. When we got off Fuego and started to climb back up Acatenango things went from bad to worse and we were completely lost, freezing cold and wet through. The terrain went from thick forest to huge valleys that were very difficult to cross. Our guide had as much idea as the rest of us and he was taking on any suggestion we put out there which didn't fill us with confidence since none of us had a clue where to go. All I could say was, "let's just keep moving" and "we know we have to climb so why are we going downhill?" We ended up being lost for another 4 hours and I have never felt more desperate in my life. We had discussed the possible outcomes including huddling together until the sun came up or hiking down to the town which was at least another 2.5 hours away if we were walking fast on a path.

The clouds parted for about a minute, just long enough for the guide to get his bearings and enough confidence to keep trying. When we finally found the path we couldn't have been happier and the guide got down and thanked Jesus. The next question was which way to follow the path and we practically ran when the guide recognised where we were. We didn't see the camp until we were actually there (at about 10pm) as there was no fire and the one person out of the tents with a head torch on didn't penetrate the fog far. I ran up to him and gave him the biggest hug, at the time I didn't even know who it was but it didn't matter - seeing him meant that we were safe. Jansen was out of his tent in seconds, he had heard a distant call and was listening out for any more sounds of us. The whole camp was worried sick and, without any guide, had no idea what they could do so they were just sheltering from the cold in their tents and most people were resigned to the idea that they weren't going to see us again until the following day and they had gone to bed without dinner.

Unfortunately our guide then had to start cooking for the group as he was the only one that knew what was happening with the food. By the time we all finally got to sleep we had only four hours until the alarm woke us to hike to the top of Acatenungo for 1.5 hours in the dark to see the sunrise. Amazingly, everyone still got up and trudges up the mountain in the freezing morning. The other two guys and myself from the night before only had wet clothes and were hating life but, with views of lava exploding from the top of Fuego and the sun rising over Antigua, it was worth it.

When we got back to the road one girl was so elated that she exclaimed that she felt happier than on her wedding day.