KIRAN GOES PLACES
After a couple of days in Antigua, we arrived at Wicho & Charlie's office at 6am, got handed a coffee and a juice shot, the breakfast of champions, then headed into the kit room, a giant jumble of coats, gloves, hats and bags with everyone scrambling to find something that fit. The company lends the gear for free, and then it's a game of Tetris trying to fit it all into your bag. There was even a DIY trail mix station, I went 90% chocolate.
Thrift-shopping for free hiking gear before the climb, Tetris-packing it all into one bag.
Pancakes for breakfast, then a short drive to the trailhead and straight into volcanic ash, dark black sand underfoot, passing local farmers using the rich volcanic minerals to grow crops. There are two volcanoes here, Fuego, unpredictable and constantly spitting lava, and Acatenango, the inactive one you actually climb and camp on. Normally you can hike across to Fuego from base camp, but it had been unusually quiet for a few weeks, no one could predict the next big explosion, so those crossings were cancelled for our group.
The terrain kept switching, black volcanic gravel one minute, lush green forest the next, and the altitude started kicking in properly, less oxygen reaching your muscles making completely normal effort feel much harder. Lunch, a vegetarian pasta salad carried up and cooked by the guides, felt like a small miracle by the time we reached it. After lunch we collected our big bags, loaded up by 4x4 and left waiting at a certain point, containing two days of food, clothes, extra layers and water. Genuinely helpful not having to carry it the whole way, though carrying it for the final stretch to base camp still hurt.
Four and a half hours after starting, heavier bags and higher altitude, we wound around the volcano and saw it, Fuego spurting smoke with low cloud drifting beneath it.
What a ridiculous view. Base camp, Fuego smoking away in the distance.
Base camp itself has chairs and fire pits facing straight at Fuego, a kitchen area, and cabins up the hill with proper bunk beds. The sunset that evening was one of the best I've ever seen, we gave it a 9.5 out of 10, the only thing missing was visible lava. As the sun went down we lit a fire, and just when it felt like it couldn't get better, out came hot chocolate and marshmallows.
The next morning was brutal, freezing cold, pitch black, a baby wipe shower (I'd had far too many of those this trip), and up at 5am for the sunrise hike to the summit. The volcanic sand made it properly hard going, like trudging through snow, two steps up and sliding one back down. But the view behind us as the sun came up over the clouds was unbelievable, and you could just make out the grid layout of Antigua far below.
The final push to the summit, volcanic sand and all.
The rim of Acatenango, everyone converging for the same sunrise.
We pushed for the final hour and hit the rim. I'd never been inside the crater of a volcano before, Fuego smoking away opposite, black sand snaking down the slopes, clouds sitting beneath us as the sun rose, easily one of the most beautiful things I've seen with my own eyes.
Inside the crater as the sun hit it. Never seen anything quite like it.
We made it. Exhausted, but so amazing.
Coming down is the reward, volcanic sand means you can either shuffle slowly or commit and run, so I ran, flying down something that took hours to climb was pure joy.
The group that made it, new friends by the end of it.
This wasn't quite the experience I'd pictured, no full lava explosion like the photos you see online, just smoke and flickers. But that's nature. What we got instead was a genuine challenge, constantly changing landscapes, lasting memories with new friends, and sunsets and sunrises surrounded by giants. I'd do it again the exact same way in a heartbeat.