Climbing acatenango
Which company should I go with?
The first step is choosing the right company for you. There are a lot of different ones you can go with. Most tours follow the same schedule:
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get picked up from Antigua
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get ready at the companies headquarters
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climb up, with frequent breaks
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lunch
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climb further
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arrive at the base camp
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optional extra hike to Fuego
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dinner
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sleep
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sunrise at the top
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breakfast
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hike back down
While a lot of it is the same, there are also some big differences. In price, for example. In my opinion, the cheapest ones did all the important stuff, so you’re not missing out. For me, the important aspects are the kind of base camp and the clothes you can get. First, the base camp. There are some companies that offer big or small tents. We’ve heard absolute horror stories about this. Being able to hear every little breeze of wind, sharing a tent with loads of people, having to carry a lot of stuff up the mountain, and above all: the cold. As you’re high on a mountain, it gets EXTREMELY cold up there. Trust me, you don’t want to be in a tent. This is also the reason for the clothes. If you didn’t pack a lot of warm clothes, it is vital to choose a company which includes winter jackets, sweat pants and other stuff like warm socks, hats and gloves. Another difference is language: companies that use local guides often don’t have English speaking staff. This is not a problem however. In our experience you speak enough of each other’s language to understand each other, using some gestures. And there is always someone on the tour that speaks enough Spanish to translate.
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We went with Soy Tours. We slept in small, two person cabins at the base camp, which was ideal for us. This meant it was warm enough. They already had everything you need, like sleeping bags, up there, so we didn’t need to carry any extra equipment up (the pillows were terrible though, so if you need your pillow you can bring an inflatable one). Which was great, cause it was already hard enough to manage carrying our clothes and water up. Soy tours included a winter jacket, sweatpants, fluffy socks, a warm hat, gloves and scarf. With a few layers of our own, this was ideal. It was one of the cheapest tours, while at the same time we made sure it included everything we needed. The only downside of Soy Tours might be that you’re going up with quite a big group, around 20-30 people. This means you’re going to have to wait for the group every once in a while. For us, the extra breaks were very welcome and there were more than enough guides, so it was not a problem.
While you’re definitely not going to experience true comfort there and everything (especially you) will be absolutely disgusting, going with this tour did mean we had a somewhat comfortable experience. If you want to challenge yourself, you can find tours with much less comfortable circumstances, including ones where you have to carry all the camping equipment up yourself. But trust me, the hike up is hard enough as it is.
What should l bring?
Once you’ve booked your tour, the next step in preparation is deciding what to bring. First things first, it is important to bring a good backpack, with the extra straps for hiking. You’re going to have this thing on your back for six hours, so it needs to be comfortable. If you’re hiking with a friend, you can choose to carry one big backpack and a smaller one for easy to grab stuff. This way you can get a break from the heavy backpack every once in a while.
With packing, you have to make sure to get a good balance: you need to bring enough, but everything you don’t use you will have to carry up and down. It is important to know yourself. Since there’s so much advice on the internet, it is easy to get caught up in what others think, while you know your body best.
It starts with water: you DO NOT want to pack too little water, since you will sweat a lot. But the internet convinced us to bring liters per person (we brought 7 liters of water and a liter of gatorade), which meant we had 2,5 liters left that we didn’t drink, which we had carried up and down for no reason. The bag is already heavy enough as it is. If you know you need a lot of water, definitely bring it. But really think about if you’re going to drink all that. With some companies, you also need to bring some water for cooking, so make sure to take that into account.
Now I’m immediately going to go against my own advice and tell you to bring TONS of snacks. We met one girl who had already finished all of her snacks at the start and offered her some of ours. I've never seen anyone so happy with one oreo. Obviously don’t bring anything you know you won’t eat, but you’re going to need all the energy you can get. While the meals are good, the snacks are really the ones that can help you get through the day.
Last item you will need to bring are clothes. Don’t worry about bringing clean clothes, they will literally get disgusting within seconds. While it is super cold at the top, it is extremely hot at the bottom so the sweat will be dripping down your whole body when you’re not even 1km in. Which is a great way for all the dust to be able to stick to your body as well. I would suggest just bringing multiple layers that you can easily move in. It is nice to start in shorts and a top and then switch to long pants halfway through. Don’t worry about bringing pajamas: you’re going to sleep in all the clothes you brought anyways.
Tip: a lot of people suffered from altitude sickness up there. If you’ve got access to altitude pills, definitely take them.
Tip: if you’re doubting about hiring the walking sticks, hire them!!
Should I do the Fuego hike?
When you arrive at the base camp, there is an option to do an extra hike to Fuego. Personally, we were exhausted and used this time to nap. For us, this was the right choice. We would NOT have fun on the extra hike. It is an extra five hours and the whole way is super steep. When we went, Fuego wasn’t erupting and the sky was super clouded (as seen in the picture). This definitely should influence your choice. Since we didn’t go I don’t have any first hand experience, but from all the stories I’ve heard I can draw a conclusion: if it’s clear and Fuego is erupting, it is 100% worth it for the incredible views. If your situation is more like ours though, do not do it. All the people coming back said they were absolutely dead, having ventured on a very hard hike, halfway in the dark. And they didn’t even see anything! We were very glad we didn’t go. A lot of people who did Fuego were also too tired to do the sunrise hike, which was a pity because by then it had actually cleared up. So if it’s clear and you feel like you can handle the extra hike, do it. But if it’s not, save your energy for sunrise.
All in all, it is an incredible experience, even if you don’t have the magical view of Fuego erupting. Just make sure you’re prepared through the steps of this article and you’ll have a tough, but great time. Good luck!