Overnight hiking tour to the base camp of the Acatenango volcano with potential detour to the Fuego shoulder and the Acatenango summit. The starting point is usually in Antigua.
The Volcán de Fuego (Spanish for “Volcano of fire”) is an active stratovolcano about 16 km southwest of Antigua, Guatemala. Usually, the volcano emits small gas and ash eruptions every 15 to 20 minutes.
On 4 May 2023, the morning when I hiked there, the Fuego decided to erupt and spit out a 6 km high ash cloud, which moved 100 kilometers to the west and southwest.
I booked my hike with Wicho & Charlie’s and can fully recommend them!
You find my packing list on the bottom of this post.
Hiking data
(approximate figures, excluding breaks)
La Soledad – Base Camp
~8 km, Δ 1.150 m, 2 hours
Base Camp – Fuego Shoulder ~5.5 km, Δ 550 m, 2 hours (back and forth, usually optional for sunset)
Base Camp – Acatenango Sur ~2.5 km, Δ 350 m, 2.5 hours (back and forth, usually optional for sunrise)
03 May 2023
We met at 7 am at the base of the tour provider that I chose – Wicho & Charlie’s. Here, we could rent some gear (I switched my backpack with a 50l one, got some walking poles and three 1.5l bottles for water). We had breakfast all together and got some snacks, lunch and breakfast as supplies for the hike. Everybody was advised to bring at least 3 liter water for themselves and also 1 liter water for the group (to cook).
All the preparation took quite a while, and we left at about 9:30 am with the bus to la Soledad at 2450 m altitude. Around 10:30 am, we started our hike. After 1:15 hours, we finished the first and hardest part of the hike, which mainly consisted of stairs and steep slopes. After 2:30 hours, we had our lunch break at 3200 meters altitude. A guy started his drone and it crashed immediately…
After 3:50 hours, we reached the last part of the hike, which was supposed to be “Guatemalan flat”.
At 3 pm, after 4:50 hours (including breaks) we reached the base camp at Acatenango!
We had a few minutes to relax before those who wanted could hike to the Fuego Volcano. We left at 4:45 pm, unsure with regard to the weather. It was really foggy, we could not see the Fuego, and it looked a lot like rain.
Anyway, we started our descent and as soon as we reached the floor of the valley, it started to rain. But just minutes after (when we just had put our rain jackets on), blue skies showed up! We were cheering from happiness. We started the hike up to the shoulder at Fuego where we just arrived at sunset.
It was simply beautiful – we saw the Agua volcano on the left, surrounded by red clouds, with the full moon above. In front, we saw the active Fuego, giving us a short show every now and then, and to the right, we saw the sun setting above endless land, covered with big mountains of clouds. Behind us, we had Acatango with the base camp.
We watched the sun set, admired the volcanoes and around 7:30 pm, we started our hike back to the base camp – where we arrived around 9 pm.
We found hot chocolate and dinner and were all so delighted to have made it.
I was really exhausted but happy. When I went to bed (we were only 3 girls in a 6 people hut), I had troubles falling asleep since it was so cold and my body was working from the activity. I took all blankets from two other beds so that I was covered with 6 thick wool blankets, dressed with two pants and my Patagonia jacket, and finally fell asleep.
04 May 2023
At 3:30 am, my phone rang to get up for the sunrise hike. But my body simply said “NO”. So I fell asleep again and woke up again at 5:15 am. Already at dinner the day before, I discussed with the others that joined the Fuego hike, that sunrise from the camp would be beautiful, too. Also, it would give me more time to make photos.
When I woke up, the volcano was really busy. It obviously was rumbling the whole night, but I couldn’t hear it thanks to my ear plugs (speaks for the good quality of Oropax, I assume…). I went outside and made tons of photos, everyone who did not join the sunrise hike, was assembled and marveled at the volcano show.
We then had breakfast (rice and beans burrito), the team that went to the sunrise hike slowly returned, and we packed our stuff.
At 7:30 am, we started the descent and after 1 hour, we already reached the place where we had lunch yesterday.
At 11:30 am, we left back to Antigua where we arrived at 12:15 at Wicho & Charlie’s. We unpacked, gave back our gear rentals and then I headed back to my hotel, checked-in and finally got a shower.
In the afternoon, I got myself a pizza, then started to pack for the next morning, got out again for a cake and chai latte and around 6 pm, I went to bed – dead tired.
Packing list for the overnight hike 
Clothes
- Proper footwear
- 2x socks
- 2x long pants (to layer for summit and the night)
- 1x short pants (for ascend and descend where it can get warm)
- Functional, short arm shirt (as extra warm layer)
- Sports shirt (to wear when it’s warm)
- Merino longsleeve
- Down jacket
- Hardshell / Rain jacket
- Beanie / Headband
- Buff scarf
- Gloves
Other equipment
- Medium backpack (40-50 liters) + rain cover
- Hiking poles
- Headlamp
- Snacks
- Hat
- Sunglasses
- Cash
- 3x 1.5 liter water bottles
- Camera
- Power bank + charging cables
Hygiene kit
- Toothbrush and toothpaste
- Hand sanitizer
- Toilet paper
- Ear plugs
- Sunscreen
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