After a couple of weeks of traveling through cities, it was time to get back to the great outdoors. Now in Guatemala, we decided to climb Acatenango, a volcano close to Antigua. We were told that it was possible to see live eruptions from Volcán de Fuego from the campsite. We thought it was worth a try.

We started the hike by climbing up a hill. It turned out that the hill lasted for about 9 kilometers straight. It was quite the incline. The trek took us through three different types of forests.

After hours of climbing (and translating for the guides with a dubious level of detail), we finally finished the hill and gave thanks for flat ground. We had ascended so far that we were now above many of the clouds.

We reached our campsite in the late afternoon and got all settled in.

We had a perfect view of the volcano from our campsite. It was quite close. Indeed, at one point we thought that a large thunderstorm had begun. We heard quite the boom, which we assumed was thunder. It turns out the immense blast of noise was a volcanic eruption. Such outbursts continued uninterrupted for our entire stay on the volcano.

I had an outburst of my own a couple of hours after we reached camp. I jumped up and said “Wow!” with great enthusiasm. The group became very alarmed. What had happened? Were fire and brimstone raining down? Were we doomed? Absolutely not. I had become dangerously stoked on the cloud formations. Behold!

It honestly felt like we were in heaven. I had never seen anything like it.

The volcano was cool for sure, but at this point the clouds were my favorite part. So many interesting shapes and colors. It was glorious.

As the sun began to set, it became possible to see the explosions from the nearby volcano. However, my friends the clouds obstructed our view.

An hour or so later, the clouds parted and the real show began. Molten lava flew out of Volcán de Fuego with fiery intensity. It was impressive.

Cheers came from our campsite with every eruption. A rating system was soon devised to classify the explosions.

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After each eruption, we could see lava run down the side of the volcano for hundred of meters. It was extraordinary–truly one of the highlights of my life.

Despite all the excitement, we forced ourselves to go to bed early. A 4am wake-up call was scheduled for the next morning. We planned to climb to the peak of Acatenango to see the sunrise.