Guatemala Guide
Around Antigua
Volcán de Acatenango
The looming Acatenango Volcano makes for a vigorous but splendid hike. The nearby town of San Miguel Dueñas is the best starting-point for climbing the volcano. Buses head out to San Miguel every half-hour or so from Antigua.
The trail starts as you enter LA SOLEDAD, an impoverished village perched on an exposed ridge high above the valley. It's best to take a taxi or tuk-tuk here from Antigua and to get an early start. Alternatively, sporadic pick-ups run from San Miguel Dueñas.
The trail up the volcano itself is a pretty exhausting climb, a thin line of slippery volcanic ash that rises with unrelenting steepness through thick forest. Only for the last 50m or so does it emerge above the tree line, before reaching the top of the lower cone. To the south, another hour's gruelling ascent, is the main cone, accessed via a great grey bowl that rises to a height of 3975m. From here there's a magnificent view out across the valley below. On the opposite side is the Agua volcano and, to the right, the fire-scarred cone of Fuego. Looking west you can see the three cones that surround Lake Atitlán and beyond them the Santa María volcano, high above Quetzaltenango. When it comes to getting down again, the direct route towards Alotenango may look invitingly simple but is in fact very hard to follow. It's easiest to go back the same way you came up.