Acatenango

Wow, it’s been a hot minute, but I’m back finally! And hopefully with a few over the course of the next week, because it’s already Guatemala debrief, I’m already in Vietnam, and I have a lot I could talk about, so stay tuned.

Today though, I’m going to take you on a short trip through a lot of pictures we got from this incredible side quest we got to do a couple weeks ago. Like I said in a past post, Guatemala is just beautiful. The jungleness makes it so richly green, the rainy season makes it always misty, and the way the elevation and mountains affect the clouds makes it seem like you’re in the sky the entire time. Something else though, is that there’s some volcanos. Big ones. Active ones. Ones that you can climb. And sleep on top of. And almost freeze to death in the attempt. And one of them is called Acatenango.

 

By the Numbers

• Summit elevation: roughly 13,000 ft
• Hiking distance: 6 miles
• Elevation gain: 5,100 ft
• Temperature on top: very cold and windy
• It’s not an active volcano, but it happens to be right next to Fuego, which is very much an active volcano
• The company we went with recommended we carry up at least four liters of water: three for us and one for them to cook food and drinks for us with.
• Ascent took six hours
• Descent took 3 (or so)

 

The Ascent

Here come the pictures…

 

It’s super unfortunate that videos are really hard to upload on this site, because my personal favorite is the Timelapse of the sunset the night we got to the top. It was probably the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen. Pictures will have to do, but of course they can never do full justice to the true beauty of creation…

 

Base Camp

We stayed the night in some shelters about an hours hike from the summit. Our guides cooked up some spaghetti and hot chocolate, and it was amazing. We woke up at a lovely 4am (I think, maybe earlier) the next morning, and hit the trail to the top to watch the sunrise.

 

Sunrise

Once again, really sad I can’t send the Timelapse of the sunrise, but we got some good pics anyway…

 

You could see Antigua in the valley below the volcano, jungle beyond that, mountains in the distance, Fuego erupting to your right, and then way off just below the horizon you could see the coastline. Crazy stuff.

 

One thing I’ve started to see about the Bible on the race is that there are parts of it that a lot of people simply can’t put full context to or understand deeply because of lack of experience. For example, it’s a rare person in the world that has lived through what David writes about in the Psalms when he’s running for his life. Because of this there’s a limit to the depth of understanding and connection we can get from passages like those. But it’s times like sitting on top of a volcano watching a sunset that unlock in me and bring to life the words from Psalm 19, “The heavens declare the glory of God and the skies above proclaim His handiwork.” Cause you’re sitting there watching the most beautiful thing in the world, and then you think that even this magnificence glorifies God – not only that, but was carefully designed by Him – and you have a new love for the beauty of the face of the Lord.

 

In Christ,

Jackson

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