A PAIR OF RAGGED MONGRELS charged across the dusty parking lot, yapping at our feet and spinning ecstatic circles in the puddles of light cast by our head torches.
“Perfecto!” said the random man from the Internet. “Here are our guides. They always turn up when we hike this volcano. So don’t worry; if you get lost in the dark, the dogs will show you the way.”
Climbing one of Guatemala’s toughest volcanoes in the blackest depths of night, with a group of strangers from Facebook, had not been my plan when I arrived just three days earlier. The country’s undulating landscapes and high-altitude hiking trails were high on my wanderlust list, but I’d hoped to settle in and acclimatise before attempting to conquer any of its peaks. But when a woman I’d met online invited me to join her obscenely early one morning to scale Guatemala’s fourth highest volcano, in time for sunrise, how could I say no? Never mind that I didn’t know her from Adam or that the guidebooks say it’s dangerous to hike in the dark. It was an opportunity to explore and so, terrified, I agreed.
AN INSPIRING DESTINATION
Guatemala may be relatively small, but it’s home to one of the highest concentrations of volcanoes
