Volcán Tajumulco — Local services in San Marcos

Tajumulco is the highest mountain in Central America. The peak is sitting at 4'202 meters. It is important to get used to the altitude before going on a hike there. It is for instance recommended to stay at least 2 days somewhere around 2000 to 2500 meters before. I did a hike with a guide. We started at 3'000m from the small roadside town of Tuichan and walked up to base camp around 4'000m to spend the night. That way we could watch both the sunset and the sunrise from the peak. The views were specular. The total distance was 18.2 km / 11.3 miles and a positive elevation of 1460m / 4800 ft over the 2 days. The hike isn't that difficult (I would qualify it as a moderate one) but the heavy backpack and the altitude can make it challenging if you're not used to this kind of activity... Note that there is an entrance fee of Q30 (included if yiu take a guide) collected by people with some sort of uniform at the beginning of the path about 30-45 min from the road. Overall, this experience was great and I highly...

Be careful if you go here - ask the locals if the way is safe. Nobody told us there was a conflict until we were being shot at. The locals then told us to take cover because we were walking slowly, oblivious to the fact that bullets were hitting the mountainside. We thought it was fireworks, which are common in cities year round in Mexico/ Central America. We should have realised it wasn’t safe when we saw men sitting with guns talking, sand bags, and ammunition casings on the ground, but we would never have thought somebody could shoot at us when it’s a normal tourist hiking trail. They told us 6 people have died so far, and some days they shoot every bus and car that drives by on the road. They took around 10...

Central America's highest peak and yet not as popular as other volcano hikes in Guatemala. Foreign tourists, probably a group or two maximum a day. But the many locals seem to be visiting, which was nice to see. Hike itself isn't that hard first day, to basecamp. 2nd day, dawn hike to the top is pretty hard because of steepness and also due to it being high altitude- over 4000m. But once you're on the top, the view is really amazing. I think it's an underrated hike that will become more popular in the years to come. Be prepared with a lot of warm clothes by the way. At the top is really cold, even colder than Acatanengo. Bring all the warm...