SURPRISE & DELIGHT

Adventurers flock to Antigua Guatemala for its proximity to majestic lakes and volcanoes. But as David Amsden finds, the historic capital's stylish lodgings and new restaurants are a welcome foil to its more rugged delights.

- David Amsden

THERE COMES A MOMENT on any long hike when you begin to wonder why you ever thought said hike was a good idea. On a two-day trek to the summit of Acatenango, the third-highest volcano in Guatemala, this point arrived at a particularly humbling juncture: the instant my girlfriend, Erin, and I arrived at the trailhead.

It was a temperate morning in March, the dry season. Standing on a hillside studded with the vivid purple blooms of jacaranda trees, we craned our necks to take in the 13,045-foot Acatenango. The ascent up its conical face promised to be an immersion into Guatemala's natural order, taking us through an array of ecosystems, from farmland to cloud and alpine forests to the volcanic crater.

But like the many visitors who make the climb, Erin and I were drawn to the excursion primarily for the experience on offer near the top: camping on a bluff overlooking a neighboring volcano, Fuego, which is the most active in Central America and is known to regularly paint the night sky with streaks of lava.

We expected the climb to be strenuous, but it was just the kind of endurance challenge Erin and I like to seek out while traveling. Even so, years of hiking hadn't prepared either of us for this trail, which rose up and up at a barbaric pitch, disappearing into the clouds with no turns to temper the incline. With each step forward, our feet sank into scree so loose that we slid backward a few inches-a sensation less like hiking up a mountain and more like running in place, in quicksand. Within minutes, I was panting. Within an hour, the question of why we thought this was a good idea had given way to a more troubling one: Were we actually going to make it?