“6 hours ago” by Freya Scott-Turner, BBC News
Leila Mitchell visited the volcano in 2022 with her boyfriend, Louis Martlew. At one of Central America’s most popular tourist spots, you can stand a few hundred meters from boiling volcanic lava.
Meet any backpacker in a hostel bar in Central America, there is a high chance they have hiked, or are planning to hike, the twin volcanoes of Acatenango and Fuego.
“The thing I remember most is the sound of the bubbling,” recalls 23-year-old Leila Mitchell, who visited in 2022. “Huge spurts of orange, glowing lava. It was breath-taking.”
Recent increased volcanic activity has sent the popularity of the tours skyrocketing – but it’s also made them more dangerous.
“It’s only a matter of time before someone gets killed,” says Matthew Watson, Professor of Volcanoes and Climate at the University of Bristol.
The twin volcanoes sit on the outskirts of Antigua, a city in the central highlands of Guatemala. Climbing them is considered a rite of passage for travelers visiting the country, and it is Fuego in particular that they come to see as this active volcano can erupt 200 times a day.
Capitalizing on this feat of nature are the numerous tour companies which take groups perilously close to Fuego’s simmering crater. Some are known to go within 100 meters of its rim.
Prof Watson used to take students on a yearly field trip to Fuego – but stopped in 2015 after it became more energetic. “An INSIVUMEH volcanologist advised against going up there, and we’ve not been up since,” he says.
INSIVUMEH is a government agency that monitors Fuego. Since 1999, it has recorded 79 serious eruptions – called paroxysms – with more than 47 occurring after 2015.
Six years ago, this ratcheting up of activity had tragic consequences.
On 3 June 2018, a powerful eruption caught much of the surrounding area by surprise. It buried the entire town of San Miguel Los Lotes under ash and rock.
Jonathan Dovgan Prera was on his way back to Acatenango from Fuego that day with a tour group he was guiding.
“I remember hearing the tremors. An older guide said something bad was about to happen… ‘just run’.”
His tour group that day was made up of university athletes, who managed to sprint back to base camp unscathed. “You could feel the ash and small rocks hitting you,” he recalls. “That was one of the scariest moments of my life.”
The official death toll from the eruption was 218 people, but locals say as many as 3,500 people disappeared that day.
Prof Watson says out-of-date census data explains this discrepancy, as well as the difficulty in identifying remains.
Despite his near-death experience, Jonathan has continued to climb Fuego and leads two to three tour groups a week up the active volcano.
“Explosive activity continues to happen daily, virtually uninterrupted” says Roberto Mérida, a volcanologist at INSIVUMEH. “It is precisely what attracts the attention of tourists.”
Yet many are completely unaware of the risks associated with this much-touted tourist experience.
Leila’s boyfriend Louis Martlew, 23, visited the volcanoes with her. “We signed a piece of paper and laughed about the fact that we were signing our life away.”
It was only after they returned that another traveler told them about the 2018 eruption. “I was stupid not to realize how bad that could have been,” Leila said.
“Because it’s made for tourists and it’s just a thing that happens, I thought it was perfectly safe.”
Six years on, the hike is more popular than ever.
Local guides estimate that 200 to 400 people visit the volcanoes every day, jumping to as many as 1,000 on a busy Friday or Saturday.
Matt Hartell was one of the first adventure tour guides to set up shop in the area in 1998. “We’d be the only people on the mountain,” he remembers. “Now there are 30 other companies out there every day of the week.”
Tourism is a huge economic driver for Antigua in particular and Guatemala in general. In 2018, the tourism industry brought over £838 million to the Central American nation’s coffers.
And it is those who derive their livelihoods from guiding groups up the volcanoes that are the most at risk as they spend far more time in the danger zone than most others.
“Some of my guides don’t want to take people over there” says Matt Hartell, adding that he himself tries to avoid going “whenever I can”.
So, is there an alternative?
The terraces of Acatenango, Fuego’s dormant twin, offer a spectacular view of Fuego’s lava shows.
All tours hike Acatenango first, resting in a base camp there. Those who are feeling adventurous then continue on to Fuego.
Prof Watson is baffled that tour groups continue to go the active volcano. “Given how good the observation platform from the terraces [of Acatenango] is, it seems a completely unnecessary risk.”
INSIVUMEH issues daily bulletins in Spanish on Facebook, X and its website warning of risks of injury or death to those who go too close to Fuego’s crater.
But as climbing Fuego is not illegal, INSIVUMEH can only warn of the risks and lacks the power to stop visitors from going there.
On the ground, it is not obvious who is in charge. Los municipios locales cobran tarifas de entrada para diversas partes de cada volcán y la zona circundante. El guía Matt dice que el turismo volcánico es “una mina de oro” para las autoridades locales y que el gobierno central “simplemente no es lo suficientemente fuerte” como para imponer restricciones. El vulcanólogo de INSIVUMEH, Roberto Mérida, es pesimista de que algo cambie a tiempo para evitar un desastre. “Los municipios, los operadores turísticos y el instituto de turismo han priorizado la explotación económica sobre la prevención de desastres.” “Las acciones suelen [solo tomarse] como respuesta a la tragedia”, agrega. “En este caso, será hasta que uno o más turistas mueran en el volcán Fuego”. Muchos turistas escalan el volcán sin ser conscientes de los riesgos involucrados. En respuesta, el Instituto Nacional de Turismo de Guatemala (INGUAT) le dijo a la BBC que “hace recomendaciones y sugerencias para las visitas de turistas nacionales y extranjeros basadas en información de fuentes oficiales sobre prevención de riesgos y de acuerdo con las regulaciones de cada Parque Nacional, Área Protegida o Reserva Natural correspondiente”. INGUAT agregó que no promueve el turismo “en lugares que representen cualquier tipo de peligro” para los turistas y que “no recibe ningún tipo de ingreso o beneficio de las visitas a ningún Parque Nacional, Parque Natural o volcán”. Se ha contactado a los municipios de Acatenango y San Juan Alotenango para hacer comentarios. Algunos sugieren que mejores canales de comunicación podrían ayudar. La Dra. Ailsa Naismith escribió su tesis doctoral sobre Fuego. En viajes de investigación, ha hablado con muchos guías que están ansiosos por saber más sobre los volcanes en los que han construido sus carreras. “Con la experiencia que tenemos investigándolo, puede parecer obvio que es peligroso. Pero a veces no lo es”, dice. Cuando se le preguntó si le gustaría tener más interacción con vulcanólogos y organismos de monitoreo, el guía Jonathan Dovgan Prera dijo que estaba interesado. “Nos enseñaría mucho más sobre qué esperar”. Su compañero guía Matt Hartell le gustaría ver conversaciones formales en mesa redonda entre los grupos que visitan regularmente los volcanes y aquellos con experiencia para ofrecer sobre cómo gestionar tanto el turismo como la conservación de los volcanes de manera efectiva. Pero los vulcanólogos creen que eso no es suficiente. Roberto Mérida sugiere “una zona de restricción, cuyo radio depende del nivel de actividad volcánica”. Otros simplemente piensan que el riesgo es demasiado alto y preferirían que nadie fuera a Fuego en absoluto, en lugar de escalar solo Acatenango. Alex Gordon escaló Fuego a principios de este año. Convencer a los entusiastas viajeros de aventuras no es una tarea fácil. Algunos, como Alex Gordon, de 24 años, dicen que la experiencia de estar cerca del cráter hirviente es única, y están dispuestos a correr un riesgo por ello. “La sensación de estar en la cima del volcán se quedará conmigo para siempre”, dice. Leila no está tan segura. Después de haber escalado ambos, dice que el volcán dormido ofrece vistas impresionantes y “seguiría siendo una caminata desafiante por un paisaje hermoso”. Dado lo que ahora sabe de los peligros, estaría feliz de disfrutar de las espectaculares erupciones de Fuego desde una distancia segura.