This is a very ancient volcano, it's title of discussion if it is wether a volcano or a mountain. It is considered a volcano by the Guatemalan asociation, because of it's sportive importance. This impressive volcano has a really breathtaking view of the Guatemala's volcano chain. On the feet of this volcano you can find a hot springs' touristical spot, of course a great place to stop by after the exausting hike. It is joined to other volcano called Santo Tomás or Pecul. It has a really deep rainforest, where you can listen up a lot of birds and the sound of the loneliness. It's one of the least visited volcanos in Guatemala, eventhough it's really accessible.

Getting There

It has several routes to climb it up, anyway it has 3 main routes, but the most common starts at the hot springs called "Fuentes Georginas" to get there you can get there from the CA1 road as from the CA9 road, anyway you must go to Quetzaltenango, if you take CA9 you must take the road to Quetzaltenango and detour to the right before reaching Zunil village. If you take CA1 you must go from Quetzaltenango to the same place. Well, I have a correction to make here, the information I had was a little dated, the most common route now is the one that climbs from the road at a point called "Alaska". To get to this point, you must follow the same roads I mentioned before, but getting to "Alaska". (Not the real one)

Red Tape

There are no red tapes, but you must ask to the people in the place about the mountains conditions and weather the days before. One thing you must take really seriously is keeping inside the path, because there are still some terrestrial mines... not something to worry about if you stay near the main path.

When To Climb

The best months are from October to early April.

Camping

Camping is really hard in Zunil, you can't place a tent there, because it's cone is totally exposed, it has no crater, shelter, or similar place to camp. If you access it from Fuentes Georginas you can reach a place called "El Aserradero" which is the only clear (with no trees, about two hours of hiking from Georginas) spot in the mountain you can go west and hike about 10 minutes to a perfect camping spot in the mountain.

Miscellaneous Info

Remember this volcano is not really visited, so be sure to take a look at this, the forest is really closed, so you must be carefull with your backpack, there are a lot of plants that pass across tha trail, so you can get stucked a lot of times there, and it's really boring and exhausting getting off... also, the path is really slippery, so if you, will do it on the rainny season, to take some good boots would be really nice... I would prefferably do it on November or December...