It is hard to find the right words to describe our hike to San Pedro Volcano. Incredibly disappointing, unfair treatment, piss-poor communication are some of the phrases that come to mind. I would highly highly highly discourage any person from doing this hike. Unless your ideal way to spend a hike is to get almost to the summit and get turned around by police who tell you that bandits who assault tourists have been spotted in the last couple of days.

What made this experience doubly frustrating was that throughout the 3 hour ascent upwards (it is a straight incline), we passed multiple police officers who did not say anything to us about the bandits or the trail closing. Furthermore, the “park rangers” (although the term “park rangers” is generous. A more accurate description would be “crooks wearing t-shirts” in the park office who made us pay exorbitant entrance fees into the park), did not let us know about the bandits nor mention the fact that we couldn’t make it to the summit. These “park rangers”/”crooks wearing t-shirts” treated the hikers very disrespectfully and rudely. All in all, an unfortunate way to spend a day. Do not do this hike!

Today we did the volcano hike. We took the tuk-tuk to the trailhead (just say Volcan San Pedro) for Q20. We paid our admission fee of Q100 per person. This is not cheap, but the good thing is that a tour guide is included! Not only for the first 20 minutes, but for the full hike to the top and back -- that was a nice surprise! We were just with a group of three, so it was almost a private guide. The trail to the top is quite steep all the time, so be well prepared. It takes almost three hours to reach the top. The view from the top is awesome. The trail back down is relatively easy, we made that in less than 2 hours. We tip the guide well as he was with us all the time. We took a tuk-tuk back to San Pedro (Q20 for two persons) and had an excellent lunch at Cafe Atitlan.

We could recommend the volcano hike, but only if you are sufficiently fit. Please start your hike early in the morning, to enjoy the best view.

this is a really strenuous walk. the altitude goes up 1200m and the road is slippery in rainy day. Going down is equally hurting knees. start early if you need to catch a shuttle later