Volcán de Fuego
— — a column of fire against the night.
Not only on a wall.
“The most active volcano in Central America rises 3,763 metres above the highlands west of Antigua. Fuego erupts in small Strombolian bursts every few hours, throwing rock and ash above the rim and lighting the cloud below. Trekkers camp on the saddle of neighbouring Acatenango to watch through the night. The June 3, 2018 eruption took the village of San Miguel Los Lotes. The mountain has not been quiet since.
Volcán de Fuego, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Volcán de Fuego stands at 3,763 metres in the central Guatemalan highlands, about 16 kilometres west of the colonial city of Antigua. It is part of the Sierra Madre stratovolcanic chain and shares a saddle with the higher, dormant Acatenango. Fuego, Spanish for fire, is one of Central America's most continuously active volcanoes, monitored by INSIVUMEH, the Guatemalan geophysics institute. Eruptions typically begin as Strombolian bursts at the central crater and occasionally escalate to larger paroxysms with pyroclastic flows down the southern flank toward the department of Escuintla.
The June 3, 2018 eruption produced pyroclastic flows that buried the village of San Miguel Los Lotes on Fuego's southeast flank, killing at least 215 people with several hundred more never recovered. It was the deadliest volcanic event in Guatemala since the 1929 eruption. The volcano has remained active continuously since the 1999 reactivation. Smaller paroxysmal episodes occur every few months. INSIVUMEH posts daily bulletins. The Acatenango trek, on the neighbouring peak, is the standard vantage from which travellers watch Fuego erupt overnight.
Climbing Fuego itself is not permitted because of ongoing activity. The standard way to see the volcano up close is the overnight trek on Acatenango, the dormant cone immediately to the north. The hike begins near La Soledad village, climbs roughly 1,500 metres over five to six hours through cloud forest and volcanic scree, and reaches a high camp at about 3,600 metres. Most travellers go with one of the licensed Antigua-based outfitters. Conditions can change quickly and altitude makes the climb harder than its distance suggests.