LISTEN TO THE EPISODE:
APPLE PODCASTS | SPOTIFY | GOOGLE PODCASTS
Finca el Amate in Guatemala: Hiking an Old Lava Trail on a Volcanic Farm
Visiting a farm that has petrified old burnt-out lava trails that you can hike and be right in front of an active volcano is one of the unique activities someone can do, and I got the chance to do it, here’s my full experience hiking an old lava trail on a volcanic farm. Finca El Amate is one of the more popular farms in Guatemala, Finca in Spanish really means farm.
Finca El Amate
Farms could be absolutely enormous, and it does not have to be technically a working farm. It could simply be this huge private area and this particular one is called Finca Amate, what makes this particular, I guess you could call it a park, so much different than any other farm anywhere in Guatemala is that the majority of it has old lava trails that you could hike on.
Finca el Amate is located literally right in front of Pacaya Volcano. Pacaya volcano to this day is an active volcano. It is absolutely incredible. You don’t know when it’s active or how it’s active, but you can go and visit Pacaya and you can literally roast your marshmallows on the lava while you’re sitting right there on Pacaya.
Finca Amate obviously does not have that because it has old burnt-out trails. So there is no more real lava. It is actually old lava trails that you can walk on and hike all around and because of the old burnt-out lava trails, the fauna and flora are different and fascinating.
Like they have all these spiny, different kinds of plants. There are also a lot of wild horses that live on the farm. So they’re not Mustangs. However, they are definitely wild horses that you could see as well.
Restaurant
You could go and visit their restaurant too, which if you’re going to be eating food, and they have decent food, they have all kinds of stuff for you, basic stuff, hamburgers, pizzas, fries. However, you do need to take into account that it will take you a while. So if you’re going to go for lunch there, make sure that you’re not starving by the time you arrive so that you could enjoy the laid-back atmosphere of this sink-up. I really recommend visiting it.
How to Get There
It’s only about an hour’s drive if you’re staying in Antigua, Guatemala, or about 30 minutes, depending on where you are in Guatemala City. You should take a day trip to go and visit this cool place. Go hike on their petrified trees. They’re burnt-out old lava trails. One other little hint.
Hiking an old lava trail
You do not need to hire a guide to do the hikes. The people at Finca el Amate will tell exactly you what to do. Once you pay for an entrance, you have access to everything and that is a really important thing because we thought we would need to hire somebody, but you do not.
Camping
Another cool thing is you can camp there, and it’s really safe to camp there because it is a protected area.
It is a private area, so that means that there are people that are guarding it. It’s closed off, so it’s also really safe to go camping there, so this could be a great option but for camping there are bathrooms but nothing else. The restaurants are only open I think on the weekend, so you’ll need to bring your own food. You could cook your own food with camping gear as well.
Conclusion
If you want to go and visit a really cool place, definitely recommend visiting Finca el Amate in Guatemala, and I guarantee wherever you live in the world there are cool little private reserves, private farms, and all these different kinds of areas that you could find right there by your house, and they’re usually not expensive.
You would just have to pay an entrance fee and just bring your own food for the picnic.
How to subscribe?
If you subscribe to my podcast you’ll be the first one to know when a new podcast is up!
Did you enjoy the podcast? Leave a Review!
Leave a review on Apple Podcast! They are one of THE most important factors for podcasts, and it’s super easy to do:
- Click on “View in iTunes” on the left-hand side under the picture.
- Leave an honest review.
- Thanks, you’re super!
