Metro Atlanta man describes surviving four nights alone, lost on Guatemalan volcano – WSB-TV Channel 2

Waliany said he got lost May 21 while hiking Fuego Volcano in Guatemala.

He said he was having trouble acclimatizing to the altitude and told his friend to continue without him. He said he would catch up later.

“The ego got ahead of me a little bit at that point,” Waliany said.

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While climbing the slippery, ashen summit, Waliany said he sprained his ankle. It took hours to limp to the top. He said that by the time he arrived, his friend had gotten off with the rest of the tour group.

He waited for Waliany for nine hours, but he never came down.

That’s when the friend called the family and Waliany’s sister, Emen, began contacting search and rescue teams, the embassy and posting flyers online.

“I just don’t want to think about what could have happened,” Emen Waliany said. “Because it breaks my heart. He’s my older brother. He’s my only brother. He means the world to me.

His brother said he walked 14 hours a day.

“I was making paper trails and everything so that someone would find me,” Waliany said.

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He said that one night he slept in a tree, the other nights he found shelter in caves.

He said he drank rainwater and survived a 400-foot fall from a cliff.

“I started crying. Especially after my second fall, but when I tasted my own tears, I thought: I can’t cry right now. I have to suck it up,” Waliany said. “I just couldn’t focus on the negative aspects of how I might die. I was so much more concerned with what I could do for a living.

Along the way, he said that man’s best friend had appeared on the volcano.

“He was an angel in disguise,” Waliany said.

He and the dog began seeing people heading to work as they approached the base. Then they saw the police.

“They immediately understood who I was,” Waliany said.

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They took him to the station, fed him and doctors checked his health. Waliany was able to call home.

“It broke me a little, I’m not going to lie. I could hear in my father’s voice that he was crying, and in my mother’s voice,” Waliany said.

He returned home the following Sunday. He said he won’t be hiking or traveling anytime soon.

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