Once we arrived in Semuc Champey we were greeted by a few agressive teenagers who were all trying to convince us to come to their hostel. We initially wanted to stay at Zypher, which was recommended to us by a lot of travelers. Unfortunately we couldn’t book it, because of the power outtage. We finally decided to stay at a nearby hostel called Oasis, which was just down the hill from Zypher on the river.
After check in we went to sleep for a few hours, because we were extremely tired. That night we went to Zypher for some drinks, which turned out to be good fun. We went together with Jordan, a laidback American guy who we met in our room.
The nex day we checked out town, called Lanquin. A small, mountain town in the middle of the jungle. We walked around on the market and we walked up to a church. Later we had lunch at a restaurant Lonely Planet had recomended. Afterwards we went to Zypher, as it was Ausralia Day. We basically started drinking around 16.00 and didn’t stop till around midnight. It turned out to be a fun night with lots of drunk Australians.
No sleeping in for us the next day though, as we had booked ourselves onto a tour to Semuc Champey, a national park about an hours drive away.
We were still a bit hungover when we waited outside the touring office to wait for our pickup. We were all loaded on to the back of a pickup truck. The drive to the actual park was about an hour. The road to it was unpaved and fairly bumpy.
Once we arrived we got into our swimming shorts, we were all handed a candle and we went into the caves. We were told by the touring agency to wear proper shoes, but upon arrival the guide told us we could wear flipflops too. Once we entered the cave he told us we could go on bare foot too. That was a big mistake.
The caves turned out to be half underwater and a lot of sharp rocks were sticking out underneath the surface. I cut my feet several times which was really annoying. Apart from that, the experience in itself was amazing. Swimming, climbing, crawling through these dark caves with only the light of our candles was really cool.
About an hour later we got back out of the caves. We then got into a tube and floated down the river for about 15 minutes. Along the way local boys were throwing cans of beer at us, to make the ride more enjoyable. Once we got out of the water we were allowed to jump of a 12 meter high bridge. I hesitated at first, but then decided to make the jump anyway for some adrenaline.
Afterwards we had lunch at the side of the road where a woman was cooking chicken with rice and beans. After lunch we got our shoes on and we hiked for about an hour through the national park. We went to a lookout point that overlooks the many pools that form Semuc Champey. Once we got down we went to swim in the pools.
Later on we grabbed a ride back to town. We had a large dinner at a hostel called El Muro. After dnner we went to another hsotel called Zephyr for a few beers. We didn’t stay out too long as the next day we were catching a shuttle to Flores.
Jan 25th 2015 – Feb 28th 2015
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