Semuc Champey

Well, I got over my moral dilema and went to Semuc Champey with Judith. It was a trip of a lifetime and it was so fun having my Guatemalan mom along (even with having to scam her hubby).

I feel like I shouldn´t even try to describe the trip because it would just be cheesy and could no way come close to doing justice to how beautiful Semuc Champey is, but it was so cool that I have to talk about it!

The trip to Semuc Champey was a lot of time in a bus followed by a long bumpy ride standing in the back of a crowded pickup, but worth every second of travel. We stayed at a hotel called Las Marias that was really more like summer camp with cabins, a canteen, and a big rope swing over the river. They had a pet monkey there named Pancha who they took in after a forest fire left her stranded. They also had Marimba music and dancing in the evenings. It´s official: I am absolutely to worst salsa dancer in the world.

From the camp, we could walk to Semuc Champey. It is a national park consisting of a series of pools and waterfalls on top of a natural limestone bridge over a rushing river. It´s surrounded by lush rainforest. It was so fun swimming in the pools and climbing up and down the small waterfalls! On the walk back to camp, we took turns jumping off the bridge into the freezing river. I just can´t seem to avoid the peer pressure to jump off tall things in this country!

The next day we walked to the Kai-ban caves for a tour. It started out with a dip in the river from a huge swing (I totally belly flopped) and a hike up a large waterfall to the cave entrance. In the entrance we were each given a candle and followed the guide in wading through knee deep water that quickly became so deep we had to swim. We followed the guide up and down rope ladders, through a small opening filled with rushing water, up a rope ladder in the middle of a gushing waterfall, and into a large cavern. We, of course, also stopped to jump off some high rock outcroppings into a deep pool. All of this in the dark cave lit only by candles. After exiting the caves, we took an inner tube trip down the river back to camp.

The whole trip was so much fun. I was talking to Judith about how I felt like I was in ¨The Goonies¨ on the cave trip. She said she knew the movie and totally agreed. However when we were back home and I told Pepe about feeling like I was in The Goonies, Judith jumped in to explain to him that goonies are those cute fluffy animals that turn ugly and crazy mean when you feed them after midnight. I guess she had a very different experience in the caves than I did!