SEMUC CHAMPEY!!

This past weekend Molly, Thayer and I headed to Semuc Champey. We took our half day on Friday to embark on the 8 hour drive north. Before boarding the transport we stopped for a quick lunch at McDonalds, and then at a camera store to buy a Sponge Bob Underwater camera (that quite unfortunately did not actually work…so I have no pictures of our awesome adventures – the pictures you see here were mostly taken from Google images of Semuc…) Anyhoo! We spent all day Friday driving...which sucked, especially since we only made it to Lanquin, a small town an hour OUTSIDE of Semuc…but Semuc MORE than made up for the awful almost 20 hours of driving throughout the weekend.

Semuc Champey is a national park in the Coban region of Guatemala whose name means “Sacred Waters” in the Mayan Kekchi language…and it is incredibly easy to see why it was given such a beautiful name. Semuc itself is by far one of the most amazing places I have ever seen or been to in my life (and that’s saying a lot!) We began Saturday by hopping in a pickup truck and riding the last hour from Lanquin to Semuc Champey. Semuc can only be reached via one very rocky dirt road, which unfortunately means that pickup trucks are really the only mode of transportation taken to and from it. So! We set out Saturday morning on the back of a pickup truck to reach our destination.

Thayer and I riding on the pickup from Lanquin to Semuc

Once we got to El Portal, our hotel, and put our stuff down, we started our tour of the park with an hour and 15 minute long, completely uphill hike. All I can say is THANK HEAVENS I did NOT read the sign properly (as I thought it only said 15 minutes!) The hike wound around and all over basically a jungle, which lead us straight up to the mirador (lookout point) over which you could see the entire park – aka 6 glorious, amazingly beautiful, crystal clear, fresh water pools that each flow into and out of each other. Completely breathtaking.

The pools at Semuc from the mirador!

From the mirador we hiked back down to relax and swim in the pools for hours. We brought Sponge Bob along – unfortunately to no avail – but still had fun trudging around with him at our sides. We swam in each of the pools, made friends with our tour guide, Darwin, and jumped off lots of tall rocks :).

One of the pools we swam in ;-)

After swimming in the pools (which unfortunately only lasted 2 hours…we probably could have stayed there for 2 whole days…) we made our way back for lunch, and then floated down a lazy river. On the way back from the lazy river, we actually jumped off a bridge into the river – SO scary but SO freaking cool – words can’t describe (it definitely made me ready for bungee jumping whenever I get there!!)

Riding over the bridge that I jumped off of! (Our hostel is that tree house looking place on the left...)

Next came the part that I was most looking forward to and yet most terrified of out of the whole trip: the candlelit cave tour of the KanBa River Caves.

The candlelit cave tour is precisely what Semuc is known for (ok besides the gorgeous pools that we had already swum in). Each person is given their own candle and in a group of 10-20 people you enter the cave where you are asked to: swim with a candle above your head (several times ranging anywhere from 10 feet to probably 40 feet), propel down a small waterfall with your candle in your mouth, and shimmy your way through an opening roughly 2 feet wide as water is falling on you from above – all while keeping your candle lit! Now for those of you who don’t know…I’m fairly claustrophobic, and a little afraid of the dark. Needless to say after hearing countless tales from other volunteers and fellow travelers about how amazing the caves were and how they were one of the coolest things they had ever done, none of their words could make me feel any better or any less anxious about the task ahead of me on Saturday afternoon. We entered the caves around 3:30 and spent roughly an hour wandering through them, trying to keep our candles lit, and trying not to FREAK OUT about the fact that we were in a cave, completely in the dark with only candles (which were quickly burning out) and with no clue as to our next move. As far as experiences go, it was BY FAR one of the coolest things that I have ever done in my life. Also as far as experiences go, I’m happy I’m able to say I did it and it is now behind me!

After the multitude of adventurous things we had done in one day, we exited the caves, went back to the hotel and after a little dinner and Bananagrams, we immediately went to sleep. If you ever find yourself in Guatemala be sure to check out the “sacred waters” of Semuc Champey – but give yourself more than a day to accomplish all the amazing things that Semuc has to offer y DISFRUTEN! :).