Lanquin & Semuc Champey

Whew…………………one hella of a ride! After dealing with bouts of diarrhea for 10+days, I went on a journey to Semuc Champey.

It was an exhausting 8-hour shuttle ride to Lanquin. I swear I’ll never take a shuttle for more than 3-hours again. They jammed packed us in and they only make 1-20 minute potty and lunch break unless you ask. Luckily, llomotil plugged me up. The scenery was on the most part spectacular. I was disappointed to see all the slash and burn. They are destroying the land and their way of life just like the ancient Mayans. History is repeating itself.

We arrived at a cheap, but new place with only four rooms. We had two single beds in our room with nothing else. The walls only went up ¾ of the way to the ceiling. Luckily we had the only two occupied rooms. Never thought I’d have conversations with someone two rooms over. No fans, No fluff. The bathroom was a notch above an outhouse. It was quite hilarious to have conversations with your travel mate while we both sat on the toilet! But what could I expect for $60 for a 3-day, 2-night trip? The shower was cold water and just some plastic tubing with lots of pressure. When I turned it on the entire tubing wiggled out of the two nails holding it up. It was like a huge white snake was after me in the shower. You could hear me scream and giggle all the way to the street! My friends came running after me when I screamed, but when they heard me giggle they knew I was alright.

We immediately walked to the caves just before dark. The humidity was killing me and I was drenched. The caves were slippery and dark, but fun. One it got dark, they turned the lights off to the cave and you could see bats flying around in the camera flashes. We had a non descriptive dinner at a local comedor. I wasn’t impressed with the dicey town of Lanquin.

The next morning we were off to Semuc Champey. We took an open aired pick-up ride for 45-minutes. You hang onto the built in racks. It was a fun but bumpy ride. We arrived at El Portal Lodge to wait for our guide for the day. I kept wishing were staying there. The surroundings were beautiful.

We walked into the entrance of the park right next door for a grueling 50-minute hike straight up to Mirador. With improvements over the years, they had some board walks and ladders which made the hike less slippery. The view of the seven pools below was spectacular. They water comes out of a cave system and are at varying heights from higher to lower before it flows and becomes a river. We then hiked straight down to the pools. We swam for over an hour! You could see little fish nibbling at your toes. It tickled! The water was sparkling clean and a delicious temperature! We would scooch on our rear needs across the licken rocks to the next pool below. My scooch became a full blown slide down the mini waterfalls. I ended up bouncing ten feet below on my bum. Ouch……..I bruised and scratched my tailbone on the rocks, but laughed the whole way down. Finally the third time, we all decided to purposely slide down in to the final pool below. Our guide gave us instruction on how to do this safely. We hiked another 30-minutes back to the lodge where we were given inner tubes. We walked a short distance to the river with inner tubes in hand. We got in one by one for our leisurely float down the river. Several others had joined us so we were about twelve people by now. All that was missing was an ice chest full of beer or cocktails. It was delightful! We saw several groups of local children and adults swimming in the nude and enjoying the day too. A pick-up truck was waiting for us to take us back to the lodge where we finally had a late lunch. Pablo and Emily brought stuff to make veggie sandwiches for the four of us.

We then walked again for a unique caving experience. I’m not even sure how to describe this. It was an adventure. Maybe you could call it “Cave Swimming”. We were given a candle to navigate our way through the dark cave system led by a local guide. The currents were strong, the water freezing, the rocks were sharp, and waterfalls were over our heads. Sometimes you had to climb up a slippery ladder to the next level with water running swiftly over your head yet navigating the candle with your other hand being extra careful not to let the flame extinguish. This sort of adventure would never be allowed in the USA. It’s too dangerous! Later I heard stories about the number of tourist injured or killed every year on their holidays here.

We then took another 45-minute pick up ride back to Lanquin to our dingy lodging. It was an eight hour jammed packed day. I could barely move due to exhaustion. But I managed to keep up with my Dutch friend who is in is 40’s and in good shape and Emily and Pablo who are in their 20’s. They are fearless and they did a couple of things I did not do. Like riding a water shoot in the cave, climbing up a rope under a waterfall and doing a cannonball in the cave! Emily hit her head on a rock going down the shoot in the cave. She could have really gotten hurt.

On the ride back the shuttle company over sold the number of seats. We were jammed in like sardines. My friend Pablo had to run back on a bucket with a pillow most of the way home for 8-hours. He was a good sport. For two hours, I had the high middle seat next to the driver. I had to it sideways and all I could see was his face in the review mirror.

The things I do for an adventure. I have to remind myself I’m not 20 any more and I wonder why I do it. All and all………………a worthwhile and memorable trip to Lanquin and Semuc Champey!