(Our new found Spanish is coming along nicely for the most part.)
On to our recent trips, where have we been? Who have we met? What have the so called "Hand Holders" been up to? All will be revealed.
When we left you last, we were leaving fair Flores:
for Lanquin:
and Semuc Champey.
We originally went to Coban with the intention of staying a few days and generally checking out that provinces´ capital. When we got to Coban, the map in the Lonely Planet was wrong, the hostel we had picked out no longer existed and the next one down the list was closed because it was Sunday. We stayed one night in Coban.
Immediately we pushed on off to the wonderful Lanquin where we stayed at the always entertaining ´El Retiro´. Basically, Lanquin is the last town before Semuc Champey and the road turns to a dirt track about 10km from the town of Lanquin itself. What you get in El Retiro is a green hillside with a few cabana´s nestled around the place and a river running through the bottom of the property. A rope hangs across the river so that when you get bored of lounging in hammocks or too hot sitting in the sun, you simply hold onto the rope and get into the river. You NEVER let go of the rope, or you´ll drift down the river a long way before you´ll be able to find any way out because of the current. A few words to the wise: don´t let go of the rope.
The other fun thing to do in Lanquin is go visit the Gruttas di Lanquin (Caves of Lanquin) at around 5pm in the evening. The day myself and Ian went, it was raining so there was no one else there. No tours, no groups, just us and Cave Keeper Marco. (Personally, I like to call him Cave Master Marco.)
Anyway, the cave is this about 200mt deep and its huge. The stalactite and stalagmite formations are hugely impressive. That´s not really why you go to visit this cave though. At 6.30pm when the sun goes down, you can re-enact that famous scene from Batman. Millions of bats come flooding out of the cave when the sun goes down every night. So there we were at 6pm waiting for the sun to go down when Cave Master Marco comes over to check on us (he´s carrying the standard shotgun that everyone in Guatemala carries.) Anyway, Marco takes pity on us and decides to act as tour guide for us, he heads off to turn off the lights in the cave and takes us just into the mouth of the cave and we sit down. You can kind of feel a bit of a breeze, but its dark so you´re not 100% sure where its coming from, its probably just standard cave breeze. No, its not. Turn on your torch and there are millions of bats flying past your face.
At this point, I would suggest no sudden movements or shrieking. Bats see with their hearing, so if you´re hoping around the place, echo positioning will be inaccurate and they will fly into you. Stay still and move slowly and they won´t come too near you. It was actually really impressive when we turned on our torches because moths and bugs would fly toward the light and the bats would swoop down quite close to eat the bugs.
Anyway, El Retiro is a pretty cool place, if not a little buggy. There was a lovely American couple staying in the loft above our dorms. We were just hanging on the hammocks one evening when we see them coming down with your standard ´cup and paper insect trapping device´. Turns out they had a scorpion living in the thatch of the roof. I said that was pretty impressive since we´d only caught a cockroach in our room, to which the girl replied, ´Oh there are hundreds of cockroaches in the thatch up there, its alive. I don´t mind the cockroaches, but I just couldn´t sleep with the scorpion up there.´ The next morning it turned out that a pair of German lads staying in the loft on the other side of the Americans found a tarantuala in their room. That´s when I realised, I am a high maintenance girl. I can´t sleep with cockroaches in the room. I slept in my mosquito net that night.
Semuc Champey is probably the best place we´ve been so far. It is absolutely spectacular. We stayed in a hotel/hostel that´s right at the gate to the National Park (called El Portal for anyone planning to visit.) The drive from Semuc Champey is pretty hard core. It takes about an hour to go 9km. Most of the road is dirt/mud track and at times there are two concrete strips that the truck can get its tires on. (Oh yes, you get there in the back of a pick up truck.) There´s a bridge across the Rio Choban that has sleepers missing, just big gaping holes in the bridge. Makes the National Road Safety Authority look like Nanny State extreme.
Once you get there though, its spectacular. We headed off to do a candlelight cave tour. Romantic it a´int.
We turn up to the entrance of the cave and the guy takes us up to the cave with two candles, one for each of us. The guide had a headtorch. We wade through the water into the darkness with only our candles for light. Now at this point, I should probably remind you, water and candles don´t work well together, being in a cave doesn´t improve the situation at all. We swam through the cave, desperately trying to keep the candles above the water level. We climbed up a waterfall with only a rope. In the age old war of candle vs. waterfall, waterfall wins. No light, no safety precautions whatsoever. You HAVE to climb up that waterfall and once you start you have to keep going because the only way back is up.
At one point the guide says sit here, hold on here and jump through this hole. ´How deep is it?´you may ask yourself, you may even ask your guide. ´Just jump! Oh and don´t go to the right, stay left´. This warning comes as an afterthought and doesn´t really instill confidence. But you jump through the hole into water never going right. You´re candle is now defiantely dead and you have to make the rest of you´re way out of the cave using only the guide´s headlamp for light. (His headlight isn´t waterproof either in case you´re wondering.)
Public Safety does not exist in Guatemala.
Anyway, the other cool thing in Semuc Champey is the limestone bridge. Basically you go for an hour long hike up to a viewing point. The hike is difficulty: difficult. When you get down the other side you see something like this:
And you go swimming in this:
There are little fish that eat the dead skin off you´re feet. Its a little weird, but I´ve been told its a ridiculously expensive beauty treatment. Who knew? Its a bit weird, but swimming in the crystal clear fresh water surrounded by humming birds and jungle is just awesome. Absolutely awesome. Awe inspiring. (Took me a good ten minutes to come up with a word that described it.)
Needless to say, we loved Semuc Champey. We even got a chance to break out Catch Phrase! There was an Australian couple, a pair of English girls and an another Oz. We had an epic game of Catch Phrase which was interrupted only by the staff catching a dragon fly to show us the local tarantula. (They used the dragon fly as bait to get the big hairy spider to come out of its hole.)
Next post will detail our attempt at learning Spanish and our trip up Central America´s highest volcano. The trip up the volcano requires photos, so I´ll do all that at a later date.
Over and out, hope you´re all jealous and planning trips to come visit us!
Remember: This could be you!
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