17.07. - 18.07.2009 Semuc Champey

17.07. - 18.07.2009 Semuc Champey

We had breakfast at 7am and then got back onto the bus to drive to Semuc Champey. The ride was only about 2,5 more hours. Approximately 10km before we arrived at the hotel we had to get off the bus and continue in pick-up trucks, because the road was really bad. Katrin and I squeezed on the back seat with two of the others whereas the rest of the group had to stand in the back.

Josué distributed the rooms. Katrin and I had to share our bungalow with Frida. She's a 23 year old girl from Sweden and does a 2 month internship with Icaró Tours. I think that's very cool. She's got an office job during the week and then gets to accompany the tours at the weekend. At times I think that being a tour guide is an awesome job but then again... doing the same tours over and over? But just doing it for two months, which means doing all the trips twice, sounds really good. Maybe I should apply for an internship once my Spanish is good enough ;)

We had a few minutes to settle down in our bungalows and to put our swimming things on. First we went to the river right next to our hotel where we jumped into the water with a swing. Then we followed the river until we reached a bridge. I'm not sure how high it was but I guess about 10 meters. At first I was going to jump but then I realized that I really didn't want to and I didn't know to whom I had to prove anything so I decided not to. Josué tried to talk me into it but it was too late, I had already made up my mind.

We entered the national park where we got to look at the beautiful pools before we did a half hour hike up to a platform from where we had an awesome view. The hike had been steep and we were really sweaty. I couldn't wait to get back to the pools and finally get in. We climbed from pool to pool and were really annoyed by a girl who was "terrified". Katrin gave her the nickname Püppchen (dolly-bird). We never really found out whether she was really that scared of jumping down from one pool to another (only between 30cm to 1m) or whether she just wanted to have all the attention from the guys. I think it was a bit of both but mainly the latter. While she stood on the edge all the guys waited for her in the lower pool encouraging her and in the end Josué always had to go to rescue her. That drama took about 10 minutes at each pool and it really started to get annoying. Fortunately the thee Canadian ladies tried to distract us. One said something about synchronised swimming so we started to swim in circles and act stupid. It was a lot of fun and totally took my brain off stupid Püppchen for some time.

On our way back through the pools we had to climb up. Of course Miss I'm-so-scared was... well yeah, scared. Josué went first and pulled her up every time. One time was really funny. I just found myself another spot to get up because I was tired of waiting behind scaredy-cat. I just arrived on top of a pool and watched Josué pulling her up. Once she was finally up on the next level he walked away and Andy, the guy behind her just looked at him and said "but Josué..." It was so so hilarious.

During the whole trip Josué tried to trick me into high five him, which would have been equal to promising him that I'd jump off the bridge on our way back. He nearly got me twice but I didn't want to promise anything. Again, I didn't feel the need to prove anything to anyone. If I'd jump, I'd do it for myself! When we got to the bridge the plan was to jump and then swim back and whoever didn't jump was asked to carry our clothes. Josué told us that we needed to jump one after the other and that we needed to stay close together. I took off my clothes, really not sure if I wanted to do this, and started to queue behind Sean. Josué jumped first and then kept yelling from the water "next... next... next..." One after the others jumped. All off a sudden Sean jumped, I was the first in line and heard the word "next". There was no more time to think about whether or not I wanted to do this, so I just did it! And it was so so cool. Josué was really proud and high fived me in the water. He said I'd get a kiss for that. Yeah whatever...! Then all the other guys came to congratulate. They seemed really impressed. Sorry Püppchen, I didn't mean to steal your show :P

Dinner was good and we had really nice conversations about hundreds of books of which I haven't read a single one. But most of them sounded interesting so I wrote a few down. I'm the self named slowest reader in the world but maybe I'll find time to read one or the other on one of my next trips!

I didn't sleep too well that night and in the morning we had to wait 45 minutes for our breakfast. But we had a really cool adventure ahead of us so none if it really mattered. Today we'd go caving in the "Grutas las Marías". I've read about caving in Karl’s travel blog about one and a half years ago and he put up awesome pictures. I wanted to do that ever since and today it was finally my turn.

Püppchen had to wear a life vest of course. I did my best to ignore her. She was not going to ruin this for me. At the entrance the water came up to our breast and it was very cold. Fortunately we weren't in the water at all times. Katrin started to flirt with the other tour guide who after about two or three sentences introduced himself as Jorge and offered to be her boyfriend. We got a candle and started to climb up and down. All the flames looked really nice. One could say it was romantic. At some point we walked through a waterfall (a chilly experience) and we swam through pools. At some point Jorge started to talk to me. It was just stuff like "what's your name? Where are you from? What time is it?". Katrin turned around and told me to stop stealing her boyfriend. I'm so so sorry, what kind of friend am I?

At the very end of the cave Josué asked us to cover ourselves with mud which was supposed to protect us from the cold. We didn't really get that because the mud came off again as soon as we touched water. Some of the group refused to do it but I thought it was cool and covered myself all the way including the face. After the task Josué said something about a Mayan ritual and that we were all to blow off our candles and be quiet for a few minutes. I totally enjoyed the moment. We just sat somewhere in a cave in complete darkness and let our thoughts flow. It was so peaceful. Püppchen was scared of course but... who cares?! When we washed off the mud I realised that this was a nice beauty treatment. My skin felt so nice and soft.

We made our way back through the cave. For the last part we took a different tunnel. At some point Josué introduced us to the "toilet". It was a whole about 60 to 80cm wide (I'm bad at guessing) where a lot of water ran down. One after the other we had to go to the whole, stick one leg in and when Josué said "now" put the other one in and be flushed down within seconds. Jorge, the other tour guide, was to catch us down there. The scary part was, that you couldn't see anything, that there was no way to go slow and that you had no idea what was going to happen. Most of the group did it and it was a really cool experience. We spent a total of three hours in the caves. Too bad none of us had a waterproof camera to take with them. Unfortunately I have not one single picture of this amazing trip.

After the caves we walked up a short way to a view point. All I can say is that I was really really tired. On the way back Jorge started to talk to Tracy. Damn, there goes my boyfriend.

The last adventure on today’s program was tubing down the river. Josué said that we can do so alone or in pairs. I asked Katrin if she wanted to join me but we were so tired that paddling with the arms was tiring. We had to do a lot of paddling because the current kept taking us back to shore and we had to get around rocks. After a few minutes Jorge came by with his new "girlfriend" Tracy. I asked her if we could join, grabbed her legs and out of two doubles became a quadruplet. We let Jorge do most of the paddling. That's what you get for wanting to have three girlfriends at a time ;)

At 2.30pm we finally got lunch. I started to talk to a nice American who was not part of our group. He travelled through Central and South America on his motorbike. Katrin joined us and started "flirting" with him. I guess that's my payback - getting my conversational partner stolen. Looks like she's over Jorge already :)

I enjoyed a nice and quiet rest of the afternoon in front of our bungalow talking to our Canadian next door neighbours and our roommate Frida.

At dinner I was rather quiet I guess and not in the mood to join in the chair dance. Most of us, including me, were exhausted and had an early night.

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Part of trip: Guatemala

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