From the ancient pyramids of Tikal to the beautiful paradise that is Semuc Champey

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Not many photos here again due to the camera theft… the few photos (only the Semuc Champey ones… the Tikal ones were pinched off the internet) we have here were kindly donated by a friend we made in Semuc Champey… thanks Sally!

Ok so the bus from the Belize-Guatemala border into the city of Flores was.. um.. hair raising to say the least. We waited 3 hours at the bus station (a single room with one fan and no airflow and a lady at the desk who spoke not a word of english). A bus finally turned up at the alotted time and locals started loading up. We still had no luck with communicating so we waved our ticket about and got a nod that we assumed meant that this was indeed the right bus. We chucked our luggage in the hold of the old clunker and boarded with relief that we were on our way. The bus was eventful from the very start, with the driver having to clutch start it while rolling it down the hill.. hilarious! So the old beast finally fired up with a great belch of black smoke and we hit the.. bumpy.. road. The ride was only 3 hours but we were on the edge of our seats the whole time. The bus filled up with locals as we stopped many times and of course the locals loved staring at us as we were the only gringoes on the bus. The bus driver careened along at top speed the whole time, only slowing down for the randomly placed speedbumps... well, he slowed down for them most of the time. We attempted reading for a while but couldn't read properly since we were bouncing around so much. I ended up putting my book away and holding the curtain closed so i couldn't get too much of an idea of how fast we were actually going. Every now and then there would be a huge bump and swerve to the side and the bus would rock like crazy (this meant the bus just took a pot-hole without slowing down) and us gringoes are sitting there wide eyed while the local passengers are sleeping soundly like this was the most normal thing in the world. With much relief we finally pulled into a bus station and we had to assume we were in Flores. There are three parts to Flores, two on the mainland (Santa Elena and San Benito) and the rest is a tiny island that you reach via a causeway. We had decided to stay on the island so we quickly made our way out of the dodgy bus station in search of a taxi. We had no Guatemalan money (quetzals), so we had to ask our taxi driver to take us to an ATM.. which made us feel nervous to say the least! He turned out to be a nice guy though and he safely delivered us to the hostel we had chosen and kindly translated for us to get us a room.

Next morning we headed out to explore pretty Flores. The island city is very small, you can walk from one side to the other in less than 10 minutes! All of the streets are cobbled and none of the buildings are more than 2 storeys. The view from the back of the island over Lake Petén Itzá is very picturesque and the sunsets are stunning. We sorted out our bus and headed off on our day trip to the ancient Mayan city of Tikal. Tikal dates back as far as 400BC, so it was amazing to see these huge structures that still looked in such good shape. The site is situated in lush jungle and some of the pyramids are still covered with vegetation, with only a hint of the roof comb still poking out the top of the trees. Many of the pyramids have been excavated though, the main plaza was very impressive, with two huge pyramids facing each other at more than 40 metres tall each, they looked very grand. We couldn't climb the Temple of the Jaguar in the grand plaza, it was closed to visitors. So we climbed the pyramid opposite, which had a makeshift wooden stairway built up it's side. The view from the top was awesome. We explored the North Acropolis, where we found an intriguing set of stairs leading down to a tunnel that was blocked off and locked.. why is all the interesting stuff not available for public view! From the small opening we could see down to a brilliant stairway with a big demon carved into it, there was even still remnants of the green and red paint that was used to decorate it so long ago. The Central Acroplois on the other side of the Grand Plaza was a labyrinth of rooms that went nowhere and smelled like bat poo. We headed away from the man area and off to the Plaza of the Seven Temples, which was a football field sized area, ringed by pyramids. Here again we found a locked door leading into the base of a small pyramid, oh so tempting to try and get in there. We stuck our camera through the crack in the door and tried to use the flash to illuminate the mystery beyond, but to no avail.. we got only a picture of a doorway with blackness beyond... creepy! We explored the plaza alone, there wasn't anybody else around. I headed off to climb some steps up the back of a pyramid, when I got to the top and into a small room and realised Aaron wasn't with me, I quickly ran back down to find him... the pyramids are very creepy by yourself! Behind one of the seven temples we found another locked mystery. This time it was a large hole in the ground behind a pyramid, with a makeshift corrugated iron sheet put over it. We got down on the ground and lifted the lid and saw a doorway leading into the back of the pyramid. We could have snuck into that one as it wasn't locked, but I think I would have chickened out in the end! We climbed several more pyramids that day and saw some beautifully preserved stone carvings, took some great pictures too but of course they are now gone. We climbed up Temple 5, which had crazy steep steps, almost like a ladder. From the top we were so so high and the view over the jungle was beautiful.. just a sea of green trees with the very tops of the pyramids showing through the canopy. While we were up there we heard a huge noise and I immediately thought it was a jaguar! But on listening closer we realised it was the howler monkeys calling to each other through the jungle. We stayed up there for a while and listened and felt so lucky to be there for the experience. We spent a full day exploring Tikal, looking for more places of intrigue. Before we left that day we even managed to see a real live woodpecker (looks just like the cartoons!), a little toucan and some monkeys... brilliant.

Next day we said goodbye to Flores and hit the road for Semuc Champey. Our 'bus' which was actually a mini-van was packed to the gills, including Aaron sitting in the front seat practically sitting on the knee of the American guy next to him. The ride took 8 painful hours in these squishy conditions. We stopped at a shopping mall in Coban for lunch and we all thankfully hopped out of the van to stretch our legs. We all went in the mall and came back out to find our van gone! The driver hadn't told us he was going anywhere, he probably spoke spanish anyway. So we hopefully waited where we had left him and the van eventually came back.. with a different driver. So we hit the road again and headed towards Lanquin and on to Semuc. We stopped in town and let off most of our passengers. Aaron and I got herded onto a ute with our luggage... we chose the dangerous way to travel.. standing up on the ute tray.. fun! We drove another half hour up and down a winding dirt road, through the beautiful jungle. We finally arrived at our hostel, right on the doorstep of Semuc Champey. Semuc Champey is a natural 300m limestone bridge and the river Cahabon passes under it. Above the bridge is a series of stepped, deep turquoise coloured pools to swim in. The place where we stayed was on the banks of the river, such a picturesque setting. We arrived too late in the day to go to the pools, so we checked into our room and headed to the river to explore. Aaron found the first rock he could to jump off of course.

In the morning we headed off to Semuc with a few people from our hostel. First we hiked up the hill, for the birds eye view. Check out the photos, there are a few good pictures there. The view from the top was beautiful, you can see all of the pools and the amazing coloured water. Hanging over the viewing platform we were lucky enough to see a teeny tiny hummingbird nest, with the mother sitting on it warming her eggs. The nest was woven out of cotton fibres and when the mother flew away we could see the little eggs in there, just gorgeous. We headed on down the hill to the pools. We went to the entrance of the underground cave where the river was roaring through. Our guide told us that in no uncertain terms was anybody ever to try going through there! The view was amazing with the water rushing through the hole and mossy vegetation hanging off the roof. We headed to the first blue pool and jumped in, the water was lovely. Whenever you stayed still for long enough, the little nibblers (tiny fish) in the water would crowd around your feet and eat the dead skin.. the weirdest feeling! We swam from pool to pool, some of the drop offs were high enough to make jumps from, so most of our group did dives into the next pool down. It was such an idyllic spot, it felt secret and hidden and for a little while we felt like we were the only people for miles.. very special.

Aaron takes over from here... We headed back to our hostel for lunch and 2 of our group decided that the caves we're a little too adventureous for their likeing and opted for sunbaking. Way to wuss out Coley. No matter i went with my new Brazilian friend, we asked what footwear we needed, the guide looked at our havianas and said "Si, no problemo" Cool we were off. The guide produced a few bits of rope and tied our thongs to our feet and then handed us a candle so we could light our way. Hmmmm this should be interesting.... Turns out that this little adventure is more of a cave swim then a cave trek, all while keeping the candle out of the water and your havianas on your feet. I actually had a brilliant time, it was a strange feeling climbing further and further into the earth and with only a candle luminance i felt as though i was on some sort of exploratory mission. We had to climb a few rocks and drop off into the darkness at other bits. It was so brilliant that there were no walkways or bright lights, it lent so much to the experience. At the end of our mission into the earth we arrived at a pool that was larger then rest we had seen through the cave. Our guide pointed to a precipice above my head and then made an arching symbol with his hand. Wicked, he says i can jump off. Doing jumps inside a small cave into a pool of black is a hair raising experience but one i will never forget. We made our way back through the cave and I paid much more attention to the limestone sculptures caused by the movement of mineral rich water. Some look like faces against the candle light, creepy.

We arrived back to the hostel and I found Coley, turned out some Australian girls had arrived with an English couple and they had already finished a couple of bottles of wine. Party time, we only have to sit on another minibus for 6 hours tomorrow, should help us sleep. Wooo Hooooo tomorrow Antigua!!!!!

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