Semuc Champey

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I have a rule that I don’t leave a place until I have posted pics and blogged about it. I broke that rule about 10 days ago.

You see, the day I headed to Semuc Champey, I was writing an infringement analysis process test that the engineers in India took today. I was on course to write 30 questions a day, when I left on the 7 hour jungle drive to Semuc from Antigua, Guatemala.

Upon arrival at the El Portal Inn, at the entrance to Semuc, I learned that the hostel only had 4 hours of electricity per day. My computer batteries were dead from writing questions on the drive there, and there was no power on arrival, so I lost two days of work.

You can’t bring your B game when you work with these engineers so I was on the ropes. Needless to say, I didn’t post pictures of Semuc before leaving (there was no power or Internet) nor could I when I got back to Antigua because I locked myself in my room for 5 days straight, 16 hours a day, trying to catch up.

The good news is that they took the exam today and did really well. Here is one of the top student’s comment about how hard the test was perceived to be: "I have lost all the grey matter in my brain."

After seeing their test scores, here is how I replied:: “Once again they have proven why they are so respected by the most sophisticated group of patent lawyers in the world. They smoked my infringement exam despite all the twists and turns I slipped in there trying to challenge them.”

With all that behind us, now you get to see my pictures of Semuc Champey. By the way, I arrived in Flores, Guatemala today and you’ll get to see those pics soon also.

The trip to Semuc was one the most remarkable things I have experienced in Central America. As usual though, it is the little things in life that make all the difference in the world, especially when they come with the element of surprise. On the day I headed back to Antigua, I was stuffed in the back of a pickup truck, standing with 20 other souls on one of the bumpiest unpaved rock and dirt roads I have ever been on.

If you have traveled in Mexico, South America, Central America, or Asia, you have seen this mode of transportation before. If you are like me, you have whizzed by trucks full of people standing in the back like this, and felt lucky that you were in a private car with a driver and maybe one other person. Often there are so many people standing in the back of these trucks that you can’t even see them all or count them. It is just a blob of the great unwashed and unfortunate humanity. This, I always assumed.

On this particular day, I was part of that blob standing in the truck with 20 other souls, wondering when my famous travel Karma had left me. But as luck would have it, I was delivered to where I needed to be at this moment. You see the hills in this volcanic part of Guatemala are so steep that it is like standing in the ruins of Machu Picchu. I saw the most spectacular views imaginable, because I had no roof over my head. If I were in a car on this day, I would have missed this spectacular taste of life. The visions will never leave me.

My apologies for not including any pictures of that part of the journey. You see, we were packed so tight, I couldn’t even bend down to grab my camera out of my back pack.

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Comments

[neeha]

beautiful natural pics
wallpapers

[Janis]

Wow
Your blogs and photos are truly inspiring. There is so many stories to hear, so many cultures to learn.