Blogs from Semuc Champey, Verapaz Region, Guatemala, Central America Caribbean - page 7

Nonstop action! We endure more sweaty bus rides and miles of loose rocks called "roads" until we arrive in the far flung communities of Lanquin and Semuc Champey. Dave and I broke off from the ladies for this adventure (they went to a big Guatamalen market to shop). The big attraction here are the caves. We arrive late in the afternoon and head directly for the cavernous Lanquin Caves. We are told that many thousands of bats blast from the entrance of this cave everynight at around 6:30pm. That gave us 2 hours to explore. We don our headlamps and begin the adventure. It turns out that the front section of the cave has some electrical lighting. At first this is actually kind of disappointing, but it turns out that these lights help us appreciate these ... read more

Last weekend we went to Paradise, otherwise known as Semuc Champey. It is a series of limestone pools set atop a cave where the river flows through. The water is crystal blue/green, with tiny fish swimming in it. It is an oasis in the jungle. It's not very easy to get to either, as the roads are still partially unpaved. But the bumpy ride is worth it. It is a beautiful place. We spent all of Saturday swimming in the pools. Our accommodations for the evening were quite interesting. We did the whole weekend as a package deal, so we had not input on where we stayed. It was basically a 2.5 story wooden shack with huge gaps in between the boards that made up the wall. We had some exciting encounters with huge bugs and ... read more

Its a bit of a cliche to harp on about the diversities of a country, but over the last couple of weeks I´ve been steadily amazed at just how many differences Guatemala packs in to one little country- I´ve been in some pretty diverse places, where the language, culture, nature and vibe of one place sometimes having almost nothing in common with the last place I was at. My first stop since my last blog was at Finca Tatin . Pretty much in the middle of nowhere up a river from the Caribbean coastal town of Livingston, in the heart of Guatemalan jungle country, Finca Tatin is a damn cool spot to chill out in. Apart from the place itself, there´s nothing else around apart from a few isolated Guatemalan river villages where dugout canoe and ... read more

Somethings are just hard to get and worth not to give up. Semuc Champe was one of them. After about two days of travelling, I got there at the back of a truck while looking at the amazing rain forests on the mountains which I don't have a name for it. It is hard to say if the mountains are built of the threes or the jungle is because of the mountains. I hope you get my point ... !!!! If not, let me know so I can improve my english :) This place is famous for its vally with steep walls. Beside Finca Tatin, it has been one the most humid places I have seen so far. It rains most of the nights (at least it was raining the nights I was there) which makes ... read more

Hello again... I know it hasn’t been that long since I last wrote but too many funny things have happened in the last few days and I don’t know when I will get a chance to write again.... so here goes. When I last wrote, a bunch of us were trying to decide where to go for the weekend. The place we wanted to go, Semuc Champey, was reported sketchy because of the heavy rainfall. Well, when I got to the hostel I was headed to, I realized they had a direct tourist bus there. This seemed like a much safer way to get there than the public transport system I had planned on using. Figuring it would be a much safer journey, I decided to head out there. It was a long seven-hour trek but ... read more