Great time in Lanquin

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We're back again, safe and sound, after a long 8-hour day of uncomfortable travel. Alex spent most of the trip queasy and feverish, but he's resting easier now. I couldn't post to the blog from Lanquin, but I did send an email via Reen, so check those messages for part 1 of our adventure.

As for part two:

What an great trip. Semuc Champay is incredibly beautiful—lush green vegetation, travertine pools, perfect weather. We started the morning with a great breakfast at Retiro, rather European really—nutella crepes, french toast, etc. Then we packed sandwiches and headed for the pools. The first part of the hike was challenging and with the thick humidity and warm weather, we were all soaked within minutes. Micah led us to believe that sandals were proper footware—Tevas, perhaps, but certainly not flip flops or Birkenstocks. The rock steps were steep and slippery and several of us practically skied down the trail. By the time we reached the pools we were good and ready to jump in and cool off. The kids spent several hours just playing in the water—diving, chasing and feeding the fish, jumping from tree branches, etc, then on to the caves.

The first thing our guide did was to hand each of us a candle. After rummaging through a pile of old water socks and ragged tennis shoes provided for foot protection, we trudged up the hillside and into the belly of a very dark, very damp cave. With lighted candles held aloft, we sloshed through several feet of icy water, which quickly became five or six feet of icy water. I’m not much of a swimmer and it was quite a trick to tread water and hold a candle above water at the same time. Spencer, Hannah, and I developed our own method of traversing the deepest pools in the cave—while everyone else swam across, we found cracks and crevices on the cave wall and pulled ourselves around the edges. This worked pretty well until we would bang up against sharp ledges jutting out in unexpected places. More than one of us returned with bloody hands and knees. At one point, most of the kids used a rope to scale the side of the cave through a waterfall and up into a higher chamber. At the end of the passage there was a deep pool and each of the kids climbed to the top of the cave to a narrow ledge and jumped in. I just held my breath, hoping that state risk management wouldn’t have to find out about this adventure. We were all very proud of ourselves for conquering the cave. Daniel and Hillary were on the verge of hypothermia (neither have any meat on their bones), but other than that, we were all fine.

All in all, it was a wonderful side trip at a lovely little resort. Nobody really wanted to leave to go back to the city.

More tomorrow.

Diana

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