Advertisement
Published: December 2nd 2006
Edit Blog Post
Places Visited:- Antigua, Coban, Semuc Champey and Flores.
We have decided to leave one of our backpacks at the school we were studying at in Xela in order to travel light for a month or so. We are doing a big loop from Xela to the south of Guatemala and then heading north up the east side to cross over to Belize for 10 days then head south through Belize and then back into the south of Guatemala. Fingers crossed. Already its a great benefit to travel light, makes things a lot easier and less stresfull!
After our last hike to Tajumulco we decided to take it easy for a while and went to Antigua. Not the famous Island but a city about 4 hours away from Xela. Antigua itself is a very beautiful city, surrounded by 3 Volcanoes, cobbled streets and pretty multi colored colonial houses. As you can imagine this is a tourist favorite and out of all the places in Guatemala is probably the most popular and it was full of American tourists. This made the place more expensive so didn’t feel like we were getting any real value for money. It did have a good
night life and backpacker scene, some nice restaurants to chill out and get a meal whilst watching a movie on a big screen, so reminded us of when we were in Thailand.
The main reason we came here was to see another volcano, this time an active one, Volcan Pacaya! Since I was a kid I have always wanted to get close to a laver flow, as it always looks so amazing when you see it on the TV. Pacaya has laver constantly flowing out of it and it gradually flows down the mountain, but nothing to major to worry the near by villages. The last time it had a hiccup as they call it was only in August where this time the villages had to be evacuated. Speaking to our guide it was a big explosion and hundreds of tons of laver spilled onto the nearby fields. All I could see now was hard black rock everywhere looking like a road leading to the top of the volcano. It must have been a great site and the heat must have been unbelievable. We carried on walking up the volcano and began to feel the heat for ourselves seeping
from underground as the laver was still flowing underneath us but the surface was hard enough to walk on, it was nice for the guide to tell us that once we had already got halfway!! We could see holes in on our path and the laver flowing. The heat was intense It was like putting your head in the oven after you have just opened the door! Lucky other travelers told us not to wear shorts and the people in our group who did have on shorts were feeling the heat and had to go back down. We carried on climbing until we seen the actual laver flowing and the heat was just getting hotter and hotter. I started to be a bit stupid getting too close to get some good pictures and had to hop about like those lizards in the desert as my feet were burning up. When we started walking back down my feet were still on fire so had to rush to the bottom where I took my shoes of to cool down and then noticed that they had begun to melt! My shoes are now slightly distorted and can’t see them lasting the trip! No
sympathy from Michelle and not even a consolation for the photos as they didn’t turn out to good with me jumping from one foot to the other!! Still a great experience and will now take a rest from any more volcanoes, for a few months anyway!
After Antigua we headed north to Coban. Famous for Semuc Champey and its limestone river pools and underground caves. The pools were breathtaking and couldn’t believe what we were looking at, they were so good we had to go back the day after. Everybody was saying its one of the prettiest things they have ever seen. Hopefully some of my pictures will do it justice. There are about 10 pools in total with the water gradually cascading from one to the next ranging from turquoise to emerald greens. You could swim from one pool to the next and in some places you had to dive of a waterfall to get in the next pool. We loved it.
The undergrounds caves were not that impressive and like most caves I have been in some stalactites and stalagmites in strange shapes and some local history about how the ancestors used the caves for ceremonial
Semuc Champey
One of the greatest views we have seen. The picture does not do it justice. animal sacrifice! What we loved about them was the thousands of bats living in them and with them flying all around us very freaky but great fun shining torches on them to make them fly of in swarms and then land in an other area!
After Coban we traveled further north to Flores home of the most famous Mayan site, Tikal set in the middle of thick jungle. You may remember the other Mayan sites we visited in Mexico.
The Maya first settled her in 700 BC until about 900 AD when they mysteriously disappeared, probably some disease or drought. The temples looked very impressive towing high about the jungle canopy and can only imagine what this must have looked like in its heyday. With it in the middle of the jungle there are lots of different wildlife to view from monkeys to brightly colored birds, Parrots and Toucans flying everywhere, too strange looking mammals foraging through the undergrowth. The noises were constant and very loud especially when the howler monkeys got in on the act they are named howler for a reason! My favorites again were the howler and spider monkeys and we managed to get some
really good pictures and had loads of fun just watching them jump from one tree to the next. You do have to be careful not to get too close or under a tree they are in, as they seem to get great delight from weeing and throwing poo on unsuspecting tourists! Can’t blame them really, if I was a monkey that is something that I would do to brighten my day, all those bright white t-shirts they are just asking for it!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.214s; Tpl: 0.019s; cc: 22; qc: 101; dbt: 0.1529s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb