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Published: November 6th 2006
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El Retiro Lodge
Our sleeping huts From Antigua we went to a very remote little town called Lanquin, to the El Retiro Lodge, a laid-back backpackers place alongside the river...we fell in love with it the moment we saw it!! See the pictures to believe it 😊 The first day we just relaxed with our Israeli friends who had come with us from Antigua, relaxing on the swings and the hammocks on the porch of our little huts and playing cards. (This was extremely funny as our Israeli friend Yaron explained (shouted) the rules at us, like a real Israeli Army officer that he was..) And I (Flora) found out that I am extremely good at losing! We also had our first experience with the lodge's eco-friendly toilets, very decorative but slightly smelly.
The next day we walked to the Lanquin caves, which according to the locals is 15 minutes walk but is definitely more like half an hour. On our way we passed a little house/hut where at least 6 kids lived and the cutest little puppies, which we wanted to take home with us.....We arrived to the caves and met our tour guide in training, Marco, who was 14 years old. An excellent guide
who was able to tell us everything about the stalagmites, stalagtites, the different formations, and showed us some huuuuuge spiders!!! (And then pretended to throw one on us) Krista hid behind one of the formations to stay as far away as possible from these leggy creatures.
That night we dressed up in our Halloween outifts, a limited selection from what we had in our backpack but we came up with something....see picture!! But we didn't party the night away, as we had our adventurous tour to Semuc Champey planned for the next morning. We started off at the swings from which we could jump into the river...ooh exciting!! Krista went pretty smooth, Flora according to one of the others looked more like a crashing airplane.....but it was a good preparation for what we were to do later on!!
Next we were handed candles by our overly flirty (typically Latino) guide Josue. We started wading into the caves with only the light from our candles which created a very mysterious atmosphere. Some parts we had to swim, then climb up a ladder, through a hole, through a waterfall....it got more exciting every minute. When our candles ran out, we were extremely
A friggin large spider inside the caves
(there were plenty more of these...ieeh) glad we had our cool headlights with us because there were sharp limestone rocks everywhere, and even with our lights we got a few scrapes. After one and a half hours we were pretty cold and ready to move on. On the bridge we were faced with our next challenge, jump off the bridge into the river, which was at least 7 metres......as you can guess we jumped together, screaming like little girls all the way down. And holding on to our bikinis...but it was so much fun!!! We then hiked to the pools of Semuc Champey, where we first climbed up to the mirador where we got a view of all the limestone pools from the top of the mountain. It was steeper than we thought, but the view was worth the hike, it gave us goosebumps!!
We had our lunch (wrapped in banana leaves) at the top, and then hiked back down where we had a refreshing dip in the pools, which were of a beautiful clear blue-green colour. We relaxed here for a few hours and then made our way back to the lodge. It was BBQ night at the lodge and we had our best
Our Halloween outfits
fyi- Flora is pregnant and Krista is Pippi Longstocking meal of the trip (we especially enjoyed the delicious mashed potatoes!!) and even some chicken, the only time during the week the food is not vegetarian at this place.
The next day we relaxed some more (life is tough over here) and went tubing in the river, which started out very calm but got a little wilder towards the end. Our friend Yaron had already warned us with his experience in which he got caught in a branch and lost his sandal...so we were prepared. But Krista still got a little too close to a branch and got another nice scratch on her face (but her nose recovered after the horse incident, woohoo).
That afternoon we had a very interesting bus ride to Coban, where we went in a local shuttle with about 24 Guatemalan people and we shared the couch with a father and his kids, and our huge backpacks and our daypacks....cosy to say the least for the next 2 hours. We arrived in a very rainy Coban and spent half an hour looking for our hotel...with our great sense of direction we finally found it and had a relaxing evening, a delicious pizza and Flora
had another great night with some cable TV quality time (ER and Dr. House, it´s not Grey´s Anatomy but it will do). We enjoyed wearing our raincoats/poncho which made us look...fashionable!
The next morning an early start to make our way to our last destination in Guatemala...Flores and Tikal ruins.
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Champie
non-member comment
Hola
Hi Gals, and again all is well with the two of you, good to hear. Although a little jealousy, regarding your trip and the sights and sounds you experience, I do feel. What great you had a NIMBAS reunion with Luis in Guatamala, I will have a small one in Madrid this weekend with Maria. Am going to visit some friends I met 3 years ago in Sweden so that 'll be fun. Will meet Maria as well then, so far for now, btw till when are you there?? Talk to you soon and keep living the good life...... Besito Champie