Rivers, Caves and Buses

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After a relaxing time in Belize, if not damn expensive, I headed down to Cobán in the Alta Verapez highlands, a lush green plateau in Central Guatemala atop a limestone shelf marked with fast rivers and huge networks of caves.

I spent the first day mucking about Cobán, and treated myself to an expensive ($4 US) dinner at a Chinese joint; a welcome break from chicken, rice and beans. I went on a cool tour of a coffee finca owned by German immigrants. Cobán is renown for it´s perfect altitude and soil that yield supposedly the best beans in Central America, so I had no choice but to pick up some of the product on my way out.

The second day was absolutely amazing. We (a french girl, spanish guy and me) started at Semuc Chapney, one of Guatemala´s postcard shots. It´s a series of limestone shelfs that are flooded by one of Guatemala´s biggest rivers, producing about ten azul, crystal clear pools. We spent about an hour swimming about, then took off to the caves nearby.

I didn´t really know what to expect when I arrived, I had my camera and was fully clothed. However, upon entrance, the guide told us to leave everything we don´t want to loose in the water at the front desk. So there´s water in the cave? Quite a bit, in fact. We spent about 80% of the trek swimming up an underground river, holding candles above are heads as we fought the current with one hand. The coolest part was when we arrived at a huge waterfall and the guide explained that we were to climb up the rope that hung down from the top. I happened to be the first in our line when we arrived, and was consequently the first rather hesitant climber to ascend. Once I got going, I found it was even harder than it looked, fighting against ten meters of falling water. It was one of those experiences though, something that I´ll always remember of this trip as being one of the coolest things I´ve done. I felt good at the top, peering down into the darkness trying to spot out the other eight burning candles.

At the end of the tunnel are guide told us to blow out our candles, which once again we were all pretty hesitant to do. We spent about five minutes just listening to the sounds of raging water through miles of cave around us. Pretty cool. Not cool: our guide then telling us he lost the lighter, and after five minutes of scrambling he produced it with a satisfied laugh. On our way out, there was a spot near the mouth of the cave where we had to shimmy through a narrow tunnel (thankfully for the oversized American with us, the sheer power of the river current managed to squeeze her through.) We then had to swim underwater, in the pitch black, with only the light of the tunnel entrance guiding us to the narrow hole we would swim up through. It was pretty rewarding to finally finish, and was definently one of the best challenges I´ve ever had.

The fun was shortlived though, as I spent the following three days sitting in a bus (thank god for air conditioning) heading back down to Costa Rica, stopping throughout for the rather unenjoyable two-hour border stops, wherein we were assesed departure taxes that didn´t actually exist, but were necessary to have our passports returned to us. At one point in Honduras, a camoflouge-clad army officer boarded the bus with an empty water cooler bottle, waving it in peoples faces to collect bills. Don´t we love corruption.

So I´m finally back in San Jose, in Hostel Pangea, my second home. I´ll take off to the beach for a few days before I come back to fly out to Toronto. I don´t really want this ever to end, but inside I know I´m about six weeks overdue for laundry, and seeing everyone again will definently be nice.

Ian

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Comments

[A. Gail]

Less than a Week
Ian I can't believe that we will be seeing you in less than a week. It seems that you have had a lifetime full of adventure since you deaprted in October. You have earned a prime spot on the "Who gets the best Leaf Jersey and seat" roster for our Dec 23rd game by intertwining hockey reporting throughout your travels. Not too cold here (8 degrees) so perhaps you will get a chance to acclimatize slowly. Looking forward to seeing all the pics. A. Gail