Pat - Caving

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Hey,

So i havent written anything on the blog since i was packing back in montreal, so i figured it was time.

So far my favorite place has been semuc champey. it was incredible. We hung out iwth 6 israelis the whole time and we just had a blast swimming and tubing and caving. We were planning on skipping seing some caves cause we were like, aww its just caves, seen em. holly cow was i wrong..

going into these caves turned out to be one of the best decision we could have made, turns out i think it is on the top 10 coolest things ive ever done. I won{t be able to describe it so well online but basically picture the 12 of us (israelis, us and 2 others from the hostel) all holding candles so we can see in this cave. however, were all in bathing suits and shoes becasue the cave has a river running through it and we need to swim to get further into the cave. So we have to swim with a candle in our left hand, in the air, our right foot forward to feel for rocks. so basically were treading water with one foot and one hand. Sometimes the cave rocks lift out of the water and we have to climb up these ghetto ladders that seem as if there going to fall or break. There is no way this type of caving would be allowed in a developed country, there were a few points when we could have easily fallen and died slash broken something. Not only is what were doing sketchy to begin with, but the ladders to avoid some steep parts have rungs missing and he didnt warn us about them!!

we also climed up a water fall just holding onto a rope like they do in movies. We came to a part of the cave where we could jump off the cave wall into a pool about 6 feet deep, our landing area was about 4 feet in diameter. This reminded me tons of canyoning in switzerland.

anyways, our guide mauricio was incredible. I think he was about 16, has gone into the cave about 4 times a day for 3 years and is pretty open to suggestion. So we got to the end of the tour and our candles were running low, he times it so we have enough candle to get back out of the cave. There is definitely no light at all in there so if we were to run out wed pretty much be screwed. But i wanted to go further. Since we were 12 ppl i suggested that we blow out 7 of the 12 candles and use the 5 remaining to go further into the cave and then when they run out, use the other 7 to get back. I think he was a little reluctant but at the same time liked our sense of adventure so her was down. haha. I ended up chatting with Mauricio a little at the back of the pack, he showed me the handshake he has with his friends and i showed him ours, awww a little bonding time. haha

Alright well thats all for now, ill try and write a little more in the next little bit, and ill try and attach some picture.

hasta luego.

Patricio.

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