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Published: January 14th 2009
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5 hour drive to Coban from Antigua, we hit traffic in Guatemala City on the way. Checked in at Casa D'Acuña. 4 bed dorms for 50 quetzals about $8. My roommates are 3 brothers from Chicago that lived here in Guate when they were younger, now back in the States for college, they are here visitng their parents who runs an orphanage in the city. These brothers are the nicest dudes I met in a long while, unfortunately only the older I remember the name, Scott. His younger brothers are taking Nursing. We talked for hours then off to bed as I am going to Semuc the next day leaving early. Walked the town of Coban early on during the day, found an internet cafe and ATM that takes my debit card and had a walk around the main plaza where a nice church is just in front. Nothing much here just a starting point for the Semuc and other attractions in the area. Had my dinner at one of the stalls selling street food near the plaza, I had some longanisa, not bad for 10 quetzals.
The next day it was cold, had breakfast and waited with others for
the van to arrive, all in all 15 of us, the drive took around 2 1/2 hours, we stopped at a viewpoint then on to Hotel Zapote to drop off 2 other travellers spending the night, one of our group is sick and she took advantage of the toilet break. Arriving in Semuc Champey, we started off by getting our lunches and then hiked to the viewpoint on top of the tall rock formatuion common here, Up on the ledge we can see the whole Semuc Champey area, really nice view but quite a difficult hike. These area is a swimming hole of natural pools divided by stepped series of pools of cool flowing river water from Rio Cahabon, much more of it passes underground, beneath the bridge. From the top we hiked back down on a different route to reach the mouth of the river. Then had our lunches and off to swim!! I met the 3 brothers again, we chatted a bit and they showed off a bit by jumping from the tree about 20 to 30 feet high. These guys are really cool unfortunately I forgot to ask foir their emails. We followed our guide and we
swam from pool to pool jumping in some and then we got to a point where we need a ladder to make our way down under the waterfall where water gushes out from the rocks below. It was a great experience, quite cold though and inside the waterfall is a cave with swallows nesting on the roof.
One guy jumped to the river below but we all went back the same route with the ladder. Changed our clothes then on to the next destination, the Languin Caves, not a big fan of caves, but went in anyway, quite hot and humid inside smells of bat poo and really slippery. One guy, Chris from UK had been to Africa travelling overland on a truck like i did and we chatted for a bit about our experience, he and his wife I hnag out with most of the afternoon, really nice couple. Got back to Coban late so had my dinner at the bistro in the hostel, not bad but a bit expensive for me.
The next morning got picked up by a tourist van for Flores to see Tikal ruins. Took us 5 hours to get there the driving
was mad, driver not really slowing down on turns and curves we can hear the screeching of the tires, crazy!!! I got dropped off somewhere even if i said Doña Goya hostel, the driver wanted to take the other tourists quickly to El Remate near the ruins and I got passed on to another driver in one of their tourist van, but when they left the driver refused to take me and said he is not going there, I wanted to strangle the f..ing driver but kept my cool and just walked to find the hostel, asking directions from the locals it is just right next to the water, cheap beds for 30 quatzals a night. Minutes later, a familiar face showed up, the curly haired dude from Sta Cruz in Atitlan, this American dude is a bit airy and I did not talked to him all my 2 weeks there so I just ignored him and he did the same as if we dont know each other. I befriended a Canadian whose Spanish is good, George, and we might do Tikal together tomorrow.
Off to Tikal 7am, took almost 2 hours to get there the shuttle keeps stopping
for locals. The ruins is so massive and in my opinion the best so far, climbed pyramids number 2,4 and 5, sat on 5 for half hour after and just listened to the howler monkeys in the forest canopy. Done by 12pm went back to Flores and had lunch with george and went to book my next destination, Belize, that night met a very lovely Panamanian girl, a mulata, probably the best looking girl i have seen!! She was staying at Los Amigos where me and george went to see if his friend Lance is there, we later met up with him in the plaza where they have a fiesta going on, live music playing and as well as good street food and a crazy young dude wearing fireworks and running around scaring everyone!! Quite fun. Around 10pm went to bed for my early departure to Belize.
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