Semuc Champey

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Hey guys!

So we left Antigua yesterday and are now in Semuc Champey or close enough. Things kinda sucked two days ago (our last day in Antigua) when I was robbed. When I was walking through a bunch of Guats gettin on a bus some asshole slit my purse and stole my wallet which happened to contain my cash, debit card and mastercard. I cancelled my cards within 20 minutes and they had already cought 30$ worth of Subway! Luckily Mastercard was very helpful and I'm not paying for their little food spree. I was pretty bummed that afternoon but now... f*** it! My awesome mom is sending me a new debit card and Mastercard already has another credit card on the way!

Sooo we took a bus for 6 hours yesterday to get here and it was well worth it! We realised once we got up here that there are no ATMs but I guess that happens to most people so we are on a tab and will pay the driver when he drops us off in a bigger town. We are staying at a sweet hostel in the jungle right next to a clean gorgeous river that we are going tubing in tomorrow! We have our own little cabin to ourselves for $6 each a night and the meals here are great. The bathrooms are cool too... just little shacks and the taps on the sinks are conch shells. There are tons of hammocks everywhere and booze is cheap... during happy hour it's $1.25 for a double rum and coke!

Today we went on an amazing tour through Semuc. It started with a 10K ride down to the falls in the back of a pick up truck which about 10 of us stand up in and hold onto metal bars. When we got there, we went into some caves for about an hour and a half which was amazing! We just had candles in the pitch dark and the water was sometimes waiste height and sometimes we would have to swim, holding the candles up so they didn't go out. We had to climb crazy ladders in the dark and walk through waterfalls and at one point, we had to slip through a random hole in the rocks where you couldn't see where you were going so that was a bit sketchy. After the caves, we went on a massive swing that went way out into the water and then youd jump off when it was about 15-20 feet above the river. It was amazing and I with we had a video! Then, we tubed down the river and had lunch.

After lunch, we hiked for about 40 minutes to a lookout point over the Semuc pools which was harsh but worth it. The pools are crystal clear and there are one after another, where you just swim and then jump into the next and there are some natural waterslides as well. It was sooo beautiful and they are situated between mountains with a beautiful view. Mitch jumped off a huge waterfall as well which looked crazy scary sooo I chose not to! One too many bad experiences with waterfalls...

Tonight we are drinking at the bar in the hostel, where it is a wide open palm-roofed place with swings at the bar. We met some cool people including a doctor from Virginia and a couple, one from Canada and one from Australia. Tomorrow, we are planning on tubing the river by the hostel with them and vedging in the hammocks for a while. Wednesday, we are planning to take the bus back to Antigua, where we can pick up my cards and start on to either El Salvador or Honduras. We were planning on bussing through El Salvador but there was just a bug tropical storm there sooo we might skip it altogether! Anyways, I'm off to the bar.
Loves!
Linds

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