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Published: December 25th 2011
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I split the journey from Antigua to Semuc Champey up by spending a night in the pretty uninspiring town of Coban and then taking the local bus to Lanquin the next morning. From here it was just a case of jumping into any one of the pick-ups parked at the entrance to Lanquin that whisk you away to their respective hostels as and when the tourists arrive. “El Portal” was my first choice being the closest to the pools at Semuc Champey. This was full however and I ended up settling for the slightly dodgy “Las Marias”, just a bit further back along the road from El Portal.
Despite this dodginess, I have to admit that the hostel was in a great setting, right across the road from the River Cahabon and with access to a cool rope swing and small pier to dive off of. The water in the river was cool and fresh and perfect for escaping the afternoon heat. The hostel is in the middle of nowhere. No phones, no internet and electricity only during the hours of 18:00 – 21:30 meant that this really was a place to escape for a while. The only
downer was being obliged to eat every meal at the hostel, especially as the food here wasn’t all that great. I stayed here just a couple of days, which was ample time to do the only two things that people come here to do – visit the natural pools and explore Las Marias caves.
The natural pools at Semuc Champey are set in a lush valley and formed by a lime stone bridge that hangs over the River Cahabon. Erosion has worn away the limestone and the pools were created from other smaller rivers that feed into the spaces. Where the limestone bridge finishes there’s a big drop down and the water falls to join with the Cahabon gushing out from beneath. The colour of the water ranges from turquoise to emerald green and even the temperature varies with some pools being warmer than others. It was a place a stunning natural beauty and I was advised by other travelers to first hike up to the lookout point to admire the view before bathing in the waters. It turned out to be sound advice because although it was only a 30 minute climb it wasn’t all that
easy especially given the heat. From the top I got a great view down into the pools and across the valley, and after a while admiring the scenery I made the descent and spent a good couple of hours in the pools below.
On the second day I arranged with the hostel a tour of the local Las Marias caves, supposedly better than the Lanquin caves next door. From the hostel we walked about 10 minutes down the road then left the track not far from the entrance to Semuc Champey. The plan for the day was to explore the caves, where there were plenty of stalactites, stalagmites, bats and underground pools, followed by some rope swinging and finished off with some ‘tubing’ (sitting in an inflatable ring) down the Cahabon river gently bringing us back to the hostel. It was a great way to spend a day and a total bargain for just 5 Dollars. Despite being advised against it, I took my camera into the caves and I nearly regretted it on so many occasions. I think it only survived given that I had it in its hard case a lot of the time. The
going inside the caves was tough at times, much tougher than expected, as there were moments when we had to pull ourselves up vertical walls and swim through pools that were too deep for even me to be able to stand up – no easy task when it’s dark, you can’t really see where you’re going and you’re carrying a candle in one hand and a camera in the other! Still, it was great fun although I certainly wouldn’t recommend it to people who are afraid of the dark or enclosed spaces as there were moments where it all got a little bit tight.
After appearing back into the daylight we were allowed to have some go’s on the super-fun rope swing before hopping into a rubber tube and letting the current of the Cahabon river carry us slowly back down stream to the pier at Las Marias hostel. All in all a really fun tour and somehow my camera managed to survive it all… good job too cos next stop was Flores and the Mayan ruins at Tikal.
Photos (Pages 6&7):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14643121@N05/ See ya’ll
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