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Published: November 19th 2012
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What a day of adventure and how! We set the alarm for 6:15 a.m. for pick up from the hotel at 7:00 (the first alarm on this trip!). We had a boxed breakfast prepared for us the night before, so we were packed, supplied and on our way. The driver of the van also picked up another couple - - the French folk that were on our bus yesterday! Then on to Café D’Acuna for breakfast (included, but we did not know it when we commissioned the box breakfasts). It was very good food, however, we were left there for an hour and a half. Clay is a slow eater, but that was a bit much. Our patience wore thin because we were told nothing beforehand and we just sat, and sat, and sat. After pick up, we had to stop, AGAIN, this time for gas!!! Seriously? Shouldn’t you gas up prior to picking up the clients? Apparently, not.
The breakfast place provided us a bag lunch so now we had four meals worth of food. The lunch bag, which was the traditional brown lunch bag, ripped right away. Luckily we had a plastic bag in the backpack. We shifted
the foodstuff into our reserve bag, and off we went from Coban to Lanquin. The roads are not the best (WOW! What an understatement!). It was curve after curve after curve on the side of a mountain. Our mini-van had little to no tread on the tires, no seat belts, absolutely no shocks, and everything rattled and looked as if it might fall off at any moment. When we were closer to Lanquin, the ride became even more exciting. A tip from Ann for the ladies, in all seriousness is, hold on to your girls or strap them down. We were on the bumpiest, rocky (not graveled) road, with the largest pot holes and missing pieces of road ever (remember, no shocks). It was only lane, but had two-way traffic. (You have to experience it to understand it.) The way was narrow, on the side of a mountain, contained giant mud bogs, random dogs and people. Our driver had a tendency to drive close to the edge, which while unnerving on its own, was made more so because he seemed to have ADD and would pay attention to everything else but the road! The act of rolling over the edge
of a cliff wasn’t farfetched.
After what seemed like forever, with our necks, spines and coccyx’s damaged to the point of no return, we came to the town of Lanquin. It was there that we had to change vehicles, yet again. You might think, “GREAT! a different vehicle.” You also might think, great, it is a four wheel drive Range Rover… compatible! In reality, it was the worst vehicles we have ever experienced outside of the U.S. and Clay’s friends’ cars. All of the gauge lights were on. It sputtered. It stalled out. It smelled horribly of exhaust. The clutch was burned up and wires were everywhere, one live one next to Clay’s leg. See photos. This is what we rode in the rest of the way to Sumac Champey, on an even worse road with greater inclines, declines and far greater perils. Words cannot describe this approximately 30 minutes of hades. Complete spinal fusion is now in order. There but for the grace of God go we. We made it alive!
When we finally arrived at the river, we gave two of our meals to some kids and they were appreciative! The park is quite minimalist. We
took a walking trail that led down to the riverside. The rocks, stairs and ground are seriously slippery. Ann, the somewhat clumsy half of this couple, almost busted it a few times. About half an hour later, we came upon a covered structure with benches and some bathrooms where one could change into a bathing suit (bathroom means pee hole in the ground and it is not a nice smell). Clay was very careful not to let his pant legs touch the wet floor within the bano.
So, after all of the previous descriptions, you may not be surprised to find that one might not be in the best of moods and this point. We simply prayed it was all worth it. Well, we found out in the next two seconds. The photographs tell it all, so make sure you look at all of them. However, let us say this, have you ever watched those ads where they show tourist waterfall places where people are alone and you say, yeah, right, that NEVER happens and there will always be a million people there? This place actually is one of those places!!! The pools are truly gems and there were
relatively few people around us the entire time. We jumped into waterfalls, climbed up them and jumped again! We swam through an underwater cave. (Video forthcoming.) The water was full of cute little fishes that thought we tasted awesome and would take every opportunity to partake of our sweet skin. We were thinking that these are the fish they use for those new-fangled pedicures.
When we got back to the Range Rover compatible, the hood was open (not a good sign) and there were three men seemingly working on it. See photo. In reality, they were just tugging parts and banging on random pieces. In the end, the car gods must have felt that the loose pieces of the vehicle, that had fallen off on the way in, were sacrifice enough and they let us traverse the pseudo-road back to Lanquin. Having finally made it back to Lanquin and to the not much better mini-van, we thought that we could settle down and embrace our wild return to Coban. We were mistaken. (We are, often.) We stopped at the next leg of our journey. Included in our tour was a trip into a cave system. The tour guide asked
if we had headlamps (we do, however, no one said to bring them on the tour) and if not, candles would be provided. Seriously, candles???? Who are we, Tom Sawyer and BeckyThatcher? Ann would probably trip with the candle, so we gracefully declined to participate. The French couple with us thought that it sounded like a grand idea and off they went. So to pass the 40 minutes they would spend spelunking, we wandered. (We do that, often too!) We happened upon a boy selling “pizza” out of a plastic trash bag and tried it. See photos!
The trip back to Coban was just as awful as the way out, but the day was a most wonderful adventure. To find paradise, one must first pass through the gates of Hell. This journey awaits those of you who are bold! From Ann: Had I known ahead of time how we would get to Semuc Champay, I do not know if I would have gone. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss. But in all seriousness, the blue of the water, the natural waterfalls, the scene, splendor of landscape and the serenity of it all has had no match in our lifetimes, until now.
We hope that you enjoy the photographs and feel the beauty, as well.
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Sandra
non-member comment
Pictures are beautiful
Will look forward to today' blog. Hugs :)