Advertisement
Published: December 19th 2012
Today we did our first official tour, our guide started by pointing out plants along our walk, there was some pod he opened up and it was orange inside he shoved his finger in there and began to paint streaks on all our faces. He pointed out coffee, coco, and some interesting spices. We entered the park and hiked up a mountain for maybe 45 minutes, it was grueling and quite steep in places. As I grabbed the earth to climb up I envisioned mistakenly placing my hand on a snake or some poisonous creature. After all at breakfast there was a trantula although that seemed to be the least scary thing of the day. One of the locals picked it up and it even crawled on someone's chest. At the top there was a viewpoint of the river and it's pools below, it was gorgeous! Can't wait for you to see photos. We hiked down and when we arrived we walked out thru the river at a very shallow point to see the falls. Then we went swimming in the natural pools. They were full of those little fish that eat the dead skin off your body. It was a little creepy. At Thanksgiving we actually had a discussion about these fish and googled the spas that use them and found that they can take bacteria from one person or another depending on who they have been feeding on. I still enjoyed the crystal clear water and the beautiful view. It was a bit cold but we were all so hot after our hike. The guide took us down some natural rock slides with very specific instructions. The first one kind of hurt a bit. A few people got some scrapes and bruises. The 2nd one freaked me out because I'm a chicken and it had more of a drop off than the first, I was the last one to go and I told the guide I was scared, he had no sympathy for me. It was fun as one would expect. Next the guide dove under the water and popped up in a "cave" we could hear him in there, then he swam down the rock and popped out to the pool we were in. He had us dive under the person before you would grab your hand so you knew when to come up out of the water. It was a tiny space and once I was in there my claustrophobia began to set in, I was grinning anyhow. The next dive was the same but after that there was no one to grab your hand, it was too long of a distance, I was totally freaked out. But what are you gonna do, it's dive or swim in the little cave hole forever so I did it and surprise surprise I survived. By this point I was shaking. For those of you who don't know me well I'm afraid of heights, claustrophobic, I hate most rides and theme parks and although I like water slides I'm terrified each time I go down. Next there was a jump from one pool to another, I did not do this but was proud of myself for doing the things I normally wouldn't. We headed back to camp for lunch. After we went to an actual cave, they gave us all candles and we entered the cave, there were parts that you had to swim holding your candle out of the water, tons of places where you had to clime the cave or rope or latter, it was a little intense for the chicken but I really enjoyed it. I was mostly just terrified about coming back down the extremely steep latter's. The guide we had on this cave tour was much more sympathetic, he kept asking me if I was OK, perhaps the other guide warned him, ha ha! Surprisingly I did really well on the ladders, I just clung to them for dear life on the way down. By then I had lost my candle and I stayed close to Belgium so that I could see. We did away with names and just called people by the country they were from, well they were calling Dan Washington, close enough 😉 After the cave we were walking back to camp and crossed a bridge over the river naturally people wanted to jump in. After Dan asked the guide if it was deep enough he led the way. Poor Elaina and Holland stood on the edge of the bridge ready to jump for some time, they were shaking by the end then they finally jumped in. The locals were on the shore making a ruckus trying to get them to jump. It was entertaining. We got back to camp and grabbed tiny inter tubes to float the river with. Dan, Belgium and I had a shot, mine was to calm my nerves. Then I got a Cuba Libra to go and tied it to my tube for the float. It was glorious and far shorter than I would have liked but I soaked up the time. After a cold shower I went and listened to Dan play his guitar with two Australians playing the ucalaly. We danced a bit and, taught our new friends scum and enjoyed the great Latino music. Money well spent on the tour! Words can't describe the beauty of Semuc Champey, although it is very difficult to get to it is worth it!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.183s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 8; qc: 45; dbt: 0.1533s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Isabel
non-member comment
not a chicken!
Dearest Eya~~~ anyone who packs up her life and ventures forth can not call herself a chicken! thank you for the wonderful pictures your words paint. After reading this post we googled Semuc Champey and looked at the images to imagine where you are, it looks amazing- the color of the water! I said to Rick that you are almost more with us now that you are a continent away. We got 7" of snow last night on top of the 8" that was already on the ground. It seems like all we do is move snow. Although yesterday we got the motorcycle packed up on the little truck trailer and over to your parents house. We ate pizza with them. We're purchasing a property in Northern AZ, it is still in escrow. We feel like we should have left Idaho a month ago. Thinking of you so much and enjoying your blog posts. I know how much time and effort goes into the writing. hugs and hugs and hugs from both of us.