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Published: April 25th 2017
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Lets go South – next destination on the famous Gringo Trail (where everyone goes) is Semuc Champey/Lanquín. For the first and probably the last time of this trip, we booked a shuttle – a minivan full of backpackers brought us without detour to the destination. Kati asked us the night before, why Americans have that questionable reputation being noisy,… a Gentleman in the bus killed a bottle of rum during the drive and “entertained” the whole bus. Here you go, Kati – just kidding, he was just an unlucky example. As at most of the places, this rumor is just correct for a really small percentage.
We arrived in the Jungle of East Guatemala. The highly recommended Zephyr Lodge was full so we stayed close to the river at the Oasis Hostel. Bathing in the ice-cold river and dancing with the staff who converted the restaurant quickly into a dance floor. The next morning we moved up to hill to Zephyr, enjoying the infinity pool and view for a day, listening all day to love songs – no way no miss valentines’ day.
Day 2 in Lanquín was Sightseeing Day. Everyone recommended a tour but we wanted to try
it on our own - 20Q for the shuttle and 50Q for the entry and we were in. Semuc Champey is two rivers, one flow slowly and in bright turquoise colors on top, the other races with massive amounts of water through a cave underneath. We saw in the upper one, swimming in the racing river comes close to any death wish. It was beautiful, and we spent hours in the natural pedicure pool with fish eating our skin.
Next destination was Quetzaltenango, or the pronounceable short version, Xela. We took the adventure route across the country, due to hilarious shuttle prices.
5am: Bus #1 picked us up at the side of the road. Despite the bumpy dirt road we got two hours more sleep. If it would go all like this, perfect.
8am: Bus #2: Walk across the city of Cobán, breakfast at the terminal and a minivan to Uspantán. We thought the van was full with 20 people. Wrong! At least 35 fit in that bus, like fish in a can. The lady next to Eva carried a basket of lovely smelling cilantro, her favorite herbs (NOOOT!!!) slowly, Eva’s face changed color to an intense
green and if this was not enough already, we could not see further than the stretched out hand and on the left side dropped the street some hundred meters. Oh yes, this was a backroad though the mountains.
11am: Bus#3: A second after we arrived in Uspantán, our backpacks flew from one roof to the other, a minivan even smaller. Once again, we thought this bus was full, buuut you don’t know the Guatemalans! A bus is full when you cannot close the door anymore. Ok, good to know. Squeezed in the corner, we made it through stunning views to Santa Cruz del Quiché. Finally the sky has cleared and we could see something.
2pm: Bus #4: The second we told them our destination, our bags were thrown from the roof, and they ran with then to the next bus. Before we could figure out whether this is the right bus, two bags were already on the roof, the third on its way up while the bus is already leaving. I was still trying to figure out where this bus was going to, because five men were shouting information at me. On the bus we finally found out
that it was (surpriiiise) the wrong one!
4pm: Bus #5: At a certain intersection out of Totonicapán we had to get off – and the same chaos again. They decided where our bags went to and which bus was the right one and finally, at 5pm we arrived in Xela.
5pm: Taxi to the center: Despite a lovely woman with her daughter told us exactly which bus we had to take to get to the center, my girls were done for the day and did not want to hear one more word about a bus.
Conclusion of the day: 12h chicken bus saved us two hours and US 40$ (compared to the shuttle) but required definitely some more nerves 😉 It was an adventure we won’t forget that fast.
Xela and Hostel Casa Seibel were nice and laid back. Hardly any tourist or backpacker makes it to the city so we could get an impression of the actual Guatemala. Climbing volcano Santa Maria was on our “to do list” for this place. After a few to many beers the night before, my dearest travel mates told me 20min before departure that they would not come. Luckily,
Justin and Mitch were on for some hiking. We planned to go without a tour. What we did not calculate was the Sunday – there are no busses at 5am, and without the help of a man, we would still be sitting there waiting. So we took a Taxi… his negotiation skills were not the very best. 75Q? Never.. al least 100Q, but guess what? 25Q each are ok – yes we were three people. Well, we did not complain 😉
A farmer led us through the maze of trails and soon we reached the top at 3772 m. It was a stunning 360° view, with all the famous volcanos around us. But not just volcanos surrounded us, but tons of trash, too. About 50 Guatemalans were camping at the top and holding their church mass there in the morning. Unfortunately, most of them knew just how to carry up their plastic bottles and Styrofoam plates but not how carry it down. Maybe they should include that in their speech. I got seriously angry after I saw the leftovers from the first group, and tried to convince the second group to be a better example. We found
a big plastic bag, filled it and brought it down, but this was just a drop of water on the hot stone. You could fill a truckload with this. This was one of the saddest things I have seen so far, trash wise and let’s say, it would not get better throughout the country.
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