What to do in Semuc Champey?

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After a 6h bus ride from Río Dulce in a small bus without AC and without WC and with only 1 break, we arrived at 8PM in Lanquín. The street had been pretty bad and bumpy, but the view was amazing, such a beautiful countryside! Our bus driver drove like a madman, but he was quite nice and stopped a few times for us to take pictures. In the bus, we also met Tina from Nîmes in France, a very nice girl who is travelling for 5 weeks in Guatemala. She was visiting her boyfriend who lives close to Guatemala city, but he had to work and so she travelled the country on her own. She had booked the same hostel as us and so we took the next shuttle from Lanquín to our hostel (Greengo’s Hostel) in Semuc Champey together as well. Again, it was a very bumpy and very bad street, half an hour more of torture, this time no view because it was late and no real shuttle, but just sitting in the back of a truck.



Our hostel was amazing ! It was completely hidden in the forest and beautiful. The manager and the staff there were very nice and there was a good vibe there. While checking in, I was surprised by Nina, welcoming me. I had met Nina in my hostel in Oaxaca and we had stayed in touch but hadn’t known we would be in Semuc Champey at the same time ^_^

The dorms in this hostel were really nice, spacious and clean and the common area was beautiful and comfortable. In the night, it got quite cold there, something I like very much. :-)

After leaving my stuff in my room, I went back up to the common area and ordered some food (very good Falafel) because I was starving. It was huge though and so I ended up sharing with Anja. There were a few other people and most of them would do the guided tour the next day. Since the group would be huge and Laurenz had told us that you can do it just as well on your own, we decided not to take the tour but to get up early the next morning to start our tour at 8.



The next morning, I ran into Tina and she wanted to join us that day to discover Semuc Champey. So the 4 of us left at around 8h30 to walk to the cave next to the park of Semuc Champey. On our way we met a few guys who tried to get us to hire them as guides, but we didn’t want to. In the park, you don’t need a guide and in the entrance fee of the cave (60 GTQ + 10 GTQ for tubing), a guide is already included. So we joined a group of really nice people from El Salvador in their tour and went into the cave with them. Everybody had 1 candle for the way, there were no other ligths permitted in this cave. It was really beautiful, lots of stalactites everywhere and the river in the cave was beautiful. You are advised to keep you sneakers or hiking shoes in the cave, even if you walk through water and swim all the time, because there are lots of stones and you have to climb quite a bit. So I kept on my shoes, while the others prefered their Hawaianas, but mine were definitely the better choice, even if it took a long time afterwards to dry them again.

I can absolutely recommend you to do the tour in the cave, it’s beautiful, you can climb a small waterfall and jump into a waterwhole. We had a lot of fun there !



Then we went out again and did the tubing in the river. Everybody got a tire of air and we made a chain : the 4 of us and the group from El Salvador and together we went down the slow stream. It was nice and sunny after the cold cave and we made friends with 2 girls from Guatemala (who also had joined the group from El Salvador). They were really nice and invited us to meet here in Guatemala city if we go there. She also took lots of pictures that she would send us later. :-)



Afterwards, Anja and Skander went back to the hostel to get lunch and Tina and me went directly to the Semuc Champey national park. It was really beautiful and we hiked up to the mirador (viewpoint) that was just amazing ! Up there was also the only place in the whole area with a connection (even our hostel didn’t have connection or wifi) and so I took the opportunity to book a hostel at Lago Atitlán for me, Anja and Skander for the next day, because we hadn’t booked anything yet and due to the Semana Santa, nearly every hostel was full. Fortunately, I found one that Nina had recommended me (Free Cerveza Hostel) in Santa Cruz La Laguna and I booked a tent for 3 people there.

Then we hiked back down and went swimming in the river and enjoyed the sun until it disappeared. At some point, Anja, Skander and Laura, a 50 year old woman from Vancouver in Canada from our hostel, joined us there and we spent some time with them, but then they went to a different pool in the river and it was just me and Tina again.

We had a very good conversation with Laura, who is originally from Arizona in the States, about Trump and the situation in the States. She told us, that many young people and also many older people are absolute democrates and were really disillusioned by the outcome of the last elections. She believes, that soon something big will happen there and she told us that many people hope, that the different States will actually become independent countries. Well, we’ll see, but it’s nice to hear that there are actually many people trying to make a positive change there.



At about 4:30PM, Tina and me went back to our hostel to have a nice hot shower (the showers in this hostel were just amazing ! I hadn’t had a hot shower in a long time). We spent the evening with Laura and a few people from Switzerland, but I was exhausted and went to bed early since we had to get up at 6AM the next day for our bus to Panajachel at Lago Atitlán and it would be a very long day with a 13 hours bus ride.





I had liked Semuc Champey a lot and I would go there again without any hesitation. Same in what concerns our hostel, it was really cool and a pretty nice place, just a 15 minutes walk away from the national park.

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