Rope swings, green lagoons, sewage and hippies

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After finally bidding farewell to Antigua and my host family I took an eventful bus journey to Semuc Champey (the country´s number 1 tourist attratction, apparently).

I jumped on the first tour from the hostel to the and had wondered if I´d be dissapointed after all the hype. Semuc Champey is an area of amazing blue and green lagoons, flowing down a mountain to a crystal clear river surrounded by water caves. The tour was fantastic and the whole day was like going to Wet n Wild only in the outdoors, and with less charvers and verruccas. The health and safety remit in Guatemala extends as far as being told to ´be careful´ and so the day was spent doing all the things that would never be allowed in the UK. The day was started with huge rope swing into the river, followed by a tour of the water caves. We were given a candle so we could see where we were going, the only problem being the points where the water was deep enough to swim and so the task was to swim with one hand in the air, trying to make sure the candle didn´t go out!
Next came tubing, only the river was quite low and my poor arse took a beating in the rapids!
We then had the option of jumping from a ten meter high bridge (and despite being petrified I couldn´t let the UK down and chicken out). After lunch we spent the afternoon hiking to the actual Semuc Champey pools, where we could swim, slide and jump for hours on end. I instantly became the most popular member of the group when I remembered my camera worked under water (cue hundreds of hilarious underwater photos).

The hostel was perfect, little wooden cabins set by the same river we´d swam in and the day was ended with an amazing all you can eat Mexican buffet watching fireflys dance across the riverside -PERFECTION!

I decided to stay an extra night, just to enjoy the beautiful surroundings and perfect my hammock technique. However, the tranquility was soon spoiled when I woke up from a mid morning snooze to find a cow staring at me, chomping on some grass, only two inches from my face!

I moved from Semuc Champey to Lago Atitlan. I´d heard loads about the lake and was excited to see the place for myself. The lake itself is incredible, studded with black volacanoes and green mountains. I spent time kayaking, swimming (until somebody kindly highlighted the high percentage of raw sewage in the lake) and hiking. I tried three times to paraglide, but each time the weather didn´t cooperate and I was getting incredibly frustrated with wasted days not able to make other plans.

The lake is full of middle aged hippies and every street has at least 3 yoga gyms and some sort of spiritual healing centre. I love the lake and the natural beauty, but I´m ready to escape all the Americans in baggy shirts and beards...

In sum:

Mishaps: Trying a salsa class and kicking myself in the leg so hard I created a huge bruise. As my Granda once said ´You can´t teach rhythm Jenny¨

Men: Still in Guatemala, still not were it is at.

Size zero: See above quote on all you can eat buffets. Also San Pedro has a legendry old lady who appears in the pubs around 10:30 selling fresh popcorn and unbelieavble chocolate cake for 50p.

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Comments

[goannamia]

wow
That is so amazing i'm going to the first place you went to this school year! was it fun?

[notanotherboringtravelblog]

I´m not sure which place you mean? But it´s all been pretty fun!