November 25-28 - Lanquin

Semuc Champey

The morning of the 25th I woke up, asked the desk if anyone had signed up for El Mirador and decided to leave Flores that morning since I was told that no one had. I had about a half an hour to pack, eat and pay before the shuttle arrived. There had been so many people that told me that I HAD to go to a place called Semuc Champey by the town of Lanquin. So that is where I decided to go.
The bus ride took about 10 hours. We had to travel along some really rough roads to get there. I had already made reservations at a hostel called Zephyr Lodge from the previous hostel so I already had a place to stay. It turned out to be an awesome hostel. I was not able to see the view when we first arrived because it was dark. But in the morning when I woke up it was amazing. The lower level of the hostel was the bar and restaurant that was open. From there you could see the valley that the hostel was overlooking. In the mornings it was foggy and it was completely forested. It was really pretty.
The first morning I decided to do a tour that several of the people had suggested. It involved a morning tour in the caves in the area, then a jump of the bridge into the river below and then swimming in the pools of Semuc Champey. The caves were really neat because they gave you candles for light and there were times where you had to swim through while still holding the candle. There were some waterfalls inside that you could climb up and place that you could jump into the water from above. The bridge afterwards was really high and I had no desire to jump off of it but a lot of the people did. Next we climbed the mountain overlooking the pools so that we could get a good view of the pools. It was about 20 minutes each way. Then we headed to the pools, where several people decided to jump of the waterfall that was there. It was a little too crazy for me but the pools were beautiful enough that I was not at all bored.

View from the hostel

The next day we went tubing down the river close to the hostel. You could buy beers and they would keep them for you on one of the tubes until you wanted it. It was a perfect morning, floating down the river in the sunshine with a beer. Or two. After when we returned to the hostel, I found out that there was a second group going in the afternoon so I decided to go a second time!
The next morning was raining and cold. I was going to stay for one more day, but since the weather sucked I decided to head out. So once again I had to pack, eat and pay in 30 minutes to be able to catch the next shuttle. The hostel was definitely one of the most fun that I have been at though. It was small, beautiful, everyone was really friendly and the bar was really convenient and fun!