Lanquin Caves

... phenomenal...not the bat touching me, what I saw in that cave.  I had just been on a tour through the Grutas de Lanquin with a group of about seven other people.  Our guide was a fifteen year old Guatemalan boy who liked to say my name a lot ...

... bit to find a more relaxing place than El Retiro to stay on this trip. A backpackers haven along the river Lanquin, where you can visit bat-caves, swim through caves and climb it's inner waterfalls just from the light of a candle. Float down rivers on a ...

... got to our hostel and set up our tent on a wet patch of grass surrounded by forest, very nice. We missed the tour to the caves for today so we chilled by the river. We took turns on the rope swing which was pretty fun, just a bit chilly. Tuesday the ...

... big shutter windows that opened to an amazing view of mountains and green jungle all around us.  We headed down to the Lanquin Caves that we came to see - a fairly short walk down a dirt road through the forest.  It was the cleanest air ...

... an experience. Coban is a big city--a lot bigger than i was expecting, but as we got there, we decided to go on directly to Lanquin, which is where we are now.  There is a lot of stuff to do around here, and the place we are staying is really nice ...

... have one last big feast before we set out for our next destination. At 6:45 am we leave for Flores in the North of Guatemala. We are in good spirits and in good health going into our fifth week in Guatemala. Hello to everyone and we still miss you. ...

... out really well as we joined another smaller group of wimpy american boys for the cave trip. This trip took you deep inside limestone caves with only a candle for company. Most of the time you were required to swim, so this meant you had to swim with one ...

Well here I am sat in the middle of nowhere in a gorgeous hotel called El Retiro in Lanquin near Coban in Guatemala on the internet. Nuts huh? well its really beautiful here, everythings green and jungle like the hotel's rooms are all like thatched cabins ...

... the package tour, as it would've been about the same price with transportation and a guide, and we would've gotten to visit the caves. Sorry, Ted, my bad for trying to be a cheapskate. After a few lazy hours, we caught a ride in one of the Gringomobiles ...

Natural Wonder, Semuc Champey After a few days of relaxation on the beach I made my way to Semuc Champey in the center of Guatemala, close to the city of Coban. Sorry my excitement but WOW, WOW, WOW! Incredible! That place could easily be one of the ...

.  Lanquin is a tiny little village in the centre of Guatemala surrounded by beautiful green mountains and lots of waterfalls and caves and rivers and all sorts. Stayed in a great hostel that had a huge garden and a river at the bottom of it which ...

... a pain in the head (literally) that its lucky it was worth it. An epic bus journey from Antigua at 5am took us to Guatemala for the 6am bus to Coban. This was a headwrecker of a journey with our driver seeming intent on swinging as fast as possible into ...

... might not get a room.  That in itself is the reason most people are going--its supposed to be the big party place in Guatemala but we´ve been going to sleep so early that the concept of staying up all night partying doesn´t sound very likely.  So ...

... the 9 km ride through lush green tropical valleys.  After checking our bags, we went for a quick dip in the Lanquin River. Elvis Garcia, our tour leader, showed us the proper technique for swinging into the middle of the river before jumping. It ...

... and hills covered in coffee plants and pine trees. It also located beside a beatiful river which flows from the Lanquin Caves. This wonderful English-Guatemalan-owned lodge has an extensive grassy riverside plot and very attractive palm-leaf-thatched ...

... with the smell of burning as people cleared forests for planting. The hillsides smoldered from garbage burning, even plastics. Guatemala didn´t yet have an national infrastructure in place for garbage pickups nor any sort of emissions control. I hope with ...

... the road just stops and you wind down to what seems like the middle of nowhere to this quaint little river town called Lanquin. There is an infamous place to stay called El Retiro. All the gringos stay here and you end up meeting people further into ...

... in the river - which consisted of me clinging on to a rope and bobbing in the torrent - we took a trip to some nearby caves at dusk.  It was pitch black inside as we shuffled along clinging to our (useless) candles and rather scary.  The fact ...

Lanquin is deep in a stunning valley, with river flowing through, i loved it here!  The scenery is breathtakin, the next day i booked to do the caving tour. You get taken through water filled caves with a candle, it was amazing !.. then we went ...

A two hour bus ride out of Coban brought us to Lanquin.  There is a small backpacker refuge called El Retrio.  It's a collection of Palapa huts located on a river and surrounded by mountains.  My first impressions of it was that if The ...