Semuc Champey

Trip Start Nov 08, 2008
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Trip End Ongoing


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Flag of Guatemala  ,
Sunday, November 30, 2008

I arrived at my hostel Las Marias, near the pools of Semuc Champey, after a whole day of travel in a crowded and hot shuttle van. The hostel was described as "rustic" in the guidebook, but it was walking distance to the pools I wanted to see and I donīt mind roughing it too much. What I didnīt know was that there would be electricity only from 6 to about 9 pm at night (after that the generator stopped and all you could hear were all the insects that were gettting ready to come have you for dinner), and that the dorm room would be open to all the mosquitoes who wanted to enter. Iīm making it sound bad. It was actually a cute place, with very nice staff, and decent food. There was a lovely river to swim in whenever I liked, and it was just a short walk to the most beautiful natural swimming pools ever!!

The pools at Semuc Champey are unreal. They cascade down 5 or 6 levels into individual pools of the most clear blue-green water. I spent an entire day swimming and hiking the short trails near the pools, and marveling at the point where the Cahabon River goes underground for a few hundred meters and then pops back up after the pools. I also took a "rustic" tour of a local cave that involved more swimming, some climbing, and even a short rapelling jaunt down a small waterfall. Our lighting for this tour? A small candle that you had to hold in one hand while swimming with the other.While going down the waterfall, I had to hold the candle in my mouth (extinguished of course). I got so scared half-way down that I bit it in half. The guide was nice enough to give me a new one for the rest of the return trip. I donīt have photos of the cave tour, as the candle was all I could manage! It was actually really fun, and certainly an experience you couldnīt get away with in the U.S.

On the way to Semuc Champey, you can see cocoa trees, coffee trees, and cardamom growing on the hillsides. When you pass their houses, the girls that the live there run out and sell you homemade chocolates flavored with cinnamon or cardamom--mmmmmm.
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Comments

phasersmrsolo
phasersmrsolo on Dec 10, 2008 at 05:31AM

hell yeah!
sounds & looks rad!
mmmm, cardamomy choco latte!

womandork
womandork on Dec 17, 2008 at 08:14PM

Re: hell yeah!
dood... what's up? you don't call. you don't write. you don't bring me flowers anymore?

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