Rest Day in Semuc Champey

 I figured this merited its own post, since it was an all day affair. I took a bus from the hotel to Semuc Champey, which is Mayan for “where the river hides.” It was a winding and hilly 6-mile trip deep into the mountains - surprisingly, there were still houses along the way and even a couple of hotels at the park itself. I had booked a tour along with two others from the hotel, including my co-couchsurfer from Flores, Valeria. We were placed with another group of Danish people who were all traveling with the same travel agency, the group ended up being a little bigger than I’m used to, which means we were sometimes held up or rushed in certain places.

The steep, windy road into Semuc Champey

Signs along the way, there were some houses way out here, but only one road.

The tour started with a steep ascent up the side of a cliff on wet and slippery rocks, about 1500ft straight up. There we got our first view of the “hidden river.” The river, which was roaring due to the previous days of rain, dips into a cave system below a series of small ponds, leaving calm, beautiful turquoise water above, juxtaposed with the raging river that simply disappears below the pools.

 

The view overlooking the Semuc Champey pools 

We then descended to the pools. Along the way, there were a couple of stands set up selling coconut water, mangos and pineapples. Pretty nice refreshments for a hike in the mountains!

The pools are very calm and the water is warm. Our guide took us to one of the lower pools and encouraged us to do some daring stunts. He had me sit on what seemed like a bunch of rocks, that were slippery with algae. Then he just pushed me off the rocks and I slid down about 15 feet into the water below. Then he showed us a place where we could jump off the rocks and into the water. The water is turquoise, but it is not transparent. I trusted him enough, I guess, to get up the courage to jump into the water. Fortunately it was deep enough and I had a nice, refreshing dip.

 

Walking on the shallow end of the pools before swimming. 

 

View from the pools into the river valley

We then took a break for lunch. Afterwards, we hiked into part of the cave system where the river “hides.” This was a little like the ATM cave in Belize, although there were fewer Mayan remnants and the current wasn’t nearly as strong. The water was usually about hip height, but we did have to swim in a few sections. We were each given a candle to go into the cave, giving a special kind of dancing shadow effect as we went along. It was tricky sometimes to swim without dousing the candle. A couple of times, it was unavoidable. Our guide was certainly a bit daring and took some wild risks (which I very much enjoyed). For example, we had to cross a waterfall, he told me simply to go to the other side. The waterfall was a complete torrent of water. As soon as I stepped underneath it, I was pounded by water, like heavy fists on my neck and back, I was inundated. I stepped out immediately “How???” I demanded. “Don’t let go of the rope” he said. Needless to say, I made it, even though my candle went out. This was immediately followed by a janky ladder that we took to a small crevice, crawled through and continued into the cave. When we reached the end of the cave, there was another pool of water and the guide encouraged us to climb up to an outcropping of rocks above the pool and jump into the pool. Again, I was pretty timid, but jumped nonetheless. There were a couple more spots in the cave where we had to pass through rushing water, slide through some rocks and submerge ourselves. Without a guide, I don’t know how anyone could trust what was on the other side of some of these areas, I just held my breath and hoped to resurface.

 

We had to make it through the cave using candles, trying to keep them lit even as we submerged many times underwater. 

As if this caving adventure wasn’t enough, we came out of the cave and immediately embarked on a float on the river on inner tubes. The river was moving very swiftly as we lined up in a single file line, holding each other’s legs. Our guide instructed us to paddle and we were headed down the river, at times avoiding, at times braving the rapids. As we floated by, a guy jumped from the shore and paddled towards us, distributing Gallo beers (Gallo is the biggest brand of Guatemalan beer) to everyone on the tubes. It was a nice surprise.

That was it for the day, we had a bumpy ride back to the hotel and had some hot chocolate together, since we had literally spent the entire day soaking wet.

In the center of Lanquin