semuc champey

So my friend that I met my first week in Xela, who lives in Guate City with his girlfriend, and I have been talking about a weekend trip for a few weeks. On Thursday, he suggested we go to Semuc Chemey, which are these beautiful waterfalls/pools/mountains a few hours from Coban, which is itself four or more hours from Guate City. We finally actually got to talking plans at about 7 pm on Thursday night, at which point I realized I needed to miss class on Friday in order to make it to Guate in time to leave with S&J to Coban. So, at that point, I sent my teacher a facebook message to tell him that I wasn't going to be in class -- since I realized I didn't have his phone number.

I wasn't entirely sure which bus lines were going to have an 8 am bus, since it was too late to really figure that out. Xela Who magazine claimed Linea Dorada had one, and everyone always says they're the nicest. I packed a little bag, slept a little, and at 7:15 caught a cab to the terminal, where they told me they only had a 4 am and 2:30 pm bus. Damn. Luckily, I knew where I was, and that the Alamo terminal was only a few blocks away, so I wondered over there. They indeed had an 8 am bus, which I made with plenty of extra time. I was the only gringo on the bus.

S sent me a text with his address, and I eventually managed to get a taxi to take me there. Their apartment is absolutely beautiful, in Zone 15 of the City, which is fairly nice. S was vaguely impressed that I managed to get there, I think. Probably because my Spanish was completely awful the last time he'd seen me.

After a sandwich and a trip to the ATM, we caught a 2:45 bus to Coban. The going was pretty slow, as there were several places where passes were really terrible from landslides and the cars going in opposite directions had to take turns. Driving on a bus in pitch black on very twisty turny mountain roads is not scary at all, really.

Thankfully, the bus dropped us off just about 2 or 3 blocks from the hostel we were staying at. The hostel was really tiny (and very pretty) with a very nice restaurant attached to it. They had two dormitories with 4 beds each, so we were able to claim one of those for ourselves. We headed out in search of flashlights, toothbrushes, food, and beer, but found Coban to be entirely silent and mostly deserted. We did manage to find a store that sold flashlights but not toothbrushes (go figure). We found a bar/dance club which was completely empty. The people there were kind enough of point us in the direction of a Chinese restaurant, which actually turned out to be pretty good, albeit entertaining. I ordered sweet and sour pork (agriodulce in Spanish), and the waitress was insistent that I understood that it included bones. Huesos? Yes, huesos. Yo entiendo!

After that, we checked by the "club" to see if a crowd had appeared yet, but no such luck. In reality, we were all really exhausted (and I was still fighting off my head cold), so we just retired to our room to read and sleep. [[Side Note: I just finished the book 'The Art of Political Murder: Who killed the bishop? which was an excellent book. It is a sort of journalism-style book about one of the most famous murders in Guatemala history, which took place in 1998. It also is incredibly interesting and informative, and you'll learn a lot about Guatemala. Mom, you shouldn't read it until I'm home. ]]

Bright and early Saturday morning, we headed out on our tour of Semuc Chempey and some caves. The tour group was the three of us and two other couples who were staying in the hostel. One was from England and the other was from Italy/Switzerland. Plus our tour guide and the driver. We drove through absolutely beautiful country, but that's basically true of all of Guatemala. Once we got to a small Pueblo, we got out and switched to a jeep. Three of us had to cram in the back of the jeep, which was very much not comfortable. (Our guide rode outside on the spare tire, and somehow seemed to be more comfortable than us.)

We got to this hotel in the middle of nowhere where we picked up two more girls and stopped for a beer. From there we walked about 2km through the mud (ewww!) to Semuc Chempey. Once we got there, our guide gave us the choice of heading to the viewpoint first or the pools first. I was already exhausted by the time we got there, what with trying not to fall in the mud and whatnot, so I voted pools. Everyone else voted viewpoint, even though our guide explained that it was 45 minutes straight uphill.

I seriously could not keep up with everyone, but I did eventually make it up. This was a pretty damn steep climb, much of which consisted of very steep stone or wooden stairs (each a foot tall, which is even weirder when considering the average height of a Guatemalan). Rudy stayed back with me to make sure that I'd make it. He kept telling me "Si puedes" (yes you can), and I kept responding that this was horrible. (Or, rather, 'horible,' which is way more fun to say.) I did eventually make it, and I had to admit that the viewpoint was pretty magnificent. Basically, you're looking down into a river that cuts through the mountains. It begins as very large water falls, trickles down through 6 or 7 crystal clear, incredibly tranquil pools, and then eventually resumes its course as a rushing river. The bottoms of the pools were rock, not dirt, which probably helped with the beautiful clarity.

After our lunches, we headed downhill to the pools. I wasn't tired on the downhill trek, but I was struggling to keep up since I did not want to move too quickly and fall down the mountain (which didn't look like it would be that difficult). At the bottom we shed our shoes for flip flops and waded into the top of the pools near the big waterfall. Rudy showed us the hole that the water rushes into, where you would die if you fell in. We took a lot of photos, and then headed back to change into swimsuits and swim!

Swimming was amazing. Rudy had us jumping from one pool into the next one down. (This is why having a guide is important; he told us exactly from where to jump.) These ranged in height from 2-3 feet up to maybe 10 or 15 feet. It was terrifying, but awesome. In between the jumps we got to swim leisurely through the pools.

I'm not sure I've seen anything more beautiful. When resting in the pools, we were surrounded by beautiful green mountains, trickling water falls, roaring waterfalls in the distance . . .

Rudy was worried about me when we were walking across walks between pools, etc. I had a small head cold, and it turned out my typically horrendous balance was even worse than usual. (Actually, i'm not sure my balance is usually horrendous. It's much better than many other of my physical attributes.) In any case, trying to balance on slippery rocks with a head cold is not the most brilliant idea, but, hey, I'm alive and such.

After swimming we hitched a ride in our cramped jeep back to the hotel for a short break (and another cerveza), and then we headed to the caves. The caves are sacred for the Maya that live around there. (Our guide was Mayan. As is not too uncommon in Guatemala, particularly in rural areas, his mother doesn't speak Spanish -- only K'iche, one of the many Maya languages.)

Throughout the caves, Rudy pointed out all the rock formations that look like animals and objects, and he also showed us an area which is an ancient Maya sacrificial altar. (He also insisted that despite stories to the contrary, the Mayan did not sacrifice humans, only animals). Around the altar, the rock is all black from years of fire. (The rest of the rock is close to white).

Around sunset, we went and sat in the entrance to the cave and watched all the bats (hundreds of thousands) fly out. It was fairly intense.

Apparently if you go on the two-day tour, there's another cave you can visit and tube through. The one we went in has carved paths for walking, although when you get to the end, you can see that the caves goes on and on. Rudy says they've explored it 18 km past that point.

And that was pretty much the trip. It seems to take FOREVER to get back to our hostel in Coban, and all we wanted was a hot shower. We were covered in mud and our clothes/bathing suits were still damp. Unfortunately, upon arrival in the hostel, we discovered no sign of the hot water the hostel claimed existed. So, instead, we changed into clean clothes and ate a ridiculously huge meal at the very nice restaurant attached to the hostel.

In the morning, there actually was hot water (turns out it had been broken), and I had the best shower I've had since arriving in Guatemala. Unfortunately, I think had to put back on my mud-caked jeans, as I failed to bring more than one pair of pants with me. D'oh!