Choco-la-tay

Kris and I have been planning on going to Semuc Champey for some time now. I read about this lodge near Champey called El Retiro in Lanquin. It's a famous backpacker lodge that is very affordable. I contacted Josue at the lodge and he told me it won't be a problem staying there for the weekend. As others found out about our plans they joined us one by one and before I know it we had a group of 10 people. I must have contacted Josue 4 times to update my reservation.

I was going to arrange for a shuttle to take all 10 of us but as the group grew in size the school found out about our plans. They offered us their shuttle and after negotiating with them the bus was gonna cost an extra $2.5 per person but we get a private bus leaving when we want and returning when we want. Deal!

The trip was pretty painful. It took us 7-8 hours to get to Lanquin. The last hour of the ride was on a dirt road. Bumpy, narrow and extremely poor visibility. By the time we got there it was pretty dark we didn't even notice that we had arrived! Josue was asleep by then so we check in with someone else and we found out that instead of paying $4.38 a night per person we were gonna pay $3.13. Sweet!

The place was amazing. We got a 10-bed cabin so we had our private dorm style bunk beds cabin. We all claimed our beds as quick as we could. I claimed a top bunk. We were all happy with the cabin. It even had a hammock outside! On the other side of the lodge there was nothing but darkness so we couldn't tell if it was the side of the mountain, a jungle or just thick brush.

Kris came up to us and pointed out that the beds we infested with bedbugs. No one seemed to mind. I guess for $3 you really can't expect much. We headed over to the restaurant/lounge and we pretty much hung out, played cards and chilled. We had to be ready for the Semuc Champey tour by 9am the next morning. So we eventually made it back to the room. Kris brought along his guitar so him and Alisha played a bit before we all went to sleep.

The next morning we all rush out to the restaurant. On the way to the restaurant we noticed that our lodge sits on the river bank. It was beautiful. The river and the side of the mountain facing our cabin. We grab our take away lunch and then we all pack into 2 pick up trucks headed to Champey. The road was bumpy and the trucks were full. There were so many other people with us on the tour. Mostly people in the early to late 20s.

We get to the first stop which was the Lanquin caves and the waterfall. We started by taking turns on a really long swing attached to a giant tree on the river side. The guide tells you when to jump off and you drop 10 feet in the air before hitting the water! As soon as I hit the water I had to swim to the side as fast as possible so not to get carried away by the rapid waters. I went on the swing 3 times it was so cool.

After the swing we headed over to the caves. We each got a candle and entered the cave one by one. The entire time we were either submerged half way or swimming across holding the candle up because it was deep. The cave was very dark and you can barely see anything with a candle. There were parts of the cave where we had to put out the candle, bite on the end and climb the rocks while fighting the gushing water. There was a spot where we can climb the rocks and then jump into a round natural pool in the dark. We must have spent a couple of hours in the caves.

We got out and then we headed over the the waterfall. The waterfall was gorgeous. We swam across the river and got to one side of it where we climbed up the uncomfortable rocky and sharp side of the fall. Once we got up there there was a flat rock where we can lie down while the water falls on us. We climbed behind the waterfall and back out and then we climbed the other side of the waterfall. It was 20 meters above water. I was the first one to get there. The guide looks at me and says this is where we jump into the water. 20 meters!!! I was so excited and jumped off without hesitation. What a drop! it felt like I was in the air for a few minutes! Ok I'm exaggerating but it was a pretty high jump! As soon as I resurfaced I headed straight back to the spot where I can climb up and jump again. A few of jump twice while the rest waited and watched everyone else on the riverbank.

I swam back and the guide said we weren't yet done with activities there. We were each handed a tube and went up the river and tubed all the way back to the point where we arrived in the morning. I of course wanted a bit of more excitement so I decided to take my tube and go to the rapids at the top of the river so I can pick up some more speed. I push myself off and find myself in the middle of the rapids. Within seconds I was off my tube and just hanging on to it so I don't lose it. Half of the way tubing I was trying to get back in my tube but the water was so fast it was nearly impossible. At some point I was facing backwards holding on to my tube and next thing you know i hit this giant rick with my back! My body bent over backwards on the rock not the best feeling in the world! After that I was just hoping I don't hit another invisible rock. Eventually I made it back on the tube about 2 minutes before I had to get off! Great!

Once we were all there we asked if we could jump off the bridge that was nearby. Josue said that normally he would let us do that but some drunk guy jumped off the wrong side head first, hit a rock and died. So out of respect (not safety) they were gonna stop people from jumping off for some time.

The whole time there there were these little girls selling chocolates. "Choco-la-tay", "Choco-la-tay", "Choco-la-tay". Some people finally caved in and bought some chocolates. They were flavored chocolates and the flavor was so potent. I liked it in small quantities but many did not like it at all.

Now that we did pretty much everything we could do at that location it was time to pack in the truck again and head over to the natural cascaded pools of Semuc Champey. We must have spent 2 hours just swimming in the pools and exploring different jumping spots. We knew there was a hiking trail that overlooks all the pools but it was a steep hike up the mountain about 35 minutes each way. We were too lazy to go up. So we continued to swim.

It started to get cold about an hour before we had to be back on the truck so we decided to get out and just walk around. We found out there were 3 other giant pools that we didn't even know about. We all wished we had more time there. We bumped into this guy who just made it down from the vista point. He showed us the pictures and the minute we saw them we all decided that it was definitely worth the climb. He warned us that it is not an easy climb. He was right. It was a killer climb and it felt like the trail was never going to end. But it was all worth it when we reached the top. The view was just astonishing. Unfortunately we didn't have much time to hang out there so we took a few pictures and headed down. We barely made it on the truck.