Semuc Champey

So, back to my Semana Santa travels, though expect a blog on my current health situation very soon.

Our plan for day two of our Alta Verapaz adventure was to visit the natural wonder of Semuc Champey, about two and a half hours outside Cobán. My enthusiasm waned quickly when I got up, as we were in the middle of the most intense rainstorm I'd seen in Guatemala. I was assured that this was pretty natural for Cobán though. Still, the prospect of leaping into cold water, and then being further soaked by cold water falling from the sky was not attractive.

I need to backtrack a bit here and explain Semuc. A river running along the bottom of a valley suddenly drops away into an underground cavern, through which it runs for around 500m. Some of the water then bubbles back up through the rocks to make spectacular blue green bathing pools. It's a bit like the Sovereign Centre in Eastbourne but without the wave machine. Perhaps a photo would go some way to explaining this phenomenon?



Okay, so hopefully now you have some idea of how it all works at Semuc. If not, there are more photos to follow. For now, lets whizz back to Cobán where the rain, as usual, was absolutely bucketing down. Check out the shot below from the Parque Central. Quite why the people of Cobán decided to build something looking like a spare prop from Independence Day in the centre of their town I have no idea, but this is Guatemala, and things don't always make sense here.

Without our own transportation a shuttle becomes our sole means of getting to Lanquin, the nearest village to Semuc Champey. This time I'm sat in the back and the preponderance of people prevents me from checking out the driving. I think this is for the best, my nerves are still frayed from yesterday's trip to the Biotopo. On arriving at Lanquin we jump straight on to a pickup bound for Semuc. Pick-ups are just about my favourite way to travel in Guatemala. Basically, you jump in the back and hang on to a metal frame, you have to stand up as it's so packed but you get to meet many interesting people and their cargoes, which range from wood to enormous bags of fish. Like I've said before, travel here is rarely boring and never comfortable.

When we arrive we head straight up to the Mirador (look out point) from where I took the first photo. We figure that it's better to get the sweating out of the way before we jump in the water. It's a good idea too as it ascends very rapidly and very steeply but it's a great fun climb. When we get back down, we take a few photos of where the river disappears (see below) and wonder if anyone has ever made it in and out of the underground cavern (answer, unlikely). Then it's on with the swimming costume (Jasmine almost flashes some unsuspecting tourists and I'm forced to act as a makeshift beach hut using a towel) and into the water. It really is beautiful: clear and populated with small fish which pick your feet if you stay still. This is a feeling no-one can work out whether they like or hate. You have to watch your toes at times as there's also a smattering of good size freshwater crabs wandering about on the bottom. There's excellent opportunity for diving, jumping, swimming or just lounging under a waterfall. Awesome.

Climbing up to the Mirador Jasmine and Greg looked off the pace.


I'm trying very hard not to fall in here.


Tan check: Negative.



I'm not trying very hard not to fall in here though.

Having done all this we get Churrasco (BBQ pork) for lunch, and I just have time to hurl myself off a bridge before the pick-up returns. I will endeavour to add the youtube footage of this happening, though perhaps with the sound turned off to mask my girly scream. Then it's back to Cobán for tacos and sleepytime.

Brief Update

I still have a lot of interesting stuff to blog about from my travels around Easter, but since then it's been (mostly) back to work. However, a few notable things have happened since then.

1. Illness

After a relatively fortunate first three months here, the stomach troubles that seem to plague everyone have cuaght up with me. I'm now two weeks into a stint of diahorrea which nothing seems to shift. I've been given anti parasitic medicine but even that didn't do much more than postpone it for a couple of days. I'm now on an exclusively rice, bread and pasta diet. Fun, I can assure you, it is not. However, as a form of crash dieting I can highly recommend it: I haven't weighed myself recently but I'm willing to bet the scales haven't been this untroubled in a few years.

2. New Housemates

The merry-go-round at the Oxford teachers' house continues to turn, and we welcome Nick and Hannah (both Australian, making the current scores Aus 3, US 2 and UK 1 (sob)). Ben leaves in a couple of weeks and then perhaps we get someone new. Anyways, Nick and Hannah are both ace and up for drinking and adventuring. Nick's buying a car too, so the potential for weekend road-trips pops its head up.

3. Big Trouble in Little Guatemala

Trouble at the top in Guatemala politics-wise. The assasination of a notable lawyer this weekend (who was the lawyer for a notable anti-corruption politician) triggered the release of a posthumous video in which he accuses the president's secretary of carrying out the murder of his client and implicating the president, a major bank and the Mexican drug cartels of working together. I'm going to refrain from commenting as I don't fully understand the political system down here (or indeed, how anything works at all) but if you're interested you can watch the video on youtube. Some of our staff are quite excited by the prospect of a coup, me not so much. Revolution often involves bullets and collateral damage, being a part of which I'm not a fan.

Right, I'm off to neck an Immodium and try to teach my SAT class. Toodle-pip.

First blog post for ages!

Hey team, apologies for the lengthy interlude between blog posts. As you may have guessed, I have been rather busy over the last month, and not having the interent at home makes blogging a challenge. So, while the blog vegetable patch may be looking a little overgrown, I think with some careful pruning and weeding it might just be salvagable...

So let's go back in time a month to just before Semana Santa and our big week off. The Friday directly before SS we all went to pick up our renewed passport stamps from the immigration office (a surprisingly hassle-free process, destroying my illusions of Central American beauracracy) and then popped into Guate's botanical garden for a look around. The garden was actually closed but the 'gringo factor' and some gentle pleading got us in to the deserted garden. It really is a beautiful place, and forms a surprisingly effective sanctuary in the middle of the city. While you can still hear the car-horns, you can at least imagine that you're elsewhere. I have a couple of pictures that I took.

(L to R: Andrea, Me, Jasmine, Alice, Theo, Ben)

Following this we went for our usual Friday tacos & Gallo session, which was complemented by a procession. I wasn't sure if it was appropriate, but I took some photos anyway.

If you flick back through my blog posts, you'll notice that a few weeks before all this Andrea and I had dinner at our taxi drivers house. We thought it would be polite to return the invitation, so for Saturday lunchtime we invited him and his family around. We had assumed in would just be him, his wife and his Grandson, so we were slightly surprised when no less than 10 people turned up. Still, a quick trip to the butchers later and beef stir fry for 13 was underway. All in all it was a reasonable success, though the stress of the cooking rendered what little Spanish I speak useless. Still we battled through the awkwardness and made it out the other side.

After this, it was time to say goodbye to a couple of housemates who were off to Coban (though weirdly, it was us leaving for Coban the next day). Cuatro Grados Norte was the destination of choice, followed by Cien Puertas. Basically, drink was taken and a good time was had by all. The highlight was probably the ride home in the back of a pick up. Photos:

(In order: 1. Drunken Greg, 2. Me doing my collie impression, 3. Alice & Theo (Goodbye!))

The following day I woke up around 11, having been informed we'd be leaving for our holidays in Coban "before 12". Given the way I was feeling and the state of my director the previous evening I thought I'd have at least an hours grace. Thus, I stumbled out of the door to hunt for eggs and bread, to be confronted by my directors truck pulling up "I told you before 12!" he yells. Ugh. This was going to be a long day. We woke housemate Greg up and told him to pack (it took him an impressive 5 minutes) and hit the road to Coban, via a quick pit-stop for Gatorade and sandwiches. Jasmine opened a box of warm red wine which did nobody any good. The drive through Guatemala is pretty impressive. Baja Verapaz, which features the lowest point in Guatemala is pretty much a desert and was a little hot for one so pasty as I.

As we climbed back up towards Alta Verapaz we broke to climb to a waterfall in the hills just off the road. Accompanied by the dogs from the local farm we climbed up into the forest as you can see from these photos. It was rather peaceful apart from the dogs, who were intent on fighting with each other and also biting Greg's ankles. Heh.

Having got to Coban and had a delicious dinner in Casa de Acuna, we spent the following day Quetzal hunting. The Quetzal is Guatemala's national bird, a symbol of freedom (it dies in captivity) and highly prized by the Maya and Aztec cultures. It's also extremely rare. The biotopo de Quetzal is a reserve set up to protect their cloudforest habitat and to give people a chance to see them. However, unless you get up very early in the morning it's almost impossible apparently. Unfortunately, so it proved for us, though the biotopo nevertheless sports some beautiful forest, though not much wildlife apart from lizards (one of which is pictured below). We see two birds the whole time we're there (not quetzals) and so we have to be content with the stuffed quetzal at the end of the trail (also pictured). Still, it's a fun day I guess. We hail a 'shuttle' to get back to Coban. These are small minibuses which drive around the country picking up and dropping off locals. They are extremely cheap and outrageously uncomfortable. At one point, our 12 seater minibus has 25 occupants and is still overhauling articulated trucks around the outside of blind bends. Travel in Guatemala is very much not for the faint-hearted. We survived though, and having eaten a delicious Cuban BBQ meal for dinner, drank some cheap rum and hit the sack.

That's it for this post, I'll further cover my adventures in Semuc Champey and San Rafael Chilasco, as well as later travels in Rio Dulce and Antigua. This afternoon I'm debating whether I'm well enough to climb one of the highest volcanoes in Guatemala. More on this later.

Grev.