Cave Tours and Cliff Jumping in Semuc Champey...

The journey should've been hellish as 13 hours in a rickety minibus on mostly unpaved roads is not ideal but we had made friends in Los Amigos who turned out to be on the same bus, so thanks to them, it was just about bearable - apart from when Josh made us play corners at the back of the bus and I ended up with my face smooshed up against the window, thanks Josh. After a dodgy car ferry which just about carried the bus across a river in Sayaxche (you should've seen the boat engine, or what was left of it) and an impromptu hour long stop in a random town where our bus driver suspiciously disappeared for a while, we arrived in Lanquin.

Real life version of hot wheels, no?

There we swapped our bus for an open back truck which drove us for another hour to our hostel Greengo's, during which I lost count of the number of times we were smacked in the face by passing branches. By we arrived it was very late, and I was pretty proud of myself for not falling face first down the very steep flight of stairs which greeted us at the entrance. We dumped our bags in the dorm and grabbed a quick dinner of hummus - which became a constant throughout travelling as we had missed it so much- before spending the night by a fire pit being serenaded by the hostel volunteers which was interesting to say the least...

Greengo's was a great hostel. In Semuc Champey, the most popular place to stay is Zephyr Lodge but we had left it too late to book and so decided on Greengo's which is lovely and peaceful with an incredible pool and spacious dorms. The staff made sure that every night we had something to look forward to, although most of the time I was preoccupied with fussing the hostel pitbulls I mean can you blame me?. The only thing I would warn you about is the fact that they, and most hostels in the area, switch off the Internet very early on so make sure you have your Netflix episodes downloaded in advance!

Our first day we hit the ground running and signed up to a cave tour. After a brief description of what the tour would include, we were handed waterproof candles and told to hold in one hand while grasping the guide rope in the other. Before entering, our guide Jose warned us that some points we would be swimming in pitch black, and with a grin, he headed into the cave before any of us could object. The caves go on for 11km, however the guides only take you 900m in as its too dangerous to go any further. Our guide Jose had way too much fun watching us struggle in the dark as Josh blew out our candles for the hell of it as well as when we slipped on slimy wooden ladders while trying to avoid falling into the underground waterfall and plunging to our deaths. All positive thoughts here :))))) After supposedly blessing us with black clay 'face paint'- although I'm still not sure what this signified - we ended up at a plunge pool where Jose explained that we couldn't go anywhere unless we all jumped off the rocky outcrop 2m above his head. It sounds simple enough until you imagine that we were standing on sharp, slippery rocks in the pitch black and would be launching ourselves into quite literally the unknown. Somehow he eventually convinced us and so we were 'allowed' to head back to the entrance. Along the way, without explanation, Jose shoved Esther down a black hole and then made us all follow suit, which was one of the most terrifying things I've ever done; being pushed down a black hole and sliding down slick limestone into the complete darkness, being deafened by a waterfall and ending up completely disorientated at the bottom of a cave is not ideal. Esther ended up with her leg black and blue and I'm surprised I didn't come out with a black eye after smacking my forehead on the wall, buuuuut we all survived, somehow. Once outside in the fresh air we could appreciate what Jose had drawn on our faces, and despite being warned not to try and wash it off, that was the first thing Esther did and ended up with a face covered in black mud for the next few hours, much to my amusement.

If you look closely, you can just about see us getting ready to jump off the giant rock in the middle :)

The afternoon we spent tubing down the river where our group was joined by Mario, a local who's job was to join us in a tube and sell us beers from the ice box on his lap which made me laugh. It was such a relaxing experience, chatting and bobbing downstream. Next we walked back up to a couple of very big and very scary rope swings which, after seeing Harry end up painfully belly flopping, I gave it a pass and instead challenged myself to the 10m waterfall jump a little further up, which we achieved whoohoo!! For lunch we nipped to a local comedor where we paid barely anything for an endless buffet which was not bad at all. It was weird sitting there, trying to listen in to what the locals were saying, but I couldn't grasp anything as they spoke a mixture of different Maya dialects which sounds very different to the Spanish I have been used to hearing back home in the village. On the way back to Greengo's, we were accompanied by a little boy who was selling locally made tortilla size 'chocolate' wrapped in tin foil. He was very sweet and had obviously picked up English from tourists over the years so was happy to chat away with us, impressing me immensely as he pointed out the cacao trees along the way. He reminded me of my students back home and before saying goodbye, we bought some different types of chocolate from him but let me tell you, it was nothing like I was expecting - it was gritty and bitter and I shouldn't have been surprised as it was quite literally pure cacao.

Semuc Champey is tucked away in the densely forested mountains of Alta Verapaz and it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited. It is made up of six tiered shockingly blue-green pools of fresh water which form a series of steps atop a natural 300m long limestone bridge. We walked up the almost vertical staircase for about half an hour to reach the view point, during which we bumped into a screaming family of howler monkeys, and the hike is definitely worth it as the view from the wooden platform is truly breathtaking. The walk down was slightly easier and we spent the rest of the afternoon exploring secret caves, swimming under logs and slipping down natural rock slides (which did more damage to my tailbone than I would like to admit). That night we spent our final evening in Semuc enjoying the company of the friends we had made, and somehow ended up sitting at a table surrounded by other Brits - we seem to be a bit of a magnet for other British people so lets see how long this continues for the rest of our trip...

Next stop, Lake Atitlan and Panajachel! (or Panachinchin as I called it for an embarrassingly long time...) x