Semuc Champey

Thankfully our shuttle bus wasn’t full so Deryn and I had a 3 seats between us. We were picked up just before 9 and arrived in Lanquin around 7 that night, the last 45 minutes being a crawl along a dirt, windy mountainous road with the odd cliff edge pass of traffic coming the other way. We then had to jump into the back of a ute for another 45 minutes to our hostel El Portal De Champey. An oasis a mere 100m from the rock pools of Semuc Champey.

We had a lovely little cabin overlooking the river Rio Cahabon, all be it with no wifi and power from 12 to 2 and again 6 to 11. We booked 3 nights there basically to chill before the next 9 hour shuttle ride up to Flores and the Mayan ruins at Tikal. And chill we did. The hostel was run by an incredibly friendly bunch of locals and a German girl called Danielle, who had been living there for over a year

The first day consisted of a walk to the stunning rock pools and the 25 minute climb to the mirador overlooking the pools.  It was nice being so close to the pools rather than enduring the 45 ride from Lanquin. 

The next day we grabbed a couple of truck tubes from some locals and had a 10 year old girl called Marie escort us for the 25 minutes float down the river.  Very relaxing.  Her English was amazing, learnt solely by interacting with tourists. When we saw her again the next couple of days she would yell out “Derr-ring!”.   It was also hilarious how the locals tried to sell us beers whenever we walked past them – even 830 in the morning.

Our final day was a busy one with an early visit to the stunning rock pools so we had them to ourselves. Then we visited the K’anba caves.  They were brilliant. Entry was 60Q each and I also hired some crocks for Q25. We then given a candle each by our guide and led into the caves – thankfully it was only the 2 of us on the tour.  The candles were lit and immediately we were knee deep in water following a rope.  At times we had to swim while holding our candle above the water, we clambered up a waterfall holding onto a rope, dropped down a blind chute into a pool below and generally had a ball.  We entered 1km into a cave system that runs for at least 10; it was an hour of fun. 

That afternoon we climbed the mirador looking down at the hostel and then back to the rock pools for another refreshing swim. We then finished off the day with a decent session in the hostel bar.  Happy hour prices meant I could get 2, 6 oz glasses of 12 year rum, for Q30 (A$6).  A bargain hard to resist. It was a bit of a challenge getting up at 630 for our 7am pick up back to Lanquin to grab the shuttle to Flores.  We arrived st Flores at 4.45pm and got a very entertaining tour guide called Libby escort us to our hostel Ciao Cicao but I could not handle the size and stuffiness of the room so booked us into the much more upmarket Hotel Isla de Flores.  Some hostels just do not work after 9 hours in a shuttle bus!