Guatemala

Hi everyone!

Semuc Champey

After voluntarily spending a night on the floor in the check-in area of Guatemala City airport, the only reason being laziness to find a better option at a late hour, we decided to skip Guatemala City all together, and took a taxi straight to the bus-station, heading for Semuc Champey, outside of Lanquin, in north-central Guatemala. Semuc Champey must be one of the most beautiful natural sights in the world. Semuc Champey is said to mean "Sacred Water" in mayan, but some people (and also what we were told) said that it meant "Where the river hides beneath the earth". So basically it was a big river flowing underneath the natural pools, and the pools itself came from mountain water, not the river Cahabon, which flows underneath. It is made up of 6 natural "pools" that fuse together by small, or big, waterfalls, creating natural waterslides, or big jumps into the next pool, which ever you'd like.

Up there we slept :)

The hostel, El Portal, where we stayed in the roof of one of the dorms, (yes, in the roof) sleeping on mattresses, was a delightful hostel with young, energetic staff that didn't want any payment for "sexy"-dancing with you all night, even though they were 12 years old. It must be the central-american blood.. Worth mentioning that these guys only were cute, not annoying like earlier-mentioned south/central - american guys.. :) Definetly a must-see if you ever go to Guatemala! We were also on a tour inside of a huge cave, with no other light than a candle, that you had to swim with in one hand when the water got deep. The cave involved everything from swimming, to climbing, to letting yourself go from small waterfalls, sorrounded by stone close arround your body. Quite thrilling!

This is where the river goes under the pools.

Also a must-see is Livingston, especially if you are a backpacker. And if you go there as a backpacker, you should definetly stay at Casa de la Iguana, in one of their hammocks, or one of their bungalows. This area of Guatemala is just like being in caribbean, all of the sudden, and it's beautiful in every way; the scenery, the people, and the laidback way of living.. The first night there we were witnesses to a proper caribbean storm, thunder bouldering down 1 second after the lightning, and the rain so heavy you had to shout to hear each other. Pretty cool! Despite the weather our first night was awesome, with fun drinking-games sorrounded by fun people, and great music at the hostel bar.

The Cave

The best beer-pong team!

Day 2 in Livingston we went for a boat trip to a beautiful beach, where we mostly lied down sleeping because of late night yesterday. But also the weather was still a bit bad, it was cloudy and you could feel the rain was on its way. So it wasn't really a beach day. We were supposed to go The Seven Altars (which is a bit like Semuc Champey), but the rain started to really poor down and the sea was getting a bit rough, so we decided to drop it and head back to the hostel. Returning to the hostel soaking wet without even having taken a swim, it was nice to relax with the movie Bruno, Wifi, and french toast with maple syrup that day. ;) The original plan was to travel for a while longer in Guatemala, before going to Belize, but in a heartbeat we decided to go to Honduras to do our Open Water Diving Certificate instead, which is our current location. We will write about that next time. :)

Eating dinner at the beach.