It has been quite a busy week for Amelia and I adventurewise and
travelwise. On Tuesday the 27th we bid farewell to Chimiyá and caught
the 8:00 chicken bus to go to Guatemala City. Chicken buses=old,
schoolbus vehicles that fit as many people possible in the confined
space of a bus. Max capacity signs are ignored as adults are three to
a seat, children standing on laps, and Amelia and I squished in a
standing position in the isle...ADVENTURE #1. During our travels this
week if Amelia and I ever found ourselves in a similar position as
this aforementioned one, we´d take a deep breath, look at each other,
and assure each other that "we´re having an adventure". it´s terribly
fun. Anyway, the two-hour "squished-ness" was followed by the ensuing
4 hours freezing airconditioned-ness (a pullman bus...like a
greyhound) to get to Cobán, only to be followed by an hour and a 1/2
more of squished-ness in a mini-van (to Lanquín) to be finished off
with a 1/2 hour in the back of a pi
ck up truck...big ADVENTURE #2. So where were we after 8 hours of
traveling? At our beautiful hostel, Las Marillas, where we ended up
staying two nights due to it´s charm. The next day we woke up for our
9:30am tour of the Lanquín caves...ADVENTURE #3. It was my first time
ever doing such a trip, and though Amelia had been in caves before,
she found it just as impressive as I did. We were the only 2 in our
particular tour and our 20 year old tour guide had us climbing and
jumping in all sorts of places the much larger group behind us was
unable to do. The majority of the tour was spent chest deep in water
with a part where we had to swim, holding our candle above water to
provide light. In my opinion, the pinnacle of the whole tour was when
we got to dash through a waterfall and sit in a little cavern and be
on the "inside" of the waterfall. It was absolute coolness climbing
around the caves and jumping into dark waters, litterally trusting our
lives with our guide wh
o was telling us where to go. remember, our only light was the candle
we held in our hands...coolness.
Once we got out of the caves, we climbed around a tiny bit to look
over the rushing river and catch a glace at Semuc Champay...a park
that containes BEAUTIFUL natural tourquoise pools at which we spent
the afternoon. Amelia kept describing the place as "ridiculously
beautiful" and I heard at least 2 groups of people conversing the 10
most beautiful places they´ve ever been and naming Semuc Champay among
them. Photos could not capture 1/2 the beauty, but we took pictures
in vain all the same. After swimming for a while we climbed up a bit
of a mountain on a trail that has a look-out over the pools and again
snapped pictures, looked at them, disappointed by the lack of being
able to capture the beauty, and finally sat back and just
absorbed...ADVENTURE #4.
The next day we caught a mini-van at 6am to head back to Cobán.
Maximum profit being on the top of Guatemalan minds, we super squished
in with 37 other people...basically there were 39 people in a van that
would have comfortably seated about 20...ADVENTURE #5. Luckily many
of them got off in Lanquín only a half hour away and we sat semi-
comfortably for the remaining hour and a 1/2. From Cobán we got
another van to go to Flores and luckily for us, the van was going onto
Tikal, so we spent 5 hours with a vanful of Australians, English, a
Canadian, a family from Germany, one New Zealander and one United
States-er, dying in the heat that kept building as we went to lower
elevations and traveled northward...ADVENTURE #6. We had to stop at a
fruit inspection checkpoint, floated with our van on a ferry across a
river (this huge barge/ferry thing run, I might add, by only two
little boats with their "75 horsepower" engines gleaming in the
sunlight...ADVENTURE #6 1/2.), and cross
ed over a temporary bridge of gravel as the last one had washed away.
But I have to go now cuz we are off to find some supplies, but I´ll
continue later!
annemary
