The journey to Lanquin was a long one, we traveled all day beginning in San Pedro La Laguna traveling to Antigua and from there to Guatemala City followed by another journey to Coban and a final minibus ride over some paved and some unpaved roads to arrive at our destination. Lanquin, a small town in north central Guatemala, has a population composed mostly of indigenous people of Q’eqchi’ Maya descent. Having little to offer the traveler besides caverns, a few hotels and three or four restaurants, Lanquin is none the less located in a beautiful setting surrounded by mountains. Its main draw however is its proximity to Semuc Champey.
Semuc Champey is located 11km to the south of Lanquín, in a valley with steep walls, surrounded by humid tropical forest and is a national park. Pools full of mountain spring water sit atop 300m long natural limestone bridge, formed by the Cahabón River which flows below it. At the end of the bridge, the water from the pools flows down 15 meters in a beautiful waterfall, to rejoin the river.
We took a guided tour to Semuc Champey loading into a mini bus with a group of tourists and
some locals, after filling all available seating in the minibus several more people sat on the roof, so that our view of the forest was framed by legs and feet. After arriving at the national park, the tour started with a short climb down to a look out where there is a view of the waterfall. Then we climbed and scrambled up and up a steep slippery trail for about 45 minutes to the top of the cliffs to have a bird’s eye view of the natural pools. After climbing and down we watched as the river rushed under the limestone with great power while above the pools we calm and the water flowed gentely, in the pools we were able to take a much needed and much deserved swim.
The water was beautiful cool and clear, and the weather after the last two weeks of rain was perfect, sunny and bright. Following our swim Turgay and the group climbed down a rope ladder that had been lowered over the waterfall and into a cavern to have a view of the river from behind the rushing water. We waited up top with Amy who like us thought better of climbing over the side of a cliff in rushing water. We returned to Lanquin and after searching for an open restaurant and borrowing money from a fellow traveler (there are no ATMs in Lanquin) we were finally able to eat dinner. The next morning we headed out early to travel to Flores.
