Lanquin and Semuc Champey
Zephyr Lodge
There is very little in Lanquin except for the glorious hostel Zephyr Lodge which is set at the top of a hill with two expansive valleys on each side. We had an amazing little bungalow that had views across each of the valleys. It only cost us about $12 per night
Everywhere had amazing views including the showers!
Semuc Champey
The trip there
From Zephyr Lodge we did a tour to a place called Semuc Champey and the whole experience was fantastic. It was a 1 hour bumpy ride to Semuc standing on the back of a truck with about 30 other people. The day consisted of the following activities:
Caving in the dark
Dressed only in our swimmers and each armed with a candle we climbed into a series of caves filled with water. In some caves the water was only ankle deep and in others we had to swim holding our candle up high so it wouldn’t extinguish. They took us up waterfalls, through tiny spaces, we could jump off rocks and at the end we went down a “natural slide” where the water from a waterfall had worn away the rock so it was essentially a slide made of rock followed by a 4m drop into the water. Unfortunately we didn’t have a waterproof camera to capture the adventure
The rope swing
This was the biggest rope swing I’ve ever seen. People were pulled 10m above the river level and then would have to jump into the river. Since I’m a wimp I didn’t do it but Marcello did! By the was the photos aren't of Marcello- I took video of his swings.
The bridge
Marcello tells me this is the highest thing he’s ever jumped off- 13m above the river and he was scared as you can tell by the expressing on his face in the photos!
The lookout
A strenuous 1 hour walk up to a lookout point that looks down onto Semuc Champey.
Semuc Champey
Semuc Champey translates to “where does the water hide”. It’s a bit difficult to describe what it is but there is a raging river which goes into a tunnel and comes out the other side- but on top of the tunnel is a series of blue-green pools of water which cascade into each other- very beautiful. More rock slides and jumping between pools made for a fun afternoon.
Tikal
Tikal is a An amazing set of Mayan ruins set amongst jungle. Apparently it featured in Star Wars- something to do with the Ewoks’ village.
Our guide explained how they used the summer and winter equinoxes to tell seasons and subsequently decide on agricultural things such as when to plant and harvest crops.
During our tour our guide located a tarantula and, assuring us it was not poisonous, picked it up to show us.
