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Well, there has been a change in plans. I spoke with Joann Dwyer Sunday evening after arriving in Panajachel and she informed me that the work in Chi Chi had been cancelled and that she would not have anything for me to do until Saturday. I was left with an entire week to find something to do, so I decided to head North to Semuc Champey to enjoy it's emerald pools, waterfalls, and caves.

A Change In Plans

Jeremy Curl
2006-08-28 16:48:32

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Well, there has been a change in plans. I spoke with Joann Dwyer Sunday evening after arriving in Panajachel and she informed me that the work in Chi Chi had been cancelled and that she would not have anything for me to do until Saturday. I was left with an entire week to find something to do, so I decided to head North to Semuc Champey to enjoy it's emerald pools, waterfalls, and caves.

The next morning I took off in a shuttle at 6am toward Guatemala City. I made it there just in time to catch the 10am bus to Coban. On the bus I met a girl from England (Sarah) and a guy from Switzerland (Viktor) that were travelling together. I also met a guy from France (Cyril) that sat beside me the entire trip. We all just happened to be headed to the same destination, so we stuck together. After the 5 hour trip to Coban, we all jumped on a shuttle on its way to Lanquin, which was an hour and a half drive through hillsides of jungle landscape. We soon turned off of the main road and headed down a narrow dirt road into the Viktor, Sarah and Cyriltropical forest below. After reaching Lanquin we still had one more leg of the trip left and that was a 10km ride in the back of a pick-up truck even deeper into the jungle. Of course this is about the time the heavy rainfall began leaving us soaked for our arrival at Las Marias hostel. Las Marias, being the only hostel near Semuc Champey (1km), was a laid back place nestled into the jungle alongside the Rio Cahabon River. We arrived there a little after 5pm for a total travel time of 11 hours and 15 minutes. We checked into our dorm style rooms (4 people per room) and signed up for dinner. I wolfed down dinner that night and hit the sack to recharge for the big day that followed.

That morning Sarah, Viktor, Cyril, and I all signed up for the Kanba Cave tour at 9:30am. This tour was only 30Q and well worth it. I have never been on such an exciting spelunking adventure in my life. The tour started off with ...