Semuc Champey

Last week’s Wednesday dancing adventure consisted not only of a great time dancing Salsa, Meringue, Hip-Hop and Reggae, but also of Jana and I winning the limbo contest! That was a good time – we were the stars of the night (but wait, when are we not…haha).

Last weekend’s trip to Semuc Champey was incredible. This was a great get-away from the city life of Xela, and into a beautiful natural atmosphere – someplace I would go for a dream vacation. We left on Thursday morning at 11, the bus ride was very long, total of 10 hours, but so beautiful. I haven’t experienced a drive yet that wasn’t full of awesome views to take in. The first night we stayed at a hotel called Casa de mi Abuela in Coban. We had dinner there and took it easy since everyone was tired after a morning in class and 7 hours in the bus.

Friday morning we left for Semuc. When we got to a town about 45 minutes outside of Semuc, we transferred our bags and ourselves (all 19 of us) into a pickup truck to drive through the mountain the rest of the way there. I believe that more than half of the people riding in the back couldn’t feel at least some part of their body by the time we got there, but it was a good time.

The hotel we stayed at was very close to the Semuc Champey national park. My teacher told me that Semuc is one of the Seven Wonders of Guatemala. It was a gorgeous setting. We were right by the lake, with cabins, a hammock, a little outside restaurant/bar where we ate our meals, a sweet water swing, and a place for campfires – we were all set for a great weekend! After settling in we all set out to explore Semuc. We took a hike up to the mirador (lookout) at the top of a cliff, where we could see the little waterfalls and pools of water amidst the valley of the tree-covered cliffs. Amazing view! By the time we reached the top everyone was hot, sweaty, and very ready to jump in the water (though we did have to hike down first of course).

Jumping in the water felt so great! It was pretty entertaining trying to make our way from pool to pool, sliding around on the slippery rocks (we felt and looked like we were learning to walk again) and sliding down or climbing up the mini water falls to get to each body of water. It reminded me of the movie Fern Gully, with the forest and the valley. We spent the afternoon relaxing here, then went back to relax at our hotel. By the time dinner came around everyone was very ready to eat, it had been a long day. After dinner some of us did some dancing – Salsa, Meringue, Cha-cha and Swing. John, our assistant director rocks at dancing, and he likes to teach us new moves whenever we get the chance. A little later I and a few other people jumped off the water swing. Then to warm up, we sat around a campfire, played some guitar and sang.

Saturday we left around 9 for a tour of the caves. This time I felt like I was in the Goonies. We all got candles to carry, and spent about 2 hours in the caves. We were in the water the entire time and it got really cold, but we hardly noticed the temperature because it was such a cool experience. We got to climb up a waterfall, slide down this shoot thing, and make our way to the end of the cave where we all put out our candles for a few minutes and sat in complete darkness. Once we made it back out into the sun again, we all got to float on tubes down the river and soak in the sun we had missed for the last two hours. The rest of the afternoon we spent relaxing in the sun, and going off the rope swing.