My week of travel - Semuc Champey

Semuc Champey

Semuc Champey was my last stop before Germany. It was also far away, about 7 hours, and I felt a bit sick so it wasn't the most fun ride ever! I went by myself, and hoped I would make some new friends on the trip! The shuttle wove through the mountains and stopped at a lookout.

So we eventually arrived at this tiny town, and I got on this "shuttle" (which was a ute this time!) which drove up and down hills for about 40 minutes until we got to the hotel, which was right in the centre of Semuc Champey. The river was literally the front yard, and it was pure turquoise-green. It's a bit dark in this photo, but this was the view!

My room was pretty cool - it was islander-style, with a palm roof and open window spaces. It was high up in a loft, so my way in was through a trapdoor!

The window (you can drape a curtain over it at night) and door (floor on right)

The other half of my loft room!

In the morning, I was booked in for a day tour around the jungle. This is the view from the deck I was eating breakfast on...

I met 3 people the night before at dinner, they were heaps cool - my age and from Canada. So the next morning we all set off together for the tour. Turns out we had to hike up billions of stairs for like an hour. That sucked!!

But the view was worth it...

Me and Clare

You could hear the screams of howler monkeys in the jungle, and one of the guys said they used that sound for the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park! It was awesome, it really did sound like dinosaurs!

The guide then took us back down to the pools - it rained the night before so there was a massive deluge of water!

All the natural rock pools, so crystal clear...

Then we went swimming! It was hilarious, the rocks were so slippery and I stacked it so many times. The guide took us through each level (the pools all flow into each other) and we slid down these natural waterslides made out of slippery rocks. I sat down and he gave me a push and off I went! It was pretty scary and dangerous because it was so possible to slide out of control and hit your head on the rocks are something. But I survived, with only a few cuts and bruises :-)

Went for a bit of a walk through the jungle...

The Caves

After all the activity, it was back to the hotel for some lunch and then we headed off to the caves. This was the best experience so far!! There's all these underground cave systems, and we went exploring with a guide. We were given candles - it was pitch black - and had to climb over all these rocks and swim through these underground lakes! Most of the time was spent swimming actually, it's really hard to carry a candle while swimming in deep water and laughing at the same time! My friends and I kept singing the Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park themes songs, it was so funny and I had such a great time. There were slippery ladders meters tall that we had to climb up, there were waterfalls, submerged rocks, all in this system of caves! It was super dangerous and super fun!

River Tubing

After the caves (we were so tired!) there was one more thing to do - tube rafting on the river. Fortunately, that just involved us sitting in an inflated tire and floating along the river. It was very relaxing just drifting along, however the 30 minute walk back with no shoes was not so fun!