Waterfalls, Rivers and Caves....OH MY!

This past weekend Molly, Jessica and I (as if we don't already spend enough time together in English) took off to explore Semuc Champey. Semuc Champey is series of natural pools and ponds within a beautiful jungle....in the Myan Kekchi language Semuc Champey means sacred waters. After spending the weekend there I can understand why.

We took our half day on Friday and grabbed a 2pm shuttle from Antigua to Lanquin (8 hour trip), which is the town right outside of Semuc Champey. The trip there was long and..shall we say interesting. We passed by a huge forest fire, we were pulled over by the police, and the last hour of our trip we added extra people to our shuttle so I had a dutch girl sitting on my lap. After a longer then necessary and uncomfortable trip...you can say we were happy to have arrived. We stayed the night in Lanquin because we got in so late and woke up bright and early to grab a ride into Semuc on the back of a pick up truck. The roads are too small and windy for normals cars and trucks to pass through so we all pilled into the pick up truck to start our adventure. We stood in the back of the truck and drove through the jungle for thirty minutes...it was so beautiful, lush and isolated.

Jess and I holding on as we rode through the
winding roads  to Semuc.

Molly helping out and holding down some coolers so
they wouldn't tip over on the ride.

Drive to Semuc!

Beautiful view.

View crossing the bridge..our hostel is up on the left.

We arrived safe and sound at El Portal, where we would stay that night, which is a rustic yet charming hostel only footsteps away from Semuc. Our tour began moments later. We headed into the park and began our hike up a VERY steep hillside to reach the mirador (the lookout point over the pools). After an hour or so of hiking we reached the most breathtaking sight....clear turquoise pools and waterfalls set in amongst the trees. The group quickly climbed down so we could swim and relax for the afternoon. We spent the next few hours swimming in the crystal clear pools, swimming though waterfalls, jumping of rocks and relaxing. I could of stayed at the pools for hours longer, but the group set off to tube down the river.

The amazing view from the mirador...I really did see this, 

but this is a photo from google.

The crystal clear pools we spent the 

afternoon swimming in.

After tubing and lunch we headed to the KanBa River Caves....ahhhh. You enter the caves with a guide and everyone is given a candle to light their way (the guide also has a head lamp). We entered into water about ankle deep and we all lit our candles to begin the tour. The tour lasted about one hour (and that was long enough) and we walked, swam, slide, and climbed threw the caves. Throughout the tour you had to try and keep your candle above water the whole time...even when you were swimming and trying to repel down a waterfall. There were two portions of the tour where the space was so small that we were trying to fit through that they guide has to help pull you through. The caves were beautiful and fascinating and I am glad we braved it and went on the tour, but I was really happy to see the day light beaming into the cave when we were done.

Molly and I at the entrance to the caves with our candles.
(Before Molly decided to ever so gracefully bow
 out and leave the caves to me and Jess.)

When we were done with the caves we basically crawled back to the hostel we were so tired from the days events. We finished off the day with dinner, beers and bananagrams. The next morning we were picked up by the pick up truck to head back into Lanquin and start our long journey back to Antigua. We drove back through the windy roads and jungle as the sun was rising....amazing!

P.S.- We thought it would be a good idea to bring a child's waterproof spongebob camera with us (because we did not want to risk getting our cameras wet), but unfortunately spongebob failed us and we don't have any pictures of the pools---I added a few from google so you could get the idea and I plan on going back and will bring my real camera...so more to come then.