Semuc Champey and Utila

Here are some pictures of Semuc Champey, our last stop in Guatemala. After about 15 hours of bus journeys, we reached Semuc Champey, which is in the middle of the jungle. The first day there we did the 'cave tour' outside of the park. We left the hotel in our bathing suits and walked down the lane to the caves. There we and about 5 others each got a small candle. We followed our guide into the cave, started in just shallow water up to our calves, then proceeded to venture into deeper and deeper waters, with the cave only lit by less than 10 candles. We climbed up some metal ladders held up by a couple of ropes and continued to wade and swim. We then reached a waterfall and climbed up thru it on a rope. Near the end we reached a deeper section and could climb up a side of the cave and jump in excatly where the guide instructed us. Upon exiting the cave, bats flew down off the stalagtites and over our heads. It was exactly like an Indian Jones movie except for Harrison Ford. After the tour we got some innertubes and floated down the river, stopping to jump off the bridge in the middle.

The next day we walked up to the park and did some hiking and swimming in the natural pools:














We left Semuc Champey after two days to get away from all the caterpillars (which kept crawling on us in the night, and enjoyed hiding in Chris' boxers- needing to be awkwardly removed at breakfast).



From there we headed east: 6 hours on a dirt road, 2 minibuses, walked across the border to Honduras, 1 old schoolbus, 2 minibuses, a luxury bus and a ferry in the morning to get to Utila.

Here we've enjoyed the hot hot weather and done some SCUBA diving- Chris did some fun dives, a night dive and a wreck dive, and Caroline spent the last 4 days getting her open water certification! Next stop Belize.

Pictures from our hike up the volcano San Pedro last week:

overlooking the lake finally at the top

Pictures from the Pico Zunil trek:

cold at lunch, not nearly as cold as it was once it started pouring rain and thunderstorming

sunrise from the top of pico zunil. overlooking volcanos around lago de atitlan

very cold sunrise- thankfully we had an emergency blanket

downhill! lots of sliding in the wet mud

erupting volcano

ended at the hot springs!

Here´s a few more pics of us in San Pedra La Laguna. We spend the mornings learning Spanish with our teacher Rene on the roof of our ´house´ for 4 hours. Then eat lunch with his family and have the rest of the day to practice and explore the town. It´s mostly one road along the lake with a ton of bars-restaurants and small shops. The occasional woman carrying breads and cakes on her head stops us to ask ´quieren pan?` Above that road is a small town with marketplace, houses, school, etc.



These were taken at a bar here called Zoola where we sometimes go after class to eat brownies, drink beer and do our Spanish homework.


The other day we hired a motorbike and took a ride around the local area. The bike was a total disaster and most things on it didn´t work, but it went and stopped and didn´t cost too much.



The plan now is to leave San Pedro on Saturday to stay in a Santa Cruz La Laguna for a couple of nights before heading off on a trek. Click here to read about the trek.

Arrived in Guatemala

Arrived in Guatemala successfully. Stayed the first couple of nights in a hostel near the airport. Spent a day seeing the city. As far as cities go, there isn't a whole lot to see for tourists. We went to a Mayan museum, looked around lots of market stalls, ate some ice cream, saw a train museum and, after finding nothing but fast food to eat, had a pizza at Chuck E. Cheese's.



The next day we got the chicken bus from Guatemala city to San Pedro La Laguna. We'll be staying here for just over a week and are taking Spanish classes every day.






After class today we did some kayaking; however, it began to rain just before we got back to land. After finishing on the internet, we will be practising some Spanish over a beer before maybe trying out the solar pools tonight.