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.