Semuc Champey, Flores & Tikal, Guatemala

After a long 9 hours on the mini bus, we finally arrived in Semuc Champey at around 11pm!  The night sky was so clear with what seemed like a million stars shining like bright lights, and the milky way just above us, as we hurtled in the back of a truck through the last leg of our journey, holding on for dear life with dogs running out and chasing us trying to keep up.  Two dutch guys and myself that is.  I will use their english made up names, jeff and Tony.  I could not stop staring upwards trying to take it all in, rarely do you see the sky as beautiful as this, and i know this sounds weird, but there was definitely something that was not a plane up in the night sky which I really can't explain!!!  Once at the resort I was given the luxury of my own room and went straight to bed.  There is only electricity here between 6-10pm so it was pitch black as I made my way to the room, following the truck driver who was helping me with my bag.  I hoped the room was not full of bugs and checked the bed with my headlamp before getting in and then tried to unwind by reading some of my book by torchlight before gradually falling asleep!

The lodge by the river!

Jeff jumping from the bridge!

Morning came and I managed to sleep in until around 8.30am.  I heard some familiar voices outside my room and went out to explore.  The couple I shared my room with in Antigua were staying just above me!  I knew they were going to be here and we had arranged to maybe hang out here for a day, so today they had decided to just have a relaxing day at the pools and go up to the viewpoint for a bit of exercise.  I asked to join them after breakfast as I was still feeling fragile and had a migraine which just would not go.  We headed into the national park which was just outside the resort, a few minutes walk.  The resort was located on the banks of the river and the setting was awesome!  Definitely was the best choice in the area!  There was a bridge which crossed the river and also made for a good place to jump in from if you can pluck up the courage, which many people did!  I was not one of them!

The walk to the viewpoint was fairly tough as it was steps all the way up, and it was already getting hot, however the view once there was definitely worth it!  We took some pictures and headed down to the pools.  These were a series of natural and not particularly warm pools formed from the river, with small waterfalls leading from one to another.  I sat down on the rocks in the shallows of a pool and started to relax as the small fish all came up to nibble my feet.  I stayed like this for about an hour until my pedicure was done!  My feet felt wonderful and clean and we reluctantly dragged ourselves away as the need for food was starting to overcome us.  We went back to the resort and enjoyed a sandwich and then I spent the afternoon relaxing alone down by the river with my book.  It wasn't long before I was asked by some guys passing to come tubing down the river.  I thought this sounded like fun and went back to grab a tube.  The dutch guys I had arrived with the night before in the back of the truck with were also getting tubes so we all left together.  The water was chilly as we placed ourselves in the tubes and floated off down stream.  Then we heard someone shouting at us telling us to bring the tubes back as the tour was on its way and would be needing them.  We told him we would be 15 minutes, he was not happy but let us go as we were already on our way!

We floated down for a while and through some small rapids until we found a place to get out.  We had been quite a time already and the guy was now chasing us up the river telling us to get back now!  We got out and walked back with the tubes where we found the tour group waiting and just in time too as the rain clouds were moving in and we could hear the thunder rumbling in the distance.  I am sure we were not popular, and we apologised and passed the tubes to them so they could get on with their tour!

I showered and changed and headed to the bar for a few drinks with the dutch guys, a canadian girl Anais and her Kiwi boyfriend Aaron, that I had been tubing with.  We sat and chatted all night about many things and had a few laughs and then by 11pm the lights were going out again and I was ready for bed!  We agreed to meet the next day and do the caves tour together, should be fun!

Anais, Tony, Aaron and Jeff :)

I was rudely awakened the next morning at 6am by the Israeli people in the room who were leaving on the 7am shuttle and had not bothered to pack the night before as they have no consideration for anyone else.  They were so noisy and were ages getting their stuff together leaving the door wide open as they went!  Arghh!  They are a stereotype, but it really is so true of all the people I have met from Israel traveling.  They always travel in packs and just think they own the place.  Some hostels in South America banned them from staying there because they just annoy everyone!

Eventually I get up and meet the others for the caves tour.  We walked down to the river and hired a guide and made our way up to the cave.  We were each given a candle to light the way.  We scaled the caves working our way through rivers of water where we quickly learnt to swim one handed so as not to put out our candles, climbed up ladders, waterfalls and navigated our way through holes.  The others all had a turn at jumping into the water from the cave wall, I passed being so accident prone when it comes to water, and I had already bashed my leg stepping down a hole in the dark!

After the caves I showered and went to lie down for a while and read.  In the late afternoon I joined the others in the bar for a few drinks as we were all leaving the next day.  A couple of Canadian girls had joined us and we sat down and all played uno for a few hours until the party got going.  By around 11ish I called it a night and headed to bed as I was on the 7am shuttle to Flores.

Once on the shuttle 7 hours soon became 11 hours and we were squashed in like sardines.  Not the most comfortable journey to say the least, but eventually we arrived about 6pm and thankfully the hostel had kept my booking.  I checked into a deluxe dorm, the deluxe bit being the fact it had an ensuite and not much else, and then I grabbed some dinner with a couple of girls I keep bumping into who are also here.  I stopped in at the bar for a quick drink and to watch everyone playing beer pong, then exhausted from the journey I made my way to bed.

In the morning I wanted to go to the lake and have a look around.  Another girl in my dorm room was also going so we joined up and headed out for a walk.  We discussed going to San Miguel by boat, but Esther was telling me that there are police everywhere looking for a local man who has killed a 7 year old girl, and has been advised not to go there as that is where they suspect he is hiding out, and we do not want to bump into him!  As we walk around there are posters up of the mans picture with a reward offered for information leading to his capture.  The mood here is a bit sombre as can be expected!  Instead we bump into a couple I met on the bus here and join them for breakfast/lunch and I decide to do the tour of Tikal with them tomorrow with a private guide instead of the main tour as Esther says it was awful, and too busy.  They have also enrolled the swiss couple from the bus so soon we end up being 5 and grab another 2 to make a 7 for the tour.  We spend the whole afternoon chilling out in the restaurant and chatting and Esther tells us her story of the trip she took to Columbia from Panama by sailboat, the one I did the other way through San Blas.  However her tour did not go quite so smoothly to say the least!

In a nutshell they got caught in a storm, the engine was not working properly, as time moved on they realised something was wrong, then basically the captain was drunk, the boat was sinking, they had to abandon ship in an inflatable life raft, they were all taking turns being sick, and there were 16 of them and only 2 window holes Arghhh!!  Then the captain says he forgot to alert anyone they were here and abandoning ship!!  Luckily one of the fellow passengers had sailing experience and had done that himself before he abandoned ship.  They had managed to make contact with an oil tanker as the coastguard said they were too busy to come right away as they were dealing with drug traffickers!!  The oil tanker found them and then there was the problem of getting onto it as it was huge!!  They threw down a rope ladder but they were all so sick and weak, and the climb was like 10 storeys high, they never would have made it, so in the end they threw down a platform thing on a rope that 3 people at a time could get on and they hauled them up.  When it came to Esthers turn three of them got on, but as it hit the side 2 of them fell off back into the water!!  The guy fell between the 2 boats and Esther thought he was dead!  This was the first time she cried!  Eventually they all made it, but some of them lost all their stuff with the boat, Esther was lucky they managed to save all her bags.  Then the coastguard eventually turned up and took all the credit for the rescue ha!!!  Then the Austrian captain of the boat was flying a private plane over the area trying to locate the boat and sending divers down, obviously something in there he could not afford to lose, most likely the cash for drugs or gems or drugs!!!!  There was a lot more to the story, but we were all on the edge of our seats, desperately waiting to find out what happened next!  Never have I met someone who has been through such a traumatic experience and lived to tell the tale….they were so lucky to have made it out alive!!  Crazy!!!

We finally pulled ourselves away from the restaurant as we had been in there for hours now and I bumped into my dutch friend Tony, he said the others were at a bar and Esther and I went to join them for a drink.  It was Aarons birthday and they were already on the tequila shots at 3.30pm!!  Oh dear this was going to get messy!  I had booked up my tour to Tikal for the morning leaving at 3am and there was no way I could spend the afternoon on the booze.  I made my excuses and headed back to the hostel while Esther did some shopping, then we met with the others for dinner later.

Arriving before sunrise!

Still more to uncover!  Before excavation!

I woke just before my alarm went off at 2.40am!!!  I was so tired, but I dragged myself out of bed and brushed my teeth, threw on my clothes and was ready by the agreed 3am.  The guy from the tour agency turned up a few minutes later, but the minibus did not turn up until 3.30am!!  I could have had an extra 30 minutes in bed!!!  Oh well, we were on our way and I hoped we would make it for the sunrise!  The various promises made by the tour agent were not fulfilled, with regards to not having to pay for the sunrise park entry, another 100Q and having the guide for as long as we wanted, first he heard of it!!!  Not his fault, but he was given a bit of a hard time at first, however he tried to keep everyone happy and they warmed up towards the end.  I found it an enjoyable experience and tried to make the best of it, despite the fact that it was raining when we went to the top of Pyramid 4 to watch the sunrise.  Well, there was no sunrise!  Just a layer of white cloud and mist covering the view and then the rain came!  Shame!  I decided no point in getting wet as there was nothing to look at and went back down to wait for the others in the shelter until the rain passed.

By the time they descended from the pyramid, the rain had stopped and we started on the tour, working our way around the various points of interest.  These temples had mainly been used for sacrifice to the various Gods, and for astronomy purposes.  I could imagine the great view of the night sky here standing at the top of one of these great 60 metre high pyramids!  It would be breath taking!  There was a main plaza, like everywhere here, where I guess people would gather and games would be played, the winner having the prize of not being sacrificed!  The losers had the misfortune of being the next sacrifice!  Life was a gamble in these days and sacrifice was seen as an honour.  Even children were sacrificed and I don't think it was always fast and pain free from some of the books and articles I have read of skulls found with the skin peeled off their face and jaws gaping in an expression of severe pain!!!

Our group :) French, American, Swiss!

Tikal had been abandoned around 900AD and no one really knows why, but probability is they ran out of their water supply.  After then it had just been covered by jungle and was not discovered for hundreds of years.   Some of the pictures scratched in the walls are original mayan artwork and have been preserved for all this time, which was surreal to think that someone all those years ago had sat here and scratched their thoughts on the wall.  Something they had seen, for example, a shooting star, they wanted to express this phenomenon, so they drew it, and here we are over a thousand years later looking at their thoughts!

Shooting star?  Wall scratchings

We found various nature along the way, including a poisonous tarantula and baby snake, Stick insect, orange centipede/millipede, hairy caterpillars, many mosquitoes, monkeys and birds.  We tried to find a toucan, but no luck there.  By 11ish we were all getting tired and we finished the last bit of the tour before making our way back to the bus.  Just in time as the heavens opened and the rain fell down!

Tarantula!

Biggest ants ever!!!

Hairy caterpillar :)

Bees!

I went back to bed and slept for the afternoon before meeting up with the guys and girls who were still suffering from the effects of the birthday celebrations the night before!  I stayed up for a while chatting with them until they all went to bed and then made my way up to the bar where I had a final drink before making my way back to bed too.  On the way back the dutch guys were deciding whether jeff should go to the hospital and get his foot checked out as he had a bit of an accident and it was swollen.  I grabbed their details, hoping to meet up in Belize in a few days and left them to get it sorted out.  The next day I was heading to Finca Ixobel, a working farm, where I was planning some R&R and horse riding.  It was only 2 hours from here as I really was not ready for another long bus journey right now.