Yesterday I drove from El Estor to Rio dulce but stayed right near the Castillo de San Felipe de Lara. 180 quetzales($23) to stay at Viñas del lago. Not a bad place. But the location turned out to be pretty meh. You can really only get to the Castillo from there. The place to stay would have been the other side.
All I did was check out the Castillo, eat, rest, and get some much needed sleep.
Today I woke up feeling awful had some fruit for breakfast and booked a place for the night called Boatique Hostel for $20. I had to drive to a restaurant, drop off the motorcycle and wait for the boat to take me out to the place. Man, what a pleasant surprise. Boatique Hostel is absolutely gorgeous. I love the little cabins and the little walkways that go around the swamps.
Boatique Hostel
I met 2 other travelers here that are pretty cool. We talked a lot and ate dinner here together. These weird fly things kept flying into the water made by the condensation on our drinks and dying. And the mosquitos are terrible. Anyways. I’m very pooped and I’m going to sleep.
What a day. I woke up in Semuc at 7am, chatted to my hostelmate from Iraq for a moment and then was about to head to Semuc Champay park when I realized I once again had some major intestinal issues. I sat on the toilet for ever and then finally around 830 headed up to the park. It’s a 2 minute walk from El Portal and costs 50 quetzales.
I wasn’t expecting too much as I am always very apprehensive about tourist-hyped areas but was pleasantly surprised when I walked upon the pools and started exploring around them. The natural formation of the pools was absolutely stunning. I immediately wished I had brough my goggles because there are big shelfs under the waterfalls that you can swim under and explore. I have no idea how far back they go.
After about an hour I did the hike up to the mirador. It took about an hour to get up there and was a tougher hike than I expected. There’s a couple stair areas that are a little sketchy and can really only go one person through at a time and there were a fair share of people that weren’t exactly in great shape always blocking the way. Overall I really loved the hike though. Really amazing jungle to hike through all around Semuc Champay.
I swam again on the way out and ended up at the hostel packing up my stuff at around 11am.
I kind of knew what was ahead but when I left it looked like it would be a nice clear day all day long. Bright and blue.
I took highway 5 which is almost definitely the wrong choice to take. It was a rouuuuugh ride to say the least. Made much rougher by the rain that lasted the last 2 hours of my riding.
But right before the rain started I stopped at a little tienda to get a couple snacks as I had not yet eaten and the whole family came to hang out with me. The road is clearly never traveled on by adventurers and they had a lot of questions for me. The mom could not even speak Spanish, just the local language so she kept asking her kid to translate for her. It was really an amazing moment and the whole ride was full of people waving and smiling at me. I wasn’t expecting that. I love the old traditional clothes that all the women wear here. They are so bright and colorful.
I finally made it to Hotel Ecologico Cabana del Lago and was pleasantly surprised by the place. The lake is rather pretty and the place has nice cabins with some really cool developments on the lake. Nice places to sit and chill. BUT an unbelievable amount of mosquitos everywhere.
Woke up with a headache at Ranchitos de Quetzal but got up at 8 and started hitting the packing. I really think my best shot to not get soaking wet is to get up early and try to arrive at the next spot around noon. So I got going around 9am and started winding down jungle roads.
The route was pretty nice and easy. Not too much traffic and the roads were in much better shape than the rest of Guatemala. After about 2 hours I turned down the road to Semuc Champay. I stopped immediately at a restaurant to get some food and chugged a coffee to finally aleviate the headache a little bit. It was quite strong and as my body shook I asked the guy working there if I could drive up to Semuc on the motorcycle. He wasn’t really sure but I was pretty sure I could make it.
It’s sketchy and steep but totally doable
I started bombing up the hill and loved the ride. The really steep parts had just a little concrete poured and there were parts that were just fine and flat. Overall, I didn’t think it was too bad but I’m more nervous for the way down.
On the road
I arrived at el portal hostel, checked in and threw my stuff in the room. I then went on a little walk and walked up to the Semuc Champay Park. It costs 50 quetzales($7) and it was already 2pm and cloudy and rainy so I figured I would go early the next morning.
I walked down to the river and was approached by a guy for a cave tour. He said the price would be 70 quetzales($9) with tubing and his payment would just be tip. There was another nice couple there so we all went together. His name was Mauricio and it ended up being one of the coolest cave tours I’ve done in my life. They are called “Cuevas de K’anba.”
This was my face seeing the cave/nature around the cave
It took about 2 hours and we were swimming, scrambling, and climbing up ladders the whole way. This one was unique in that they give you a candle to take with you so the whole tour was pretty damn dark. No head lamps. There’s also a lot of swimming involved so it’s quite difficult to keep the candles lit.
After the cave tour we walked upriver to a pretty neat waterfall and the guide Maricio and me jumped in some tubes and went about 1km down the river.
Me and my new bud
After that tour I felt really refreshed and headed to get some food that Maricio and I had walked by. Clearly they were packing up but they fed me and then clearly were talking about me in their local dialect and laughing a lot. Sometimes I get a little tired of that, but I wiped the crumbs off my shirt, said thank you, and headed for some much needed rest.
