In Lanquin we stayed at a nice place called El Retiro,which has a bunch of bungalows and spreads out over large grounds that slope down to a river with a nice strong current to swim (luckily, because it is really hot). It really could of been anywhere, it really didn't feel very Guatemalan, english everywhere and Nutella on the menu...
After a lazy Sunday, we headed for a tour of Semuc Champey - which is a set of natural limestone pools, with beautiful warm torquise water that cascade down a hill and into a waterfall. The day started with a tour of the nearby Grutas K'anba caves where we waded, swam, climbed, jumped and dropped our way through the caves by candlelight for an hour and a half, before heading up the river for some tubing. On the way to the tubing spot there was a giant swing into the river, which looked a tad dicey so we made the guide jump first. He survived, so we followed.
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| Semuc Champey from the lookout.... |
The next stop was Semuc Champey, on the way to the pools we climbed up to the "EL Mirador" or lookout - a hefty 25 minute climb (Steph was beetroot red by the end of that one...) While at Semuc we had lunch and swam for the rest of the afternoon....It was really calm and relaxing. The transport there and back was fun, a group of us thrown into the back of a pickup truck driving along a bumpy unpaved road, with lovely views of the countryside....A couple of days at El Retiro was enough, so the next day we where back on the bus heading onto Flores and Tikal, the most famous tourist attraction in Guatemala - a group of ancient Mayan ruins.
