It's f*ckin cities of gold man - Guatemala part 2

The rest of Guatemala...

Semuc Champey

The next stop on the Guatemala Gringo trail was a spot much further north near a town called Lanquin. The place of interest itself is called Semuc Champey and it is a series of natural pools created from limestone and is said to be ‘the’ most beautiful place in the whole of Guatemala. Unfortunately such a reputation draws a considerable crowd and with the crowds comes the hawkers, opportunists and tour companies.

Knowing that Easter was approaching and that the whole of Mexico and Central America goes crazy for Holy week we had pre-booked a couple of nights at one of the hostels in the area way in advance. It was one that Verena had recommended having been to Semuc Champey herself. It was beautiful and a haven from the hawkers. Set near a river, the hostel has its own sprawling restaurant and bar that reaches the edge of the water. We had booked a semi-private room but were actually given a full private on arrival. It was one of a group of little rustic buildings, raised up on small stilts with a thatched roof made of palapa and with a hammocks on the small terrace in front of the hut. It overlooked the grounds which were well kept, colourful and full of flowers. With a glance up to the sky you could see hummingbirds and toucanettes flying about. It was bliss. 

The hostel El Retiro in Lanquin with little palapa huts

What made it even more authentic is that there was no electricity when we arrived. It sounded like they too had been at the mercy of the storm that had passed over us further south a few days back. In fact, it never came back on for the 2 days we were there, but this only added to the rusticness and charm of the place.

With only one full day here we headed to the pools the next morning. To avoid the crowds we attempted an early start but with this being on our terms rather than with the need to make a bus, dawdling and faffing was inevitable and after having to return to the hostel for forgotten bug spray, we didn’t really start the 11km walk to the pools until about 8am. 

The 11km walk to Semuc Champey from Lanquin town - really, really hot but worth it for the views

There was the option of riding in the back of one of the many hundreds of jeeploads of tourists, but we thought the walk would be good exercise and we’d see some local sights rather than just whizzing past with a bunch of other squawky people. It wasn’t long however before we regretted that decision, dripping in sweat, battling the climb in the humid heat of the mid-morning. Other jeeps hurtled past leaving us in a cloud of dust but we persisted and eventually got to the pools.

I was initially concerned given the sheer number of people we had seen drive past us that it was going to be a little like the Guildford Lido on a hot summers day, but somehow the park managed to hold all these people whilst still maintaining a degree of tranquillity. In fact, it was absolutely gorgeous. The colours were fantastic and we wandered around, firstly climbing up to the mirador before descending and cooling ourselves off with a dip in the pools. 

Semuc Champey itself from the mirador in the park

Guatemala's answer to Frensham ponds

We had made a little picnic and sat eating our sandwiches lapping up the ambience of the place. Unfortunately this came to an end quite quickly when I stupidly offered a small piece of bread to a really cool and quite big dinosaur looking lizard who then thought my finger was a bit more bread and bit me. 

The little blighter before he bit me. I should have been wary of something with such a Chelsea smile

I didn’t think lizards had teeth, but this one did. Little razor sharp ones that had managed to draw blood. Shit. I turned to Tim, with the colour draining from my face as I held up my bleeding finger. ‘It bit me’ I quivered, feeling stupid and scared all at the same time as thoughts of rabies and needing to be hospitalised and how this was going to be possible from such a remote location, started flooding into my head.

Luckily though we had the first aid kit to hand, so Tim cleaned up my finger, which to be honest was only a little cut, but the fact that it came from this potentially diseased lizard added gravitas to the situation. I looked at the lizard and he didn’t look rabid and I also took solace from the fact that the first piece of bread I had offered which he had successfully taken from me without biting me had perhaps cleaned his teeth up a little.

Anyway, we thought it best to leave and get back to town where we could wash out and clean my finger properly. I monitored myself on the way back for any signs of dizziness but all seemed ok and no one was looking at me like I was frothing at the mouth. In fact, I rode up front in the back of the jeep and started talking to a really friendly lady from the US called Clover. We chatted all the way back, which took my mind off my potential rabies.

When back in town, we bought some really cool oxidised antiseptic wash which squirted little bubbles out of my cut when I washed it out. It fizzed and hurt a little, so it was definitely doing its job. When back at the hostel, we perched ourselves at the water’s edge with a couple of beers. I decided to give the free yoga session a miss and have another beer instead, especially after my near death experience! 

Chilling with a beer and a dog friend back at the hostel. This platform is actually built on the river.

Later that night, we had dinner at the hostel and I toasted still being alive a good few times before hitting the hay, ready to face yet another epically long bus journey north to the Mayan Ruins of Tikal to search for a golden condor. 

Italian themed food night at the hostel, with lasagne and pizza and all those other things we've missed

Tikal

The estimated 7 hour journey took an uncomfortable 9, squeezed into a minivan with absolutely no leg room alongside amongst others, 6 horribly hungover loud welsh guys. One was proud to be carrying one of those old-school ‘satchels’ rather than a standard backpack, didn’t we know it. He was one of those short, loud, attention seeking whiney guys and he kept having hissy fits because his mates would hide his satchel whilst he was sleeping. Unfortunately I was next to this one and had to use my day pack as a buffer to stop him falling onto me in a hungover slumber. The only consolation for such a horrendous journey is, I think they found it worse!

Having finished my last great book ‘Marching Powder’ a true story about an English guy, Thomas MacFadden’s life in the unbelievingly corrupt San Pedro prison in La Paz, I was stuck with nothing to read either. Bad timing. 

The journey was slow, but eventually we got to Flores – a beautiful town set on an island in a huge lake and connected to the mainland only by a narrow road over the water and we found a great hostel with a view over the lake. Once we had shrugged off all the hawkers that rapidly surrounded us on arrival, we explored the place, bought some bits for lunch the next day at the Ruins and found a great place to eat called ‘Cool Beans’ which overlooked the water. We also coincidentally bumped into Clover, the lady we had met a few days ago in Semuc Champey, so we decided to eat together.

The next morning was an early 4:30am bus to the Ruins which were a couple of hours away. We turned down doing the sunrise tour which had left even earlier and instead opted to get there just after sunrise as this would allow us to go independently and be allowed to walk around at our own pace, not being part of a big group. Even though this was our plan, our bus load of people were still ushered into a group on arrival and were then assigned a person to take us around. We would then be expected to tip at the end. Sick to death of such tactics, we marched off at our own pace and left them to it.

Our early arrival meant that we did in fact get much of the place to ourselves. We had breakfast in the main plaza which had 2 spectacular temples at either end and ate our yoghurt to the sounds of monkeys and parrots. I even ate mine with a little flat stick rather than a spoon, partly because I’d forgotten one and I thought it might be more fitting of the ancient times!

I'm sure I saw Esteban hiding in the top of Temple 1 (C of G ref)

Temple 1 before anyone really got here

Eating breakfast in the Grand Plaza

Parrots and monkeys all around. This may be Coco Petal's descendent (C of G ref again)

Tikal ruins consist of 6 spectacular temples, each of which is just visible above the jungle canopy. It’s an absolutely stunning view from the top of the temples – in the words of V ’it’s fuckin Cities of Gold man’. 

In between the main temples are other smaller buildings, plazas, areas that either were used for sleeping, shopping or other religious purposes. You can walk through much of the old crumbling ruins and really lose yourself, but the pinnacle for me had to be looking out across the vast swaths of jungle from the top of Temple 4. Being able to look so far into the horizon at landscapes that have probably changed very little over 1000s of years gave me a sense of scale on the world that I have never really felt before. I then imagined us as this rock floating in space for billions of years, making the buildings of these temples and the Mayan civilisations, although obviously awesome also seem like such a tiny fragment across all of time. A proper ‘lunchbox’ moment as you say. I loved it. I could have stayed on the top of the temple all day.

Tops of the temples peaking through the dense jungle canopy

Tops of the skyrises peaking through the dense jungle canopy - Trivandrum, India where Allianz are based! (any resemblance?!)

Another favourite part was Temple 5. It was enormous, grand and quite overwhelming. I first saw it up ahead in the clearing lit up by the sun as I approached walking along the jungle path. It completely took my breath away. 

My beloved Temple 5. Absolutely stunning.

After 6 hours of temple gazing we headed back to the hostel for some lunch and a snooze. Although still early in the afternoon, we’d had a full morning. Later that evening we headed out for a few sunset beers at the water’s edge, which then turned into a few more before we eventually decided to eat out. The opportunity for garlic prawns in this cool restaurant we were in was so much more tempting than a baked potato with bearable beans back at the hostel. A much better way to toast our last night in Central America. Tomorrow it was our penultimate border crossing and across into Mexico.

Bye-bye Central America - last sunrise before Mexico!