Semuc Champey

February 13, 2011
We had the best day ever today. The tour we went on was insane. Absolutely every fun thing that you can do in the world we did today. We started off at 9 getting into the back of the transfer truck. In Guatemala, its standing room only, no sitting in these trucks. The ride up the mountain was picturesque. We saw some pretty remote villages with pigs and chickens and skinny ass dogs running around everywhere. The kids we dirty and sometimes pants-less but looked happy as little clams. When we got to the national park the very first thing we did was get launched off a gigantic rope swing into the river. Everyone did some sort of flop or another because when you hop off a swing your centre of gravity goes way off. After that it was time to enter the caves!! They gave us a candle each and so we formed a line and followed our guide in. We had to swim in some places so it was a little interesting trying to keep my candle above water. There was a point in the spalunk that we could jump off a ledge into the water and there was a rope you could use to climb up a waterfall. At the end of the cave we had to fit into this hole/slide/waterfall so that we could get to the other chamber that led out of the caves. It was a little clausterphobic at times but the water was cool and the air wasn't too steamy. After the caves our guide said..."ok guys...and now....tubing!" So then he gave us some inner tubes and sent us up the road to hop in the river and ride the rapids back down. After the tubing it was time to hike. Before we got to the trail our guide picked some seeds from this tree that were bright orange and covered everyone's faces with designs. Chad looked like a warrior and i looked like a flower child. The pigment does not come off very easily. Even after swimming my face was still bright orange. It was 30 minutes straight up to the lookout point where you could see the pools and the falls from up high. While we were up there we had some lunch and lingered behind a bit until the crowd went back down. I guess the howler monkies were waiting too because as soon as we were heading back down they started growling and howeling in the trees and we saw them swinging around wanted to bite our heads off. We tried to get a closer look at them but they sound like fricken demons and i guess they like to throw their poo's at you so we opted for listening instead. When we got back to the bottom it was time to finally swim in the pools. The water is crystal clear and warm and blue and wonderful! There were lots of little yellow and some blue fish. We swam around and then got ready to leave after a while. On our way back to the truck their was this old guy with a walker and his elderly wife. He made it in ok but was exhausted and had parkinson's and couldn't get his legs moving. So the poor guys from Belgium had to carry him half way out before his son came along and piggybacked him all the way out. Poor guy! Chad and I squished into the cab of the truck because instead of bringing back just one tour group they decided that they might as well put three groups in one truck. There were probably like 25 or 30 people crammed into the back and the cab and the roof of the truck. Just in the cab there were 10 people. Chad got out onto the roof after a while and had a nice view on the way back. We got back to El Retiro and tried to scrub the orange pigment off our faces but Chad is still very orange. Had a shish-ka-bob dinner and then they played a movie (127 hours-the one about the guy who cuts off his own arm because a rock fell on it). I was glad they played that after we went cave diving and not before!