The ride to Lanquin is a windy, bumpy, road through the rainforest.  Much of the drive is on the sides of hills/cliffs, offering magnificent forest views as well as a peephole into the life of rural, indigenous Guatemalans.  As you might already know, much of Guatemala is poor and maybe 3rd world in terms of development. People live in little villages in the forest and live off farming and other moderate means to have enough to eat. The buildings are of ramshackle construction and often don’t even look like people bothered completing them. 

The town of Lanquin is a little more developed than the surrounding areas but is still not enough to qualify as a city. The hostels are not even settled in the city, they all are perched in the forest, cloistered away in their own little serene areas, overlooking the forested valley.

I stayed at Zephyr Lodge, as requested by my Guatemalan friend, Martin. It was a fun adventure but it was much different than expected. Zephyr is a bit of a party hostel despite its appearance of a relaxing resort in the trees. The pool is not that clean but the hot tub is a nice break from all the busses you will have had to endure on the way there.  In addition, the culture there is centered on partying because there is absolutely nothing to do outside of the hostel itself.  Everything is self-contained. However, thanks to some great company, I still had a great time, despite it being different from what I had hoped.

On my bus over from Flores, I met three Dutch girls, Iris, Zoe, and Fenne. We talked a little in the bus, but decided to hang a bit when we hopped in the back of the truck to get from the center of Lanquin to our hostel. After settling in briefly, we hopped in the pool for some beers and we’d hang out for the rest of the trip.

The first day the activity was river floating, which is basically just sitting in an inner tube and drinking beers. It’s super mellow but because of the structure of it, it became quite the event. At our first stop, we played volleyball and if you hit the ball into the river you had to fetch it and then beer bong one of your beers. I hadn’t done that since college and I have to say, it’s not a skill that sticks with you... Anyways, I had to do it twice, but was otherwise playing pretty well.

The second stop was to wait for the truck and drink some more beers, it was a fun day but honestly, you didn’t need to be in Guatemala for this. Although, the riverside scenery was pretty lush.

Day two was Semuc Champey and the surrounding area. The first segment was my favorite and was focused on “exploring “ a cave. We took candles in to the cave and waded around in the water, doing a few activities, like climbing up a rope through a waterfall, climbing up a rock wall and jumping into a pool, and squeezing through a little crack into another pool. It was not very extreme or anything but it was fun to play around and be doing different activities in the dark, underground.

Afterwards, we went outside to a swing that basically launches you 20 ft in the air and slams you into the water, pretty fun but I lacked the skills to land gracefully. One guy was able to pull a flip, only to get over confident, try a double flip and land flat on his back.

Afterwards, we had a meal of fried chicken and some sides that was average at best, but fed us. This was the precursor to the actual pools of semuc champey. I passed on hiking to the viewpoint because all I had was sandals. It was a good choice, because hanging out, relaxing, and swimming in the pools was really enjoyable, even a bit cold. The waterfalls were a tad warmer and felt amazing to sit under because they offer so much more water pressure and coverage then any of the showers here could even dream of. The smaller pools off to the side offer interesting colors and moss to slip and slide around in. All in all it was pretty fun day. While we waited for the whole group to leave we were approached by kids trying to sell water, coke, and chocolate. They kept returning as if we had changed our minds since there really isn’t anything else to do and they could use some money.  Thus concludes the trip.

The next day would have a hellish ride to Antigua.