Semuc Champey

After many weeks of hiding out in Antigua, learning Spanish and not updating our blog, we've decided to come back from the dead.

Two weekends ago, we took our third “side trip” outside of Antigua (Volcan Pacaya and Guatemala City were the other two). We went with a group of nice Swiss girls who all had randomly met in Antigua. We went to Semuc Champey, a hidden town several hours outside of Copan.

We left late Friday evening and hit some traffic going through Guatemala City. This was a special weekend for the chapinos (local Guatemalans) since it was a weekend before their Independence Day on Monday, Sept. 15. Every year, during this time, local schools hold a racing event simply called the “Torch Run” where groups of kids run with their schools into their city, with one kid holding a torch. Traffic is held up as groups of kids run in front of a bus, with lines of cars following – and our car being one (imagine this in the States). Since there are more than just a few schools in town, you can imagine how many groups of kids are running during this weekend and what it does to traffic.

Anyway, after about six hours on the road, with lovely greenery almost the entire way there, we arrived in Copan, in search for our hotel. The agency that booked our hotel actually got this hotel out of the yellow pages, so Wilson and I had no idea what to expect. However, when we arrived at the hotel, we were delightfully surprised to find that for a 22-dollar-a-night hotel, this place was not bad. I believe it was called the Bosque Hotel. After washing up and some dinner, we hit the sack in hopes of a wild day tomorrow at Semuc Champey.

The ride to Semuc Champey was over two hours off the beaten track. After some very steep, rocky and windy turns, our driver got us all there safely.

When we arrived at Semuc Champey, we were greeted with a bunch of kids selling chocolate chip cookies, chocolate and other random items. Of course you couldn't help but feel sorry for them. We promised to buy some (chocolate chip cookies) later.

We trekked through the hills of Semuc Champey and made it halfway up to the “mirador,” a place where you could see the waterfall from the top of the mountain. More than half the group didn't want to go up and the other half didn't care so the choice was to go back down. Wilson was one of the first ones to hit the water and the rest of the girls, including me, were a bit skeptical to go in.

I (and as many of the other women I was with) felt very uncomfortable going into the water with our bikinis. I learned from my teacher later that many locals do not wear “ropa de bano” (also known as bathing suits in English) when they go into public water. Instead many of the women go into the water with their shirts and shorts on. As a matter of fact, we saw several women go in fully clothed. So, we (the ladies with Wilson as the guard) went into the water all together, disrobing our shirts and shorts nearby the water.

The water was cool and very refreshing. I (Agnes) was somehow a bit nervous when I jumped into the deeper parts of the pool (6 feet but still...). Not sure why I was scared but after some getting use to, I was fine.

As we were leaving the park, we bought two pieces of what we thought were chocolate chip cookies. To Wilson's surprise, the 'cookie' was hard, bitter and tasteless. He soon found out this 'cookie' was actually chocolate used to make hot chocolate (pretty random to be selling in front of a park on a hot day). As such, I gave mine to a little kid that was selling his services to hold your water cooler while you trekked down the mountain.

After we all had enough sun and water, we decided to head over to “Lanquin” - a nearby cave that houses thousands of bats. You can see from the photos, that there are many interesting, natural rock formations that have formed over the years (frog, tiger, etc.).
Unfortunately, we only saw one loner bat in the cave, as we arrived too early to catch the bats come back home. Typically it's recommended that you arrive right at sunset to witness all the bats flying home. Que lastima!

We headed back to our hotel in Copan after the caves. Since lunch was a bit light, we all washed up quickly and went back to the one-and-only restaurant in front of the hotel. I ordered this grilled chicken shish kabab and Wilson also ordered some chicken thing that was pretty dry. Before I finished my meal, the kind waiter brought us an extra chicken shish kabob, gratis (free). I tried a piece and insisted that Wilson try some since it was extremely soft and juicy. When there was one piece of chicken left, I noticed that it was not fully cooked (a bit red on the inside). I kept my fingers crossed that everything would be fine for the two of us tomorrow.

The next day, Wilson woke up complaining about flu-like symptoms. He knew immediately he had a slight case of food poisoning. Unfortunately, we had six or more hours ahead of us in a car on some windy roads so I knew the ride home for him would not be pleasant.

After we all packed into the shuttle, we stopped at a Bird Sanctuary before going home. Wilson was obviously not up to the hike so it was just the Swiss gals, the driver and me. Although the hike was quite pleasant and easy, we did not see a single bird. We did, however, see a nice small water fall at the top of the mountain.

On the way home, we hit yet more traffic with a land slide that occurred Friday evening and more torch runners running into Guatemala City and Antigua. I felt bad for Wilson since he was really beginning to feel dizzy, nausea and altogether awful.

We finally arrived in Antigua after about 5-6 hours on the road. We walked home and Wilson went straight to bed.

Overall, this was a nice trip but given the long-drive, bad traffic and food poisoning, perhaps we should have stayed in town to watch the Patriots beat the Jets.

And you will be happy to know that Wilson's appetite is back to normal and he's doing fine.