Dan got here late in the evening so we crashed early and woke up at 4:30a to do our first trip: hiking Pacaya. Marlene came with us which was really cool, we don't spend enough time together. I've done Pacaya a few times now, but this was the first time we climbed it from the back side of the volcano. It was a really nice trail through the woods instead of the rocky trail I've taken before. It was really steep though, I had promised Marlene that it was an easy trail :/ She was a trooper!
Here's a view of a lake at the base of the volcano
Three gorgeous hikers
After we walked for a little while, it started getting super cloudy. It was kind of spooky, which I liked. Sadly, it made for shitty overlooks
Dan stands in the mist
Luckily as we got to the top, the clouds parted and we got to see the great views of Agua.
We were exhausted and dusty after Pacaya, so we headed back to NPH to shower and get ready for our big overnight trip to Northern Guatemala. I had booked our transport with a travel agent we use a lot. He had suggested we take a luxury bus that had beds for everyone. I had been hesitant because of the extra cost, so he said that he'd upgrade us for free because of the buisness we'd given him. We were super excited to check the bus out, but once we got to the bus terminal in the capital we relaized we'd been given tickets to the economy bus. It was a coach bus for a seven hour ride. It could have been a lot worse (a chicken bus) but it was super hard to get sleep on it and we ended up arriving in Flores exhausted.
There was no time to dwell on being sleepy though because our tour guide met us at the bus depot ready to go. We piled into his van and headed to Tikal, about an hour's drive away. I felt like we were entering Jurassic Park, as we pulled up to the park there was a huge gate that we had to drive through and jungle everywhere. There were signs warning about jaguars which was cool to see (I had little fear of actually seeing a jaguar because they tend to stay as far away from people as they can).
The park was great, and I realized something that had been missing from my Guatemala experience: animals!! I've hardly seen any animals since I've gotten here, aside from hordes of stray dogs. We made up for it here though.
A green parrot
A turkey! Super pretty (for a turkey)
This is a Coati. It's like a hybrid between a raccoon, a monkey and an anteater, super adorable but highly venomous. Nah, just kidding. It's just adorable.
But this isn't adorable! Tarantulas live here and there was one just chilling on the ground when the maintenance crew was sweeping up. Apparantly they aren't too afraid of them since the dude just scopped it up to show us. There was also a highly venomous snake sitting next to it, but the dude was a lot more wary of that one. It was small and I was afraid to get to close for a good photo, so there's no visual evidence of that one.
FINALLY MY DREAM HAS BEEN REALIZED!! I've been looking for monkeys for the last year and there were plenty here to keep me entertained :)
Can you spot the monkey?
Dan's camera got a much better picture.
For those who can't read the sign, it basically says that the cute little spider monkeys are great, but to beware of the howler monkeys because they'll scream and poop on your head if you go into their territory. I didn't see any, but we heard a ton of them. They sound like a mix between a dog and a velociraptor. I'll load a video of it as soon as I have a better internet connection.
The jungle was really cool to walk around in.
Here's a huge tree. The Mayans felt that these trees were holy because they were able to bridge the underworld (with their deep roots) and the outerworld. They definitely looked impressive.
Our guide was actually studying botony in school, so he knew a lot of really cool stuff about the plant life. This plant has spikes growing out of the side of the trunk. He told us that they're poisonous and the Mayans used to use them to prick their tongues and genitals in a form of self-sacrifice for the Gods. The upper bark of the tree can be chewed as a natural remedy to malaria.
The temples were amazing. Some of these were built in 400 BC. That's absolutely crazy to comprehend.
The temples have been conquered
This is the original wooden plank. Amazing that it's lasted so long
A carving of their symbol for the rain god
Cool carvings of Mayan rulers
Here's a root cellar that the Mayans used to keep their food from spoiling. Hooray for root cellars!
Dan and I standing on top of one of the temples.
After all our fun, we had lunch and got ready to head back. We had a few minutes to kill, so the three of us crawled into these hammocks and immediately passed out. God I'm going to miss hammocks.
The hostels in the city of Flores outside of Tikal were a little expensive, so we stayed in one just outside. Flores is an island in the middle of a lake, so since our tour started and ended there, we needed to take a boat to the other side to get to the hotel. Our boat ride over the lake
Flores from the water. It was a super cute town, I would have liked to spend a little more time there exploring
Here's the view of Flores from our hostel.
The hostel we stayed at was actually pretty cool for a hostel. The dorms only had four beds each in them and they were in a little raised cabana that was screened in. The cabin had electricity and an overhead fan, pretty luxurious for a hostel. Sadly Jack got super sick with parasites that night and had a pretty miserable time. We suggested that he stay in Flores for a few days to rest up and then head back to NPH, but he was determined to stick it out, so the next morning we piled into another shuttle for the eight hour ride to Semuc Champay.
Because of all the bullcrap we went through last time at Semuc, I decided to stay in a new hostel called Utopia. It was a little further away from the park than the others, but still within a mile of it. The river went right through the backyard, so it was nice. The hostel itself (though still going through a bit of construction) was really awesome! It was basically a big barn with a bar/restaurant, dorms and private rooms. Everything was open to the outside air, but it was nice at night and bugs weren't an issue.
The impressive dining hall
The dorms were right above the bar, but it actually worked out fine. People were never really rowdy and being the old man of the group, I never had a problem when I went to sleep early
God I love Semuc. It's my favorite place in all of Guatemala
Something that went right over my head the last time I was there: the river actually has two levels. The roaring part goes under these limestone plates and comes back into sight after a quarter of a mile. A small amount of water flows up on top of the limestones making the torquoise pools. Here's the roaring part going underground
We did all the usual adventurous stuff in Semuc. We started with the candle-lit water cave that I did last time. I have to say, I didn't feel quite as scared this time as I did before, though some people were definitely a bit rattled by it. We did the same path through the caves so I had an idea of what was coming up. The only part that really shook me up was when we got to the waterfall. If you remember, last time I had to swing through the waterfall in order to avoid having to climb a rope. Well when we got there this time, the guide told us that the ladder was too slippery so we HAD to climb the rope. I immediately went into panic mode and was instantly humiliated by the thought that I would be the only one who couldnt climb it and the group would have to turn back because of my physical inabilities. I tried to talk my way out of it and explain to the dude that my little arms didnt even begin to lift up my girth, but he wasn't interested. He sent me up and I was determined to give it a go. You know what's hard? Climbing a rope. You know what's harder? Climbing a rope while a waterfall hits you directly in the face. But I did it!! I was so proud of myself. On our way out we went down a different narrow corridor. The water here was running faster and flowed out of a whole in the cave floor. The guide told us it was a water slide and we could fall through it (into the pitch black) and land in water underneath. Stephanie had told me about this slide and how she had refused to do it when she was here, so I was a bit nervous but i decided to go for it. I watched the girl in front of me position herself and whoosh down into the darkness. After a few seconds, the kid after her went flying through as well. Finally it was my turn. I positioned myself and looked up at the guide nervously. He finally gave me my cue and told me to let go. I hesitantly lifted up my hands and realized that the hole was exactly the same size as my belly. Instead of rushing through the hole, my body slowly eased itself down inch by inch. I kept smiling at the guide and giving him the thumbs up as my body creeped down. I was plopped ever so gently into the water below, it was the most pleasureable water slide experience ever, haha. So the caving experience was a success.
We did the crazy steep hike to the overlook next, which was beautiful and well worth the exhaustion. Our bodies were really feeling it at this point, we had climbed a volcano and all those pyramids the last three days.
Jack huffing it down the trail, parasites and all
The three of us at the vista
After the hiking we did a bit of swimming and then headed for an hour and a half long tubing trip down the river towards the hotel. We had been looking forward to this all day. After days of running around and being active, we wanted nothing more than to sit in an inner tube and float down the lazy river. We grabbed our tubes and headed in. I was a little nervous at first because the guide was way behind our group and I had no idea where we were supposed to be heading (obviously downstream, but I didnt know if there were obstacles). He eventually moved to the front of the pack and told us to follow him. Within a few minutes we started to see rapids. I swear the dude was trying to lose us, he would paddle all the way to the left side of the river and then, right before we hit the rapids, he would quickly paddle all the way to the right and we'd frantically be trying to get over in time. The current was surprisingly strong at times (other times it was dead and we would sit perfectly still in the water until we paddled further downstream). It was hard to control the tube when we came up to the rapids and after successfully navigating a few of them, I met my match. I was the last in the group to go down and I hit a wave the wrong way and was flung from my tube. I fell under the water and was thrown around the rocks. The current was too strong for me to get up, but after a minute I was through the worst of it and I was able to brace myself against a rock. The guide seemed annoyed with me, and I was pretty pissed at him, but all in all I was just happy to be okay. The rest of the trip was stressful, I was focused on trying to plot out the best way through the rapids. Jack also had a rough time in the rapids and slammed his head on a rock. The gentle lazy river ride we had imagined actually turned out to be the most dangerous thing we did. To make things worse, it was getting dark and I was worried we wouldn't get back to the hotel before the sun went down completely and we'd have to try to navigate the river in the dark. Luckily we finally got back to the hotel and we all jumped out and ran to safety. Despite it being scary, it was a gorgeous ride. There's a big community of indigenous people around the river and as we floated by we could see them bathing and washing clothes in the river. It made me feel incredibly touristy and uncomfortable, but I can't deny that it was interesting to see.
After Semuc we headed back to Antigua and were finally able to relax a little. Dan flew out the next day and I started focusing on the fact that I leave in two weeks!! It was awesome to have Dan here, and though we ran around like mad men the whole time, we were able to see everything we wanted to in a short amount of time. Next time I see him will be back in NY!!
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