We had the option this morning of waking up extremely early to do a sunrise tour of Tikal. Maybe we should have, but the exhaustion of the previous two days combined with the expense of it (another park entrance fee of $20* plus an apparently required tour guide fee, the same guy as yesterday) and the chance that it might be cloudy steered us towards more sleep. We were woken up around 5AM by howler monkeys, which was cool once you realized that they weren't ogres/ trolls lurking just outside of your room:
We finished up breakfast and headed out of Tikal around 9AM on a shuttle, once again run by this guide that was apparently inescapable. Anyways, we had private transportation waiting for us in the Flores airport, which we arranged through Voyager Tours for $380 to drive us to Lanquin (Semuc Champey.) The shuttle driver was very nice, friendly, on time, and drove very carefully (maybe even a bit too carefully/ slow for my taste, but there you go.) This was a route that I couldn't find much information on online, especially the duration of the trip, so here are my notes about it:
-We left Flores at 10:30AM.
-We reached Sayaxche in 90 minutes, crossing the river on a ferry.
-The road was in good condition the entire trip
-We reached Raxruja at 1:30PM (3hrs), hit light construction traffic
-We reached Chisec by 2:15PM (3.75 hrs)
-We reached Cobán at 4PM (5.5 hrs)
-We left Cobán at 4:30PM
-We arrived in Lanquin around 6:30PM
We were worried by the time that we arrived in Cobán that we would not make it to Lanquin in time to see the Grutas de Lanquin - our whole reason for taking expensive private transportation over a regular 1pm shuttle was to squeeze in a visit to the caves where thousands of bats flood out at sunset. In Cobán we actually changed drivers and grabbed dinner (and took our time a bit, thinking that Lanquin by sunset was now impossible). However, our new driver said it was very possible to make it in time and was extremely helpful coordinating everything with our hotel. He even offered to drive us directly to the caves after dropping our bags off at a Cafe in Lanquin (owned by our hotel, El Portal) since it was on his way out.
The bats at the Grutas de Lanquin were awesome! They didn't flood out of the cave like in a Batman movie, but they were constantly streaming out and it was amazing that you could stand in the middle of it all and the bats would dodge you, sometimes inches from your face (but they never hit you.) The entrance fee to the caves was nominal (30Q/ $3.50) and we got some cool pictures:
There were other people at the caves going to El Portal as well so it was almost too easy - we got a free ride back to the Cafe, picked up our luggage, and then rode on to El Portal (this hotel is right at Semuc Champey, a good 30 minutes itself from Lanquin on a dirt road.)
Overall, a long day of traveling, but we squeezed in a sight at the Lanquin Caves and positioned ourselves well to spend the whole next day at Semuc Champey….
*Footnote - I can't stand the price disparities in Guatemala. If you are Guatemalan it costs about $5 to enter the park. If you are a foreigner, it costs $20. That is 400% greater. Imagine if the USA used the same system... "oh, you wanna go to Disney World, foreigner? That'll be $200 park entrance fee...." I think it would cause more than a bit of an uproar
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