Day 5 -From El Portal to Antigua

We got yet another early start and hopped in the back of one of El Portal's pickups in transit to Lanquin. Once in Lanquin there was a bit of reshuffling and delays as these three Israeli girls failed to show up on time (turns out they were from our hotel also, and might've slept in or something.) Anyways, while their insistence on sitting together was keeping us from leaving (the two shuttles were already more our less full), the delay did give us a little bit of time to get breakfast from local shops around Lanquin. Two of the travelers got empanadas and another a banana, both of which we sampled and were excellent. I picked up some bread/ cookies from a bakery for almost nothing (I think around 15 cents a cookie or something, if even that much.) Finally, we were off.

The drive from Lanquin to Cobán, and then Cobán to Antigua, was not really that exciting. The only remarkable thing was the tasty fried chicken dish I grabbed on our rest stop as well as the heat and desert-like environment that we drove across, a complete surprise to me (Guatemala's landscapes tend to surprise you.) We did have good company, though - folks we had met in El Portal, including Mario from Xela and his Japanese girlfriend, Charlotte from San Francisco, and some sisters backpacking together around central america.

For anyone stumbling across the blog looking for travel times/ road conditions for this leg of the journey, here are my notes:

The cost of a shuttle from El Portal to Antigua was Q160 ($20) per person

We left El Portal at 7AM

20/ 30 minute delay in Lanquin

We were in Cobán by 10:15, had a bathroom break

We left Cobán by 10:30

By 2:50 we were in Guatemala City

By 3:30 we were in Antigua

Total travel time was 8.5 hours (7AM - 3:30PM)

As soon as we got off the shuttle in Antigua, we were instantly bombarded by a guy who was actually surprisingly helpful, when I had expected him to be imposing. It turned out he worked for Atitrans, a pricier shuttle company for Lake Atitlan trips (and by pricier I mean about 2 more dollars per person. Which was worth it on the way down, not worth it on the way back, but whatever, it's 2 bucks....) Because this was the last leg of our journey left to finalize, we decided to go with it for convenience's sake (much to the loathing of my mother, who was insistent that we were being ripped off as he walked us the mile or so to our hotel while we hauled our luggage.)

Like I said, convenience was worth it, because he led us to our hotel and organized the shuttle right at our hotel. Speaking of which, our hotel - Hotel Cirilo - was incredible. It's a relatively newer hotel (so most of the cab/ Tuk-tuk drivers have not yet heard of it) and a bit far from the main square, but that also meant it was far from the late night noise. It's built around an old church ruin, the rooms are spacious and luxurious, the water very hot - a total 180 from the hostel-style lodging of El Portal. The Cirilo staff even offered to prepare our complimentary breakfasts earlier than advertised, since we had to take a shuttle at 7. And they had wifi. And it was affordable. I'd highly recommend this place to everyone passing through Antigua.

The Atitrans people drove us back into town after scheduling the early morning shuttle to the lake. My dad forgot his camera though, so he took a tuk-tuk back to the hotel for I think no more than $1.50 each way and was back in fifteen minutes. While doing some shopping and walking around, we ran into an older couple that we had last seen in Tikal three days ago! We enjoyed catching up with them and asking them more about their trip while still in a bit of shock that our paths had crossed once more.

After that it was onto dinner, some drinks, a little taste of Antigua's night life, and then back to the hotel to take hot showers, unwind, use the internet, and relax….

The windy dirt road from El Portal to Lanquin

Reshuffling the luggage in Lanquin. If you look closely, you can see the girls who caused our delay....

The desert-like landscape from Cobán to Antigua.

The famous arch in Antigua.

The pool at our awesome hotel (Cirilo)

Day 4 - Semuc Champey (Pools and Caves)

Today was a "rest" day - a day of zero traveling. We were very active the whole day, but it was still refreshing to have a break midway through the trip where we weren't spending any time on a bus/ shuttle/ plane….

We got up early the next morning because my dad and I wanted to investigate the pools at Semuc Champey a bit on our own before we went on the guided tour (we signed up for a full day tour through El Portal, including the pools, tubing, and caves to make sure we didn't miss anything.) The pools were very close to El Portal (a 5 minute walk) and the entrance fee was small (30-50Q range.) The pools are in a protected park like area with several trails, some that go along the river and one that climbs up extremely high to get to a Mirador (lookout spot) where many of the famous views of the pools are taken:

We had only explored a small part of the river/ pools on our own before going on the tour. The tour was fine, and it perhaps forced us to make that hike to the Mirador that we would not have made otherwise, but I do not think it was essential. You can easily explore the pools on your own, at your own pace. The one advantage I saw to using the tour was that the guides knew the spots on the pools that could be jumped off of/ slid off of. They took a group of younger kids who were on the tour from pool to pool, starting at the top, and either jumped or slid from pool to pool. Because we were traveling with my brother, whose arm was casted and unable to get wet, we weren't able to join up with them.

So - if you're wanting to do a lot of swimming, jumping, and sliding, I would say to go for a tour. If you just want to see the pools and take pictures, do it on your own.

We took lots of beautiful pictures. My favorite spot was where the river entered and exited the caves underneath the pools (the pools are actually a natural land bridge, so their own water is not really a part of the rio Cahabón, which flows beneath them). Here are some photos:

The "start" of Semuc Champey, where the river plunged beneath the pools

One of the pools (everything in this picture is part of the land bridge; the river is deep beneath us and not connected at all really to the water in the photo.)

I'm a gymnast, so a flip from one pool to the next was necessary I guess.

The group that swam, slid, and jumped between pools to work their way down.

The "end" of Semuc Champey, where the river (below) re-emerges from the cave/ bridge.

We were on the tour from about 9-11:30; plenty of time to hike the Mirador, see the pools, swim, and take photos. Once back at the hotel, we ate lunch (the food was mediocre, but come on, you don't go to Semuc Champey for the fine dining, so it was fine) and then headed to another part of the river where we went on a short tubing ride. This was nice and relaxing and only about 20-30 minutes long.

Next we headed to the caves, which are very easy to find and only about 5 minutes from El Portal as well. Our whole tour group went- about 20 of us - and we heard reports from other tourists that you could just show up to the caves and that the cave guides would leave whenever they had a big enough group - usually about 7-10 people. Obviously with a smaller group you get a bit more "attention" and possibly get to see further back in the caves.

Still, with 20 of us, we had a great time. I had read reports about how dangerous the caves were or potentially unsafe - I saw none of that on our tour. Yes, you have to wade and at times swim with your candle held high so it doesn't go out. But if it does, you just relight it with someone else's. Light was never an issue, and we frequently kept half of the candles in our group extinguished anyways to save light for later. There was a cool spot where you could climb up a waterfall with a rope (the cave system is an underground river) - but this was optional; there was a (slightly sketchy) ladder to the left. There was also an optional jump at the end of the journey towards the back where you could climb up about 12-15 feet and jump into the water. Only about 3-4 of us did it. The guide showed us where to jump with his headlamp, and he did it first, so I felt safe doing it and had a great time.

Speaking of, the guide really was excellent. He seemed flustered, and who wouldn't be, managing 20 of us - including 1 person who could not swim and my injured brother, whose broken arm often resulted in the guide carrying him on his back across the deeper parts of the river. But he did a great job of waiting to make sure everyone stayed in the group and keeping us all safe (you still have to take some personal responsibility here, this is an underground cave system after all!)

I actually managed to bring my camera through the caves without soaking it, and snapped some "rare" pictures of our journey:

My mom and dad. Yeah, the water was a little cold.

Me and my balding spot. You can see the group up ahead.

Our friend Charlotte, who we met here, climbing up one of the ladders to move to the next area.

The cave walls were awesome.

The subterranean cliff jump, which was awesome!

When we left the caves, the sun was out (it was cloudy for most of the day) and lit up the fauna and river well before we headed in for dinner:

El Portal also arranged shuttles to Antigua, so we went ahead and reserved one of those as well (for a reasonable price), rather than doing the route to Cobán and then getting a Monja Blanca bus back (which is also feasible, but more of a hassle.) We had another dinner, enhanced tonight by more conversation from our new friends we had made that day, and got to bed early again to prepare for another long day of traveling in the morning.

Day 3 - Tikal to Semuc Champey/ Lanquin

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

My parents on the Ferry at Sayaxche

En route to Cobán

The landscape on the way to Lanquin. It looked like a titanic egg carton mattress.

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