Holllerrr Guatemalllerrr

Guatemala, y'all. That's what's up.

Our trip through Guatemala gave me a new place to put on the top of my list of the most beautiful places I have been. That's a tough title to give, and I am sure Lake Michigan or Yosemite could top it on a different day, but right then, right there, I could not imagine a prettier site.

The journey began as we departed from our comfy gringo shuttle and ran across the street to our most epic ride to date. It was more than going across the street, it was time to enter into the world where personal space, comfort, and common sense is completely foreign. On our three hour road trip from Ranchero to Coban, we saw a beautiful country side and many a Mayan man climb into our little van. We were driving in a 16-seater van and I kid you not when I say that for a majority of the ride we had 30 people in the van...probably more. I wish I had counted. Every time you thought there was no way they could fit another person, we would suddenly pull off to the side of the road and pick up a few more workers. Fortunately, Brett and I scored the front seats of the van, up near the driver meaning we didn't really have to deal with this at all. We just observed the happenings. Abby, Hannah, and Alex on the other hang were not as lucky. I would occassionally look back at them with a sympathetic look in my eye all the while glad I had been one of the chosen ones for the front. With there being 30 men where there should only be 15 people, you can imagine the squishy close quarters. Did I mention that these guys were all traveling back home (presumably) after long days/weeks/months of dirty work? Let's just say they were not the cleanliest, best smelling bunch of people I've ever seen. Our drop off in Coban was long awaited and very welcomed. The best part about this entire ride that is was no big deal to everyone else. In the U.S. we freak out if we don't wear seat belts or sneak an extra person in the car. HA. Someone answer me why Cid got a ticket from a police officer for not wearing his seatbelt in a friends car, but these vans and buses pack them in by the buttloads and no one thinks anything of it. Hypocrisy my friends, it's all over.

Coban, Guatemala is nothing really too special except for the fact that they have a mall with a fake Gap (Gap P.S.), a McDonalds, and a Pizza Hut. We were set up at a nice posada with fake hotwater for showering. As in, they advertised hot water, and had hot water heaters on the shower heads, but really it was just a little more tolerable than freezing water. We did however score with our choice of dinner restaurant. This Italian restaurant was the answer to our hunger prayers with the cutest and nicest Guatemalan lady to serve us. Neither Guatemalan or Italian, I got a cheeseburger. But believe you me it hit that hunger spot like no other.

The next day was Christmas Eve and our final traveling day for a while. We awoke early enough to get some huevos rancheros at our new favorite restaurant, change some more money into Quetzales, and pack up the rest of our stuff. We were a bit hurried out the door when our shuttle came earlier than expected. Imagine our shock. Early? On Time? Unheard of! Brett and I were waiting patiently on our shuttle for about 10 minutes while the girls continued to pack their things. When Abby finally got on the bus with her sisters, she said "Sorry, guys, had some issues with finding passports." Cue my gasp and stomach drop. "SHIT!" As I sped off the bus, yelling "Espera! por favor espera!!" I had completely forgotten my passport in my hotel room in the little desk drawer. Estupida! Thank god she said something. Leaving your passport at a hotel in the States is scary...imagine doing so in Guatemala. That was a close one.

Our trip to Semuc Champey was a little less crowded than our previous van ride. Not to say that we weren't squished. We were certainly sitting very close to eachother, but at least it was next to each other and not random Guatemalans. The bus started off decently full, and then just got more and more so as we continued up and around the mountainside. Probably the best part was when a Mayan woman got on the bus with a white bag. When the bag began to squeal a little bit and move around, we soon learned that there was a little pig in the bag. Abby was the lucky one sitting next to it. So despite us not seeing any chickens on our chicken bus (that's what these uber crowded buses are called) we saw a pig. After the woman departed, Abby turned around and asked "Do you have your hand sanitizer? I have pig poop on my hand." Ah Central America.

This journey to Semuc Champey brought us through the lucious green mountainside of Guatemala. We almost tried to get there the night before, but goodness am I glad we opted for the morning's daylight. I was in awe the entire time. First of all, we were driving through the middle of nowhere. Like- seriously- THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. You wouldn't see life for miles and then all of a sudden there would be a little tiny shack house of a Mayan family, who I can only imagine had lived there for ages. The entire time I was asking myself, WHO lives out here?! There is no way people move here, which makes these tiny little neighborhoods of Mayan families all the more fascinating. I just love thinking about how many generations have lived on that same plot of land. The other really cool thing about Guatemala is how ingrained and present their indigenous culture is there. Seventy percent of Guatemala's population is indigenous, meaning they speak the Mayan language, practice the religion, and wear the traditional dress. Our entire trip I loved catching wind of a conversation between Mayans and listening to their language. Entirely different from Spanish, it was fairly easy to pick out for Abby and me.

Rolling hills upon hills. G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S.

The landscape was incredible. Just hill upon hill upon hill upon hill upon mountain upon peak of rolling greenery. It was like nothing I have ever seen. The greenery were various different plants but I think a lot of it was coco beans, mainly because we were offered several hand mand chocolate candy bars from malnourished Mayan children. "Chocolate! Chocolate! Cinco! Chocolate!" The land though, man, it was just so cool. And the people who live out here are so poor. Not to mention, they pretty much have no choice to be completely self sustaining, as there is no grocery store down the street. I imagine many of the men we were dropping off on our way, go into the "city" to work for a few days/weeks and then come back with money for their family. I sometimes think Santa Rosa is a different world, but compared to these places, it's like living in New York City. The trek was long, especially because we had no real idea how far it would be, but we finally got to our little hostel right outside of Semuc Champey National Park.

This hostel, like everything else near Semuc Champey, is in the middle of nowhere, staffed with a delightful group of Guatemalans who welcomed us with great service, yummy food, and a cheap stay. Not so cheap though that we didn't have to budget our money as there are no ATMs for about 3 hours. We were housed in little one room cabins with adjacent bathrooms. No hot water for miles and electricity only from 6:00pm-10:00pm. So rustic! Our stay here allowed us to just chill for a bit. In our down time we would pretty much read or play cards with some fellow travelers. During our stay we met some really cool people from all over- specifically- Canada, Denmark, Norway, and the U.S. Hardly any of them knew much Spanish, but they all were completely fluent in English. Damn Europeans. So smart. The biggest character of them all though was of course the one U.S.A-er that we met. Originally from Lansing, Michigan, Jerrod, call me BEAR (rooting from Jerbear), has been traveling around for the past 5 years, and only recently has traveled past the U.S. borders into Mexico and Guatemala. Doing odd jobs here and there to make money, he was a 60's hippie in the wrong generation. He was probably in his late 20's wore only tie-die and I don't know if I ever saw him wearing shoes. My hippie, flower child, drifter suspicions were confirmed with his in depth explanation of his book that he is writing. Something about being raised on television and now following the ways of the rainbow connection. Does anyone know about the "rainbow connection"? It's like this movement where you only think positive thoughts about other people, etc etc...I'm not really sure. Anyway, he was a hoot. But super nice. Oh, and he has been traveling down here for around 3 months without a passport. He came here on a whim, somehow snuck past the border gaurds and has been traveling ever since. I think that sums up his chill attitude pretty well.

Now enough about the accommodations and the staff. Our first glimpse of Semuc Champey came the day we arrived. After having lunch we ventured to this natural place of stunning beauty. Semuc Champey was only discovered by tourists in the past 20-30 years and is therefore still very much untouched. There is a gorgeous picture of this place in Abby's Guatemala guidebook and though she traveled all throughout Guate before coming to the Hondo, she never made it to Semuc Champey. After hearing amazing things and carrying this picture with her everywhere, she was determined to get there and brought me with her. Semuc Champey is what paradise looks like. So beautiful it doesn't seem real, like something created in a movie with computer graphics. It is made of these emerald pools of water formed by a river which runs underneath the land. Various sizes of waterfalls are sprinkled all around with the entire area surrounded by a gorgeous mountain scape. Our first glimpses left us in awe. What's more is that you can completely swim in the pools, perfectly temperatured water, I felt like a mermaid. Unfortunately my words can't do it justice. Fortunately, however, I have pictures, which also don't do it justice, but it helps.

The opening of the river that forms the whole thing.

The river runs through it. A book, a movie, and the contents of this photo.

Emerald/turquoise water. Jealous?

Paradise.

Swimming in the Semuc Champey pools...don't mind if I do.

View from the top of the mountain. A unexpectedly tough hike, but completely worth it. This also, is the picture that brought us to Semuc.

Me peering out on the beautiful splendor.

While most of you were opening presents, drinking egg nog, and singing Christmas carols, I spent my Christmas day a little different. One word: CAVES. Quite possibly the coolest thing I have ever done. The hostel we were staying at gave daily tours of the caves outside of Semuc Champey. These caves were only discovered by locals 15 years ago! How cool is that?? Our cave guide was named Sebastian and he, according to him, was the best tour guide and while some guides only took you half way, he'd give us the real deal. Well, I believe him, because I certainly felt that I had gotten my 40 Quetzales worth...equivelant to, um...5 dollars. Yeah, ridiculously worth it. We first met Sebastian when we got to the cave tour cabin thingy and they told us about our wake up call, prior to going in the caves. In other words, jumping from a rope swing into the water. No big thang. We were not expecting this to be part of the tour, but hey, when in Rome. This was at about 9:00am and needless to say, if I wasn't awake before hand, I certainly was afterward. The "owner" of the caves said "You think that was fun? The caves are better." Alright then! Bring on the caves!

Let's compare for a second:

Spelunking in the U.S. or any "1st world" country:
-consent form
-helmet
-harness
-life jacket
-head lamp
-flashlights
-first aid

Example A. Random person I don't know from google images. Spelunking in Missouri.

Spelunking in Guatemala:
-candle

Also from google- actual caves, and potentially the same guide, as us. They are clearly not my pictures, as I didn't want to bring my camera in the water. But you get the point. Is this kind of creepy that I'm taking other people's pictures? Probably.




Our cave experience was so Guatemala, and I wouldn't have had it any other way. Sebastian, a native Mayan mountain man from the area took us through these caves with only a candle and our trust in him. Before we went in he did his version of a consent form (mind you everything he said, was all in Spanish.) "Everyone can swim, right?" Yes, swimming. In caves. There were literally moments where we could not touch, and were swimming with one arm, and holding our candles with the other, above our head, as to not let the flame go out. Even when we weren't swimming, we were always at least waist high in water. Events in the cave included climbing a waterfall, jumping off this huge rock into a very risky pool of water...aka the stupidest thing I've ever done. I survived fine, but the potential of something going wrong...aka me hitting my head, leg, or any other body part on a piece of rock, was higher than it should have been. It was so incredible though. I really felt like I was in Disneyland. The caves did not seem real...as if they were created for the Indiana Jones ride. But, they WERE real! And so were the bats. mmm...yummy. All in all we spent about 2ish hours in the center of the earth, and it was so freaking cool, which I pretty much said 689 times while swimming and walking through.

No way does this do it justice. Imagine this in pitch black, add a candle, bats, and waterfalls...for 2 hours. Then multiply that by 50, and it was that cool, maybe more. I felt like I was in the Goonies or something.

The other eventful happening was our lovely friend that the girls had visiting their bedroom one night. Alex came out to the common area one night and said, "Abby, did you see the spider in our room?" "No." "Literally, THIS BIG." And we all know when people say, "OMG, IT WAS SO BIG" it really isn't that big. Well, this time, NO. We all went into the room and DEAR GOD IT WAS A GIANT TARANCHULA IN THEIR ROOM. Hairy, huge, black, taranchula. Cue freak out. I don't mind killing spiders, but um...hellloooo...how do you kill something like this?? With a gun?? This is not your, let's get my shoe and smash it. No no friends, this was hard core spiderage.

Legit as big as my hand.

Well, 2 minutes later the entire hostel was in the girls' room, looking at the spectacle. Of course it took the locals to actually get the bug...you can't even call it a bug...the animal, out of the room. They were like, "it's not a big deal, we live with them, they're apart of us." Yeah, well, that may be so, but I'd rather not sleep with one right next to my head, kthanksbye. It was fine though, that was the last sighting of any taranchulas for the rest of the trip. Never in my life have I seen something like that. eeeee!

Our Semuc Champey trip was concluded with a lovely breakfast and then a trip through the mountains in the back of a pick up truck. This was our quote in quote "shuttle service" that we reserved. Hm. While I was a little nervous at first, I gotta say, riding in the back of a pick up truck through the luscious green mountains of Guatemala, is pretty sweet.

Alex, Abby's stepsister, me, and Hannah, Abby's sister, holding on for dear life in the pickup truck.

Wind in your hair, perfect views, and the air quality is fantastic. Since then, I'll have you know that I have now ridden in about 4 pick up trucks. Being a seatbelt nut, that is saying something. Once again, all I can say is, when in Rome...do what the Guatemalans do.


P.S. Want to see more pictures? Sure ya do! Check out my facebook album or my friend Brett's pics!!