Guatemala is blessed with a huge diversity of tourist sites. Best known are the charming Spanish-colonial city of Antigua, the stunning Mayan ruins of Tikal, and the beautiful volcano-ringed lake of Atitlan. But it also boasts some other remarkable but less known sites, which draw significant number of discerning travellers – and especially young backpackers. Last month I took advantage of a visit by some of my extended family to explore some of those places.
First on the list was Semuc Champey. It’s a long but beautiful drive from Guatemala City through the lush green mountains to Coban (the rain forests are allegedly populated by the rare Quetzal, Guatemala’s national bird) and then on to Lanquin, where we stayed in a delightful place beside a fast-flowing river in which we also swam. The drive on to Semuc early the next day was memorable: it was one of the steepest, narrowest, and most precipitous dirt tracks I have ever been on, and tested our 4WD vehicles to their limits – but the views were amazing. First stop was the K’anba cave. I hadn’t realised it is actually an underground river. I have never before swum through narrow caves in complete darkness holding a lighted candle, occasionally climbing ladders and then disappearing down natural water slides, but that is what is involved and it was immense fun. Then, once we had emerged into the daylight again, to round it all off we floated down the turquoise river in rubber tubes taking in the stunning scenery of the gorge. For some reason my family thought it very amusing to see HM Ambassador floating down the river in a car inner tube.
After an excellent lunch in a local comedor, we walked to Semuc Champey itself. It is stunningly beautiful. A series of turquoise pools cascading from one to the next over the limestone, we spent a restful afternoon swimming (and letting the fish nibble our toes) before making the long steep climb up the side of the gorge to a platform high above from where there was a superb view of the whole site. On our way out we were surrounded by local Q’eqchi children selling home-made chocolate, including the remarkable Ana who could conduct sales in any of about eight languages; her English and French accents were near native. She said she had picked them up just by talking to tourists. What incredible talent!
The next day we drove to Rio Dulce at the end of the huge Lake Izabal, from where we took a speedboat to the remarkable Finca Tatin, a lodge in the middle of the jungle on the edge of the Tatin river. We arrived in a torrential rainstorm after which our clothes never really dried in the damp jungle, but we spent an excellent couple of days there swimming in the river, looking for manatees, and canoeing through the steep-sided Rio Dulce gorge to the Garifuna town of Livingston. We also visited yet more caves (including one with a natural sauna) and some thermal springs on the edge of the river.
There is more to come, so do not miss the second part of this blog next week!
Small shop in Livingston
Rio Dulce
Lanquin River
Semuc Champey
