A comfortable shuttle ride later, we pulled into Antigua and had 2 hours to kill before the shuttle to Lanquin. We promptly found some cheap chiles rellenos, which were game changers. So good. Then off to the park to hang out.
The comfortable, spacious shuttle ride to Antigua was pretty much a wistful memory during the 8 hour shuttle ride to Lanquin. At one point we stopped to go to the bathroom, and I was last to go, and when I returned to the street there was a classic moment where the shuttle was gone before Jeff called my name and I panned right and saw that they had changed shuttles for the last leg of the journey.
Definitely an improvement.
Arrival was scheduled for 8pm, we rolled in at 10:15 and got dropped somewhere in town, then wandered ten minutes through light rain until we found the hostel.
I was exhausted, so as soon as I was shown to my bed I was dead to the world, but I remembered wondering at the persistent downpour throughout the night.
When I woke up and saw sun I realized the sound hadn't been rain.
My dorm was at the end of the path going left, not 20 yards from a fast, beautiful river that maintained an unreal shade of green at all times.
Since the river had such a current, there was a catch line of rope so that people could walk upriver, jump in, grab the rope, clamber out and hop in the sauna. Rinse and repeat. However, I didn't get a chance to try it out that day because we were leaving for a day trip to Samuk Champey very early.
I couldn't bring my camera because so much water was involved, and I basically didn't wear anything except a swimsuit all day - I never had flip flops to begin with, and I'd basically gone around the iguana barefoot for the past month and a half, so why stop now?
We started out going into the caves which are filled with pools and water falls, stalactites and stalagmites, and plenty a cavern lined with very sharp rocks. Swimming was a bit hazardous while holding a candle aloft, but we all made it through fine, and our guide was a pretty reckless but very good 21 year old local guide. We climbed up waterfalls in the caves using rope, and even did cave jumping into a pool that was about 3 meters deep. Only five of us took the risk, a pattern that geld true for the rest of the day.
After shivering our way back out, we did a massive rope swing into the river outside, then grabbed tubes and tubes down the river, which was the same green as the one in the campground.
Actually, looking around during the tubing was the first time I was strongly reminded of Pandora from Avatar. That happened with increasing frequency toward the end of the day.
Next up, we (well...five of us) jumped off a bridge into the river. This was easily the highest I've ever jumped from, perhaps 35-40 feet above the deep rushing water below, since we jumped from the top metal railing. Super fun, and we started to get a sense if who we were going to end the day with, in terms of the adventuresome group.
After lunch we hiked straight up a sheer face by way of zig zagging stairs, and looked down on the pools we would swim in, which are probably what you see when you google Samuc Champey.
Finally the hike down. A bit hazardous. We were stuck behind this slow couple, but I think God was just looking out for us, because a huge boulder crashed down the slope and took out a section of the wood bridge that was hugging the slope a couple minutes before we got there. We heard it, then saw the destruction of the path and all the trees below it on that particularly steep section. Our guide basically told us to hurry across in case any more rocks were falling, and we helped each other up from the gap and continued on our way.
By the time we reached the pools, the sun was breaching the cloud cover for the first time all day. We could not have been happier, because it really brought out the colors in the crystal clear pools. Again with the reminder of Pandora, because the jungle setting and the pools just looked like the colors were too intense to occur in nature here. A bit of an alien quality to the place.
We were all pretty excited since our guide had told us the pools were hot, and all the waters earlier in the day had been progressively colder. As it turns out, "hot" was simply an expression of "not cold," so we did our best soaking up the sun as we bathed.
Suddenly one of the girls called out that little fish were nipping at her bug bites. A second later, I was jolted by the same unfamiliar sensation as they started "cleaning" all my sores. I'm pretty sure such fish are involved in a very expensive spa treatment somewhere in the world, so I let them go at it for a while, and felt fine afterward.
We followed the sun through the pools until the end, had our last few adventures, solidified our group who pushed the limits til the end together, and then headed back to El Retiro, the hostel.
Some of those friends had made a connection with a white water rafting guides, and it was so cheap that Jeff and I decided to sign up on the spot and extend out stay by a night.
The next morning we met Dave, who was basically a younger Eric Arvadon with dreadlocks (Dad, he seriously looked and spoke so much like him, it was hilarious). For $35 we got rafting, virtually unlimited beer (we had to pick up another case for the truck ride home), and a lunch with a native village.
The rafting was really fun, though we got the two major rapids so cleanly that we almost felt cheated for the lack of "carnage." Apparently it could get pretty gnarly.
At one point we stopped at Darwin's limb, which was jokingly named because if you fell off before you got far enough over the river, you would eliminate yourself from the gene pool. I went first, and it was honestly pretty unnerving, but definitely worth doing. The limb was very solid and grew perhaps 25 feet out over the river. The river was so deep that when I stepped off the raft at the shore, I went straight down to my head and couldn't even touch the bottom, even though I could kiss the shore. It was that steep underwater.
Had to say goodbye to the cheap sunglasses I was wearing, because I couldn't hold onto them when I hit the water, but the beer break that was happening concurrently helped.
Seeing all the Mayan villages along the shore was really really cool, and we had some friendly exchanges as we drifted by. But the best part was eating at the end.
We brought our rafts into shore and packed them up, then were challenged to bring the rafts up to the trucks. The Mayans are small people but so strong. One of them tipped up a rolled-up raft, made a disgusted face, and said "no pesa." It's not heavy, he said. He popped it up between his shoulders and walked staunchly off without a sign of trouble. That raft was 250 pounds.
The biggest among us, a well muscled Irish guy who grew up as a farmer and looked like an Irish version of Jay Bornstein (sterlaces, it's true), was able to carry it up but not as gracefully as the little Mayan man. They frequently carry immense loads on their backs or necks.
We finished up the day with a "life sized" Jenga game that had all sorts of funny dares written on the bricks that had to be completed as part of each turn. Hilarious night.
The next day we left for Flores, but I've already written way too much for one post.
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