Caves, Cockroatches and Israelis

Erin Says...

Well our last night in Antigua was amazing! It was (obviously) spent with the crew at the bar which we think are worth mentioning being that we spent the better part of three weeks with them. There is Gerson, the adorable and extremely helpful Salsa teacher. Alex, the loyal friend and co-bartender. Maria, the cook and person who cleaned up after Saul (and everyone for the matter) and kept us all in line - a very very wonderful woman. Then there is Jose, the very beautiful painter who has been spending his time working for free to paint a super cool mural for a little school of young kids just outside of town and recently used Alyece´s leg as his canvas. Last is Saul - the 22 year old entrepeuner - one of the most generous people we´ve met on our travels who would do anything to help anyone, which made it easy for us to help out when we could at the bar. From Left To Right. Jose, Saul, Alyece, Maria, Me and Alex...Gerson, Too Busy Dancing

Our last night was spent sleeping on potato sacks on the bar floor (we reached a whole new level of cheap already) and waking up to make (most of) the crew a big breakfast at the insane hour of 6am. There were very sad goodbyes, BUT we´ll leave it at that because we´ve decided to go back for one more week of lessons.

Anyway, then it was off on the very suprisingly actually comfortable shuttle bus, with a very nice driver, good music and extremely friendly israelis who kept us fed the whole trip. (the little things have become very exciting). The drive was beautiful and we actually enjoyed the extremely bumpy unpaved roads for the last two hours.

We arrived at El Retiro Lodge in Lanquin to claim the very last thatch hut and be welcomed by a couple cockroatches and other critters. The lodge and thatched bungalos were set at the bottom of a huge valley on the river. There are no words to describe the beauty of this place and the pictures don´t begin to do it justice. It was a serene place to relax and reccuperate in the hammocks. However, at El Retiro we had pretty much joined team Israel. There were about 30 Israeli people staying at the place which was a little overwhelming and our ears have probably been trained to hear more Hebrew than Spanish at this point.

I feel the events of our day in Semuc Champey are worth mentioning in detail. We started by being loaded like a herd of cattle about 20 people each standing in the back of a pickup truck for a 40 minute drive on the edge of a cliff on a narrow dirt and gravel road where before each hill and sharp turn the driver had to stop and prepare for the uphill struggle. When we did arrive, we were greeted by one of our three guides Elvis, who swiftly had us swinging off rope swings into the rushing river to get us warmed up for the day. Then we went on to our next adventure which was THE CAVES. Dave Scaling The Cave Rock

Right as we entered, candles lit, Alyece noticed the spider the size of her face and was ready to call it quits. However, I dragged her on and we continued in, CLOSE CALL! We waded deep into the caves with our candles, then had to swim where the roof of the cave descended nearly to the water level. We entered huge caverns of stalegmites and stalactites (Alyece made me put this in...geography major). We climbed, we jumped, we were taken into a waterfall only to be sucked in a spit out by the current, all the while trying to keep our heads and candles about water - an awesome way to start the day. Picked Up A Machete Along The Way - Watch Out

Then it was on to tubing down the rapid river in a threesome of Elvis, Alyece and I. We got the easy ride with Elvis and his pure muscle, while everyone else suffered alone in the strong currents. Me and Alyece Getting A Free Ride From Elvis The Guide

This leads me to the very tall Israeli gentlemen who complained of being too tired to walk back so Alyece proceeded to piggy back him until his embarrassment was too much.

Then, off to Jump off the 40 foot bridge into the rushing river. I needed a friendly boost of confidence from Alyece but didn´t back down and it was well worth it.

Finally, we were taken to the Semuc Champey reserve where we climbed (the wrong side, which meant twice as steep and twice as long) up the mountain to the lookout point with our new American friend Dave, the comic. From the lookout point we could see down into the massive canyon where huge turquoise natural pools flowed one by one. It was indescribable Me, Dave and Half of Alyece....A Little Red From The Hike
The climb down to swim in them was even better. We swam for a couple hours and played in the mini waterfalls until Elvis took us on our last adventure. What was interesting about this day was everything we did was introduced as ´extremely dangerous´ and Elvis continuously repeating ´you don´t have to´, ´you don´t have to´. The last adventure though did leave us slightly nervous as we proceeded to climb down a powerful waterfall on a small rope latter, attached by a skinny rope and a rock where one slip up would send you on a very long fall into the unforgiving rapids - i felt like Indiana Jones ha ha. This turned out to be a pointless endeavor, other than looking underneath the waterfall, but it was hard to hear even our own voice over the surge of the water. Anyway, the weather had made the river much to fast to make the 50 foot jump into the rapids and so proceeded to climb UP a waterfall on a slippery rope latter, using our guides unstable thigh as the first step.

It was clear now that the guide had taken quite a liking to me, when he asked me to have a drink at the El Retiro party that night. Unfortunately for him, it turned out to be a three hour Spanish lesson, where he bought the drinks and did the teaching.

I failed to mention the huge buffet, which was incredibly delicious. I find it hard to understand how they pulled it off with no power and a completely flooded kitchen. However, they did, and Alyece out ate all 60 or so people, including large israeli men and then went for seconds. I´m pretty sure Dave was a little grossed out by us. After a totally amazing day for the record books Alyece and I headed to bed.

In the morning, over breakfast, we decided what bus to get on for our next destination. We chose Rio Dulce, which it so happened they forgot to book the shuttle for. This led us to a 5 hour drive, becoming 11 hours, filled with very very overcrowded and very very sweaty buses packed with guatemaltecos. It´s funny because I got what I was asking for when I had complained about how every bus ride felt like we were observing Guatemala but completely blocked off from it. So i figured I better not complain when I was actually travelling the way Guatemalan people do.

When we did finally arrive the 60 something American dude named Steve running the hotel, shuffled us off to a party full of old rich white yachties in Hawaiian shirts - the true Guatemalan experience ha ha. We stayed for a couple drinks with Uncle Willie and then headed to bed, at which time it torrentially down poured all night and is flooded out here, and so we´re canceling the boat trip we were going to take and heading back tomorrow. Which leaves us with lots of time today to write our blog and study!

That is it for now, Hugs and Kisses