Semuc Chempey

Everyone else in my dorm was leaving today and so they woke up at about 6am to get ready for their bus which left at 7am. I slept for longer as my tour started at 10am. Most of the tour took place in water and so we were told not to take our cameras with us – so I hold all the memories in my head instead!

 

There were about 25 of us on the tour – as the hostel was so close to Semuc Chempey, we walked to the entrance and then started the hike up to the viewpoint. The walk was pretty straight forward – but it was quite steep at times.

 

It took about 35 minutes to walk up and we were soon at the viewpoint – where we could see the pools far below us. We were quite high up and it was nice to be able to look around and see such beautiful scenery even after having only climbed a short distance.

 

Some people were already swimming in the pools – and after spending a bit of time admiring the view, we made our way down to the pools too. At first, we spent some time just walking around at the top near some of the waterfalls.

 

The water was so clear and it was so beautiful to swim in the water with the backdrop being the beautiful landscape around. I was wearing my glasses as I didn’t realise we would be swimming in the water. As I jumped down into the pools, my glasses fell off!! Luckily after searching for a few minutes, I managed to find them on the pool-bed!!

 

 

 

We swum in the pools and slid down the rocks. We also jumped from high rocks into the pools below. There was a section where we were taken beneath the rocks and led through a tiny pathway which led back to the outside. It was amazing how this rock formation had developed – and how it was found!

 

We spent some time relaxing in the pools and then made our way back to the hostel where everyone had lunch (except me as I was fasting!)

 

The next part of the tour was a walk through some caves with a candle in our hands! The caves were naturally half filled with water and we had to wade through the water and sometimes even swim whilst holding a small candle – trying to keep it out of the water so that it wouldn’t go out. It was an amazing experience – completely different to anything I had done before. There were some ropes to follow but there was also a guide who led us through the caves. The darkness was surprisingly overcome by our candles – many of which went out and had to be relit using other candles.

 

Within the cave, there was a section which had a deep pool. The guide made those who wanted to climb up the rocks and jump into the pool within the cave!! It was a great experience. This time I put my glasses into my pocket when I jumped to make sure that I didn’t lose them!!

 

We made our way back out of the caves having slid down some rocks on the way and made our way back to the hostel – where we picked up plastic tubes (circular floats) and went to the river to “tube” down. This was a nice relaxing way to end the tour – we didn’t need to do much apart from guide ourselves down the river.

 

Having completed the tubing, we made our way back to the hostel – but this time, when we were crossing the bridge, we were told we could jump off the bridge into the river below!! The bridge was about 10m high. Most of the people in our group did it…and I followed suit! It was scary to do but I managed. Some people did it with such ease – without even thinking about it.

By now it was about 5pm. For the rest of the day, we just rested and ate. In the evening, we played some card games and also played 20 questions – we ended up going to sleep at about midnight.