Semuc Champey

I went to Coban this weekend to visit with other volunteers and see some sites out there. I didn't really do any research in guide books before hand so I just jumped on Kay's plan of seeing Semuc Champey. Unfortunately, we both got food poisoning the night before the trip. She didn't want to risk going in the morning. I didn't want to waste the really long trip out there so I went with some other volunteers, Mackenzie and Natalie.

It was the most spectacular natural phenomenon I have ever seen. Regretably, I forgot my camera in the van... however Mackensie brought hers so I'll get some photos some day. (only have photos of the cave here and on my flickr site)

Semuc Champey is really hard to describe, but I’ll try briefly. It a land mass over a river. The river both flows atop the land mass and below in an underground river. Atop there are several warm limestone pools that cascade down until plummeting of a 20 meter waterfall.

On either side we saw where the water enters and exits the cave below. Also, there is a lookout (mirador) where we took in the whole beautiful oddity in.

If you come, which you should sometime before you stop living, take the tour. The tour enables you to do this in one day, and climb down part of the waterfall on a rope ladder then jump 35 feet off a cliff that protrudes from the waterfall, if you so desire. Mackensie and I both looked over the cliff separately and decided we couldn’t do it. However after both a young Brit and a girl from Costa Rica did it, I had too. Call me a chauvanist. Then Mackensie after seeing her friend jump off a cliff decided it was the best course of action as well.

All in all, this was an amazing experience. When I was under the waterfall looking back I could see into where water raged on from the cave and looking forward I could see through the waterfall to the river below.

It’s really hard to describe this experience and the geological formations because it's such an oddity.

On the way back to Coban, we stopped by a cave in Lanquin, but that's not much to talk about comparatively however for this I did bring my camera. I think the cave looks better in the photos than it did in real life. It was not very well managed.

Later, I was talking to the volunteer in that area who works in ecotourism. She said that she got the a new management plan to enhance the natural beauty that is there. So perhaps in the future it will be worth your time, but now they basically strung power lines through the place and adorned them with incandescent light bulbs. They also have tacky signs on formations that vaguely resemble some animal or other common object.

But they do have some interesting spider like insects. Our guide caught one then took this embarrassing picture of me looking lovingly at this cross between a crab and a spider.
Bottom line go to Semuc Champey, take or leave the caves...

In other job related news: food security, my program, might be terminated with Intervida... I had a meeting this morning with someone in Intervida. My counterpart might change or I might be working with two different people with medicinal gardens... I don't think they really know yet. They are trying to secure funding to support the food security program but they only have a week, and it looks improbable. I'm frustrated and I'll leave it at that on this public blog.