Semuc Champey - 'where the water hides underground'

Now we continued.... After another bumpy ride, with many exciting impressions along the way, we reached Lanquin. Here we landed in a really nice hostel, but full of party-hungry Australians.

However, there is not much to do in this place. It is solely the starting point for "Semuc Champey", a Guatemalan natural heritage site in the middle of the jungle. There are natural pools with turquoise green water. Beautiful to look at and great for swimming! The river Rio Cahabon flows underground here, but a part of the water continues to flow above, which feeds the water pools. Behind the pools, the river re-emerges from the rock.

So we jumped on the back of a pickup truck and let ourselves be taken the 12km on the muddy roads of the jungle. The ride alone was adventurous and lined with quite exciting images of "life in the jungle". Smoke-filled wooden houses (here they cook with wood, not necessarily the healthiest way but what can you do...), corrugated iron roofs and clotheslines full of colorful laundry (which never seems to dry properly here), wallowing pigs, young lice-infested dogs, free-roaming chickens and turkeys, women carrying baskets of food on their heads, men carrying sacks of corn cobs on their backs for kilometers, and many, many playing children.

In the evening, we visited a bat cave at sunset.... besides us and thousands of bats, there was no one there. A bit creepy but also totally impressive! Shortly after sunset, they all woke up from their sleeping beauty sleep and swarmed out of the cave... and we were right in the middle of it. It's really crazy how fast these creatures fly around you! Amazing animals...