Amazonian Women, bumpy roads and Samuc Champey

About to depart Guatemala for the point-break filled country of El Salvador. I´m sure the country has more to offer than surf and point breaks, but that is all I care about at the moment. 

But before I´m even on the bus tomorrow I thought I´d share with you the most awesome part of my travels so far.

Samuc Champey.

The jury is out on whether you actually pronounce the C of Samuc, but of the opinion that I don´t give a monkeys. The pictures do this justice a blog cannot. Check out the photos.

First off a bit of background on how I got there.

Before I left Lake Atitlan, I was in Panachel and in desperate need of a hair cut. I managed to find the oldest looking Guatemalan with the fewest teeth but with the most dental bling to give my hair a much needed hacking. 

I´ve never known one person give my head so much attention with so many tools for what was simply a buzz cut all over. Hats off the Guatemalan hair dressers (sorry, Barbers) they give you more attention and still keep up the small talk!

Got the bus the next day to Coban, which involved 2 bus changes and about 7-8 hours of travelling. the second change was the most entertaining. Got on a new bus for the last 2 hours which turned about to be more like 3, as this shuttle bus turned into a glorified chicken bus as normally you can only get about 16 passengers on these buses. At one point I counted 25, and that´s what I could see from the back snuggled between a fatty (a rarity in Guatemala) and an Israeli (not a rarity in Guatemala). Eventually reaching Coban, delightful street food ensued and beginning to feel a lot better I went to Lanquin the next day.

The road to Lanquin is interesting, in to suffice to say that it´s not really a road and is more of a bunch of stones that got together by accident. Said accident is more what I was expecting as our driver pulled on to this road and full speed, going down hill and in what I thought was rather heavy rain (the kind where you get soaked just by looking at it) but having realigned my spine in several places I finally got to a hostel complete with wooden shacks and a sauna-shed on the edge of the jungle.

In my dorm I was introduced to the other house mates, a Dane, an Albanian, an Auzzie, the resident lizard and his pen friend the cock-roach. Alas I never met the last two, but I think this was yet another place I managed to collect some bed bugs from!

Next day we hit the road for the caves and pools of Samuc Champey. At this point I may have been unfair on the last road as for this seemingly short ride (9km can´t take long surely) I had to stand in the back of a Kia Pride Pick-up and this road was more what a rally car driver might take a look at and decide to pass. It was awesome fun as myself and the giantesses from Holland and Switzerland kept on the look out for stray branches, pot holes whilst daring each other to let go of the pick up for a second. 

Arriving at Samuc Champey with all our teeth, we commenced a trip through the caves complete with light (a candle!)

Photos do this more justice, but I was basically on a caving tour with a troupe of Amazonian women, or as anyone familiar with Futurama will know them as "Snu-Snu". I´m not that short especially in Guatemala, my 5´9" tends to tower over everyone. I was the shortest by quite a margin, but as I was surrounded by a group of lovely women, I realised I was back home and was in fact "Richie with his bitches". 

The tour was great fun but became vastly more fun when we got outside for some rubber tube riding. The fun stepped up a gear when the Swiss girl discovered the rope swing that left you falling about 10 feet into the middle of the river. A very basic approach, you swing, you let go, you fall feet first, you scream, job done. I managed to fall about 15 feet and landed on my face slash side which proved just too funny for everyone else unable to see how I managed to get it wrong. Thankfully I didn´t give a girly scream this time.

That afternoon we hiked up to the Mirrador (look-out) where you see the caves. We finally made it up despite it being insanely slippery and the resident and very territorial Howler Monkey, who gave his best efforts at putting us off. The view was amazing, the photos don´t really do it justice. The pools sit above the actual river, making it both safe and calm to swim in.

On getting to the bottom our insane guide took us swimming, jumping and sliding amongst the pools which are a freaky blue colour, I can only imagine is because of the cobalt mineral in the rocks. This was by far the best experience, swimming in the pouring rain in pools over 4 metres deep. I won´t write much more, the pools were awesome, my underwater camera was brilliant, job done.

photos in the usual place: http://www.flickr.com/photos/richsmith/sets/72157625314546724/