So, what have I seen?

Antigua is a beautiful colonial era city. All buildings are a single story, and all are painted in beautiful pastel colors. It has a beautiful central plaza, and is surrounded by several large volcanos. It is also full of tourists. Being so close to the airport, most tourists do as I did. They skip the capital all together and go straight to Antigua. As well, many foreigners come here to study spanish. For this reason, its hard to get a true feeling of the country here. But, its a great place to get settled when first arriving.
I left Antigua early my second morning for a national park called Semuc Champay. To get there I first took a bus to the capital. From there I took a bus to a town called Coban, and then to a smaller town called Lanquin. From Languin I rode in the back of a pickup truck to a small hotel called Las Marias in walking distance of the park. The hotel, along with park, is nestled in a beautiful valley. The mountains all with very steep faces foster feelings of tranquilo. There were several other foreigners staying at the hotel, and several Gautemalans. I went for a swim in the river across the road when I first arrived. The hotel has a wonderful kitchen, and there was a Marimba band of local musicians playing during dinner. Though, the other tourists told me comparably they were pretty bad. I can't say I disagreed.
The next morning we went to visit the caves right outside the park. Here, we descended into the caves, each with our own candels. These caves were created by a river, and the river still flows through them. Our trip took us about an hour into the caves and then back out again. The entire time we saw by candlelight, often swimming through the river, holding the candles above our head. Ive been in caves before, but never like this.
After arriving back in the outside world, we floated down the river back torwards the hotel. Midway, we stopped under a bridge, climbed up, and took a few leaps. I'd say the bridge was about 30 feet high. I was definietly a bit scared, but jumped off twice. Quite a rush. We floated the rest of the way back to the hotel and had some lunch, and rested for a bit before heading off to the park.







The park itself is centered around a series of natural pools, also created by a river, each pool cascading with waterfalls down to the next. The colors of the water are those youd expect in the carribean, and water was refreshing after the sweaty hike in. I would say its one of the most beautiful places Ive been anywhere, and well worth the bumpy crowded journey in and out of the valley.








The following day I visted the Mayan ruins at Tikal. Though, havnt sat here in front of this computer long enough for today, I'll have to write about that next time.