It was time to leave the beautiful lake and embark on a long arse journey to Semuc Champney. We had to wake up pretty early to get the first boat from Santa Cruze to Panajachel as it left at 7:30am. Of course nothing truly leaves on time and we could have probably boarded at 8am with the rest of the locals. The problem is they always make sure the boat is completely packed before going anywhere. At Panajachel we saw lots of familiar faces all lined up on one corner. This was definitely the waiting point, why else would you see a load of gringos up at this time. It is funny because you always see the same faces but it begins to get a little awkward when you don’t introduce yourself… At least we had the excuse of it being morning… I can’t talk unless I have my morning coffee vibes.

The shuttle came at 8:45 so we got to see all the locals go off to school and work. Once it was time to board the shuttle people gave no mercy as they shoved and pushed to get on the bus first. The thing is no one wants a bad seat especially on a 10 hour journey.

The first food stop was at a small local restaurant. We went for the empanadas but for the first time since Bogota airport I didn’t like them. They were chicken and had sultanas in them which instantly puts me off. Why do people ruin things with sultanas?

Stop number two made the whole bus scream with excitement especially Ollie. We stopped at McDonald’s. We just had to get two large meals. I went for my typical quarter pounder and Ollie went for a big tasty chicken burger. We were disappointed. It was average for McDonald’s and there was just too much sauce. Although, the chips were top notch. It seems all you do on a travelling day is eat. Tomorrow, I’m on a diet.

When we finally arrived we were all separated hostel by hostel and ushered into a specific 4×4. It was so chaotic. Every hostel has to include this as a lot of them seem to be in bizarre off the beaten track locations, much like our hostel Greengos. The weirdest thing was that I felt the drivers were persuading us to go into their car. It was comparable to taxi drivers competitions after you but in this case there was no competition. Anyway we boarded the Greengos jeep.

Everyone on our jeep seemed really nice perhaps because we all knew we’d be spending the next few days together. There was this French Canadian man and his girlfriend who kept cracking jokes, an Irish girl with her headphones in, some Dutch sisters, and then a few English people. Two guys particularly stood out as they were proper lads from Watford. One of them chained smoked the entire way.

The journey to Greengos was about 45 minutes and was the bumpiest ride yet. I didn’t think anything could top Minca. The views were amazing, although we could see forest fires everywhere. This put me on edge. Not only that, we were also invaded by wasps the entire journey. I found out Ollie has a serious fear of them. Then even worse I swallowed one.

Once we were at the hostel we had a couple beers and then went to bed. We were staying in these huts by the pool which looked super cool. Although inside was really basic and I had to fight to get a fan put inside our room.

The next morning we planned to go see Semuc Champney and ended up going with most of the people on our shuttle. Our hostel was so close which was a blessing as it meant we didn’t have to endure the bumpy ride again. Basically, our hostel is super close to Semuc but then in the middle of nowhere from anything else. We got there in about 10 minutes and then each paid 50 quetzals. As soon as we got in there was a sign pointing upwards to the mirador. I didn’t think it was going to be such a hike but it was a good 30 minutes up. However, once we were at the top I was shocked by how stunning it was. I was in awe as I never thought it’d be that amazing. You overlooked lots of perfectly blue coloured natural pools that looked like stepping stones. I couldn’t wait to go in for a dip but that was also because I was sweating buckets. Thanks Dad for the big sweat glands.

We went and swam in nearly all the turquoise pools. Although we were all freaking out as we were getting a free unwanted fish pedicure. I have the most ticklish feet ever so I hated every second. The only way to stop them was to not stop moving your feet so I was doing a weird doggy paddle the entire time. It was actually quite tiring.

When we got back we both had a huge falafel wrap each. The owner of the hostel is Israeli and this was reflected in the menu. There is actually hot goss about the owner. Supposedly all his staff are scared of him and one evening we even had one of the bar guys cry on our shoulders. Ollie did play a game of pool against him and he was apparently quite nice. I think he only cares about the guests rather than his staff. He gives off this gross alpha male exterior. One of the issues here is because you’re in the middle of nowhere you have to eat all your meals here. It does add up.

Time for a reflection. Guatemala has already surpassed all my expectations. I think the country is beautiful and the rich scenery is sensational. We’ve seen cloud forests, tropical jungles, volcanoes and swamps. There’s even savannahs in some parts. And you also get these incredible colourful colonial cities, like Antigua. I love it.

Back at the hostel we chilled and played volleyball in the pool. The hostel has the best pool we’ve seen so far. Then obviously we took advantage of the happy hour (not as good as Lake Atitlan). It was buy a drink and get a free shot. So I was getting a rum & coke then putting in an extra rum shot. This was to my detriment. Three hours later Ollie and I are up on the karaoke mic singing Back to Black. Turns out the mics were off the entire time but we were so into the performance we didn’t hear everyone shouting at us.

Every time you sang a song you got a free shot. This was also to my detriment. Especially as I then ended up hogging the mic. I don’t think anyone needed to hear a rendition of Breaking Free from High School Musical. FYI, I was approached by some other girls to join in that. I couldn’t say no.

The next morning… let’s just say I was probably one of the most hungover I’ve ever been in my life. So poor Ollie had to do the cave adventure on his own. Surprisingly everyone else was also doing it, so I think that means I was the most drunk at the party…

This next section is written by Ollie who actually had an exciting day.

“After realising I wouldn’t be able to muster Olivia from the less than ideal state she was in, I decided to go on a small adventure myself, leaving her in exactly the same place she would be in when I returned. I joined a few others from the hostel and we walked the short distance to the mouth of the cave. The guide took one look at my flip flops, rolled his eyes and pointed to the croc hire booth. After some searching I found a pair of crocs that wasn’t completely dilapidated, not realising that the cave was indeed no place for a flip flop.

Our group of 12 hobbled up to the cave entrance in our ill fitting crocs and were promptly handed candles and told to enter. At first look the cave was flooded waist height and I realised this would be a bit of a surreal day. As we waded in with our crocs and candles it felt like we were about to engage in some cave cult initiation. They ushered us further into the cave where it opened up and the candle light illuminated some strange beings on the ceiling. Bats, I realised, then the next thought, Olivia would absolutely hate this.

We exchanged some slightly concerned glances as we eased ourselves further down a tunnel and the pitch black water started inching deeper. At the next opening we were greeted with a rope that sunk into the darkness. We were to swim to the far side of the cave whilst clutching the slimy rope. One by one we traversed awkwardly, trying and sometimes failing to keep our candles above water. Upon reaching the ladder, I looked up to see someone above me clambering up the slippery ladder up into the darkness. At that point I had an intrusive thought of what if he slipped but this was nudged away by the guide who beckoned me to follow. Somehow we all managed to ascend and pull ourselves on our stomachs over the rocky crag at the top, from here we could hear the sound of rushing water somewhere in the cave system.

We had only made it a little further when the only elder member of the group, a man in his fifties missed his footing into the gloom and fell hard on his shoulder. He tried to get up but fell again. Oh dear I thought, it wasn’t the most ideal place to injure oneself. In my effort to reach him I slipped and almost fell to the same fate as him. He grunted and got back to his feet, luckily he escaped any major harm, and he decided to soldier on. The guides, seemingly completely unfazed by anything laughed and gave him another candle. We pressed on for another 20 or minutes, at points having to swim through claustrophobic passages. At last we reached the source of the sound of rushing water. It was a small hole in the wall, through which you could see water streaming past. Almost as one, we giggled nervously and knew that the smiling guides wanted us to climb through the gap into what seemed like a place no sane person would go. One by one we climbed through and upon reaching the hole I heard the scream of the girl who went before me. I climbed though and found myself in an underground river. The guide was perched on a ledge ahead where the river fell down into darkness…

“Relax” the guide said as he pointed down into said darkness. “Sit here” he ordered, to which I complied, somewhat nervously. I sat in the small opening, barely wide enough to fit a person and he said “watch your head on the rock” and before I had time to think gave me a light shove and I slid down into the blackness. The water carried me down a subterranean slide for a few seconds before I found myself airborne and had barely a moment to comprehend before I hit water and was submerged. I pushed myself to the surface and coughed out the stale cave water that had been sitting for god knows how many centuries and, candle extinguished and disoriented, swam towards the light on the far side.

Not long after reaching my cave companions, all a bit miffed but in good humour, I heard a brief yelp that was quickly replaced by a prop by the next person to go down the underground waterfall. Somehow everyone, including the group elder mustered the courage to jump down, surely helped on by the thought that the other option was going back down the slippery ladder. Candles re-lit, buoyed by the small adrenaline rush we pushed on, and were surprised to realise this route had brought us back to the cave entrance, where we exited, blinking and sodden drowned rats and onto our next adventure: Tubing!

On arrival to the croc hire booth we were supplied with a familiar object, a tube (this time we didn’t have the 6 pack of beer to go with it like we did at El Rio hostel). With that, tubes in hand we began following the beautiful river that ran through Semuc Champey up-stream.

It was one of the most picturesque light blue rivers I have seen and as a group we couldn’t take our eyes off it as we waddled on in single file, watched by the locals on the opposite bank of the river. What a silly sight it would have been. After ten minutes we caught the first glimpse of the waterfall (I apologise for not taking any pictures as i had given up on taking my phone with me after the cave).

At first it seemed confusing, a huge torrent of river seemed to seep out of a cave with more water coming down from the plateau above. As we approached, I realised that this was the river that ran underneath semuc champey itself and we were below the pools looking up. Somehow the river went underground and popped out at our location, making for an incredible sight. Our guide gestured to a huge rock rising up to the waterfall. Naturally we were to jump from it.

First we had to do a small 3 metres jump into the river, then swim upstream and clamber onto this rock. I managed the first two fairly easily but as I neared the top of the rock my head began to spin. The girl ahead of me had just spent over a minute building the courage to jump but I saw her hurtling down just as I reached the edge. Looking down I once again turned to the trusty guide who informed me the water levels were very low so it might be a bit higher than the twelve metres it is supposed to be. He proceeded to throw a rock in a very particular spot.

“Here” he said “not there” pointing slightly to the right “there is rocks”.

I didn’t give myself too much time to think and I once again found myself airborne. The descent seemed, however, appeared to give me time to think as I found myself thinking “what the hell am I doing” but also had time to remember what the Finnish guy from lake Atitlan told me “cross your arms or you will get bruised like me” to which I gratefully complied and broke the water without too much fuss (later we met a dutch guy who dislocated his shoulder on this exact jump).

I surfaced and some of the others were laughing. Upon returning I learned that I had been peddling my legs madly in my descent, an amusing sight apparently.

Next we donned our tubes and started floating lazily down the river, a moment of relative calm and beauty after our surreal but exciting day. There was no beer drinking this time, we still looked ridiculous, and seeing the locals work whilst we floated down like idiots made me feel a bit of a fool. With that, the day was done. I returned to find Olivia in bed, she asked me to bring her lunch.”

Me again. Ollie was back in time to end my hunger pains and got me a falafel wrap. The remainder of the day was spent lying in a hammock and taking a few dips in the pool which temporarily relieved my headache. I was sad I couldn’t join Ollie but I’m glad he got to have an adventure. How strange, that would have been the first time we did anything individually. I was more pissed off with the fact I didn’t even use my downtime to sunbathe. I was too hungover to go into the sun.

That evening we didn’t do much except for have some dinner and chill with the others. It was the French Canadian guys birthday but there was no way I was joining them in drinking and staying up to midnight. I did a French exit at about 9:30pm and packed our bags ready for an early morning shuttle to Flores. It was crazy how quick everything was going.