After visiting the Tikal area we drove to Coban, a city in the mountains in the middle of Guatemala. It was surprisingly cold (14 at night).. and beautiful, it could have been Switzerland or Austria! We arrived at night in a beautiful place with huts in the middle of the nature:
At night (PS, gotta give a shot to the amazing Canon S120 pocketcamera!)
The next day we realized that we were really in the middle of nature:
On the first day, we visited the caves of Rey Marco. We were told that there was a little bit of water in the caves due to the rain from the previous days (yes, heavy rain in the dry season). We were nicely surprised by a survival tour in the caves, in which we had to walk through water which reached our hips, crawl, climb and crossing a under-cave river by only holding a rope while there was a strong current moving towards a black hole. All of that in super dark caves with a simple light on top of our helmet :)
DARK!!
Outside the cave.. glad we made it out :)
On the second day in Coban we went to one of the highlights of Guatemala: National monument Semuc Champey. But before we got there, we had to take a 2 hour busride, after which we got dropped on the back of a pickup truck which drove for another 45 minutes through extremely bumpy roads. Again, we were sitting on the back of a pickup truck (without a proper seat of course). We have been in more comfy situations.. but for sure it was worth it!!
Semuc is a collection of natural, beautiful turquoise colored pools in between two mountains. We first walked up to a viewing point (not an easy climb), had a quick sandwich and then checked out the pools and waterfalls, in which you can also swim and jump from pool to pool. We noticed again that safety is not really an issue in Guatemala: the tourguide led us jump from trees and rocks, dive in small caves, slide down on stones and check a 10 meter waterfall holding a rope. But we were safe, and enjoyed it to the max!!
View from the mountain of the different pools
Having fun at Semuc
From the back of the pickup truck!
On the way there we stopped at this viewing point. Guatemala is amazing !!!!
