A wet time in Semuc...

Monday 9th November 2015

03:30 and it's time to get up, VAMOS, VAMOS.
There wasn't a lot to today really, our shuttle arrived just after 04:15 and the whole day was just spent traveling. Firstly San Pedro La Laguna to Antigua, where we had almost an hour to wait for our connection, and then it was all the way to Lanquin. We had a quick toilet stop, one lunch stop and one photo taking of hills stop. Hours and hours on end of traveling.
Once in Lanquin we then jumped onto a pick-up which took us to our hostel – El Muro. About fifteen hours of traveling in total. We are shattered. We were welcomed to our hostel with shots at the bar, I didn't have mine but Paul did. We sat and enjoyed dinner and had a few beers. It's a really cool place here, I really like it, it's situated literally in a rain forest, and it has pretty hammocks and one massive dream catcher. It generally has a great atmosphere and good vibes.
We have a tour to go on tomorrow, a later start. Amazing. We went to bed shortly after, but I couldn't sleep for a while...

Tuesday 10th November 2015

OH MY GOD...the rain was horrendous this morning. But, what can we do, we've still gotta do what we want to do or it wont get done. We had breakfast at 07:00 overlooking the views of the rainforest. Moody skies.
Off we went on a pick-up truck with a few others to do our tour of Semuc Champey, a place full of beautiful natural pools. Nothing could have prepared me for what was about to happen though....the water caves, in deep, deep water. Ahhh.
Of course I was the only one with a life jacket. Our candles were lit so we could see and then off we went inside the deep, dark caves. Spooky.
I really didn't like it at first, but everyone was very helpful and I got used to it in the end and actually had a lot of fun. There were ropes to hold onto and ladders to climb and a slide which was great until I went underwater. The part I really had to push myself to do though was the tunnel drop. The drop itself wasn't so bad, however, I went right under, swallowed a load of water and I couldn't see. Hanging on to Paul for my life, ha.
It wasn't much longer until we were out of the caves, then it was time for the rope swing. Nope, noway, it was far too high. I sat aside and watched Paul and the others. I wish I managed to get it on camera, he made it look so easy, although he did hurt his manly-hood on the crash landing into the water.

After the rope swing came the tubing. I'm not sure why I couldn't bring myself to do this. I sat out of this activity like a silly little chicken. They were gone for about half an hour. After, the part that I was really looking forward to, the hike to the top, we couldn't do as there were bandits at the top and it wouldn't have been safe for us. Instead we took a break for lunch where it carried on pouring with rain. After lunch we were given one hour and a half free time to enjoy the natural pools. I played bag watcher as it was a little deep for me. It was a shame the weather was so bad as we didn't get to take as many photos as we would have liked.
It was fun riding on the back of a pick-up truck on the way back to the hostel.
We didn't get up to much this evening, we freshened ourselves up and went for dinner again with a few beers. It was good to chill out. We have decided that we will visit Honduras after all, well, just a small island off it called Utila, it's meant to be a beautiful place and a lot safer. We are going to start our journey tomorrow with a stop off in Livingston along the way. Another early night, for another early morning.
Honduras...we are coming for you!

Wednesday 11th November 2015

It was a rainy day once again and I’ve got a dodgy tummy, not the greatest thing to have before a long journey. Thank god for Imodium.
I managed a tiny bit of breakfast before our transfer arrived at 09:00. It was about a four hour journey to the river with a couple of stops for toilets and snacks. Once we arrived we had to get a lancha boat over to Livingston. The weather had cleared up nicely and it was a lovely scenic boat trip with a few stops for photo opportunities.
We docked in Livingston and found somewhere to stay about a ten minute walk away. Hotel Iguana, it looked decent with cute little huts and tree houses to sleep in. We stayed in a hut to get a private room and bathroom.
The storm started again, and Livingston was in darkness, all the electrics went out everywhere. We had a short welcome talk and then we were feeling pretty hungry and headed out for dinner in the dark. Some places had generators and were able to get some light but of course the place we liked the look of didn't have one. We were sat in complete darkness with just a candle between us, it was quite nice actually. The only thing we were able to have off the menu was pizza. We ordered a large and managed it all but two slices which will be saved for breakfast tomorrow. We headed back to our place, purchased our ferry and shuttle for Honduras and chilled out for the night. Turns out this is a really lively resort, it was very loud with music, drunk people and drinking games. Once again Paul managed to fall straight to sleep and I struggled. They were playing some decent tunes to be fair, it made me want to party too. I just lay there listening for a while. All the insects in the room didn’t help either, a massive cockroach, Lizzie the lizard and ten million mosquitoes. I got right under the covers and eventually fell to sleep.