Get cooler

So, you really just never know what is waiting one 6 (and by 6 they mean 8) hour bus ride from Antigua.  Maura and I had a 3 day weekend ahead and wanted to get out of town, so we did the equivelant of pressing the tip of your finger onto a spinning the globe and seeing where we landed...the globe was a local travel brochure.  So Friday afternoon we settled on Semuc Champey and on Saturday morning, hit the road!  When we arrived around 5 o'clock that afternoon, we began to question if this was going to be worth a full day of travel to turn around and do the same thing the day after tomorrow.

But here is what happened the following day.  The theme became "get cooler".  At our first stop, oh yeah.. a CAVE... we were handed a little rope to tie our flip flops to our feet and a candle.  Yes, a candle.  As we approached the entrance, James, a guy from Canada, says "This is one of the coolest things I have ever done in my life."   We're not even in yet and this is awesome. 

glad i didn't actually see this happening

And we're in!  Up to our waists in water.  We cannot see.  Op! and now we are doggy paddling with one arm and desperately trying to keep our little flames above water.  It was too cold to be scared.  And too cool.  "It just got cooler!" someone would say.  And then we come to a small waterfall rushing down some stalagmites.  We must scale this waterfall.  Get cooler.  Okay.  Next is a dark little pool with a stalagmite next to it juuuust high enough to use as a cliff to jump IN-TO the little mysterious hole (in the cave).  Up we go.  Aaaaand we just got cooler. 

As we exited the caves we thought, man... we haven't even gotten to the main attraction, Semuc Champey, and we can't imagine it getting better.  Then we floated down the river for a bit....

and plunged into the river after swinging from a giant rope swing.  (Get cooler)

Now we just have to cross this beautiful old bridge and hike to Semuc.

I believe the caption that goes with with picture is "If all of your friends were jumping off of a bridge, does that mean that you would do it?"  No, moms out there everywhere, in this case, it did not.
Eye on the prize, eye on the prize. 

Semuc Champey!! HOW is this possibly?! you might ask. The beautiful turquoise pools tucked between the mountains are actually a 300 meter limestone bridge that form a cave below through which a river passes. (You can NOT even get near the entrance to this cave.) In the Mayan Q'eqchi language Semuc Champey means "where the water hides under the land".
(Before we move on, does anyone know how I can get a job with the travel channel?)

Here you can swim, relax, slide and jump from pool to pool, be one with God/nature.



when i use the word 'awesome'  i literally mean "inspiring awe"



The 'coolest' thing about the entire day, weekend really, was the group with which I shared the experience.  Maura (MN), Nicole (CA), and I were the only ones from the United States.  (By the way, when people ask me where I'm from, I just say Texas, assuming that everyone knows where that is, and most do...though some try and correct me:  Oh, you're from the states.  Yeah, Texas. [and you better know where that is!] ha. just kidding..kind of.)  From there we have James, from Candada, John from Great Britain, and Tal, Sharen, and Yoar from Israel, who just finished their mandatory 3 years in the service.  Then there is a French couple that lives in Nicaragua, a guy from Japan, sisters from Israel, a girl from Australia, a British rugby team (I can't make this up), a couple of friends from Holland, who picked up another Canadian travel buddy along the way, and a group of Sveeds.

Caves, candles, cliff jumping, yes.  It was unforgetable.  But even more unforgetable was playing Scrabble before dinner with what were once strangers, sharing meals, building a campfire at midnight and guitar jamming as "Billy Jean" morphs into the 'scorpian song' (there was a sighting), and "overserved" rugby players request "Tiny Dancer" and take a tumble into the riverbed below.
This is community.  Get cooler.