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Currently, I'm putting out a series of my latest trip to Guatemala and Belize. This is part 3. If you haven't read the first two parts, you can do it by clicking here, here and here.

Lanquin | Semuc Champey

After visiting Flores and Tikal, we took a shuttle to Lanquin. I think everyone comes to Lanquin to visit Semuc Champey. A place in the middle of the subtropical jungle that consists of water plateaus with small waterfalls between them. In the cave underneath these plateaus flows a river. Lanquin is the last village on your way to Semuc and is already pretty remote. Our trip from Flores to Lanquin lasted around 10 and a half hours. The last part of the journey is on a dirt road which makes you realize how remote Lanquin is. Once you arrive in Lanquin people from the different hostels are already waiting for the new guests. We stayed in Hostal Vista Verde which just opened its doors recently. It's a nice hostel with good food and quite cheap accommodation.

View of the surroundings during the ride to Semuc

Road from Lanquin to Semuc

The village of Lanquin can hardly be called an attraction itself but it's nice to spend a morning just walking around. At any hostel, you can book a tour to Semuc and they all offer the same tour. Transport to Semuc (around 40 minutes), a walk through the K’an-Ba cave, some rope swinging in the Cahabon river, visiting the viewpoint and after all that, some swimming in the pools. The walk in the cave is in the dark (you'll get a candle) and there is a jump in it. We met multiple people who hurt themselves because of this jump, so be aware =) One guy overestimated the jump somehow and landed with his knee on a rock, never saw such a deep cut....

Semuc seen from the view point

The river that flows underneath the pools

Other side of the river

Another tour you can do is tubing. It's a pretty simple one and takes about 2 or 3 hours. They'll drop you in the river a bit upstream and give you a beer. Down the stream, there are some stops where they will give you a new beer and at the end, they'll pull you out of the river. Not a bad way to spend the afternoon right ;P

Lake Atitlan

From Lanquin we took another shuttle to Panajachel, which is 90 miles south-west of Guatemala City. Panajachel is located on the northeast shore of Lake Atitlan. Although the distance from Lanquin is not that much (287 km), it still took us around 12 hours to get there. Since we were too late to make use of the public transport boats, we spent the night in Panajachel. The next morning we took a boat to Santa Cruz la Laguna where we booked some nights in La Iguana Perdida. We booked this hostel because it's the only place (as far as I know) that has a dive shop. I wanted to do an altitude dive in the lake. Lake Atitlan is one the few freshwater lakes where you can dive without a full suit, despite its location at roughly 1.600 meters of altitude. Because it's a crater lake the water is still around 21/22 degrees Celcius.

Lake Atitlan

Volcano sunset

The altitude specialty course was a 1-day course with a theoretical part and 2 dives in the lake. It was interesting to learn how you need to adjust everything you've learned before to make it applicable on an altitude dive. As it happens, every regular course is based on sea level. Don't expect to see something interesting underwater. The dives consisted mostly of us fooling around with bottles in one of the flooded bars or taking our flippers off and jumping from balconies with rocks in our arms. A cool thing though, at certain points if you put your hand in the sandy bottom of the lake you feel really hot water streaming in the lake. Almost like a jet stream.

Some shots from diving in the lake

After the diving, we hung around for a few more days with another couple from the Netherlands. We also visited a few other villages around the lake. From Santa Cruz la Laguna you can either walk to another village or take a boat/tuk-tuk. Walking can be dangerous since robbers operate on the roads between the villages, especially if you're a small group you are easy bait. We heard a story of a Dutch couple with kids who were held at gunpoint and had to give away all their stuff. The other villages are pretty fun to explore. We stayed in Santa Cruz which has not a lot to offer. Our hostel was pretty good though. Yoga in the morning, hammocks, family dinners and a beautiful view of the lake and the volcanoes. If you cannot relax there, I'm not sure whats wrong with you =) San Pedro is a real tourist magnet. You will find many restaurants and accommodations here and a lot of opportunities to party. From San Pedro, you can also hike the San Pedro volcano which will give you a view of the lake from an altitude of 3.000 meters. San Marcos is more hippy-style. Lots of artist and yoga/meditation going on there. They also have some nice coffee bars. We really liked San Marcos. Panajachel is the biggest village and the place you will first arrive if you come to the lake. It's more crowded and it offers a lot of restaurants and bars. Calle Santander is the main shopping street of Panajachel. A bit outside Panajachel you can also visit a small National Park. Inside the park, there are various walks that will lead you to a butterfly garden, a waterfall, a place to spot monkeys and a small grassy beach at the lake. Don't expect too much, but it's a fun place to spend your afternoon since it's a pretty calm area.

Exploring towns

We had an awesome time in Lake Atitlan and stayed way longer than we had planned. Semuc Champey is beautiful but pretty remote. So if you want to go there, be sure you have enough time. In my opinion, you should not skip it since it's pretty unique and I have not seen anything like it before.

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In the next part, we will take a chicken bus to Antigua to climb the 3.976 meter heigh Acatenango volcano. Here's a little preview what you can expect!

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Cheers, Stephan

If you’re interested in any of my previous work, feel free to check it out below:

• Things to do in Guatemala. Travel tips for Guatemala and Belize part 3
• Things to do in Belize. Travel tips for Guatemala and Belize part 2
• Travel tips for Guatemala and Belize part 1
• Weekend trip to London
• Relaxing and shopping in the UK. Leamington Spa and Birmingham in a nutshell
• Old castles and Shakespeare's birthplace. The UK at its best
• My personal experience with studying abroad in the UK for a semester
• Massive snowdump in the Alpes in Europe and I went snowboarding

!steemitworldmap 15.580519 lat -89.981148 long Lanquin | Semuc Champey d3scr