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Adventures in Guatemala

Made at Christian in Guatemala City, August 31st 2004
At the end of our time in Guatemala it has been once again very beautiful, we had adventures one by one. We experienced an amazing beautiful and exciting nature, which made it hard to leave Central America.

"When we are in South America, you will learn to ride a horse!" I promised Markus. And already in San Pedro La Laguna at the Lake Atitlan we had the chance, when Barbara (see "Who we met") proposed a ride. "I'm not shure, if I actually want to do that!" Markus protested but immediately we started. And he proved to be a natural and got along with his horse Lolita. With Domingo, the owner of the horses, and Barbara on her horse Tortuga we rode twice through the beautiful hilly landscape at the Lake Atitlan. (ma)


With busses, microbusses and pickups, whose drivers displayed an adventurous style of driving, we made a trip to the mountains of the Alta Verapaz to Lanquín (north of Cobán). The nearby Semuc Champey is since the descovery of a new cave THE insiders' tip for travellers. When we arrived at the idyllic situated hostel "El Retiro" I felt like in the base camp of Mount Everest. Enthusiastic I soaked up the international atmosphere of all the young travellers. (ma)
Here the website of El Retiro: www.elretirolodge.com


At "El Retiro" you are already close to Río Lanquín with its green-turquoiseblue water. During a tubing-trip we discovered this beatiful bay. (ma)


Only nonsens in our mind and lots of fun we had on our chaos trip with Jan, Geli and Martin from Germany. (ma)


The trip got more and more adventurous when we discovered a hidden cave. "A skeleton, we found a skeleton!" Markus suddenly called. Where, where? In this cave we saw bats bigger than ever before. (ma/mi)


This is the big cave of Lanquín, in which you can find lots of amazing stalactites and stalagmites. A complex illumination creates here a fantastic dream world. The sightseeing is easy, you only have to watch your step, because it is very slippery. (ma)


In the traveller-info-center "El Retiro" we also got the advice to a hidden view point in Semuc Champey. Just the steep path there was beautiful. (ma)


And then the view! There was nobody, who could deny himself a WOW! and everybody started immediately to take hundrets of pictures. This picture only shows a little part of the amazing view into the big valley with the limestone terraces full of turquoiseblue shining water. (ma)


And the best of all: In these idyllic pools you can swim. We enjoyed it so much that we came three times. (ma)


"In fact I'm not a big swimmer" Markus guessed and then he didn't want to leave. Of course I had to take pictures of his heroic Tarzan-jumps. (ma)

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But the absolute blowoff of the trip was the cave "Las Marias", which was discovered just half a year ago. You only can enter the cave swimming and they don't have electricity, so that you'll get candles.
f.l.t.r: Matteo, our guide, Markus, Jochen, Roland. (mi)


Deeper and deeper we went into the cave, passing bats, which hang over our heads. And also the water got deeper, until we finally had to swim. Under water we often had to feel around for the sharp rocks, which made the going tough. (mi)


"Will the candles last long enough?" I asked myself, but suddenly Matteo conjured up new ones from different hiding places. And then the first rock climbing begun. (mi)


Some spots are so narrow, that you only can crawl. Not seldom the climbing took all our attention, so that we couldn't notice the beauty of the cave. (mi)


Matteo guided us up and down deeper and deeper into the miles long cave along the underground river. (ma)


The greatest challenge was the climb of this water fall. Cause of the rain of the last days it swelled to big river fall. Markus dared at first to climb. "Thats nothing for women!" Matteo said. That was a strong incentive for me. When I was in the middle of the fall, the water drubed into my face, I couldn't see anything and also couldn't breathe, I felt a little queasy. But in the next minute I was on top and Markus took me happy in his arms. (mi)



Epilogue:
By the way we did the spectacular cave trip twice. After the first time we lost our 128MB-memory card, on wich incredible cave pictures have been. "No way, I don't like to go back to the capital now!" I told Markus. "Lets do the trip a second time!" And this second time, where we took these pictures, was by the way as terrific and exciting as the first. This cave adventure we can strongly recomment!!!
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