Week 7 - A week in Interzone

After Bucky left, it seemed like my trip was starting to wind down a bit. I was tired and not that interested in moving around and seeing the major sites, like Tikal, in Guatemala. I decided to go to the middle of nowhere for a few days of complete relaxation amidst the gorgeous mountains of central Guate.


Christmas, brought to you by beer

I headed for a town called Lanquin (for some reason it took me forever to stop calling it Languin), which is about an 1 1/2 hours of the most beautiful drive outside of Coban. In Lanquin, there is an "eco-lodge" called El Retiro. It is a collection of thatched roof huts set on the banks of a cold, fast mountain stream. Its got a bar/restaurant, a really cool wood-fired sauna made out of beer bottles, and a decidedly Bob Marley-centric sound track. It attracts a decidedly international set of folks who are mostly looking for a few days of rest after many days on the road. Some find it such a nice spot that they end up staying for 3 months or longer and working at the lodge for a bit of money and free booze. I can understand why.



I spent the first couple of days doing pretty much nothing. I read, played cards, drank a bit, took a sauna, etc. We'd all sit in the bar all evening listening to reggae, playing cards, talking and getting drunk. Anyone who has hung out on the Irving St. porch knows that this felt just like home.


My big exursion on the first couple of days was to the Lanquin Caves, which is a huge cave system just outside of town. It is notorious for its bat population. In fact, the tour was probably one of the more disgusting things that I have done. The whole place is covered in bat shit. So you are hiking around in the cave, slipping on and pulling yourself up on rocks covered in guano. Any clothes I wore that day should probably be burned. Inside there are rock formations and an altar that is still used by the local mayan people for religious rites. At 6 pm you head for the entrance to the cave, turn out all the lights and sit very still. Then you start hearing chirps and feeling the woosh of wings going by your head as the bats fly out for their nocturnal feeding. Then you just start taking pictures hoping to get a good shot of a bat or two flying. I must have taken about 60 just to get a couple of decent shots.



My last full day in Lanquin, I took a (slightly hungover) tour to Semuc Champey, which is a set of pools formed where the Cohoban River flows underground for a while. Where the river goes underground it is a ragin rapid, but on the surface the pools are calm and crystal clear. We hiked up to a mirador (lookout) and then swam in the pools over lunch. After lunch, it was into another cave, Maria's Caves. These caves are completely different than the ones in Lanquin. We walked through water that ranged anywhere from waist deep to 2 feet over our heads. Swimming with a candle in one hand and flip flops tied to your feet is not the easiest thing! The whole experience was very eerie. Much of the time you could only see a few feet in front of your face and then you come to a water fall that you have to climb up or one that you have to slide down. A definitely strange place. Of course this entire tour is brought to you by the country of Guatemala where the safety rules are limited, to say the least. To illustrate, I ended the day by jumping off a 60 foot tall bridge without a lifejacket. Very fun.



So, I ended the week much rested and ready to head to Mexico for the last bit of the trip. Drinking mezcal and eating wonderful food with Tere in Oaxaca.