Semuc Champey

The next day we got up early and went to Semuc Champey, about 2.5 hours away. The guide book describes Semuc Champey as a “…natural limestone bridge 300m long, on top of which is a stepped series of pools of cool, flowing river water good for swimming (Lonely Planet: Central America on a Shoestring).” Based on this definition I had one image in my mind but once we got there I was blown away by something totally different. When I read ‘bridge’ I thought of a typical bridge and imagined little hot tub sized pools on top of it. It is in fact a bridge and the river does go underneath it, but in a way I never imagined.

The first thing we did when we got there was climb a very steep path to the lookout and got an incredible view from above. Robynn, Molly, Allison climbing up to the lookout
Then we climbed back down and took a swim in the pools, which were beautiful, unfortunately it was not very warm that day and we didn’t last long in the water.

This is us at the beginning where the river water goes under the bridge
And this is the end, where the river exits.

The trip was almost perfect except that we had the worst guide of my life. He insisted on talking to us the entire time about inappropriate topics, made numerous personal stops on the way there and got mad at us for wanting to use a toilet instead of going in the woods with the flowers and butterflies.