Guatemala Part 7 — Semuc Champey

This is what all the driving was for.

Started the day at the K’an Ba cave, which you explore by candlelight. Actual candles. They hand you a lit taper at the entrance and you wade, swim, and climb through an underground river holding it above the water. Enzo got the headlamp because parts of the cave are deep enough that you need both hands free for the ropes and ladders in the dark, and I wanted him to have them. Somewhere in there is a hole you squeeze into and drop straight down into the river below. The headlamp did not survive the drop. It lives in the cave now. Small price. At some point we all ended up with charcoal handprints on our chests and war paint on our faces, so the family portrait from inside looks like a cult initiation. Epic doesn’t cover it.

Back in daylight: tubing on the river, then a rope swing, then a small cliff jump into a waterfall. The swing claimed my Apple Watch — ripped off my wrist the second I hit the water. River was brown and moving too fast to even pretend to look for it. The cave gets a headlamp, the river gets a watch. Everybody pays the toll.

Then the main event. Semuc Champey. Here’s the part I didn’t understand until I was standing on it: those turquoise pools are a natural limestone bridge sitting ON TOP of the river. The Cahabón goes underground, roaring beneath your feet, while spring-fed pools stack up above it like an infinity pool built by geology. Xander and I climbed the mountain to the mirador for the bird’s eye view and it’s one of those views that doesn’t look real in person either. Axel and Enzo held down the pools until we got back, then we all swam until we ran out of daylight. Could’ve stayed days. $92 covered the whole thing — cave, tubing, park, guide, tip.

The sun set on us. Nobody wanted to leave.

#unpavedparenting