Updated 7/21/2006
It sure was difficult to leave El Remate/Tikal, but after 3 days of
hiking and meeting new people it was time to move on. Next stop;
Lanquin/Semuc Champey. Lanquin is located near the city of Coban in
Central Guatemala at 1320 meters elevation. We passed through quickly,
only stopping for lunch. Lanquin is a small village nestled between
dramatic mountains. Most travelers use Lanquin as a base camp to visit
Semuc Champey and The Grutas (caves) of Lanquin. The mountains
here are very steep and the valleys narrow. In all our travels this
ranks as one of the most beautiful spots we've visited.Due to the number of photos, we'll be updating the website more frequently so that we can share many of them with you. This update covers approximately the fourth week of our 44 day trip. If you missed an update, you can still view it in the archives below.
Enjoy the new photos!
Left: Our reward after a 1 hour hike up a steep, muddy trail: A view of Semuc Champey, raging after 2 days of steady rain.
Background Photo: Peace sign on cliff on the Rio Dulce between Finca Tatin and Livingston.
The Journey From El Ramate To Lanquin, Guatemala
The
journey to Lanquin begins. Comparing travel plans during dinner with a
group, all staying at Sak Luk, we found that 7 of us were all heading
for Lanquin. Since there is power in numbers, we asked our host at Sak
Luk if he knew of someone with a minivan that we could charter for a
reasonable fee. He said he did, so the next morning we all piled into
his friend's minivan for the 8 hour ride to Lanquin. At left you see our
driver wondering what the heck he got himself into: "Oh no! Not one
more pack!"So, packs loaded, 7 passengers plus 3 crew and we're off. It takes a lot of crew to operate a minivan.
Below:
We are loaded up onto a ferry to cross a river. Finally getting
an opportunity to stretch our legs. Things were very busy around the
ferry. There were lunch vendors, snack vendors, jewelry vendors, well,
you could buy almost anything. The ferry was operated by 2 small outboard engines attached to the starboard side (right) of the ferry. Although it appeared a bit crude it worked well and we safely made it to the other side.
Right; The gang and crew waiting for the ride across the river. The group consisted of an Israeli, 2 Germans, 2 Swedes, 3 Guatemalans, and of course 2 Americans.
Below Left: It was market day the day we drove through this village. There were people everywhere buying anything and everything imaginable. It appeared that everyone was having fun, enjoying a 'day on the town'.
