Current mood:	tired
Entry tags:	life, travel

Semuc Champey
Since we have no classes on weekends, a bunch of us from the Spanish school decided to go on an excursion to Semuc Champey after Heidi convinced us it would be awesome. The 8 hour van ride was surprisingly pleasant for all but the last half hour, which I spent sprawled out on my back willing myself not to be carsick as we bounced along the bumpy terrain. During the ride, Meridith, Joe and I practiced our Spanish verbs and adjectives using a set of flash-cards my instructor had made for me in the morning. While I had a great time, neither of them wanted to repeat the activity again, ever.

Because the trip takes so long, we stayed at a picturesque little inn that night and then had amazing panqueques with fruit for brekki at the nearby village. Heidi revealed to us that she'd intentionally given herself diarrhea by drinking unfiltered local water so that she could participate in a 3-day clinical study of some antibiotics and make $250. Apparently she's supposed to check in with them daily, which looked to prove problematic if she couldn't find a place with Internet access near the inn.

We rode the 9 km to Semuc Shampey in the back of two pickup trucks, which was very exciting, although I felt bad for the people whom we passed by because the truck's exhaust was absolutely disgusting. It hung in the air as a black cloud for several seconds before dissipating. Apparently emissions standards aren't in place here yet. I guess those roads have very little traffic and the landscape is a vast expanse of greenery so the pollution isn't a problem for now. The dirt roads were mostly single-lane and occasionally sported concrete tracks for each tyre. The paved roads were pretty decent but sometimes had these quadruple speed bumps that I've never seen anywhere else. They also tend to have stray dogs lying on them. I can't quite decide whether the dogs are suicidal or just foolishly hostile.

Our weekend escapades began with a hike up a mountain, during which I found some green berries that I'd never seen before. I wasn't foolish enough to eat any but I did bring a couple back as souvineurs. After the hike we played around in a series of beautiful limpid pools where little fish nibbled on our toes. We also climbed down and back up a waterfall on a rope!

I had to sit out a swim through some caves because I'm not a sufficiently good swimmer to make my way across 40 metres of water but I was kept company by this British girl (Jessica) who had to skip it due to claustrophobia. She had more piercings than anybody else I've ever met. Apparently she got her first one at 12 and kept adding more, currently clocking in at over 40. Her earlobes have enormous holes filled with discs like the Zulu do and she has a series of implants forming an arch just below her collarbones. Sadly, she lost one of the ear-discs, which had been hand-made for her by a friend, when she jumped into the water from a giant swing on which we were playing :-(

After the others returned from the caves, we floated down the river on tubes and then returned to the inn for dinner. I was delighted to discover that they offered horchata as a beverage because I'd been wanting to drink some all week. Although we needed to be up early the next morning, Peter and I accompanied Heidi to the nearby village in search of Internet access so she could check in for her clinical study. We weren't able to find any but we did stumble upon a beauty contest being held at the town hall and ran into our tour guides there. Peter successfully convinced them that he was Heidi's father!

In the morning we stopped by an enormous cavern, inside which Mayan rituals were being held. Until today I hadn't known that the Mayans are still around! We slowly made our way down the steep path cut into the side of the cavern until we were at the bottom and then, once our eyes had adjusted to the dark, we explored the cavern. There were several Mayans engaged in various stages of a ritual and many candles peppered the darkness as we clambered around on rocks slippery with black mud. It was, unfortunately, too dark for me to get any good photographs.