Semuc Champey and Playa El Tunco, El SalvadorDec 14, 2008
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Well, the inevitable has finally arrived. The trip has been so amazing that I finally broke down and changed my flight. I´ll now be coming home 12 days later than originally planned and will be arriving in Miami on December 28th and plan to leave for DC on either the 29th or 30th. And I can tell you now that it´s going to take some very strong will power not to change my flight once more. It´s pretty clear that if I won the lottery I would spend the next three years of my life doing exactly what I´m doing now...travelling in with a backpack, staying in hostels, seeing amazing places and meeting great new people every day.
One of the coolest places I´ve seen so far is Semuc Champey, Guatemala.
Champey is located 11km to the south of Lanquín, in a valley with steep walls, surrounded by tropical humid forest. There is a 300m long limestone bridge, on top of which there are several natural pools of different sizes, filled with crystalline mountain spring water. The pools are 3-14 ft. deep. Underneath the bridge is the Cahabón River. At the end of the bridge, the water from the pools falls rejoining the river, forming a 40ft waterfall. The color of the water changes during the year depending on the season, sun and other natural factors, making for unique picture-taking opportunities. It is a beautiful place, often called idyllic. (http://www.semucchampey.com/)
We stayed at a great hostel called El Retiro, which just about every backpacker recommended to us. It was an incredibly relaxing place with plenty of hammocks, a great bar, and by far some of the best food I´ve eaten on the trip. Every night they had an all you can eat buffet with fresh vegetables and a different theme each night. Unfortunately Dragan, now David, caught a wicked case of food poisoning at a restaurant in town and missed out on a lot of the food. It also delayed our leaving for a few days, but I wasn´t in any rush to leave anyway, so it wasn´t all that bad for me.
After David could finally stay on his feet for more than 20 minutes without passing out, we took off for Playa El Tunco, El Salvador, to meet back up with Tim and Justin.
It was a long day of travelling on Chicken Busses, but we finally made it around 5pm. We promptly grabbed a sunset beer and then found Tim and Justin at their hostel. We also had a great reunion with Team Sweden.
El Tunco is a tiny little beach village where people from all over the world come to surf. For a couple of days in a row I got up around 8, (attempted to) surf, layed in a hammock and took a nap, wandered around, took a nap in a different but equally awesome hammock, (attempted to) surf again at sunset, and then went out to dinner with friends. A couple of nights we actually cooked our own food at the kitchen in the hostel which was a nice change of pace, since I hadn´t had a home cooked meal in I don´t know how long.
I say attempted to surf because it definitely was not the prettiest thing in the world. I actually got up once or twice which was enough to keep me out there, but for the most part I ate it. These were some damn big waves, but still pretty embarrassing for someone who grew up five minutes from the beach.
After four days in El Tunco, all four of us hit the road and headed to Léon, Nicaragua, which is where I am now. Tomorrow we´ll be leaving for the Corn Islands which is where we´ll be spending Christmas.
Sorry for the lack of pictures...many of them are too big for this sight but hopefully I´ll have more up shortly. That´s it for now...more to come soon!
