Today: Semuc Champey - a beautiful excursion. First we go tubing down the river for some fifteen minutes, then there is the opportunity to jump off the steel bridge. I don't do it and catch myself off guard explaining why I couldn't have jumped. It's only because I wear glasses so it has nothing to do with fear. I'm not afraid of heights - well, I AM and I don't get a kick out of my fear. For me, fear is too serious a business to play around with.
We climb the mirador and enoy the magnificent view of Semuc Champey. We see the seven cascading terraces some hundred meter below, tiny people are bathing in the turquoise basins. Semuc Champey means "a river going underground" in the local language. The river flows (or rather: bursts violently) underneath the 300-meter limestone platform (G, I hear you) with seven natural swimming pools on top of it. Our guide proudly announces the "octava maravillosa del mundo". Only in July the pools disappear because the heavy rainfall makes the river take back the limestone plateau.
We walk down and take a swim in the pools. It's like paradise and everything. We climb down a rope to enter a cave too. That's really nice. We see some bats and the river burst out of its tunnel as violently as it got in upstream. How fascinating is nature.
Showing posts with label Semuc Champey. Show all posts.
June 3. Alter egos.
I leave Antigua early with a shuttle bus directly to Semuc Champey. It's a very long ride. Dirt roads that seem endless but are only ten kilometers long from Coban to Lanquin and from Lanquin to Semuc Champey. It's still light when we arrive and check in the ecohostel "El Portal" where they offer dorm rooms in thatched cabins. I find myself in yet another little paradise, have dinner and spend a relaxing evening in the hammock. The toads are enormous here.
Mentioning a short story I'm working on in Dutch:
Two friends see each other again after twelve years. They went to college together and got their degree in the same year. One of them is working for a medium-sized company trying to make ends meet, the other is traveling around the world with no company but his backpack and many lose ends. They are not alone. Their alter egos make themselves comfortable at the table right next to them and they look at each other grimly. The two friends tell about their lives, each trying to impress the other. The atmosphere is awkward. Their alter egos say the words they dare only to think. It's a sad afternoon. This story is about the justification of our way of life. It wants you to become aware of the struggle between the alter egos.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
