Limestone and Crystal Waters: Semuc Champey

Back in Antigua once again, this time with our new friends we enjoyed touring them around and introducing them to our favourite city in Central America. Our plan was to leave the morning after we arrived, but there was confusion with our scheduled ride and we ended up staying in town for another day. Realizing that we had some free time in a city in which we had already thoroughly explored, we decided to review our financial situation at length. The impact of our dropping Canadian dollar was hitting us hard and lead us to the heavy realization that our April 1 flight home was no longer viable and early March would be our new reality. After praying together, Travis called and was thankfully able to cancel our flight without the usually mandatory $400 fee, freeing us up to fly home when our budget runs out, which is what we had wanted all along.

With a new lightness in our step we revelled in our new found freedom, said goodbye to our Copan friends and boarded the shuttle for Semuc Champey. While on the shuttle we quickly became friends with a couple from California, little did we know the lesson in generosity they would teach us as we travelled together. During our ten hour journey to the heart of Guatemala, my usual motion sickness was coupled with the agony of severe stomach pain. Eight hours in I couldn't take it anymore, the feeling of nausea was so great I had Travis ask the driver to stop. I quickly jumped out and tried to throw up to no avail. I allowed myself to cry for a few minutes before taking a deep breath and climbing back in the shuttle trying to apologize to the other passengers when our new friends offered some very comforting words and made their understanding of my situation very apparent.The last hour was better for me as we loaded into the back of a truck to complete the trip. I could stand and look around at the lush jungle, breath in the fresh moist air and allow the beauty of the land to penetrate itself within my mind, easing the pain. Exhausted from our long journey, the four of us were thrilled to enjoy delicious authentic Indian cuisine at our Israeli hostel, a welcomed meal we did not expect deep in the Guatemalan jungle. 

The next day we walked a kilometre together in the rain and mud to the reason we had endured the gruelling journey to get here, Semuc Champey. It is difficult to describe the incredible beauty of this place, the sight of clear green water gently flowing from one natural swimming pool to the next was breath taking. My first thought was that all cartoons about enchanted, romantic forests gained their inspiration from this spot on Gods beautiful earth. The pools of teal and turquoise waters come up through a bed of limestone from an underground river to create an oasis in every sense of the word. With the pools nearly to ourselves, the four of us relaxed and enjoyed the cool, refreshing water for many hours together while talking and laughing. During our conversations we began to talk about some very deep topics and as a result of our friends encouragement and insight, our future has very likely been altered from what we thought we had just figured out mere days earlier. We couldn't be more thankful to have had these conversations and we are grateful to be given a new perspective on our futures. When we weren't talking Travis was able to convince me to jump in a few times, from a couple feet, and I have to admit that I'm beginning to enjoy this form of fun. There were also little fish who would come and nibble off your dead skin and although it took a bit to get used to them, we eventually sat back and allowed them to help clean up our bug bites. Mesmerized by this piece of heaven on earth we returned the next day to bask one more time in the brilliant waters. After such an incredible experience, knowing that the trip was totally worth it and with my stomach pains disappearing our journey out of the jungle wasn't as ominous as the journey in.

(This week friends, check in daily as we catch you up completely with our travels before we return home in the very near future).