Semuc Champey

I wish someone had taught me how to swim properly when I was a kid. It would have been useful here, in a cave in Semuc Champey a few days ago... I mean swimming when you use only one hand and hold a candle in the other one.. Possibly for most of you it would be easy but I found it bloody difficult so that if Pamela had not stopped me before I wanted to leave the cave, I would not have completed that humid, dark and cold underground trip. What I learnt that day was that caves are definitely not my thing. Space is my thing. Nonetheless, that day in Semuc Champey which is Rudys favourite bit of Guatemala, had only one theme: water. The Cohoban river that forms beautiful Semuc Champey, a liquid paradise with turqoise water pools where you can swim, jump and do any other possible water antics you wish. From there to the place we stayed, we floated down the river with our bums tucked into massive inner tubes. It was raining a bit, the forest was still lively and the sun was almost set so the moment was just perfect... Then I recalled when I was younger back in Poland there was one of my dads CDs , it was Kitaro, a new age music, and I loved listening to one song from that CD.. I remember I would just close my eyes and imagine I am in a small canoe going down the river in a forest somewhere far away in a different world. It was my favourite meditation excercise when I wanted to disconnect. And now, here in Guatemala, fast forward to the present moment, I am doing it!!, doing what I was always dreaming about...:) One of the best moments of my time in Guate, together with a jump off the 10 m high bridge down to Cahabon river, to finish the day on a high note.

Next episode was Pams and Rudys house, the Guatemalan capital and the creme de la creme of the colonial world - Antigua, possibly one of the most charming towns Iv ever visited.
Hasta la proxima, hugs from Panajachel.

:)