The ride to San Pedro was pretty standard for the most part, but on the descent into San Pedro, we had a beautiful view of Lago Atitlan. It kinda reminded me of the Shuswaps in BC, where it´s a huge lake, just surrounded by huge mountains.
We ended up in quite the dump of a hotel that night, as we weren´t exactly up for looking around too much.. at least we had real matresses there. That night we headed out to look for a p`lace to eat with some guys from the states we met. We ended up booking a horseback riding trip and having the guy escort us to a little hole in the wall restaurant. The food there was not only very good but surprisingly cheap. A little under three dollars for the first meal in a while that actually filled me up.
After a hearty breakfeast of two meals each, Pat and I met up with the machete totting americains and headed off for our riding. It started off a little slow, but after a bit, we were on our way to a beach a little more then a hour away that was only reachable by horse trail. The ride was through some pretty thick jungle and we gotta see some pretty cool animals, even a snake. After stopping off at a viewpoint, whcih was spectacular, we jumped off our horses and hiked down to the beach. We met some locals here who were making a stew from the crabs and fish they caught in the lake, and one of them liked one of our firends shorts so much that he made a quite impressive attempt to buy them off of him. Our ride back proved to be an experience. Our horses got ahead of the guide, and by the time we were on an open trail, we went from a little trot to galloping. I had an absolute blast, i never knew how muhc fun riding horses could be. Pat, who was a little skeptical of the horseriding, had a great time as well... quite the experience for a first time riding a horse.
The rest of the day consisted of wandering the city and laying in our hammacks eating the oranges and peeling the limes growing in our hostels yard because it was ranning.
The next morning we rented some motorcycles and headed off to ride aroudn the lake. It was pretty early so there wasn´t much traffic to deal with and the chance of robbery was much lower, as that route has been known to be frequented by theives. The views were awesome and the motocycles made me want to buy one when i get home. They weren´t as powerful as i hoped, but im slightly glad it´s over as Im done worrying about getting into an accident or breaking something as I usually end up doing. The rest of our day consisted of a little more then ten hours of driving and me arguing with our shuttle driver who didn´t feel like driving us the whole way and wanted us to stay at the hostel he was associated with. He finally realized we were set on going, so we ended up in Lanquin/Semuc Champey that night, which is reached by a solid hour of bumpy driving on a very iffy road.
We headed out the next morning for our tour in the back of a pickup, which took a good half hour of offroading to get us to the destination. We went caving first, which was alot different then the last time i did it. The water level is much higher now, because the wet season is further along, and the caves required alot more swimming and tightspaces then last time. It still was an awesome experience, as it was pitchblack in there and we all only had a little candle for light, which made swimming a little more difficult.
We jumped off the rope swing into the river after that... where i managed a perfect backflop, which instantly gave me the feeling of a terrible red hot sunburn on my back. Oh well, it adds character right? Then we tubed down the river, which looked like something youd see in a jungle movie. Then after jumping off a decently high bridge we headed off to lunch.
Using the small hike as a workout, we turned the hour and fifteen minute hike into a fifteen minute run, with a small break for pictures. We then took advantage of the beautiful pools of semuc shampey and cooled off in those. The pools are essentially a shelve, which a small amount of the river water runs over, and the rest of the water runs under it. We got to see where the majority of the water runs under, and its was a little intimidating. Some serious rapids which then disapear into the darkness under the shelve.
Since then, weve been relaxing at our little hostel, wandering out in the town for meals, swimming in the river, which has an impresively strong current and just hanging out.
The plan is to leave tomorrow to Rio Dulce, whcih is almost on the east coast, and take our trip from there. Possibly just day trips or some sailing perhaps.
I also am starting to realize im on the last leg of my trip. My camera is as close to broken as it can get, with onyl the power and the takepicture buttons working. My footwear is down to some running shoes holding on for dear life and my clothes no longer pass the smell test.
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