It´s not good news when...

It´s not good news when you are ever helping push a small bus, really anywhere. But that is the situation I found myself in on the way from Antigua to Semuc Champey. It´s an 8-hour trip, and about halfway through, everything seemed great. Outside the city of Coban, we picked up a random man on the side of the road, which is actually quite regular in Guatemala. Turns out, however, that this man was a mechanic. Before long we were in a parking lot in the city, and the driver and this man were taking apart the engine. Maria, a traveler named Mats from Denmark, and I were told to go get dinner during the delay. We thought hope was all but lost for arriving in Semuc Champey that night, which was still several hours away. We ate at Pollo Campero, which is a Guatemalan version of KFC or Chik-fil-a, and when we returned, Mats and I and were instructed to help push the bus to get it going again. We laughed and helped out to get it going. They only drive a few minutes before we stopped to change mini-buses for the rest of the trip, and we continued on our way.

We did not arrive in the city of Lanquin until around 11 p.m., where we were met by a pick-up to take us to Semuc Champey. It is truly a tiny village in the middle of the jungle, and the dirt roads for this last 30-minute stretch are so mountainous and narrow that only pick-ups can traverse them. When we arrived at our hostal, we found out our room was the second story of a tiki hut that could only be reached by a bamboo ladder, and it had no door. It was quite an experience to sleep there for the night, but I was so tired that I slept wonderfully. In the morning, we planned to walk to the waterfalls and natural pools that attracts many travelers every year in spite of its less than easy to arrive at location.