The next morning I awoke bright and early and ready to explore the beauty that Semuc Champay had to offer. We breakfasted light, gathered some water and headed into the mountains with Edgar, our tour guide and a hodge podge group of adventurers.
We hiked up into the hills for an hour or so and eventually came out to a lookout point that was the main attraction of the hike. It was beautiful alright, hundreds of feet above a reserve bursting with life where trees sprouted everywhere and rivers commanded the valley below. Allen, our crazy Irish friend (who was only on the hike because he heard there was a ten meter cliff to jump off of) scoffed at the view and then proceeded to tell us how you can get jaded when traveling Latin America. The first few times you see a volcano or a rainforest its amazing, but after a while, its just another mountain and just another rainforest. only the truly amazing ones start to ring out. As much as I'd hate to say it too, I somewhat felt this way after spending time in Santa. beaches just havent been the same since. nonetheless, we gave him a hard time about it and he finally admitted the view was pretty impressive.
With the sight seen, we headed down the mountain towards the valley with the flowing water. it took about have the time to descend and before we knew it, we were bathing our sweaty bodies in a refreshingly cool river. Like Allen, this was also the part of the tour I was most excited for. The water would collect in one pool and still downward into another. The only way to get down to the other was to jump and the jumps started off small. we waded our way to the end of the pool we were in and hopped the three foot ledge into the next. So on and so on through a good four or five pools. the three footer was followed by a six footer which was followed by one slightly larger and then we came to the big mamma.
Edgar gathered us in a group and said anybody who didnt want to make the jump could climb down from the side of the rock face. truth be told, I thought the climb down looked more dangerous than the jump itself. we were a group of ten or so and after hearing Edgars directions, everybody fled to the side and in a matter of moments, Allen, Anne and myself were all that stood in front of the jump.
Allen made some comment about everybody being sissies and then he stepped out to take the first plunge. Edgar brought him down a few feet to a rock that jutted out over the pool and I could see him directing where to jump, but I couldnt make out what he was saying. Allen stepped up, went to jump and quickly buckled. Like the rest of us, it had been a while since he had done anything like this. He took a step back, gathered himself and hurled his body off the ledge screaming all the way down.
I was next. Edgar motioned for me to come down and i climbed my way down to his rock. The sound of the waterfall was immense, but Edgar made sure I heard what he was saying. So certain that he detailed it to me both in spanish and english. He pointed to the left of me and said there was a rock, then pointed to the right of me and said there was a rock (under the water of course) and then he pointed straight in between the two and said, "jump there!"
I nodded in accordance and stepped forward to jump. As soon as I was about to fling myself, I caught a far too real glimpse of the height that i would be plunging from. My body wanted wanted to go but my mind slammed on the brakes and halted every bit of momentum I had worked up. Since I was already at the edge of the cliff, I looked down once more for good measure. Yup, it was a big one alright. I backed up a step or two to where Edgar was standing, told him i'd see him later and without giving my mind a second to process my actions, hurled my body from the cliff. The only problem with not thinking about this jump was that I was more concerned with getting myself off the ledge than with where I was going. In that grave error, I flung myself directly to the right of where I was supposed to jump. Anne stepped down tot he ledge after I jumped and Edgar looked at her with a big goofy smile and told her, "Scott jumped wrong."
There I fell, a good few seconds of hangtime as adrenaline surged through my body. As I neared the water I straightened myself out and entered in pencil position. As soon as I hit the water, my momentum slowed and I relaxed and let myself sink deeper. About a second later, I slammed into something very solid with my right shoulder. It really didnt hurt, but it was the last thing I was expecting and it certainly scared me. I turned around and opened my eyes to see the rock.
Still on rush from the jump, I surfaced and swam over to the log where everybody was waiting for Anne. She, just like Allen and I buckled for a minute but then flung herself over the ledge and into the water. She also hit the rock, but like my encounter, it was nothing serious.
At this point, we gathered the group and headed back up the rock face. The only way back was to wade up the streams. When Allen got to the top of the cliff, he decided to go for one more jump before going back to the hostel. The rest of us began our trek home. he caught up to me a few minutes later with an Edgar-like smile on his face and told me on that jump he "also got some rock action."
We made it back to the hostel a little while later and gathered to go on part two of the tour, the caves. They brought us about half a mile in the other direction to a dumpy little building where they tied our sandals to our feet with ribbon and gave us each a white candle. Our tour guide, a 16 year old Guatemalan boy lit our candles and led us into the abyss. For the next half hour or so we swam through flowing pools of water, climbed rope ladders and explored what was really an impressive cave. The group was fairly large so the tour was made to be mild. It would have been great to really get deep inside the caves, but what we did was still a beautiful experience.
That night, tired out from the days adventures, we sat down to a nice dinner at the hostel and some Guatemalan guys who had been doing some work for the hostel began buying Anne and I round after round. We eventually got our second wave and it turned into a party... I was even pressured into doing the worm (which I have now done on multiple continents).
The whole time, my mind couldnt help but wander through the past month of my life. It had gone from living in paradise on the beaches of Santa directly to penniless and having somebody pay my way, back to the glorious travel life and back again to desperately broke and hungry without an end in sight and here we were tonight, drunk, full and in an astoundingly beautiful mountain reserve. The world works in funny ways, but to this day, I wouldnt trade those highs and lows for anything.
The evening expired and before we knew it we were in bed. The next morning, Anne and I were slated to leave Semuc Champay and head back to Guatemala City. It was only a few days before she would be back on a plane to the homeland and I would be starting the next chapter of travels.
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