We left San Marcos at 5:30am on a tourist shuttle bus, which took 12 hours to reach a small town called Lanquin. We couldn't face doing this journey on the chicken bus and I doubt it would have been possible to complete in a day if we had. The landscape became more tropical and much hotter. In Lanquin our hostel met us and we rode in the back of a pickup truck the last 10km to Semuc Champey. Semuc Champey is a series of turquoise limestone pools situated in a deep valley. The bugs here are super sized - which we'll have to get used to. We stayed in a little wooden cabin just by the park entrance so could beat all the crowds to the pools the next morning.

In the morning, we entered the park and followed the steep path up the side of the valley to the lookout point. The view itself made up for the 12 hour journey the day before. We then headed down to the pools and had a swim. You can dive into a pool from the pool above and there are loads of fish which nibble on your feet like in a spa (so I'm told). I also learnt that Katy is scared of swimming with fish - who knew. Most of the river goes under the limestone pools so at either end you have a waterfall. The place is incredibly beautiful but very touristy.

In the afternoon we both started feeling sick so Katy slept and I went tubing down the river and jumped off the bridge into the river below (both with a guide). I didn't go caving because I wasn't feeling up for it.

Simon