Semuc Champey

My last couple weeks have been really indescribable.  This place is part of the indescribable.  I took this photo from the viewing deck after a fairly intense hike up a mountain.  Prior to that, I was swimming through a nearby cave by candlelight.  Let me start a bit closer to the beginning:

After a six-hour drive to Lanquin, I was stuffed into a vehicle about the size of a jeep with about twelve other people.  We made the quick trip to Zephyr Lodge, where we stayed three nights.  The Zephyr Lodge is really cool.  It is literally in the jungle.  I slept in a thatched roof hut and took in some fantastic views. (Sadly, I only have so many photos uploaded to photobucket, so the photos of the fantastic views will have to come another time.)  The next morning, I headed to Semuc Champey with my group.

First, we went into the cave.  We were each handed a candle at the entrance.  Mind you, we were really never not in water the entire time in the cave. Anyway, we start swimming and making our way through the cave. I'm having such a hard time describing the awesome of this cave.  There was a rope we had to climb up to get to the next level of the cave.  The rope was behind a waterfall.  :D  I jumped off the wall of the cave into the pool below.  It was fantastic.

After exiting the cave, we went to the rope swing.  I have a thing against rope swings.  I always hurt myself jumping, so I skipped this one.  Lots of people tried it and some ended up with massive bruises from landing badly. I have photos of the swing I'll post another time.

Next we went to (literally) jump off the bridge.  The jumps keep getting higher and higher!  That jump was about 12 meters.

Then we went to the viewing deck where I took that photo above.  You would think this is the grande finale, but it wasn't.  We spent the next three hours of the day swimming, sliding, and jumping from pool to pool.  See those waterfalls?  I slide down them.

Semuc Champey exceeded my expectations by about ten billion lightyears. I highly recommend checking it out if you are ever in Guatemala.  Lanquin is about a six hour drive from Flores, Guatemala City (airport), and Antigua. I normally am not a fan of tours and I really didn't want to do the tour through the lodge, but I'm glad I did.  I don't think Semuc Champey would have been the same experience on my own.  It was pricey for Guatemala standards at 200Q including lunch ($40), but the expense was worth the lifetime of memories.

It's almost time for me to board my bus to Nicaragua.  Adios!!

The one in which I review things

I bought a Kindle Fire HD last week.  I'm not 100% sure I love it yet.

Pros:  It's pretty lightweight.  It has 16GB of memory (half as much as my iPhone ::coughcough::).   It fits in my hands fairly well, though I notice the edges are pretty sharp when I hold the Kindle certain ways.  The screen is very vibrant.  I love that the samples of the books are several chapters!  LOVE!♥  I ordered a bluetooth keyboard/case combo for blogging purposes while I'm away.  I'm hopeful some of you readers will follow along.  The pictures I post during the trip will have to be crappy iPhone pictures because I will end up having to go through so many channels to load the picture to the image host, grab the link, make a blog post, add the image. . . Well, I just went off on a tangent. 

Cons:  The edges are pretty sharp.  I haven't figured out a way to download pdfs directly to the Kindle from the internet.  From google searching, it seems the only way to do this is by transferring the file from a computer to the kindle via USB.  The Prime subscription starts as soon as you register your kindle.  I don't have a reliable wifi connection and I purposely didn't register for Prime because I wasn't going to be able to take advantage of the trial.  I wanted to wait until next year (possibly late spring) to activate the Prime free trial before dropping $79 a year on it.  That's a big con in my book.  The Amazon person I chatted with was nice enough about it and she said she passed my comments on to the marketing team to see if there was a way to delay the Prime subscription for people in the future.  I can get a new free trial of Prime after 12 months.  Lame, right?

Going right along with the Kindle review, I purchased and started reading through the Lonely Planet guide for Central America.  There are references all throughout the book about things and then it says "click here" (to go to that page describing the thing in more detail) and doesn't take you to the right page!  What gives Kindle book?  I don't know if this is a Kindle issue or a lonely planet issue, but it makes me want to Hulk smash things.  Here's an example:

"On the Pacific coast, there is good snorkeling in the Golfo de Chiriqui 'click here' (takes you to the page before Golfo de Chiriqui is mentioned) and in the Archipielago de las Perlas 'click here.'"(takes you to two pages before the Archipielago de las Perlas is mentioned)

How annoying is that?  There are times it's been off as many as five pages.  (Rich country problem, I know.  "Aaahhh!  My brand new Kindle Fire doesn't take me to the right page electronically!")  I will update more about the Lonely Planet book after my trip when I can see how accurate the information really is.

My last review of the day is of the new Vibram FiveFingers KSO Trek shoes I bought.  They are pretty goofy looking considering my footwear of choice is flip flops.  The shoes were really comfortable the first time I put them on.  I walked the perimeter of the yard--don't judge, it's a half mile!--and walked down to the mailbox and back.  The next time I wore them, my pinky toes were not having it at all.  I persevered and wore them for six hours.  At no point was I in pain, it was just uncomfortable.  I'm really glad I wore these shoes to the gym last night.  I guess I have to change the way I step off in Zumba, because I ended up with some sore spots under my big toes--almost like I'm going to get a blister.  I'm not noticing the typical problems with sore calves and arches just yet, but I plan to wear these shoes every day to get used to them and break them in before the trip.  I don't want to have to pack giant sneakers in my backpack, but if the Vibrams just aren't going to work, I'm not going to sacrifice my foot comfort to save weight and space.

Since I'm not going to be able to take advantage of my Prime free trial, comment or email me at ellelittleblogATgmailDOTcom letting me know if you have Prime and why you love it (or hate it).  Are there any Vibram wearers out there?  Is my big toe and pinky toe weirdness normal?  Will it go away?  Ebooks.  Tell me all about your favorite books.  I'll try to download a few before I head out.  I'm going to be spending a lot of time on chicken buses in December.  Speaking of ebooks, pretty much all the classics are free on Amazon.  Grimm's Fairy Tales, Jane Eyre, and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to name just a few.  Go.  Download.  Profit.

Have an amazing day!