Semuc Champey: Cascading Pools

Hard to reach, but incredibly rewarding when you get there, Semuc Champey is a magical place.  It is a 300 meter stretch of a river where a natural limestone bridge consisting of numerous pools has been formed.  Most of the water flows below this bridge, but a decent bit of it fills the pools and offers an amazing place for swimming and chilling.  It was very reminiscent of Plitvice Lake National Park in Croatia, just on a smaller scale and more enjoyable since you could take a dunk in these fantastic pools.

It took us nearly 16 hours to reach Semuc Champey from Lago de Atitlan.  We began wondering whether it was actually worth all this effort, but on the following day after having hiked up to the viewpoint, we were quite certain of having made the right decision in taking this detour.  Nothing describes the pools better then the photos and even those don’t really do them justice.

We did the steep hike to the viewpoint first and were rewarded later on with a refreshing dunk in the turquoise waters.  The water was fantastic.  The only downside was all the little fish that kept on nibbling at us.  I remember once after highschool heading off on a camping trip and being asked by a friend whether swimming in the lake would be fine or if the fish would swim into us.  My response back then was that the fish were more afraid of us than we of them and that they definitely would not swim into us.  This answer would not have been true in Semuc.  Sitting in the water I had about 20 little fish nibbling on my hand, another 10 or 20 at my butt, thighs and legs.  It is insanely ticklish to have these little buggers going at your toes or heal.

Overall it proved to be a relaxing yet simultaneously tiring day in the middle of nowhere.