Last of the Semuc Champey Pics

Czech-n-Mate dropped by on Saturday to say they were all set to leave for Roatan, now. We are still planning to head there, too. However, Randall decided to get some dental work done at a dentist in Morales. He has been there twice and has his last appointment on Wednesday. If all goes well, we will start looking for a good weather window for leaving after Wednesday. We are excited to get the boat moving again.

I have a few pics left from last weekend’s trip. I thought I would get Lily to write up captions for these last few pics but Will showed up just now to invite her to hotdogs and a movie on Yollata and our eggs and eggplant meal plan just didn’t stand a chance.

Antique Suspension Bridge between Semuc Champey Parque and the Water Cave.

There were several of these gaps in the bridge. They weren’t a concern on the walk but, yes, we did take the truck over the bridge, too. Twice.

I sometimes feel I go on a little much about the challenges of Guatemalan travel. But I can’t help it. In the states, you just don’t very often have to wait on the backhoe to take a break from his job of scraping away the boulders above the one-lane road so it can be widened. We waited about an hour on the way home from Semuc Champey for this backhoe to take a break.

Backhoe on road improvement project.

Also, I mentioned that I didn’t learn any Spanish during the park tour. I did really enjoy watching Lily play BananaGrams with her Guatemalan friends, Estela and Oscar. Their family gives the Chocolate tours and Lily meet them during our tour. They came over to El Retiro every evening to hang out and make polite inquiries to see if anyone wanted to buy chocolate. They played many games of ping-pong with Lily. After a few games of ping-pong, they would head to a table and play BananaGrams. Oscar and Estela would spell out words in Spanish and Lily would spell in English. Estela taught me the Spanish words for earrings, necklace and ring so that should make shopping trips more fun (for me, not Randall). It is so cool to see three kids play so easily with only a few words in common.

Lily playing with scrabble tiles with Oscar and Estela at El Retiro.

Lily and her friend Estela.

Also, on the way home, the bus driver pulled the bus over to the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. He and one other guy got back off, went into the bushes and came out five minutes later. “Bano nat-u-ral,” the driver laughed and said as he got back in the driver’s seat. This actually seems a useful phrase to know. It may very well be a request on some future trip.