Lanquín is a tiny village nestled right in the heart of the Alta Verapaz district. Alta Verapaz along with Petén which are both in the north of the country make up over half of Guatemala in size yet only something like 4% of Guatemalans actually live here. The landscape is truly stunning with lush rolling hills and valleys saturated in mist punctuated only by the occasional fast flowing river.
The reason for coming Lanquín apart from the scenery was to visit the pools of nearby Semuc Champey. The main river in the area, the Rio Cahabon cuts underground at Semuc leaving a limestone bridge of sorts. Whilst the river runs underground the top of the bridge hosts a number of natural pools which are the result of overflow from the river. The pools, which are fantastically clear and pretty warm I guess due to the fact that the water just isn't moving very fast, descend in a staircase like fashion until they join up with the rest of the river below.
On the river bank just down from Semuc Champey are the Kan'Ba Caves. Before hand I didn't think heading into a cave for 45 minutes carrying only a candle (!) which you have to some how swim with in freezing cold water whilst navigating your way over some very slippery jagged rocks in flip flops would be for me... but it turns out I actually quite that stuff. It's not actually as bad as it sounds. For starters the candles you are given are super strength nothing will harm me type candles and you can stick them in your mouth when the water is to deep to walk in, which is only for a small part of the way. It's also quite a wide cave and only part of the way are you squeezing yourself through cracks which you are 100% sure will never allow you through. Anyway in conclusion caving is brilliant and I want to do more.
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