Chisec, Bombil Pek and Candelaria

12/05/2014 

Travelling out of the touristic path as I generally do, not always is very gratifying, as happened to me in the last days. 

From the beautiful Semuc Champey I came back to Coban where I left my backpack and I took a minibus to Chisec, a little town that can be used as base to visit some caves in the area. Most of the tourists take an organised tour from Coban (2h from Chisec) , but they were very expensive, so I decided to get here by myself. When I arrived in town, I was quite surprised to see how rustic it was. This is probably the only town in all Guatemala without a church. Many people in the street, selling food or waiting for buses. I looked around, searching for a hostel sign, but nothing. So I walked for a while, till I found a little hotel. I left my backpack in the room and I walked 2 km to get to the Bombil' Pek cave. At the parking lot there was no one. So I started walking on the path heading to the cave's entrance (2 more km), but on the way I found no one. So I decided to come back. This time I met 2 Americans that were willing to visit the cave, but our search of a guide was vane. 

The morning after I changed hostel (the first one wasn't really nice) and the guy of this hostel gave me a contact with some guides (in the whole town I didn't find any tour agency) . So I managed to organise in a day the visit of two caves. 

I walked again to Bombil Pek where I met my guide. Then we walked together the 2 km till the entrance of the cave... but surprise surprise... The stairs that allows the entrance to the cave were completely broken. The guide told me no one came there in the last weeks, so no one knew about the stairs conditions. He proposed me to descende the 50 metres on the rock and to use some branch or roots as help. Are you crazy?!? Let's say that I would have survived to this, how could I come back up there?

No way!

So we came back and we visited another cave: La Cueva del Aire, beautiful with its stalagmites and stalactites, but probably less impressive than the other one where Maya's paintings decorate the cave (Mayas usually used caves for their rituals). 

Cueva Candelaria is the second cave I visited. Huge and beautiful, but not adventurous like Kan'Ba in Semuc Champey.

To come back to the town I had to take a minibus. This time I wasn't lucky enough to have a seat. I didn't even have a real space. So I had to stand (not even completely vertical because I'm not short enough) between the last row of seats and the posterior window : let's say I had about 20 cm and I wasn't the only one. In that little space I enjoyed the company of other 2 people. Lucky as I am, the police stopped us for a control and we had to suffer for 15 minutes without air (it's very hot in this region ). 30 minutes later we arrived at destination. 

The morning after (this morning) I wanted to leave to get to Flores, in the north of Guatemala. The only problem is that there was only one bus a day and no one knew at what time the bus passed. What I just wrote is not really correct : everyone I asked, knew the scheduled time, but no one agreed with the others. So I woke up early and at 5:50 am I was already there, waiting. During my waiting, many locals asked me where I was going, because even if they saw many busses coming, I was still there. Everyone told me to wait, that my bus was coming. And so I waited for 2 hours and when my minibus arrived, 5-6 people run to me from every direction to be sure I wasn't going to lose it. I took a seat in the front, next to the driver and another man. After a while, another woman with her 2 children came in front and so I had to spend the next 3 hours sharing my seat with the woman and one of her children on my legs. 

But the most exhausting part didn't arrive yet. Once we got to Flores, I (the only gringo) was assaulted by people trying to sell me a hostel, a tour, a bus ticket or food. This time I was very near to shout badly to someone. I decided to deal with them after lunch (rice and beans with tortilla as everyday). When I recovered my strengths I went to ask some information about Tikal, how to get there etc. They made one big mistake: they lied to me, trying to steal my money offering me very expensive transportation to the ruins. So I decided that I had enough with this city (1 hour) and I took a public bus to El Remate, a very quiet little town between Flores and Tikal. I found immediately a nice hostel, run by nice people. I walked to the lake and I rested. Tomorrow I'll have another long long day : Tikal! 

For who doesn't know, Tikal is one of the most beautiful Maya's ruins, completely immersed in the forest. I'm excited to visit Tikal, as I was when I visited Machu Picchu and Copan!