More caves and pools…

 

The drive from Flores back to where the Candelaria pools were was less than exciting, we were both frustrated at the 8 hours of driving we had done in the last couple of days, feeling like we were chasing our tails and going around in circles.  Our conversation centered mostly on if we should stay in Guatemala or just find a school in El Salvador or Nicaragua.  We got to the turn off for Raxruha really early and quickly found a hotel recommended by LifeRemotel.com.  We asked the girl at the front desk about the caves and besides trying to sell us a guide for $500 quetzal wouldn’t give us anymore help.   We headed into the town asked for directions there and off we went.  About 30 minutes later we came to a fork in the road, I looked at my map and couldn’t figure out which way to go, we asked the military guys at the fork which way to the caves and after a bit of discussion amongst themselves they pointed and the journey continued.  Fifteen minutes later I was fairly sure that we had gotten lost, luckily we were in a town (San Bartolome de Las Casas) and asked another person, this man explained that the caves were on the other side of Raxruha and that we needed to turn around drive the 45 minutes back then another 20 or so minutes past where we started.  Off we went once again driving around in circles.  We stopped about 3 more times to ask directions just to make sure we were on the right track and finally we saw a sign for the caves.  We pulled into a nice looking restaurant and hotel and out I jumped to find out about the caves only to be informed that they were closed and the road in was blocked.

When I got back in the truck I was so mad I couldn’t speak more than to say “There closed, get me out of here”, Fritz not knowing what to do drove and kept saying “Do we go back to the hotel?  We can leave Guatemala tomorrow. It’s Ok honey.”  Another 5 minutes driving up the same road and we saw another sign for the caves.  Still fuming about the bad directions, the girl at the hotel who wouldn’t help, the owner of the restaurant that said they were closed we hoped we would find the caves.  Driving down a bumpy dirt road the last thing that you expect to see is a bunch of kids hanging out in school uniforms but that’s what we saw.  Immediately one boy jumped down ran over to the truck and asked us if we were looking for the caves, when I said yes he told me just up the hill and down and we would be there.  His friendliness melted my anger and with a bit of hesitation we pushed on, up a very steep dirt road and down the other side with a hairpin turn about half way through. 

 Once at the bottom we were greeted by a group of very friendly people who assured us we were at the right place and that they would take us through the caves.  The next hour and a half was spent lazily floating down the river through some big caves and then hiking out, sorry though no pictures of the caves as we were scared we’d drop the camera.  Also a note to anyone thinking of checking out the caves, you can camp or rent a “cabana” at the caves there, I would think it would be a nicer place to stay then where we stayed, and that money goes to support the 350 people who live in the area and take care of the caves.

Faith restored in Guatemala we returned to the hotel to shower and check email, in the in box was a note from another school in San Pedro that said if we came there we could have an apartment… The scales were definitely tipping toward school but first we decided to see Semuc Champey.