Verapaz May 2004
From Antigua I caught a tour with Steffen, Wendy, Charley, and Kristie
to the Verapaz region of Guatemala.
Driver and guide Manuel picked us up around 2:00 PM on Friday, May 21 and we headed North through Guatemala City, past El Rancho to Coban, arriving at 7:30 PM in a drizzling and dark city.
From Coban we headed East on Saturday morning to Lanquin, passing through San Pedro Carcha where a traditional dance started off the local Telethon activities to raise money for social projects. In Lanquin we visited the extensive cave system (reaching at least 3 km). A pickup took us (and others) the 11 km of rough road from Lanquin to Semuc Champey, where we bathed at the exquisite pools. We were back in Lanquin in time to watch hundreds of thousands of bats flying out over our heads at dusk from the caves.
Sunday morning we headed back to Coban and then South to the Biotopo del Quetzal (dedicated to the preservation of the national bird of Guatemala and its biosystem) for some hiking, then back to Antigua by 4:00 PM. The Biotope was beautiful but we didn't see any Quetzals.
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