There are few travel destinations more captivating than Guatemala’s Semuc Champey. White limestone cliffs rise up from the jungle-coated floor, disappearing into swirling whisps of misty clouds. Turquoise water cascades down a series of stepped pools, surrounded by thick green rainforest. Crowds of tourists swarm the whole area, blocking hiking trails as they take their selfies, seemingly oblivious to the natural beauty beyond what will fit in a social media post.
Okay, so Semuc Champey isn’t the idyllic jungle escape it’s sometimes made out to be. It’s squarely dead center on the most well-worn part of Guatemala’s tourist path. And did I mention how hot it is?
However, if you can get away from the crowds, or just learn to embrace them, Semuc Champey still makes for a rewarding trip. It also might be one of the most beautiful places in Guatemala. And that’s saying a lot.
About Semuc Champey
The name “Semuc Champey” means something like “where the river hides under the stones” in the Q’e qchi’ Mayan language. Those beautiful pools of turquoise water you see on the surface are actually hiding a river underneath them. The limestone forms a natural bridge that the Cahabón river flows underneath through a series of underground caves.
The area was declared a national monument in 1999, and the surrounding jungles are home to various bird, mammal, reptile and amphibian species. The color of the water is due to sediment, and are rich in calcium bicarbonate. Facts are fun.
Because it’s in the middle of the tropical rainforest, Semuc Champey is hot. Very hot. Thankfully, you’re surrounded by water so it’s never too hard to find a place to take a dip and cool off. The trails and rocks surrounding the pools can also be quite slippery, so make sure you bring good footwear that you don’t mind getting wet. Hiking sandals are fine, as long as they have a decent tread.
How to Get to Semuc Champey
Semuc Champey is located about an hour or so by pick-up truck from the adorable, rustic small town of Lanquín. Lanquín itself is worth a couple days’ visit, if not it a blog post of its very own. You can visit Semuc Champey from Lanquín easily enough. Public transportation consists of a series of pickup trucks. You ride in the back and bounce along a dirt road from the town to the nature area. It’s not the safest, especially when you’re crowded in back with twenty some other people. But it’s fun.
If you’re going to come all this way, you should treat yourself and stay at one of the many lodges nearby. That way, you can visit Semuc Champey in the morning, avoiding the thickest crowds and the hottest heat. Just make sure you do your research and don’t get stuck in a shithole hotel like we did. More on that below.
The town of Lanquín is about 6 or 7 hours of rough driving from anywhere, but there are good shuttle and bus connections to and from tourist destinations such as Antigua, Flores and Rio Dulce.
You can take a tour to Semuc Champey, and explore the underground river and caves by candlelight. I suffer from claustrophobia, so traipsing around in a dark cave with nothing but a candle seemed like a terrible idea to me. It also seemed like the tours were geared towards the backpacker party crowd. Being stuck in a cave with a bunch of hungover twenty-year-old Europeans seemed like an even worse idea, but hey, what do I know?
Read more about why you shouldn’t skip the nearby town of Lanquín here: Lanquín, Guatemala: Exploring the Caves and Chocolate Beyond Semuc Champey
Home of the Worst Hostel in Guatemala
We decided to stay at a little place called “Pachamama.” That was a mistake.
On paper, the hostel seemed wonderful. They offered rustic, wooden rooms, an onsite bar and restaurant and a lovely looking, private riverside beach. All for a lower price than anywhere else nearby.
When we arrived, we were told that they had overbooked and the room with a private bathroom that we’d reserved wasn’t available. We could take an upstairs room with a shared bathroom, or go fuck ourselves. (Okay, not literally, but that was the impression I got.) We opted for the upstairs room with the shared bathroom.
The room was up a set of rickety wooden steps that seemed ready to crumble away at any minute. The roof was slapped together with cracked wooden planks, and rain leaked in at night, soaking our bed. The riverside “beach” was actually just a slab of concrete. The restaurant only had three dishes, including the worst pad thai I’ve ever had in my life. In the morning, my wife found a cockroach in her pancake. Cockroaches aside, the pancakes were the best thing on the menu.
In the end, we developed a sort of unlucky camaraderie with the other guests at the hostel. I imagine something like the bond combat veterans form with their fellow soldiers in warzones. We knew that no matter what happened in the future, we’d somehow all survived Pachamama together.
Visiting Semuc Champey
On the plus side, the hostel was really close to the entrance to Semuc Champey. After a short, scenic walk, we were able to arrive in the morning and hike up to the mirador. The hike took an hour or so in the heat. When we got to the top, we found a long line of people waiting for us.
It took about twenty minutes for everyone in front of us to get their perfect selfies with Semuc Champey in the background. We had to stand in the sweltering jungle heat, watching teenage girls go through the whole retinue of standard Instagram poses.
But it was kind of fun in a weird way. The atmosphere was festive and most of the crowd were local Guatemalans. Everyone was joking and laughing and we all lightheartedly booed a girl who cut in line after her turn was over. Women were selling coconuts, which were just the thing for the heat.
And in the end, the view was worth it.
After getting our photos from the mirador, we hiked down the steep, slippery and winding trail to the pools. Nobody fell, but we came close a couple times. While the pools are natural, the lockers and changing rooms aren’t. They were, however, very convenient. Don’t forget to bring a padlock.
While we were never quite able to escape the multitudes of other tourists, in the end it didn’t matter. The beauty of Semuc Champey won out over our cynicism and aversion to crowds.
The Tubing Disaster
There’s more to do around Semuc Champey than admire the turquoise pools and swim in the jungle amongst a thousand other tourists. One more thing to do, that is: you can also go tubing.
Some blogs say you need to set up a tubing tour in Lanquín. They’re wrong. There are tubing operators offering excursions just on the other side of the bridge on the road to Semuc Champey. The price is reasonable, and includes a tube and a guide. If for some reason you’ve brought your own innertube down to Central America, I suppose you could tube independently. Just beware the current.
I had never been tubing before, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. It was a lot of fun. You float down a jungle river, under the tall trees in cool water. An army of twelve-year olds drift alongside each tour, selling beer from a floating cooler. It’s a little strange buying alcohol from children, but what are you gonna do?
When we went, the water was high and pretty fast. It had swelled from the rain that had soaked us in our crappy hotel the night before. This was fine, until the very end of the trip. I got stuck in the shallows, while my poor wife was caught in the current and swept away in the middle of the river.
Luckily, a brave Polish man was able to reach out a stick for her to grab on to and save her. He thoroughly shamed me, and questioned my masculinity. Thankfully, my wife is far more forgiving.
Is Semuc Champey Worth Visiting?
So, while Semuc Champey is touristy, perhaps that’s a blessing. If it hadn’t been for that random Polish tourist, my dear wife might have been swept away down the Cahabón River out to the Caribbean Sea. This would have saved us a little money on transportation to Livingston, but probably wouldn’t have been worth it in the end.
Despite all the setbacks, we still had a wonderful time in Semuc Champey. Sometimes touristy spots are touristy for a reason. Semuc Champey’s natural splendor, with its turquoise water, emerald jungle and hills soaked in silvery mist, is truly a sight to behold. It’s not the lost jungle paradise, but it’s still pretty damn gorgeous.
If you’re the kind of person who is willing to set aside your expectations, then come to Semuc Champey for a couple of days and embrace the beauty of discomfort.
Looking for more touristy places in Guatemala? Check out our guide here: Go to Guatemala: A Travel Guide Without the Tourist Traps
