proxodimec

I'm back. Alive, though i keep finding 2cm long swamp palm thorns stuck into such parts of my body i didn't even know i had them.
Those few days were definitely worth it. They're probably worth a couple of "backdate" posts, too. For example:

Day 2, Semuc Champrey.
Guatemala might not be all paved, computerized or electrified, but it's rivers are horribly civilized. This not to say they're calm and placid (are civilized men, say, all calm?), but they sure know a lot about logistics. What a river does when a mountain blocks the way? In Guatemala - builds (that's it, not just digs, but actually builds) a tunnel and flows through. Just like some liquid train - and with about the same speed.
In Semuc Champrey Rio Cahabon rushes down a slope and then disappears underground for 300 meters, leaving only a trickle above to fill the limestone pools the place is famous for (it's quite beautiful and all, but for that you'd better read some tourist advertising). Leaning over a cliff and looking at it (on thing for sure: i'll never do this again) i saw a full-sized waterfall plunging into a hole with - as far as i could tell - no bottom at all. The view was one of most awfully - well, awful (literally) in my life. The kind of a view that makes one believe "when hell freezes over" is not such a distant prospect. Another thought it usually brings into one's mind is that he'd rather be slowly deep-fried than make one more step towards the thing.
Nevertheless, in an hour or two i was - guess where - in an underground river (a much smaller one, of course), trying to persuade myself i have a lot in common with a certain substance infamous in particular for never drowning - after all, so many people never missed their chance to point out this similarity to me. It started as a half-submerged cave, continued with only 15cm of air in some passages (and 25 in the rest of them) and ended with yet another waterfall, this time cave-to-cave. Fortunately, the current was towards the exit; unfortunately, i'm not much of a swimmer. Only when i finally crawled out, i realized how successful was this "adventure" - after all, traveling is all about new experiences, and this was the first time i experienced claustrophobia!