Aventuras de Yenni: July 2008

For the last four days I have been on an employee trip to Semuc Champey, a national park with beautiful swimming holes in Guatemala just outside of Coban. (We were fumigating the clinic to get rid of ants, spiders, scorpions, etc....so we took the opportunity to have a little fun). Neither I nor the rest of the clinic staff had ever been to the Alta Verapaz region so we hired a shuttle driver (who I later learned is a serious crush of one of our employees) bought a bunch of snacks at Hyperpais--Guatemalan Walmart-- and headed northeast. You should have seen the look on the doctor's face when the staff said we were going camping! Apparently he had never been before. Honestly, I myself was not sure how we were going to pull off camping in the rainy season either but we set off anyway...

Tono with Tino's cool shades.

When we finally arrived outside of Lankin we all went spelunking.

Here is the doctor carrying Mario since he kept slipping on all the bat dung.

Tono doing his best bat impersonation.

After the caves we drove into Lankin, a small town outside of Semuc Champey and it was pouring down rain. I asked the girls if they were sure that they still wanted to camp and they said they had brought all the equipment so we should at least try it out. The doctor gave me a look of desperation so I asked the girls if they could show me what equipment we had while we parked under a dry overhang. I climbed onto the roof of the shuttle with Miriam and she showed me a bunch of straw mats rolled up together. I asked where the tents were? But it turns out they had only brought 6 straw mats for 8 adults and 1 child. Needless to say we ended up all staying at a hotel. Since it was raining the girls and I played cards while the doctor and the boys went off to find cuba libres (rum and cokes with lime). Three hours later the boys were nowhere to be found so the girls and I went over to a comedor for dinner. Half way through dinner the boys show up completely wasted. The doctor was actually not too bad but the thing about indigenous Guatemalans is that they rarely drink because it is a total social taboo. So when I say wasted I mean, staggering can't walk, can't talk wasted. The girls and I left totally embarrassed and went back to the hotel to go to bed. As I was finishing brushing my teeth I saw Samuel, our gardener hunched over a box of aspirin. Suddenly I had to be nurse Jenny, luckily he had only taken 4 of the 10 pills but he was crying and talking about how I couldn't tell his baby girl that he had been drinking, blah, blah, blah. I tried to help him up to get him to bed but then Tino came over and tried to help and fell over. I swear it was like taking care of 14 year olds who had been drinking for the first time. But a half hour later I had them all tucked into bed and was able to go to sleep. The next morning when I woke up the guys all gave me sheepish smiles and we went to breakfast. Unfortunately, the rain had been so bad the night before that the road was washed out and we wouldn't be able to drive down to the swimming holes. After the night before though, I was determined to go so I suggested we walk because it was only 9K. They all thought I was crazy so I went alone for a much needed solo hike.

And just as I got there the whole crew showed up in a truck so we all went into the park together. Apparently the rain had caused some mudslides so the pristine blue swimming pools were full of rushing muddy water, which was a bummer. But I convinced the guys to hike up the mountain to the lookout point and it was still an incredible sight, even if the water wasn't clear.