One week of volunteering left

A week has passed by and a lot has happened. Last week was a short week because May 1st was a national holiday, and Thursday was family day. Monday through Wedensday went smoothley and were fun. Tuesday and Wedendsday I brought in my camera to the project to take photos. I had been a little aprehensive about taking my camera to the project because I had already seen some cameras get lost or stolen but it turned out to be great. I let the kids take the camera around and they loved taking photos of everybody. I will post the photos at the end of the blog. On Tuesday, two friends I met in Antigua came to the project. Aaron, and Taylor are studying abroad in Antigua and for one of their final photography projects they came in to Camino Seguro and took pictures. It was a good day and the kids loved having visitors. Thursday was family day and it ran very smoothley. I played bingo with the mothers while they talked with Julvia, my teacher, one on one. Thursday night there was a Camino Seguro party at a group of volunteers house which was a lot of fun. It was cool cause we got to see the staff outside of work. Friday was when the adventure started though... We decided to go to Semuc Champey, one of the biggest attractions in Guatemala, and one of the most beautiful places in the world. We left friday morning around 8, and took a chicken bus to Guatemala City, about 1 hour, that cost 8Q (1$). Then we took a taxi to the Monja Blanca bus terminal where we got a greyhound style bus to go to Coban, about 5 hours away, 50Q (6$). Then once we got to Coban we had to walk to another bus terminal that took us to Lanquin, the nearest town to Semuc Champey, 2 hours, 30Q (4$). This was a very bumpy shuttle that ended up taking us to the tiny town of Lanquin, hidden in the numerous mountains and valleys around there. When we got to Lanquin we got on the back of a pick up truck to head to our Hostel near Semuc Champey. This was another hour, hour and a half. We ended up getting there around 6 or 7 at night and set up our tents by the trucks headlights. There was a small kind of restraunt there and we had brought some food so we ate and hung out for the evening. The next morning we joined a tour of Semuc Champey (I will post my photos of Semuc at the end as well) First we went to the park and hiked for about 20 minutes up the steep side of the valley to get to the Mirador, lookout. This had an incredible view of the river and the pools of Semuc hundreds of meters below us. We then hiked down to the river. First we went to the start of the pools and saw what really makes Semuc Champey amazing. It is created by the huge river going underground and then the pools are above the river. You can see a little ways down the river as it goes underground. We then went and swam around the pools for a while. When we got to the other end of the pools, the guide tied a rope to a rock and we climbed down a fairly steep rock face to see where the river came out from underground. We had to swim across the river which had a pretty strong current and then climb up some rocks. We then were able to go up the cave a little bit and see the underground river. It was amazing, the rocks were incredible and there were bats flying around. We then climbed up the other side of the river and this is where I did one of the craziest things that day. Me and 4 other people jumped off a rock that was about 50 feet high. That wasnt the craziest thing, it was crazy because we had to aim where we jumped because there was a rock on onesided of the pool under about 3 or 4 feet of water so we had to jump to the right to land in the deep water. It was amazing, but I dont know if I would do it again. Then we chilled in the pools a little bit more and went back to the camp site for lunch. Then we went to the Maria Caves which was another amazing experience. These caves are formed by an underground river and so for the tour we just had candels we had to hold as we waded through the water. At some points we also had to swim so we had to hold the candel with one hand and swim with the other. At one point there was a rock about 10 feet high in the cave that we were able to jump off of which was fun. Then at the end we had to squeeze through a little gap with a kind of water fall and drop down 6 or 7 feet into a lower pool. That was kind of scary cause you were dropping down into pitch black. It was an amazing experience. Then we got back and the tour had included tubing but the guides had left so we just went by ourselves. It was getting dark so we just tubed down the river for 30 minutes or so, it was nice though. I fell asleep early that night because it was an exhausting day. We then got a shuttle straight back from Lanquin to Antigua which was nice, so we didnt have to worry about switches or anything and could just fall asleep. We got back to Antigua around 3 and had the rest of the day to relax and shower. Today was a good day in the project as well, nothing unusual happened. I will take the camera in my last couple days probably to get some last pictures of the kids. Here are the links to the photos and next time I post ill probably have finished volunteering. It went by so quickly and Im gona miss the kids so much...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=106532&id=516009306&l=d6545ccb91
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=106552&id=516009306&l=febc7b22b4
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=106562&id=516009306&l=5fc00de166
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=106563&id=516009306&l=4ffa2ee7cd
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=106567&id=516009306&l=2575547d08