Semuc Champey

Since we were in Cobán already, it didn’t make sense to not go to Semuc Champey, only 67 Km away and one of the most beautiful places in Guatemala from what we were told.

So we went. We spent one night in Lanquin, about 9 Km from Semuc Champey, just because we hadn’t decided whether to drive there or to leave the van in Lanquin and take a tour. Those nine kilometers seem to be legendary around here because of how bad the road is. I spent the previous night looking for photos of the road, or at least an account of someone doing it in a 2WD vehicle. All I could find was two VW buses that did it, a splitty and a 72 Westy (Bumfuzzle and Bodes Well), and a couple on a Syncro that broke their oil pan in that very road. Everybody else I could see had gone with Jeeps, high SUVs, motorcycles, or had taken a tour. The tour guys drive these little KIA 4WD trucks, which have about the same clearance as the Westy. After seeing this I figured it couldn’t be that bad, so I lowered my tire pressure to ~30psi, and off we went.

The road was bad, but we have seen worse in Baja. The way we measure this is that we didn’t get stuck (and we did in Baja, many many times), and Milo didn’t throw up (and he did on the road to Tapalpa, in Jalisco). On the way back, there was a stretch that was very steep, and had a lot of loose rocks. It took me three attempts, but on the third, picking a bit better line, with a little momentum, and with the emergency brake set slightly to stop the wheels from spinning freely, we climbed it.

If you came to this post from the internets, looking for data on this road, know this: We made it on an 2WD ’89 Vanagon Westy, with a 2.2 engine and Nokian tires. The tires are road tires, perfect in terms of noise on pavement and handling, but really not good off road. Just make sure you have enough clearance, lower your tire pressure, and hope for dry conditions as we had.

The place is gorgeous. The river there goes under ground, forming a natural bridge, and leaving these pools of really transparent water on the top. We spent some time in the water, then climbed to the lookout spot (this was Milo’s favorite part, not that he cares for the view, but he likes to go up and down mountains), and then went into the water again.

Now we are on our way back to Antigua, to undo the little detour we took in order to go to Bug Camp. It was an awesome week!

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