The Cahabón River is one of the most important in Guatemala. It is born in the Sierra de las Minas and ends at Lake Izabal, where it joins the Polochic course after 196 kilometers of travel. It crosses a good part of the department of Alta Verapaz, and as it passes through cities like Cobán or San Pedro Carcha, no one would pay much attention to it: one more of the suspiciously murky veins of the earth. However, this river works the miracle of regenerating itself downstream of the towns and, after taking advantage of the natural filtering of the earth, it draws one of the most graceful landscapes in Central America.
Isolated in a portion of jungle not yet completely domesticated, the Semuc Champey area is the objective of those who want to see the Cahabón River in a stretch that seems invented: the waters become transparent like gin and in contrast with the bottom of a rosary of pools, turns turquoise. For a stretch of just half a kilometer, it transforms into a textbook river paradise: the waters are not too cold, and have an extraordinary purity. There are no dangerous animals swimming in them and you just have to be careful in some waterfalls.
In the local Mayan dialect, Semuc Champey means “where the river hides under the earth.” It is precisely because the Cahabón is hidden by a succession of cavities, becomes tubed, gains pressure and appears as a white and powerful jet after a few dozen meters. From there, it rests in natural pools that are connected by travertine steps of different heights.
As a result of its uniqueness and high biological value, the portion of jungle that surrounds Semuc Champey was declared a Guatemalan Natural Monument in 2005. Thus, the jungle and the animals that inhabit it are protected – anteaters, armadillos, crested eagles, tapirs, peccaries, toucans and white-tailed deer, among others – while allowing travelers who seek them to enjoy them. eagerly
The natural space is managed to facilitate the visit but be as least invasive as possible with the environment. Thus, the magnificent viewpoint camouflaged in the jungle requires a good ascent of more than half an hour along well-equipped walkways and stairs that require effort in the suffocating jungle. From there you have a panoramic view of the series of pools, a succession of wonderful blues and greens. Afterwards, you usually go down to the same course, where swimming is authorized in practically all the pools except those that are too close to the sinkhole (no one wants a tourist to disappear underground and appear drowned at the opposite end).
By having been declared a natural monument, Semuc Champey has contained the proliferation of restaurants, bars, beach bars or souvenir shops that would normally have appeared in such a coveted area. Only in the final part of the narrowing of the river – actually when the channel already takes the appearance of a normal and ordinary river – are more attractive activities accepted such as the rental of recreational boats, to the west of the visitor center, where information is provided on the standards of conduct that must be met.
The guides who accompany tourists along the different marked trails have, in general, good knowledge of the jungle plants and help to locate groups of spider monkeys and howler monkeys that inhabit the jungle among the foliage, as well as to find some of the tiny orchids that are hidden among larger plants.
Semuc Champey is just ten kilometers from the small town of Lanquín. If you want to enjoy a city with greater and more diverse amenities, Cobán offers all the services. Then the road trip takes 1 hour and 40 minutes through the winding and slow mountain roads of Guatemala.
