From Lanquin you can book shuttles to Flores, Rio Dulce and Antigua all for right around $20usd. The rides are bumpy and take several hours, but that’s the price you pay to explore the amazing nature you came to see in Semuc Champey.
You can also grab a bus to Coban for around $7usd (50 quetzales) and from there you can find local buses to other destinations. Coban is about 2 or 3 hours from Lanquin depending on the condition of the roads that day. Back to LANQUIN // SEMUC CHAMPEY
Just got news about a pretty big earthquake in southwestern Mexico… Did you feel it? Hope you are both doing well. Miss you mucho! – Aunt La & Uncle Kirk
Posted by Aunt Laurie | March 20, 2012, 3:27 pmWe are over in the bay islands of Honduras in the Caribbean now, didn’t feel a thing! We miss you mucho too!
Posted by BorderTramp | March 21, 2012, 10:40 amThank you so much for this post! I have a few questions if you don’t mind.
My friend and I plan to stay at a hostel in Coban, Hostal Casa Luna, which offers one-day group tour to the Lanquin caves & Semuc Champey. The tour group returns to hostel by 7 pm but I was thinking if Lanquin/Semuc Champey is on the way from Coban to Rio Dulce, we should head straight to Rio Dulce from Lanquin instead of returning to Coban since our next destination is Rio Dulce. (Arriving late to Rio Dulce would not be a problem because we plan to stay at one of the hotels in Rio Dulce.) If all this is possible, this means we will be bringing our backpacks to the one-day group tour and need to know for sure that there will be shuttle buses available when our group tour is done.
1. The shuttle bus from Lanquin to Rio Dulce: Will I be to book seats in advance? Does it run often? If so, until what time of the day does it run?
2. While exploring the Lanquin caves, will there be a place for us to securely leave our backpacks?
Hope to hear from you soon!
Posted by Yulina | July 11, 2012, 1:15 pmHi! I’m glad the site helped! There is a lodge at the entrance to Semuc Champey, El Portal — there are dorms here and a restaurant. You should be able to book a shuttle to Rio Dulce from here, but it would likely not be until the following morning. There is generally just one bus that leaves for Rio Dulce each day — or none if there aren’t any passengers (it’s a shuttle, not a chicken bus. There are no chicken buses to Rio Dulce from Lanquin)
And if you need a place to leave your bags, the restaurant was really trustworthy and will watch your things behind the bar. All the tours use the restaurant as the starting and ending point of the tour.
Also, after your tour, you can likely catch a ride with one of the other groups to either Zephyr Lodge or El Retiro which is in the town of Lanquin where the shuttles to Rio Dulce leave from so you could stay the night there — I’m not positive you can catch the Rio Dulce shuttle from El Portal.
Hope this helps! Enjoy Semuc Champey, it is ABSOLUTELY incredible — and do all the jumps!
Safe travels,
Emily
Posted by BorderTramp | July 11, 2012, 10:42 pm