A trek into Semuc Champey and why we stay in hostels

Gaia and the house puppers

Greengo's Hostel...super cool little place in Semuc Champey. We arrived here after leaving Antigua. Our shuttle bus picked us up from outside our hotel at 8 am this morning. This was a windy, curvy mostly uphill trek. We stopped three times, once about 10:30 for a quick breakfast and a pee, once at noon for a even quicker snack and a pee. And once at 3:00 for a quick late lunch stop and a pee. None of the stops lasted more than twenty minutes. We hit stopped traffic only once on the slightly harrowing mountain roads. At several points along the road we were uncomfortably close to the edge of a mountain...Took that nine hour bus ride to be dropped off at a random gas station in the town of Lanquin. From there, we boarded the back of a pickup truck and drove straight up the side of a mountain, then way down the side of a mountain, and after a dusty hour, we arrived at the Greengo's Hostel. This is one in a small grouping of hostels that act as gateway to a nature preserve in the middle of the country. It is difficult to get to and I hope, well worth the hype.

In the back of the pickup

The hostel is super cool with a great social vibe; expansive bar with very reasonable cocktails (think between $3 and $5 USD); a house restaurant that specializes in middle Eastern food like shawarma; falafel and hummus; and a couple of pools. Our room is a simple and small but it's clean with a private bathroom and deck with hammock overlooking the river. It was only about $180 USD for three nights for four of us.

Gaia immediately made friends with the house dogs. One of the best parts is how many chill areas there are for socializing. I'm sitting here right now with the three of us on a lay-out lounging area watching karaoke. There are a ton of tables in the common area for dining as well as lots of bar style seating both at the bar and along the small bar top style table that lines the area. There are lots of places to charge your phone as well along the way.

There are plenty of both swing seats and hammocks for both laying and sitting, a pool table area and a movie room where people can watch Netflix, Prime etc movies on a big screen.

One of the things I love the most about hostels, and I'll never stop traveling like this...is the social aspect that you just don't get in a hotel. Hotels are singular, you stay in a bubble that is private and in no way have shared experience. Not everyone is worthy of my time and energy, not every place is a winner that I'd recommend. But I've met super cool people at hostels and farmstays in my travels that have made for better memories and stories. We hooked up with an Irish couple that we explored central Vietnam with for a couple of days before we both moved on...a Canadian couple in a hostel in Ho Chi Minh city that were super chill and we ended up doing happy hour with them in a rooftop bar later on that night. Every time, whether its a cool connection or just a conversation, I'm reminded how we are all looking for the same thing and how shared the human experience is. Hostels bring people from all over the world together. Just tonight, we met a German woman who just finished her masters and is eight months into a solo walkabout that started in Australia and has brought her to Guatemala and then through central America into Panama.

I bring my daughter to these places because I want to make it seem reachable, accessible and demystify it for her, so that she has confidence to launch and travel on her own when it's her time. I've met the couple that owns this place tonight, got a chance to have conversations with both of them and I can tell you they both seem welcoming, friendly and super chill as individuals. Both took time to introduce themselves to my daughter and spend a couple minutes talking with her. I've never met a hotel owner that did that once in all my travels.

All in all, we've landed in a good spot to explore for the next few days. We are here for the next three, exploring both the preserve and it's surrounding areas before moving on. We will be sharing lots more as we find the cool hidden gems, but I would have been remiss without a post about the hostel. It really is that cool.