Another Haddox Venture (buckle up, this one's also unbelievable)
We took our first Family vacation in 5 years (there's been weekend outings, but nothing longer than 2 nights).
First we went to Rio Dulce (the opening to te eastern seaboard) and stayed in a jungle lodge where we had to walk across wooden suspension bridges just to get to our bungalow. We took an amazing boat ride from there to the mouth leading to the Caribbean sea . It was amazing and very relaxing. On our next trek we went north to Tikal (where Survivor took place) and were able to walk the Mayan park and see the amazing Mayan pyramids build around the same time as Christ's birth. It's was incredible to see the technology that the Mayans had, as well as the kids enjoyed the monkeys in the trees and the crocodiles in the lake.
Our final stop was at Semuc Champe, an amazing underground river that surfaces and leaves behind amazingly clear pools of water full of peace and tranquility. This is where the trip turned from peaceful to stressful. We stayed the night in a tiny little tarantula infested hostel and it rained all night and hard. When we woke up, we found that the river had risen 9 feet and was continuing to rise. We went to see the peaceful pools of Semuc, and there was nothing but a raging flooded brown river. We decided, we'd better get out of there. By the time we left the water had risen 12 feet and we slid out of there on the muddy, hilly, rocky roads that even the 4 x 4's had stopped traveling on. We made it to the nearest village (the only way back to our home was through this village) only to find that it was completely flooded and there was no way across the bridge. We had to hike through the knee deep bridge through town with one kid on our shoulders and the other on our back while the towns people gawked and pointed. We made in on the other side and had to rent a hotel room in order to spend the night. At 1:00, Eric went to check the water level, only to find it had risen to about 3 feet deep now. While watching the river, a lady came running out crying that her house had just fallen in the river and disappeared. It was looking really desperate.
By 5:00 the river had risen to about 8 feet deep and was at the top of doorways, 5 people had died in the town next door, and our car which was parked 200 feet away from the flood waters was now 1 foot in the water. Eric took a wooden canoe across the bridge and was able to move our car to higher ground. We spend the night (6 people in 3 twin beds) and awoke to find that the rain had finally stopped, but the flood waters had risen even higher over the night. By 10 a.m. Eric was able to weave his way through a muddy side road and across a higher wooden bridge to finally bring our car to the other side of town. We had to take several other detours through muddy side roads due to the bridges all being under water. We were able to finally make it home to safety, but please pray for the people who lost their homes or businesses to the flood (many we saw first hand) in the towns of San Pedro Carcha, and Coban.
