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Selempim
(Izabál) |
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| In short |
On Lake Izabál across from El Estór, Defensores de la Naturaleza have established an aquatic wildlife refuge and built a beautiful Biological Station, which has been withheld from decaying almost successfully. It has since been left in oblivion, and this makes it a most charming place to visit. Spend a lazy day drifting through the numerous water arms of the Polochíc mouth, looking for howler monkeys in the trees and for the Manatee in the water.
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| Get there: |
From El Estór(, :1h hrs.)
Ecoaldea Chapin Abajo (US$ 100, El Estór, 4012-2603, ecoaldeachapinabajo@gmail.com):
See activities section!
Alfonso Perez Selempim (US$ 4, Selempim, El Estór, 4537-5801):
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| What to pack? |
swimming gear, sun block, glasses, boots, hat, raincoat, insect repellent, torch,
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| Activities offered: |
Ecoaldea Chapin Abajo (El Estór, 4012-2603, ecoaldeachapinabajo@gmail.com):
The boat has a speedy motor which guarantees safety. Get a ride from El Estor to Selempim passing through Bocas Del Polochíc Wildlife Refuge.
| 1 pers. | 2 pers. | 6 pers. | | | | Ride from El Estor to Selempim | US$ 100 | US$ 100 | US$ 100 | | | | El Estor to Chapin Abajo | US$ 47 | US$ 47 | US$ 47 | | | | Casita Chapin Abajo private bath | US$ 16 | US$ 25 | | | | | Casita Chapin Abajo general bath | US$ 11 | US$ 19 | | | | | Food | US$ 4 | | | | |
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Defensores de la Naturaleza El Estór (5Ave 2Calle, El Estór, 7949-7237, 7949-7130, www.defensores.org.gt):
Stay in the Biological Station of Selempim in station beds with general bathroom. You can prepare your own meals in the kitchen or stay with a host family to eat
| 1 pers. | | | | | | bed with mosquito net | US$ 6 | | | | | | park entrance | US$ 4 | | | | | | guided tour | US$ 8 | | | | | | host family meal | US$ 3 | | | | | | kanoe | US$ 3 | | | | |
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| Description: |
Trip Proposal:
1.day: Contact some old man with a boat in one of the hotels of El Estór in order to cross Lake Izabal and reach Selempím. Spend a lazy day drifting through the numerous water arms of the Polochic mouth, looking for howler monkeys in the trees and for the Manatee (Trichechus manatus) in the water. In the afternoon, drop of at the Selempím quay and book into the Biological Station. Organize dinner in a K’ekchi’ home nearby and spend the last hour of light watching birds and other animals in the bits of rainforest left right next to the station. You might be so lucky to see dancing manikins.
2. day: Start early with a guide, visit the Selempím springs in the forest and climb up the big white cliffs. From there you have gorgeous views over lake Izabal and the Polochíc wetlands. Please remember well all the water courses, since your memories will decide upon your survival tomorrow or later on the day, should you decide to rent a small cayuco and venture an outing into the wetlands without guide.
Afternoon: Enter your cayuco and float down the Rio Zucal. Relax and float, the best things come to you unwanted. A guamó tree with his edible pods hanging into your mouth. A number of knots on a tree: three bats staying the day head down anchored on the bark. A few bubbles in the coffee brown water: a manatee on its feeding grounds. A little bunch of dry twigs caught in a vine during the last flood: the hanging nest of a royal fly catcher.
3. day: Take a farm car to take you out to Mariscos or let the old man fetch you to El Estór (preferable).
Avoid crossing Lake Izabál during the afternoon because of possible high waves!
Further information:
Lake Izabal has this unique setting of a huge tropical lake lying lazily between a lot of working people, sweating in huge palm oil plantations, rice fields and a Nickel Mining Company. The main character on the scenery also appears to be sleeping: a huge mountain range, the Sierra de las Minas. This Mountain Range follows a rift valley which divides North and South America. It is covered with tropical forest, although on both sides of this Sierra there are hundreds of local communities eating their way up into the forest. Incredibly rugged creeks withhold them on the Izabal side, and a bold conservation group (Defensores de la Naturaleza) on the other. In Mayan times this Sierra was famous, too. The Olmecs and Maya extracted Jade and Quetzal plumes, both very priced green objects.
Lake Izabál is receiving water from the Polochíc and Cahabón rivers. The latter comes from Cobán and is loaded with coffee pulp, black waters and chemicals from a shoe factory. All these agents have caused a strong growth of the water hyacinth and algae. If this continues, the lake will be completely covered with these beautiful plants in the future, or some clever finquero (farmer) will harvest them and thus recycle nutrients.
In this unlikely setting, Defensores de la Naturaleza have established an aquatic wildlife refuge and built a beautiful Biological Station, which has been withheld from decaying almost successfully. It has since been left in oblivion, and this makes it a most charming place to visit.
The Biological Station. A huge thatched cabin constructed at the foothills of the Sierra de las Minas, would be overlooking the wetlands, if it were not for a plantation of local trees right in front of the panorama. This will be your refuge for a few days and nights. Don Alfonso, the person in charge will be with you and can get you a guide. His three sons do not want to work in the palm plantation and hope that some tourist will get them a good job in a foreign country. With your guide (or without) you can venture into the surroundings. If you do not want to prepare your own food in the kitchen of the station, you can eat with a family in Selempím village near the quay. Sitting around the fireplace and seeing tortillas being slapped into their faces until they are nice and round is a hilarious experience.
Wandering around the foot hill, you will realize that Selempím is not part of a huge tropical forest, but is enclosed in a vast oil palm plantation, in itself worth a visit. There is a little trail through tiny parts of remaining rainforest. In the undergrowth there are the big leaves and phallic red spadix of araceae species. A special bird group loves to feed on their bright red berries: the Manakins. These little birds are fruit eaters and seem to have a lot of leisure while digesting a crop load of berries. Teams of two males defend dancing arenas which consist of spots in the undergrowth with exposed twigs. They spring to and fro with dazzling precision, emitting all kinds of sounds recalling a big clockwork going at high speed. You may not at first notice the unobtrusive green female near the scene, simulating disinterest, but absorbing every move of the dancers with a glistening eye. There are always two performers: the maestro and the trainee. Needless to say, the latter never gets his turn at the chick.
Crossing the oil palm plantation and climbing up the actual Sierra de las Minas, you shall find the place that has given its name to Selempím (traduce: at the water surface in the brush). In a forest there are several springs of crystalline water well worth a bath.
Further up the slope, below big white cliffs, you have a gorgeous view over lake Izabal and the Polochíc wetlands. Guides here are lazy, and maybe your guide will tell you that the mirador is further down, push him and make him work for his money. A hike up to Cerro Selempím would be a most rewarding venture. The hike along the ridge and the view to the other side (which not many visitors have enjoyed yet) must be very rewarding. Start early! This is a 1000 m altitude hike! A pair of laughing falcons will be soaring to and fro over your head. If you are lucky, you’ll see one sitting on a branch, and it will bob up and down its head laughing at you. Since these raptors do not eat birds but snakes, they are everybody’s friends. Small birds which normally hassle birds of prey, leave them alone, which allows them to have a conspicuous black and white coloration like circus clowns.
Rent a cayuco for 20 Quetzals and float down the Rio Zucal. Put your camera in a plastic bag, since you may capsize. Observe the dark brown liquid below you and there is only one conclusion: you are travelling on tea.
Well, now you are in paradise, and well deserved, since you came from far and made it to this forgotten creek. Even on a hot day you shall not suffer, you glide in the shadow of the wetland trees and you can always take a swim in the icy cold water. Relax and float, the best things come to you unwanted. A guamó tree with his edible pods hanging into your mouth. A rush in the trees over head: saraguate monkeys that may shit into your mouth. A number of knots on a tree: three bats staying the day head down anchored on the bark. A few bubbles in the coffee brown water: a manatee on its feeding grounds. A little bunch of dry twigs caught in a vine during the last flood: the hanging nest of a royal fly catcher. If you go on your own, and during high water, look back and remember the form of the mountains behind the Selempím, and all the trees you pass by.
An old hunter once told me a story of the greatest horror he lived in the forests of Sierra de las Minas. He was going back home after a long day spent hunting in vain. It was becoming darker and for some reason he felt he was being observed. A Quasimodo-like silhouette was following him in effortless pace, a hairy head becoming visible against the dusky sky in a curve of the descending path. Much is talked in this part of the country about a tribe of hairy monkey-men (the Chol people) which inhabited tropical Guatemala up to 50 years ago. The hunter tried to hurry faster but could not escape the creature. He decided to climb up into the wayside vegetation and forcefully held his breath. His pursuer caught up fast, but luckily did not see him. To his utter surprise, the hunter realized a giant anteater passing by; his tail angrily erected and held over his head, which made the animal look twice as big.
Wandering around the foot hill, you will realize that Selempím is not part of the huge tropical forest, but is enclosed in a huge oil palm plantation, in itself worth a visit.
Before the year 2000, there were just cattle farms and corn fields, and then Mr. Naegli, a mayor entrepreneur in Guatemala, invested into a 10 km² plantation, inviting an associate from Costa Rica who brought the know-how. A special curved machete on a log pole is used to cut off the heavy oil nut panicles from the palm trees. Oxen were introduced from Zacapa, they represent something new to the K’ekchi’ world. (Mayans did not employ any large mammals as working aid, since their ancestors, the first inhabitants of the new world, had extinguished the rich mega fauna of both continents in a hunting frenzy.) There was a dispute, whether Zacapa cowboys should be employed to work the oxen, which would probably have meant several people with lead intoxication every weekend.
The managers decided to try the local K’ekchi’ population and were soon pleased to see that they loved the oxen and cared for them in a most effective way. The oxen are used to bring panicles to the next road. 140 kilometres of well kept gravel roads guarantee access into the far ends of the plantation. Private lorry owners then bring the oil fruit to the factory, where large queues of trucks wait for their turn. The monthly output of the factory are over 1000 tons of palm oil, sold as “Aceite Olmeca” in Guatemalan stores. Although the finca probably uses a lot of chemicals to maintain the plantation, this very profitable form of cultivating land is a welcome source of labour in the area and maintains a lot of local settlers. These people might otherwise be cutting their way into the forest or be hunting manatees in order to provide for their families.
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