Coban

The Road to Coban

Christie and I paid an exorbitant fee to leave Pana at 6 am instead of the normal 10 am in order to get to Coban in time to actually see something before the local inhabitants close up shop and disappear into their homes for the evening.

So bright-eyed (or maybe it was glassy-eyed) and not so awake, we wandered to the main street where we were picked up by the shuttle driver only a few minutes late. We were then taken to Antigua (seems most everything needs to come back through one of the major cities...you can´t just travel from one place to another directly) to grab our next shuttle that was supposed to be waiting for us. By standard Guatemalan rule, the shuttle was not there, but this in fact worked out as it gave us an opportunity to grab a chai (they have great chai at Cafe Condesa) and a little something to eat.

From Antigua we got a nice shuttle all to ourselves to Guatemala City, where the driver informed us that they had overbooked and therefore would not be traveling by shuttle to Coban, but in fact would be taking the local equivalent of Greyhound. Seeing as this is what we were trying to find in the first place, it seems that our wish was granted, we just paid four times the amount to take it.

The Guatemalan version of Greyhound is called Monja Blanca, which means White Nun and apparently only runs from Guate City to Coban and back again, or out of the country. Too bad, guess we´re stuck mostly taking the overpriced tourists shuttles.

The fortuitous thing about the bus is that at the rest stop I was making note out loud of the fact that there didn´t seem to be any sort of real line for the restroom and it was more of a free for all, when the girl next to me started laughing. Turns out her name is Natalie and she´s a Guatemalan-American that lives in Ventura. How´s that for a small world?

Natalie decided to take pity on us after hearing our story and knowing that we had no idea where we were going to get off the bus and where that would be in relation to a hostel and thus told us that we would get off with her and then her dad would drive us to a hostel. Very nice indeed.

We arrived in the central of Coban near the plaza and true to Natalie's word, her dad was waiting to pick her up and didn't mind in the less taking two strangers along for the ride. Natalie's father turned out to be very nice and displayed that genuine Guatemalan hospitality and helpfulness that seems to run rampant through all of the people except those that run the tourists agencies and guides, and promptly invited us back to his parents home for lunch and then stated that he didn't have anything to do that day and him and his daughter would gladly walk around the city with us till be found a decent hostel.

We ended up at Casa de Luna, which was pretty much our original destination anyways through the flip of a coin (it was that or a cheaper hotel with a private room, but no other people staying there). The hostel was cute, with hammocks and one computer containing free internet, and the traditional built-in tour agency. Through their agent, we booked a coffee tour for the following day and transport and a two day trip to Lanquin and Semuc Champey for the weekend (but that's a different entry).

Seeing as the day was mostly gone, we had but time for one little excursion. We ventured to El Calvario, a giant church on a hill in the middle of town. The church itself isn't that interesting, but the Mayan shrines that line the stairway to the top and the graveyard with its half swallowed graves made the journey worth it. The view wasn't too bad either.

Coffee, Mayan Museums, and Nature Preserves

I forced Christie to agree to go on a tour of a local coffee co-op not because I really like coffee and not because I think it's kind of interesting to learn the history of coffee, but because the coffee tour also included a zip line and that I totally wanted to do. The tour began with a ride on the local microbus (think filled minivan with a little more room) to a small out of the way village that borders the western edge of Coban. The cooperative itself is called, Cooperativa Agricola Intergral Chicoj and includes a PeaceCorps volunteer from Arkansas named Winfrey as a member. Our tour was lead by a local girl that spoke clearly and concisely and told us about the wonders of coffee.

The coffee at Chicoj was originally brought be the Germans, who started the farm before leaving during World War II when they were quite popular anymore. The coffee is made in multiple stages starting from seeds in the grounds that bud into little green stalks that they call little soldiers. From there, the little soldiers are put into small pots until they're bigger and can be planted in the ground to form trees. There are multiple types of coffee trees that are planted at the co-op and then the fruits from the seeds are mixed together, cleaned, dried, roasted, and eventually made into coffee. There's a little more to it, but it would bore most of you to go into all the details.

The most exciting part was that in the middle of the tour, there is a canopy that you have to zip line across. There are actually four different mini zips, but it was fun nevertheless. I think that Christie was even enjoying it a bit be the last zip (she's afraid of heights and wasn't too keen on the whole idea to begin with).

At the end of the tour you have to option to try the coffee, but since I'm not a huge fan of it, I convinced them to let us try a local drink called Pinol, that is basically corn with some chocolate and sugar mixed in. Taste like a really weak version of Cream of Wheat and not altogether to appetizing.

From the coffee farm, Christie and I said goodbye and wandered across town to the Museo El Principe Maya, or the Maya Museum. The place was small, contained no air whatsoever, and was run by a crazy anti-social woman with no real manners, but super hearing when it came to the sound of a camera case's Velcro unclipping (no pictures allow, but it didn't stop me from trying), and her attention-craving deprived pug.

Small though it was, there were some very nice artifacts and some decent English translations of the information signs, just not as many or as informative as we would have liked. Of particular note, there were some very nice figurines that depicted the Mayan people (they had a petulance for creating high foreheads and crossed eyes as signs of wealth and privilege), some beautiful jade and shell jewelry, and some interesting dental additions (seems that modern society was not the first to add embellishments to their teeth, the Mayans added jade and other stones like small people add diamonds today).

The last adventure for the day was to the Parque National Las Victorias, a nice nature park with trails, bbq areas, and campgrounds. We arrived there later in the day and were told not to wander to far as it wasn't safe. So we wandered down to the lake where there was a caiman floating lazily on a submerged walkway that went out to a small kiosk in the middle of the water. I wanted to walk on it, but it seemed that this was not to be. We wandered some more, taking in the nature and capturing it in grainy digital to shows those back at home.

Thus ends our adventures in Coban.