Days 3 & 4: Heading South to the Coffee Mecca that is Coban and swimming in the deep green lagoons of Semuc Champey! Happy 1st week birthday Madison!
 
August 10th - It is now one week since Madison India was born, happy 1st week b'day niece!









In true Guatemalan style our bus was late, not as bad as David's though, he was taken before us to catch the 'Express' bus which was so 'express' he was still waiting for it when we passed him an hour later!! He appeared to have bumped into an Dutch blonde we met the night before so we knew he wasn't minding too much that bus was delayed ......!!!
 
First we headed in our minibus to Flores to pick up another 14 to cram in! Flores, a small isle in the middle of the lake reminded me of one of the smaller Mexican towns, bright colonial buildings and dotted restaurants, I could see why the locals said that El Ramate would give us more of an insight into the real Guatemalan life. Needing the loo I followed another girl on the bus into what we thought was a hotel, only to realise that the two rather shocked adults looking back at us were actually in their own home and we were in their bathroom, eeek!!! The hotel was indeed next door! I couldn't believe it and having such poor Spanish made it even more embarrassing, on the bus the other girl and I still couldn't get over what we had done and had to laugh!
 
Our driver was a young guy with great English due to his American girlfriend so on route he gave us a Spanish lesson and told us about the areas we were travelling through. This time Ads had joined me in business class although after the 8 hour day he realised how cramped it actually is in the front and that indeed his back seat is more premier! Heading further towards Coban it was a truly beautiful journey, lush green mountains suddenly appeared and gone was the flat landscape/fields, as we winded round the mountain valley roads we passed coffee, banana and oil plantations, such a tropical metropolis lay ahead it was stunning. Again the rural life consisted of metal shacks for homes and many a time we passed women and their children washing their clothes in small muddy looking streams/puddles at the side of the road . One picture that will remain with me is a young girl of about 7 I saw washing her clothes through a barbed wire fence so that she could use the large puddle that the rain had created at the bottom of a farmer's field, such hardship. Men rode on horse back for work, cattle trucks went past packed solid not with cows etc... But with humans all squashed together standing within the metal grid. Many collectivos passed with double the number of people we had in ours all packed in like sardines, I think local transport for me is a no no in this country after what we saw!!
 
During the journey we had to catch the local 'car ferry' across the river, this consisted of a metal sheet with 2 75 horse power outboard motors stuck onto one side which a little man spun round in and attempted to steer! I was surprised to see that we made the other side as we appeared to float down the river in the wrong direction for most of it; it was amazing to see how they improvise with transport compared to the million pound boats we have just to do the same distance!
 
8 hours later we finally reached Coban and by now our bums were numb and we were in agony, this minibus travel sucks sometimes! In the book Coban had been described as the 'coffee centre' of all of Guatemala with even Starbucks coffee beans made here, so I was expecting a town much like Mexico full of quaint coffee shops and cool architecture and was very excited! Do they do cake too mum??! What we arrived too was not really that and I would describe Coban as a 'lived in true Guatemalan city' untouched in many ways by tourism which is a bonus . The colonial coloured buildings needed a good lick of paint and were pretty shabby, the white cathedral dominating the square lacked any grandeur compared to others but still the place had a certain local charm about it and whilst we wouldn't go back it was a good base to do other things.... Finding a cheap eat and cheap accommodation was hard so we paid over the odds then very sadly saw to our amazement the golden 'M' signs at the end of the town, so a Mcflurry and fries it was for tea, both not really taking in that McDonalds was actually in a highland town of Guatemala of all places!
 
The next day saw another early start, this time heading east towards the mountainous area of Lanquin and clear water pools of Semuc Champey. The front seat today was probably not the best to have as our driver had a constant loud sniff which continued incessantly every 5-15 seconds, can you tell I was counting! When a song came on the radio though that he liked the sniffing stopped as he sang out of tune to the music. ...at this point of the day my brain couldn't engage as to which was better!! Driving through arches, bridges and small towns, we were then heading into the mountainous areas and the lush green scenery again was stunning. Passing through a mass abundance of people having their local market in the middle of the only mountain road was a sight in itself, especially the large slabs of meat covered in flies on sale in baskets in the roaring heat.....

The journey was actually only 68km but we had been told it took 3 hours!! This seemed quite unbelievable at first until after an hour the road totally disappeared and we continued on a tiny rocky track for the next 2 hours to reach our destination, nightmare, now we could see why! Here the track took us deep into the valley with tropical mountains looming all around us; we could have easily been back in Laos or NZ or any other European alpine country.
 
Finally we reached Lanquin a tiny town nestled into the valley with small streets and local markets bustling all around, if we could we would have stayed here rather than Coban, I loved it . Indigenous ladies in their bright coloured dress walked the streets with babies swaddled in material on their backs whilst at the same time balancing large bundles on their heads, an incredible scene to see. That is one thing that has truly struck me about Guatemala in that wherever you go be it rural village or city, you still see all the ladies wearing similar versions of the traditional dress, long colourful patterned full skirts with crochet blouses on top, the modern dress is a pretty rare sight compared to other similar countries visited.

Passing through Lanquin we then headed higher and higher into the mountains and after a brief coffee stop where a very friendly pig laid wanting its belly tickled (!!) we arrived at Semuc Champey, a liquid paradise stretching 60m across the Cahabon gorge where a natural limestone bridge has formed covered in stepped clear green and blue lagoons. First we hiked along the river to view the waterfalls and raging river below . The lagoons were just beautiful and in order to see them better, we hiked the very steep climb up to 'Mirador' which looked down upon the valley, bridge and turquoise waters. Huffing and puffing after just 5 minutes of the climb, both of us were already panicking about how we will complete Peru, here's hoping its not as hot and humid and that we are abit fitter! After the climb we joined other travellers diving and swimming in the clear pools, and then sat making sandwiches having a picnic in the sun on the waters edge. It was such a chilled and peaceful place, I could have easily stayed here for many hours, what a life we are having!
 
On the return journey back we stopped for some of the group to visit the famous Lanquin caves, needless to say I wasn't too fussed and neither was Ads so instead we chilled and read books, finally the long stretch back awaited and then we were home! A tad hungry we found a small local place out of town to eat which consisted of a lady outside barbequing meat and potatoes on an open fire it was delicious and 4 times cheaper than the named haunts in the book. Ads was so chuffed he had 2 meals much to their surprise! Then that eve we retired to our second hostel we had now found as it was much cheaper, tad grubby but cool and the sign in our bedroom highlighted its price when it read ' To our guests, when you need water please inform to reception to connect it!' Good night!