GT III- Coban

Next stop: Coban. An often-missed destination right in the middle of GT. However, the travel forum folks waxed poetic about the turquoise pools of Semuc Champey, and the guidebook listed it as one of 5 highlights, so straight after Tikal we packed our bags and left Flores in a minivan.

From Coban it's a 2hr mountain road to Lanquin, then a 20min narrow bumpy dirt path downhill to Semuc.

From About.com:
Semuc Champey, which means "Sacred Water" in the Mayan Kekchi language, is a natural limestone land bridge studded with a series of freshwater pools, suspended over the Cahabon River. The pools range in color from emerald to near-violet, and the water is deliciously cool. Lush, forested hills cradle the river, which surges below the bridge in a ferocious undertow.

Before swimming, we took a side trail that said: El Mirador. Difficulty: Difficult. 1.5 hr. There was an explanation of what we could expect from El Mirador at the entrance to the park. But once again my woefully inadequete language skills failed me. So, heeding our masochistic instincts, we started gleefully up the path.

There was a lot of climbing up steps cut from the mountain side. There was a lot of mud on these steps. If my name were Wilbur and I go oink, I'd have been really happy. Unfortunately, our sad lack of schizophrenia made us increasingly upset over the state of our shoes. I also had visions of slipping and sliding down the mountain. I stole glances away from the ground and towards the trees, hoping to find a nice banana leaf to slide down on. But no such luck.

All of a sudden, we were at the top. We had been climbing steadily up, and now found ourselves on a wooden platform, drinking in the view of a deep river valley flanked by forested hills. The pools were far below us, promising delicious respite after that treacherous climb. yay.


We slipped and slid back down, then tiptoed gingerly into a pool. Cold!! But the sun was out and it was a fantastic day. We lounged around, swam a bit. There were little fishes that came to nibble our toes. They were swarming about Charmaine and I was starting to get jealous-- why don't they like MY toes?!?!? Then they came to mine too, and we were both sitting in this pool, giggling like schoolgirls because it really tickled. (yes yes, we ARE schoolgirls, but that's not the point) Attempts to grab a fish failed miserably, till I devised the brilliant strategy of cupping them from both sides.

By late morning there were 4-5 guatemalan families also seeking a nice swim, so we decided to head back to lanquin to check out the caves. We waited at the entrance for the hourly bus that would arrive in 20mins.

1.5hrs later, we decided that the bus was never going to come. I tried asking Carlos, a really friendly boy that was selling cold drinks from his cooler, about the bus. I couldn't really understand his spanish, but I heard 'eleven', 'twelve', 'one'. He shrugged. With my brilliant powers of deduction, I think he meant that the bus might come at eleven, or twelve, or one... who knows? We settled down for a long wait.

A guatemalan family who was hanging out at the visitor's center starting piling into their minivan to get up to lanquin. Initially, I considered asking them for a ride, but as more and more of them appeared and went into the van, I realised that there probably wasn't room for 2 more. I think they had 15 people, plus 2 babies, in that van. I debated the merits of climbing on the roof of the van and hanging on. Charmaine did her eye rolling thing at me again. I don't understand why her optic muscles need so much exercise.

Then, a pickup arrived, bearing gallons of water. Boys swarmed out, unloading it. The pickup turned around. I called to Carlos, "?para Lanquin?" I gestured frantically at Charmaine and myself and pantomimed riding on a pickup. Carlos' eyes light up. !Si! He talked rapidly in spanish to the boys driving the pickup.

whoop! We piled into the back. Charmaine, myself, 2 other girls who were waiting for the bus, and this guatemalan guy.

10 minutes later, clinging on for dear life, trying not to slide off the pickup as we disregarded all the potholes on the steeply inclining slope, I wondered if I would still have any teeth left by the time we get to lanquin. I was convinced that they were gradually being shaken loose from my jaw. The guatemalan guy was still sitting nonchalently at his corner-- I think he was enjoying the breeze.

Because of all our productive waiting at Semuc, we decided that it was too late to visit the caves. The bus to Coban should arrive shortly.

Much to my surprise, the bus came on time! But it was a minivan, packed to the gills. The bench seats were packed 5 to a seat, and wooden boxes served as extra seats. I sat on a wooden box in front, facing backwards, my back pressed against the backseat of the guy riding shotgun. I couldn't lean forward because there was a guy stooping right in my face-- he was standing on the little step that minivans have between the door and the seats. I wish I had a good picture. I'm sure there were at least 25 people in that van.

Back in Coban, we decided to go to Vivero Verapaz, an orchid farm 3km outta town. The owner Juan was really friendly and showed us around personally. The 25 yr old farm is his backyard, where he has over 600 species of orchids!! Most orchids only bloom 2 months in the year, so not everyone had flowers, but those that did were SO PRETTY. Exclamations of "!Muy Bonito!" escaped from our lips at every step. I'm not a flower person, but I was very impressed. The coolest ones are the mini orchids, which can be so small you can fit 4 of them on the back of your pinky fingernail. With a digital camera, with miminal zoom, macro settings and the maximum light sensitivity, all attempts at capturing them on film failed miserably. Our hands were shaking like crazy, though we hadn't had any coffee.. The pictures below are the Monja Blanca (white nun -GT nat'l flower), and the only good mini orchid pic I could find online. We didn't see this species at Coban, but it's such a nice pic I've put it here anyways. The only problem I had at the farm were the hordes of mosquitoes. We were fresh from a bath at Semuc and didn't reapply repellent-- deep regrets.