Coban, Seymuc Champey, Lanquin

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With no internet connection at the hotel and not a lot of information on the Lonely Planet, I wasn't too sure about how much time or money I would have to spend to go from El Remate to Coban, so I left the hotel reasonably early to be on the safe side.
At 8am, I was on the side of the road, waiting for the colectivo that would take me to Flores where I was hoping to catch a bus to Coban (probably with changes). But as I waited, I noticed a sign in one of the hotels stating “shuttle direct to Coban”. I was tempted and thought there was no harm in investigating. I was told the shuttle would take 5 or 6 hours, there was only a change in Flores but the bus was waiting for us and it would cost Q175 (£14). A bit steep, but I just couldn't resist. The fact that I didn't know the cost of the normal bus probably helped (I still don't know but if it had been Q80 I probably wouldn't have gone for the more expensive option.) So I paid and waited until about 8.45 for the shuttle to depart. The road was quite twisty turny and the driver was probably trying to beat some sort of route speed record, so even though the landscape was very pretty, I tried very hard to sleep as that was pretty much the only way to avoid travel sickness...
We got to Coban at about 2.30pm and I was dropped of in front of the hostel I wanted to stay at. Bonus. There was an older French gentleman who was also staying in Coban and didn't know where to stay so he came along to the same place, which turned out to be very nice and Q50 a night with breakfast, wifi and steaming hot showers. According to the guide book, Coban didn't hold much interest but was a good base to explore the 2 main attractions in the area: Semuc Champey and the caves of Lanquin, so my first priority was to find out how to get there the next day. My hostel was offering a day trip to both sites for Q300 (steep) including transport, guide, lunch and the Q80 entrance fees. When they saw I wasn't interested, they then offered the transport only for Q140 (better but I was still confident I could beat it). So I headed for the bus station to try and find out some information. On the way I stopped at a couple more tour places which quoted me Q110 and Q90 for transport only. But when I finally got to the bus station (it was more difficult than I thought as they have different stations depending on where you were going), the guy told me there was a direct bus at 8AM for Q25 to Q35 each way. That was me sold.
After sorting this out, I was left with the rest of the afternoon to buy some food (but no kitchen access at the hostel so I had to think carefully) and explore the city.
At this point, I feel it is the right time to comment on mosquitoes. I have to say that I think mosquitoes have very good taste. First of all, they love me, so that's a pretty good start. But also, they don't bother going to Coban. And if I had known then what I know now, I wouldn't have bothered either. This city was without a doubt the ugliest and least interesting I have seen so far. My pictures will vouch for it: I only managed to take about 10 (normally I'd end up with about 100 of each place on average). The cathedral is really dull in and out and in front of it there is some really ugly monument on a run down looking main square. The market is no better, on a little dirt road at the back, it is filthy and even felt a little scary. The there is the “Templo El Calvario”, which in itself isn't too bad and from where you get a great view over the ugly city... Hmmm...
So really, when I read in the Lonely Planet that “return visitors will marvel at how much (and how tastefully) the town has developed since their last visit”, I wondered whether that was a typo or how much worse it can have been a few years back... The moral of the story is, if you were thinking of staying in Coban, don't. Go to Lanquin instead.
The next morning I was ready for breakfast at 7am. It wasn't forthcoming until about 7.20 (even though it was supposed to start at 7.00, this is Latin American time, remember), but I still made it to the bus by 7.50. I asked the guy “How much to Semuc Champey?” and he replied it was Q35, most definitely the tourist price but it was too early to haggle so I hopped on without a moan. The road was about 1h30 to Lanquin and then 1h to Semuc, even though it's not far, the second half is unpaved and very bumpy. When we arrived at Lanquin, we were all told to get off. It wasn't too early to argue anymore, so when he said that the bus stopped there and didn't go all the way to Semuc, I was hot on his case saying he'd told me Q35 to Semuc and I wanted my money back... He eventually gave me Q10, meaning I had paid the same as everybody else.
There were a couple of French people on the bus so I went and let on. As we were all going to the same place, we decided to share transport but at first we were told that there were no colectivos as it wasn't market day so we would have to pay Q200 for private transport. We laughed and said we would walk the 10km and then somebody else said he'd take us for Q20 each. We haggled and haggled some more but in the end we agreed to pay what he wanted as he wouldn't budge. So we got on the back of his pick-up and eventually set off for Semuc. An hour and a few bruises later, we arrived and agreed to get picked back up at 2pm (that gave us 2h30). We paid the Q50 entrance, which turned out to be well worth it and set off on the trail to the mirador. The signed said “1.2km – 1h15 – difficult”. We laughed, wondering how on earth someone could do 1.2km in over an hour. Then we started walking and stopped laughing when we realised it was 1.2km of muddy slippery stairs... We made it in about 45 minutes but I felt like I'd ran a marathon (not that I have any idea how that feels) when we arrived. The view was breathtaking though and we were glad to have done the walk. Semuc Champey is a place where a river runs mainly underground. There is a limestone bridge over it with small pools of green water above. From the mirador, we could see some people swimming and even though the weather was cloudy and threatening, it didn't sound like such a bad idea after the climb. After a quick picnic, we headed back down to reach the river. I'm afraid the water was a little too cold for me so I only dipped my feet, but the other two went for a quick swim and loved it. After that, it was time to get back as it was nearly 2pm. Our driver was there waiting, but as there was another pick-up heading back, this time we managed to haggle down to Q15 each.
He dropped us back off in Lanquin where we headed for the “Grutas” (caves). These are more famous for the bats coming out at sunset than for the caves themselves but with no transport going back to Coban after dark, we had to settle for a walk in the caves and no bats. It was nothing special and for Q30 entry fee, I wished I hadn't bothered. The only thing a bit different from other caves I've seen, was how slippery the floor was and I fell over once and we all nearly fell over half a dozen times... Not something I will remember for the rest of my life then! We got the colectivo back around 4.30 for another Q25 (making me wish I'd taken the Q90 shuttle which would have been a lot more straightforward) and were back in Coban for about 6pm. After agreeing to have diner together and organised our transport for the next day (Antigua for me, Flores for them), we returned to our hotels for a well deserved shower.
We met up for some lovely street food around 8pm and then, as the rain started, we decided it was time to call it a day and said our goodbyes.

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Photos

Coban
The not very exciting cathedral

Coban
The ugly monument in front of the cathedral

Coban
The slightly better looking other church

Comments

[delphine]

c'est superbe, jolie vue. hey mais tu as perdu encore du poids non?

[delphine]

l'art moderne n'a pas pour but d'etre beau... c'est ce que les profs d'arts plastiques te diront... mais je suis ok avec toi, c'est moche