Blogs from Cobán, Verapaz Region, Guatemala, Central America Caribbean - page 3

This has been one very long week. Luckily though, things are finally better. I’ve moved out of the host family’s house that we were staying in. That helped my mood immediately. They are an amazing family and I adore them, but it was driving me batty. I hated feeling that I had be in at like 4 in the afternoon and could only eat when they did. I found myself thinking about food a lot. I always want what I can’t have, so come 8 at night when they serve dinner, I was famished. I could’ve eaten my own arm at that point. This is a pretty small town, so I’m sure I’ll see them pretty often, which is nice. My new apartment is awesome. In fact, everyone loves it. It is in a new building ... read more

I should’ve known how this trip would be right when we pulled up to the border. When they asked why I was going to the airport, I told them I was going to Guatemala. No sooner had the word Guatemala come out of my mouth, the customs guy told my sister to turn off the car and hand him the keys. They searched the car, I’m guessing for some random immigrants hidden in the trunk. Now that humorous. The Detroit airport however, not funny at all. Apparently during the holiday season, the U.S. has this ridiculous new law called the Luggage Embargo. Not only am I not a fan of it, but apparently I could’ve ended up in prison for a short period of time because of it. When I got up to the counter, the ... read more

After ensuring we were on a bus to Coban Guatemala and not Copan Honduras (small difference - big error to put right!) we started the 5 hour journey to Coban. Our main reason to come here before we head to Antigua city is Semuc Champey and Languin. the former is a series of waterfalls and natural swimming pools and the latter a series of caves full of bats which fly out in the evening and obscure the sky. Only 8 of us in a 13 seater microbus as they call a minibus so relatively comfortable and cost only 12 quid each so although more than the local chicken buses definitely worth it. Made a crossing on a really weird ferry. Wooden and flat so the bus drove on then the ferry was powered by two men ... read more

Sun 14th Part 2 When we returned from Chamula & Zinacantan we were tired. I ended up drinking some beers & a bottle of mescal there was( something at the bottom of the bottle), with Fran in the hotel lobby. We were taking advantage of the wifi in our Hotel Montezuma downloading & paying music. I was a little drunk when we all met for dinner that night. We went to an all you can eat Argentinian Steak house. For about $ 10 Fran & me had 1 t-bone, 1 new york steak, 1 tenderloin steak & 1 sirloin steak each. I had a couple of glasses of red wine too. On the way back to the hotel I decided to set off the crackers, fireworks & rockets that I had bought in Chamula. I gave ... read more

The bus ride to Coban was the first of what's sure to be many intriguing, confusing, and harrowing rides. We got to the bus in Guatemala City, which was about the size of a Ford Econovan, and they crammed no less than 25 people . We were unable to sit together and our bags were unexpectedly whisked to the roof, which only compounded the overwhelming sense of being out of our element. We rumbled up winding roads, passing other cars around blind corners while screeching the tires as we held the exact point of equilibrium between remaining upright and... not. Many brown ears bobbed and lolled in front of us as everyone uncontrollably dozed in such conditions of discomfort that we were sure it was induced by mass amounts of carbon monoxide. Although amusing at first, ... read more