Paradise

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We tossed a coin to decide to go to Flores and Tikal the unmissable via either Rio Dulce, near the Carribean coast, or Coban in the sweaty centre of the country. Coban and won, and ´scuse my slightly dated language, but "boy was it a winner"!

Well not Coban as such, it is a dive, got a nice hostel and a sweet resteraunt, but otherwise rammed with people gathering for what appeared to be the biggest running race event in Guatemala.

But people don´t come to Coban for Coban. Nearby is a truly awesome waterfall that comprises a set of crystal pools (the largest nearly of olympic proportions in depth and surface, and totalling say 20, each on a different level, with a gentle trickle of water between). All of this comprises a grand 300m limestone bridge (bridge is the wrong word as there is no sense of a bridge about it, more true is that is stands above the tunnel through which the main part of the river flows), in a narrow jungle valley under a blue sky. You can take walks around the area; climb a nearby slope to take in the whole or as the more adventerous among us did take on the fast flowing river and swim to a rock where you can climb some 12m up underneath the waterfall and into a cave. But as soon as we spied the turquoise waters in the midst of that heat we were in. And stayed in for some 4 hours.

We did this as part of a tour, much recommended to travellers, and wish we had stayed a night in the jungle to make a submerged, candlelit cave tour the next day, but our time budget is probably even tighter than our financial one. So all we did was visit Lanquin caves; they are caves, mediocre and full of bat shit, though the stalactites were instrumental.

I am beginning to sound like a critical version of lonely planet. So will shut up. No more recommending, just stories from now on.

ewan

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