Transportation

I thought I had seen it all in Guatemala until my trip from Rio Dulce to Coban, this the day I got off the catamaran. The bus from Rio Dulce was plush with air conditioning and even a bus attendant and snacks. Then it got sketchy as we were dropped off in El Rancho, a.k.a. El Rauncho, a tiny town where a hustler greeted us and grabbed Becky’s wheeled suitcase showing us where the “bus” transfer was to our next destination, Coban. I didn’t trust this guy so asked a woman where to go and sure enough it was the same place the slimy guy was taking us. (I just assume people are trying to take advantage of me, I feel like I am a walking quetzal, the local currency, most of the time.) The bus turned out to be a mini shuttle bus with a broken window and the employees were 2 shirtless guys, one the driver and the other the money-taker/guy who lets the driver know there’s someone on the side of the road. I had not felt more vulnerable than at that time when Becky and I had to figure out if it was safe to take this transport. We decided to because there were other women on the van. I was so glad to be traveling with someone else at this point. We literally stopped for anyone on the side of the road. At one point, there were 25 people on this tiny van. The best part was getting left on the side of the road once we reached Coban. The locals were super helpful, though, as the employees didn’t even tell us where we were but we found a taxi almost right away and made it safely to our hostel. I guess I shouldn’t have expected more as we only paid 25 quetzales, about $3.

So we quickly figure out that Coban is not a heavily touristed area and transportation to this area is infrequent and chaotic so decide to immediately figure out how we’re getting out of there. We had planned to travel to Semuc Champey the following day and stay there for a few nights then head to Xela but we did not want a repeat of our fun trip to Coban so wanted to take a direct shuttle. Our only option was to leave Coban a full day earlier than we’d planned as the next shuttle wasn’t until the following Tuesday. So we ended up doing a 1 day trip to the Semuc Champey area. Our tour included transport (a fun, bumpy, unpaved road), entrance fee to the park, a guide (who was mostly useless and this is a generous statement), lunch, etc. We met some great people: 2 French girls, 1 with an infected tooth who had to be dropped off at the hospital, and an Australian couple with a disgusting worm story. There was a hike up to a great lookout of the limestone pools and we also swam in the pools. A gorgeous place. What got lost in translation was a trip to a cave, as we had no idea this was part of the tour. It was sort of cool at first but then the guide started hunting for spiders so half of us went back early. The cave had super slippery rocks and was really creepy and dirty. I could’ve done without this part but am continually reminded of how fluid this place is. Things are never fully explained even when asked directly and you don’t know for sure what you’re going to get. Hmmm, sort of like life…..

So, the next day’s trip to Quetzaltenango, or Xela, as the locals call it after a Mayan name, was by far even worse than the trip to Coban. It took more than 8 hours in a mini-bus with half of that time on unpaved and extremely curvy roads. Guatemala has to be one of the most difficult countries to travel around with its’ hills/mountains and crazy curvy roads. There was construction in many parts as they were paving a brand new road, wonderful for future travelers and locals alike. We tried to distract ourselves with games and thankfully, the couple we were traveling with was interesting and willing to play our famous person, word association and story games. They and the bus driver thought we were fun and appreciated the distractions!!

Xela greeted us with rain and very cool weather, which I find refreshing after 2 weeks of sweating. It’s also back to city life. Xela is Guatemala’s 2nd largest city and it feels so strange to be in one, really since Seattle. Actual traffic lights look so odd. I’m so glad to be in 1 place after traveling around for 3 weeks. So now I’m back to school for my last 2 weeks!!!!

Adios mis amigos!