Caves in Coban

After saying goodbye to Ana in Guate, we both decided we needed to find a more rural place next so with 3 days to go until Fritz started school we took off to Coban.  Our plan was to spend the night in the National Park in the city and then to head toward Semuc Champey before heading north to Flores in Paten. 

 

The departure from Guate was super easy; we left on the Saturday before Easter early enough to beat the cities processions.  The road took us from dried suburban landscapes to cloud forest as we drove, about 2 ½ hours in we stopped at the funniest Guatemalan restaurant either of us had seen, it looked like it was ordered right out of the General Store catalog, we truly felt like we had been transported to somewhere in middle America and were having lunch with someone’s grandmother.  Another hour later and we were in Coban, unfortunately I was still recovering from the Guatemalan flu and so we decided against camping and opted for a hotel, my hopes of finding a hotel on the last Saturday of Semana Santa that would take us and the dogs was not high but we followed these signs hoping for a break and after Fritz saying “Really, you think you want to look for a hotel down this street?” and me encouraging him on we found what has to have been the nicest hotel for dogs yet.

Not only was the room really comfortable and the water in the showers hot, the couple who owned it had also landscaped the whole hillside for bird watchers, where we could let the dogs run free or use the lawn area for a much needed game of catch!  The couple who own the hotel was very nice (we ended up being the only people there as all the other guests had checked out that morning to miss the traffic back to the city) and suggested that instead of Semuc Champey we try the “Cuevas de Los Reyes” which was closer.  We headed out there early on Easter morning.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am fairly claustrophobic, so I am not quite sure what I was thinking going Spelunking, I have been in caves before, well I have been in the mouths of really big caves on Kauai and when the guide told me that the first opening was the smallest at one meter by one meter I almost chickened out.  I will say that I did it, unfortunately I don’t have any photographic proof of this as it was too dark for our camera to work, but I did it, including crossing a stream in the cave with a rope, crawling through parts on my knees and a minute complete darkness in the center of the cave where we were all supposed to pray or meditate and talk to our ancestors (my conversation was pretty much get me the bleep out of here).  Once in the sunshine I cried. 

 

Other than the caves I would have liked to have spent more time in the pools and waterfalls but with the Guatemalan flu persisting and Easter Sunday crowds we retired to another afternoon of hiking and an early dinner at our new favorite hotel.