Guate Travel and Home Again!

I'm home in Durham, but just wanted to write about traveling in Guatemala with Jess. Our week was incredibly busy and we saw quite a lot of Guatemala :) After meeting Jess at the airport, we took a cab to a bus to Coban, which is a town about 5 hours north of Guatemala City. Although the town isn't that exciting itself, it is a jumping off point for going to Semuc Champey. The first full day we were there, however, we felt like exploring Coban itself instead of hopping on a long bus ride again. As it turns out, there is a fantastic orchid nursery where over 600 varieties of Guatemala's 700 or so varieties grow. Here is a picture of Jess with the orchids:

After the orchid nursery, we took a tour of a coffee farm (finca) where a very knowledgeable guide explained and showed up every aspect of the growing, harvesting and roasting process. Then we got to sit down to taste a cup ...

Our second day in Coban we went to Semuc Champey which is about 2 or so hours away: first a shuttle then the back of a pickup truck. I sat on top of the cab with the luggage and Jess squeezed in the back with about 15 other people. Semuc Champey itself is a series of stepped limestone pools. It is a bit difficult to describe so I've included a picture. We climbed up to a lookout point and then explored the pools and waterfalls for a few hours.



Our travels from Coban to Lago Atitlan were, not to mince words, awful. The van was driven by a guy who must have had a death wish -- even compared to the other crazy drivers that I had ridden with in Guatemala. We stopped in Antigua and were supposed to change shuttles but the person we bought or tickets from had actually not arranged anything for us. This was a large problem because we had to get to Lago Atitlan before dark in order to get a boat to our hotel. The death-wish-first-driver took us to a bunch of different travel agencies to try to find something but got more and more angry at us for taking his time. He wasn't the one who sold us the tickets in the first place and felt no sense of personal responsibility. Anyway, it all came to an ugly climax when he started berating me in Spanish about how I was just like all the Americans who come down and treat Guatemalans horribly. I tried apologizing, offering him a sandwich (he blamed us for his not eating lunch), telling him why I was in Guatemala in the first place ... Nothing worked. He was MAD MAD MAD. So, we got out of the van -- without getting the right amount of money back. It was traumatic. But, as it turned out, we took a chicken bus and arrived in time to get a boat to our hotel. Jess particularly enjoyed the chicken bus, although she was slightly injured by a package that fell on her head from the wrack above. Here she is with a small model bus she got later on in the market as a reminder:

The hotel we stayed in was Casa del Mundo, where I had stayed previously. I don't think I can adequately describe how happy we were to be there. We only spent one night, but had 3 delicious meals, spent a few hours in a hot tub next to the lake at night, and basked in the sun ... Here you can see Jess jumping into the lake and me getting ready to follow.

We spent the next day in Santiago visiting Traci and Jared. It was great to see them again and also to show Jess where I had been living and working. But soon we were off traveling again, this time to Antigua. We were quite lazy in Antigua but did manage to see some impressive churches and I took Jess to a lovely old monastery which has now been incorporated into the hotel Casa Santa Domingo.


Jess and I were on different flights out of Guatemala City and hers ended up being delayed by about 8 hours :( Anyway, I made it home on time that evening, Jess made it home that night at 11:30 and my luggage arrived the next evening.

The first few days I have to admit that I didn't want to leave the house. Or, really get out of bed at all. It is quite wonderful to be home. I've been eating salad, drinking water straight from the tap, going on errands with Chris, catching up with friends, and of course spending quality time with Mojo and Q (cats) and Stella (dog). I just saw that there is a possible medical school rotation in Sri Lanka, but I think I'm going to pass for now :)