Coban

Coban isn't much to look at, there isn't much to do there, and the food didn't appear to be that great either. It's mainly a stopping off point on the way to Lanquin and Semuc Champey, or Flores. However, for us though there was one main draw, an Orchid sanctuary called Orquigonia. We decided to stay there to see what it was like.

Orchids at Orquigonia

Getting There

We got to Coban by using a shuttle (7:30am), it was 150Q per person and advertised to take about 6 hours. It actually took closer to 9 due to the amount of people that were picked up and waiting around at McDonalds for an hour. The road itself is pretty windy and the shuttles aren't the most comfortable. Many people continue for another 3 hours to get to Lanquin, that journey would have been brutal.

Where We Stayed

We stayed at Casa Luna for 175Q per night with a shared bathroom. It had okay wifi and the staff were very friendly.

We originally wanted to camp at Parque Las Victorias however we weren't feeling very well when we got to Coban and it was raining heavily so decided against it.

Things To Do

• Orquigonia - like Orchids? Go here. It's 50Q per person for a guided tour. The tour will be in Spanish though. We did some bad negotiating and got it for 25Q each due to us not making use of the tour (though we still had a guide).

Journal

Getting There

We got on to our 6 hour shuttle feeling pretty sorry for ourselves. Another hour later we were still in Antigua driving around picking people up and loading up their things on to the bus and I was very desperate for the toilet. When we stopped at a petrol station I jumped out and made a bee-line for the banos. Unfortunately the driver hadn't seen me jump out and a very animated Kate Street needed to stop him from driving off. About an hour into the trip we were passing through Guatemala City and made a stop at McDonalds. We thought it was going to be a five minute stop for the bathrooms but forty five minutes later and we were still there with no idea why. The driver had been on the phone the whole time so we assumed we were probably supposed to be meeting someone else there. Eventually the driver announced "Vamos!", let's go, but by this point it had been so long that hardly anyone was near the bus. It was at least another ten minutes before we actually left. We passed about five more Mcdonalds before we did a U-turn and pulled in to yet another McDonalds. Where we found two more people waiting for the bus. They apologised, but I'm not sure it was entirely their fault... using McDonalds as a landmark isn't a great idea when there are hundreds of them.

The roads after Guatemala City soon headed up in to the hills before we were winding round hills and passes and making very slow progress, often hampered by traffic jams and large lorries. The driver did his best to make sure we got as many moments of shear terror as possible and all this was made worse by the fact that both Kate and I were desperately trying not to be sick and/or evacuate our bowels. When we got to Coban we were ready to get in to bed immediately and sleep. We originally were planning on camping in Coban but as we weren't feeling up to it... and it was raining heavily we decided to find a hostel to rest up at.

A friendly Guatemalan passenger helped us talk to the driver and even offered to walk us to the hostel we decided to stay at though we declined as it was raining heavily. He gave us a few good pieces of advice about getting to Lanquin by public bus and then help orientate us before we headed off in to the rain to look for our hostel. When we got there we quickly got a room - unfortunately with no ensuite - and pretty much both got in to bed immediately. A few hours later we woke up feeling equally terrible but realising we needed to eat. Luckily the hostel had some dinner options and we had a some pasta to keep us going before heading back to bed.

Kate feeling particularly unwell!

Day 1

In the morning we were still feeling unwell but managed to get some rehydration fluids and have some breakfast at the hostel. We decided to head to Orquigonia anyway as we were here for that reason and didn't want to miss out, however we opted to spend another night, we didn't want another three hour trip today.

We caught a collectivo from the bus station just at the top of the road which cost us 2Q each, a bargain! We conferred with the map and the collectivo attendent (who wasn't too sure what we were talking about) and somehow managed to get off at the right place. There was a large sign saying Orquigonia 200m that pointed up a steep hill. We walked past some very rural properties and said hello to a few of the locals. At this point we were still both very much in the throws of food poisioning so the hill took some time. Eventually we reached the car park and the very unassuming entrance. We walked in to the little front cabin and attempted to chat to some of the staff there. It very quickly became apparent that no one spoke English.

I'd read on tripadvisor that the lack of English speaking guides really makes the the tour slightly pointless (at least paying for it). We asked in broken Spanish if we could just negate the tour and walk around by ourselves. The result was being given half price entry and being guided by not one but two guides...though still with no English translation.

To start the tour we were both given magnifying glasses. This is because many of the Orchids in the sanctuary are absolutely tiny. The first ten metres of the tour really showed how prevalent Orchids can be, they were growing out of every nook or every tree and you could hardly turn around without finding another one. The guides pointed out many of the Orchids with their handy sticks. After a while we began to wonder how much conversation is done by giving these Orchids a good hit with a stick however they all seemed to be doing well so who are we to argue (maybe that's the secret!).

The tour was very up and down in the terrain so both Kate and I had to take it slowly with our stomach cramps and nausea, it wasn't the nicest feeling! Along the way we saw loads of Orchids all of which were beautiful. We also saw a Motmot which is a  type of bird with very distinctive tail feature, a butterfly with transparent wings, and a few other very pretty flowers! All in all it was a very nice tour, and all the better for being half price. At the end we were given a cup of tea, and we sat down to gather up our strength to make the trip back.

The trip back was much the same, we caught a collectivo from the stop opposite Orquigonia within minutes of getting there and were dropped off shortly after. Many of the roads are one way in Coban so the collectivos don't always go the way they came, luckily we were last stop! When we go back we were in between feeling rather ill and being very hungry. We had hardly eaten anything and hungry won the day this time. We decided to get some rice from a nearby Asian restaurant where we shared a very plain dish just to get us by. It was just what we needed! After that we headed back to the hostel for another early night.

In the morning we packed up our things, had breakfast at the hostel and then headed to the collectivo bus station for Lanquin. We had found that all the shuttles to Lanquin (our next stop) came via Antigua. this meant they all came either in the very early morning (at 5am), or in the afternoon (around 1pm). We didn't want to wait around and we wanted to get to Lanquin when we were ready so we decided to take the public bus.