Ridin´ Dirrty

After a relaxing in the lovely Fuentes Georginas hotsprings, we decided that 24 hours was certainly enough time to spend in Xela. To be fair, the hotsprings were beautiful, steaming hot, and relaxing. They didn´t even smell too sulphuric, which was a pleasant surprise.

When we showed up to the bus station in Xela, we were dismayed to find that there were no direct buses back to San Pedrom (a good jumping off point to other desirable destinations), nor were there any buses direct to Coban, the next town we wanted to head to. Desperate to leave the dirty city, we went spontaneous and jumped ona bus to Santa Cruz del Quiche, as from our map that seemed to be about half way between Xela and Coban.

Santa Cruz del Quiche is definitely NOT a chief tourist destination. In fact, the only other gringos on the bus were peace corps volunteers (who basically convinced us never to do the peace corps - too much beauracracy). It was pretty refreshing to stay some place where we were not assaulted every few minutes by various handicrafts vendors. However, the povertty we saw there was striking and not a little depressing: a little boy barely so small his backpack dragged on the ground was attempting to shine the shoes of those passing by.

We left el Quiche early this morning to make our way towards Coban on some of the craziest roads I´ve ever been on. The peace corps volunteers we had met on the bus complained that they weren´t allowed to go certain places in Guatemala, inclduing the road to Coban. After coming here, I totally understand why it´s restricted.

The road winded and twisted at terrifying degrees and in many places was covered with gravel and boulders from recent landslides. At one point we saw a rock actually roll down the hill past our bus. Aside from the terror, though, the ride was quite thrilling. The scenery was jaw-droppingly beautiful, replete with lush forests and craggy mountains, gurgling rivers and tropical flowers. Nevertheless, because of the poor conditions of the roads, what looked like it would take about 3 hours on a map ended up taking 8. Pobrecito Stew´s arm got really sunburned when he fell asleep with it out the window! Also, in case you all are curious, his eye feels much much better and he may even begin wearing contacts again tomorrow.

Once we arrived in Coban, everything was closed. Nevertheless, we walked to every attraction we wanted to see in the hopes that our book was incorrect. At least we know where everything is for later!

Tomorrow morning we plan to go caving in an old Mayan religous spot, where a sacred underground river flows. If were lucky, we may stumble upon a religous ceremony in progress. Cross your fingers for us!