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I’ve just re-read my post about Belize City.  It was a little harsh, and I’ve thought of another pro:  there is no malaria there.  Good, hey?

Anyway, in case you didn’t get it from that post, we were in something of a hurry to leave Belize City, and so we decided that the best thing we could do would be to get straight on a bus to Guatemala.  Well, that didn’t work out, and we ended up back in San Ignacio for a night, but the next morning we were up and determined to get ourselves to rural Guatemala, specifically a town called Lanquin that is near caves and lakes and rivers and other exciting things.  We crossed the border (more fines and no receipts, sigh) and got on a bus to Santa Elena, and from there got a bus to a place called Sayaxche.

Sayaxche is a tiny town on a river, and the bus takes you only this far.  From there you get on a slightly elongated canoe (with your bags on your back, naturally) and try desperately to keep your balance as the canoe-man shunts you across the river.  The potential for falling in is pretty huge; it’s all kinds of fun.  On the other side about a billion minibus drivers shout the names of places at you, trying to get you on board.  They all reckon that the are the best bus for you, that no one else will get you where you need to go… but in our case they all agreed on one thing.  There was no way we’d be making it to Lanquin that evening.

“But it’s only half one!”

We had the good fortune to come across a driver who spoke English – lame of us, but so helpful.

“Yes, but you must go to Coban first.  You can stay in Coban, go to Lanquin in the morning.”

“Why do we have to go to Coban?”

“Because the other roads are not so good.  You can go… but you will maybe get to Lanquin at 10, 11pm.”

It was just starting to rain.  We gave some unhappy thought to the idea of trying to find somewhere to stay in a small rural village in the dark, in the rain.

We went to Coban.

Coban is a pretty big city, given that it’s in the middle of nowhere.  It’s even got a shopping centre.  It has about 90,000 people.  And where we ended up staying, the Casa Acuna, was so lovely that we stayed there two nights before grimly gritting our teeth and getting back on the packed out minibus to Lanquin.

But here were our first impressions of the region:  The minibus driver, because we clearly didn’t have a clue where we were or where we wanted to be after we got off the bus in Coban, drove us straight to the hotel we wanted.  He even looked surprised when I tipped him.  Then the hotel staff were unbelievably helpful – we couldn’t finish our dinner so they boxed it up, put it in their fridge and in the morning heated it for us for breakfast and served it in the restaurant.  Exactly how above and beyond the call of duty is that?  People here seem to be really sweet and friendly, and exactly how I imagined Guatemalans to be.