Coban & Around

Waking up at 7.30am in the huge (party) hostel of Los Amigos in Flores and trying not to make too much noise can be quite challenging! But we haven’t got much of a chance today, with the long trip to Coban waiting ahead of us the only option is to hop on a busito as early as possible! Funny thing is that yesterday, while looking for a cheap ride to Coban (think that the base price started at 150QZL/pp) we found ourselves in a small hostel bargaining and eventually settling for just 90QZL/pp. Surely not the cheapest ride in town but at least cheaper than what was around!

Anyway, here we are in this little tiny shuttle just in front of the only bridge of Flores waiting for a local marathon to end and start our long ride to heaven. Luckily the view in front of us is simple breathtaking! Finally, at around 10am the one and only road our of Flores opens again but the driver starts worrying for those going to Semuc Champey that they might get very late there. Yep, the majority if not all the people on the busito are going down in Baja Verapaz to the renown destination of Semuc Champey. From what we’ve heard, this place is nothing but beautiful natural pools in the jungle where visitors gets a chance to take a dip & also explore some caves.

Initially, we thought about going to S.C. in just one journey but yesterday we changed our mind and decided to give Coban a chance. Do you know that to reach Semuc it takes 7-9hrs of busito not including stops ??? We arrive at 4.30pm in Coban and as we’re taking down our backpacks we cannot imagine how do the others feel considering that they still have (hopefully) just another couple of hours left on bumpy roads…Madness!

Backpacks on and we start our quest in search for our hostal booked through booking.com: Casa Tenango! Cheaper than any other hostels in Semuc & Copan, featuring great wifi, laundry and shared kitchen, this seems like the perfect place to stay. After a long 10-blocks walk, we reach our destination; the hostel, separated from the main road, consists in 10+ private rooms plus two/three dorms. After a quick check-in, we start the walk to our room hoping for the best and unexpectedly we end up on the amazing rooftop of the hostel overlooking the whole city of Copan. “Esta es la habitación” (this is the room), still amazed from the views we slowly turn around only to find out that the room given to us was the one on the rooftop. What an incredible surprise! Yes, the room is tiny but it has two windows, its very warm, wireless reaches up here and most of all… wanna talk about the views ?!

Beautiful Graffiti in Coban

People are always super friendly

Greatest Bakery in Coban…

…inside of Bakery!

Quick trip to the supermarket to get food for tomorrow & to have some dinner at Casa Pollo (or something on those lines) and on the way back we spot a good amount of people grouping up all around the main road of the town. Mmm… we know something is going to happen but its only when we ask a local woman that we know the truth: tonight Copan’s x-mas parade is gonna pass through the town!!! And this is just under 30min! Time to run back home, leave our stuff in the fridge, run back out and get some popcorns that the parade is already here!

Marta manages to take a seat in the VIP tribune

Everybody’s waiting!

Popocorn, tortillas, tacos & french fies

Santa throwing sweets, masks, people dancing, hot dogs sellers, a band playing local music and even clowns keeping up the spirit of the festivity: what an awesome parade this is! After a good half an hour of entertainment, everybody splits into those who follow the parade and those who head back to bed and although the parade was awesome, we opt to follow the latter. We can’t wait to relax in our tiny rooftops room!

The next day, we feel like doing something more adventurous and end up finding our way to hike to the one of the biggest waterfalls in central america: El Salto de Chilascó! At the hostel they assured us that getting there without our own transport would have been a bit tricky but we decide to give a try anyway. After a short ride on the Monja Blanca bus that connects Coban to G. City, we hop off the junction road that leads up to Chilascó (20Q each).

Junction to Chilasco

And then the wait starts; in fact, there is no bus connection to Chilascó but a busito & pick-ups that kind of connect the small pueblito with the main road. Not long after, a pick-up going to the village stops to pick workers on the main road and so we hop on. Around half-an-hour later (and 10Q less), as a small wave of rainstorms starts to drizzle the surroundings, we finally arrive in town and to our amazement, we find the “tourist office”. There we pay the entrance of 35Q to access the reserve, get asked if we need a guide for 100Q or some horses for 50Q/horse and to our kind refusal, get given some information on how to reach the waterfall by ourselves.

Whist walking around the main road, we understand that Chilascó has preserved every possible aspect of what you would expect to be a small town nestled in the middle of the Guatemalan cloud forests. Just a couple of tiendas selling simple grocery, one comedor and no hotels or other places to stay at so expect to be the only tourist around here! The people of this village are super friendly with us, very kind and also very curious of why are two Gringos walking around with this weather. Good question!

The hike to the waterfall takes us around 2h15 with fog being a constant all throughout and rain just an occasional guest coming to visit sometimes. In all honesty, the path was relatively easy to follow and only at a couple of junctions we doubted which way to go but simply asked locals which path to follow (even without that directions, its pretty easy to guess the right path even easier with a decent weather!). For the first hour and a half, hiking can be extremely difficult as the path is sometimes flooded with water, unbelievably muddy or has simply disappeared into a small canyon and other smaller paths have formed around it.

First Part of the Walk (aka the canyon)

Further on before starting to head down for the waterfall

Be careful! Once that horrible part has passed, you’ll be rewarded with a way more enjoyable & well signalled path leading down to two small mirador, another waterfall (the “Saltito”) and then the actual 130m tall the “Salto” (we couldn’t see much but on a sunny day the views must be amazing!).

While on our hike, we also have the pleasant surprise of being accompanied by a local kid Marvin, that after having showed us his ability on the bicycle and the family’s fields of papas, eventually decides to join us and become our unofficial guide to the waterfall. Once back at the starting point (2h later), we just have the time to buy something for his family that the last busito connecting the main road shows up. Easy peasy! And from the main road we take the first colectivo thats heading for Coban (20Q pp).

Unfortunately, even though this hike end up being quite enjoyable thanks to Marvin’s stories about his family, traditions, way of living and much more, we cannot say the same about the waterfall itself. The bad path and especially the weather are two of the reasons for which, once at the hostel, promised ourselves that one day we’ll be back to explore this place again, only with a sunshine instead of a storm! Last words? If it’s sunny don’t hesitate spending a day in Chilasco, if its bad weather, avoid yourself the hassle even if you have driven all the way to the town itself from Coban.

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