Posada de Carlos V Coban

... rapids. At the end of the rapids, we plopped our tubes into the river, and began our float. A short and leisurely time later, we arrived at the bridge, and hopped out. There, anyone who was interested could jump from the bridge into the river. Not bungy jump. Just jump. It was about 9-10 meters high (roughly 27-30 feet). John jumped!

After the bridge, we finally headed to the pools that we had, in theory, come to see. Hardly even stopping ...

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The waiter was right, there was dancing, however three 20 year old gay boys flaboyently spinning around to teenage-girl style reggaton was not exactly the scene that we had in mind.

But we were already here and it looked like as good of a spot as any to get a drink, probably the only bar where I was going to find a glass of wine at any rate. And there was a pretty good chance that Haley and I were not going to be bothered there. Everyone ...

... recovery as we had had a little too much beer the night before!  El Retiro also offers yoga, so I was able to take a very challenging and fun class that evening before our Guatemalan buffet dinner. 

On Wednesday, after a 7 AM yoga class, we did a group tour to Semuc Champey and the caves.  It was our first tour on this trip (as neither of us really care for them) and it was amazing.  It was non-stop fun and adventure.  First we swung from a rope swing, which was quite high, into ...

... The streets are paved and most have sidewalks. Outside a 7 by 7 grid, however all bets are off and the streets are no longer paved.

Dinner was good. So was lunch. Fried chicken for lunch. Can{t remember dinner. But the owner of the restaurant promised to have Gallo Dark on draft for tomorrow. Score!

Early night for me. I read jPod. Yeah. Geek.

... travel….

The first few legs of the trip were okay, however, each bus got worse and worse.  On the second to the last one (we had to take 5 buses that day, for a total of 10 hours) we sat next to the kindest man and his two children.  He also brought on his latest purchases from the market, a turkey and a chicken in a bag… alive!  There was a hole in the bag from which the turkey got to stick his neck out and enjoy the scenery.  The ...

... everybody was going, but because I wanted to jump. I´m terrified of heights (fear of death?), so it really was ¨face your fears¨ sort of thing. Anyway, after literally 10ish minutes of wavering on the edge of this bridge, I jumped, and it was amazing.

Back at El Retiro, not a lot was done. Quite a bit of class picking, actually, which has been the story for the last couple weeks. Got into most of them (minus two I really want to take!). It was the most ...

... have been shot over the past 3 months. Noone seems to know why. So just getting in and out of Guate city leaves you with a lump in your throat. However, the papers are just full of murder and death. Their favourite words are asassination and shooting. Paul analysed the local rag - Diario. It's about 7/8 pages of murder and killing, then some good looking girls and then the sport. Makes a cracking read. I digress ...

... he warned us about the road to Coban being closed due to a mud slide that killed 200 people last month. He did tell us however that service routes have been restored but, they take an additional hour due to them going of course. Well now fast forward to today, we jump on the pullman and we over hear the driver talking about how they don't drive at night anymore because whole Pullman's have been ...

... that goes underground as well as above ground. The above ground river has several waterfalls which fall into clear pools that are a delight to swim in. When we first entered the park, we climbed up a set of stairs to a very high cliff with a mirador that was about 345 meters above the river. The view was incredible and it was a miracle that I made it up. A lot of puffing as I was not yet used to the altitude. Our Keen sandals certainly proved themselves ...

... a tour to Semuc Champey, which is the main draw for the area. The first stop was a little tour through the very cool Saint Marie Caves. The cave is 11km long and has a little creek running through it. We all undressed down to our bathing suits and shoes, and they gave everyone a little taper candle to carry-- even through the parts where you had to swim. I haven' t been in too many caves, but this one was super fun... mostly due to the candle, I think. There's ...