13/2/10 - day 66.

up at 8, had a fruity breakfast and then waited for a 9am minibus to pick me up from the hostel. me and a german dude were kept waiting until 9:45 for it to come. but it was ok, the driver had a valid reason - he said they´d been having problems with the breaks. excellent. so we set off south to coban, picking up another german fella on the way. i spent much of the journey chatting to the first german about nicaragua as he was heading there after guatemala and wanted some help.

after about an hour on the bus, we got to a river which we had to cross on something best described i suppose as a large platform that a fella propels from side to side. rather than build a bridge that would put a load of boat owning people out of business, i guess they prefer to keep it this way. the rest of the journey was quite interesting as we went through tiny highland villages where lots of traditional dress was on show. it was, however, quite a windy journey at times and i did feel a bit sick by the time we got to coban. in fact i was quite relieved when the bus conked at one point as it meant a bit of respite from the bends and a chance to get out!

got to a freezing cold coban about 2pm. i say freezing cold, i looked it up online and it was 14 celcius but it felt bitterly cold to me. i stopped at a tourist info place in the centre where i was dropped off and was told about a cheap place just a couple blocks away so i headed there, dumped my stuff then went for a meat fix of chicken and rice.

i was only stopping in coban overnight on my way to a place called lanquin which was another 2 and a half hour on but i didnt wanna do it all in one go and was in no hurry. plus if the remaining part of the journey was a windy as the the first 4 hours, i think i made the right decision!

had a little look around the town, which wasnt particularly pretty or anythng special, but it was too cold to stroll about. had coffee and cake in a cafe and whiled away the rest of the day at the hostel, where i was seemingly the only guest, reading, and was in bed by 9pm.