A Trip Through Time
Wednesday, December 12th, 2007Day 37
Late morning we returned to Flores and waited for a 2pm bus south to the city of Coban. Once again we enjoyed some pizza in Flores, this time on a beautiful lakeside patio. Being vegetarian and travelling in Guatemala is actually easy, the thing is the only option is the Plato Vegetariano. Rice, beans, tortilla, salad and soup. OK once in a while but when cheap pizza is available we jump on it. The lake was still and without a breeze the temperature was well into the 30’s. Finally 2pm came around and we boarded the bus for the 6 hour drive south.
The road south was in fabulous condition. Apparently the one we were on the other day was one of the few that hasn’t been upgraded in El Peten. We passed through cattle ranches for the first few hours until Saxayche when we had to cross the Rio Passion on a very interesting car ferry. It held about 10 cars max and had 4 outboard engines on each corner that supplied the power. Looking into the river I wondered why it was named Passion? Filled with garbage and coloured muddy brown it didn’t seem to be the good kind of passion. As the sunset we moved into some stunning scenery. A karst limestone topography with fields of green vegetables. People returning from a day of working the fileds were walking down the streets with their machetes in hand. Some looked to be no older than 12 years of age.
As darkness fell we passed through villages where half the town had no power and the shops and homes were lit up with candles. I looked at Jordana and we just smiled at each other. It was if the modern world had not reached these people yet and it seemed a good thing it hadn’t. I felt like we were driving through a pioneer village. All the buildings were clapboard and thatched palm roofs. There was none of the ugly brash modern cement block buildings that are so common in the developing world.
As we reached the outskirts of Coban all that changed. Large billboards, unfinished cement block buildings, piles of roadside garbage and pollution spewing traffic. We were back in the modern world and back in a typical Guatemalan city. As we stepped of the bus we both quickly noticed the chill in the air. We had climbed over a thousand metres since hot, tropical Flores.
We found a nice colonial hotel with rooms set around a peaceful, flower filled courtyard. Central Coban was a busy place. Not exactly an attractive city, especially in the dark. The central square was dirty and most of the benches broken, still it was a good place to people watch. We returned to the hotel with a pizza yet again. This time it was just about the only thing open, we really could have gone for something different if it was available. I fell asleep that night thinking about the people we saw living in the beautiful countryside. It was such a contrast to the city we were in now. People there dressed in traditional clothes, whereas in Coban so many people dressed in second hand clothing donated from rich countries. It made me think of something Robert Pelton wrote in a book of his. “If you want to make a native poor give them a t-shirt. “
Michael Coroneos