I'm currently at a hostel in Coban. Hostel D'Acuna (with a squiggly over the ‘n' to make a ya sound) is where I'm at. Just outside the heart of town. I woke up this morning at around six to the sound of an alarm going off from a watch on somebody's wrist. A girl I met last night, Bailey, and another couple sharing the dorm got up to get ready for Semuc Champay. I did Semuc yesterday so I slept in until around eight thirty. She is headed to San Salvador tomorrow like me to catch a flight on the first of Feb that's about the same time as mine.

I got her email address because I wasn't sure if I was going to stay in town or just head to Guatemala City to be closer to San Salvador for my flight. But I decided to stay because the guidebook says that there are many buses leaving from here to GC and from there to San Salvador. We just need to make it to GC before noon tomorrow. It'll be an early morning.

So around eight thirty I'm up and brushing my teeth. A girl I met at Semuc yesterday walked past and I caught her, apparently just in time as she and her friend were headed to catch a bus in a few short minutes. I got her email address because, since I forgot my camera, she took pictures of me at Semuc and I need the pictures to be emailed to me. I went to where they were finishing their breakfast a minute later to say by to Erin, her friend. Seconds later they were off to catch their bus.

A table across from their table sat a brother and sister who I met in Semuc and another lady who I met on the bus back from Semuc. I don't recall when she got on. Anyways, I go over and greet them and head back to finish getting ready; shower, shave and sh...

I went back to the three finishing their breakfast and we have a little chit a little chat. The girl, the sister, was stunning. She spoke little English but was fluent in French and Spanish. Her brother however was only fluent in French and Spanish. I suppose his English is about as good as my Spanish, maybe worse. The older Indian lady however spoke six languages and was translating most of the conversation for my benefit. An amazingly talented lady not at all lacking in personality.

They were soon done with their breakfast and headed to some Mayan ruins I haven't heard of. I sat down at another table and asked for a menu. The restaurant at this hostel is simply amazing. In the evenings it's a candle light, star gazing, plants everywhere, jazz playing, first class service, frickin awesome atmosphere type of restaurant. This morning however it was quite chill but with relaxing music.

I ordered pancakes and some kind of jam with bananas and other fruits; coffee and orange juice to drink. Fluffy and perfectly cooked pancakes, yumm; and just fifty Q for all that amazingness.

I read a bit of my guide book while I ate and found that there are a few things to do here in Coban and I had to find an ATM to get some more mullah. There's a tour of a working coffee farm, a museum of Mayan artifacts, and a place that has a few thousand orchids. All of which I did today.

First I was off to find that damn ATM. I found it a few blocks away from the hostel. No money in the ATM, this is the second or third time it's happened to me, and now I know why. A well known bank here in Guatemala closed without warning and many people rushed to grab the money from their bank incase theirs closed. Bad idea for the economy and so though the banks, so the banks made the max withdraw per day at all the ATMs just 600Q, which is about 80USD. Thus many ATMs are empty. So a few blocks away I just went inside of a bank and had them manually process my card to get money out for a lousy exchange rate.

A look at my guidebook and I was off to the coffee farm tour. Bad news, the English tour starts at two in the afternoon. Next was a walk over to the museum of Mayan artifacts. It was interesting getting there as it is incorrectly marked on my map in the guidebook, but only by a block or two. It's a small private museum with English descriptions of the artifacts. It was a nice enough place and well set up, but I only found the weapons they used interesting; sharply ridged spearheads that look as though they could still slice flesh.

Next I was off to an internet café to put out a few fires on my website and to answer emails. I stayed there until one thirty because I had to head out catch the coffee tour.

Only two other showed up for the coffee tour which is fine with me. They were your stereotypical Canadians. Eh? The girl was a riot, extremely talkative but had little information to convey. Enormously funny the way she talked.

The tour was fantastic. An old Guatemalan lady led us around the coffee plants and let use pick a few beans and try them out. We were shown when they are ripe to pick, how they dry them and how they roast them. Along the way we saw a few banana trees and plants that are used for spices, allspice I think; smells fabulous. At the end of the forty five minute tour we were given ultra fresh coffee and encouraged to buy grounded coffee in one pound bags. I didn't but the Canadian girls Dad, Phillip was his name oddly enough, did.

The two of them traveled all over; Europe, Asia, and other parts of Central America. The girl, Catherine I think her name was, didn't like Europe at all for some odd reason. She likes places like Central America and Asia which are very different than the lifestyles of Canada, Europe, Australia, and the US.

When our coffee cups were empty we shared a taxi to the Orchid nursery. I didn't really think it was my cup of tea but seeing as I was going with two very interesting Canadians and it was something to do I decided to go ahead and I'm glad I did. The flowers were beautiful. Some plants took twenty something years to grow. At one point we found leaf ants. There was a long trail of ants just carrying leaves; Extremely funny, interesting, and odd to watch as they go along their path; Leafless ants going one way and others going the opposite.

An hour or something later we took the taxi back to the center of town and said our goodbyes. I asked them where the guidebook suggested getting the best cup of coffee since I didn't have mine. Not even a block away was where the restaurant was located.

It was a nice restaurant with good outside seating although I don't think it was the best cup of coffee I've had. I had Café Mocha and it had all kinds of crap at the bottom. It wasn't bad at all, just not the best and the food was mediocre. A cute local sitting with a few of her friends kept staring at me and finally she looked over and started to talk to me. The conversation was less than a minute because her friends were about to leave.