Headed south
Trip Start
Feb 25, 2010
1
15
60
Trip End
Ongoing
Coban, Western Highlands, Guatemala
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
So, after one night in Flores, we head south. We took a shuttle to Cobán, which we heard was a really cool city. Most of the people on our bus were headed to Lanquin, but we didn't know anything about the town - so we got off at Cobán. This was a really cool town - once again, built on a really steep hill. We stayed at Don Pedro something something - forget the name.
While there, everyone was trying to sell us on buying a day-trip tour to Lanquin, so we started to do some research and immediately realized that we made a bad decision to get off the bus and not head straight there. (more on that later - read next post.)
We made the most out of Cobán though - we walked through the town, went to the cemetery and chapel (which had a great view of the city) and went to the Circus in town. This was an event, if you could imagine. It didn't start until 8:pm. We show up a few minutes early, buy our tickets and grab one of the cheap seats. The place seats about 1,000 people - and by the time the show started, we were with about 40 other locals. Not exactly a packed crowd.
Let's just say - this circus was by far the worst, but humorous nonetheless. When the main juggler of the show continuously drops one of the 3 balls he's attempting to juggle, and then they give him flaming sticks to juggle - we were expecting a tragedy. The kid survived, but then came the 9 Bengal tigers for the grand finale. First off - how the hell does some rinky-dink circus get 9 Bengal tigers in their show, but can't manage to recruit a good juggler. Really? ? Then the tigers that they have are less than pleased with their trainer. A couple of them are really pissed off - growling, snarling and swatting their big paws every time the trainer walks by. Needless to say - and maybe a bit disappointing - everyone survives and we can say that we saw a crazy circus in Central America.
Next morning, headed out to one of the most amazing places I've ever seen....
