About Guatemala

Cobán means “the land of clouds”, and in the Guatemalan rainy season that’s absolutely true. The city of Cobán is at a height of 1316 m above the sea level in the middle of a major coffee-growing area irrigated by crystal clear rivers and surrounded by rainforests. It’s the department capital of Alta Verapaz, 205 km North West from Guatemala City.

Cobán is one of the oldest cities in Guatemala, founded by Dominican friars in 1543; in the XIX century the city was developed by German coffee growers that were expelled later during the WWII, when most of the Germans living in Cobán supported Hitler. The influence of the Europeans is still visible in some buildings and in old coffee farms. The city’s population is of 86,000 people and the economy is still based on agriculture and handcraft exportations.

The city is the perfect starting point to several destinations, most of them related to the eco-tourism. The closest National Park is the “Biotopo del Quetzal”, a protected rainforest laden with orchids, wide-leaf and pine trees, moss, ferns and bromelias . There are plenty of waterfalls and caves in the mountains of Alta Verapaz, easy accessible with the several tours offered in Cobán by the Tour Operators. The most visited are Semuc Champey, which is a series of waterholes cascading down through the cloud forest and the caves of Lankin.

If you’re looking for some adrenaline, whitewater rafting is a good suggestion. If you plan to stay a little while in Cobán we suggest you to visit the Dusseldorf coffee plantation, the Rey Marcos caves and the orchid nurseries outside the city. To visit this wonderful place, take a bus or a plane from Guatemala City or take a shuttle from Antigua.