A car honk and the sound of her squeaky car tells me Ann has arrived to pick us up. “Buenos dias,” I say to her as she drives 10 minutes to the restaurant. Veronica and Flor are waiting for us outside. 

Another day at Fresh has begun. 

After spending three weeks at the hostal El Muro in Lanquin, Martin and I moved to Cobán to help out at Fresh, a new restaurant owned by the same people who own El Muro.

While I enjoyed helping at El Muro, I love working at Fresh. 

Ann makes all of the food from scratch: bagels, hummus, tapenade, feta cheese, yogurt, muffins, brownies, and soups. This is my kind of food. 

Even though Fresh is open all day, it relies exclusively on the tourist shuttle busses from Antigua and Flores for their business. 

“Bus!” I yell as I see Julio pull up in front of our door. Martin stands at our door, welcoming the 10 or so tourists who have just left Lanquin. Let the controlled chaos begin! 

Martin and I work the front of the restaurant, taking orders, delivering orders, collecting money, and chatting with our guests. Ann, Veronica, and Flor bustle around the kitchen to fill orders quickly while making them look beautiful. 

Sixty minutes later, the restaurant is empty, and the sink is filled with dishes. 

On a good day, two shuttle busses stop in the morning and two stop in the afternoon. If they are running late or only have a couple of people, they don’t stop. 

We have a couple of hours in the middle of the day to explore Cobán. 

I like walking to Plaza Magdalena (the mall) to go to the grocery store. Martin likes walking to the nearby pacas (thrift stores) for good deals on warm clothes. We’ve found two coffee shops that we enjoy. The market is everyday, but larger on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. I love seeing the traditional Maya clothing, the multicolored beans, the tubs and tubs of avocados. 

The afternoon rush is busier than the morning. 

People have already been traveling for 6 hours or more and are in need of actual food. It’s cold and rainy in Coban, which keeps the tourists inside the restaurant instead of exploring the town. We have a video of Semuc Champey that loops for the afternoon busses who are on their way to Semuc. It’s fun to see their excitement and answer their questions about visiting Semuc.

By 4:30, we are on our way back to the house. 

The house is huge for a Guatemalan home: three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a rooftop terrace. It feels empty with just Martin and I living there. The owner of the house, John, also owns Utopia Hostal near Semuc Champey, and his mother, Pam, is one of the owners of Fresh. John is usually at Utopia, and Pam is returning from a trip to the States at the end of December. Other volunteers from Utopia sometime stay at the house, but that is infrequent. 

The WIFI is fast. We have streaming Netflix. (What?!) The kitchen is equipped with an awesome blender, a juicer, and so many other appliances I cannot keep track. 

So. Life is good.

Our plan is to stay here until the end of December. And then? Wherever our hearts take us.