As this Hotel Aleman was the first house of solid masonry we had entered since our arrival in Guatemala, we examined it with some curiosity. Externally it was very plain,—white with stucco, of one story, and roofed with red tile. Windows were few, and the large door of two valves was generally closed in a rather inhospitable manner to an outsider. Once within the portal, however, the scene changed wonderfully. Before us was a courtyard (_patio_), into which the house opened. Directly in front was a plain building, used as kitchen (_cocina_) and stable; on the left was the garden (_huerto_); on the right, the corridor, on which opened the _sala_, or parlor, an apartment or two, and the dining-room (_comedor_). In the corner was a large concrete tank to catch rain-water. Our own apartment was at the left of the entrance, and was quite large, with tiled floor and separate corridor. A curtain was suspended between two of the pillars to shade the dining-room, and hammocks could be swung in every direction when needed. Birds hung in cages, and flowers in baskets; and the _négligé_ air of everything, except the neat little Indian women who did the household work, added to the comfortable feeling the place inspired. [Illustration: The Cabildo of Coban.] We walked up a paved street an eighth of a mile to the casa municipal, and, passing an arched gateway in the clock-tower, entered a spacious plaza, with the cabildo on our left and the foundations of the new palace on the brow of the hill opposite. Directly before us was the church and connected buildings,—once a college of priests, since confiscated by the Government, and now used as a music-school, blacksmith’s shop, and for other purposes. The main part of the Plaza was paved; and here were congregated several hundred Indios, mostly of the Quekchi tribe, buying, selling, and bartering. We bought twenty-five fine granadillas (fruit of the passion-flower) for a medio, and as many jocotes for the same price. Delicate straw hats, woven in two colors, were three reals and a medio; cotton napkins (_servilletas_) of native weaving, two reals; palm-leaf umbrellas (_suyacales_), such as every _mozo de cargo_ carries, one real. There was a fair supply of raw cotton, cacao, brown sugar, tallow, soap, and blankets. [Illustration: Interior of the Church at Coban.] [Illustration: COBAN CHURCH AND PLAZA.]