It isn't even that long ago that I blogged but now I find myself here in Antigua, Guatemala...
The trip out of Nicaragua did in fact requie an early start on Wednesday and so we left the backpackers at 5.15h in the morning. I had met a kiwi guy the night before who was gonna be on the same bus, so we went in a taxi together. He had also organized transport from San Salvador to La Libertad for the evening already, which was great, cause I didn't then have to organize that any more either. So after a quite relaxing bus ride and a shuttle to La Libertad, we arrived at the backpackers that they had organized the transport to. I wanted to go to another place though and so the guy from the backpackers drove me and some other guys into town again, so we could take a bus from there to El Tunco beach. When we arrived back at La Libertad, it turned out that my bag wasn't in the shuttle any more. I thought it might have gotten stolen in San Salvador, when I left it out of sight for a while. It turned out though, that one guy just offloaded it at the backpackers... So I decided I had enough of the forth and back and so stayed the night at the backpackers the kiwis stayed at. The backpackers (el roble) was real nice, but abit far away from the beach and no other backpackerswere there...
That's why on Thursday moring I headed out to a small beach called El Tunco, where there were supposedto be lots of backpackers. In fact there were quite a few hostels and tyhe place I stayed at was about 100m from the beach. Quite nice. I went for a suf that afternoon still, but the place I was at was not the perfect break. Still had a load of fun though. It turns out that the whole thing is very territorial. Locals get angry if you to to their spots and at the good spots there are about 30 people waiting for one wavewhole day... They go out there in the dark in the moring to be the first one to be there, when the light comes up. Apparently 10 minutes after it gets bright, the place then is packed already. Sorry, but that is way beyond me...
That's why I decided to have a very quite day on Friday. I read a lot, went to the town for a bit, brought some things to take home and hang around coffee shops a lot. They make amazing coffee. I bought a lot to take home... Early night, as the next day would be a bit of a long one.
Thelong day broke and I got ready and headed out of El Tunco by 8.00h the moring. Two different buses and a taxi brought me back to the TICA bus station in San Salvador. About San Salvador: So much like Cape Town in some ways. Apparently lots of crime. Lots of big cars (BMW, Merc, etc.) and very good parts of town and very bad parts of town. In the good part, I was walking along the street. A security guard with a gun every 50 meters (in front of every shop, etc), clean streets and very friendly people. The place I felt the safest in the whole of central america. Strange, isn't it? The place you get warned out because of its crime, seems the safest...
Anyays, we headed out with the bus at 2h with direction Guatemala City. There we arrived with about 2 hours delay, because we started late and because one girl had problems at the boarder. I ended up lending her 100US, because she had to pay a fine and didn't have themoney and they wouldn't let her go other wise. A bit like Africa really... I shared a taxi with another three guys I met on the bus and we got to Antigua at about 9h in the evening. It was great coming to NAtigua. A beautiful, that I know already and somehow the closure of a circle.
Today (Sunday) is all about getting into a more normal mode again. Went to the gym this morning, gonna go shopping now and have to start planning gifts to take home and really get myself sorted again.
I suppose this was my second last blog. The last onbe being the one from back home. It is always quite difficult trying to upload pics from the internet cafes here and I also dont wanna catch a virus on my flash, I will be addinbg lots of pics to the blog, when I get back. Until then.
Sonntag, 6. September 2009
Dienstag, 1. September 2009
More of Nicaragua
In fact I did stay in San Juan del Sur the whole of Monday, walking around town and most of all not doing anything. Quite nice. The issue about the 25 US was easily resolved by me just walking past the tour operators place and getting the thumbs up and a hand shake. As easy as that.
Tuesday was the time to move on. The call was Granada. Just a short trip of about 4 hours away, we arrived in Granada. The first impression was great already. A town with very few tourists, with a nice market and where every house a an awesome green courtyard. Granada is a old colonial town, which explains why it has so manby churches and why it is build up in blocks. Friday was just spend exploring and relaxing. I met a South African guy that went to UCT, Rob, and we were both so happy to be able to speak SA slang together, that we just hung out and had an awesome time.
On Wednesday I headed out with Rob to explore the town, take lots of pictures, look at the churches and see all the sights of Granada. The city really fascinated me, with all its courtyards, its true central american style, but then also with some awesome coffee shops. Daria had met some guys she met earlier and headed to Lago Apoyo. My plan was to do a daytrip there on Thursday with Rob and some other guys I met.
Thursday moring we headed out to the lake for a day trip. We paid a bit of money to be able to stay at a resort kind of place for the day which has beach access, kayaks and a nice place to hang out. The lake was a crater lake, so we drove up a inactive volcano, and then on top descended into the valley where the lake was in. The visibility in the water was great and the water was warm. Perfect to swim in. I attempted to get to the other side of the lake, but after swimming out for 30 min I decided it would be wise to turn back. The lady working at the place said it was 6 km to the other side of the lake. I didn´t believe her, now I do... It was an awesome swim though. On thursday night we went out to a club called "el club". Seeing that it was the only real club in Granada, the name was appropriate. We had an awesome night out with lots of dancing and making fun of some of the dolled up people there...
Friday moring was planned to be the day to leave Granada. I had no idea yet though, whether I would join all the guys I met to go to Isla Ometepe or wether I would go to Leon, as I had to start moving northwards. In the morning I decided to join the pack and go to Ometepe. After a few hours aof travelling, we arrived on the island in the middle of lake Nicaragua. We decided to stay at Finca Magdalena, a coffee and Cacao farm on the island. It was a real cool place, quite isolated though, so it was perfect that we had a big crowd. We explored a small part of the island that night and organized a trip for the next day.
Saturday the alarm went off at 6.15h to get ready for the hike up Madeiras, one of the volcanoes that makes up Isla Ometepe. It was going to be 8 hours of hiking in muddy rainforest. We had an awesoem group of an english couple, Rob, an american girl and me. During the hike we spend 80% of the time staring at our feet not to slip in the mud and also most of the time in thick clouds. We had one good view as the clouds cleared for a second, but despite that we had a spendid time. We saw howler monkeys, coffee plantations and lots of rain forest. The trip was mostly signified by us singing a song we had heard a few days before. It used to be a chart hits in England in the 80´s and is called "I never met a nice South African". I hope we were able to convince the english and americans otherwise...
Sunday was the planned day of leaving the island. We all dispersed in different directions. Some to Costa Rica, some to San Juan and some back to Granada. I headed to Leon, another colonial town in Nicaragua. Leila, the american girl joined me on the trip. The trip took longer than anticioated as some ferries scheduels were very different to what we were told and the buses weren´t the quickest either. The afternoon we spoent exploring Leon, which by now has grown on me considerably already. I love the fact that there are even less tourists here than in Granada and that locals and tourists live next to each other and not seperate. We found an aweome restaurant in the evening and I had the first meal without rice and bean in ages. Fantabulous.
Monday we wanted to go sanboarding but we weren´t able to book anything on Sunday as most places were closed. So we didn´t managed to do the trip on Monday but decided to do it Tuesday moring instead. Monday we explored Leon completely, got washing done (wow that was necessary - bad sign if the people at the laundry service start looking disgusted when they see your washing). At night we met a guy I knew from San Juan and went out for dinner and had a few drinks.
Tuesday moring was an early start and it was time to walk up Nicaraguas youngest and one of the most active volcanoes, Cerro Negro to have a look around but most importantly to sandboard it down. It only took about an hour to walk it up, then we had a look around on top. The volcano was very impressive, with clouds of sulfur all over and lots of craters. It was extemely hot on the black rocks but fortunately there was a strong wind. I felt like I was in Cape Town... The boarding was good fun. But it was not the same adrenaline kick as snowboarding. I´m really happy I did it but it did not take away the strong longing for snowboarding. The afternoon I spend sorting out pictures and booking a bus ticket for tomorrow moring to go to San Salvador in El Salvador ( that took an hour...). So tomorrow its time to say goodbye to Nicaragua. I´m excited already to go to another country. I only have one week left on my trip, so it is time to speed things up a bit.
Tuesday was the time to move on. The call was Granada. Just a short trip of about 4 hours away, we arrived in Granada. The first impression was great already. A town with very few tourists, with a nice market and where every house a an awesome green courtyard. Granada is a old colonial town, which explains why it has so manby churches and why it is build up in blocks. Friday was just spend exploring and relaxing. I met a South African guy that went to UCT, Rob, and we were both so happy to be able to speak SA slang together, that we just hung out and had an awesome time.
On Wednesday I headed out with Rob to explore the town, take lots of pictures, look at the churches and see all the sights of Granada. The city really fascinated me, with all its courtyards, its true central american style, but then also with some awesome coffee shops. Daria had met some guys she met earlier and headed to Lago Apoyo. My plan was to do a daytrip there on Thursday with Rob and some other guys I met.
Thursday moring we headed out to the lake for a day trip. We paid a bit of money to be able to stay at a resort kind of place for the day which has beach access, kayaks and a nice place to hang out. The lake was a crater lake, so we drove up a inactive volcano, and then on top descended into the valley where the lake was in. The visibility in the water was great and the water was warm. Perfect to swim in. I attempted to get to the other side of the lake, but after swimming out for 30 min I decided it would be wise to turn back. The lady working at the place said it was 6 km to the other side of the lake. I didn´t believe her, now I do... It was an awesome swim though. On thursday night we went out to a club called "el club". Seeing that it was the only real club in Granada, the name was appropriate. We had an awesome night out with lots of dancing and making fun of some of the dolled up people there...
Friday moring was planned to be the day to leave Granada. I had no idea yet though, whether I would join all the guys I met to go to Isla Ometepe or wether I would go to Leon, as I had to start moving northwards. In the morning I decided to join the pack and go to Ometepe. After a few hours aof travelling, we arrived on the island in the middle of lake Nicaragua. We decided to stay at Finca Magdalena, a coffee and Cacao farm on the island. It was a real cool place, quite isolated though, so it was perfect that we had a big crowd. We explored a small part of the island that night and organized a trip for the next day.
Saturday the alarm went off at 6.15h to get ready for the hike up Madeiras, one of the volcanoes that makes up Isla Ometepe. It was going to be 8 hours of hiking in muddy rainforest. We had an awesoem group of an english couple, Rob, an american girl and me. During the hike we spend 80% of the time staring at our feet not to slip in the mud and also most of the time in thick clouds. We had one good view as the clouds cleared for a second, but despite that we had a spendid time. We saw howler monkeys, coffee plantations and lots of rain forest. The trip was mostly signified by us singing a song we had heard a few days before. It used to be a chart hits in England in the 80´s and is called "I never met a nice South African". I hope we were able to convince the english and americans otherwise...
Sunday was the planned day of leaving the island. We all dispersed in different directions. Some to Costa Rica, some to San Juan and some back to Granada. I headed to Leon, another colonial town in Nicaragua. Leila, the american girl joined me on the trip. The trip took longer than anticioated as some ferries scheduels were very different to what we were told and the buses weren´t the quickest either. The afternoon we spoent exploring Leon, which by now has grown on me considerably already. I love the fact that there are even less tourists here than in Granada and that locals and tourists live next to each other and not seperate. We found an aweome restaurant in the evening and I had the first meal without rice and bean in ages. Fantabulous.
Monday we wanted to go sanboarding but we weren´t able to book anything on Sunday as most places were closed. So we didn´t managed to do the trip on Monday but decided to do it Tuesday moring instead. Monday we explored Leon completely, got washing done (wow that was necessary - bad sign if the people at the laundry service start looking disgusted when they see your washing). At night we met a guy I knew from San Juan and went out for dinner and had a few drinks.
Tuesday moring was an early start and it was time to walk up Nicaraguas youngest and one of the most active volcanoes, Cerro Negro to have a look around but most importantly to sandboard it down. It only took about an hour to walk it up, then we had a look around on top. The volcano was very impressive, with clouds of sulfur all over and lots of craters. It was extemely hot on the black rocks but fortunately there was a strong wind. I felt like I was in Cape Town... The boarding was good fun. But it was not the same adrenaline kick as snowboarding. I´m really happy I did it but it did not take away the strong longing for snowboarding. The afternoon I spend sorting out pictures and booking a bus ticket for tomorrow moring to go to San Salvador in El Salvador ( that took an hour...). So tomorrow its time to say goodbye to Nicaragua. I´m excited already to go to another country. I only have one week left on my trip, so it is time to speed things up a bit.
Montag, 24. August 2009
Nicaragua
I just realized that I have not blogged for more than a week now. I definitely doesn´t feel that long...
So, yes on the Sunday I last wrote I did the last two dives of my Advanced course. The Peak Performance Buoyancy was great fun. Swimming through hoops, doing high jump under water etc and always controlling your position by holding a deep breath or breathing out completely. THe problem is that if you laugh under water, your mask floods. I had to clear mine very often...
With the course I did, I also got two free fun dives. Those were planned for Monday. Luckily they only started in the afternoon, so I could have a long sleep and then slowly make my way to the dive shop. The dives were supposed to be down to a large ship wreck at 30m. Very exciting. The coolest thing about the dives were that the people I went in group down with were all either Dive Masters or Instructors that came to Utila to have some fun. So they were just schmaking around and we had an awesome time. Nitrogen narcosis is awesome as well. I laughed my head off at a fish... The rest of Monday night was to relax. Have a beer and take it easy.
The plan was to leave on Tuesday afternoon to Nicaragua with a Swiss girl (Daria) I met. Tuesday came and plans changed. We made it a sports day. Went kayaking, swimming and running. Very nice to do some sports again, but running in the heat is not always very easy... Having an extra day was nice, since walking through the streets on Utila, having a drink, a bite to eat and just enjoying how different every part of the world is just awesome fun to me.
Wednesday it was definitely time to leave though. The plan was to start a long trip all the way to San Juan del Sur in Nicaragua. It would take us at least two days to get there. But there is a bus from San Pedro de Sula in Honduras to Managua in Nicaragua, which is most of the way. So we took the afternoon ferry from Utila to the mainland and made it to San Pedro de Sula on Wednesday night after nightfall and took a taxi to a hotel. Everyone said one has to watch out in Honduras because of the Cou and stuff. It turned out that that was no probelm, but the part of town where the hotels are is a real rough one. Guys in shot guns in front of every hotel and guys sleeping on the road between the hotels. Weird feeling.
So we arrived in San Pedro at 9 in the evening and ordered a taxi for 3.45h the next moring to take us back to the bus stations. Good nights sleep.. (???)
Thursday was torture. Up at 3.15h. 12 bus ride from San Pedro to Managua. With the lowlghts being: My bag took a beating. Within 10 minutes, the zip broke, a water bottel ran out inside it, wetting all my books and a woman vomitted on it. Good fun. The plan was to sleep in the bus. But after that happened I couldn´t even think about sleeping any more... Well, the 12 ride didn´t take us to were we wanted to go yet. Taxi to the other bus station, chicken bus for two hours, which was cramped like hell and then 30 minutes more taxi, beacause the buses stopped by then. Finally at around 9 in the evening we arrived in San Juan. Beautiful. All worth it again. Small town on a bay, with fishing boats just off the beach, lots of bars and restaurants on the beach and a slight evening breez. The one beer I had that night tasted like heaven. Unfortunately though the hostel we wanted to go to was full already that night.
So Friday morning we changed into the hostel we wanted to go to. Friday was a day of relaxing, sleeping, getting over the trauma and getting to know San Juan. Really, really cool here. Eventhough is almost a bit like package touristy with lots of americans, its still very relaxed. We booked a surf lesson for Saturday. I was very excited about that.
While walking through the shops, we realized how much silly cloths they sell here. We decided to buy lots of it and have a bit of a dress up party that night. Awesome fun. Unfortunately all the pictures were never found again...
Saturday moring we headed out to the beach with lots of other guys from the hostel and the instructor. All I can describe the day as is really 7 hours of heaven. Warm water, perfect waves, relaxed people, a nice beach and I caught quite a few good waves. Most of the peole left at 3.30 back to the hostel. I stayed until 5.30 and was out on the water most of the time. Only locals left with amazing skills. Just watching and learing and every now and then get beaten up by a wave. So much fun.
One should expect that we had a quite night, but it was the weekend really, so we decided to go out again. When I got to bed at 3.30 though I was dead as it gets.
On Sunday moring we were all so dead, that there was not even the slightes idea of going surfing or big activities. Surfing is really quite tiring and al my muscles were acing like hell. By the early afternoon I was back to old strenght and managed to convince 4 other peole to go on a fishing trip with me. It was 15 US and lasted 2.5 hours. WOW. So much fun. 10 people on the boat. We caught 16 fish. Tuna, Makrel and Jack fish. Great, great time. The only downside. I had a 2 meter shark on the line, which I lost when it was just by the boat. When it was giving me a bit of slack, it tightened the reel to get it further and then it chared. The line snapped. So upset! Couldn´t even fall asleep last night cause I was so upset. We still had the best dinner last night ever We took 5 fish between the 5 of
us and cooked them at the hostel. So much fun to cook and be in the kitchen with a cool crowd of people. I filleted the fish and Daria (having never done it before) cleaned and filleted half the fish. With all the blood and guts. She liked it as well, which scared me a bit. Jokes aside. An aweome experience! The guys from the boat were trying to get money off me for the lost lure though, which put me in a bit of a moral delemma. I dont really think that losing a lure is a mistake that I should pay. Especially becasue they never said anything beofrhand and told us everything was included... Anyways, I´ll go to the shop again today and talk to them. It would be ok to pay a bit but they wanted 25 US. Hope we´ll find an agreement (in spanish...)
Today, Monday is not planned at all, so I´ll live it as it comes...
So, yes on the Sunday I last wrote I did the last two dives of my Advanced course. The Peak Performance Buoyancy was great fun. Swimming through hoops, doing high jump under water etc and always controlling your position by holding a deep breath or breathing out completely. THe problem is that if you laugh under water, your mask floods. I had to clear mine very often...
With the course I did, I also got two free fun dives. Those were planned for Monday. Luckily they only started in the afternoon, so I could have a long sleep and then slowly make my way to the dive shop. The dives were supposed to be down to a large ship wreck at 30m. Very exciting. The coolest thing about the dives were that the people I went in group down with were all either Dive Masters or Instructors that came to Utila to have some fun. So they were just schmaking around and we had an awesome time. Nitrogen narcosis is awesome as well. I laughed my head off at a fish... The rest of Monday night was to relax. Have a beer and take it easy.
The plan was to leave on Tuesday afternoon to Nicaragua with a Swiss girl (Daria) I met. Tuesday came and plans changed. We made it a sports day. Went kayaking, swimming and running. Very nice to do some sports again, but running in the heat is not always very easy... Having an extra day was nice, since walking through the streets on Utila, having a drink, a bite to eat and just enjoying how different every part of the world is just awesome fun to me.
Wednesday it was definitely time to leave though. The plan was to start a long trip all the way to San Juan del Sur in Nicaragua. It would take us at least two days to get there. But there is a bus from San Pedro de Sula in Honduras to Managua in Nicaragua, which is most of the way. So we took the afternoon ferry from Utila to the mainland and made it to San Pedro de Sula on Wednesday night after nightfall and took a taxi to a hotel. Everyone said one has to watch out in Honduras because of the Cou and stuff. It turned out that that was no probelm, but the part of town where the hotels are is a real rough one. Guys in shot guns in front of every hotel and guys sleeping on the road between the hotels. Weird feeling.
So we arrived in San Pedro at 9 in the evening and ordered a taxi for 3.45h the next moring to take us back to the bus stations. Good nights sleep.. (???)
Thursday was torture. Up at 3.15h. 12 bus ride from San Pedro to Managua. With the lowlghts being: My bag took a beating. Within 10 minutes, the zip broke, a water bottel ran out inside it, wetting all my books and a woman vomitted on it. Good fun. The plan was to sleep in the bus. But after that happened I couldn´t even think about sleeping any more... Well, the 12 ride didn´t take us to were we wanted to go yet. Taxi to the other bus station, chicken bus for two hours, which was cramped like hell and then 30 minutes more taxi, beacause the buses stopped by then. Finally at around 9 in the evening we arrived in San Juan. Beautiful. All worth it again. Small town on a bay, with fishing boats just off the beach, lots of bars and restaurants on the beach and a slight evening breez. The one beer I had that night tasted like heaven. Unfortunately though the hostel we wanted to go to was full already that night.
So Friday morning we changed into the hostel we wanted to go to. Friday was a day of relaxing, sleeping, getting over the trauma and getting to know San Juan. Really, really cool here. Eventhough is almost a bit like package touristy with lots of americans, its still very relaxed. We booked a surf lesson for Saturday. I was very excited about that.
While walking through the shops, we realized how much silly cloths they sell here. We decided to buy lots of it and have a bit of a dress up party that night. Awesome fun. Unfortunately all the pictures were never found again...
Saturday moring we headed out to the beach with lots of other guys from the hostel and the instructor. All I can describe the day as is really 7 hours of heaven. Warm water, perfect waves, relaxed people, a nice beach and I caught quite a few good waves. Most of the peole left at 3.30 back to the hostel. I stayed until 5.30 and was out on the water most of the time. Only locals left with amazing skills. Just watching and learing and every now and then get beaten up by a wave. So much fun.
One should expect that we had a quite night, but it was the weekend really, so we decided to go out again. When I got to bed at 3.30 though I was dead as it gets.
On Sunday moring we were all so dead, that there was not even the slightes idea of going surfing or big activities. Surfing is really quite tiring and al my muscles were acing like hell. By the early afternoon I was back to old strenght and managed to convince 4 other peole to go on a fishing trip with me. It was 15 US and lasted 2.5 hours. WOW. So much fun. 10 people on the boat. We caught 16 fish. Tuna, Makrel and Jack fish. Great, great time. The only downside. I had a 2 meter shark on the line, which I lost when it was just by the boat. When it was giving me a bit of slack, it tightened the reel to get it further and then it chared. The line snapped. So upset! Couldn´t even fall asleep last night cause I was so upset. We still had the best dinner last night ever We took 5 fish between the 5 of
us and cooked them at the hostel. So much fun to cook and be in the kitchen with a cool crowd of people. I filleted the fish and Daria (having never done it before) cleaned and filleted half the fish. With all the blood and guts. She liked it as well, which scared me a bit. Jokes aside. An aweome experience! The guys from the boat were trying to get money off me for the lost lure though, which put me in a bit of a moral delemma. I dont really think that losing a lure is a mistake that I should pay. Especially becasue they never said anything beofrhand and told us everything was included... Anyways, I´ll go to the shop again today and talk to them. It would be ok to pay a bit but they wanted 25 US. Hope we´ll find an agreement (in spanish...)Today, Monday is not planned at all, so I´ll live it as it comes...
Sonntag, 16. August 2009
Honduras
Well,to get from Livingston in Guatemala to Utila in Honduras was a mission. Quite a cool trip as well though. As it is always the case, crossing a boarder changes so many things. People act differently towards you, the wealth of the people is different, the roads are different, the food is different and well the ladies look different...
So I started the trip on Thursday at 6.30 the morning. A boat ride to Puerto Barrios, a bus ride to the boarder to Honduras, a bus ride to Puerto Cortes, a bus ride to St Pedro de Sula and then a bus ride to La Ceiba. As easy as that. The last boat from La Ceiba to Utila was at 4.00. We got there at 4.10. Well, I can say that I almost made the trip in one day. I met a Irish girl in Livingston that went the same way, so we teamed up and went looking for a hostel in La Ceiba for the night. Got ripped off by a taxi driver on the way but found a decent enough place to stay for the night. I was really quite tired after several nights of bad sleep and lots of travelling, so I slept 14 hours in La Ceiba and then it was time to go to boat already. Exciting night....
As I said, on Friday morning we headed for the ferry across to Utila. I was quite scared of the trip, as I heard that many people get sick on the boat if the sea gets rough. Luckily the sea was nice and calm and I survived without any damages. Utila is quite a big Island off the coast of Honduras and know all over the world as a spot of very good and extremely cheap diving. There is a small town on the island that most of the travellers stay at and where also most of the dive operators are. The first night here I decided to treat myself to a single room for the night with my own bathroom and clean beds. It was fantastic. I felt so clean leaving the room every time. Good times :-) Most of the places by the water here are built of heavy wood and are quitenew, which makes very nice places to hang around on. There are bars by the water, which extend to jetties on the water. Really beautiful for sundowners.
Since this is one of the cheapest places in the world to go diving, I signed up for an Advanced Open Water course here. Starting Saturday afternoon. All excited.
The plan for the next few days. 5 dives for the Advanced course, 2 fun dives and accommodation at the dive operators hostel. When you do a course at a dive operator here, you get free accommodation during your course. Quite nice. Choosing an operator was a bit tricky as there are loads, but I decided to go for one of the bigger and slightly more expensive ones. Just to be able to meet more people, get good gear and good instructions. That woked out very well.
We did three dives on Saturday. First a deep dive to 30 meters, then an or
ientation dive with compasses and later the night a night dive. All of them very great fun and the reef around here is amazing. After the night dive it started pouring down with rain and wouldn't stop for the whole night. 3 friends and I decided to have a private pool party and so we got drinks, we playing in the pool drinking and it was pouring down with rain. Was good fun.
Today (Sunday) I did two dives in th morning, a Search and Recovery and a Peak Performance Beouancy. Both were great fun. Much better diving than in Cape Town. Wearing a 2mm shorty and colourful reefs and loads of fish just beats everything. The plan for the next few days is to enjoy Utila for a bit more and then to find a way to go to Nicaragua. Appartenly they have an amazing surf there. Have to check that out!
So I started the trip on Thursday at 6.30 the morning. A boat ride to Puerto Barrios, a bus ride to the boarder to Honduras, a bus ride to Puerto Cortes, a bus ride to St Pedro de Sula and then a bus ride to La Ceiba. As easy as that. The last boat from La Ceiba to Utila was at 4.00. We got there at 4.10. Well, I can say that I almost made the trip in one day. I met a Irish girl in Livingston that went the same way, so we teamed up and went looking for a hostel in La Ceiba for the night. Got ripped off by a taxi driver on the way but found a decent enough place to stay for the night. I was really quite tired after several nights of bad sleep and lots of travelling, so I slept 14 hours in La Ceiba and then it was time to go to boat already. Exciting night....
As I said, on Friday morning we headed for the ferry across to Utila. I was quite scared of the trip, as I heard that many people get sick on the boat if the sea gets rough. Luckily the sea was nice and calm and I survived without any damages. Utila is quite a big Island off the coast of Honduras and know all over the world as a spot of very good and extremely cheap diving. There is a small town on the island that most of the travellers stay at and where also most of the dive operators are. The first night here I decided to treat myself to a single room for the night with my own bathroom and clean beds. It was fantastic. I felt so clean leaving the room every time. Good times :-) Most of the places by the water here are built of heavy wood and are quitenew, which makes very nice places to hang around on. There are bars by the water, which extend to jetties on the water. Really beautiful for sundowners.
Since this is one of the cheapest places in the world to go diving, I signed up for an Advanced Open Water course here. Starting Saturday afternoon. All excited.
The plan for the next few days. 5 dives for the Advanced course, 2 fun dives and accommodation at the dive operators hostel. When you do a course at a dive operator here, you get free accommodation during your course. Quite nice. Choosing an operator was a bit tricky as there are loads, but I decided to go for one of the bigger and slightly more expensive ones. Just to be able to meet more people, get good gear and good instructions. That woked out very well.
We did three dives on Saturday. First a deep dive to 30 meters, then an or
ientation dive with compasses and later the night a night dive. All of them very great fun and the reef around here is amazing. After the night dive it started pouring down with rain and wouldn't stop for the whole night. 3 friends and I decided to have a private pool party and so we got drinks, we playing in the pool drinking and it was pouring down with rain. Was good fun.Today (Sunday) I did two dives in th morning, a Search and Recovery and a Peak Performance Beouancy. Both were great fun. Much better diving than in Cape Town. Wearing a 2mm shorty and colourful reefs and loads of fish just beats everything. The plan for the next few days is to enjoy Utila for a bit more and then to find a way to go to Nicaragua. Appartenly they have an amazing surf there. Have to check that out!
Mittwoch, 12. August 2009
Caribbean sailing trip
I´m not sure I will ever be able to adapt to a european pace lifestyle again. Coming back from a three day sailing trip through the Caribbean, where the only real thinking process of the day was: what time should we start drinking rum? All I know is: Arrrggggghhhh. Because I´m a pirate now.
So, I left off on Wednesday the 5th. That day was quite hectic. I read a book, went to the internet and booked a trip for the next day... True Belizean style.
The three guys I had been travelling with for a bit decided to go for a dive on Thursday. I decided to give tat a skip, since it would have been 190 US and I though was slightly out of proportion. So on Wednesday I booked a full day snorkwling trip. We went on a sail boat (which turned out to be the same one, with which I went on the cruise later) and sailed out to three different spots to snorkel, each time we cam out of the water, there were fresh fruits, lunch or snacks ready and we were looked after quite superbly. Under water, there were amazing corals, lots of sharks, eels, loads of colourful fish and we saw two manatees. Quite amazing creatures. Seeing that they are related to the elephant, it gives away a hint at their size... We trip ended with a two hour sail home with free rum punch. Well, that reall has to be done in the Caribbean with two guides who look like pirates and have small monekeys as pets... The afternoon and the night after the trip got quite long and I had a really good time with the people from the trip and all the other people I had met at the backpackers before.
Friday was recovering time. I had managed to go to the bank and draw money by 3 o´clock and was quite proud of myself. Looking back that does seem a bit sad... Well I had booked a the three day sailing trip for saturday and so relaxing a bit in the shade before that seemed reasonble anyways. In the evening we had a pretrip meeting and I got to know the whole crowd that would come on the trip. They seemed nice, but as Belize is a country where lots of people come for shorter holidays, some of the people seemed to have a bit of a different attitde towards holidays than I have. But I definitely didn´t let that dampen my mood. I called it an early night as we would have to get up early the next day.
On Saturday I woke up before my alarm clock (not sure what got into me) and so decided to go for a quick run (not sure what got into me there either) before we would embark on the trip. When we (Spencer, an american guy came with me) got to the docks, the word was that the big boat we were supposed to go on had an engine problem. So wen had to go on a boat half the size. Quite a pitty, but what can you do. Two hours late we sailed off. A more or less 12 meter boat for 13 pax and two crew. Since we didn´t have to sleep on board that seemed fine. We had two snorkeling stops on the way and were trawling for fish all day. The weather was not too great, since it was a bit cloudy and we had the odd shower, but the wind was good, which made us go wuite fast. To make up, one of the girls caught a nice baracuda on one of the rods, which was gonna be dinner. At about 4 we arrived at the island we would sleep for the night. It´s called Rondevou (incorrect spelling) and is unbelievable. It would take you 30 seconds to walk around it and it had 8 palm trees and a jetty. that´s it. Well, almost, since two people lived on it. Pablo and his son. Quite the couple. We asked them what they did whole day, wherther they went fishing or something else. They answered rather uspet about us not appreciating their job, that they would clean up after we left... They have a hectic lifestyle. When we arrived they were lying in hammock and bed and that position they were able to keep throughout most of the day. Maybe seeing people just made them drowsy... Noone knows. We pitched tents on the island, the captain cooked dinner and we had Baracuda in cocnut sauce with rice and veg. Amazing. The night we had a bond fire on the beach and had a good time. Oh, well, yes there was free rum the whole night. Later the night though it turned out that the whole tent idea was a very bad idea. It was extreely hot inside, the wind made it flap around the whole time and the rain came inside. So my ni9ght was not exactly the best. But it was loads of fun on the island!
On Sunday moring it was another day of stress. Breakfast, sailing, fishing, snorkling, eating, sailing. Highlight was catching a baracuda from the back of the boat. Otherwise lots of hanging around in the sun. In the afternoon we arrived on Tabacco Caye. An island with 20 inha
bitants (gross estimation from 2007) and about 4 ´hotels´. It turned out to be very relaxed and the hotels were just small huts with rooms. I was sure not to make the same tent mistake again and I decided to sleep out on a dock that night. That was the best night ever. The moon above and below a light which showed the sea with all the fish. Really great.
Monday was going to be the last day of the cruise and we set off to go to Placencia. Clearly on the way there was fishing snorling and drinking involed. We arrived in Placencia at about 5 in the afternoon and headed out to look for a place. The cheapest place in town was mine and in the evening I went out for some fodd and a few drinks. My plan was to stay in Placencia for two nights, as I could not eb bothered to get up early the next moring to head out.
The next morning (Tuesday) I got up at 10.30 and had to check out or pay for the next night by 11. Somehow though I had the feeling I needed to head out. My plan was to go to the Bay Islands in Honduras, but as this is not possible in one day (more like three) I decided to head out in direction Livingston in Guatemala. The trip was a bit epic, but as I only started at 12.30 it was clear I would arrive late.So I ent from Placencia to Independence with a boat there the 12.45 bus usually comes at 1.30 according to the locals, which it did exactly. that bus took me to the Puerto Gorda in Belize still. From there I took a boat to Puerto Barrios in Guatemala and from there a boat to Livingston. I arrived at about 7.15 in the dark. The trip started off quite nice, but there were a few low points: The ferry from Belize to Guatemala was an open speed boat, which was supposed to take two hours. After about an hour it started raining... Quite wet. About 20 minutes later the word from the captain was : Oh, sin gasoline. That´s really the one thing I didn´t want to hear. But then 10 minutes later another boat came to get us some more petrol. The boats are all about 10 meter long, made out of fibre glass and have 200 horse power engines. So the trip is quite fast. The last trip from Puerto Barrios to Livingston was all in rain. Well, let´s say I was happy to be there in the end and luckyly the rain around here is not really cold. I found a very nice hostel in Livingston, so I felt all good again.
Today, Wednesday, is relaxing a bit, trying to figure out how to get to Honduras tomorrow and have a good time. I hope I will find an easier way to the Bay Islands still, as at the moment the best option semms to include 6 different buses and boats to get there. Wish me luck
So, I left off on Wednesday the 5th. That day was quite hectic. I read a book, went to the internet and booked a trip for the next day... True Belizean style.
The three guys I had been travelling with for a bit decided to go for a dive on Thursday. I decided to give tat a skip, since it would have been 190 US and I though was slightly out of proportion. So on Wednesday I booked a full day snorkwling trip. We went on a sail boat (which turned out to be the same one, with which I went on the cruise later) and sailed out to three different spots to snorkel, each time we cam out of the water, there were fresh fruits, lunch or snacks ready and we were looked after quite superbly. Under water, there were amazing corals, lots of sharks, eels, loads of colourful fish and we saw two manatees. Quite amazing creatures. Seeing that they are related to the elephant, it gives away a hint at their size... We trip ended with a two hour sail home with free rum punch. Well, that reall has to be done in the Caribbean with two guides who look like pirates and have small monekeys as pets... The afternoon and the night after the trip got quite long and I had a really good time with the people from the trip and all the other people I had met at the backpackers before.
Friday was recovering time. I had managed to go to the bank and draw money by 3 o´clock and was quite proud of myself. Looking back that does seem a bit sad... Well I had booked a the three day sailing trip for saturday and so relaxing a bit in the shade before that seemed reasonble anyways. In the evening we had a pretrip meeting and I got to know the whole crowd that would come on the trip. They seemed nice, but as Belize is a country where lots of people come for shorter holidays, some of the people seemed to have a bit of a different attitde towards holidays than I have. But I definitely didn´t let that dampen my mood. I called it an early night as we would have to get up early the next day.
On Saturday I woke up before my alarm clock (not sure what got into me) and so decided to go for a quick run (not sure what got into me there either) before we would embark on the trip. When we (Spencer, an american guy came with me) got to the docks, the word was that the big boat we were supposed to go on had an engine problem. So wen had to go on a boat half the size. Quite a pitty, but what can you do. Two hours late we sailed off. A more or less 12 meter boat for 13 pax and two crew. Since we didn´t have to sleep on board that seemed fine. We had two snorkeling stops on the way and were trawling for fish all day. The weather was not too great, since it was a bit cloudy and we had the odd shower, but the wind was good, which made us go wuite fast. To make up, one of the girls caught a nice baracuda on one of the rods, which was gonna be dinner. At about 4 we arrived at the island we would sleep for the night. It´s called Rondevou (incorrect spelling) and is unbelievable. It would take you 30 seconds to walk around it and it had 8 palm trees and a jetty. that´s it. Well, almost, since two people lived on it. Pablo and his son. Quite the couple. We asked them what they did whole day, wherther they went fishing or something else. They answered rather uspet about us not appreciating their job, that they would clean up after we left... They have a hectic lifestyle. When we arrived they were lying in hammock and bed and that position they were able to keep throughout most of the day. Maybe seeing people just made them drowsy... Noone knows. We pitched tents on the island, the captain cooked dinner and we had Baracuda in cocnut sauce with rice and veg. Amazing. The night we had a bond fire on the beach and had a good time. Oh, well, yes there was free rum the whole night. Later the night though it turned out that the whole tent idea was a very bad idea. It was extreely hot inside, the wind made it flap around the whole time and the rain came inside. So my ni9ght was not exactly the best. But it was loads of fun on the island!
On Sunday moring it was another day of stress. Breakfast, sailing, fishing, snorkling, eating, sailing. Highlight was catching a baracuda from the back of the boat. Otherwise lots of hanging around in the sun. In the afternoon we arrived on Tabacco Caye. An island with 20 inha
bitants (gross estimation from 2007) and about 4 ´hotels´. It turned out to be very relaxed and the hotels were just small huts with rooms. I was sure not to make the same tent mistake again and I decided to sleep out on a dock that night. That was the best night ever. The moon above and below a light which showed the sea with all the fish. Really great.Monday was going to be the last day of the cruise and we set off to go to Placencia. Clearly on the way there was fishing snorling and drinking involed. We arrived in Placencia at about 5 in the afternoon and headed out to look for a place. The cheapest place in town was mine and in the evening I went out for some fodd and a few drinks. My plan was to stay in Placencia for two nights, as I could not eb bothered to get up early the next moring to head out.
The next morning (Tuesday) I got up at 10.30 and had to check out or pay for the next night by 11. Somehow though I had the feeling I needed to head out. My plan was to go to the Bay Islands in Honduras, but as this is not possible in one day (more like three) I decided to head out in direction Livingston in Guatemala. The trip was a bit epic, but as I only started at 12.30 it was clear I would arrive late.So I ent from Placencia to Independence with a boat there the 12.45 bus usually comes at 1.30 according to the locals, which it did exactly. that bus took me to the Puerto Gorda in Belize still. From there I took a boat to Puerto Barrios in Guatemala and from there a boat to Livingston. I arrived at about 7.15 in the dark. The trip started off quite nice, but there were a few low points: The ferry from Belize to Guatemala was an open speed boat, which was supposed to take two hours. After about an hour it started raining... Quite wet. About 20 minutes later the word from the captain was : Oh, sin gasoline. That´s really the one thing I didn´t want to hear. But then 10 minutes later another boat came to get us some more petrol. The boats are all about 10 meter long, made out of fibre glass and have 200 horse power engines. So the trip is quite fast. The last trip from Puerto Barrios to Livingston was all in rain. Well, let´s say I was happy to be there in the end and luckyly the rain around here is not really cold. I found a very nice hostel in Livingston, so I felt all good again.
Today, Wednesday, is relaxing a bit, trying to figure out how to get to Honduras tomorrow and have a good time. I hope I will find an easier way to the Bay Islands still, as at the moment the best option semms to include 6 different buses and boats to get there. Wish me luck
Mittwoch, 5. August 2009
Mexico to Belize
On Saturday I had arrived to Tulum. Mexico was really quite different to Guatemala. Big roads, much more developed and quite a different lifestyle as well. Was very cool to live the Mexican life for a while.
On Sunday is was big diving time. I met a few english guys and girls and we decided to go for a double dive the afternoon. The trip was going to be to fresh water caves, which used to be dripstone caves, but are now flooded with water. The viz was supposed to be more than 100 meters. We set off the afternoon to the Dos Ojos caves. It was really quite cool to walk trough the rain forest with diving gear on and then all of a sudden to find a small bit of water, where we went into and descended into the caves. There weren't many fish around but it was amazing to swim through water which is as clear as air, but has such wonderful refelctions all over. In most parts the cave was quite wide, but we went through one strech, where both my elbows touched the sides and I had to watch out that my tank didn't scrape the limestone. Really quite a different dive to the normal open water dives. We went for two different dives in the cave, going off in different directions. Definitely worth the money! The rest of Sunday night, we had a good dinner on the street and then went out for a few drinks and decided to head out the next morning to go to Belize.
Monday moring we headed out to the bus and caught a bus to the Belizean boarder at 10.30h. Crossing into Belize was slghtly difficult as the Mexican officer decided that today the exit fee out of Mexico would be double the normal price. If you looked rich it could also be quite a bit more... What a nice guy. As soon as we crossed into Belize things changed drastically. We had arrived in the Carribeans. What a wonderful feeling. The people speak English and have a wonderful accent and are very very relaxed. The plan was to go to Cay Calker the same day still, but we arrived in Belize City 10 minutes after the last ferry departed. So we stayed in Belize City for one night. We were told before that the city was not really worth a visit. But we really had quite a fun time and found the city live super interesting. We went to a hostel;, with the weirdest characters ever running the place and walking on the streets was sooo cool. People just chat you up and start talking and are all relaxed. The dialect is just soo cool.
Tuesday moring we headed out to Cay Calker and we arrived in Paradise. A small island, everyone is super relaxed, good weather, cool people and lots of things to do. After we arrived we just walked around the island a bit, picked some coconuts from the trees and opened them and started making plans for the next days. In the evening we went to buy some drinks in the supermarket, had those and then went out to a few bars and a club. A real fun day. Unfortunately though Belize is quite a bit more expensive than the countries I have visited so far. That just means not going out for food and drinking stuff from the supermarket. We bought quite a bit of food in Mexico and brought that along to save a bit as well.
Today (Wednesday) the plan is to do lots of nothing. Read, write and book trips. I had heard a while ago about a sail trip that would go from here 3 days and 2 nights south past all the small islands, snorkeling, fishing and sleeping on deserted islands. That just sounds like heaven to me. So on friday I will head out of Cay Calker on a three day sailing trip to Palencia. It's quite expensive to do the trip, but it just sounds too good to let it pass. I might try to get a spearfishing trip in for tomorrow and otherwise just live the carribean livestyle - go slow, maaan.
On Sunday is was big diving time. I met a few english guys and girls and we decided to go for a double dive the afternoon. The trip was going to be to fresh water caves, which used to be dripstone caves, but are now flooded with water. The viz was supposed to be more than 100 meters. We set off the afternoon to the Dos Ojos caves. It was really quite cool to walk trough the rain forest with diving gear on and then all of a sudden to find a small bit of water, where we went into and descended into the caves. There weren't many fish around but it was amazing to swim through water which is as clear as air, but has such wonderful refelctions all over. In most parts the cave was quite wide, but we went through one strech, where both my elbows touched the sides and I had to watch out that my tank didn't scrape the limestone. Really quite a different dive to the normal open water dives. We went for two different dives in the cave, going off in different directions. Definitely worth the money! The rest of Sunday night, we had a good dinner on the street and then went out for a few drinks and decided to head out the next morning to go to Belize.
Monday moring we headed out to the bus and caught a bus to the Belizean boarder at 10.30h. Crossing into Belize was slghtly difficult as the Mexican officer decided that today the exit fee out of Mexico would be double the normal price. If you looked rich it could also be quite a bit more... What a nice guy. As soon as we crossed into Belize things changed drastically. We had arrived in the Carribeans. What a wonderful feeling. The people speak English and have a wonderful accent and are very very relaxed. The plan was to go to Cay Calker the same day still, but we arrived in Belize City 10 minutes after the last ferry departed. So we stayed in Belize City for one night. We were told before that the city was not really worth a visit. But we really had quite a fun time and found the city live super interesting. We went to a hostel;, with the weirdest characters ever running the place and walking on the streets was sooo cool. People just chat you up and start talking and are all relaxed. The dialect is just soo cool.
Tuesday moring we headed out to Cay Calker and we arrived in Paradise. A small island, everyone is super relaxed, good weather, cool people and lots of things to do. After we arrived we just walked around the island a bit, picked some coconuts from the trees and opened them and started making plans for the next days. In the evening we went to buy some drinks in the supermarket, had those and then went out to a few bars and a club. A real fun day. Unfortunately though Belize is quite a bit more expensive than the countries I have visited so far. That just means not going out for food and drinking stuff from the supermarket. We bought quite a bit of food in Mexico and brought that along to save a bit as well.
Today (Wednesday) the plan is to do lots of nothing. Read, write and book trips. I had heard a while ago about a sail trip that would go from here 3 days and 2 nights south past all the small islands, snorkeling, fishing and sleeping on deserted islands. That just sounds like heaven to me. So on friday I will head out of Cay Calker on a three day sailing trip to Palencia. It's quite expensive to do the trip, but it just sounds too good to let it pass. I might try to get a spearfishing trip in for tomorrow and otherwise just live the carribean livestyle - go slow, maaan.
Samstag, 1. August 2009
Made it to Mexico
Ola.
I in fact managed after all to book a trip to Mexico on Wednesday night.
On Thursday morning at 5 my bus left, heading for Palenque in Mexico. The idea was to go there for one night, since there were supposed to be nice ruines and beautiful blue pools in a river. The trip there included two long bus rides and a 30 minute boot ride to cross the river at the boarder. In Flores already I had met a girl that was going to do the same trip, so we bought the tickets together and joined up for a few days.
In Palenque the first thing I did was try to get money with my card and I succeded, which really calmed me down a bit. Mexico here I come...
The lonely planet said,that the best place to stay was slightly out of town and so we headed there and found a place quite easily. We got two hammocks. It turned out that the full service of the hostel included that they gave us really really uncomfortable hammocks, which they just threw in front of our feet for us to set them up. It was reasonably cheap though.
There were a few things about the place, which could have really spoiled the one night there, which include:
- The toilet was dirty and the shower very simple
- We were staying with four hippis and a dog, who made and sold beads-stuff for a living
- In the village was a small stream that smelled like one would die instantly upon touching it
- It was so hot, that even after dinner, when I had a beer I was still sweating like crazy
- After 2 hours of bus driving we arrived at the blue pools and found about 100 people in them, 15 Restaurants and 50 people trying to sell us stuff. We left affter 20 minutes.
But the good thing was that the girl I met was german and we managed to use german sarcasm to the absolute max and we really had a very good time, just laughing and talking about how awesome the place was. But to defend the place I have to say that there was a good restaurant. (Which was unfortunately packed with package tourists who came from their hotels...). This all might sound quite bad, but I really look back at the time and think that I enjoyed myself. Quite proud of that...
So then on Friday night I caught a night bus from Palenque to Tulum. It took 11 hours and we had to get out twice at army checkpoints. BUT I had the best sleep I had in about a week. No hammock, a bit of shaking from the bus and a good aircon. I litureally fell asleep 20 minutes after the bus left and woke up 1 minute before the bus arrived in Tulum. I have to admit that I took a first class bus though, which was about twice the price of the second class buses, but it had an aircon and was not 30 years old and stuffed with people...
When I arrived here at 7 in the moring I walked to the Hostel I had found in the lonely planet and managed to get a bed immideately. At 12 I went on the bus to get to the beach. Stunning. Turquoise, warm water and white sand. Spend the whole day there, talking to people, hanging around and swimming. Awesome day. Just got back from that now and now starting t0 think what to do the next days. Might stay here for another one or two nights and then head on to Cay Calker in Belize probably. Supposed to be good diving and kite surfing there. Let´s see how it goes.
I in fact managed after all to book a trip to Mexico on Wednesday night.
On Thursday morning at 5 my bus left, heading for Palenque in Mexico. The idea was to go there for one night, since there were supposed to be nice ruines and beautiful blue pools in a river. The trip there included two long bus rides and a 30 minute boot ride to cross the river at the boarder. In Flores already I had met a girl that was going to do the same trip, so we bought the tickets together and joined up for a few days.
In Palenque the first thing I did was try to get money with my card and I succeded, which really calmed me down a bit. Mexico here I come...
The lonely planet said,that the best place to stay was slightly out of town and so we headed there and found a place quite easily. We got two hammocks. It turned out that the full service of the hostel included that they gave us really really uncomfortable hammocks, which they just threw in front of our feet for us to set them up. It was reasonably cheap though.
There were a few things about the place, which could have really spoiled the one night there, which include:
- The toilet was dirty and the shower very simple
- We were staying with four hippis and a dog, who made and sold beads-stuff for a living
- In the village was a small stream that smelled like one would die instantly upon touching it
- It was so hot, that even after dinner, when I had a beer I was still sweating like crazy
- After 2 hours of bus driving we arrived at the blue pools and found about 100 people in them, 15 Restaurants and 50 people trying to sell us stuff. We left affter 20 minutes.
But the good thing was that the girl I met was german and we managed to use german sarcasm to the absolute max and we really had a very good time, just laughing and talking about how awesome the place was. But to defend the place I have to say that there was a good restaurant. (Which was unfortunately packed with package tourists who came from their hotels...). This all might sound quite bad, but I really look back at the time and think that I enjoyed myself. Quite proud of that...
So then on Friday night I caught a night bus from Palenque to Tulum. It took 11 hours and we had to get out twice at army checkpoints. BUT I had the best sleep I had in about a week. No hammock, a bit of shaking from the bus and a good aircon. I litureally fell asleep 20 minutes after the bus left and woke up 1 minute before the bus arrived in Tulum. I have to admit that I took a first class bus though, which was about twice the price of the second class buses, but it had an aircon and was not 30 years old and stuffed with people...
When I arrived here at 7 in the moring I walked to the Hostel I had found in the lonely planet and managed to get a bed immideately. At 12 I went on the bus to get to the beach. Stunning. Turquoise, warm water and white sand. Spend the whole day there, talking to people, hanging around and swimming. Awesome day. Just got back from that now and now starting t0 think what to do the next days. Might stay here for another one or two nights and then head on to Cay Calker in Belize probably. Supposed to be good diving and kite surfing there. Let´s see how it goes.
Mittwoch, 29. Juli 2009
via flores and tikal and hopefully to Mexico
Just to put this right: Even though I was not able to talk much about the tubing last time, it was a great experience. It´s just always nice to see that nature will always have the upper hand on us... Crazy, crazy stuff in the currents.
BUT the safety guide on the trip made me realize one thing. If anyone and I mean anyone, will ever try again and test my knowledge of Astrology when I mention that I study Cosmology, I will have to kill that person. Sorry. But that´s how it is. The guide asked me questions about Astrology for 20 min and I could not convince her that I do actual science. Sad day.
On Monday, after the big rafting trip on Sunday and the trip to Semuc Champey on Saturday, I had an easy day. Lots of reading and hanging around in the morning and during the day. In the evening we took a trip to some caves, where during sunset thousands of bats would come out. It was really impressive to see all those bats fly towards you but then still find a way around you without killing you. After the tour I went out for dinner with a few peole I met and had a quite night,.
Tuesday moring I went on a bus to Flores at 8. Flores is a small island on a lake in the north of Guatemala. We arrived in Flores at about 4 in the evening. It´s a really nice place. The small island is all build up, but they have a large walkway all around the island on the lake shore with beautiful views. There are lots of nice restaurants and cafes and it just has a nice flair to it. I in fact arrived at the hostel at 4.05h in the afternoon ( which is 00.05 the next day in central europe) and so I missed my dad´s birthday by 5 minutes. Pitty. But is was still his birthday here and I managed to send him an sms during his birthday then...
Today (Wednesday) was an active day so far. I got up at 4.30h and left to go to Tikal at 5h in the morning. Tikal is said to be the capital of ancient Mayan civilisation. It´s a huge area in the middle of the forest with lots and lots of huge old Mayan temples. Very impressive stuff, seeing that they started building this town way around 700 BC. Old stuff. I walked around there for about 5 hours and then went back to Flores for some lunch and I´m now starting to sort out my trip for tomorrow. The plan is to get a bus to Mexico for tomorrow morning and then spend about a week there. The small things in the way of booking it are: No ATMs in Flores accept my bank card, so I dont have any Quetzales any more. I do have some dollars left, but the one I wanted to give then now had a tear in it, so they wont accept it. So I will now go back to the hostel and see if I still have a non-torn 50 dollar note and try again. Wish me luck :-)
Sonntag, 26. Juli 2009
Well, it seems like I have not bloged again for quite a while.
Since the trip up Acatanago, I have been quite a busy boy. So, let me start back in Antigua.
On Tuesday I left Antigua to head towards Lago Atitlan, which is a 4 hour bus drive towards the north west from Antigua. I had booked a bus for Monday already, but due to some intestinal problems that was possible yet.
On the bus to St Pedro de Laguna, I met two girls from England, with who I then went bed hhunting in St Pedro. It turned out that all the nice backpackers had been booked out already and after running around for 1 hour, we settled for a small, dirty and really crappy room somewhere in a ´hotel´. It was very cheap, so it didn´t seem to bad. The plan was to head out to town whole day anyways, so we wouldn´t spend any time in the place.
The town was a bit strange. It is right by this huge beautiful lake, but one cant really see the lake, when one walks around because there are just loads of hotels, restaurants and shops on the side of the lake. It´s not at all like europe, where everything is all fency, but still quite build up. We still had an awesome day, walking around, going to cafes, bars and restaurants. The plan for the next day was still to catch a ferry to another, smaller town on the la
ke and check that out. The next moring we wanted to take a ferry at 8h. We ended up having breakfast for ages and relaxiing and finally got a ferry at 10h. The other place was called St Marcos de Languna and was really a tiny place by the lake. We strolled around a bit and checked it out. Again, quite strangely the whole village is away from the lake and it doesn´t feel like a place by the water at all, rather like a place in the middle of the rain forest. The girls went to head on to Belize the same day still and I stayed in St Marcos for the night, heading on the next moring.
On Thrusday then I wanted to head back to Antigua, as I wanted to go to Semuc Champey next and it didn´t seem reasonable to do the trip there in one day. On the bus to ANtigua I met Tom from Australia and he booked a bus straight to Lanquin, which is right by Semuc Champey. I decided to try to the same thing and so I booked another bus for the same day once I arrived in Antigua. I so ended up doing an 13 hour trip on Thursday anbd arrived in Lanquin at 10 the evening. Arriving there we luckly were still able to get a room in a hotel , but unfortunately all the restaurants and shops had closed by then.
On Friday we headed out to try and get a bed in the best backpackers in town called El Retiero. We only managed to get a hammock, but that seemed good as well. Really cheap. 25 Rand, 2.5 Euro a night. The place is really amazing. Its right by a river and all the dorms are on very big space in different huts. It´s got a great bar and a good restaurant. Not much one needs... On Friday afternoon, I went on a tubing tour on the river. We drove upstream at the back of a truck for 20 min and then went down the river in tubes for 45 mins. Really relaxing and good fun. The evenings highlite was the buffet at the restaurant. WOW. Finally big plates of food again...
For Saturday I had singed up for a tour to Semuc Champey. That was really an amazing trip. It had so many highlites in it, that I can just really list what we did, as I dont know enough adjectives to descrive how awesome it was.
-Taking a huge swing to swing and then jump into a river.
-Going into caves, with the only light source being candles and walking, swimming, climbing and crawlingly further into the cave, which has a river running in it for about 2 hours.
-Tubing down a fast flowing river
-Jumping off a 8m high bridge into the river
-Walking up to a view point to see the amazing natural stone pools of Semuc Champey
-Swimming in the pools
-Abseiling down a waterfall, going into a cave, jumping off a cliff into the river and going up the waterfall again.
But that was about all already. The best trip ever. We were out for about 9 hours. AMAZING.
Today (Sunday) I went on a rafting trip. Unvbelievebale. Another great day out. Fast rapids, lots and lots of water and cool people. There was soo much water though, that we couldnt do all the radips as one was too dangerous with all the water. We were in one raft with 7 paddlers and one guide and we had a safety kayak with us all the time. The girl in the kayak also did the rapid we couldn´t do. Crazy stuff, really. We were on the tour for 7 hours, with about 5 hours on the river. I only got back from the tour about 30 min ago, so I guess I will be able to tell the whoñe stiry better tomorrow or so, when all the excitement has settled a bit. So much for now then...
Since the trip up Acatanago, I have been quite a busy boy. So, let me start back in Antigua.
On Tuesday I left Antigua to head towards Lago Atitlan, which is a 4 hour bus drive towards the north west from Antigua. I had booked a bus for Monday already, but due to some intestinal problems that was possible yet.
On the bus to St Pedro de Laguna, I met two girls from England, with who I then went bed hhunting in St Pedro. It turned out that all the nice backpackers had been booked out already and after running around for 1 hour, we settled for a small, dirty and really crappy room somewhere in a ´hotel´. It was very cheap, so it didn´t seem to bad. The plan was to head out to town whole day anyways, so we wouldn´t spend any time in the place.
The town was a bit strange. It is right by this huge beautiful lake, but one cant really see the lake, when one walks around because there are just loads of hotels, restaurants and shops on the side of the lake. It´s not at all like europe, where everything is all fency, but still quite build up. We still had an awesome day, walking around, going to cafes, bars and restaurants. The plan for the next day was still to catch a ferry to another, smaller town on the la
ke and check that out. The next moring we wanted to take a ferry at 8h. We ended up having breakfast for ages and relaxiing and finally got a ferry at 10h. The other place was called St Marcos de Languna and was really a tiny place by the lake. We strolled around a bit and checked it out. Again, quite strangely the whole village is away from the lake and it doesn´t feel like a place by the water at all, rather like a place in the middle of the rain forest. The girls went to head on to Belize the same day still and I stayed in St Marcos for the night, heading on the next moring.On Thrusday then I wanted to head back to Antigua, as I wanted to go to Semuc Champey next and it didn´t seem reasonable to do the trip there in one day. On the bus to ANtigua I met Tom from Australia and he booked a bus straight to Lanquin, which is right by Semuc Champey. I decided to try to the same thing and so I booked another bus for the same day once I arrived in Antigua. I so ended up doing an 13 hour trip on Thursday anbd arrived in Lanquin at 10 the evening. Arriving there we luckly were still able to get a room in a hotel , but unfortunately all the restaurants and shops had closed by then.
On Friday we headed out to try and get a bed in the best backpackers in town called El Retiero. We only managed to get a hammock, but that seemed good as well. Really cheap. 25 Rand, 2.5 Euro a night. The place is really amazing. Its right by a river and all the dorms are on very big space in different huts. It´s got a great bar and a good restaurant. Not much one needs... On Friday afternoon, I went on a tubing tour on the river. We drove upstream at the back of a truck for 20 min and then went down the river in tubes for 45 mins. Really relaxing and good fun. The evenings highlite was the buffet at the restaurant. WOW. Finally big plates of food again...
For Saturday I had singed up for a tour to Semuc Champey. That was really an amazing trip. It had so many highlites in it, that I can just really list what we did, as I dont know enough adjectives to descrive how awesome it was.
-Taking a huge swing to swing and then jump into a river.
-Going into caves, with the only light source being candles and walking, swimming, climbing and crawlingly further into the cave, which has a river running in it for about 2 hours.
-Tubing down a fast flowing river
-Jumping off a 8m high bridge into the river
-Walking up to a view point to see the amazing natural stone pools of Semuc Champey
-Swimming in the pools
-Abseiling down a waterfall, going into a cave, jumping off a cliff into the river and going up the waterfall again.
But that was about all already. The best trip ever. We were out for about 9 hours. AMAZING.
Today (Sunday) I went on a rafting trip. Unvbelievebale. Another great day out. Fast rapids, lots and lots of water and cool people. There was soo much water though, that we couldnt do all the radips as one was too dangerous with all the water. We were in one raft with 7 paddlers and one guide and we had a safety kayak with us all the time. The girl in the kayak also did the rapid we couldn´t do. Crazy stuff, really. We were on the tour for 7 hours, with about 5 hours on the river. I only got back from the tour about 30 min ago, so I guess I will be able to tell the whoñe stiry better tomorrow or so, when all the excitement has settled a bit. So much for now then...
Sonntag, 19. Juli 2009
Mount Acatenango
During the first days of walking around Antigua I found a tour operator that offered, what seemed an amazing trip. Hiking up an inactive volcano, which is 3976m high, camping at 3900m and sumitting again for sunrise. The vulcano is called Acatenango and has a slightly smaller, but very active volcano right next to it, so that one can see an active volcano with lots of lava and smoke from the above at night. That just sounded amazing and I signed up for the trip. I was told that the trip was tough because of the altitude but not technically demanding. That all sounded good to me.
On Friday afternoon we had a pretrip meeting at the tour operators place. The group seemed really cool. All outdoors people from all over the world. A group of 7 tourists and one american guide. We distributed food and camping equipment to all the bags and went through the exact timing for the next day. It was gonna be 8 hours of hiking, then setting camp, dinner and sumitting for sunset and the stars. Awesome. After the meeting I met up with an canadian guy from the group for dinner and some drinks. I had a huge portion of nachos, trying to carbo-load for ther next day.
When I got up at 5 o`clock the next moring to get ready for the hike, I was feeling quite nauseous. I blamed the nachos for it and thought that it would blow over soon. We left with the mini-bus to get to the mountain at 6.30 and got there at 8.00. On the way we had to pick up two armed policemen, that would ccompany us throughout the hike. That was a safety measure that only this operator uses, as there have been incidents on the mountain before. When we started the hike, I was still feeling quite nauseous, but decided that that lumb of fat in my stomach would have to be digested soon. The first hour of the hike I felt ok, but the next two hours I was degenerating fast. People were starting to take weight off my bag, but I just got worse. I started shivering, while hiking, got blury vision and my legs were just jelly. At a stop I talked to the guide and asked whether we could make a plan to get me down the mountain. The shuttle to pick me up was not the issue but how I would get down was the problem, because I would need police protection and the two policemen were not allowed to split up. After about 10phone calls and a lot of discussioon the plan was made that the group would head on without protection and the policemen would walk me up to a point, where the danger would be minimal and then return upwards to join up with the group again. Of course this involved some hard cash, but I was feeling so bad by then, I would have paid as much as I had. Yet I did feel bit bad letting the group hike up without protection. Nevertheless, the policemen escorted me down the mountain for a about 30 min and then next 40min I walked on my own. There was one scary moment when a guy carring about 50kg of wood, a machettie and a huge axe started appoaching me fast from the top. But then he turned out to be the kindest person. I told him that I was feeling sick and so he accompanied me all the way to the place, where the shuttle would pick me up. Three minutes after I got to the pickup point, the manager from the tour operator and his girlfriend came in a car to pick me up. We got to the tour operators place, which also has a hostel 1 hour later and I went to lie down in bed immediately. I was feeling real rough. Fever, pain, weakness and the like.
About 20min later there was a phone call to the tour operators. The word was, that there was an attack. I was immediately starting to feel very bad. After many phone calls, lots of police and lots of excitedment, the story unfolded as follows:
About 1 hour after the two policemen had dropped me off, they were attacked in the woods. One of them was shot in the head, the other one seemed to be able to escape. The one that escaped called the police station and told them what happened and that the reason they were attacked was so that the banditos could seperate the group from the police and that the banditos were now after the group. The police called the tour operator, who then immideately called the guide of the group. The group was ordered to go and hide out in the bushes until further instruction. The tour operators manager worked out a plan with the police how they could get them out. Sending police up was not an option, as that would expose the group to more danger as the police would lead the banditos to the group. Finally it was decided that the group should take a path, that was not much taken, but the ghuide knew and that route would lead them down the mountain a completely different way. The group started running on that path, giving updates every 15 min. After about 2 hours of lots of tension, we got the word that they met the police and were on their way home. We were all tremendously relieved.
I welcomed back the group about an hour later and apologised to everyone that I had put them into so much danger. They were just saying that they were happy to see me alive and that maybe I had saved their lives, as the banditos might have come after the whole group, if the policemen and I hadn`t gone down.
It still does give me some issues to think that someone had to die, because he was protecting me. By getting security guards, am I saying that my live is worth more then theirs?
Should I have acted differently?
Well, by getting policemen to protect you, one should expect that they are trained to see danger and act acordingly. So one is not trading lives really, but saying that no one will get hurt with policemen around. But that does not seem to be the case here...
Should I not have gone on the hike? I was feeling nauseous and was completly convinced that it was from the food the night before. Yet, if was put in the same situation again now, knowing what dangers there really are on the mountain, I would not do it again. Given the situation and my knowledge at the time though I think my decision was fair, as I have started on hikes often before not feeling 100% and by the end I had not regretted it.
Well, as you can see, I have been thinking...
Today, one day after the incident I`m still not feeling great. My stomach doen`t like me, I have a fever and I just feel crap. But I am feeling much better that yesterday already.
A few nice words to end off. The 3 hours of hiking up were very nice, we were going through farmland, cloud forest and were about to reach the alpine forest before getting into the volcanic rock zone. Sad, that tours like this though such amazing places can be spoiled by stupid acts of violence.
On Friday afternoon we had a pretrip meeting at the tour operators place. The group seemed really cool. All outdoors people from all over the world. A group of 7 tourists and one american guide. We distributed food and camping equipment to all the bags and went through the exact timing for the next day. It was gonna be 8 hours of hiking, then setting camp, dinner and sumitting for sunset and the stars. Awesome. After the meeting I met up with an canadian guy from the group for dinner and some drinks. I had a huge portion of nachos, trying to carbo-load for ther next day.
When I got up at 5 o`clock the next moring to get ready for the hike, I was feeling quite nauseous. I blamed the nachos for it and thought that it would blow over soon. We left with the mini-bus to get to the mountain at 6.30 and got there at 8.00. On the way we had to pick up two armed policemen, that would ccompany us throughout the hike. That was a safety measure that only this operator uses, as there have been incidents on the mountain before. When we started the hike, I was still feeling quite nauseous, but decided that that lumb of fat in my stomach would have to be digested soon. The first hour of the hike I felt ok, but the next two hours I was degenerating fast. People were starting to take weight off my bag, but I just got worse. I started shivering, while hiking, got blury vision and my legs were just jelly. At a stop I talked to the guide and asked whether we could make a plan to get me down the mountain. The shuttle to pick me up was not the issue but how I would get down was the problem, because I would need police protection and the two policemen were not allowed to split up. After about 10phone calls and a lot of discussioon the plan was made that the group would head on without protection and the policemen would walk me up to a point, where the danger would be minimal and then return upwards to join up with the group again. Of course this involved some hard cash, but I was feeling so bad by then, I would have paid as much as I had. Yet I did feel bit bad letting the group hike up without protection. Nevertheless, the policemen escorted me down the mountain for a about 30 min and then next 40min I walked on my own. There was one scary moment when a guy carring about 50kg of wood, a machettie and a huge axe started appoaching me fast from the top. But then he turned out to be the kindest person. I told him that I was feeling sick and so he accompanied me all the way to the place, where the shuttle would pick me up. Three minutes after I got to the pickup point, the manager from the tour operator and his girlfriend came in a car to pick me up. We got to the tour operators place, which also has a hostel 1 hour later and I went to lie down in bed immediately. I was feeling real rough. Fever, pain, weakness and the like.
About 20min later there was a phone call to the tour operators. The word was, that there was an attack. I was immediately starting to feel very bad. After many phone calls, lots of police and lots of excitedment, the story unfolded as follows:
About 1 hour after the two policemen had dropped me off, they were attacked in the woods. One of them was shot in the head, the other one seemed to be able to escape. The one that escaped called the police station and told them what happened and that the reason they were attacked was so that the banditos could seperate the group from the police and that the banditos were now after the group. The police called the tour operator, who then immideately called the guide of the group. The group was ordered to go and hide out in the bushes until further instruction. The tour operators manager worked out a plan with the police how they could get them out. Sending police up was not an option, as that would expose the group to more danger as the police would lead the banditos to the group. Finally it was decided that the group should take a path, that was not much taken, but the ghuide knew and that route would lead them down the mountain a completely different way. The group started running on that path, giving updates every 15 min. After about 2 hours of lots of tension, we got the word that they met the police and were on their way home. We were all tremendously relieved.
I welcomed back the group about an hour later and apologised to everyone that I had put them into so much danger. They were just saying that they were happy to see me alive and that maybe I had saved their lives, as the banditos might have come after the whole group, if the policemen and I hadn`t gone down.
It still does give me some issues to think that someone had to die, because he was protecting me. By getting security guards, am I saying that my live is worth more then theirs?
Should I have acted differently?
Well, by getting policemen to protect you, one should expect that they are trained to see danger and act acordingly. So one is not trading lives really, but saying that no one will get hurt with policemen around. But that does not seem to be the case here...
Should I not have gone on the hike? I was feeling nauseous and was completly convinced that it was from the food the night before. Yet, if was put in the same situation again now, knowing what dangers there really are on the mountain, I would not do it again. Given the situation and my knowledge at the time though I think my decision was fair, as I have started on hikes often before not feeling 100% and by the end I had not regretted it.
Well, as you can see, I have been thinking...
Today, one day after the incident I`m still not feeling great. My stomach doen`t like me, I have a fever and I just feel crap. But I am feeling much better that yesterday already.
A few nice words to end off. The 3 hours of hiking up were very nice, we were going through farmland, cloud forest and were about to reach the alpine forest before getting into the volcanic rock zone. Sad, that tours like this though such amazing places can be spoiled by stupid acts of violence.
Donnerstag, 16. Juli 2009
Antigua and language school
Ola!
Excuse the long silence. I eally wanted to upload some pics with my next blog, but I haven't found a card reader yet, so all the pics are still on the camera. For the concerned family: I'm still alive.
In my last blog I was reporting about my arrival and the first impressions. By now Antigua is my new home. The firt few days I took it real easy, sleeping lots, reading and having one or the other drink at night. Antigua has a good night life with almost every bar having happy hours during which a cuba libre (rum, lime and coke) is usually around 10 quetzales (around one euro or 10 rand). That usually gets the night going.
So I took it quite easy until sunday. On sunday afternoon I went on a tour to hike up mount Pacay. That's an active volcanoe around Antigua at 2500 meters. We started at 2 in the afternoon. It took 1.5 hours to get to the volcanoes bottom. From there we started walking up for about 2 hours. It was not the way I like going up mountains. We were in a group of about 20 people and met about 6 other groups of the same size. Quite a tourist thing! The hike started very easy, walking on a small road through the bushes, but all of the sudden the landscape changed and we started walking on volcanic rock, with the path getting smaller and steeper. In the end we were just scrambling up volcanic rock. I went on the tour with a girl that I met in the backpackers, who turned out to be very unsporty, which ment that I strolled up the volcanoe, pulling her every step and she being close to crying... It's not like I could have enjoyed the hike , being in a que of people going up...
At the top of the volcanoe it was an majestic experience. Getting close to the top the air was slowly getting warmer and all of a sudden one could see the stones glowing in the cracks of the rocks one was walking on. Following the heat, one was lead to a place where there was a big stream of lava flowing out of the mountain, down the hill at an amazing pace. Just getting close to it, one felt like one was gonna burn. It was really amazing. I took some hotdog rolls up the mountain, put them on a stick and then braaied it in one of the cracks in the rocks. What a cool thing to do. Unfortunately most of the mountain was in clouds, while we were up there, so there was no view. That didn't change the fact that the tour a great experience and lots of fun.
We got back to the backpackers at 9.30 that evening. I was starving and had the best meal ever at one of the many restaurants in town. I'm not sure the food was actually good but I was soo hungry...
Since Monday morning I'm going to school again. I have four hours with a private teacher a day, from 8.00 to 12.00. It is common here to get private lessons. I have not heard of anyone who is actually going to a class. My teacher is fun and after the four hours I'm always very tired, showing that she makes most of the time. My spanish has improved considerably already and it hopefully will even more.
On Monday after class I moved in with a local family. It's a woman who accommodates four students in her house. The house is still in Antigua, about 10 minutes away from the school and the centre of town. The food she provides is always made with lots of care and I haven't had anything yet that I didn't enjoy. It's not huge amounts, but for the amount I'm paying for it, I cant expect too much. The other students are two girls from the states and one guy from Finnland. The are volunteering for an organisation called gvi here in Antigua. They are all 21. It's a nice crowd.
Yesterday night I cooked for the family. I made a beef curry. It was fun to prepare to go shopping (all those things in spanish...) and then to acctually go shopping with Maria Los. It was great to finally eat lots of meat again and to stand in a kitchen. For dessert I made banana pancakes. Hmmmm. Everyone seemed to have enjoyed the food and it was a fun night.
Tonigh the american girls are cooking for everyone. They are not getting Mc Donalds, they say...
The weather so far has been real good. Some showers in the afternoon, but mostly warm and not too humid weather. Most of the travellers here are gringos (americans), which takes away the internationalness of the travelers a bit, but there are quite a few english and the odd german around as well.
Antigua is really busy and happening but relatively expensive for Guatemala. It's beautiful to see all the volcanoes around the city, but it would be nice to have some more tranquility. That's why I decided to move on on Monday to a place called San Pedro. It on the lago de Titilan. They offer spanish courses there aswell, so I'll continue my schooling there, being able to still check out a new place at the same time. On the weekend I will be doing another hiking tour, which I will report about next week.
Honduras semms to have calmed down a bit, which is great news, since my long term plan definitely includes it (no way around it going south).
I just came back from a massage that I treated myself to. The best massage ever! A really large fellow half squeezed me to death. Amazing.
Hasta Luego...
Freitag, 10. Juli 2009
in Guatemala
I arrived here in Guatemala on Wednesday night at 9 in the evening. The flight was torturous, but I was really happy I had finally arrived.
As it happens, I was standing at the baggage claim and before my bag arrived, the band stopped. Usually a bad sign. I went to the desk and they told me that they had a message from KLM in Amsterdam saying that my bag was still in Amsterdam and that it would probably arrive in 2 to 3 days. NICE. I was suprisingly not worried about it, which was probably explained by the fact that I all I wanted was a bed. It was 5 o'clock the morning back home and I was half falling asleep while standing up.
So I went to Antigua with a shuttle I had organized the night before and went to a small hotel where they were expecting me.
Yesterday, having my first day in Antigua, I went to the market to find some essentials (toothbrush, underwear, etc), which brought me back to life. The whole bag story ended with my bag arriving this moring at the backpackers, one day ahead of time! Of course it did cost a few phone calls beforehand...
The market in Antigua is very interesting. They have lots of second hand clothging stalls and lots of incredible fruit. Pineapple, melons, paw paw, litchie, plums, mango and lots more. I tried a few things and they were amazing. The seconbd hand cloths are actually quite nice and so I went to buy a few things, as the clothing I wore for the travels had a distinctive odor to them...
Antigua is an great place. The whole town has cobbeled (spelling?), narrow streets and lots of small restauratns and shops. It sis surrounded by three vulcanoes, which go up to 3975 meters (Antigua is at 1500m). The fact that the vulcanoes are still active makes it quite exciting to climb them... I found an adventure operator, which organises trips up in the afternoon, sundowners on the vulcanoe, a warm meal on top, camping just a few hundred meters down and then hiking down again the next moring. I'll be doing that the next weekend. This weekend the programm is aclimatising...
The plan is now that I'll be doing a spanish course here in Antigua (which I just signed up for) for two weeks and then head on. For the course I'll be staying with a local family to speed up the learning process a bit. For the next few nights I'm staying at a backpackers, which is always an awesome place to get to now people.
Well, that's all I have for now. I'll write some new stuff soon. Hopefully with some pics then. I really wanna get a nice one of the mountains, but they have been in clouds for the last few days...
As it happens, I was standing at the baggage claim and before my bag arrived, the band stopped. Usually a bad sign. I went to the desk and they told me that they had a message from KLM in Amsterdam saying that my bag was still in Amsterdam and that it would probably arrive in 2 to 3 days. NICE. I was suprisingly not worried about it, which was probably explained by the fact that I all I wanted was a bed. It was 5 o'clock the morning back home and I was half falling asleep while standing up.
So I went to Antigua with a shuttle I had organized the night before and went to a small hotel where they were expecting me.
Yesterday, having my first day in Antigua, I went to the market to find some essentials (toothbrush, underwear, etc), which brought me back to life. The whole bag story ended with my bag arriving this moring at the backpackers, one day ahead of time! Of course it did cost a few phone calls beforehand...
The market in Antigua is very interesting. They have lots of second hand clothging stalls and lots of incredible fruit. Pineapple, melons, paw paw, litchie, plums, mango and lots more. I tried a few things and they were amazing. The seconbd hand cloths are actually quite nice and so I went to buy a few things, as the clothing I wore for the travels had a distinctive odor to them...
Antigua is an great place. The whole town has cobbeled (spelling?), narrow streets and lots of small restauratns and shops. It sis surrounded by three vulcanoes, which go up to 3975 meters (Antigua is at 1500m). The fact that the vulcanoes are still active makes it quite exciting to climb them... I found an adventure operator, which organises trips up in the afternoon, sundowners on the vulcanoe, a warm meal on top, camping just a few hundred meters down and then hiking down again the next moring. I'll be doing that the next weekend. This weekend the programm is aclimatising...
The plan is now that I'll be doing a spanish course here in Antigua (which I just signed up for) for two weeks and then head on. For the course I'll be staying with a local family to speed up the learning process a bit. For the next few nights I'm staying at a backpackers, which is always an awesome place to get to now people.
Well, that's all I have for now. I'll write some new stuff soon. Hopefully with some pics then. I really wanna get a nice one of the mountains, but they have been in clouds for the last few days...
Dienstag, 7. Juli 2009
Still in Germany
Welcome to my blog.
I'll be starting my travels to central america tomorrow (08.07.2009) and will be returning to Europe on the 9th of September.
To keep everyone up to date and so I dont have to write the same thing a million times, I created this blog. So you dont have to but can read what I'm up to and I dont fill up your inbox with mails all the time.
Now I'm off to do last minute shoppong (I haven't started packing yet, though)...
I'll be starting my travels to central america tomorrow (08.07.2009) and will be returning to Europe on the 9th of September.
To keep everyone up to date and so I dont have to write the same thing a million times, I created this blog. So you dont have to but can read what I'm up to and I dont fill up your inbox with mails all the time.
Now I'm off to do last minute shoppong (I haven't started packing yet, though)...
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