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 :-)

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 lake 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...

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.

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...

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...

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)...