Preliminary notice: female visitors should stay away from reading this post!

Just kidding! As I said before I was going to take a couple days to enjoy a deeper splurge into “culture” - no better way of doing it than this way I guess!? Anyway, place of action: Merida. Theme: movies. Temperature: 30C (35C around parades). Atmosphere: relaxed though intense. People: diverse, really nice and fun-loving. Music: all sorts. Personal level of energy: normal (= severely hyperactive). Dancing abilities: bad as ever. Stamina: getting worse by the day… Summarising: All systems go!

The reason I have once again backtracked was because Merida was “most accessible and diverse for a celebration such as this one” - Muhaha! Besides I needed my kick of non-logic since things had been going straight for too long now ;) So basically there`s not a lot to this carnaval that you don`t know from TV yet; parades are colourful and all about the demonstrations, there`s stages throughout the entire city center hosting bands, DJs and whatnot playing all kinds of music. Add about 200.000 visitors (daily average) to this scene and it all evolves into one big, cool party. Viva carnaval!

Since carnaval is all about the demonstration I guess the pictures below should tell the story, so have fun viewing them while I am going to spend 14 hours on a bus heading off to San Cristobal de las Casas, up in the mountains. Yes -it`s time to get cold again (why am I doing this to myself!?) and do some hiking, climbing and whatever else can be done up there! Till soon!

-Rene

PS: Before heading back to Merida I visited two nice waterfalls too - so pics of those have been added as a little appendix :)

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First arrival - still fresh despite the temperature!

Not sure which team they were supporting

This stuff is heavy...

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Alright, mission backtracking - commonly known as “going the wrong way” - is coming to an end: after a little birdwatching tour on Lago de Apoyo - these things are fast! - I came back down into Nicaragua to do a proper visit to Leon. This is going to be the final bit of colonial stuff for the time being, after all variety is the spice of life right? ;)

One of Leon’s advantages is the fact that it’s surtrounded by volcanoes, which in turn offer the opportunity to slide down from them on wooden / metal boards. In other words: volcano-boarding! This was fast and fun (and a little painful, too!) - check out the pics for a certain impression ;)

After Leon I decided it’s time for a little more highland (what on earth happened to my beach-addiction??) so I went off to Esteli, walked through some mountains, swum in a waterfall and visited a historically important museum. Yes, again a waterfall… but what would you do with 28C and a non-stop burning sun on your skin? :)

Finally, I went back down to Granada as me New Year celebration is going to take place at Lago de Apoyo. Sounds familiar, right? :)

This leaves me to the following: I would like to wish you all a Happy, Prosperous, Warm, Fuzzy and Whatnot New Year… and speak to you again soon!

Hasta luego!!

PS: I’ll post a list of New Year resolutions… but only by request! ;)

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Lago Yojoa - without birds...

Tegucigalpa's central market and related bus traffic :)

That's the hill we slid down

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