Well, for a little bit! So it’s the end of Central America - it’s been great, marvellous and all that but I suggest you just entertain yourself by looking at around 400 pictures I posted in the previous bunch of articles :) (I know you guys hate reading ;))

Back to the “First World”, back to (more) luxury stuff… off to the USA for a little road trip! Upfront I was sure entering the country would be the biggest challenge in this final part of my trip, but after answering only 100 questions and being held up for another 15 minutes in customs I was allowed to enter! (what the hell is it with me and customs anyway!?)

It eventually took a while to get to Phoenix but all went more or less as planned… which freaked me out since that didn’t happen once in the last 10 months ;) Anyway, I was happy to get back in the heat since that’s what I had been in most of the time. So off goes our road trip… first stop: Sedona! Famous for red rock formations in the desert (and extremely good musicians), a generally nice atmosphere and good sushi ;)

- see pics! Second stop: Grand Canyon! Guess there’s no need to explain but I’ll do it anyway; as you know, everything rips up after a while. So does the earth so there’s the Grand Canyon: a rip with rock, trees and big birds :) Life’s just so simple at time :)

Stop three: Las Vegas! No, I’m not broke. I’m not a millionaire either. And whatever else they say about “Sin City” is true! But it’s nice to see it for once and experience what over the top is really like :) Also felt unique

as I’m one of very few people that has come out clean and sane ;) LOL

Stop four: Disneyland Posh sh*thole Los Angeles! Time to increase the Disneyland-factor on this trip, and it can’t be made much easier than here in LA - Universal Studios was fun though :) Oh, and the walk of fame isn’t that impressive… though I do expect the ReneMiltenburg.Com star to be included there in about 15 years ;)

Stop five: Home! Oops…. NOT! Racing back to Phoenix and getting ready to head back home… aka the hardest part! Nothing special there, except for an early trip to the airport and standing in line on the curbstones :) As I had a 7-hour layover in New York I decided to add an extra stop to this last part, so here we go… Stop six: Manhattan! I couldn’t make it much cheesier than sitting in the AirTrain, heading straight into Manhattan, walking down a few blocks and going up the Empire State Building - but hey, it’s one of those “gotta-have-dones” in life, don’t you think? Besidews, the views were nice ;)

Enjoy the bunch of pics I posted down here. Next up: arriving home and The Aftermath! (like someone’s ever going to read that - LOL!)

-René

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Red rocks - Sedona

Rockin' on... Grand Canyon!

FYI: the thing is rather big...

Sorry, that list is too long! I’ll write it down in an “about me v2.0″ section at some point in time but not now. (Yes, there are some background developments going on with regards to this website, so stay tuned!)

So, back to business. From city to city, bus to truck and the hills to the coast; time to complete the loop! After Bayamo (sshhh, be quiet!) it was time for some more coastal work; off to Trinidad! FInding a place to stay is easy as there are about 1200 rooms for rent and 400 tourists scattered throughout the city… so you’re pretty much being nailed to the wall by casa owners desperately trying to rent their place to you - lol! Having to deal with such a thing a 6am is all the more fun! Other than that, this has definately been the nicest city I’ve been to in all of Cuba, though I know a lot of people will argue this :) Trinidad forms a nice mix of Caribbean and Latino/Cuban culture, along with beautiful surroundings in the inland as well as a pretty beach. Quite the place to crash down for a couple days and get drunk so that’s what I did! The days merely consisted of city-viewing, beach-bumming, exchanging stories (and laughing my butt off) and dancing! Great to be there so go watch pictures like you always do!

Next up; a final visit to Habana! Since I knew I’d be passing through here a couple more times I decided not to visit all parts in one go so here’s part 3! You know, buildings, old cars and stuff… so on to Vinales; tobacco country, backed by limestone rocks and a lot less linear than the rest of Cuba - or so it seemed at first sight :) I got there together with this guy (you’re welcome Trav!) and went on cave visits, biking trips and some longer hikes, in the middle of the day while it was 33C (what were we thinking again!?). Visiting local tobacco farmers, discovering (well, sort of) a cave nobody told us about and going on bike trips is fun after a lot of city-flavour!

After Vinales it was time to crash down in Las Terrazas, a Soviet-style model eco-village (try to say that 10 times in a row), pretty much out of the way of most places. Pretty fit to chill out for a while and explore a little more nature, after all I now realise I like being near nature more than being in big cities :) Part of the fun was staying in a bird’s nest-style house but I forgot to take a picture, sorry!

Then, the final stop: Habana, getting ready for the return leg to Guatemala. This basically meant I re-re-re-reconfirmed my flight for the 5th time - although it was fun I didn’t want to go through this hassle again - and found the time to help Travis out trying to file a report for his stolen camera… NOT!!! A couple hours, three different police stations and A LOT of talking later, we were simply being told this: “Your story about this theft is strange, so how about we start investigating your story and hold you in custody until we sort this out?”. Ehmmmm… (sweat, tremble, gnawing for breath) … not quite what we need only 4 hours before our flight’s departure. Anyway, we eventually managed to get the hell out of the police station and subsequently the country :) Socialism, at some point it just gets to you… bye bye Cuba!

The next article will be posted on Wednesday night so stay tuned and come back soon!! Hasta luego!!

-René

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A church! After all it's been a while!

Trinidad's street "life"

Trinidad - unique rooftops and hills ;)

… in Cuba! Exactly - it’s been almost 3 years months since the last time I wrote something down here so it’s high time to finish what I started, don’t you agree? I am writing to you from the aftermath of a 10-month trip but in view of lovely memories it’s all the more pleasant to write about stuff that happened. And A LOT happened down there in Cuba, so let’s get started…

Right here I mentioned my ability to run into the most random situations and this has been overly confirmed during the month I spent in Cuba. I’m talking ancient times, 18 April 2009 A.D….

How to get to Cuba - It’s so simple. I should’ve known. Cuba, Cubana Airlines and e-tickets, it just doesn’t add up. But yet I somehow did assume all would be fine. My flight was bound to leave around 9.30am and somehow I still hadn’t seen anyone from Cubana Air by 8.30. Luckily I bumped into another few people who were bound to be on the same flight, so at least I got some assurance I wasn’t completely wrong. We managed to get in touch with some guy from the airline by phone, who subsequently came to the airport by bike. Easy to recognise him as he

was the only one riding around the main terminal on a bicycle! A short conversation resulted in the following explanation: “As there’s only four of you, we decided not to operate this flight, sorry!” … ehhh, so what do we do now? “Three of you can be rebooked on a flight to Cuba through Panama City”. Right, you feel it coming… “…with the exception of Mr Miltenburg, as he was informed of this situation previously”. WTF!? I asked him when and how as despite many hangovers, I never noticed anything; “I’ll call the office, hang on…” (he calls and reverts back to me) “They sent you an e-mail half an hour ago”. One thing in life I’m strictly convinced of is the fact fighting is for losers, so a simple look from my end seemed to change things: “I’ll have you booked along with the other three on the flight through Panama”. Viva Cubana - here we go!

Alright, so apart from a little intercambio de equipaje (don’t feel like explaining, sorry) we landed in Habana around 1am. Hurray! Next up: getting through customs. This should be simple and straightforward and for tourists it obviously is, however one Cuban guy on our flight didn’t seem to get through. The reason: despite his double nationality he couldn’t take any luxury goods into the country, unless he paid some serious $$$ tax. Being the angel I am (LOL), I decided to be of a little help by saying his bag with luxury goods was mine. The response from customs was simple: “It’s not” . My statement “Wanna prove it’s not?” seemed to be enough to let us through… after which the bag magically disappeared in the arrivals hall, despite my newly-made Cuban friend staying with me. So yes, I smuggled. And although I’m not proud of it, it’s still funny :)

My reward consisted of a free night of sleep; I was taken to the guy’s (Osmar is his name) parents and got to stay in a small Cuban apartment, after a nightly walk through Habana, which is quite the experience in itself! A combination of decaying colonial grandeur, Cubans hanging out and drunk tourists… it’s all in the mix! Down at the apartment I was amazed by the way things looked - it’s nowhere near poverty but it’s the fact the newest piece of equipment in the room dated back to 1975… check the pics to get an idea!

The next day consisted of a short walk through Habana and a take-off to Varadero. Yes - that’s the place full of tourists, outrageously priced hotels and so forth… a place I would definately skip if it wasn’t for a friend staying there! Getting there is half the fun (again!) since there don’t seem to be any buses on Sunday (!?) and the only means of transport - though illegal - is by a 1950s Chevrolet taxi. Yaay!! Huffing, puffing, coughing and bumping (I mean the taxi, not me!) we got to Varadero. While searching for my friend I initially wasn’t let into the resort. The reason: looks and way of dressing in general - welcome to Varadero, though I can’t state they were entirely wrong ;)

Varadero officially has no underground scene (illegal taxis, houses for rent, restaurants, etc) so it took a whole 10 minutes to arrange all of that, which for Cuban measures is a record (in terms of slowness, not speediness). Hurray and respect for my casita - I was right on the beach, in the non-touristy area! The best game to play on the beach was “Find the white guy” (really hard!) and at the same time my friend arranged a resort-wristband for me so I could make use of some 5-star facilities down the road as well. Sweet!

After a little bit of beach (just can’t get enough…) it was time to hit Habana again, in bright daylight this time! What can I say - blabla colonial stuff, old buildings, culture, cigars, old cars (yay!) etcetcetc… you probably heard most of it before so enjoy the series of pictures below!

Next up (Wednesday, that is): How to travel east and meeting a bunch of MacGyvers! Stay tuned!

-René

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Standard decoration, present in every house!

"I'm a Cuban, please take a picture of me!" ... Sure! :)

My first hotel room (Habana)

As I said before; “Variety is the spice of life”. I know, that article wasn´t too good but it´s still true :) The things I did in the last couple days did indeed vary strongly, so here we go:

Water: I mean fresh water; something different from yet another beach this time. I´m talking about Lake Atitlan to be exact. Visited Panajachel and took a first glimpse of this gorgeous lake, surrounded by volcanoes, indigenous communicites and whatnot. Also bumped into a funny procession as apparently Easter is nearing, which is supposed to be pretty hectic here. Keep you posted!

Lava: Yes, hot stuff coming from the center of the Earth :) Up close and personal on Volcan Pacaya, close to Antigua. Pretty interesting and not always equally safe, but still good fun. Who needs Volcan Arenal anyway!?

Culture: Yes, again… Antigua this time, a colonial marvel close to Guatemala city. Intensely beautiful, and completely different from the rest of Central America since it´s so well-organised, clean and (relatively) safe. Started to feel like home… scary!

Ocean: Almost forgot how much I loved the beach, so time to head down for a change! Monterrico is hot, humid and a nice spot to crash down and hang out for a bit. Different from everything else I´ve seen lately but hey, it´s an addiction remember?

Coffee: Lots of plantations around, but hadn´t really had a close look at any of them yet. Coban was the place; got a (private!) tour on a small coffee finca and learnt a lot more about this addictive stuff. Indeed; I have been moving my dirty hands through beans from which you are now having your daily shot of caffeine. How does that feel? Enjoy it!

Natural pools: Swimming pools suck; they smell like chlorine and are congested with hair. In Holland, that is. Guatemala offers all natural pools on a huge cascade. Almost as blue as the Caribbean Sea, almost as clean as European tap water!

Cave-swimming: I know, that word doesn´t exist but it´s the best way to describe it. Swimming through a cave (Las Marias, near Semuc Champey) with a candle in your hands, a unique experience and most of all a lot of fun. Hectic at times too, since passages are narrow / steep and slippery at times! There was a little consequence to this one, so keep reading!

Bats: Ugly mice with wings, flying really fast. Had a few hundred of those around my head at the Lanquin caves, which they all seem to fly outof at about the same time. Interesting, especially the fact they fly straight past you but don´t strike you at all.

Health care: The Las Marias cave, a hole, my twisted motorics and a few sharp rocks. Need I say more? Ended up cutting my foot (4cm in length, 1cm deep) and am now stiched up, for the first time in my life. I love traveling, you just experience something new every day! ;) I now know what a hospital looked like in the 1940s, though they did a pretty good job on cleaning (45 minutes because I was too stubborn to leave the tour after this happened) and stitching me up. To be continued!

-René “leave me alone, it´s just a little scratch” Miltenburg

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Lake Atitlan ... and me

Jesus is coming!

Some real lava, up close!

Update 20-Feb: comment function is now open. Sorry guys!

Dear diary Whatever. As promised, here`s a post which - in terms of quality - should exceed the previous two. Can`t be too hard, right? At least my predictive capabilities (”worst viewed posts ever”) still seem to work after all these travels, which feels like a delight ;)

Well then, so after having fun on Cozumel and spending most of my time in fairly small places, I felt it was time for some big city life. The place of choice: Mérida, famous for Yucatec culture, its “bustling” weekends, markets, architecture, people, surroundings… in other words: quite the place to get stuck in for a while! What can I say… the weather was nice (nothing but sun, 28C and rising temps), the company was very pleasant (hi guys!), the food was great and the beer was cold - what more could you wish for?

The city functioned as a base for exploring nearby cenotes (3 in total) - which was both fun and stunning. The latter is because in order to see one of the cenotes you need to climb down an 8-meter ladder… and the top step broke while I was climbing up, so I was almost part of yet another bodycount (sounds familiar?). I keep wondering how the people that were still down there got out though! :)

Also, we visited the Chichen Itza ruins (yes, more ruins), which were a bit of a Disneyland-experience but still pretty impressive. Other than that the city itself was good fun, providing basically everything one could look for. Cultural events such as traditional Yucatec dancing - which seems boring at first but then all of a sudden gets impressive - provide a little extra.

Still happy about cities, I moved on to Campeche and hooked up with some people I also met in Merida… yes, I`m still on a well-trodded trail at the moment! Campeche is nice but VERY quiet, the old city centre feels like walking through a candystore with all those hard-coloured buildings. Anyway, the company again was very good! Next day took a night bus to Palenque and after a nice little ride and even less sleep went to visit (MORE) ruins! Anyway, these were the most impressive so far and by now I`m getting a little ruin-tired (and so should most readers) so I promise I won`t post too much on these things anymore.

Anyway, enjoy the pictures (bigger series this time too, whoo-hoo!!) and on to… CARNAVAL! (This way, not this way!)

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One very weary traveler

This is how the Maya kept their kids under control

Chichen Itza skyline

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Whoop whoop here I am again! Back to solo-traveling, back to a lack of logic! First of all I´d like to apologise for the last post down here; it´s the worst viewed post ever… and with good reason, I admit! Anyway, my bad, but here´s another thing: this one is probably worse! The key reason: I´ve just mainly been scuba-diving (yes! +4) which doesn´t really provide a lot of opportunity for wonderful photography with the gear I´ve got. Anyway, I felt like I should write at least something … you gotta do what you gotta do right? ;)

Entonces… ¿qué pasó? I took off to Isla Cozumel, world-famous thanks to this guy. Diving is the norm, the weather was good and the place is extremely cancuned (Thanks Twan, I love that term!). Nonetheless, I must admit I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Certain people will understand what I mean if I say “this place is boomin´!” The diving was great and so was the company at the hostel I stayed at (see below as well ;)). Oh, and the showers are a legend: first time I burnt instead of froze in a shower in Central America!

Anyway, though my addictive personality keeps me stuck in many places I have now arrived in Mérida; on to cultures, fiestas, cenotes (love ´em!) and A LOT of local flavour. In other words, on to a better post!

Write soon again!!

-René (aka “that twisted dude with his insane travel schedules”)

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Isla Cozumel - CANCUNED!

El equipo - the guys that made staying there so much fun!

Mascotte - really didn´t have that much to take pics of!