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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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!

So here´s yet another short update on my travels… and the very first post under the Honduras part of this site! So far I´ve been pretty much bouncing up and down the country, but with good reasons for doing so ;) First took straight off to Utila to go on a diving trip, however I got a nice little sinus-infection (which obviously sounds worse than it is!) so I couldn´t go out. Snorkeling was fun though… and so was the general atmosphere on the island. Anyway, there´s sufficient reason to go back once I (finally!) get my physique sorted out!

Leaving Utila appeared to be tricky as the number of ferries leaving the island was limited due to a rough sea, anyway I made it on time and went to Copan to see the famous Copan Ruins. I felt these were impressive enough to publish a series of pics for, so have fun watching below. Also tried out my cowboy-skills by going horseback riding in the hills around town. It sure is fun, but I guess they´d better given me a donkey ;)

So far I haven´t yet decided what´s up next; probably I´ll go travel around Honduras and see whether I can finally make it to the east coast… weather permitting! There´s still lots of fun stuff to do around here though so I might just as well decide on the spot, which means tomorrow morning when I wake up ;) I´ll do my best to keep you posted, and will try to keep posting more pics as long as this remains to be possible!

Se cuida!!

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Yet another one... can´t get enough of these!

Nice Mayan cartoons - Copan Ruinas

´Stadium´... or actually a religious centre

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Blablabla new pics blablabla lots of sand, beach, palm trees, friends, fun in the sun, blablabla … anyway, have a look!

Ciao!!

PS: I´m sorry for not using a new plugin for photos yet, will try again later!

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“Az sum Bulgarche…” :)) As previously promised to my Bulgarian friends, part of this website will be devoted to their country. Not because anyone asked for it, but just because it’s fun and I like it so much! During July I’ve made a (third) visit to Bulgaria, again seeing many wonderful places and enjoying quality time with my friends. Please have a look at the photostream at the bottom right of this page (yes! I know I have yet to set this thing straight…) for some pictures of this trip, which took us to Sofia, Hisaria, Koprivshtitza, Burgas, Nessebar, Sozopol and back to Sofia again. Trust me, these places are worth visiting! Thanks again guys!

Hajde chao (i mnogo tzeluvki za zheni) for now… I’ll be writing more on this later on! :)

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