Sorry - story of my life…. the Mañana-feeling! LOL

Back to the efficiency of the third world… Guatemala! No offense to either country of course, but there were a certain number of “reliefs” after leaving Cuba. For example, you can actually talk to people in the street (one of the reasons I love Guate so much is its friendly people) without having to say either of the following:

“No, I don’t want to buy your cigars”

“No, I don’t need a tourguide”

“No, I do not want to sleep with you (woman) / your wife (family offer)”

and “No, I definately don’t want to marry you!”

Anyway, that’s Cuba… and maybe a little bit of personal frustration ;) Let’s move on to the final steps in Central America; flying back to Guatemala was easy, though interesting as quite a bit of commonly called “undefinable smoke” entered the cabin. Well, I don’t panic as long as the crew doesn’t so whatever… and we even got there on time! Another few bumpy rides (I love those chicken buses!) and a little boat trip took us to the biggest miss-out on my Guatemala-list: San Pedro La Laguna! We got into this nice lake-view hostel on a prime location and paid the extortionate amount of $2,50 a night for a room. How dare they!Time for a little more chilling, lazing around, hippie-being and this:

Kayaking - it’s not like I haven’t done this before… but hey, it’s Lake Atitlan so one should just do it. Besides I could use a little exercising after being linear for a while ;)

Lazing around - see above (and about 25 other posts - this site has a search function ya know!? ;))

Volcano climbing - these cone-shaped things are scattered all over the place so it’s a matter of picking one’s poison! Volcan San Pedro is the nearest and (as they say) prettier one, thus a good one to climb in order to say goodbye to volcano-climbing! (for now that is!)

Losing weight - it’s one way to do it… stuff came out quicker than it was supposed to… no details!

Shopping - Come on, I’m a man… but the home-front demands gifts once you return so it’s something you just have to do ;)

So there’s one way to “lose” another 5 days in Central America. Next up is the USA, Arizona and California to be exact. Come back soon for the final travelling article!

-René

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Volcan San Pedro - who can run up fastest? ;)

In France they call this "hors catégorie" ;)

Local weather forecast: a very high Holland-factor!

Spending four days in a bus, only to arrive in a place that is more plastic than a 50-year old movie star … welcome to Cancun; so far the easiest place to dislike on this trip! This is Cancun in short: arrive, run to airport, pick up Mayo and get out!It’s always good to see elements from back home, but unfortunately Mayo brought along a bit too much of “Dutchism” - we haven’t seen a piece of blue sky for 5 days!

Alright, enough whining! Even in bad weather, there’s still plenty of stuff to do in Mexico so let’s get a move on; we visited Puerto Morelos, a small fishing “village” just south of Cancun. Pretty, and definately worth staying in! (By the way, say “Cancun” 10 times in a row and it starts sounding like a curse! :))

Since the weather wasn’t very much in favour of any beach-related activities we decided to use it for the better, that is, now doing the cultural stuff and bus trips so that we can make some shorter hauls later on! First up were the Tulum ruins, remains of an ancient Maya city built straight on the coast! Another bus trip south, a good night of sleep (which is increasingly becoming uncommon :)) and a stroll around Felipe Carrillo Puerto took us to the “Sanctuary of the Holy Cross” - a sacrified Maya site.

Enjoy a short batch of pictures for now. We’ll keep this one short in order to separate matters better; right now we’re in Belize and the weather has severely improved! So stay tuned for another post coming soon, with a lot more Caribbean elements to it!

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Puerto Morelos - darker than usual

All dressed for warm, tropical weather!

If only the sun would be there...

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Yet another update to our surprisingly weird trail through Costa Rica, the main reason being rainy circumstances ;) First of all, let´s respond to the many folks that asked questions about the weather… yes, apparently it really is bad, but fortunately not in the places we visited :) If you have your doubts, check our tan in the pics! Weather did make us switch our travel plans though; Monteverde went off the list and instead we´ve been making a ´Pacific Trail´ during the last couple days.

After (finally) seeing live lava in La Fortuna, we figured out highlands were barely (read: not) accessible, so we switched back to Montezuma on Peninsula de Nicoya. Again, use Google Maps if you wonder where that is ;) First day merely consisted of a chill-out, the day after we visited Isla Tortuga, only slightly off the coast though the trip included a bumpy boat-ride which we consider a mere part of the fun we´re having!

Next day we left, full of intentions to make a second effort to get to the highlands, but stranded as apparently rain flushed away part of the Interamericana highway. Fortunately, a switch was easily made so we found ourselves on the way to Manuel Antonio one hour after. Although famous, we posted some pictures anyway :) Our Pacific trail subsequently led through Dominical and Puerto Jimenez, where we´ve been spending the last three days. This provided the opportunity to go to a corner of Costa Rica and visit Corcovado National Park, which was once again really pretty! Swimming is fun at times too, if only the sea wouldn´t throw our 2.5m-high barrels :)

Right now, we´re making considerations on where to go next. Any tips are welcome as long as they don´t include the words ´home´ or ´Netherlands´ ;)

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'Souvenirs' all the way!

Montezuma beach (long walk though...)

Isla Tortuga Beach (find difference with previous pic)

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… or at least, that´s as close as this place gets! Welcome to Boquete - a village up in the mountains (elevation 1060m) where climate is quite different from the other places I´ve been to so far. Instead of the hot, damp, 30C+ climate I´ve come across so far, this place gets a more or less eternal spring, with temperatures varying between 20 and 25C throughout the day. Another great plus is the fact you can actually get a decent cup of coffee here, which seems to be a rarity in both Panama and Colombia, even though this is where this stuff is grown…. makes you wonder….

Don´t believe what these other people might tell you - Boquete is great, and quite something different to all the beaches, palm trees and stuff I´ve come across so far :) The last couple days (as well as the ones to come) have been quite intense;

Wednesday I decided to explore the area and initially took a 10km walk up to an elevation of 1800m. Nothing big really, but I really liked the path I was walking on (easy as a lunch walk - it was a road). At the end, I arrived at the National Park of Valcan Baru / Quetzal´s Trail (Sendero los Quetzales) where a guide at the entrance of the park told me there was still time to walk another 12km along the trail to a town named Cerro Punta. Naive as I was, I decided to take this walk … and this is where things got rough! After 2km I all of a sudden had to leave the trail and take a left, up a huge mountain where the path merely consisted of wooden blocks floating in either mud or something that resembles quicksand. Hardcore as I am ;) I decided to get off the beaten path and this is where things instantly went wrong - 3 seconds later I was stuck in the mud, up to my knees and thanks to my (natural born) insane reflexes I lost a shoe :) Next thing I know I´m hanging on to an all too flexible tree digging up my shoe - lol! Anyway, the trail continued up and Mother Nature was actually nice to me; it rains quite a lot during the afternoon but I only came across a few minor showers - and a little thunderstorm ;) Screw you Rio Calderon, it takes more than a few showers to flush me away! Oh and Lonely Planet… you guys seriously need to get your facts straight on the maps you printed!

Climbing (literally at times) up to dark cloud forests is quite intense, but very beautiful and mysterious. Temperatures dropped to some 15C (who´s laughing now ha!?) and climbing muddy and rocky hills while being in the fog is interesting to say the least, and it´s a relief to reach the end of the trail (elevation 2500m)! Another 5km walk took me into the town of Cerro Punta, from where a 3-hour bus ride (thank you Panamanian infrastructure) eventually took me back home! Not tapping myself on the head for this, but this was quite an experience. Bus ride was private as I was stinking so badly no one wanted to sit next to me ;) 

Yesterday was a similar story - I got the idea of visiting some nearby Hot Springs but was late so it started to rain by the time we got there. A mere 20-minute walk on a rocky dirt path turned into a wedge through a class 3 rafting river thanks to the insane showers! Trust me, that´s fun! (and thanks Krisztina for breaking down the bridge hehehe!) Anyway, the hot springs were rewarding and so was the hike as my shoes have never been cleaner ;) No pics on this part yet as I´m not too keen on losing another camera.

Have fun wedging through the small collection below - and as always, I´ll keep you posted!

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Having a break...

Mi jardin es su jardin

2400m altitude - you seeee ;)

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