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!

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!

Yeah, I know, I`m sorry… its been way too quiet out here in the last couple weeks but it`s just that I seriously geared up on traveling speed and as such don`t have too much time to write stuff down here. Anyway…

“Rene Miltenburg! Stop complaining about the fact you cannot dance… either DO something about it or just shut up!”

This is what I (sort of) told myself on a minivan trip between San Cristobal and country #8 on this trip: Guatemala! My first destination: Xela - aka Quetzaltenango - located in the country`s western highlands! Yes… more C, culture and cold! However, before arriving there I had to cross yet another border. This is the 13th time this trip (believe it or not!) … and the third time I got into trouble. I guess I`m not doing too well, statistically speaking… Anyway, the conversation between me and the migracion guy about having or not having paid tourist tax was interesting. Click “read more” for a short transcript! :)

Whatever, fast forward; Xela isn`t quite the place you just hang out at - people come here to accomplish something, be it learning Spanish, doing some serious hiking, learning Mayan languages, or … learn salsa dancing! In my case, mainly the latter applied though inbetween I also ascended Volcan Tajumulco - this highest peak in Central America. After all, you can`t really say you topped Central America if you haven`t been to the highest point, can you? :) Pictures once again are worth more than words, so have fun viewing! The erupting volcano you see is Santiaguito; one of the most active volcanoes in the region so no, we`re not talking coincidence (or bad karma) here! In order to chill down, we also visited some hot springs (H-O-T!) and - for a change - the cheesiest church on the western hemisphere (where´s the competition? ;))!

As for the dancing - again, believe it or not - I did actually book some serious progress! “Unfortunately” I couldn`t take any pictures :) but for those interested I`ll be happy to give some demo`s once back home! Yes, you heard that right, home… where`s that again!? I`ll come bck to you on that topic soon - stay tuned!

-René  “this is a friggin` bootcamp!” Miltenburg

PS: In light of respect for local indigenous cultures I cannot publish any detailed pictures of the people and / or elements of their daily lives. Taking pictures without any explicit consent is believed to steal spirits and is as such not appreciated - let alone these pictures being published. Thanks for understanding.

PPS: The pictures of the Tajumulco hike will be included tomorrow(-ish)!

Update 19-Mar: Done!

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Xela - "any given Sunday"

Indigenous market we bumped into - nice ´n busy!

Xela´s surroundings - Volcan Santamaria (amongst others)

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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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Time to gear up a bit after a few days of relaxing on the beach… Again, here´s a brief summary of the stuff we did. We might just be kidding ourselves but our assumption is that you prefer looking at pics over reading text anyway ;)

So after staring at palm trees, now and then with monkeys flying over our heads, we decided to do take a more active approach and go to Manzanillo by bicycle. Easy ride, nice stuff to see and the ´hike´ in its park was quite something different, though we did blend our walk with a lot of breaks on the beach (hey - what would you do if beach and road were parallel!?)

After Manzanillo it was time to have a fun traveling day, going a bit up north to Tortuguero. What´s in a name, the place is all about sea turtles topped off with some other wildlife as well. Again, see the pics to get an idea on the place. Here´s a brief description; no roads, hardly any people (believe it or not), lots of canals and an empty beach. We did see nesting turtles on the beach though it was a bit outside the season :) along with this experience we got soaked but the good part is Mayo has now overcome her fear of severe thunderstorms ;)

24 hours of Tortuguero is enough to cause claustrophobia, so we went on to Turrialba. Primary target: rafting Rio Pacuare (class IV-V). Unfortunately elements weren´t working in our favour but we did see some nice ruins instead. Due to time constraints we left Turrialba the day after, but plan to come back here to execute the rafting plan :) After Turrialba (and yet another day of bus rides) we arrived in La Fortuna, next to the infamous Arenal Volcano. It´s that things that is supposed to spray ash and lava all the time, and we´ll see about that tomorrow. So far we visited a waterfall (La Catarata de La Fortuna) and some hot springs, which were so incredibly fake we didn´t even bother taking pictures of them (couldn´t avoid visiting, stuff was included in our deal with our guy at our cabina…). Again, see pics for further impressions!

If you´ve come all the way down here by reading - congratulations! If you didn´t… thanks for visiting and have fun viewing another batch of photos!

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Mayo on beach...

Secluded beach - there´s something behind the trees which we managed to hide away :D

Yet another friend

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