PanAm is back !!

PanAm is back !! No, not to start a new crazy journey (not yet), just to give that old rusty website we once created in those early blog days a shiny new look!

It's all here, with more pics and of course all the same info from then. For those who haven't gone through it, feel free to comment on all the blog entries. For all the others, hope you enjoy the new look. For everybody, looking forward to another journey somewhere across the universe.

For the nostalgics, the old site is still online at this address.

Greetz!

Don José

News

- 10/05/2004 : I am coming home !
- 24/04/2004 : welcome to Brazil !
- 04/04/2004 : welcome back to Bolivia !
- 01/04/2004 : welcome back to Peru !
- 29/03/2004 : welcome to Bolivia !
- 14/03/2004 : welcome to Peru !
- 21/02/2004 : welcome to Costa Rica !
- 08/02/2004 : welcome to Nicaragua !
- 29/01/2004 : welcome to Honduras !
- 08/01/2004 : welcome to Guatemala !
- 16/12/2003 : welcome to Mexico !
- 11/12/2003 : I'm outta here !
- 20/11/2003 : the website has gone live !

Spanish for beginners

Local refined speech: mouthwater may be necessary afterwards.

Oye! - Hey, hi there!
¿Mande? - Excuse me? What?
¡Andale! - Let's go - OK - go ahead
¿Que onda? - What's up?
¡A su mecha! - No kidding! (Mex)
¡No mames! - Don't bulshit! (Mex)
¡No manches! - No kidding! - Stop fooling (Mex)
¡A poco! - No way! (Mex)
Chela, cerveza - beer
Chupar, tomar, chelar - to drink
¡Que chido! - How nice! (Mex)
Que buena onda - That's so nice, what a cool guy
Que mala onda - That's not cool, what a jerk
Pinche wey - asshole (Mex)
Pendejo - jerk
Pinche cabron - what a tough guy (Mex)
Pedir un ray - Hitchhike, catch a ride (Mex)
Estoy tan full - I am so full (eating)
Chingon, fregon, padre - nice, cool (Mex)
Chingar, cojer, foyar - to fool around, to fuck
Estoy chingando - I am just kidding (Mex)
Tomar el bus - catch the bus
Boleto - bus ticket
Es tan poco de su madre - That's so cool (Mex)
Ah de su madre - That shit is bad (Mex)
Hijo de su madre - motherfucker
Hijo de la chinganda - Son of a bitch (Mex)
No me toca los cojones - Don't fuck with me
Pura vida ! (CRC) - Far out, cool

¡Muchas gracias a Kris y Tony !

Mojitos y salsa

A selection of special flavours and yummie drinks.

Food :

- Tostadas : fried tortillas with beans, salad, avocado, tomato, chicken or beef, topped with cheese
- Platanos fritos : fried bananas
- Elote : corn on a stick (with mayo and salt)
- Quesadillas : baked tortillas with cheese
- Huevos rancheros : fried tortillas with baked eggs and salsa de tomate
- Gallo pinto : hearty rice and beans
- Casado : Costa Rica lunch of rice and beans
- Ensalada de frutas (piña, banana, mango,...)
- Melones !
- Costa Rican coconuts
- Pollo frito con papas : fried chicken and fries
- Choclo : corn with salt in Peru
- Bolivia- Trucha a la plancha : grilled Titicaca trout
- Golazo bars on those Bolivian mountains !
- Meat by the kilo in Brazil

Drinks :

- Corona Modelo Negro beer (Mexico)
- Cabro beer (Guatemala)
- Salva Vida beer (Honduras)
- Toña beer (Nicaragua)
- Flor de Caña rum ! (Nicaragua)
- Imperial beer / Bavaria beer (Costa Rica)
- Jugo de banana con leche (everywhere)
- Cusqueña beer (Peru)
- Mate de coca - coca tea (Peru-Bolivia)
- Half liters of Huari beer (Bolivia)
- Skol beer (Brazil)
- Caipirinha !!! (Brazil)

Hot or Not

My final top 5 of toppers and floppers !

Top 5 :

1. Back together with Leen in Costa Rica
2. Surrealistic Bolivia
3. Sunrise over Tikal canopy
4. Roatan untamed beauty
5. Lago de Atitlan magic

Flop 5 :

1. Bolivian taxi robbery
2. Sad goodbyes
3. Falling out of my bed in Nicaragua
4. Cuzco´s touristic diarrhea
5. Border hassles

A last postcard from Rio

Here it goes, the last post from Rio... the last PanAm story before I head home tomorrow. I must say it's weird : for nearly all the reports on this trip, I wasn't lacking inspiration and the writing pretty much did its own work. But this time, for some reason, I feel I will have a lot more trouble to finish this journal entry.Not that there isn't anything to tell though, Brazil has proved to be a perfect place to finish this trip ! I had a fun time in the Pantanal area, although the fever I had to bear there and the millions of mosquitos did their utter best to ruin the fun. And it was hot as hell, that was something to get used to after chilly Bolivia as well. The weather has been a little bit less tropical in and around Rio, but nevertheless, I truly enjoyed this hedonistic city too. Observing the macho beach lovers in their sexy Speedo tights, the samba soccer on the beach and savouring up on the 'all you can stuff yourself with' buffets (you pay by the kilo!) put a smile on my face. The world famous beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema were worth the visit as well : I have never seen more silicon and less textile per square meter than there. The Brazilians call the tight thongs very inspiringly 'dental flosses'. It´s also a city for the fast and the furious. Brazilians love Formula 1, especially the bus drivers ! Taking a bus in Rio is a real adventure, especially if you get stuck with the local Senna or Schumacher. They hold real races between traffic lights ! And if you get thirsty after all that, there are the ever yummie sucos bars, where for less than an euro, you can be in 7th heaven sipping on a fresh exotic fruit juice (they have fruit here that I never had heard of !). Just to say that Brazil is definitely worth another visit : a quick hop through in less than 2 weeks doesn't do justice to the place at all. There is also soooo much to see and visit, it's huge ! I felt like touching down in another continent entering the country : the language sounds nothing like Spanish (more like samba music), but most of the people understood me talking Spanish to them. Weird ! And I found out that Brazilians in general smile a lot, and will give you the thumbs up at almost any event (well, especially when buying something from them), which all add to their coolness. That attitude was certainly a refresher after the not always easy or flexible Bolivian way of doing things. Well, I won't generalize too much, because after all, I have only seen a very tiny and very touristy part of this big country. And there are a LOT of things that are just as chaotic here as in Bolivia or Peru ! But just doing like most Brazilians do - that is just to stroll around in beach sandals and swim shorts - and relaxing for all the time you can, well... that would be not too bad at all if I could make a living out of it ! I met this French guy on the island of Ilha Grande (where I spent some days away from Rio) who made enough money to travel by just selling self made caipirinhas on the street and the beach in Rio. It's certainly a place that allows people to chase their dreams, but only to have a couple realizing them. They say that Brazil is the country of tomorrow, but that it will always stay like that. And just watching the news about urban violence, reading about the environmental problems, police corruption and the living conditions in the favellas makes you realize that the country indeed still has a long way to go. But by the night of the day, it all ends with samba, beach and soccer. Not that I want to put up too many cliches on Brazil (see above), but it does seem the case that people forget on their daily troubles on these things. Together with a couple of Irish I met in my Rio hostal, we went to see a soccer game at the Macarana stadium in Rio, and that was some prove of it too. Although the game wasn't exactly Champions League class, and the big stadium wasn't even near to full, the atmosphere was very lively and exotic. The taste of life here is certainly one of sugar, bitter sweet though with lemon and chacaça (sugar cane rum) in an icy cold caipirinha. They know how to party for sure, with a little hangover though in the morning. But like we all know, those tend to heal well and quickly when the sun is out and you can walk down a sandy beach for a fresh swim. :)And that´s just about what there was left for me to do these last days at the friendly and cosy Rio Backpackers Hotel. Although the weather isn´t exactly carnaval like this time of year, and the samba schools are closed as well, Rio still is a great place to go out, walk along the beach or visit the city sights (the famous Christ statue, the Sugar Loaf mountain) for some amazing views. So I am enjoying the last moments of this trip to the fullest. And it always seems that just at those moments, you run into old friends : coming back to Rio, I met Xavier again, a Swiss guy I had traveled with before in Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Yes, the world is a small place !So it´s time to say goodbye... time to pack up my things one last time and get on that bus to the airport, where I probably will enough time to kill to finish a whole novel. Waiting in airports can be as inspiring as dull, very strange. Maybe I can start daydreaming on some destinations for a next trip... who knows !This trip certainly has been very inspiring, but now the end nears by, I am glad to go home. Go to a place where people speak my language, where the bakery opens at 7am, where the beer is good and where the streets are ours. Home is a good place. It´s ironic to have to travel half around the world for half a year to find that out. But it was all more than worth it. See you all very very soon.

A bad Bolivian police movie

Well, so it seems that the odds finally turned against me ! After more than 4 months of relatively safe and easy travel, I got robbed... in a bloody taxi in bloody Bolivia. Not that it was bloody, luckily, by lack of any real physical violence, by the REAL threath was certainly there. In short, what will you do if they tell you will stripped down of everything, stuck in a cab, if you don´t give up your valuables ? Give it up, I´d say, ´cause I didn´t want to end up in some Bolo chicken stew !In short, it all happened in less than 5 minutes...getting out of the bus terminal in Santa Cruz after a 16h night bus ride from Sucre (my LAST one now I can assure you!) at 7am, with my head still in my ass, and getting into a cab outside the terminal. Mistake 1 : never to take a cab outside a bus or flight terminal...well, they cost half the price but they´re also half as safe or twice as dangerous in my case. Mistake 2 : not to get into the back of the cab, with all my luggage next to me, buying the taxista´s excuse that the front seat was wet and that I couldn´t sit there. Mistake 3 : not to take a look at the license plate before to get in to the cab... Soooo many people told me about this scam, and warned me : ´Always take a look at the plate and the cab´s number and NEVER get into a cab with other people.´ Well, after 4 months you start bending the rules, especially in Bolivia, where colectivo taxis are the rule if you want to drive cheap. And up til now, even though some Toyota taxis look like they will fall apart any minute, they had proven to be safe. And in my experiences with old Toyota´s, I have rarely been dissapointed. Anyways, I had not even given the cab driver my directions (which he oddly enough couldn´t locate), or he stopped and 2 other guys got into the cab. One in the back, and a few meters further, one in the front. The cab driver quickly put his coat over the seat and told the guy he could sit there. Mistake 4 : to start talking to them, and answering their questions on where I came from and where I was going. Small chit chat in cabs is like your daily free Spanish course in Latin America. I rarely will not talk to cab drivers, it´s just WHAT you tell them, right ? By this time, the guy in the front got really serious and pulled out (what proved to be a fake) police ID. He told us he was looking for drugs in luggage of foreigners and fake dollars. By the moment I heard this line, I knew I was in trouble. I had heard about the scam before in La Paz, but this was with ´fake´ cops on the street. And from those, you just walk away, no matter what they say. Except if they pull a knife or gun of course. But here I was in a cab, being told we were going to the ´police station´ to do a complete ´search´on me. When I asked him to stop to get into another cab, he wouldn´t. Meanwhile, the third guy in the back was fully ´cooperating´and showed the cop all his ´dollars´ (probably fake) and his bag, that he quickly sniffed through and gave back. ´You see, nobody is going to get robbed here.´ Yeah right : BIG mistake 5 if anybody would believe that !So when he insisted on showing me my bag and my dollars, I told him I would only do so in a real police office, and that normally he didn´t have the right to search me, even if he was a real cop. Getting nervous by so much gringo smart talk in Spanish, he started yelling at me and told me they would ´take care of me´ in the police station if I wouldn´t show my bag. Getting pretty scared now, I slowly opened my bag and had him have a look, hoping that at one point a red light would turn up so I could jump out. But no chance, he brutally ripped the bag out of my hands, and start going through my stuff, camera and the works. I told him I wanted the bag back but he wouldn´t let me, saying that he was looking for fake dollars. Getting to the point where I was seeing no more exits than to give up my money as well, I slowly pulled out my 215 dollars out of my secret side pocket and showed them to him. He quickly took them as well, and on that moment I grabbed on to my bag, rather loosing the money than all the stuff in there. He yelled again that nothing was being robbed and showed me, putting the boliviano money in the bag. Now, desperate, I grabbed my bag by force, and the taxi stopped. The guy yelled even more at me now, shouting ´Baja ! Baja !´ (´Get out !´), which I did, almost shitting my pants. I was never more scared in my life. I was too confused to think straight so... Mistake 6 : I didn´t get the plate number of the cab. I must say he took a real quick turn and when I ran after it (so far as I could with my 18kg bag), he was already too far to see. Then I looked in my bag and I saw that my dollars and my camera were gone... Mistake 7 : not to have taken out my memory card while on the road. You can replace a camera (hell, the insurance company MAYBE refund you like 30% of its value if you get lucky, the bastards!) but you can´t replace pictures... So I lost more than 150 pics of my trip through Bolivia (the ones I didn´t put up on the Internet), and that was the hardest pill to swallow. And moreover, it was all on the 512MB card that my brother lent me... All I can say now is that Latin America is maybe not that safe as I thought. Well, I knew it was unsafe - you hear the wildest stories ! - but all those things always happened to other people !It nearly makes me forget to tell you what a wonderful trip I had on my last week in Bolivia, hanging out at the Potosi mines (when you see how people work there, it makes you think again about the value of life...) and cruising through beautiful Sucre. I went to the national museum of Bolivian history over there, which was a hilarious experience, having a very enthousiastic guide who knew that General Sucre, one of the liberatadores of Bolivia, originally was from Belgium. Maybe from Tienen?? I saw some memorable stuff like the last Bolivian flag ever risen over the Bolivian port town of Antofagasta (before the lost it to Chile) and the army outfit of the last general to surrender, and his last famous words : ´Rendirme? Que se rinda su abuela, carajo!´ (´Surrender? Your grandmother right, asshole!´). Hehe, wish I could have told that to my robber !And now here I am in hot and steamy Brazzzzil, taking it easy after a couple of days of fever (one setback never comes alone!), but that story is for the Brazil section! Hasta luego!

Salt, dead trains and blood red lagoons

Bolivia is not only a country of extremes, it's also a weird and surrealistic place at times ! It has night busses that stop at 3am in the middle of the desert to pick up women and children, music TV channels that play the same video clip 4 times in a row, other shows that discuss the utility of traffic lights (very hot topic in La Paz!), soft drinks that taste like liquid bubble gum, hotel ladies that try to steal your underwear while they're in the laundry (with mine, that was WEIRD for sure!), and most of all the most bizarre landscapes you would ever come across.Like I said before, Bolivia is a place that gets into your system. Certainly if you get on the 14h night bus from La Paz to Uyuni, and you get out as all the locals get on at 3am, looking at a full scale lit star night, wondering where the hell you are. You take a deep breath and try to wake up : the 3700m altitude already makes it hard to breath, and the bus ride makes it even worse. 70 people in a bus of 50, with niños sleeping in the aisle, and all you smell is dead chicken, and al you breath is dust. A nine year old hangs half over your lap, since he's already too big to sleep in the aisle. That's Bolivia. But Bolivia is also waking up with a blowing sun on your face, and starting your travel life all over again with a nice electric hot shower (they look like a prototype of the electric chair and as safe as Bolivians make them, but they're HOT!) and a filling desayuno americano. Uyuni is a good place to do that, wondering why and how they ever built this town in literaly the middle of nowhere. Well, to start, Uyuni was a mining town for a very long time, and also a very important railway center on the way to Argentina and Chile. Yes, they have trains on 3700m, in the middle of the desert ! Bolivia has no sea (the Chileans 'stole' it from them 130 years ago - well, the Bolivians were so stupid as well to 'lose' it, the president was too busy celebrating carnaval before sending out the troops), so all they got going for them in the 19th century were train tracks, and they have loads of them ! Just outside Uyuni, you can go see for yourself how the Industrial Revolution reached the Altiplano : tons of steel have come to die there on the biggest train graveyard in the world. Old steam trains slowly rust away under utter blue skies, quite a sight. There is a small monument as well (Bolivians love those), screaming out the injustice of modern times : ' No a la aviacion ! '. If that ever would have saved the steam train. Getting the taste of this Bolivian surrealism, we got ourselves on a 4 day tour through some of the most bizarre places I have ever seen. First day, driving through desert, hiding away from the bitter cold in a random desert town with electricity for 2 hours, eating the most delicous vegetable soup and playing cards with refound travel mate Kurt and Dutchman Bram, until the shut down generator left us with only darkness. Second day, more red desert (I felt I was on one of those explorer thingies NASA put on Mars), gazing at hot geysers and bubbling mud, with steam coming out of the ground that smelled of rotten eggs. Not to go near though, because earlier on an Israeli girl fell in and burned off one of her legs in the 200º boiling mud. The same day, more bizarre beautiful, when our guide drove us to Laguna Verde (well, it was rather turquoise than green), on the back drop of a huge black volcano, half covered in beige sand... Red sand on the groud, white foam on the shore, blue skies, it kept on getting better and better. The next stop was Laguna Colorada, a blood red lagoon (due to plankton activity), home to thousands of pink flamingos... Yeah right, pink flamingos in the desert at 4000m ! Wow. Next day, more desolation driving through red desert, along Mount Dooms on both sides, before arriving at a place right out of a Salvador Dali painting... Rocks that seemed to come out of the ground, in the most bizarre forms and shapes. I was so disorientated and daydreaming that I stumbled over one of them and cut my finger. Quite a reality check ! At night, sleeping in the desert town of San Juan, where we visited the local museum (how to kill a llama in prehistoric times) and experienced a wicked (literally!) sunset over one of a few remaining Inca burial grounds, where the mummies were staring us in the face from in their Alien egg-shaped chullpas... Talking about scary !Fourth and last day, we got up at 3.30am and drove two hours to what proved to be the highlight of this trip : the Uyuni salt flats. We caught the sunrise over the endless white, the sky burned... I'd say a paradise for any photographer or Pink Floyd getting inspiration for a new CD cover. Shadows play around, mirages of white lagunes in the far, mountains that seem to float in the blue sky, a complete 2 dimensional world lacking any depth perspective... Another wow ! And in the middle of the madness, an island full of cactusses, some reaching 12m heigh, growing on fossilised algae. Weird ! A hike to the top gave me a moment or two : at first, the overwhelming white silence was eerie and blinding, but then idyllic. Needless to say we were all blown away by this endless beauty, but not for too long. We got to Culchani, the 'salt' town, where everybody lives of the salt trade : people still work up the sand by hand, getting it on 50 year old trucks (new ones would rust away anyway), selling the white cristals off at 20 centavos (2 eurocent) per kilo... There is enough salt left for another 1000 years, but nobody will ever get rich off it. It's sad to see how a beautiful and such 'rich' country as Bolivia can be so underdeveloped, exploited and poor.As I write this, tensions are getting high again about the sale of Bolivian gas, and from which port it should be exported. Last October, huge scale riots erupted when the government wanted to sell the gas through all time enemy Chile, and now again, it seems that the campesinos and the all powerful union COB are in for another round of strikes and blocades. So facing being stuck here, I am hasting my way to Brazil before the end of the month, visiting on my way the mining town of Potosi and Sucre, the colonial pearl of Bolivia so they say. More news to follow from there !

Breathless Bolivia part 1

Bolivia is a country of extremes : it goes from the high Andes mountains to the low Amazon, from the cold Altiplano to the steaming Yungas jungle, from the very fast Internet to the very s-l-o-w busses, and from the very rich to the very poor. The capital La Paz is like a concentrated sample of all these extremes. The city just sits there in the valley, with all the nice areas and buildings downtown and the poorer areas shrugged against the hill. And on top of the hill, at 4000m, breaths El Alto, the fastest growing city in Latin America. El Alto lacks everything : air, paved streets, decent water and housing,... it just has lots of shacks, chaotic markets and blue diesel exhausts. It's quite a sight when you enter La Paz via El Alto : you think it's the city already, until you gasp down and see the soup bowl of the capital open up below you. La Paz itself isn't less chaotic then El Alto, just a bit cleaner and safer. The city looks like one big market place, where literally anything is sold on the street : from copied DVD's, car parts, clothes, stolen cameras, coca leafs to the bizarre of dried llama foetusses on the Witches Market. Apparently, no house in La Paz is build without a llama foetus under the foundations, keeps bad spirits away so they say. The street is also crowded with masked shoeshine boys (they look more dangerous than they are) and all sorts of fortune tellers, who by the side of fallen coca leafs can predict your luck. Anyways, La Paz wasn't really my kind of place to hang out at for too long : it's too crowded, noisy and polluted. But there are tons of fun things to do around La Paz ! And since I was getting the hang of these Bolivian extremes (getting stuck at the roadblock coming from Peru was a new one), I was in for a couple more ! Inspired by new met Canadian roomie John (I've met more Canadians on this trip than in the rest of my life), I took on the challenge to climb Huyana Potosi, a 6088m high mountain in the Cordillera Real. Yes ! I had to sleep on it one night when he asked me, but after some good climb advice and research on the internet (apparently this is a relatively safe and easy mountain) I was in for it ! So we left (me without telling Leen, she would have died in fear) in good spirits, but the 4 of us soon found out that this wasn't going to be a walk in the park. After bringing up all our stuff to the base camp at 5500m, I got a pounding headache, and the others weren't in best shape either. Luckily, some Dafalgan and hot soup eased the pain, but much sleep wasn't to expect. I tried to rest some (and warm up) but by 1am the guides woke us up with coca tea and off we went ! It was a beautiful quiet night, and under the light of the stars and the full moon we made steady progress until John got very sick. He was in bad shape but miraculously caught up with us half way to the summit. By that time, I had no juice left in my legs (the chocolate helped some but not much) and for every 5 steps, I had to catch my breath for 30sec. Luckily, I felt fine for the rest and being able to stop at my ease, I made it to the base of the summit. There, at 5900m, we faced a 240m tall ice wall, on a 40 degrees angle, and we all stopped. 'Fuck ! Do we need to get up on this thing ?!!' We all gasped for air and I asked myself if I was really up for this. I had never climbed a mountain before (John had climbed Kilimanjaro) and this part was quite technical, where we would need to use our ice axe and crampons. Michael, the Austrian in our group, gave up at that moment, so we were left with the question if we wanted to continue or go down as well. After a minute of heavy breathing, some water and chocolate, and the view of the rising sun, I thought 'I didn't come all this way to quit here at the base of the summit !', so the crazy man in me told the guide ' Vamonos!' and off we climbed. It took us about 30min to get on top, but it seemed ages. My legs were about to cramp up completely, but they withstood the torture of the climb. I was warm the whole climb and that was my luck I think : thank God for Patagonia thermal underwear, North Face fleeces and Thinsulate glooves. I would have died without them. My other campanions were shivering though so being first on the rope, I tried to go as fast as I could. All my worst demons and cutest angels passed by on that climb, but it was worth it. At 7am we stood at 6088m, and I still don't know how we did it. But that time, the euphory had eased all the pain, and in no time we were down again, broke up base camp, made it to the jeep and slept for 14 hours. Bolivia has the kicks for sure ! For more downhill excitement, read Breathless Bolivia part 2 !

Breathless Bolivia part 2

Getting on and off a 6088m mountain, I thought I would be done with dangerous stuff in Bolivia. Well, I would have to guess again !!! This country has a whole lot more kicks in stock, but I just picked one more. Starting in La Cumbre near La Paz, at an altitude of 4700m, I biked down the 63km to Oroico, sitting at a nice and breathable 1750m. The road that goes that way is called 'The Death Road', because apparently it is the most dangerous road in the world. Well, one study back in 1997 determined this, since the road has about one fatal accident every other day ! It's a steep 3km drop from the misty Cordillera Real pass of La Cumbre to the lush setting of Coroico. On the way, the weather changes from foggy, cold and snowy to dusty and steamingly hot. Nice ! As promised, it was the kick of a life-time, and unlike any downhill mountain road in Europe you can bike, this one keeps on coming to you for more ! Since safety is a big concern on this road, I picked a company that really had excellent bikes, a radio guide and good knowledge of the terrain. If you ever want to do this, go with Eco Adventure Bolivia, they're the best. Anyways, after a shivering start at La Cumbre, we were quickly flying down over asphalt (only the first 15km are paved though), zooming by cars and trucks, all making their long way down to holiday resort Coroico. Since it was Easter Friday, there was a lot of traffic on the road, as well as other (reckless) bikers. Unfortunately, one Bolivian girl who attempted this road on her own and without a helmet slipped, crashed into the concrete and died. The road served its deadly honour. In our group as well, one older Bolivian guy neglected safety warnings and slipped, luckily going uphill, and had to be taken to the hospital for stitches in his face. Anyways, I wasn't thinking about all the crashing possibilities on the road, and just put the mind and body to the adrenaline test, which was great at 65km an hour. Together with a couple of bike-minded Aussies, we had put ourselves in the 'fast group', and by the time we hit the unpaved part, we were drooling on the 1km ravines right next to us. Every 100m we passed a cross of another unlucky soul, and from a far we could see the scars of numerous landslides that crashed cars and trucks in the deep as well. The road was getting muddy by that point as well, as several waterfalls just dump their water on the way. Nice and wet. After a couple of stops for the necessary food and refreshments, we hit the jungle part which gradually became hotter and hotter. By this time, our guide had a green light to go full speed again, and with no trucks or combis in sight (well we could hardly see them in the dust anyways) we were going full suspension on the rocks and stones, sometimes breaking for a curb or dog on the way. And after 3.5h of pure kicks we reached Coroico, where we could shower off the dust of our faces, get lunch and grab a cold beer with the kick ass view of the road we just did. If that weren't enough, the Hotel Esmeralda where we cleaned up let us take a dip in their pool, which was together with the warm sun the best treat ever after so many days at high altitude. No need to mention that after this trip, I was completely knackered and slept for 14h again. Bolivia gets in your system !So, after this week of kicks and dangerous undertakings, I am going to take it easy and wait until the Easter madness blows over before heading my way to Uyuni, where I hopefully join up again with my other Canadian buddy Kurt and drive around the Salares (salt deserts) for 4 days. Until then, ten cuidado and drive safe ! (no option in Bolivia)

Lago Titicaca, que frio !

There was a day when I started planning this trip, that I was dreaming about Bolivia : a country landlocked in South America, its sea edge 'stolen' by Chile ; a country with people so poor but with natural resources so rich ; a country with endless mountain ridges, salt deserts and steamy jungle ; a country that my good friend Lore had described with so much humour while living there for a year ; a country for which I had to take my time if I wanted to visit it. So, a bit fed up with the endless touristic hassle in Cuzco, I wanted to get a break as fast as possible and head down to Bolivia. Well, like you might have read in my last Peru story, this was a bit a mistake, never rush when there's still some stuff to do or see ! Well, if you have time to do and see it of course. Anyways, having been already in Bolivia, I really look forward to going back there. The introduction in the lake town of Copacabana (not to confuse with the Rio beach, going there later hehe) gave me already a bit of a taste : Bolivian siñoras that look up from under their hats at those strange gringos passing by, cars and camiones getting a colorful blessing in front of the Cathedral, a filling menu del dia and a mouthful of conversation for 10 bolivianos (about 1 euro), taxistas and bus drivers catching customers at loud voice, La Pa La Pa La Paz !! But for the rest... well honestly, there isn't much to do there (much like in Puno, at the other side of the lake), unless you get on a boat to some of the nearby islands or hike your way around the peninsula. Faced by a bit of rain and lots of cold, I decided to do the first thing and get on a two day trek around Isla del Sol. Well, when I got there, it didn't really live up to its name and by the end of the first day, I was feeling homesick for the first time in about 4 months. There was literaly nothing to do on the island, and the rain only made it more miserable. Luckily, I found a good hostal to crash for the night, and there I ran into a triple of really cool guys : Rob, a London college student ; Matt, a cast away English chap, gardening in Barcelona and travelling for most of his other time, and Kurt, a talentful Canadian musician just out of high school. With the four of us, we plunged into cheap Bolivian rum (what else can you do?), cardgames and an hilarious music jam on one guitar (all 4 playing the songs we knew). Needless to say I was already feeling a lot better. Not only the music and conversation helped, so did some hot soup and fried trout. That was about the only thing I could get on the island, but hey it was warm inside the resto so I didn't complain. I also tried to help out a couple of locals who were desperately trying to set up an antenna to catch the Bolivia-Chile soccer match on TV. Since it only passed on cable in Bolivia, they had put up the antenna on the highest point of the island, so they could catch the Peruvian signal coming from the other side. Unfortunately, the interference at 3900m altitude was a bit too strong, and after the commentator shouted over the radio 'Goooooooooooooaaaaal de Chillllleeeeeee!!!', the 5 technicians and 15 supporters decided to leave the snow on the screen for what it was. Chile won 0-2. It looked like the second day would be a copy of the first, starting off with rain and a chilly wind. It left Kurt and me almost desperate to leave (Matt and Rob already had), but just by the time we were almost packing our stuff, the sun broke through and in no time it was dry and hot ! So we took on the challenge to hike to the southern ruins of the Templo del Sol, where we had a full size picknick (at least I brought enough food!) of cheese, crackers, apples, bananas, Twix and Snickers. And after that, we even took on the challenge of taking our stinky bodies for a dip in the freezingly cold lake. I guess it must have been at 9-10 degrees, so verrrrry cold ! But the strong sun dried us in no time. So, having gotten a taste of the lake, I told myself I had to get back to Peru for some more. And so I did (see previous Peru section) ! After all the excitement and wonderful things I have seen around Lago de Titicaca, I feel very lucky. Lucky to be able to travel where I want and when I want, going by gut feeling and curiosity. Lucky to have still 3-4 weeks left to explore some parts of Bolivia, before heading east to Brazil. So, tomorrow I am off to La Paz (hopefully the weather there will be as good as the last 2 days, but I'd doubt it), the capital of Bolivia. More news to come from the Altiplano before Easter !

Lago Titicaca, que bueno !

I was about to leave Peru, God almighty I already was in Bolivia when I noticed I had forgotten something in Peru... Not my camera or my brother's terrific fleece, no no ! Something much more important : a visit to a couple of more places at beautiful Lake Titicaca. How breathtaking (literaly!!) the lake maybe was at the other side (see the Bolivian section for more details), I felt I had done this place a big injustice by rushing my way from Cuzco to Copacabana, Bolivia. After just a day on La Isla del Sol on the Bolivian side, I knew I had to go back and visit some more islands on the Peruvian side. So said and done : back on the 3h bus to Puno, getting some more stamps in my already inky passport and the day after on the boat over the lake. And I didn't regret it one single second ! The lake area at the Peruvian side is best known for its 'floating islands', just an hour away from the lakeshore at Puno. The more than 40 islands are built with many layers of reed bundles, which are constantly renewed from the top as they rot away from the bottom, so the surface is always soft and dry. Several hundreds of people of the Uros tribe still live on these islands, living of fishing and tourism, but remaining their own identity. The story goes that the Uros people started their floating existence centuries ago to isolate themselves from the aggresive Collas and Incas on the mainland. Although the 'touristic discovery' of these islands has led to some over-commercialisation, I felt very much at ease on the island we visited. We were in a small group of tourists and none were acting like they were in a zoo, shooting Indians. From the locals' side, there was no begging for pictures either, and little harrassing with handicrafts and the like. It almost seemed for some that we weren't there, which made the observation all the more interesting. From the reed islands, we took a 3h boat ride to Isla Amantani (a real island this time), where we would spend the night with a local family. Again, I had heard stories about this trip being very 'superficial and petty zoo like' (this was the main reason I skipped the whole thing at first), but it was all the contrary. My Israeli roomie Liran and I had a great time with our homestay family, enjoying some of the best food I had so far in Peru (aaaahhh the hot sopa de verduras after the long hike!!!) and their incredible hospitality. We also had a lot of fun dancing the night away in local outfit, fiercely supported by the locals. The beer supply wasn't in European proportions, but this minor problem was quickly overcome with the finding of another crate of yummie Cusqueña. The island has no roads, no cars, no electricity (some have a solar panel though) and all the Quechua speaking inhabitants are vegetarians. Not by principle or belief, just because they don't have the money to buy a fish boat or keep cattle. They find chickens and pigs quite unpractical too, no they like the simple life of growing potatoes and corn. Well, this place almost looked like Hobbiton, including the small doors (ouch my head!!)! The whole island is self-sufficient, and the few things they need get traded on the Puno market or bought with the tourist money. All decisions are taken communally, and taken care for as well, like the construction of a new camino from the dock to the town. Everybody is involved, from the women carrying up the stones as the men, doing all the macho cement work and the chewing of kilos of coca. On the negative side, very few people on the island have the money to study on the mainland, or have decent health care. Climate changes have had their toll as well, with temperature increases and unusual heavy rain destroying crops and causing erosion of the delicate terraces. Luckily, the 8 island communities work together to tackle this problem, by improving drainage of the soil and practicing rotating crop growing. Just a 30min boat ride across the lake from Amantani lies Isla Taquile, another peaceful 'out of this world' place. The views along the lake shore path are amazing : the intense glittering blue of the lake contrasts with the green terraces and the red-colored soil, making almost your eyes hurt if you don't wear sunglasses. The highland sun is so strong at this altitude (4100m at the top) that even sunblock made our English companions' face peel off. The island is very quiet, and besides the scenery, you only meet people busy knitting colorful hats and other garments, yes even the men!! It's quite a sociological thing, with men wearing red hats if they are married, and red-white ones if they're single. Single women walk along very shy, Muslim-like hidden away behind a black cap, whereas the married women proudly show off their face. It's some sight to see Latino men with a knitting work in their hands while you catch your breath on the way up the hills. Oh well, like you probably noticed, Peru is some place to come back to. It's a big place, and I have only seen a tiny bit of it. I will be sad to leave again tomorrow, but I know that on the other side of the lake, there lies another destination that's even unmatched as this place. Viva Bolivia !

A hike down the Inca trail

To be honest, I didn't really know what to expect coming to Peru, it was a little bit the black hole after Costa Rica : a new continent, a new place to get used to, and most importantly a place without Leen. We both can say that saying goodbye in San Jose was one of the hardest things we ever did. But luckily enough, I didn't have too much time to be melancholic, because after only a day in Lima I met up with my brother Andres and his girlfriend Tina! They are doing a world trip of their own, and Peru was their last stop in their 6 months schedule. Coming from New Zealand, and dealing with a decent jetlag, we took it easy and spent more than a day just catching up on eachothers travel stories. And doing other silly things that brothers do, like exchanging music, talking about 10.000 euro costing hifi systems (well, Andres did) and finishing all the rum that was left from Costa Rica (mostly on my account). Good for us that there was Tina as well, who increased the level of our conversation with wonderful stories on yummie Indian food crisises and incredible Aussie outback bugs. Hehe. No, it certainly was a big mental boost to be the three of us. So, after a good rest and a trip to a Lima mall (what else is there to see in this misty and smoggy megapolis?!!), we got ourselves a seat on an Aerocontinente flight to Cuzco, where we would take on the Inca Trail. Well, that was the plan. We soon enough discovered that things go a bit slower in Peru : after our flight got delayed for 3 hours, it got cancelled, and the day after again delayed for 3 hours. Apparently, this is common business here (especially in the low season), but not for a couple of furious Argentinian girls on our flight, that managed to get us a free night at a 3 star hotel in Lima, free dinner and breakfast and free transportation from and to the airport. And if that weren't enough, after the delay on the second day, they yelled so hard at the flight operator that we all got a voucher for a free two-way flight in Peru with Aerocontinente ! 3 flights for the price of one? I was making money on this one! Well, I was so blown away on my luck that I forgot the voucher on the plane. Yep. No free flight to another place like Arequipa and from there to Lake Titicaca, saving me lots of bus time. We called and tried everything, even getting me a ticket on my brother's voucher, but we dismissed that idea too, knewing that all passports get checked at boarding. A Snoeckx is a Snoeckx, but no way in earth I could sell a José for an Andres, not even here. Oh well, so be it. It would almost make me forget to tell you what a good time we had in and around Cuzco. We had a slow start though, not only because of the flight being cancelled, but also because of the 3326m altitude we had to cope with. Luckily, we had great beds in the lovely Hotel Los Niños (working for Cuzco street kids) and yummie mate de coca, tea of pure coca leafs, that you can buy here in a big bag for only 1 sol (25 eurocent). So after catching our breath, and meeting up with Tina's brother and another friend, we discovered little by little all the wonders that the Cuzco area has to offer. Cuzco has a very rich history, bearing at the same time the legacy of the Incas and the Spanish conquest. The city boasts a curious mix between ancient Inca and colonial architecture : most of the impressive churches are built on Inca city walls or temple ruins, and in and around the city you can still witness what the Spanish left of what was once the capital of the Inca empire. And just outside the Sacred Valley, on the flanks of the Huyana Picchu mountain, you can visit the lost city of Machu Picchu, an Inca citadel that the Spanish never found. It was only (re)discovered in 1911 by American archeologists, with the help of an Quechua farmer boy and his father. Of course, all these marvels attract many tourists, and Cuzco as well as Aguas Calientes (the town below Machu Picchu) are a bit over-commercialized : you can't take a step outside without being harrassed by sketchy 'tour operators', restaurants showing off their menus, postcard vendors and the like. I think the high season from June to September must be crazy here. And the tourist area around the Plaza de Armas is quite a contrast with the poor suburbs up the hills. But still, just looking down on the city from the Sacsayhuaman ruins (say : Sexy Woman), visiting the Pisac Sunday market or doing the Inca Trail makes you realize how rich this area is. You could spend days on end here, discovering another colonial church or cute museum, taking a local bus to wonderful places like Chinchero, or you could hike to Las Salinas, where a mineral hot spring feeds marvelous salt pans, eversince the Inca time. All in all, we got very lucky with the weather too : it did rain quite a lot on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu (which forced us to do the shorter two day trip), but we got quite some sunshine in Cuzco, which was very enjoyable. Being it the rain season, there also were a lot less tourists around, although we did get our share of US, Japanese and French senior citizens on Machu Picchu. I am glad I wasn't there when the whole band had to be evacuated after a landslide hit the train tracks near Aguas Calientes, just the day after we got back to Cuzco. Maybe all my luck went there?! Well, Tina and Andres are on their way home as I write this, and I am moving on too. Having another 6 weeks left, I am heading quietly to Bolivia, visiting on my way Lake Titicaca. I must thank Andres and Tina for taking home some of the stuff I bought here and leaving me another warm fleece and sunblock. I will need it ! So more PanAm adventures to come from the Altiplano ! And for those who want to take a peek at my brother's and Tina's version of the story, check their website at http://www.tinandres.2ya.com/ And thanks to Andres for sharing some of his pics and leaving me his 512 MB memory card ! Yoehoe. Hasta luego !

Another sad goodbye

lf there's one thing I hate about travelling, it's the goodbyes...




Goodbyes of your loved one, thrown apart again for another 8 weeks.
Goodbyes of a subcontinent I really came to like, of the Costa Rican sun and its rolling waves. Goodbyes of a warm place in this winter time.
Goodbyes to so many people who died in Madrid, Leen's home this year.
Goodbyes in the past and those to come.



And no goodbyes come along with an empty feeling afterwards, pondering on your memories...

Memories of that georgous food at the beach resto in Montezuma.
Memories of that long hike through the cloud forest in Santa Elena.
Memories of how we bodysurfed on the Pacific waves in Manuel Antonio.
Memories of the pistache nuts and beer we had waiting for that one bus to Uvita.
Memories of playing Kanasta all night until Leen fell sound asleep.



And it's also at these moments you start to look back, with your thoughts at what's going on back home...

Thoughts of a fresh Duvel on a summer terrace.
Thoughts of the breeze on a nice Belgian spring day.
Thoughts of watching the bike classics on Sunday afternoon.
Thoughts of having a morning coffee at work and chatting with Vero, Marleen and Ellen (really!).

Thoughts of playing basketball, and just being there.

You would start to think it's maybe time to come home, no? Well...not just yet. There are so many more reasons to hang around here a little more, and some many more things to see...

Discovering Peru (well a bit of it), meeting up with my brother Andres and Tina!
Changing climate and altitude in Bolivia.
Hablar y aprender un poco mas de Español.
Travelling all the way through to Rio de Janeiro, getting a glimp of Brazil.
Making plans for future travels...

And then, one day, it will be sooner there than I think...




I'll be going back home. Home. Listen to music. Eat a bicky burger. See Leen again. Go back to work. Fall back into routine. Look back and wonder where all this time went.

Have a good one, I am thinking of you.

Costa Rica, at last !

At last, at last ! What love can do : with Leen arriving here in San Jose almost two weeks ago, the internet shops totally got out the picture, so sorry guys for waiting that long for a sign of life... But as you might have guessed, no news is good news, and that's certainly the case! Leen and I have been hopping on busses and boats, savouring beaches and rain forests, swimming and walking... well, simply enjoying every single moment we have been together ! I must say, travelling alone for more than 2 months, some adjustments were made to my life style... Finished are those hours on MSN, I managed an amazing economy on phone calls (hehe), and now I don't need my sleeping bag either when I get cold at night ! No more toilet seats that are up, and at least two shaves a week... No more beard ! Well, I can live with that. No, travelling together is so much more fun : it's not only cheaper, but you can relate a lot more to what you are experiencing than when you're alone. Of course, maybe you meet less people and you spend less time telling the home front how life is in Central America, but that was a nice change for me after those 9 weeks alone on the road. So, needless to say we were both too excited to see eachother again, and for those would like to know, it's still BIG love at first sight between the two of us. Hehe.And what have we been up to in Costa Rica? Well, after recovering from the first emotions and jetlag, we headed down to the Nicoya Peninsula, where for 4 days, we savoured the sun and some very fine beaches. Montezuma proved to be the right spot for the two of us, with a relaxed atmosphere, quiet swimming (the surf beach at Malpais was a bit too rough for that), the beautiful Cabo Blanco nature reserve just next door and some very good food ! If you ever get there, go to Pension Lucy and get knocked over by the delicous baracuda or mariscos at La Playa de las Artistas just next to it. They even have a Belgian beer card with yummy Hoegaarden, Leffe and Duvel !After we got a bit too lazy and bored by the beach (and Leen got a bit burned too), we moved on to the Central highlands, where we took a couple of hikes in the quiet Santa Elena cloud forest reserve (go there instead of the Monteverde reserve, a lot less tourists and more wildlife!) and the area around Volcan Arenal. It was hard to keep up with Leen Powerbeen, jee her pace is something ! Arenal is the third most active volcano in the world, with minor eruptions almost every 15 minutes. Well, so said our guide, and we believed him on his word, because with all the cloud cover we saw zero of anyting that would come close to a volcano. Oh well, the thermal hot springs near Arenal certainly made up for missing out on all the lava action. Apparently we can all blame it on global warming : normally, in the 'dry' season one could see the volcano clear on any day, but unusual amounts of moisture moving in from the Atlantic have been bringing rain to the area for the last weeks. In general, the weather hasn't been as great as one would expect this time of year, but we deal with it. Although Leen is considering going back to the sunbed center once she gets back to Madrid. Anyways, in the last 10 days, we have had our share of climate changes : we moved from the nice spring like climate of San Jose to the dry, almost unbearable heat of the Pacific and from there to the almost European like windy and cloudy area of Monteverde. We got to see dry tropical forests, cloud forests and rain forests. Costa Rica has a lot to offer, that's if you are willing to cope with the tons of tourists and the strong US influence. For me, after Nicaragua, it certainly was a small culture shock to get on a 'regular' bus again and walking into airconditioned supermarkets, where they have all the stuff we have back home, or even more. The country is more expensive too than the rest I've visited so far, but there are ways to get through Costa Rica in a cheap way as well : eating in the local sodas and avoiding the tourist trap tours gets you quite far already. People on the other hand are very friendly, although they are very keen on speaking English any time, even if you stubbornly keep on talking Spanish to them. So, after taking a break in San Jose, washing our clothes and enjoying the luxery of satellite TV and a hot shower in the very much recommended Galileo Hostel , we are back on the road again. Leen is craving for some sunshine (well so am I), so we are heading back to the Pacific coast, lingering on to the end of our stay here next weekend. And then it's another sad goodbye, for another 2 months. Leen will head back to Spain for her second Erasmus semester, and I will fly to Peru to meet up with my brother Andres and his girlfriend Tina !More travel news and pictures next week !

Helena Tropicana & JoS Kokos

The other side of Central America

I must say, this trip already has been filled with highlights, but finishing my journey through Nicaragua, I can add a couple more on the list. After getting enough of my enforced laid back lifestyle in Granada, I took the ferry to Isla de Ometepe, a volcanic island in Lago de Nicaragua, one of the biggest lakes in Central America. Arriving there, for the very first time on this trip, I was confronted by a place that's almost untouched by major tourism. So not too many people around, unspoiled magnificent nature, but also pretty rough, little infstracture and no roads that name worthy. Anyways, it was an interesting experience to just let luck and coincidence play their part, and get on a pickup passing by, together with 4 other backpackers I met on the boat. The ride costed us 1 euro each, the extra dust we got for free. It took us in total 2 hours to get to the nearest village, and from there we made it to the Finca Magdalena, a cooperative coffee plantation, that hosts groups of volunteers that come to work there, and small flocks of backpackers as well. Accomodation was pretty basic (with other uninvited guests such as tarantula spiders in the showers, roaches and flying ants) but very cheap (1.5 euro for a night!), so no complaints there! Got some very good food and home grown organic coffee as well. Anyways, after nearly a week of dolce far niente, I was in for a challenge, and so were my travel companions, so the next day we hiked all the way up Volcan Maderas (1394 m), through an amazingly beautiful cloud forest, on a trail of tree trunks, ankle deep in mud. We sweated our asses off in the damp of the thickly covered woods, slipped and slided off rocks, but also saw some very cool things such as howler monkeys, all kinds of tropical flowers, wicked butterflies, humming birds and cacao trees. We thought the hike would take us 5 hours in total, but with all the stops and the difficult final descend (in complete alpine style!), the whole muddy adventure took us 9 hours! And optimistic as we were, we didn't even bother to bring along food, just water. Luckily, we met some Canadians down at the crater lake, and they split one sandwich and 3 cookies with the 4 of us. Yiehaa! Well, needless to say we were DEAD MEAT by the time we made it back down (just before sunset), but the awesome veggie soup and lots of french fries saved our day. That night, I went to bed at 8pm and slept for 11 hours. I thought I was going to be stiff as a stick the day after, but apparently, this body has more energy in it than I assumed, so at 8am, we hopped on the ONLY local bus, cramped ourselves together and bumped our way back to the ferry. And eversince, I have been enjoying the good life at the beach again (this time on the Pacific side), filling my days swinging my hammock, drinking ice cold Toña beer and Flor de Caña rum, some bodyboarding (when the surf is on) and playing hips of Kanasta (a dangerously addictive Aussie card game) with my refound mates Lara and Eddie. The beach here at Bahia de Majagual (south of San Juan del Sur) is a real beauty, totally different from any Caribbean beach, a lot more rugged and rocky. And very hot! People say this place looks like California before people came, and maybe that's why more and more Americans come down here to buy land and put up a resort or a backpackers' place of their own. Nicaragua is certainly something else than the rest of Central America, less touristy for sure, very cheap too, and for those who don't mind the dust and like to rough it up a bit, it's a total must! I already have to say goodbye to this place, because in no more than 2 days, my girlfriend Leen will touch down at the airport in San Jose, Costa Rica!Until then or later, surf on!

A Nicaraguan night story

Well, after a very hot and tiring journey of 2 days, we made it alright to Granada, Nicaragua. Alright is maybe a little exaggerated, because Lara, Eddie and especially myself had our share of classic travel troubles on this one. First of all, I was smart enough to put my travel alarm to 4.45 PM instead of AM, so we nearly missed our ferry to the main land from Roatan! And evenmore, in the rush to get all my stuff in less than 5 min (I used to think I was good at it, but now I think again!), I left my MP3 player in the dorm where I was staying... I found out in the taxi, but it was already too late to get back. So after moving lakes and volcanoes arriving in Tegucigalpa (the Honduras' capital - never go there unless you REALLY have to, it's nothing but misery and crime) to get a phone that was working, I eventually got in touch with the hotel, and no kidding, they had found it and were keeping a hold onto it! They're even prepared to mail it home to Belgium! Well, if it ever gets there, I'll change my mind about Central American efficiency and work ethics for sure! Anyways, I say this on a slight ironic and etnocentric tone, because the rest of the journey was quite something totally 'Latino flavored' as well. Like I said, Tegucigalpa wasn't much, not even for the crooks, but most for the overfriendliness of the hotel staff at the San Pedro hostal : Eddie, Lara and me held points on how many smiles we could score with the ladies, I won with 3 (mind you, all in the morning!). I think they had vinegar for breakfast. Somehow, it reminded me a lot of Roatan hotel people, do they even bother? It almost seems they don't like business, or they got bored with it a very long time ago. Maybe it's because I am travelling with two very outspoken 'no nonsense' Aussies, but at times I also just get fed up with too many slow and inefficient people around here. Sometimes it's just surrealistic : a place promisingly called Todo de pollo in Tegus didn't have any chicken, just ice cream! So then, just desperate, we ended up in a Chinese restaurant, which turned out to have yummie 'huuuge poorrtions' (dixit Eddie). Other annoyances are usually hanging around like mosquitos when you cross borders : a classic hassle trick of most bus 'guides' is to come round for the passports and tell you that you have to pay X $ at the border. Try it yourself, pass with your own passport to get your stamps, and you will find out they more or less overcharge a whole bus of 50 people about 5$ per person! Easy money! And the thing is, when they find out you found out, they get into all kind of excuses and apologies. Like they charge that extra money for 'quick service'. Pathetic. Oh well! Luckily, there's always a way around these things, a beer and laugh usually does it. And all the other good travel experiences and smiles you get outweigh by far the annoying ones. But it's a FACT : not soccer but CORRUPTION is sport number 1 around here.Anyways, like I said, there are so many other very good things here, that work very well, such as the Internet for example : at the Bearded Monkey, where I am staying, you can call to Europe over the Internet for no more than 20 eurocent a minute! On a perfect line. The food is often yummie. Busses are good as well, have been eversince Mexico. And then Nicaragua! Surprising beauty of the rich colonial town of Granada (founded by the Spanish in 1524), much like other 'old' cities such as Antigua, San Cristobal or Campeche. Nice and hot! And blessed with a great heritage of the Sandinistas, namely free health care for everyone! Something I was confronted with the first night I was here, after falling out my 2m high bunk bed (I was dreaming I was going to be crushed by a huge bus so I jumped away - must be those fricking malaria pills), hitting my head against a locker and busting my back pretty bad on the hard tile floor. Apparently, I was out of it all for a minute or two, and by the time the others in the dorm had woken up and put the light on, I was moaning in foetus position, covered in blood. It all looked a lot worse than it actually was, because by the time they got me into the ambulance and to the hospital, I sort of knew I didn't have anything serious. In the end, they cleaned out my head wound (which didn't need any stitching) and took 2 X-rays of my back (with a brand new SIEMENS machine), and the Cuban doctor told me I was fine. Just take it easy and rest, and that was it. And I even didn't have to pay anything! Viva la Revolucion! The American and Israeli girl who were with me (the Israeli girl gave me first aid, she just got out of two years of military service, so she has seen worse) were even more astonished than I was. So, for the moment, I am walking around like a 80 year old, living on a strict backpacker's diet of hammock rest, pool, scrabble, NBA basketball on satellite TV, rental movies, painkillers, lovely Latinas serving me food, beer and internet. Life could be worse hehe. My next move will be when my back is a full 100% again, I don't want to go moaning when Leen gets to Costa Rica in another 10 days. Hopefully, by the weekend, I will be able to get my backpack on again, and head down to Isla de Ometepe, the nature pearl of Nicaragua. And then after that some more beach with Eddie, maybe surf some if my back is up to it. Take care!

Paradise is just next door

Jezus, we hit the jackpot straight on I guess coming to the Bay Island of Roatan! It rained here the whole month of January (yes, for 30 straight days!), and the day we got here, it got sunny and eversince, the blue skies and tropical temperatures have made it paradise. Getting here wasn't that simple though, well it envolved taking another chicken bus or two, then a ferry for 2 hours (we could have taken the plane but that would have been 3 times as expensive), and then finally a taxi that we had to bargain down from 8$ to 2$. And getting into West Bay at 7 at night wasn't exactly the easiest thing either, since all hotels seem to live on a very much Caribbean time schedule, literaly closing their place at 6.30 pm ! So, my travel mate Tom, myself and new made Aussie friend Eddie (we met him on the boat) ended up walking around for 2 hours, finally settling for the nearest thing that comes close to a 'shithole', but that was alright : cheap, a bed, a fan (God it is HOT here, even at night!) and heaven thanks only for one night. The morning after, at the very christian hour of 7.50 am, we were already signing up for a sweet room at Chillies, a superbe place : a place to hang my hammock, beers for not even one euro, a kitchen (which comes in super handy and cheap, pinchy backpackers as we are) and most of all, clean showers and bathrooms. At the other place we didn't even bother, as it was infested with roaches, mosquitos and sandflies. Anyways, this being the only setback...once you get yourself settled, and the sun is out, this place is fucking heaven! And darn cheap too, I couldn't believe it, especially for the diving! And there are some really cool beaches here, and wicked reefs to dive off. The only annoyance are the bugs, mosquitos and sandflies alike, but we found out that a yummie mix of insect repellent (lots of DEET), cactus juice (what the locals use) and baby oil does the trick. The sandflies get stuck in the baby oil and drown. But asides of going through this beauty treatment every day, there is nothing here you could possibly worry about. Unless you burn your back off, what luckily didn't happen, thanks to the nuclear power solar cream my mom's beautyshop sells.All you do is just wave at one the boat dudes, take a water taxi and get your ass in the white sand of West Bay Beach, overlooking pristine turquoise clear water (it's like a swimming pool, but better!), gaze at fat US tourists snorkeling in a life suit...and you are happy for the rest of the day! Well, sort of, because I miss my girlfriend Leen like crazy here...this place would certainly even be better off with her hanging around as well. Just another 2 weeks and 4 exams to go... Mmm, but I am sure this will roll out fine too, just like all the rest has uptil now. Well, knock on wood and just keep my eyes wide open and my mind fresh...that and some beer at night is all we need to stay alert hehe. And just like at other places, things just seem to happen when they need to : this noon, walking to the internet shop to chat with Leen (this place only charges 12 euro for 2 weeks of unlimited satellite speed Internet access!), I met Mickey at the Coconut Tree dive shop who got me a full CD of underwater pics! I was surprised he actually got it, I just asked the shop just the day before if they had pics to sell, and the day after, for a bribe of a sixpack of Salva Vida, I get a CD full! So I put a nice selection of stuff I saw underwater online as well, just check the pics section for more tropical colors, fishies and wicked coral formations! Many thanks to Ruth and Mickey at Coconut Tree Divers ! They're the best, and jee, that for only 12 euro a tank ! So I am getting to the end of this stay, yes sweet songs don't last long they say, but I guess I am just going to catch some more tunes further down into Central America. A storm is supposed to come in on Sunday, so time to move on! Tom is gone back home to Canada, but I will probably hook up with Eddie and his 'all the way from Melbourne, arrived this Monday' girlfriend Lara, hitting some surf beaches at the Pacific in Nicaragua.The next report will be from a less tropical and totally different location, a couple of bus days down south. But every day on the road gets me closer to Costa Rica and Leen, so I am travelling with a smile on my face ! CYA around, and enjoy the first flowers of spring! (my mom tells me they're out)

Welcome to the Banana Republic !

Well, after a very short stay in the eastern part of Guatemala, boating down the Rio Dulce into the interesting but very trashy town of Livingston, I took up travelling again with Tom, the Canadian police officer I met in Antigua. We just ran into eachother at the dock in Rio Dulce, again...how surprisingly ironic travelling can be! I had been in doubt about how to get out of Guatemala for awhile, and there he showed up, with a really interesting travel scheme to the island of Roatan! So we made it down the river, certainly impressed by its natural wonders, but the weather was (again on the Caribbean) not really cooperative...pissing rain in Livingston didn't give the impression we would stay there for a long time! Furthermore, the town was really a dump if you can call it that : the Rio Dulce just spits out all the sewage water of eastern Guatemala in this place, leaving the beach very contaminated. You wouldn't think that the beautiful coral reefs and turquoise waters of Belize are just around the corner...So, after just a day in Livingston, we hopped on a boat to Puerto Barrios, which was possibly even more a dump than Livingston already was, still in pissing rain... Welcome to the Caribbean! Puerto Barrios once used to be the major port for all the big cargo boats transporting bananas and other fruits out to the US, but now it just looks like a very much run down place. And getting there at 6am wasn't really much more comforting either!At first I was thinking of maybe getting a spot on sailboat to Roatan there, but hey I don't know how to sail! And it would probably take a lot of time and money too. So we just got on a mini-van to the border, and from there the muddy adventure continued on three local chicken busses, bumping or way into the cool beach town of Tela at 4 'o clock in the afternoon. Passing through immigration at both sides also was an adventure again, involving some unclear 'travel tax' of a couple of euros, but hey...we were already glad we got our stamps and didn't get hassled over on exchanging Guate quetzales in Honduras lempiras (which are worth even less). So pretty beat up after a day of hassle, rain, heat and backpacking (well I shouldn't complain that much...), we made it into Honduras, and I must say that I am pleasantly surprised! And that, taking into account the poverty and the fact that the country was virtually run according to US 'interests' for more than a century : first by two major bananas companies, both picking sides for one or the other dictator (giving Honduras its name of Banana Republic), and then by the Reagan administration which used Honduras as a military outpost and training ground for the Contras, fighting the Nicaraguan Sadinistasts in the 80s. Almost as amazing is that you wouldn't tell that this country nearly got washed off the map by Hurricane Mitch, just over 5 years ago. Most of the beach roads are repaired or back under construction, and the area around Tela has some very attractive and charming beaches and nature reserves. We did a kayak tour into the jungle mangroves off the coast, seeing turtles, baby alligators, cool butterflies and lots of birds...hitting the beach afterwards...well that was another highlight! So people, especially if you can get the bright sunny weather we got today, make it to the Honduras' coast one day! The seafood here is delicous, and the presence of black Garifuna culture gives it some interesting flavour as well! And for the women lovers out there, I must admit that the señoritas here are a lot better looking then in Mexico and in Guatemala. It must be something in the coconut milk.So, tomorrow we're off again, first getting a shave at the local barbershop (I figured it would be time with a beard of 20 days...) and then catching the ferry to Roatan! We hope and pray that the weather keeps up our smiles...because nothing sucks more then a Caribbean beach in the rain! Ya man, hasta luego!