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Hey guys
I recently made up my mind to quit my job and start traveling the world for about 2 years starting Monday, September 1st, 2014!
The following first Draft shows the route I'd like to take but it will change a lot while I start to actually plan it - not even sure if I will go East or West bound yet, but it will probably be west so the arrows might actually turn out wrong in the end.
I will document the planning process and of course the trip itself on my Blog!
Whoever wants to virtually follow me on that journey should do that via Facebook :-)
Greetings Chris
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Damn son you going to some sketchy-ass countries.
Also, how do you plan to get around? Your route has you going through Northern Iran, the steppes, and Mongolia...
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Sounds amazing! What made you choose each of these places?
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I assume you've been to France and that's why you're not going? Also: I wouldn't go through Georgia and Azerbaijan at all. I would rather not go through Iran. Then, Turkmenistan is probably not all that great. You might die in some of those. You also seem to be doing a lot of Australia's vast areas of nothingness, which might be interesting but I'd probably just do Brisbane to Sydney to Indonesia or Malaysia.
This is quite an adventure you're planning, and I am very jealous.
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I did europe for 6 months this year, travelling is a lot of fun.
I was travelling on a budget the whole time, and I might be able to answer some questions about travelling for you.
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On December 20 2013 07:09 josemb40 wrote: Nice, why not Peru? Cuz of lag
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I have done a fair bit of travelling, some comments:
Not sure what you are after, exactly, but the east coast in Australia is kinda boring, and very touristy. If you want to see 'quaint', get a feel for Australia, and be impressed by nature, I'd recommend Tasmania and the West Coast.
The kindest and nicest people I have met so far, with amazing nature on top, and still a certain innocence to it, was in Samoa and Tonga. I'd really recommend to include at least one of the island groups in Polynesia.
Be sure to put together a nice selection of broadband antibiotics and ways to take care of small injuries.
I have two colleagues that travel A LOT. One has been in South America for the last 20 months or so, the other one has been to pretty much every single one of those countries that end with 'tan' and you have never heard of. If you have specific questions, I can relay them.
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On December 20 2013 10:37 Djzapz wrote: I assume you've been to France and that's why you're not going? Also: I wouldn't go through Georgia and Azerbaijan at all. I would rather not go through Iran. Then, Turkmenistan is probably not all that great. You might die in some of those. You also seem to be doing a lot of Australia's vast areas of nothingness, which might be interesting but I'd probably just do Brisbane to Sydney to Indonesia or Malaysia.
This is quite an adventure you're planning, and I am very jealous.
Come on, Georgia is a perfectly sound country, if you avoid the separatist regions (and you easily can do that). It's place where us middle europeans go for holidays in moutain completely leisurely. Iran is not that bad either, it's a pretty civlised country - maybe today is a little bit worse (I was there in 2010), but in general it is one of the more reasonable countries in the region actually, particularly for male visitors. The real problem here is Turkmenistan, it's not easy to get visa - hopefully you can still get transit visa if you already have the Uzbek visa, but you can't stay there for more than a day or two, so there is no chance to see anything. In general, I would advise to start getting all the visa done pretty soon - when on country blows, the whole itinerary is completely screwed.
To the OP: there are several chocices in the journey that seem questionable: - why would you go through the mostly (with the exception of the Krym) incredibly boring parts Ukraine/Russia instead of Turkey? Turkey has so much to offer (maybe too much, you may get stuck there for some time after realising, how much you can see) and seeing as this would be the only intrusion to Russia, you save a bunch of money and hassle on Russian visa. Maybe you want to see some Russia, but either Moscow/St. Peterburg or the vast expanses of the Far East would be much more interesting. - how do you plan to magically skip from Kyrgyzstan to Mongolia? I don't think there is any surface transport simply available in this general direction (and I would sure as hell not take a flight with Kyrgyz Air) - keep in mind that if you start in September and go in this direction, you may find yourself in Central Asia in winter, when some transport options will be unavailable. Also, it's gonna be cold as hell in some places (-40 C is possible) - in South America, you should definitely consider something in the High Andes. I have never been to Peru or Equador, but Bolivia (particularly the SW corner around Uyuni) is easily the most interesting place I have ever seen. I would go there again any time over Buenos Aires (but maybe you are more of a city guy, but maybe not, as you have Patagonia in there).
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On December 21 2013 05:47 opisska wrote:Show nested quote +On December 20 2013 10:37 Djzapz wrote: I assume you've been to France and that's why you're not going? Also: I wouldn't go through Georgia and Azerbaijan at all. I would rather not go through Iran. Then, Turkmenistan is probably not all that great. You might die in some of those. You also seem to be doing a lot of Australia's vast areas of nothingness, which might be interesting but I'd probably just do Brisbane to Sydney to Indonesia or Malaysia.
This is quite an adventure you're planning, and I am very jealous. Come on, Georgia is a perfectly sound country, if you avoid the separatist regions (and you easily can do that). It's place where us middle europeans go for holidays in moutain completely leisurely. Iran is not that bad either, it's a pretty civlised country - maybe today is a little bit worse (I was there in 2010), but in general it is one of the more reasonable countries in the region actually, particularly for male visitors. The real problem here is Turkmenistan, it's not easy to get visa - hopefully you can still get transit visa if you already have the Uzbek visa, but you can't stay there for more than a day or two, so there is no chance to see anything. In general, I would advise to start getting all the visa done pretty soon - when on country blows, the whole itinerary is completely screwed. My bad about Georgia then, I was under the impression that the Abkhazia and Ossetia conflicts radiated enough that I wouldn't want to go through their northern border. Then again I guess I don't know that much about it.
As for Iran, perhaps it's more of a preference thing. I have 0 interest in going there and I don't know why anyone would.
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On December 21 2013 06:33 Djzapz wrote:Show nested quote +On December 21 2013 05:47 opisska wrote:On December 20 2013 10:37 Djzapz wrote: I assume you've been to France and that's why you're not going? Also: I wouldn't go through Georgia and Azerbaijan at all. I would rather not go through Iran. Then, Turkmenistan is probably not all that great. You might die in some of those. You also seem to be doing a lot of Australia's vast areas of nothingness, which might be interesting but I'd probably just do Brisbane to Sydney to Indonesia or Malaysia.
This is quite an adventure you're planning, and I am very jealous. Come on, Georgia is a perfectly sound country, if you avoid the separatist regions (and you easily can do that). It's place where us middle europeans go for holidays in moutain completely leisurely. Iran is not that bad either, it's a pretty civlised country - maybe today is a little bit worse (I was there in 2010), but in general it is one of the more reasonable countries in the region actually, particularly for male visitors. The real problem here is Turkmenistan, it's not easy to get visa - hopefully you can still get transit visa if you already have the Uzbek visa, but you can't stay there for more than a day or two, so there is no chance to see anything. In general, I would advise to start getting all the visa done pretty soon - when on country blows, the whole itinerary is completely screwed. My bad about Georgia then, I was under the impression that the Abkhazia and Ossetia conflicts radiated enough that I wouldn't want to go through their northern border. Then again I guess I don't know that much about it. As for Iran, perhaps it's more of a preference thing. I have 0 interest in going there and I don't know why anyone would.
It turns out that it is actually my bad, as I already had in mind the second half of the post where I wanted to convince the OP to go through Turkey. Only then is Georgia quite hassle free - coming form Russia is not only a hassle, it is virtually impossible, because you can't go through Abkhazia as a foreigner (you can enter from both sides, but from both you need to go back, not throught). When traversing form Turkey, problematic areas can be avoided. On the other hand, coming from Turkey, you may as well head straight for Iran.
Why would anyone go Iran? Well because it is "Turkey squared" - it's a country that used to be in the heart of the roots of the human civilisation. There are remnants of an unrivaled number of cultures and even today, it is an ethincally and culturaly extremely diverse country - I had time only for the western half, but still I have met not only the Farsi, but also the Azeri, the Kurds and the Arabs.
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On December 21 2013 07:48 opisska wrote:Show nested quote +On December 21 2013 06:33 Djzapz wrote:On December 21 2013 05:47 opisska wrote:On December 20 2013 10:37 Djzapz wrote: I assume you've been to France and that's why you're not going? Also: I wouldn't go through Georgia and Azerbaijan at all. I would rather not go through Iran. Then, Turkmenistan is probably not all that great. You might die in some of those. You also seem to be doing a lot of Australia's vast areas of nothingness, which might be interesting but I'd probably just do Brisbane to Sydney to Indonesia or Malaysia.
This is quite an adventure you're planning, and I am very jealous. Come on, Georgia is a perfectly sound country, if you avoid the separatist regions (and you easily can do that). It's place where us middle europeans go for holidays in moutain completely leisurely. Iran is not that bad either, it's a pretty civlised country - maybe today is a little bit worse (I was there in 2010), but in general it is one of the more reasonable countries in the region actually, particularly for male visitors. The real problem here is Turkmenistan, it's not easy to get visa - hopefully you can still get transit visa if you already have the Uzbek visa, but you can't stay there for more than a day or two, so there is no chance to see anything. In general, I would advise to start getting all the visa done pretty soon - when on country blows, the whole itinerary is completely screwed. My bad about Georgia then, I was under the impression that the Abkhazia and Ossetia conflicts radiated enough that I wouldn't want to go through their northern border. Then again I guess I don't know that much about it. As for Iran, perhaps it's more of a preference thing. I have 0 interest in going there and I don't know why anyone would. It turns out that it is actually my bad, as I already had in mind the second half of the post where I wanted to convince the OP to go through Turkey. Only then is Georgia quite hassle free - coming form Russia is not only a hassle, it is virtually impossible, because you can't go through Abkhazia as a foreigner (you can enter from both sides, but from both you need to go back, not throught). When traversing form Turkey, problematic areas can be avoided. On the other hand, coming from Turkey, you may as well head straight for Iran. Why would anyone go Iran? Well because it is "Turkey squared" - it's a country that used to be in the heart of the roots of the human civilisation. There are remnants of an unrivaled number of cultures and even today, it is an ethincally and culturaly extremely diverse country - I had time only for the western half, but still I have met not only the Farsi, but also the Azeri, the Kurds and the Arabs. Thanks for the info. As for Iran, I guess I have issues with the country for political reasons but I understand that it's rich culturally.
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Hey! I would like to do that myself one day. By the way how old are you, and what kind of transports are you going to use?
Good luck
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SoCal, USA3955 Posts
Good luck on your travels and stay well. Probably won't be following your blogs, but please do a wrap up blog when you get back home on TL. ^^ LOTS OF PICTURES. <3
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Hey guys,
I havent start planning any details yet so keep tuned for more information on how ill do which part.
The reason why i'm not going to certain places might be that Ive been there already! See here
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Hey! So after 5 months I finally have time to provide some more information on my big trip! I will head west and start in Newfoundland :-)
More information on the destinations and some insights about the preparation right here!
Cheers, Chris
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The problem is that it won't show up as a new blog, so not many people will notice your posts.
Also, I always disliked orcs
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Ah btw, I have a lot of live updates on my blog now. Here is the latest from Mexico:
Live #14, Ek Balam Maya Ruins and X’Canche Cenote, Mexico
13/12/2014 The 2nd part of my Greenland Videos delayed my live updates a bit, sorry about that! I am currently in Antigua Guatemala and just came back from an amazing climb to Volcan Acatenango, overlooking the very active Volcan Fuego. Check out my Instagram Picture for a little preview before I get my hands on a report! In the meanwhile, I hope you will enjoy some more pictures from Yucatan’s Maya temples and Cenotes in this post
The Ek Balam Maya ruins are very close to Valladolid and combined with the great Cenote X’Canche, it was just something I could not miss since I skipped the world famous Chichen Itza ruins. I just don’t like the fact that they restored it so much (even removed all the jungle around it!) and that it is just swarmed by tourists. Instead I would use my time to get to the very remote ruins of Calakmul in the south, but more on this on another live update soon to come!
Cenote X’Canche was just awesome, for a few reasons: Looks extremely cool, not crowded at all, perfect sink hole shape and last but not least: Very safe jump from about 14m into into the cenote! Overall, it has been my favorite Cenote in the Yucatan!
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I am truly jealous, I wish I had the freedom (financial and from obligations) to do what you're doing:D GL HF GG!
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Live #16, Campeche & Calakmul, Mexico
Click the Link for the pictures!
19/12/2014 Turns out the west of El Salvador features some pretty amazing little villages, especially the one that I am staying in now, Juayúa. People here are so friendly and I can barely see any tourists at all on the beautiful streets. I will leave today heading to the El Imposible National Park; but before I do so, check out the update about one of my highlights in the Yucatan: The remote ruins of Calakmul, once one of the biggest cities of the Maya!
I spent hours figuring out the best and most direct way from Mérida to the area of Calakmul since I tried to avoid driving along the west side of the Yucatan. Due to a local bus strike, I was eventually forced to stop by in Campeche and make my way further down south and then east to my destination. Campeche actually turned out to be very nice so I was not sad at all to drive some extra km. The only trouble I had was getting a taxi to the ADO bus terminal to make it in time because all taxis were full and did not stop for me. In the end, I just barely made it though and even met a German couple that would go to Calakmul as well, so we decided to join forces.
Calakmul had always been the one ruin that I was looking forward to the most. The main reason being the fact that it is so remote. First you have to get to Xpujil and based from there either have a private car or hire a taxi to drive into the jungle for another two hours of driving. The other reason being the fact that it used to be one of the biggest ancient Maya sites, fighting with Tikal in Guatemala at some point in history, better check Wikipedia for that since they know the details
We stayed the night in a nice place (including a swimming pool) and organised a taxi driver for 1200 pesos, so 400 pesos or about 22€ each. This deal was pretty sweat actually since the driver would wait for us at Calakmul for about 4 hours and then another 2 hours and the Becan ruins on the way back. Usually they charge a bit more for that. The driver picked us up the next morning and after 30 minutes or so, I asked him if I could maybe drive a bit. He did not hesitate to stop the car and from then on I was in charge of getting us to the ruins, driving about 80 minutes through the jungle
As imagined, we were completely alone in the huge complex. Only one other car arrived before us but we didn’t really see the people since it’s spread out so much. The ruins were amazing, including some of the biggest Maya temples you will ever see. There is also a lot of wildlife around and you can hear and spot monkeys while you walk around the jungle from one temple to the other. Being on top of the biggest pyramid, we could even spot the El Mirador ruins in Guatemala way in the distance!
Jochen was driving us back to Xpujil, but before we could enjoy a final amazing Torta they would serve there, we had one final stop and it turned out to be my absolute favorite of all the Maya ruins: Becan. But more on that in a separate update in a few days!
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Next update
Live #17, Becan Maya Ruins, Mexico Click for the Pictures!
21/12/2014 And finally… the last update about Maya ruins in Mexico! It ended with my favorite of them all, the city of Becan. Located very close to Xpujil, it is not as remote as Calakmul, but nevertheless only a few people go there. Check out this post to find out why it turned out to be my favorite in the end.
Part of our deal with the Taxi driver was to spend about 2 1/2 hours in Becan on our way back from Calakmul. It is very close to Xpujil and you could even bike there if you wanted to, but well we already had the Taxi for us The first thing that I noticed about that site was that everything just feels much more like it used to be during the times of the Maya. You can even walk around some small corridors and rooms and everything is in a very good shape without over-restaurating it like Chichen Itza for instance.
I especially enjoyed the main temples. One of them (as seen on the cover picture on this post) just looks awesome thanks to it’s shape and the fact that it is still surrounded by trees. And the other one (from where I took the cover picture) is half collapsed and allowed me to do some climbing while offering the great view. Becan just felt right, it is hard to describe but for some reason it was my favorite even though it is not as big as Calakmul or as famous as Chichen Itza. You should check it out if you make it down to Xpujil!
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Happy xmas
Live #18, Bacalar, Mexico
23/12/2014 One more day until Christmas and I am back in Guatemala City once more to spend the festival in 29°C – a very strange feeling and my first Christmas outside of Germany! Keeping my pace for updates every 2nd day, I can now finally present the last part of Mexico in the beautiful Laguna Bacalar!
Bacalar did not play a role in my initial planning for Mexico, I simply had no idea until other travelers told me about it in Mexico. Quickly checking it out on Google, I did not hesitate to adept my plans so I could fit it in for a few days. Doing so was a brilliant decision since it turned out to be my favorite place in Mexico next to the Maya ruins of Becan and Calakmul! The water of the Laguna is great and comes in different colors and just chilling out their was really relaxing before heading onwards to Belize!
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TLADT24917 Posts
This looks like quite the fun trip. Mighty jealous haha. Hope you're having fun and keep the updates coming!
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First update from Belize!
Live #19, Caye Caulker, Belize
26/12/2014 Christmas in Guatemala turns out to be quiet the opposite of Europe and is celebrated like New Years Eve here with a late dinner, fireworks and lots of parties all night long. After 5 weeks in this great country, it is time to move on now and a long distance bus will take me to the Copan Ruins in Honduras tomorrow. Hope you will enjoy this first update from Belize now, visiting Caye Caulker in the Caribbean Sea.
Caye Caulker in Belize was another location that I added to my itinerary last second, hearing about it from other travelers. The only thing I wanted to do was the Hol Chan Marine Reserve, based from San Pedro. Turns out that this place is packed with hotels though, whereas Caye Caulker has more of a backpacking vibe for it, making my decision to go there instead very easy. I stayed in the Bella’s Hostal just next to the Dirty McNasty’s, which seems to be the place-to-go for all those party hungry backpackers. I was glad I did not stay there.
The motto of the Island is “Go Slow” and it even changed my walking habits from a fast paced London style to the very relaxed and slow one of the island. The streets on Caye Caulker are also just made out of sand and the only vehicles here are gold caddys, making the place quiet special and cool! And did I mention they have great looking waters around there too?
We booked a sail tour for a complete day, visiting the local coral reef, the shark alley and the Hol Chan Marine Reserve. A pack of ten dolphins followed us on the way to the shark alley. Feeding the sharks there was great since you could swim right in the middle of them. They are all harmless obviously and very used to humans in that area. The Hol Chan features some more marine life such as turtles but overall I expected a bit more from that, guess it is better for diving than just snorkeling here so I missed out on a bit.
I can just highly recommend doing the tour and especially liked the fresh food provided or the all-you-can-drink rum punch happy hour on the way back. I think I had seven big cups in the end, a perfect way to start the evening! If you have more time, you can even do the three day tour including night stays on deserted islands going down to the south of Belize. Sadly we could not opt in tour due to a bad weather forecast, otherwise I would have ended up extended my stay in Caye Caulker.
On the last full day, we relaxed at the so called “Split”, the part of the island that was cut off my hurricanes. At least that is what the internet tells you, our captain on the boat however said that it was originally started by the americans, digging out just a tiny passage for small ships which was eventually broadened by the hurricans to create the split that you can see today. It is a great place to hang out though and good fun to swim to the other side of the split since there is a small current that will drag you out a bit.
We also hired some Kayaks (ree at the Bella’s Hostel) and used them to check out the other Island for a while. If you have a lot of time, you could even make a complete circuit but bring a lot of water for that. We just had an hour and were forced to turn back just shortly after we reached the other island. Still a lot of fun! In the end I can just say that I was very happy to come to Caye Caulker and I would only have one more major destination in Belize, the Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM) caves, coming up in the next Live Report
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Live #21, Tikal, Guatemala
30/12/2014 Yesterday I arrived to the currently famed “[url="http://wikitravel.org/en/San_Pedro_Sula"]most dangerous place on earth” and my second stop in Honduras: San Pedro Sula. I was supposed to leave to the Cusuco National Park today, but due to my slight delay and a booked flight to Utila tomorrow, I decided to do it after my return from the Island in order to spend two nights in the remote jungle. I will use the extra day to check out the city today and of course update my blog, reporting “live” from Guatemala for the first time. Coming from Belize, it was obvious that I would have to stop in Tikal, one of the most famous Maya sites in Central America![/url]
Joined by Philip, a German guy I met before in San Ignacio to explore the ATM Caves, we made our way to the Border in a taxi and successfully dodged the extra fee that they are trying to squeeze out of tourists while entering Guatemala (just ask for a receipt and you won’t have to pay it). We missed the last bus due to the public holiday and were forced to take a more expensive private shuttle directly to Tikal, ending up paying a bit more than 200 Quetzales each. We arrived at 3pm and were just in time to get the 150Q entrance ticket that would be valid for the next day as well, so we wasted no time to drop our staff at the Jaguar Inn Hotel and made our way into the rainy jungle that surrounds the mighty ruins of Tikal!
Having not purchased either the Sunset or the Sunrise tour for an extra 150Q each, we were making the most out of our time anyway. The rain provided a great atmosphere and a good alternative to boring blue sky ;-) It got dark very fast and the ground was very slippery, nearly dropping us a few times. We headed straight to Temple IV, which was supposed to offer the best view. They built some staircases to reach the 64m high top plateau and the view is somehow limited as you can just see other temples peaking out. Before coming to Tikal, I was hoping to see some bigger structures from there but it was great in any case.
We only met two other people during the late hour of that day and joined up together on the way back, walking through complete pitch black darkness as the sun was gone around 6pm. Joined by the rangers that clean out the park so nobody sneaks in without having paid for the Sunset ticket – which would not have been great in that weather anyway – we made it back to the Jaguar Inn to have a suprsingly good and well portioned dinner there. Sleeping in tents they provide for “just” 15$ seemed like a good deal considering the fact that we were staying in the middle of the Park and right next to the Entrance gate. I could hear all kinds of monkeys and other animals (and also the snoring tour guide Caesar in a tent next to us) while trying to fall asleep.
The next morning, we woke up at 5:30 to make it to the entrance as early as possible to get in without the special sunrise ticket, meaning 6AM. The weather did not change since last night, so we were happy that we did not spend all the extra money. The sounds of the awaking jungle were still clearly present at 6AM, even though it should probably be even better getting in at 4AM. We walked a slightly different route this time and headed to the main plaza including the famous Jaguar Temple. Certainly a pretty cool structure to look at and a shame one is not allowed to climb it up! Some people have died doing so in the past after slipping down.
We returned to Temple IV again and had slightly better weather this time, still clouds dominated the sky though but I think it makes for a great atmosphere. Overall we spent nine hours in Tikal on both days and the rest of the second day was spent walking around through all different corners. Arriving at the Lost World Pyramid aka Gran Pyramid, we were waiting until everyone around us disappeared (it was not busy in that part of Tikal luckily) in order to climb it up. Climbing it is not allowed, but it is a very easy and safe climb, so we could not resist the temptation. The view from up there was amazing, actually it was my favorite view of them all because you could see all other major temples from a much nicer perspective compared to Temple IV. Just when we arrived to the top, some guy was waiving at Philip and we could hear a starting car engine, so we got down pretty soon after again. Turns out the waiving guy was just a Japanese tourist and not one of the guards when we saw him five minutes later to say hello :-)
It was already pretty late and we wanted to head back to the Hotel in time to catch the bus to Flores. However, Tikal made it really hard to leave as we spotted even more great places on the way out, for example Temple V, the second tallest structure at 57m and just very impressive to look at. All of the sudden, the sun came out again and we took some more pictures from the Jaguar Temple again. Even after nine hours, I could have stayed some longer and have to say that visiting Tikal is an absolute must for anyone interested in the Maya culture! One more Club Sandwhich and a nice shower later, I was headed to Flores to stay with a new Couchsurfer and relax a bit after all the walking at Tikal…
>> Link to the Photos
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Just curious, how much money did you save up for this and how long did that take, what did you bring with you, and how much have you spent so far?
Also the world is a pretty dangerous place, what is the worst thing(s) you've seen/experienced so far?
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I saved more money that i would need for this trip, been working for 15 years! so far i spent 8.000€but most of it comes from the Antarctica trip..
Live #23, Semuc Champey, Guatemala
03/01/2015 It’s pretty damn early here in Honduras now and I only have twenty minutes to get this update out, so gotta keep it short again. Semuc Champey in Guatemala was one of those things that I only heard about while being on the road already. It’s a serious of pools in an awesome jungle setting between Flores and Guatemala City. Takes a while to get there, but it’s totally worth it!
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Next video is ready!
>> Video (29mins) from Yucatán, Mexico
Hope you like my next video, covering the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. I managed to get everything in while staying under half an hour: Cancun, Tulum, Coba, Gran Cenote, Valladolid, Ek Balam Maya Ruins, X’Canche Cenote, Merida, Dzibilchaltun, Uxmul, Campeche, Calakmul, Becan and last but not least: Bacalar!
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Live #25, Lake Atitlan, Guatemala (click for pictures)
10/01/2015 I’m still in San Pedro Sula and tried everything to get into the Cusuco National Park and to replace my broken lens. Unfortunately, both did not work out in the end and I will now move on to Lake Yojoa without a working camera But let’s talk about the past, Lake Atitlan. When I first did my research about Guatemala, I quickly came across Lake Atitlan and ever since had the strong desire to go there. A lake surrounded by three volcanoes sounded and looked great and it was so worth going there in the end!
The chicken bus got me into Panajachel, the main tourist hub around the lake. The complete town is based on tourism and I was glad that I would not stay over there and instead go to the less touristic spots around the lake, hopefully getting in touch with the locals during my two scheduled couchsurfing occasions as well. Taking a lancha over to Santiago Atitlan, I immediately liked the atmosphere there much better.
Instead of all the backpackers walking around, I could now spot a lot of friendly locals on the way to my Couchsurfing place, which was pretty interesting and hard to find by the way! After making my way through a bunch of bushes and back alleys, I eventually made it to the Hotel which was supposed to be just next to the place and got picked up from there Their house looked great and my lovely host even let me use her room since they had another guest at the same time, already occupying the couch.
On the next day, I walked around the city to find the Maximón. Not being able to do so, I had to use my superb Spanish skills to ask the local people and eventually made it there. They wanted to charge me to take pictures inside, so I only got one from the outside instead. It was lunch time afterwards and I got four empanadas and a bag full of fruit for just 21Q (~2,20€) – streed food is just awesome!
Another great source for food was located just five minutes walking distance away from the Couchsurfer place: Las Lagartijas. Located in a small booth outside of town, it provides delicious food and you should check it out if you are in the area! After a cold swim in the lake here, tucked in between the three volcanoes, I eventually had to move on again, this time to another smaller village on the other side of the lake: Santa Cruz.
The prices for the lanchas were recently raised apparently and the information I got on the internet was not valid anymore. Now you have to pay 25Q (or 20Q if you negotiate like I did) to cross the lake. I had to change boats in Pana again and used the opportunity to buy a new mouse there since I had just broken mine a day before. Getting to Pana was a wild ride actually, the boat took on a bit too many people, leaving me without a seat in the front on the by far bumpiest ride ever! I had to hold on with both hands and was still jumping half a meter in the air while sitting on the ground and everyone was screaming as if they would be in a rollercoster. Just thinking about it makes my ass hurt again!
When I finally arrived in the small and relaxed Santa Cruz, I was picked up by my next Couchsurfer and his guest. A japanese couple decided to use this village as their base in Guatemala and I can totally understand why! It was just great there and thanks to my hosts, I could make the most out of my time. We walked around the town and had a great dinner together in the evening. Ironically enough, their guest used to be a korean WarCraft 3 programer as well and it was funny talking to him about the good old times with players like SlayerS_BoxeR, which we both knew from our time as a gamer. At that moment we wished to have two computers to play a round haha
On the next day, we had lunch in Posada Jaibalito, run for over nine years by a German guy called Hans. If you go there, say Chris said hi, you will easily recognize him thanks to his immense white beard He offers traditional German food and even bread for a very low price, definitely a highlight and hidden gem! The village of Jaibalito is great as well, no road is leading there and you either have to walk or take a lancha. The locals here are even more friendlier it seemed and you will see lot’s of kids playing around on the street. This afternoon was one of my highlights along the lake!
The next and final stop was the backpacker village of Lake Atitlan: San Pedro. I liked it much more than Pana, because despite having the same amount of backpackers, the village itself was just more pleasant. After staying in a pretty cheap place somewhere in the back of the village, I moved over to Hotel Mikaso for the other two nights. This place was perfect, located outside of the busy area but still close enough to walk everywhere. You will have some great views from there and even be able to enjoy the hot pool for free! They also had good Internet there and I could follow my team Frankfurt win against Dortmund with 2-0 in the German Bundesliga What a good day it was…
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Live #26, Xela & Volcan Santa Maria, Guatemala
12/01/2015 It’s my second day at beautiful Lake Yojoa and I will check out the PANCAM National Park today before heading down south to Tegucigalpa via Comayagua. Today’s live update is from another location that was added to my journey last minute: Xela, short for Quetzaltenango. I would stay here for over a week to do a short spanish course and also to climb Volcan Santa Maria.
Getting there was pretty fun on the steep and serpentine road from San Pedro at Lake Atitlan in a Chicken Bus. I have met some people before that came down here with their own modified US school truck and they had been stuck in exactly this area for a few times because of it’s narrowness on the steep passage. Upon arrival in Xela, I waited at Casa Seibel to get picked up by Couchsurfer Becky, who owns a spanish school called Forest Academy, providing me with a teacher for a 25 hour class over the next week. She came together with her frien Moses, who would take good care of me in the following day and even let me sleep at his place. I was surrounded by nice people and could concentrate on my bad spanish
I had 1on1 classes from 10AM to 3PM each day and since my spanish was very basic, we had to cover exactly those first and overall did not have enough time to go into the past or future tenses. I thought that it would still be better than nothing and gave it a try. In the End, my spanish did not improve a lot, but this is not because of the teacher but more due to the fact that I am just a bad student, failing to look into my sheets ever since the course ended. I’m just so busy with traveling itself! Besides the spanish class, I also had enough time to check out Xela, a really nice city that still has a local feel to it and I had a lot of great people around me to enjoy the evenings as well. I will never forget the disappointment when I first saw the so called “climbing gym” or the moment we squeezed nine people into a small car!
Climbing Volcan Santa Maria was another thing on my ToDo list. The volcan offers a view on another active volcano, Santiaguito, and we were able to do the hike during full moon, starting at 1AM. It was pretty rainy and cloudy throughout the complete hike up to the 3770m high summit, but nevertheless I enjoyed it and was especially pleased by the moments the sun finally broke through the clouds momentarily after reaching the top. We also had a few eruptions of nearby Santiaguito and could see Volcan Fuego erupting far in the back as well. I tried to capture everything with my camera, even though it was a pretty hard task without gloves and freezing temperatures at the top. Back to Casa Seibel, which is a really nice play to stay while in Xela by the way, it was time for some relaxation from the hike before moving on to the touristic hotspot and former capital of Guatemala: Antigua.
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Video from Caye Caulker, Belize
This Video is actually pretty short – just under ten minutes! Check out how I was swimming with Sharks along with some Snorkeling in the Hol Chan Marine Reserve. And don’t forget to Go Slow… since we are talking about Caye Caulker in Belize
https://vimeo.com/116928793
Have fun!
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One of the highlights of my trip so far! Hope you like it
Live #28, Volcán Acatenango, Guatemala (click link for pictures)
19/01/2015 Time for a new Live Update after finishing some videos. Sadly Vimeo causes problems with Copyright violations, so I might have to look out for another platform. If you have some suggestions, put it in the comments please! Currently I am in Granada, Nicaragua and will head to Isla de Ometepe tomorrow morning. This update will be the last from Guatemala and it is safe to say that climbing the 3,976m Volcán Acatenango was one of the highlights of my trip so far. Getting to the top requires some effort, but the reward is incredible: Witnessing the super active Volcán de Fuego right in front of you during night, erupting car-sized rocks every 5-10 minutes.
I arranged the overnight tour to climb Volcán Acatenango from Antigua and got a decent last minute deal. The good news was that the other two people in the group cancelled, so it was just me and the guide! I got picked up in town and was transferred to the guide’s private house close to the Volcanoes entrance trail. Having a local guide actually helps against the occasional robberies, which only target tour companies that are not supporting the local guides and thereby the community’s job industry. At least that is what the owner of the company I used told me. Another group just got back from the mountain and was waiting for my car for a ride back into town. They told me I’d better have a sleeping bag and good jacket because it was so cold on the top.
My guide Eddie and I started walking up the street for a few minutes to reach the path leading to the Volcano. His dog Tarzan joined us all the way and was a fast and pleasant third member of the team, not slowing us down or being annoying like other people could have been It just takes five minutes walking on a gravel path until we reach the first group gasping for air. It was pretty hot that day and the gravel makes it hard to walk, but I was still very surprised to see the first girl crying out of exhaustion after a distance that took us just five minutes to walk! Anyway, I was looking forward to the rest as the climb was supposed to be one of the hardest you can do in the country.
Passing one resting point after the other and actually only using one of them for ten minutes, we make it to the summit of Volcán Acatenango in just 3 1/2 hours. It was great to have a good and fast guide with me and being in a good shape as well as the mountain really will challenge you, especially if you do not rest a lot in between. I could feel my heart pumping really hard on the last steep gravel part up the top, each step sliding down half of the previous step again. It’s been a while that a mountain required this kind of effort and I really liked it! Once on the top, we waited for all the clouds to disappear until I could finally see (and not just hear) the first eruption of Fuego just meters away.
Luckily the clouds vanished even more and I could get some great shots of the crater and the landscape around us before we were running / skiing down the gravel on the other side to reach the camp spot, which was already prepared by Eddie’s dad. Just before we got there, Eddie climbed a high tree to cut off branches with his Machete for our bonfire. Having it set up, I felt in great company and even part of the family by now, even though my Spanish is not good and all of them spoke no English at all, we still found a way to communicate, sometimes using a stick to sketch drawings in the ground
As it got dark, the real show started. Volcán de Fuego showed off his angry face and instead of grey smoke in front of blue sky and white clouds, we would now witness a red and yellow light show in the pitch black darkness every 5-10 minutes. Surprised by how active that Volcano actually was, it produced really big explosion every 20 minutes or so. The view on Volcán de Agua to our left side of the camp spot was great too, being surrounded by all the yellow lights of the cities such as Antigua and even Guatemala City in the back. But back to the main attraction! I switched my location to get rid of some trees in front of me and spent ten minutes looking for a good spot to sit down and lay my camera on something to do long exposure shots. I eventually found a cut-off tree that would suit me as a natural tripod and even though it was very tiny and I had troubles to keep my camera on it, I still managed to get a few decent shots.
Spending three hours just sitting and watching Fuego errupt, I finally made it into my tent. I could still hear all the eruptions from there and in a reflex, would constantly open my tent to check if it might be an even bigger one than before. Eventually, I had to force myself to get some sleep around 1AM though, having had one great new experience that I will never forget in my life. I woke up just in time for a nice sunset and after breakfast, headed down together with Eddie and Tarzan while his dad stayed at the camp spot to clear the fire. It only took us 1 1/2 hours to return to his house, resulting in a pretty long two hour wait to get me picked up since we were just way too early. Eddie’s place and lovely family made my wait very pleasant though and I enjoyed the view on Lake Atitlan’s Volcanoes in the distant while having a nice hot tea…
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The Stone Man Alberto Gutierrez in Estelí, Nicaragua
28/01/2015 The 15th of January has been a very special day for me. I met 75 year old Alberto Gutierrez, also known as the Stone Man, in his beautiful home deep in the Tisey Estanzuela Natural Reserve. He has been carving stones there for almost half of his life and will proudly present his work, should you make the effort of paying him a visit. It is not the easiest place to find and certainly off the beaten path, but if you ever get near Estelí on your Nicaragua trip, I would highly recommend to make this experience on your own. If not, just check out my report, pictures and the video here
About three months ago, I started to research Nicaragua and stumbled upon Nomadic Matt’s post about Alberto. What I have read was so fascinating that I had no other choice than putting it on my list. Now I can proudly say that I am yet another person privileged enough to meet this character. To be more precise, I am number 61 in his most recent visitor book. Only about 1000 people have met him ever since he received his first guest in 2006. Fellow bloggers have documented their time with Alberto, providing great information on how to reach him (such as yet another Matt right here) and thereby making it easier for all of us to get there. In my case, it was really easy thanks to my Couchsurfing host Jhon. This is my story of meeting Alberto…
I arrived in Estelí in the pouring rain and while I had no intentions of doing any sightseeing here, I couldn’t wait to get out to Tisey, hunting down the Stone Man Alberto Gutierrez. Getting deeper into the Tisey Estanzuela Natural Reserve, my Couchsurfing Host and I got both more excited the closer we got. One of his friends knew Alberto, so we had a good idea how to get there. You first drive into La Garnacha and follow a dirt road until you see a sign saying “Bienvenidos. Finca: El J Lacate, Dist 1Km”. You then cross the gate and keep on walking down the hill for about twenty minutes until you reach his home with a sign saying “Bienvenidos A Galeria Esculturas en Piedras”. Just go in and call out for him!
Alberto is growing all kinds of fruits on his property and will probably give you some of it too, we got some lemons. If you are lucky you might also get a pineapple For the next hour, he showed us around all his stone carvings. It starts off with bits and pieces until you eventually get to the top of a hill with a nice viewpoint, featuring the highlights such as an huge Elephant! He started his work 38 years ago on October 17th, 1977 and since then is carving different landscapes, animals and historical moments into all kinds of stones. I was surprised by seeing the World Trade Center as one of his sculptures!
All of his work has been done with the same tools: two metal chisels and a hammer. He also has a fixed schedule, only working between 6AM – 9AM, enabling him to greet visitors coming during the day. He was also featured in a documentary, which resulted in his bigger popularity, but visiting him still feels like a very unique and special thing to do! I have read that he would be too proud to accept money from his guests, this apparently has changed now since he gladly accepted ours I also gave him some sunglasses from Ray Ban, which he really seemed to like and they suited him much better than me
>> Pictures and Video (If vimeo is not causing troubles again!)
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Live #32, Macaw Mountain, Copan Ruinas, Honduras
02/02/2015 I am just about to head into Corcovado National Park to our Lodge in the jungle. Since their website states that they don’t even electricity over there, I figured to give you guys another update while I am waiting for the bus in Puerto Jimenez. Actually it’s the very first one from Honduras! Coming in from Guatemala, the first town on my route was beautiful Copan Ruinas, named after the very close by Maya ruins. On my first day there, I started off with a really cool activity: visiting the Macaw Mountain with their amazing display of Parrots, Tucans, Macaws and other birds
Copan Ruinas is covered in cobblestone streets and ranks in the top 3 of my favorite villages visited on this trip so far. Juayua is still no.1 on that list, partly also because Copan Ruinas draws in many more tourists. I came without any reservations and the only hostel I had gathered some information before was fully booked. I ended up staying in Don Moises for the first night, located very close to the center. It has a really cheap restaurant for food just in front, providing excellent value for the money spent.
After checking in, I stopped a Tuc Tuc in front of the Hostel and told him to bring me to Macaw Mountain. I would walk the way down again because getting there is all up hill! Not long after, I find myself in my bathing shorts talking to the receptionist, only to be told that the swimming hole there is closed! Well, it’s down to “only” watch the birds then. As time passed by, I was more and more amazed by those birds actually. They put up a circuit for everyone to follow and you see all kinds of Parrots and Macaws before heading into the Tucan cage. Having them so close was really nice as I only saw them inside a cage so far. One of them even landed on my hand, apparently being very interested in my plastic bag – or maybe the marsmallows inside? Other people got jealous and wanted a picture of them and the Tucan though, so my plastic bag was passed on to everyone but he would never sit on anyone elses arm
I walked the Sendero National Trail afterwards but other than walking through a lot of spider webs, nothing else really happened there. I would say you could skip that trail and head straight to the end point of the standard route instead. If you come to the right time, somebody will be there to place a Macaw on your head. I was there at the right time just before they would go to sleep and my Macaw friend was really active, screaming at me so we ended up in a little battle haha. Back in town, I naturally had to check out a German bar called “Sol de Copan”. The German owner imported everything he needs to brew his own beer there according to the German purity law. He served me a Christmas beer, which tasted like a normal lager though. Nothing special but it was nice to talk to an authentic German “Gastwirt” again
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Live #35, Utila, Honduras
09/02/2015 I just came back from the Cangilones de Gualaca, close to David in Panama, and am so happy to finally use my climbing shoes again! You should check out that place, it’s a mini canyon just perfect for deep water bouldering. This update has a relation to water as well, featuring Utila and my PADI Open Water Course there. I even saw a little shipwreck on the second fun dive, pretty cool
Heading to the airport in San Pedro Sula, I wanted to get out of the car and explore the nature, which gets nicer the further you get out of town. Unfortunately, the area also seems to be pretty unsafe according to my Taxi driver, so staying in the car to catch my flight seemed the better idea I missed to buy food in the morning, forcing me to look out for some at the airport. The only thing I could find was a bad looking sandwich which tasted even worse, but I was so hungry and nothing else was available, so I decided to eat it anyway. A big mistake as I would learn a few days later.
While the first flight was in a medium sized propeller machine, the second one was certainly the tightest aircraft I have ever been. Just getting into my seat required to climb over the it from the back since there was no aisle or space on the sides. The ride was short and upon arriving on Utila, I had to wait half an hour until my dive center (Parrots) sent someone to pick me up. I arrived at the main part of town and Utila seemed to be like a bigger, uglier version of Caye Caulker. It is still kind of nice, but if you are looking for a more relaxed vacation, Caye Caulker should be your choice.
The Parrot Dive center is located close to a nice bar at the beach and has two options to dine just meters away. A cheap fast food like bistro and a more expensive Chinese restaurant. I decided to treat myself with the second option on my first night and had a nice 12$ dinner. I actually could not finish the portion and was a bit confused first, but the reason for that was not the size of the portion but rather the fact that I got myself in a nice diarrhea situation thanks to the delicious sandwich at the airport. The following four days were really unpleasant for me, having to use the toilet all the time and not eating anything at all for four full days. (This is the reason why I am now looking like a skeleton!) The timing could not have been any better as well, on my first sick day it was New Years Eve and I was not really able to enjoy it. The parties on Utila seemed to be a bit less wild than I thought they would be as well, so I think I didn’t miss out on too much.
The room I was staying in the first nights did not have a fan for my bed, but thankfully I could be transferred to a different room on the third day. The heat and humidity on Utila really made me struggle with my sleep, ending up not just not eating for four days, but also barely getting any sleep at all. All that aside, I had one task to finish here: my PADI Open Water Course! Utila is one of the cheapest places on earth to get the certification and i paid 269$ for my course with the Parrots. This also included four nights for free in their dorm room. We were a group of six people and had a great teacher called Daniel.
There were five chapters of theory, all pretty easy with a final exam in the end, two confined water sessions followed by two open water sessions. After those, you would complete the course and then receive two free fun dives as well. By the time we hit the water for the confined sessions, I slowly started to feel a bit better and was really happy about it. Getting under water for about one and a half meters, it was a strange feeling breathing air under water for the first time. We practiced skills like removing water from a filled mask and other tasks that Daniel explained to us before hand. Since you can’t hear, you need to observe and follow the hand signs of your guide. This worked out very well since Daniel was really good and we always got what he wanted us to do.
On the evening before the open water dives, I was getting out to the dock to take some shots of the sunset. Just when I wanted to return to the bar, I dropped my camera and barely got hold of it before dropping down further into the ocean. Still, the lens and battery caps were broken and it really pissed me off, begin unable to take any more photos or videos!! I found a guy on the island who was good repairing notebooks but we failed to repair the lens after breaking it down to its pieces. Anyway, my GoPro fake would be the camera from now on and I have to use it anyway for the dives, but I would need to find a replacement lens very soon after leaving Utila again since the Picture Quality of the GoPro is really bad.
Back to the dives! The two open water dives on 12 and 18 meters were really nice, we could get down to our depth limit but still would have to practice all of the skills like removing water from the mask and others. One of them was navigating with a compass. My dive buddy received one at the surface and under water we had to switch them, something Daniel did not tell us before sadly. I could not check the compass and it turned out that the metal clip was defective, eventually leading to the fact that I lost the compass at some point without realizing it because I was focused on the tasks we had. In the end, I had to pay 50% of the price for a new compass, combined with the fact that I would need to get a new lens as well it kind of dropped my mood a little bit.
Last but not least, we all passed our final exam and were ready to get down for our 18 meter fun dives! Those were certainly the highlight on Utila. We saw much more fish and had nicer landscapes compared to the dives before and for the first time ever, we could actually concentrate on the stuff around us rather than doing all the exercises! On the second fun dive, we even came across a little ship wreck, which was really cool because in the beginning it just looked like a black dot in the back but the closer we got, the more you could see until finally realizing that it is actually a sunken ship!
Walking back to the airport was interesting as well, having two roads to choose from, I apparently picked the wrong. It was pitch black since my flight left at 5AM and the road I picked was more like a muddy cow field. I slipped a lot and had to make sure that I wont fall down with my stuff. Eventually, I made it to the airport, my shoes being completely dirty. I washed them quickly and enjoyed the sun rise at the airport before heading back to San Pedro Sula again, this time sitting right next to the pilot in the tiny propeller machine
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Live #36, Lake Yojoa, Honduras
13/02/2015 Panama City has been a pleasant surprise so far after checking out Casco Viejo, the Miraflores locks and Amador Causeway, all of which I can only recommend! Today marks the beginning of the carnival season here in Panama and I will head town to the Las Tablas area to celebrate it. This update features Lake Yojoa in Honduras. I still can’t pronounce the name correctly, but can certainly summarize that I had a great time exploring the area without a guide.
Lake Yojoa was a must see for me since I really like nature and the lake provides some great spots to see both wild life and amazing landscapes. My first stop coming from San Pedro Sula was the Pulhapanzak Waterfall. Using the direct shuttle for 35 Lempiras, I arrived around 3:30 PM and had enough time to see the falls before heading onward to the D&D Brewery, located closer to the lake. The waterfalls were really nice and it was the first time to use the “new” used lens that I bought the day before. Not the best, but certainly better than my phone or GoPro camera!
The D&D Brewery offers all sorts of beers from around the globe, as well as a few self brewed. The Raspberry beer was nice but nothing spectacular. The normal lager tasted like other lagers as well, but I think I just don’t have a good enough taste to tell big differences between all the lagers, they just taste pretty much the same to me anyway The D&D also has a pool, which was pretty dirty sadly and no one really used it. During dinner I was consulting the local guide for some advice on getting to the lake on my own. He told me that it is not possible without a guide in this part of the lake, giving me even more motivation to head out on my own the next morning.
Getting up around 7AM, I decided that it would be time for another run, the last one being in Cancun, Mexico months ago! The run was pretty nice actually, crossing the village to reach the river and then from there making my way towards the lake. Eventually though, the ground became pretty muddy and it was not possible to reach the shore from that end, so I decided to cross the river and make my way up the mountain to get a good view from the top and then make my way down to the shore. Some locals pointed me in the right direction.
Even though the direction was right, it was pretty hard to get to the top of the mountain though. Obviously, I was not on any sort of path but still tried to make my way through the thick forest. This must have been the third time I’ve done that on my trip so far actually! In the end, I made it to the top but could not find a good spot for a view, so I decided to head down again. Getting out of the jungle after roughly twenty minutes, I found myself in a beautiful spot that must be used by locals, judged by the boats that I could spot along the shore.
The scenery there was just amazing and I was completely alone, giving me a nice happy end for the tough hike before. I made my way along the shore to reach yet another great spot that was even good for swimming in the cold, refreshing water. At some point I had to force myself to stop taking pictures though, trying to catch the next bus to the east part of the lake. My hostel there was called El Cortijo del Lago and I liked it much more than the D&D Brewery. There were only three other guests around, I had the dorm room completely for myself and could even watch some birds before the sunset. The food there was much better as well and having a parrot around always adds some value I made friends with a couple from Argentina and we decided to explore the PANCAM parque together in the next morning. More on that in the next update!
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Norway28263 Posts
this is just amazing. keep it up.
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Thanks mate
Live #37, PANACAM, Honduras
16/02/2015 After coming back from the carnival in Pedasí, I had a great last night in Panama City yesterday thanks to the company of amazing people. It is 4AM in the morning now and I will be heading towards Carti shortly to start the four day cruise through the San Blas Islands, eventually getting me to Sapzurro in Colombia. Thankfully the next update is a short one, featuring PANACAM Lake Yojoa in Honduras.
After exploring Lake Yojoa, it just took a quick tuk-tuk ride up the mountains to reach the PANACAM park, short for Parque Nacional Cerro Azul Meambar. You are supposed to see a lot of birds there, however I did not see a single one actually! The trails we were hiking provided some nice sceneries though, including some waterfalls.
If you only have limited time in Honduras and wonder if it would be worth going to PANACAM, I would say you could skip it in case you have other trips into similar parks on your agenda. This update is very short, but I gotta catch my boat to the San Blas Islands now! The next four days will certainly be without Internet, so please be patient with the next update
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Live #39, Somoto, Nicaragua
22/02/2015 Sitting in an air conditioned dorm full of snoring guys in Cartagena, I can now finally use some fast internet again to update my blog! This is actually the very fist update from Nicaragua and my first stop was the town of Somoto, close to the border. The Somoto Canyon is one of the least explored tourist attractions of Nicaragua, so check this post out to see how my non guided tour turned out
I actually had no idea about Somoto until the day I arrived there. Luckily some fellow traveler adviced me to go there and after checking out the reviews on the internet, it sounded really cool to explore the canyon there. I met a guy from Costa Rica at the bus stop in Tegucigalpa before and he spontaneously joined me as well. We arrived just after sun set and could not make it up the view point close to the city unfortunately. Consequently, we decided to check out the sun rise from there instead in the next morning.
Somoto as a village was really pleasant as well. Not too many tourists (yet) and people are very friendly. The trip to the canyon is usually done with a guide, however we both did not have the time to do the long six hour 20$ tour that was already scheduled with a few other people, so we decided to do it on our own. First though, we walked up to the viewpoint at 4:30 AM in the morning to be there for sun rise at 5 AM. At least that was the time the owner of the hostel told us, making us wait until 6:30 AM until the sun finally crawled up behind the mountains.
Being delayed quiet a bit, the guy from Costa Rica decided not to go to the canyon anymore and so I joined the big group to take the public bus together. We left at 8:30 AM and the bus was really cheap, so getting to the canyon on your own is certainly not a problem. After around 15 minutes, the group started to ascend deeper into the canyon and I had to stop since I was not equipped with waterproof bags and you have to swim a lot. Instead I used the time to climb around a bit and enjoyed the pretty nice view that you get from the beginning.
Afterwards I walked back to the street to reach the Viewpoint. I received some directions from a local and was pretty sure that I followed them as I know that right means derecho in Spanish. However, after taking the right turn and walking up the path for about 90 minutes, I eventually realized that it could not be the right one. A lot of fences crossed my way and I had to cross a few farms until I decided to turn back. At least I was able to find a cool spot to see the canyon in the end, even though it was not the official viewpoint.
Coming back to the point which led me to the wrong direction, I turned left this time and quickly noted that this would have been the right way. Unfortunately, It became pretty late already and I did not want to miss the last bus, so I just walked down for about 20 minutes and then headed back towards the street. Luck was on my side this time and the last bus just arrived two minutes after arriving at the street! We passed a burning car on the way back to Somoto and my next destination Esteli to find the Stone Man Alberto. Read more about this adventure right here!
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Rumble in the jungle
05/03/2015 I just got back from the Lost City trek in Colombia and it has been pretty eventful! I won’t have the time to get another Nicaragua Live Update out now, but hope you will be entertained with this small video in the meanwhile. Fingers crossed that the guy made it to the hospital in time. We actually killed a poisonous snake on our way back as well, this place seems to be fully of them!
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Live #42, Cerro Negro Volcano Boarding, Nicaragua
08/03/2015 I’m sorry for the limited internet access in the last days; now I am back though and can deliver some pictures from the Volcano Boarding on Volcan Cerro Negro in Nicaragua. Later today I will leave Colombia behind and fly from Bogotá to Buenos Aires in Argentina!
I wasted no time after the wonderful climb to Volcan Telica and started the next trip to Volcan Cerro’s Volcano Boarding on the very same day. This time, our former guide Bismark was now the driver and we had a new guide taking four other people and myself up the mountain. Everyone had to carry their own board while we could enjoyed the views on the black lava fields from the 1999 eruption around us. It was pretty windy up there and I had to hold on tight to the board from time to time. The hike in general is pretty easy though and you will find yourself at the top after around 45 minutes.
Before it was time to slide down again, we were headed to the very peak to take a look into the crater. After ten minutes, everyone put on the extra clothes and protection gear that were provided in a small bag and the full outfit including an overall, gloves, buff towel and goggles looked pretty funny. The others went town first and seemed to have some problems getting the board started on the first meters. Eventually though, everyone was on the way down and in the end it was just me left on top because I wanted to take videos from the other guys first.
My ride had a slow start too, I was actually stuck in the ground and had to walk a few meters forward to get to a steeper part. From there, it worked better and I slowly began to pick up speed on my way down. Soon after though, the board drifted to the left on its own and despite my efforts on keeping it in a straight line, I eventually lost speed and stopped half way through. The same thing happened closer to the bottom and it turned out that my board was not the best according to the guide. It was a shame because It would have been cooler with a speedier board I suppose! Still, it was a great and fun way to end the day and I can just recommend it to anyone, even though it is a pretty touristic activity.
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Round-the-World Trip Statistics
It’s been 162 days since I started my trip in Canada back in September 2014 and so far I have spent 10.000€. Check out this insight to see where I left my money
A lot of people have asked me how much money I would spend on this trip. It was always hard to answer before I actually started, but now that I am on the road for nearly half a year and thanks to my neat little Excel sheet, I can now provide you with some information!
My total spendings so far add up to 10.130,13 €
This figure includes everything: food, accommodations, booked trips and all the rest like buying new shower gel or paying to get into a climbing gym. Whenever I spend money, I convert the local currency to Euros and add it to my Excel sheet. The biggest part of the above sum is my upcoming cruise to Antarctica in two weeks from now, so if you would remove that, it would come down to around 6.000 € for nearly half a year so far.
More interesting for you guys as fellow travelers yourself might be how much I actually spend on the food (including all sorts of drinks too) and accommodations in each country. The following stats will give you an insight on my spendings. Luckily, I was able to Couchsurf every single day in Canada, making the average spendings in North America look a bit low because it just reflects Mexico.
Hope you liked that information, I will continue to gather the data in my lovely Excel sheet, haha. (I’m soooo German, I know…)
>> Stats
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Live #43, Laguna de Apoyo, Nicaragua
14/03/2015 I had a great day hiking to Laguna Torres yesterday and then up one of the higher mountains in the area today after sleeping at the camp ground. The wind nearly blew me off my feet this time and it was a shame I could only take pictures with my phone and GoPro fake, the views were just amazing even though I could not see Cerro Torre. The internet here is very bad, so I’m keeping the update very small as well. But at least I can get an update out
There is not so much to say about Laguna de Apoyo in Nicaragua anyway. I think going down to swim in it for at least 6$ or more is not really worth it, but I really enjoyed the viewpoint up the road, so if you are passing through you can at least check that out and go swimming somewhere else for free
>> Pictures
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Live #44, Granada, Nicaragua
17/03/2015 Good news! Thanks to Couchsurfing, I will have a new camera similar to my old one just before I depart to Antarctica. The weather here in Patagonia is not the best right now anyway, so I have time for some Bouldering in the area and to plan the rest of my South America trip. As the Internet is still very bad, I can just provide small updates and it takes me nearly a full day to upload those pictures from Granada in Nicaragua.
Nicaragua offers a lot of beautiful towns and Granada is one of them. I liked it more than León, mostly because it is closer to the lake and a bit less hot. By “a bit less hot”, I’m actually still talking roughly 28-30°C. Add a little breeze from time to time and it makes walking around the streets much more comfortable. I was also trying to get a boat to La Isletas. However, there was only one boat waiting at the harbor and the guy wanted way too much money. Instead, I walked around closer to the islands and eventually came to a group of homeless people. There was also a police guy and he told me I should better not walk around here. But I really wanted to get a nice view on the islands, or at least get a bit closer to them to see if there is any view at all from the mainland. In the end, the police guy escorted me a bit further down and gave me some advice in Spanish, half of which I could actually understand
Walking back towards the center along La Calzada, I discovered the prettiest supermarket I have ever stepped into. Everything was so clean and well placed and the whole area was extremely spacious. Even though I did not buy anything there, I really enjoyed just walking around in it For the night I actually had a Couchsurfer to stay with in Rivas. He picked me up at the Parque, where I could enjoy the free WiFi while waiting for him. We had dinner together with his other two guests from Argentina and ended up watching some of my travel videos on the street before his house. Getting up early the next morning, I walked towards the harbor at 5:30 AM to catch the 7:00 AM ferry, which was eventually cancelled and it took another hour before I could finally get to my highlight in Nicaragua: Isla de Ometepe.
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United States32008 Posts
I never noticed this before... but oh my god I am jealous. I'm gonna have to read this more in depth later
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Hehe, go ahead and do that
Upcoming: South America
22/03/2015, 23:30 I have had a lot of time to plan the rest of my time in South America thanks to the bad weather in El Chaltén. At least now I have a pretty good idea about what to do in Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. First though, I will head to the Lake District near Bariloche before getting to Buenos Aires. See if you have some feedback for me
Travelling from 26/04/2015 to 23/06/2015
This is just the first draft and I think I have to change a bit more. My main questions are how to spend the time in Pantanal as some people say it is not worth going to both entry points? I will be coming from Paraguay, so getting in from the land via Bahia Negra sounds like a nice adventure but I’m not sure if it will delay me a lot? Seems like flying from Asunción is pretty expensive, so I guess the weekly 8:30 bus on Saturdays is the only option?
Also, which of the many national parks could I skip because they are similar to others? I need to get rid of at least one Pedra Azul is a bit out of the way but looks to good to skip, I can’t decide so help me please! You can see all the upcoming destinations in that map, marked by the yellow stars:
>> Help me to plan, please!
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Video from El Salvador
The lack of internet and partly bad weather in El Chaltén allowed me to finish the next two videos! This is the first one and since I didn’t spend a lot of time in El Salvador, it is pretty short as well I will start my cruise to Antarctica today and you will hear back from me in about 10 days!
Check out the Live Updates and Pictures from El Salvador here.
>> Direct Vimeo Link
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Live #45, Isla de Ometepe, Nicaragua
03/04/2015 I’m back from Antarctica and it has been a truly breathtaking experience! Can’t wait to write about it once I managed to sort out all the pictures and videos. Right now I am in a hotel in Ushuaia, trying to find a Couchsurfing place for tonight. A good opportunity to provide you my last live update from Nicaragua: Isla de Ometepe.
There are no direct buses to Mérida, so I had to change in Altagracia after the pleasant ferry ride to the Island’s capital Moyogalpa. I tried to find a guide to climb up Volcan Conception there as well, but could not find anyone going up strangely. On my first day, I planned to visit the Waterfalls of San Ramon on the East part of the Island, so that was where I was headed first. The bus to Mérida did not come though, so I ended up in a small shuttle taking me to Santa Cruz. The next bus from there would come in three hours, I was told, making me start walking the 6km to Mérida. A local guy was heading the same way to his house and we joined forces while it started to rain a lot (during the dry season). I actually like the refreshment and we had a fun time communicating in my broken Spanish :-)
Just after leaving Mérida, I got picked up by a huge truck full of local farmers. Hopping on the back with my big backpack, the local kids on the street cheered up after my big jump on the (real big) truck. It was too late to visit the waterfall now, so I decided to continue walking the last 9km to the place of my Couchsurfing host. Luckily though, I was picked up by another guy in his jeep after walking just 20 minutes or so. He actually knew the french guy living at the beach and pointed me to the path leading to his house.
The CS’ name was Thomas and he built his own house close to Tacana in pretty much the most remote corner of the Island. It was impressive to see how self sufficient he was there, growing all kinds of plants and basically not being depending on anything outside his house. His toilet walls were recently blown away by a storm and sitting on it on a little hill top was quiet funny. Luckily, some palm trees blocked the view to the rest of the area :-) He also had two guys volunteering for him as well and we shared a dinner before going to bed, or to be more precise, the hammocks right at the beach!
I was not feeling very well the next morning and had to get up really early to catch the daily bus at 5AM. If you don’t get up to the street at 4:30AM, you might miss it and have to walk all the way back. Luckily, I did not miss it though and made it to the San Ramon Waterfalls. Leaving my backpack behind, I began the 3km hike which turned out to be at least 4 1/2 km though. The waterfall itself was pretty dry and must be impressive during rainy season with it’s 180m drop. On the way back, I got a ride on a buggy from two tourists I met on the way to the waterfalls. Extremely helpful as it was very hot now and I felt even worse, just wanting to get to my hostel called Monkey Island.
The hostel close to the Island with the same name charged 7$ for the night and was pretty nice actually. They had decent WiFi too and access to the beach. Catching the 5AM bus to Altagracia on the next morning, I stayed at Hospejade Ortiz for 5$. They also had a guide there who would take me up Volcan Conception on 5AM in the next morning! He was 5$ cheaper than the usual rate, charging 20$ in the end. We started the hike and he walked very fast, which I liked because I walk fast too. He was REALLY fast though and I had to pace him a bit because I was hoping to hit a good weather window at the top to get a nice view.
The weather in the morning was horrible, it basically rained throughout the complete hike, offering a really spooky atmosphere though. Howler monkeys were all around in the first hour and we would soon arrive at the top after crossing an old lava river. The weather did not get any better and I couldn’t see a thing throughout the complete hike. Waiting on the extremely windy top was not an option too after my guide told me that the weather will be like that for 95% of the days in the year and won’t change at all this day.
We basically ran down the volcano again, reaching the entry point exactly five hours after starting the hike. It was actually good for me because I wanted to get to Tamarindo in Costa Rica before the evening of the same day, a journey which was eventually delayed by a broken ferry and other problems along the way. I arrived at the border pretty late (even though I took an expensive taxi to get there as fast as I can) and had a lot of problems entering Costa Rica. The Immigration officer wouldn’t let me enter unless I showed him a proof of onward travel. I had my booked San Blas Island tour from Panama to Colombia, but he wanted something from Nicaragua to Panama. The only option would have been to buy an expensive 60$ bus ticket from Capital to Capital, rendering completely useless for my travel plans, but thanks to my annoyance and coming back to the same officer three times, he eventually gave me the stamp for free just when I was ready to give up and buy the bus ticket! I caught the last bus leaving the border but was too late for the connection bus to Tamarindo, leaving me stranded in a town between the border and my destination…
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TLADT24917 Posts
I read your experience in Egypt from several years back; was well written overall. I think this is a pretty cool blog as well. It's not everyday that someone decides to drop everything and just venture out like you are doing. Sounds like the experiences are fun and hope that it's helped you expand your views and such. Please keep them coming!
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Will do, thanks for your feedback!
Live #46, Tamarindo, Costa Rica
24/01/2015 Starting with my first live update from Costa Rica, I will now use the date of the actual time I have been to the places in my live updates here instead of the current day. It just makes much more sense and I don’t know why I haven’t done it from the beginning So Costa Rica… the first country in which everything gets a bit more expensive. The start was really cool, watching turtles laying their eggs at the beaches near Tamarindo!
Tamarindo itself did not please me a lot, it’s full of tourists and the only thing you can do is haning out at the beach I suppose. Not my cup of tea. However, during night, there is a really great thing to do: Watching huge pacific green turtles laying their eggs! We went out with our guide Sergio (20$ each, most others charge 35$ but he just wants to cover his costs) and he turned out to be an awesome one, according to the people working in Tamarindo it is actually the best, so try to get him if you are around!
It was already 22:00 when we started our night tour in the beaches north of Tamarindo, about a 45 minute drive away. We were only allowed to use the red light of our head lamps and had to wait patiently in one spot while Sergio went out in the pitch black darkness to find the turtles. Eventually he found 6 of them for us, some of them on the way back to the beach and some of them drying to dig a hole to lay their eggs. Some of them had problems digging the hole deep enough because of rocks, but the 6th one we encountered was actually able to lay their eggs. We were all lying down around her and witnessed the complete process of laying around 80 or so eggs. The whole experience was great, walking around in the dark at the beach along had it’s atmosphere for it and actually seeing the turtle lay the eggs was certainly the highlight. Nobody was sad that we could not see the bigger leatherbag turtles after all. Great start to the new country!
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On December 20 2013 17:28 rafaliusz wrote:Cuz of lag even though this is a 2013 post, i still laughed.
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United States32008 Posts
On April 08 2015 02:42 Endymion wrote:Show nested quote +On December 20 2013 17:28 rafaliusz wrote:On December 20 2013 07:09 josemb40 wrote: Nice, why not Peru? Cuz of lag even though this is a 2013 post, i still laughed. hahahahah
this is one of my favorite blogs. I am so jealous of you
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Video from Honduras
I arrived in Puerto Natales and will start a five day hike in Torres del Paine tomorrow! The weather looks good and I can’t wait to have a walk without pouring rain all day long like the last one to Cabo Froward near Punta Arenas. As mentioned earlier, I finished two videos while crossing the Drake Passage to Antarctica and this is the second one. Honduras had a lot to offer and I especially liked the Tucan that tried to steal my Marshmellows in Macaw Mountain and of course, my very first diving sessions in Utila! Hope you like the video
>> Direct video link
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Live #47, Tilarán & Lago de Arenal, Costa Rica
26/01/2015 I’m back from six awesome days in Torres del Paine, having sun all way through and just rain on the last day! A lot of great pictures got out of that trip, so I better hurry up with my older live updates to quickly get up to speed again after weeks of internet absence. The second update from Costa Rica covers Tilarán & Lago de Arenal and not much happened there expect for an awesome rainbow
Tilarán was a bit of a strange city. It just had a strange vibe for me and I don’t really know why. As far as I was concered, there is not much to do in the town anyway so Alex and I were heading down to the much promising lake, Lago de Arenal. It was a windy, cold and grey day, making the experience a bit less nice than it could have been I guess. We managed to hitch hike up the hill in the back of a pick up truck and took some pictures from the lake. The view was just very dull though; so soon after we were heading back, hitch hiking with a nice Canadian couple. They first passed us but eventually drove backwards to pick us up again, sometimes rain can be helpful for hitch hiking
The “highlight” presented itself upon our return to town when the sun finally came up and produced a nice double rainbow. After taking plenty of pictures, we took the 12:30 PM bus to Santa Elena & Monteverde for some Canopy/zip-lining action in the Cloud forests there! I promise the next update will be a bit bigger as well
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Live #48, Monteverde Canopy Tour, Costa Rica
26/01/2015 A spectacular eruption of Volcan Calbuco happened yesterday just a few hours after I left Puerto Montt, coming back from the four day Navimag cruise along the Western Fjords of Patagonia. Now I am in Casto (Chilóe) and have to change my plans a bit, climbing in the Cochamó valley is off the table since it’s very close to the still active volcano… Well, at least I can get the next update out from the Canopy/Zip Lining trip in the Monteverde Cloudforest in Costa Rica. Hope you like it and I hope I will be able to leave the area again towards Buenos Aires as planned!
A 20-minute drive took us to the Xtremo arenal including 14 Zip Lines, 1 rappel (30m), 1 Tarzan Swing and 2 Superman Lines. The first superman, stretching over a really nice valley for more than 1000m was certainly the highlight, closely followed by the Tarzan Swing. The rest was okay but nothing nerve wrecking.
Weather wise we were confronted with the typical weather in Costa Rica: Rain! It rained so much that day, we were completely soaked wet after the 4-5 hours Canopy tour and happy to come back to town with some sunshine to dry off everything. Even though it’s always a bit wet in the cloud forest, the amount of rain we received was not normal according to the guides. Well that’s it! We saw a lot of rainbows again that day and sadly we were not able to get to the Skybridges since they are located in a different part and we had to catch the 4 1/2 hours bus to San José.
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Volcan Calbuco eruption in Chile
25/04/2015 I think recent event’s here in Chile justify a small special live update from the front. Just two hours after I left Puerto Montt towards Chiloé last Wednesday, Volcan Calbuco erupted and caused airport’s to be shut down and the evacuation of 4.000 people in a 21km radius. You can see a YouTube Video from the spectacular event here. After spending a few days away, I arrived in Puerto Varas yesterday and am currently stuck here because the border to Argentina is closed. The volcano is constantly producing a lot of smoke, but a third major eruption did not happen yet. I will keep you updated on Instagram and hope that my flight from Bariloche to Buenos Aires on the 30th of April will not be cancelled!
>> Instagram
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Live #49, Chirripó National Park, Costa Rica
29/01/2015 Volcan Calbuco erupted again but luckily the wind did not blow the ash to Bariloche, so my flight last night to Buenos Aires was not cancelled! I am here now and will try to get a nice Argentinean BBQ organized This update reports from my failed attempt to climb Cerro Chirripó in Costa Rica!
I had planned for a 40km overnight hike to Cerro Chirripó in a single day due to limited time, so wearing in the hiking boots first by doing a short 6km hike in the Cloudbridge reserve just next to the Chirripó National Park seemed like a good idea. The weather was pleasant while we hiked through the jungle, crossed a few waterfalls and had a little dip in the freezing cold water of the river. I also found two solid wooden sticks that I would use for the hike to Cerro Chirripó for midnight.
We stayed in a very nice hostel called Casa Mariposa, I can only recommend checking it out! It is also conveniently located just next to the entrance of the National Park. Staying at the same hosteI was an American guy called Nathan, who had the same plan for the Cerro Chirripó. So obviously we joined forces and met up at midnight while everyone was sleeping, trying to sneak up the mountain. We both had no permits, hoping that no one would check up on us now! To our big disappointment, just 50m after leaving the hostel, a group of six people waited for us at the entry point and while I first thought it was just another group to go up with a guide, they were actually there to check for the permits in a pretty unfriendly way
Since the hike did not work out, I decided to get down into town to buy a pizza instead in the evening! Someone in the hostel told a story about huge pizzas for just 3500, giving me enough motivation to start the long hike through the jungle, into town and then onwards to the other end of the town. I actually found the place but they would only sell pizzas for 7000! I told them I only have 5000 and they gave me a special deal, making me leave with an actual big (not huge for my appetite though) pizza It took me about 40 minutes to walk uphill all the way to the hostel again while eating half of the pizza already and watching fireflies around me in the dark jungle
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Live #50, Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica
01/02/2015 I made it to country No. 54 (Uruguay) and will travel from Colonia to Montevideo today. This update is the last one from Costa Rica and the Corcovado National Park was actually my highlight of the overall a little bit disappointing Costa Rica.
We took the 5:15 AM bus from San Gerardo de Rivas to San Isidro and just barely made it there for the 6:30 AM bus to Puerto Jimenez; a five hour journey that would take us to one of the entry point of the Corcovado National Park. There were a few options to enter the park and we choose to stay with Bolita, which is basically a little wooden house in the middle of the jungle without any road connections. Their office is at Dos Bratos and from there it took another 45 minutes walking through a nice scenery to arrive at the hut. There was no electricity and the sound setting in the middle of the jungle was just amazing!
After a first quick walk around the area to a nice valley including Macaws and lots of other animals, we returned to Bolita in the afternoon to have enough time preparing the dinner while it was still light outside. The only source of light for later would be a candle because of the missing electricity. Six other people occupied the pleasant hut with us and instead of mosquitos (which are suddenly leaving the area in the darkness), we had lot’s of fireflies to look at. Finally we found ourselves in an actual real jungle without too many other tourists around, making the last days of Costa Rica the most enjoyable ones as well.
The next day was actually a really exciting one. Together with our guide Thomas, we would be the first tourists to enter a brand new hiking path called El Tigre, scheduled to officially open four days later. The new path offers a cheaper alternative to enter the park from another side opposed to the more remote corners, involving hours of transportation to get to the starting point. In our tour, we saw a great deal of wild life as well as plants. Thomas did a great job finding and explaining everything, the highlight being a very poisonous Coral Snake just 3 meters away that would leave you six hours to reach a hospital for treatment in case you get bitten. Besides that, we saw lots of frogs, scarlet macaws, tucans, howler monkeys, all kind of other monkeys, lizards and animals I won’t even know how to describe them. There was also a pretty cool tree that you could climb up from the inside. So overall the seven (!) hour tour was totally worth the 50$ we paid each, usually it would be 65$ but since the park was not officially opened, we could avoid the 15$ entrance free.
After the guided tour, we hiked back up to the Bolita hut to spend another night there, meeting some really interesting people during dinner. I was now getting used to the pretty loud jungle sound around me and could sleep very well in the second night to be ready for a very early wake up call at 4:30 AM in the next morning, hiking down the path in pitch black darkness with our head lamps. I was headed to Panama next after crossing the beautiful Golf of Golfito and heard about the pretty tough border crossings from Costa Rica. So thanks to tip of the owner of Bolita, I came very well prepared and presented an American Airline Ticket from Panama City to Frankfurt (which was just on hold and I did not have to pay anything for it, letting it expire automatically after 24 hours) as well as plenty of cash, leaving me with no problems whatsoever to enter Panama.
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Video from Nicaragua
Time for the next video! The Stone Man Alberto Gutierrez already received a special video a few months back; now I can present the rest of Nicaragua – one of my favorite countries in central america actually! Check it out for the awesome Volcano Telica & Isla de Ometepe, and of course it also features some GoPro footage of the infamous volcano boarding at Cerro Negro Hope you like it!
>> Direct Vimeo Link
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Live #51, Boquete, Panama
05/02/2015 I made it safe & sound to Brazil and already visited two great spots in the south’s nature: Itaimbezinho Canyon and Caracol Falls! More on that in about three months or so when I will probably reach Brazil in my Live Updates Now it’s finally time to cover the last country of my Central America trip! Panama exceeded my expectations and it all started in Boquete, hosting a Jazz & Blues Festival at the time and some really nice hikes in general.
As mentioned before, I came very well prepared to the border of Panama after crossing the Golf of Golfito in Costa Rica; presenting an American Airline Ticket from Panama City to Frankfurt (which was just on hold) as well as plenty of cash, leaving me with no problems whatsoever to enter Panama. Once in the country, I had to get to David first and then change into another chicken bus towards Boquete in the north. Everything worked out smoothly and in Pension Topas, I even found a last second accommodation during the busy Jazz & Blues festival weekend. I actually ended up sleeping in a tent because all rooms were booked out, but thanks to the very nice German owner, the tent has been very comfortable with a lot of sheets and pillows.
It was already getting a bit cold in Boquete, mainly due to it’s higher elevation, and going for a swim in Topas’ pool was certainly a good way to wake up in the morning. I had big plans that day, trying to hike as much as I could from the Quetzales Trail. Doing it from East to West and starting in Boquete takes a long time, as the trail gains over 1000m in elevation. I originally planned to take a collectivo to the starting point but then opt in to walk because of the fact that nobody else wanted to share the collectivo, leaving me with a pretty high price on my own.
Walking up there was actually really nice, passing Mi Jardín es Su Jardín on the way and enjoying it’s free garden. I eventually made it out of town and soon after got a ride actually for about ten minutes, getting me to the starting point of another little excursion: The lost waterfalls hike. I hiked up the muddy path and eventually reached a little booth. There was a charge to enter and getting to the last waterfall was supposed to take a long time, making me turn back while enjoying the splendid views across a nice valley. Getting up here was actually worth just for that view!
I continued the hike uphill along a street with some cool climbing areas nearby, sadly I had neither shoes nor ropes or a climbing partner with me. The path finally turned into the jungle and all of the sudden it started to rain pretty heavy. I was crossing the river several times and trying to stay in good spirits while the rain constantly battled down on me. No other people could be seen anywhere until about one hour later, when a french couple told me that they had turn back because of the rain, mud and probably very bad visibility on the lookout.
Eager to check out the situation myself, I walked into the actual really muddy jungle path for another hour, motivated by the stopping rain and periodically peaking out sun. After a while the sun disappeared again and I had to keep the time in mind, stopping me just before a bigger river crossing. I was out there without a tent and had to get back the roughly 24km to Boquete on the same day. After leaving the jungle and entering the road again, I saw a collectivo waiting and ended up taking it this time since it was already half full. My feet were certainly happy about that decision and I made it back to Boquete early enough to enjoy the town’s Jazz & Blues Festival for a little bit. One older gentleman looked like Gandalf’s secret brother and certainly had the best mood of all people in town, I am sure you are able to spot this guy in the video
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Live #52, Cangilones de Gualaca, Panama
08/02/2015 Arriving in Paraguay during their Independence Day celebration was certainly a good timing! I had a great time checking out the live action downtown while stuffing myself with delicious street food. Now I am heading out to do the Golden Circuit around the Capital Asuncion and luckily this update is a short one, featuring the Cangilones de Gualaca in Panama, a great spot for deep water bouldering!
I am really short on time, but basically I went out to the Cangilones de Gualaca with two people I met in the hostel before and had a great time bouldering. When we arrived it was super packed with locals going out for a swim and also climbing the cliffs, they were actually really good at that! Us, on the other side, could only do a couple of climbs because we were badly out of shape Still great fun! Maybe I will update this post later with some more info, see you for now
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Live #53, Panama City, Panama
09/02/2015 Waiting for the border to re-open after the weekend and about 23 hours in the bus coming from Paraguay left me with only two days here in Bonito, Brazil. It’s safe to say I made the most out of the first day by visiting the amazing Rio da Prata. If you ever wondered how it feels to swim in an aquarium, check this place out! Panama City has been a big surprise on my trip through Central America. I had no idea how nice it is there, especially the skyline really impressed me. Check it out in this post for some pictures, along with the famous Panama Canal
There is something really special about Panama City – at least in my eyes Parts of it feel like the usual Central American towns I have seen and visited so often in the past months; but other parts, such as the great skyline at the waterfront, reminded me a lot to more modern cities. It was the last big city before heading to Colombia via the San Blas Islands and also the time of Carnival, adding just a little bit of spice to my visit as well.
I was only able to spend a few days in Panama City because of a spontaneous trip down south towards Las Tablas for what was supposed to be the craziest carnival party in Central America (more on that in the next post..). While in Panama City, I checked out the Cementerio del Rosario, a cemetery with a great ambiance close to some of the poorer areas in town – make sure you don’t wander around in the wrong streets here as some locals warned about possible dangers there. I liked it there, having a huge run-down building just behind it. There was also some nice street art in the city and of course the old town, which contains pretty buildings along with some nice views on the skyline.
Checking out the Panama Canal was obviously a must-do as well. The Miraflores lock provide the easiest access if you are short on time (like me) and I got there at 09:30 AM to see the last ship of the morning passing through the locks. It is quiet impressive to see how it works, but really in the end it was not much more than a huge version of the canals close to my old neighbor hood in London Paying 15$ for it was just within the boundaries to not make me feel bad about spending it.
My personal highlight, however, was a walk up the hill of the last island at the end of the Amador Causeway. It was actually forbidden to go up there, but sometimes it is good to ignore little signs like that if you are rewarded with an amazing panoramic view across the City, along with some cool remains of World War 2 bunkers and some wildlife. One huge Iguana crossed the plateau just when I got there and I barely could catch him on video, sadly I don’t have a good photo. There were also hundreds of birds gliding above and enjoying the amazing sunset as well as a huge spider with really nice colors – I got that one on a photo at least!
The carnival in town was pretty big, but not really impressive if you would look for a big party. Probably it was too early and unfortunately, I had to get up really early to start my trip to the San Blas Islands in the next morning. But at least I could see the skyline at night one more time; add a firework and I get myself a great ending to the chapter Panama City.
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Live #54, Pedasí, Panama
13/02/2015 After the Chapada dos Guimarães yesterday, it is now finally time to head into the Pantanal for two days! We will drive down the Transpantaneira road in a small Opel Corsa and sleep somewhere in a tent, apparently there are a lot of Jaguars out there so chances are there to see them Back in Panama, I was headed down to Pedasí near Las Tablas to celebrate the carnival. Turns out it was not the party I expected it to be!
Yea well this is quick to tell: While in Panama City, word was that the carnival there is not really that good. Everyone was talking about Las Tablas. So i checked couchsurfing last second and found some hosts, also in another city called Pedasí. Apparently the carnival seemed to be even better there, so the decision was made to stop by in Las Tablas and sleep in Pedasi. While we were in Las Tablas, there was nothing going all at all (should have come in the evening!) and the celebration in Pedasi was rather quiet. It felt more like a family fest than a big party. But in the end, it didn’t really matter. I’m not a carnival type and was just curious about it anyway and had great company and therefor a lot of fun nevertheless! Ah there was a nice beach though which was fun to visit, too bad I can’t kitesurf since it was really windy
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Live #55, San Blas Islands, Panama
16/02/2015 I’m back from the Brazilian Pantanal, feeding Caimans and Eagles on a Boattrip and spotting countless animals along the road. The area around the capital of Brasilia is next for me, but first it is time to release the last update from Panama and thereby wrapping up all of Central America! Cruising the San Blas Islands towards Capurganá in Colombia is probably the best way of crossing countries, just after going on foot through the Gap of Darien of course; this true adventure seemed to be a bit too risky at the time though and I promised my mom to stay safe. If you are in the mood for some photos of picture perfect isolated beaches, check out this update!
Getting to the port village north of Panama City took a little while. First, the 4×4 Jeep came half an hour late at 05:30 in the morning and then struggled to find the last missing person, which turned out to be someone I actually met months ago in Nicaragua climbing Volcan Telica! Everyone else in the vehicle booked the 5 days sail cruise and I was the only one with the 4 days speed boat cruise, which focuses more on staying on the islands. Luckily it was all sorted out and I later changed into another jeep, getting me to the right departure spot of the speed boats
The ride in the boats was very bumpy, resulting in a lot of splash water in my eyes and a painful butt after a while. Our first ride luckily didn’t take too long, after around 45 minutes we reached a tiny island to relax, play volleyball and go snorkeling. Lot’s of clouds were hiding the sun sadly but everyone still had a great time getting to know each other – we were actually a group of about 28 people or so, split down in two speed boats. We continued the ride to a bigger island, on which we would spend the night as well. It featured a few huts on the sand with a bunch of hammocks for us gringos, as well as some more the people living there.
Did you know that every coconut on the San Blas Islands belongs to a person and you can only get one if you pay a dollar? Well, now you do. I was not really interested in coconuts anyway. The actual food provided for us from our tour company was created in a joint effort of our guides and the local family and I have to say: It was pretty damn impressive! We would get a huge all-you-can-eat buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner and not only was it much more than we could possibly consume, it was also amazingly fresh and delicious! We also got rum punch every night, followed by more drinking of stuff that everyone bought on the mainland. Add a guitar, really nice people and you don’t want to leave that place anytime soon again!
The second day welcomed us with a lot of sunshine – the last thing that was missing to make this trip perfect! Everyone was in a great mood, sunbathing, chilling, playing games and socializing. It felt a little bit like being on the island from LOST – just without all the drama and mystery We were not alone on the island either, more and more sail boats anchored around us and paid us a visit. One group was actually a Kite Surfing tour, doing some kind of documentary. Although the weather was really nice, the forecast regarding the wind actually made us stay for another day on the island.
The evening was perfectly commencing with the rum punch after dinner and I got to know three new drinking games (I liked “21” a lot), which resulted in hilarious situations once everyone was pretty much drunk. I will spare you with the details and am sure the people involved will agree We had a lot of fun, some actually a bit more than others and causing a little bit of a problem. I didn’t think it was a big deal, but the tour operator felt differently and actually removed one Australian dude (joined by his girlfriend) from the island for bad behavior while he had a bit too much to drink. It was a shame because I was actually getting along with them very well and would meet them afterwards in Colombia again.
On the next day we had to catch up on some ground after being stuck on the first island for 2 nights. The resulting two hour boat ride was not really comfortable but despite all the splash water in our faces, everyone was still in a great mood because we spent two amazing day on a beautiful isolated island. We had a nice lunch break on the island that was supposed to be our home for the second night and spent about three hours there. Enough time to take the snorkel and swim over to one of the nearby islands. There are actually about 365 islands in the San blas and only 49 are inhabited. It was great to be able to swim to another tiny island and go exploring.
One problem we were all facing I suppose was the fact that there were no fresh water showers around. Even my short hair started to be sticky after constantly being in the salt water without having a way to get the salt off afterwards. Well, certainly a problem everyone would like to have I guess – at least if it’s not for weeks or even months Eventually, it was time to move on to our last destination: A Kula village with roughly 800 inhabitants. Houses are built on stilts along the waterfront and married women wear traditional clothes and jewelry, which actually looked really nice I have to admit! Especially the kids were really excited to see us, being very happy and playful.
Experiencing how the local indigenous people on the islands live was a great way to end the trip! The last dinner at a local restaurant, though, was not nearly as good as they stuff our guides prepared and also the portion was pretty small. At least for my appetite After partying a lot in the last nights, everyone was a bit tired now and took it easy in the last night. We were sleeping in the village and had rooms full of (uncomfortable) hammocks as well as a really cool outdoor bathroom, in which you can see how fish take care of your business as you just poop into the water. Sounded strange at first but I have to admit I was never entertained more sitting on a toilet!
We ended the (amazing) trip by arriving in Colombia’s northern border town Sapzurro, which can only be reached by boat. We got our passports stamped, luggage checked and eventually arrived in Capurganá. I did not know much about this place first but luckily found out that it was supposed to be one of Colombia’s most remote and best diving location, making me decide to actually spend two nights there before heading onwards to Cartagena. The next live update will show you if it was really that good as I took down my first fun dives after the PADI Open Water Certification in Utila, Honduras
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Video from Costa Rica
After finishing up my live updates from Panama, I can now present the video from Costa Rica. Although it was my least favorite country in Central America, it does not mean that the trip wasn’t good! In fact it actually was quiet nice, especially watching sea turtles lay eggs and doing some canopy as well as the obvious hikes through tropic rain forests.
>> Direct Vimeo Link
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Level up (31)
Well, it is that special day of the year again – my birthday! Due to the fact that I was celebrating into it last night in Brasilia and a combined sleeping time of 3 hours in the last two nights, I decided to take it easy in Rio and will instead celebrate my birthday here on Friday – a much better day than today’s grey and rainy Tuesday The weather forecast looks good and I will head to Petrópolis and Teresópolis tomorrow for some hiking in the Serra dos Orgãos. Turns out to be really expensive, but I will go anyway. So, onwards to 32 now, just another meaningless number…
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Live #56, Capurganá, Colombia
19/02/2015 After a few days of amazing hiking in the Serra dos Orgãos around Petrópolis and Teresópolis, I am now back in Rio de Janeiro and ready to watch the Champions League finale at the beach followed by hopefully an awesome sunset at Praia do Aproador. This update will commence a new country and continent, arriving in Colombia’s border town of Capurganá, which can not be reached by car and is famed to be one of the best diving spots in Colombia; giving me a very good reason to do my first fun dives after my PADI Certification in Utila
The small boat ride from Supzurro at the border to Capurganá was charged with $5, a lot for the 10 minute ride! You can also do a two-hour hike over the hill to reach the little village, a much cooler way to arrive certainly; just a little bit problematic if you want to make it to Capurganá quickly in order to reserve a spot in one of the nicer hostels. After splitting up in groups and checking our options, we decided to settle down at Dive & Green for $20.000 Pesos per night – they give you an discount if you dive with them, which we obviously did because of the great spots around here. In the evening we met up with everyone from the San Blas Island Cruise again to have an all-you-can-eat dinner. Having been used to great food from those guys, I happily paid the 10$ and was looking forward to eat at least three pizzas! Unfortunately, the food was VERY limited in the end and everyone was only able to get just three small slices and a bit of pasta. I felt a bit cheated after that
We woke up early the next morning to get ready for our two early morning fun dives! Paying 80$ for two tanks is an okay price I guess, especially in an remote place like Capurganá, which only has two diving facilities as well. The other one offered as a better price, however Dive & Green looked much nicer and more professional and we were not disappointed at all! The first dive was a bit boring, at least for me, since the beginning did not offer a lot and I ran out of air about 15 minutes before the other, more experienced, divers! I really have to work on my breathing technique, something that is totally normal to beginners according to our dive master.
For the second dive we ventured into an early called “La Cueva” and it was absolutely amazing! Even though only the advanced divers in our group were allowed to dive all the way through the tiny cave, eventually popping out of a small hole again, it was still a great experience for me to at least enter the cave and look around a bit before heading back to the entrance again. Really cool stuff! I was again running out of air a bit faster than the rest, but lasted longer than in the first dive. Maybe at some point I can get the opportunity to finish the advanced course and work on that issue.
After a long night’s sleep, I explored the town a little bit on the last day before heading out to Necoclí with a small motor boat, which was labelled as a ferry. It was a bit weird to pay a guy on the street and then wait for a long time until it finally arrived with a big delay, I was a bit afraid of being the victim of a scam but apparently it was the normal way it works over there The two hour ride was very uncomfortable but also a lot of funny since we were constantly jumping into the air due to very high waves. Sometimes it really looked like we would flip over but it never happened. My camera bag (secured in another garbage bag) was very wet afterwards, including all my money and passport.
Necoclí looked like a real cool places to hang out for a while, however I decided to join a group to start a series of bus journeys, eventually arriving to Cartagena in the evening. I used the window seat and air in the first bus to dry my passport bit while trying not to hit my head too many times since the bus was really speeding. We arrived at the bus station in Monteriá at 19:30 after squeezing all four of us including backpacks into a tiny taxi, just missing the last bus. Luckily, the argentinean guys in the group managed to get a good private van deal for 40.000 instead of 55.000 pesos and we could leave at 20:30, finally arriving in Cartagena at 1AM! Nearly all hostels were booked out the three of them got the last spots in one of the hostels while I ended up in Casa Vienaa for 28.000 pesos, which seemed to be the cheapest option and they had one more spot free! I went out for some drinks with a few germans I ran into before getting some sleep somewhen around 3 or 4 AM
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Live #57, Cartagena, Colombia
22/02/2015 I made it to Vitória in the east of Brazil now after some amazing days in Trindade and Paraty! Heading to Pedra Azul and the Caparaó National Park will be the most off-the-beaten-path experience in this trip so far, even 85% of the Brazilians I asked didn’t know about the two places! This update covers Cartagena in Colombia, probably the most known and beautiful town in the north of the country.
After years of traveling and visiting countless cities, I developed a kind of boredom against most of them. Sadly Cartagena is just another one of those cities – certainly a very very beautiful one and you could spend easily spent a couple of days there. For my part, however, I could not wait to get out again after a day and head towards Santa Marta, which offers more activities in the nature. I still have to say that I really liked Cartagena, it is really nice there and I had good company, joining up with the Australian couples again whom I met during the cruise through the San Blas Islands.
Cartagena, as Spain’s first colony in America, offers a lot of gorgeous buildings sourrounded by the over 500 years old city wall. I had a good time strolling around but eventually found myself bored, which was not because of the city but because of the fact I mentioned in the beginning of the post. So by no means this should tell you not to go there! I am sure there is much more to do in the town as well, I just didn’t do it Luckily I can keep this post short as I have to go now, as usual… haha.
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Live #58, Santa Marta & Minca, Colombia
23/02/2015 My time in Brazil is slowly coming to an end after almost two months and exploring Santuário do Caraça as well as colonial towns such as Ouro Preto was another great experience. I barely had internet in the last days, but now I can finally get a quick update out. Santa Marta has been an amazing base for a lot of different things in the northern coast of Colombia; one short side trip in a Jeep took us up the mountains to a small village called Minca.
I had to bear through another long bus ride with Colombian music videos featuring local music and ridiculous half naked girls to arrive in Santa Marta at 7pm. The drop bear hostel was just 3km away from the Bus station, so I decided to walk over there in a creepy atmosphere, a thin layer of mist covering the ground in the dark. The hostel turned out to be pretty amazing, featuring a huge swing, really nice game room and very comfortable, clean and big dorms. Since it was pretty hot in Santa Marta, I jumped into the swimming pool to cool off before heading off with my new four buddies from Australia to explore the mountain village of Minca in the next morning.
We made a deal with a Jeep driver to get us up there and picked up another guy on the way: Tristan from England. Seemed like a cool guy and just jumped off another bus when we were about to leave town to head into the mountains. Once there, we started the 45 minute walk to the local waterfall. I paid 3000 to get in and 2000 for a beer (instead of 3000, pero no tengo mas!! – haha) and we enjoyed the nice water for a while before heading back down.
The town itself is not so spectacular, what makes it really enjoyable though is the surrounding landscape. And because of that reason, I decided to quickly run to a viewpoint while the rest waited for the Jeep to bring us back again. After running into the wrong direction first, I finally found it but was not too impressed by the view. Still a nice workout running around in that altitude hehe When I made it back to the center of the village, everyone was already waiting in the Jeep for me to squeeze in on the last tiny spot in the back.
We made it back to Santa Marta at nightfall and dropped off at the supermarket to store up for the trip that everyone was looking forward to already: Tayrona National Park. This next update will certainly be a much bigger one – I could even do some really nice Bouldering there!
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Round-the-World Trip Statistics #02
It’s been 270 days or 9 months since I started my trip in Canada and so far I have spent nearly 13.000 €. I will actually take a break from traveling now for a couple of reasons, but have a lot of material left to keep you guys busy for a while – no worries
A lot of people have asked me how much money I would spend on this trip. It was always hard to answer before I actually started, but now that I was on the road for nine months and thanks to my neat little Excel sheet, I can now provide you with some information!
My total spendings so far add up to 12.758,22 €
This figure includes everything: food, accommodations, booked trips and all the rest like buying new shower gel or paying to get into a climbing gym. Whenever I spend money, I convert the local currency to Euros and add it to my Excel sheet. The biggest part of the above sum was the cruise to Antarctica in March.
More interesting for yourself might be how much I actually spend on the food (including all sorts of drinks too) and accommodations in each country. The following stats will give you an insight on that. Luckily, I was able to Couchsurf every single day in Canada, making the average spendings in North America look a bit low because it just reflects Mexico. It is also interesting that South America matches Central America in terms of average food spendings!
Hope you liked that information, I will continue to gather the data in my lovely Excel sheet, haha. (I’m soooo German, I know…)
>> Link
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Live #59, Tayrona National Park, Colombia
25/02/2015 Tayrona National Park should ring a bell for a lot of people, forming one of the most spectacular coastlines in Colombia. About four months ago, I spent a few nights there and can finally present you my story wandering through the beaches, doing some great bouldering and exploring the “mini” lost city Pueblito
I arrived at the entrance of Tayrona National Park around 11:00 after being stuck in traffic with the public bus. First off, you need to watch a video and actually receive a ticket as proof that you saw the video – without it you won’t be able to buy your entrance ticket. I met a few people in line that had to go back to get the ticket as it is not very obvious. The line was not really huge, but thanks to the fact that only two people sold tickets, I ended up waiting over an hour to get my ticket, leaving me enough time to make new friends which would explore the park with me together We finally were able to pay the 40.000 Pesos entry fee and started to walk along the paved road and hiking path for an good hour before arriving at Arrecifes beach. You can also take a shuttle for more than half of that trip if you are short on time.
The landscape at the first beach was nothing short of impressive, combining an awesome beach with huge boulders and a thick jungle in one spot! It was also very hot in February and walking in the sand did not make it any easier. None of us had any spot to sleep yet and the little group split up a little bit, me ending up with a German couple at a place called Finca don Pedro, offering Hammocks for 12.000 per night after some negotiating – a pretty decent price! We relaxed for the rest of the day before heading down to the beach for sunset. It actually took about 15 minutes of walking to get there, but we preferred to be up in the jungle a little bit and would then stay right at the beach for the second night.
Having all those boulders around, I decided to grab my climbing shoes and make my way to the beach for sunrise in the next morning. I arrived at 6AM, just a few minutes before the sun came out of the cloudy sky. Barely any people could be seen along the huge beach line and I came back to one huge boulder I spotted the day before. Some nice cracks and the sand offered me two great easy routes (V1 and V2 I’d say) which I could do without using a crash pad. It was so much fun to finally climb again and I ended up staying for 2 1/2 hours in that one spot before heading on to find some more boulders further down the beach.
I was able to find some, but actually ran out of time, because I really wanted to see Cabo San Juan as well, being the most famous beach in the Tayrona National Park. Arriving at the check-in, my plan was to get myself a nice spot in one of the hammocks for the night already. However, rumors turned out to be true and they did not sell any spots until 2PM, which was 5 hours away by the time I got there! I had no intentions to wait that long and decided to find another spot while checking out the really amazing coast line over here. Walking up to a little hill towards the more expensive hammocks offered a great view, perfect beaches dotted with palm trees everywhere. Oh and guess what- I met my friends from Australia once again over here, they were actually sleeping at the beach last night
Since there was no other good place to stay the night at the beach, I grabbed all of my stuff and decided to walk towards the “mini” lost city “Pueblito” La Ciudad Perdida to then sleep in Santa Marta afterwards. It was really hot by the time I started the hike through the jungle and boulder fields and the journey turned into a sweat-fest. After doing some more bouldering within the forest area, the path constantly went uphill through more and more huge boulders. I had to squeeze under some of those as well and actually used some climbing techniques to get on top of some others with my backpack. All of that made the hike very physical challenging in the speed I progressed, but man how much fun it was hoping and crawling on top and under the boulders!
Once I arrived at Pueblito, I finally had time to rest and enjoy the pineapple I was bringing along. Drinking the rest of my 5L water canister, I realized that I was completely alone at the site and spent a few minutes exploring. It was really enough time as it was pretty small. Nonetheless, it was nice to see the terraces and it made me look forward to my hike to the actual lost city in the next days. My water ran out and I hurried up towards the main road and alternative access point of the Park. I quickly bought 3 bags of water there for just 200 each and entered the public bus, which was presently inspected by some police. That same procedure actually happened again two more times within just ten minutes of driving! It took a very long time to return to Santa Marta and to round this nice trip up, they would just drop me at the roundabout outside the city, forcing me to take another shuttle towards the hostel, where I could finally relax a bit and reflect on the amazing trip I just had!
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Live #60, Palomino & Santa Marta, Colombia
27/02/2015 Sometimes you come along a place you had no idea it even existed and then find yourself at that very place the next day. This happened to me in the case of Palomino, a small cozy settlement not too far from Santa Marta in Colombia on the way to Riohacha. It is famous for tubing down the river Palomino and a great place to just relax and enjoy the calming effects of the ocean.
Once again I hopped into a bus from Santa Marta towards Tayrona National Park, but this time I would stay in the bus for a bit longer and get off at Palomino instead. I spotted a familiar face and strangely enough, it was Tristan – the guy we picked up with the Jeep on the way to Minca! He’s really nice, so I was glad to see him again and of course we joined forces. The ride took two hours in total and we started to walk through the sandy streets to find a place to sleep. One of the first places along the road was really rude, pushing us to sign in while I was still checking if they even had a working WiFi. Ending up in another, much nicer, place for 20.000 the night, I could finally start enjoying the relaxed atmosphere of the town.
I had no plans of doing the tubing myself, it just seemed to be much more enjoyable in a bigger group and Tristan was not so keen on it either. So instead I was walking to the point about 20 minutes away along the beach to see the groups coming in with the tubes. The beach there was really nice and because of it’s length, it actually feels like you are alone there. It is not a major tourist spot yet, so actually there are not too many people around and having a beach of that size certainly allows you to find a spot just for yourself.
I could see people walking towards me way in the distance, having their tubes on their back. It made up for a nice photo motive while the sun was slowly setting in the background. Arriving at the river Palomino, I could still see groups coming in with beers in their hand while the sun eventually went down, turning the place into a beautiful display of sunset reflections on the river. Walking to that spot just to see the sunset was already amazing, although I would have done the tubing as well in a bigger group.
Once again, I could negotiate the price for the bus ride and paid only 6000 to return to Santa Marta. Arriving there at 6PM, I made it to the water front just in time for another nice sunset. I had no CouchSurfer to host me so far and looked out for a place with WiFi. Sadly no one new came up to host me, so I decided to look for a cheap hotel instead. Meeting up with some CS for some dancing and drinks, I was told that the area of my hotel was a really bad one and the guys tried to convince me to go somewhere else. I already put my stuff in the room though and was too lazy to get it now.
After a great night out with some interesting Break dancing artists in one bar and then another awesome roof top party in a hostel, I made it back to my hotel at 3AM, wondering if something would happen. The only thing that happened were some homeless people asking for drugs and some prostitutes offering their service – nothing serious and nothing I could just thankfully decline The only thing that was a bit worrying was the fact that I had no key for the hotel and I was forced to ring the bell in the middle of the night. After 15 minutes of waiting, the not-so-amused owner finally opened the door and I could retreat into my smelly, hot (but very cheap) single room without any drinking water left and totally thirsty, looking forward to get out of this mess as soon as I can in the morning
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Live #61, Ciduad Perdida & Taganga, Colombia
01/03/2015 Relaxing at the gorgeous beach of Palomino was great, but if you followed my blog for a while, you will know that I actually prefer to put on my hiking boots and be a bit more active. The 5-day trek to the “The Lost City” of Ciduad Perdida deep in the jungle of northern Colombia seemed to be a must-do for me. We certainly had a lot of action thanks to the poisonous snakes in the area. One of them bit a soldier, putting him in a desperate need to be rescued by a helicopter, and one other was found and killed by our guides on the way back!
The first time I heard about Ciduad Perdida was during my trek to Machu Picchu in July 2013 and a bit less than two years later, I made it there myself! There are several options to do the hike: 4, 5 or 6 days. All of them use the same route and even the price is the same for all of them. Fast people tend to use the 4 day option while slower ones, obviously, take 6 days. I picked the middle option, mostly because I wanted to relax a bit and did not mind to get free food and accommodation for one extra day A lot of stuff happened and I will try to get it all into this live update, which will propably end up more like being a complete travel report. For this reason I actually included the live updates for each country into my travel report overview now!
Day 1
I picked Turcol as a company to guide me to Ciduad Perdida, but all companies charge the same and they actually shuffle around guides as well, so I think it doesn’t really matter which one you pick! We left their office at 09:00 to pick up some more people and more importantly, buy tons of food. There were about 70 people to start the hike on that day and each jeep picked up something for the group. My group consisted of our guide, two people from Italy and a British girl. All jeeps met up at the last village before the starting point of the hike, which would also serve us for some sandwiches for lunch around 12:30.
About two hours of easy hiking later, we arrived at a natural swimming pool which enabled me to do some deep water bouldering again. Sadly I didn’t bring my climbing shoes, so I was pretty limited being bare feet. A huge spider was sitting at the rock as well, having no problem with me being super close to her for some pictures. You should zoom in the picture to see her hairy legs, haha! We had a quick break for Water Melons at 15:00 and continued the hike in a pretty slow speed. Our Italian friend seemed to be a little bit uncomfortable walking around in the jungle and took his time. I was relieved to spot our camp site in the distance, asking for permission if I could go ahead and wait for them there, which my guide accepted as long as I would be careful. Of course I would! I made it to the camp in my own speed soon after at 16:45 and could pick a nice hammock for the night. There were about 30 hammocks overall and some of them were already used from a group coming back again on their last day. We also shared dinner with them, each group being served by their own guide and cook. They prepared Rice, Chicken and Potatoes for us and even though it tasted okay, I was missing the awesome food we received at the San Blas Islands in Panama; they set the standards pretty high!
Day 2
The second day started early at 06:45 in the morning and we were joined by a second group full of dutch guys and their own guide. After some time downhill through the jungle, we eventually made it to a village of the indigenous people. Some curious girls in their white ropes came over while the guide explained about their culture. We were served a huge fish lunch at the next camp and could go out for a swim in the nearby river. The water there was crystal clear and cold, which was very welcome after walking in the heat for quiet some time. It was pretty interesting to see our Italian’s friend tanning pose, hard to describe in words but he really looked funny and certainly enjoyed the hiking break! No one could finish the lunch this time and we continued the hike at 12:00, back into the jungle.
Several hours later, I realized why the guides won’t let me go alone this time: We had to cross two rivers and while the first was no problem for everyone except the Italian guy, the second one was actually a bit trickier and I slipped at the end, landing in the knee deep water with one foot. Just then it also started to rain for the firs time – a very welcome change, because it got pretty hot in the jungle. Not long after we would find ourselves in our camp for the second night, arriving at 15:45, about two hours before nightfall. It was dark, still raining and I was just about to head to dinner when I suddenly slipped into a dark corner and suffering two open small wounds that bled a bit. We disinfected them with alcohol, lime and salt, allowing me to finally eat up before heading to bed and watch some Mad Men since it was still pretty early. This time we had actual beds and no hammocks and even though they were not super clean, it was still better and thanks to the relaxing sound of the rain pouring down, I could fall asleep pretty fast.
Day 3
You could consider the third day as the highlight of the trek as we would reach the famous terraces of the Lost City today. Starting early at 06:00, we walked about 45 minutes through the rain and crossed one more river before suddenly standing at the beginning of a 1000 steps stair case, built by the tayrona indians somewhen between the 8th and 12th century. Those guys used to be very short (1,50m – 1,60m) and once you walked on their stairs, you will see why. Some of the super steep steps required some attention, but overall the hike was not too hard. The sun finally came out as well while we were walking up to the first terrace, where our guide started to explain about the lost city and their former inhabitants. For instance, they built everything with the use of fire, water, wood and stones. Not much of a breaking news. More interesting was the moment we reached the most famous of all terraces, fully occupied by a complete squad of about 50 soldiers! I’m not really sure why they need so many there, but it might also have been because of the fact that one of them was just bitten by a highly venomous snake…
The military split up in groups, some of them taking care of the bitten comrade, others occupied keeping the signal fire up to produce enough smoke for the upcoming helicopter, and some just documenting everything on their smart phones. It was a pretty intense situation, the soldier only had about 30 minutes to get treatment before the bite would kill him. I asked our guide and they told us that snake bites here are not too uncommon and it was also not the first time for him to see a helicopter coming in for rescue. About 20 minutes later, the helicopter finally got in and the whole scene with all the soldiers felt a little bit like being in a movie! Hoping that the soldier received his medication in time, we eventually started our hike back with just one more stop for some more explanations about the area. Turns out that Ciduad Perdida is 200 years younger than El Publito, the “mini lost city” I visited in Tayrona National Park!
The guides spotted something in the bush on the way back to catch up with the rest and it was actually the same kind of snake that bit the soldier earlier! I could really tell that the guides have been in those situation before, quickly cutting a branch of a tree and shaping it to a Y shape to capture and then kill the snake with their machete. I spent the last 1% of my camera battery to take some cool close up pictures with the snake and her blood on the eye and was really happy to be here to witness this while the others of our group already went down – hopefully they would not find another snake! The terraces have been really enjoyable despite all the action we had. We were the only tourists at the time and despite the warnings, barely had to fight with any mosquitoes! The weather was great as well and the jungle surroundings made for a really cool Indiana Jones kind of atmosphere – it was totally worth coming here. I received permission to walk back in my own pace since the wound on my foot from last night was hurting a bit and I wanted to get out of the hiking boots to rest as soon as possible, arriving at the camp again at 15:30, taking just 90 minutes for the hike that took us four hours this morning.
Day 4
The Italians and myself woke up at 07:30 while the others in our two groups already left the camp at 05:00. They are on the 4 day trek and have to get back all the way to the end while we will have another night in the first camp. I waited a bit to dry my wet clothes, which were a bit wet every morning due to the humidity in the jungle, and soon after would catch up with the Italians who left an hour before me. Arriving at the camp at 11:00, we would have a full day to relax now. The Italian girl, our guide and myself decided to take a little excursion to a nearby waterfall at 15:00 and only a 20 minute walk away. We arrived at the top of the pretty big falls and had to climb down to the bottom. The girl decided to stay on top because the climb was an actual climb and I was happy to be able to use some Bouldering moves to get down Enjoying the view from the bottom and the waterfall it self, we returned to camp at 16:30 for a nice dinner. I was glad to take the 5 day hike, as I would not have been able to see the pretty nice waterfall otherwise.
Day 5
The last day started at 07:00 and we walked back to the starting point after breakfast. Our Italian friend turned out to be a great entertainer as he started to scream as loud as he can from a tiny slip. He was so careful all of the time and I think his scream was rather out of disappointment that he fell down rather than actual pain resulting from it. It was pretty amusing to see though and both the guide and myself were looking at each other in disbelief while he was crying out loud for about two minutes straight. Eventually, we made it back to the extraction point and I had enough time to take a shower before the car would drive us back to Santa Marta at 09:00. The Italians stayed in a hostel in Taganga and we dropped them off there with a quick stop at the viewpoint overlooking the bay. I returned to Turcol’s office to get my stuff, had some food and then headed back to Taganga myself, since I planned to stay there for my last night in the area. I made it just in time for the sunset at 17:30 and met up with a CS for some nice dinner at the bar Babaganoush, highly recommended if you are in the area. A dutch chef is serving really nice food over there for a decent price of 30.000 Colombian pesos. That’s it! I had no time to do any diving in Taganga but was very satisfied with my visit of the north coast. Up next for me was a flight to the capital Bogotá and a short visit to Villa de Leyva before flying down all the way to the southern point of Argentina, getting ready for my long awaited cruise to Antarctica…
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Live #62, Bogotá & Villa de Leyva, Colombia
06/03/2015 It’s been my second visit to Colombia’s capital Bogotá and I met up with some friends from my last time over there. We were also headed to Villa de Leyva for a little roadtrip, a beautiful small colonial town about 160km north east of Bogotá.
Returning to Bogotà was really nice as the city has a lot to offer and I did not have a lot of time two years ago. After breaking my lens during the trip, I would also finally receive a new lens here as a friend’s friend came to visit from Germany and was kind enough to take a new lens and winter jacket along for me! This saved me a lot of hassle and also money as this stuff is just cheaper in Europe. My former Arc’teryx jacket was stolen in Canada all the way back in October last year and ever since leaving Canada, I didn’t really need a jacket. But now with Patagonia and Antarctica up on the horizon, it was time to gear up again I could even play some guitar AND football table that evening as well, just a very nice night before heading off to our road trip to Villa de Leyva in the next morning.
Villa de Leyva was something I was not familiar with, but luckily, my friends told me about it and we got a nice group of four people together for a little roadtrip. Arriving there on a perfect sunny – and not too hot – day was great timing to explore the beautiful little town, covered in nice houses along the cobbled streets. We could also do a little hike to the viewpoint (mirador) overlooking the complete town and surroundings, it was not the easiest hike and in combination with the then hot sun around 1PM resulted in a sweaty affair. It was totally worth though, the view was amazing and the even had a little Jesus statue up there. Sadly, my camera would run out of battery and I was not able to take as many pictures as I would have liked to.
Some delicious ice scream at 15:45 marked the end of our visit and we were headed back to the capital. Everyone became pretty tired during the drive back and we just had a few beer in the evening before getting some sleep. I would have to get up pretty early to catch my flight to El Calafate in the South of Argentina, with a stop over in Buenos Aires. I could not wait to finally leave the hot zone and breath in some nice crisp clean air in south of Patagonia during the colder off season there!
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Video from Panama
This video from Panama will finish up my journey through Central America and you can now find all the videos on my video page. I’m already working on the video for Colombia and will probably have it ready after my upcoming live updates from Patagonia. The places featured in this video are Boquete, Cangilones de Gualaca, Panama City, Pedasí & finally, the San Blas Islands cruise to Colombia. Hope you like it
Check out the Live Updates and Pictures from Panama here.
>> Direct Vimeo Link
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On December 20 2013 07:09 josemb40 wrote: Nice, why not Peru?
On December 20 2013 17:28 rafaliusz wrote:Cuz of lag
hahahahahahahahaha once i saw peru wasn't a destination i knew this would come up, first few posts didn't disappoint me
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Live #63, El Calafate, Argentina
08/03/2015 After 126 days of hot climates starting in Mexico last year, it was now finally time to head down all the way to the southern tip of Argentina to enjoy the crisp air of Patagonia during fall season. I booked a flight from Bogotá to El Calafate with a short stop over in Buenos Aires. Finally arriving, huge mountain ranges in the background looked majestically and I couldn’t wait to get out there!
I originally had a long stop over in Buenos Aires, but thanks to the very nice lady in charge of Aerolineas Argentinas, I was booked onto an earlier flight to El Calafate and only had to wait at the Buenos Aires airport from 03:35 to 07:45, touching down in El Calafate with some turbulence at 11:05. As usual, I was not able to sleep on the plane and instead spent half an hour observing some pretty amazing display of thunderstorms below us. Finally setting foot in Patagonia felt a bit strange after all the hot, humid and tropical places I’ve been before. It was also much more expensive, paying 170$AR for a return shuttle airport-city for instance. The landscape was pretty flat and dry, with light blue lagoons scattered around town. After checking in to my hostel, I started to explore a bit and walked to Laguna Niméz. You have to pay to get in, but you can also just walk along the fence towards the lake and since the area is pretty small, you can actually see all the wildlife from there as well. At least for me it was okay and I was more focused on the awesome mountain range in the distance
After buying a used isolation mat for about 3€ from a guy who just returned from his hikes in El Chaltén, I was now trying to get there myself. Public transportation in Patagonia is very expensive and I wanted to try hitch hiking here. Unfortunately, I had to walk about 30 minutes from town to actually get to a good spot for hitch hiking just at the big round about near the police station. Two other guys been there as well and I didn’t even notice them at first because I stayed in front of the station while they waited behind it. There were barely any cars coming and after half an hour, I decided to stop the next bus at 13:15 – too bad the driver didn’t stop. After all, I am not in Guatemala and their chicken buses anymore Soon after my isolation mat nearly flew away in the strong Patagonian winds and I could barely catch it again, so I decided to walk back to town and wait for the evening bus. It’s not that I couldn’t afford it, unlike the other guys on the street. One of them apparently waited for 2 days already to get a ride and when I passed him in the bus about 5 hours later, he was still waiting there. Soon after I would arrive in the Patagonia’s trekking mecca of El Chaltén and writing about all the amazing hikes there will take me a few live updates for sure
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Live #64, El Chaltén & Laguna de los Tres, Argentina
11/03/2015 My second stop in Patagonia was El Chaltén, truly a paradise for hikers. I reserved two complete weeks for the immense amount of treks there, including the highlight to Paso del Viento. To start off though, I decided to head east first for a 3-day hike towards Paso del Cuadrado. Soon after arriving at Laguna de los Tres, I was forced to turn around… my camera stopped working and it would be a shame if I could only take pictures with my phone in this incredible piece of nature.
I arrived in El Chaltén at night after taking the late bus from El Calafate. Having a hostel recommendation from someone in my head, I was walking down the street all the way to the other end of town close to the starting point of the Fitz Roy hike. The cheap hostel I was looking for was easy to find but, unfortunately, already booked out! Just another minute walking up the street was another hostel called Hem Herhu for the same price of 100 pesos though, and it turned out to be a really great one. After finding a place to stay, the next thing to organize was a tent. Spending the first hours of the following day to walk around all the outdoor shops, I hoped to find a reasonable priced tent. The hikes I had planned high up in the mountains required a good one and those tents started with 140 pesos a day, which would result in a lot of money for my two weeks there. I ended up asking a girl working in a coffee shop if she might know someone who could give me a tent for a better price and it turned out that she had one herself, giving it to me for free! She insisted on not getting any money for it and I could even use it as long as I wanted, I was really lucky to run into her!
With the tent situation sorted, I could start buying the food for my first 3-day hike. The nearby shop was super expensive, but you don’t really have any choice down there. I fell in love with the Argentinian Dulce de leche pretty fast and got addicted, eating about 200g each day! Meeting a group of three girls packing up for their own hike randomly on the street, I was now also not on my own anymore and we decided to do the hike together. They were already done packing and went ahead while I was packing up myself. I eventually started the hike at 15:00 and reached Laguna Capri about 90 minutes later. A really nice lake with view on the Fitz Roy massif. Just as I was taking one of my countless Panorama shots, my Sony A6000 camera suddenly stopped working with the error message “Camera Error. Turn power off then on.” I first thought it was just temporary, but would soon after realize that it is actually broken and not something I can fix here. With less pictures to take now, I was walking faster as well and caught up with the three girls pretty fast.
We arrived at the camping spot pretty late and had some snacks. You can actually only camp on those dedicated spots here in the area, with some rangers patrolling as well. Compared to the huge amount of people that passed along the way, I was surprised to see only about 20 tents set up. Most of the hikers here are doing day hikes and return to El Chaltén before it gets dark. There was only a little bit of extra hiking to do between the camp and Laguna de los tres and we arrived pretty late at 20:30 after climbing up a rather steep mountain part for about an hour. It was pretty cloudly and started to become pretty dark, so we could not stay for a long time and went down again. Throw in some rain and slippery rocks and we found ourselves in complete darkness soon after! Using the moon light and phones to get back to camp, we very much enjoyed the “Nachtwanderung” through the night for about half an hour very much though, providing a very special atmosphere.
It was raining heavy the next morning and while the girls still needed some more sleep in the tent, I was going back to El Chaltén on my own as fast as I can to start a process that would hopefully help my still not working camera. There was actually one person that used to fixed cameras in town and after tracking him down by talking to the locals, I left my camera with him and hoped he could do some magic. In the meantime, I used the bad weather and bouldering mat of my hostel’s owner to do some bouldering just five minutes away. The huge boulder was protected by some big trees, allowing me to even climb in the rain, even though I was pretty limited both because of my missing strength after months of no climbing and the fact that I was on my own and nobody could help spotting and moving the mat. It was great anyway and I was so happy to finally do some climbing again! And it would not be the last time in this area, but more on that in the upcoming Live Updates
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Live #65, Laguna Torre, Argentina
13/03/2015 After a failed attempt to fix my broken camera in El Chaltén, I went out on a hike to Laguna Torre with just the phone camera. The second most popular day hike after Fitz Roy was much less busy and we had great weather too! Just Cerro Torre was always covered in clouds sadly…
The second day in El Chaltén started off with checking all the internet posts and support mails in a desperate hope to somehow fix my camera. After exploiting all possible options, I eventually gave up and put a process together to at least get a new camera before heading off to Antarctica in less than two weeks; it was just not possible to go there without taking decent pictures and I decided to buy a new Sony A3000. It’s basically a less capable, bigger and much slower version of my old A6000. Putting all my trust into the good spirit for Couchsurfers, I sent 700 US$ to a strange person via Paypal and she bought the camera for me at the tax free Zona Austral in Punta Arenas, Chile. From there, she gave the camera to a friend who would spent the next three days on a ship to sail down to Ushuaia in Argentina. At the final destination, he would give the camera to my Couchsurfer and I actually got the camera exactly on the day my ship departed to Antarctica!! Patagonia pictures, however, would have to be shot with the low quality phone camera.
The 9km hike to Laguna Torre was very pleasant and I had good company in the two Julia’s, both equipped with an extremely positive and always-smiling attitude. The sun was also shining all day long and we had a lot of fun walking up to the camp spot. A few excellent viewpoints along the way made me missing my camera again, but the pictures from my camera turned out to be okay as long as the lighting conditions were good. We arrived at the nearly empty camp spot, set up our tents and cooked dinner. Julia 1 didn’t feel so well and rested in the tent while Julia 2 and myself headed out to the actual lagoon. It was getting dark and pretty cloudy as well and we could not really see a lot, especially not Cerro Torre. It was also extremely windy and we decided to only go half way around the rim of the lake after nearly being blown away from the now very strong wind.
After spending the night in the cozy tent, the girls had some problems waking up in the morning again and I started to head off to hike up to the top of one of the surrounding mountains: Loma de Las Pizarras. It was actually a really nice hike with great views and therefor I will tell you more about this part in the next live update
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Live #66, Loma de Las Pizarras, Argentina
14/03/2015 Hiking back from Laguna Torre offered me a little excursion that actually deserves it’s own live update: Climbing Loma de Las Pizarras! The peak granted me with a superb view and I could actually see a bit of Cerro Torre this time too. Some rainbows paired with huge winds that nearly blew me off my feet made up for a great experience.
I was on a mission. Having my broken camera in mind, I wanted to return to El Chaltén as soon as possible, but on the other hand I was standing at the entry point of the 1600m high Loma de las Pizarras and I could not resist the temptation to hike up there. Leaving my backpack behind in the woods, I quickly ascended through the forest and could not find the actual path. Instead, I was making up my own one as there was only one direction anyway: Up! Soon I would get out of the forest and the first views presented themselves, some pretty nice panoramas including a rainbow. The further I got up, the windier it became and instead of trees, I was now next to a few big boulders and walking mainly on loose scree.
Soon after I would arrive at the top, looking down at the glacier and up to Fitz Roy. Cerro Torre was still hiding in the clouds but I could tell that I would just need a little change of weather to finally see it. After waiting in the extremely windy summit, sometimes sitting down on my butt because the wind would have thrown me off feet otherwise, I eventually saw Cerro Torre for a split second before it disappeared in the clouds again. I would have another chance to finally see him on another hike. For now, I had to get back because it was already getting late and I still wanted to take care of my camera in town. First though, I had to get down the mountain and find my backpack again!
It actually turned out to be quiet a challenge, because everything just looked the same in the forest and I ended up using my GPS tracks to retrace my route and finally found the backpack to drink the water I desperately needed. Speeding up again, I made it back to the hostel and analysed my GPS data for the first time, using the Android App OruxMaps. The complete path from the camp at Augostini to the summit of Loma de las Pizarras and back to the hostel took 3 hours, 46 minutes while walking 17.64km with an altitude gain of 1082m and altitude loss of 1288m!
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Live #67, Laguna Piedras Blanca, Argentina
19/03/2015 After some rainy days in El Chaltén, I used the upcoming good weather window to start what was supposed to be a four day trek to Paso del Cuadrado. Joined by Rene from the hostel, we knew that the first day would still be rainy; we didn’t know what kind of adventure we would be heading into. Soon after leaving the beaten path, we found ourselves in the middle of a snow storm in freezing temperatures, forcing us to set up an emergency fire at Laguna Piedras Blanca and actually staying the night there as well. For the complete story, keep on reading!
A lot of rain forced me to remain in El Chaltén for a total of four days and since Rene had no climbing and only little trekking experience, we decided to skip my original plan of tackling Paso del Viento and instead headed towards Paso del Cuadrado, another challenging hike compared to the simple day hikes in the area. Leaving at 12:00, we started to walk in the rain and knew that this wouldn’t change for the rest of the day. It would take us one day just to get closer to the area of our destination anyway and the forecast looked great for all days coming up afterwards, so we decided to start the hike in the rain, allowing Rene to continue his hitch hiking journey without delays. The hike was rather boring for me; we could not see a lot in these weather conditions and I had also just returned from the day hike to the Fitz Roy a few days before in perfect weather. The rain turned into snow and I could witness how the C.B. Poincenot camp looks covered in white, it was a pretty cool sight! We used the camp to have lunch and our hands were freezing already. Things got worse when we walked north along the rocky path next to the river towards Laguna Piedras Blanca. Faced with an now extremely lower temperature, we were now covered in thick snow and quickly soaked completely wet. Getting in the gloves was now an extremely hard task and we knew the situation actually became a bit serious now. We would have to make a decision between returning back to El Chaltén or keep on going, having in mind that the sun will come out the next day. Obviously, we chose the latter…
Freezing our asses off, we kept on walking along the river to find shelter at one of the huge boulders at Laguna Piedras Blanca. Taking pictures was a nearly impossible task now as the thick snow flakes constantly messed up the touchscreen of my phone. Luckily, we walked right into a massive boulder of at least 20 meter in height, offering natural protection from the wind and snow from 3 sides. Once we stopped walking, our already cold bodies started to freeze even more and we had to do something about it. Some people left dry fire wood behind here and even though it is not allowed, we just had to get a fire going to warm up and re-evaluate the situation. Walking back for hours in these conditions would have been very unpleasant. We quickly gathered some tinder and even brought a lighter and toilet paper, making the process of getting the fire up very easy… if we could only use our fingers!! At this point, our hands were so cold that Rene was not able to use his fingers at all anymore. Luckily, I still had some energy in them left and could get the fire going, finally offering us the desperately needed warmth.
After enjoying the fire for a while, I went out to explore the nearby area and also climbed up to one of the hills to get a better overview. It was still snowing a lot and I could not see too much, not even the lake that should be very close to us now. At least I was able to find enough dry wood to keep the fire going for a while. Returning back to our little camp, we started to think about what to do. It was already getting late now and we would have another two hours of walking to reach the next camp, something that was out of question considering the fact that the amount of snow actually increased with time. So we decided to call the boulder our home for this night and aligned the sleeping bags next to the fire to sleep there without setting up the tent. It was actually a really great experience in the end and I enjoyed it a lot. Rene gained back his good spirits as well the longer he could warm up on the fire. We shared some stories, had some rum and eventually fell asleep next to the fire after a nice meal.
Waking up the next morning was an experience I will never forget. The forecast was right (as usual on the norwegian site yr.no) and all the clouds disappeared, leaving us with a perfect clear sky. The sun did not yet rise up over the mountains around us, but for the first time we could see Monte Fitz Roy in the background with the first rays of sunshine on it’s face. Spirits were high and we wasted no time to climb up to the viewpoint to finally see the lake as well. The climb was pretty steep and some parts were still covered with ice from last night, but overall it was not a big deal to get up there. The views were amazing and having the sun in my face again made me look positively into the future. We enjoyed the moment for a while and then started to walk back to our temporary camp, it was time to pack up again and continue our hike towards Paso del Cuadrado with a slight delay. More on that in the next update
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Live #68, Paso del Cuadrado, Argentina
20/03/2015 We had an adventurous last night sleeping underneath a huge boulder during heavy snowfall and were now set to make our way towards Paso del Cuadrado in perfect sunny weather, once more correctly predicted by the forecast. Unclear if we could make it to the top of the 1850m high mountain pass, we were in good spirits and eager to explore the more distant hiking regions around El Chaltén.
After checking out the lagoon at Piedras Blanca for sunrise, we packed up our stuff and were blessed with sunshine on our way back to the rocky river valley of Río Blanco. Soon after, the path turned left towards a forest. We were curious of how the situation at the upcoming camp site would be, as they are charging 300 pesos (around 30€) for people just to pass through! Obviously, we didn’t like that and planned to use another path to avoid them. Hugo from the hostel told me about it and said that it’s usually no problem. As we got closer, we passed two signs listing the prices to stay or just pass the camp. For some reason though, we were not able to find the shortcut and ended up walking right through the camp site – no one noticed us and we could pass without paying! Haha.
We entered a huge open valley surrounded by big mountains on both sides and it just looked and felt amazing! For the first time I had this “Wow, I’m in Patagonia” feeling as we were alone and far away from all the day trip tourists. This was exactly what I was looking for. Crossing the big valley took a little while and I was constantly looking around to absorb the visual impressions around me. We actually passed the steep path to climb up to Paso del Cuadrado on our left side, because we wanted to check out the area at Lago Eléctrico first.
The hike to the lake was really enjoyable with lots of clean water along the way in the small rivers. The lake itself was also really nice, a huge rock sitting in the middle. There were some hiking paths to get to the other side of the lake too, but our goal was to go up high, turning left to reach a tiny lake which name I sadly can’t remember now. We certainly had a great view there, looking up to Fitz Roy from a rather unusual perspective. Rene at this point decided to head back to El Chaltén suddenly, aiming to hitch hike the next day and keen to get some rest from our cold and snowy start of the hike. I was left alone and decided to climb up the mountain next to the tiny lake a bit, eventually being stopped by some ice blocks falling off a frozen waterfall on both sides, giving me only one direction to go: Back to the lake. It was a great view up there though and I could get a glimpse of some glaciers that you can’t see from below.
Heading back towards the starting point of the steep climb towards Paso del Cuadrado, I actually passed Rene again, who obviously had to take it a bit slower on his way back. I crossed the valley towards the steep path and met a couple from austria that attempted to summit the pass yesterday. “There is to much snow up there”, they said, making it impossible to reach the top right now. There would also be another group of 3 guys up there right now, waiting for better conditions to summit the pass. I wanted to see how far I could get and decided to continue, hoping that the sun would keep on shining. Climbing up the path was pretty hard physically, as it was really steep the whole way through. Once I reached the 1500m mark, the first snow started to appear on the ground, increasingly getting more as I climbed up higher. The couple from earlier told me that there was a big black rock that would be perfect to set up cam and. I still had enough time until sunset and kept on climbing up…
Reaching something that kind of looked like the rock they described, but wasn’t black, I decided to keep on walking up a bit more to get a better overview and hopefully spot it. Snow now covered the ground and I was already at around 1600m when I realised that the rock I spotted earlier must have been the one. I could not spot any other rocks in my nearby surroundings and the slope got steeper and steeper. I was also getting quiet tired now from carrying the backpack with all my camping equipment and could not wait to find a spot to set up my tent! The thought of hiking back down again to the rock after half an hour of strenuousness uphill climb did not make me happy, so I kept on going up in a desperate search for a camp spot. I would eventually run into the other group, I thought, but the now boot-deep snow made it hard to find the path and it was slowly getting dark now as well, so I had no time to lose and kept on going.
I did not expect so much snow to be up here and quickly lost hope to actually summit the pass. I needed to focus on finding a good spot to set up camp now, because it would certainly get freezing cold up here at around 1700m now. Pushing myself up higher, I eventually reached a spot that some other people used as a camp before, judging by the circle of rocks that would perfectly fit a tent in between them. There was a big boulder on one side for some wind protection and generally a good spot, so I decided to use it as a camp. First though, I needed to stomp down all the snow in order to be set up the tent on top of it. It took me a little while to do so, but at least it also kept me warm at the same time. Once I set up the tent, it became dark pretty fast and I had to wrap everything I had in order to keep myself warm. It got really cold in the night and I was actually freezing for the first time ever in a tent; my sleeping bag is not as good as it used to be! I got used to the cold though and eventually fell asleep after going out for a last pee around 1AM, looking at one of the most amazing night sky full of stars I have ever seen in my life. Sadly, there was no way to capture it with the camera of my phone…
The next morning greeted me with sunshine again and I woke up just for the first rays of light shining on Fitz Roy’s back side. It was still freezing cold and I had to do some exercises to warm myself up while enjoying the amazing views around me. I would sadly not be able to make it up to the pass, just about 200m higher from my current position. There was just too much snow and I did not want to risk it without having proper equipment. So instead, I was walking back without ever meeting the other group that was supposed to be up here. It was still totally worth all the effort and a trek I will never forget!
On my way back, I found the path to bypass the camp this time and could enjoyed all the landscapes in great sunny conditions. Passing Piedras Blanca again, I would soon find myself at the bridge close to the Fitz Roy viewpoint and was instantly thrown back into the mad amount of day tour tourists – something I really did not miss! This time though, passing the same path back towards El Chaltén for the third time now, I had insanely good weather and just had to take some more pictures of the famous Fitz Roy skyline – I wish I had my camera back then but luckily some of the phone pictures turned out to be nice too! It was just a perfect way to end this hike, which was packed with adventure and amazing moments that I find hard to put into text actually, it’s something you just have to see with your own eyes… My time in El Chaltén was not over though and after getting back to my favorite hostel Hem Heru, I got ready for the next hikes.
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Live #69, Mirador de la Loma (plus Los Cóndores & Las Águilas), Argentina
22/03/2015 I’ve had experienced some truly exciting days on the hike to Paso del Cuadrado, but was still not just yet finished in El Chaltén. After some more bouldering and a really amazing Argentinean Asado in the hostel’s garden, I started my last hikes. While doing the first one to Mirador de la Loma and it’s fantastic views on my own, I was once again joined by the two Julias to summit the easy viewpoints of Los Cóndores & Las Águilas, offering less spectacular, but still very nice views on El Chaltén.
Following my typical El Chaltén eating routine, I once again had masses of Dulce de Leche for breakfast and even continued eating it at the point I ran out of bread – I just loved it so much I guess! I also bought the same food again for the last hikes, basically a lot of bread, cheese and salami. This time, I was packed light and only carried some food for the six hour hike to Mirador de la Loma. I left at noon and was hoping to return for football at 15:30. The first part of the trip would lead me to towards Paso del Viento, which was my main goal here in the area but sadly, due to the weather conditions, not possible to do on my own. After about one hour of walking uphill, I left the Paso del Viento path and turned to the right, heading into a forest. The hike until there was pretty boring, but just when I left the forest again, I could finally see Fitz Roy in the Background from a different perspective and was extremely lucky with the weather too.
Not long after, I would head into another forest, constantly hiking uphill. There were a lot of people around here, mainly Asians as they hiked up in a huge group, and I passed all of them on my mission to get back to football. I think I was walking as fast as possible before you would have to define it as running Leaving the forest again, I was walking uphill through some scree now, eventually reaching the end of the trail. What I saw when I reached the viewpoint was just amazing – I had a clear view on Fitz Roy, all the valleys, lakes and hiking paths I used before and most importantly: I could see Cerro Torre for the first time! After all those days in El Chaltén, I was so happy to finally see him as well and it was impressive sight. Too bad it’s so hard to climb this thing as it was really tempting.
I decided not to go up to the highest point of the nearby summit, which would take about another half hour extra walking and apparently, the view from there would be kind of the same according to Hugo from the hostel. I spent around one hour at the Mirador though to enjoy the landscape to the fullest before I started to hike back to town. Probably breaking a lot of speed records, I made it back way before the football starts and could enjoy a nice warm shower first. It was actually my last day here in the hostel and I really loved this place, making it a bit hard to leave. If you ever make it to El Chaltén, please check out Hem Heru and say hello to Hugo ;-)
One last hike was still to be completed though and both of the Julias joined me once again for a fun hike to Miradores Los Cóndores & Las Águilas. You can easily combine both of them and do it in about two hours, offering nice views along the vast fields close to the Patagonian ice field. It was super windy up there as well and as usual, the weather was good too. Other than the four-day bad weather window that I used to do some bouldering, I was always lucky down here! As hard as it was, it was now time for me to leave El Chaltén and I wanted to give hitch hiking a try again, just like about the ten other people per day here! It was just very expensive to use the bus here and while I failed to hitch hike from El Calafate to El Chaltén, doing it the opposite way now was much more easier, thanks to the smaller size of El Chaltén. The first car actually picked me up after just a minute of waiting!
The older man worked in El Chaltén and was on the way back home, could not speak any English at all but was a really nice guy in general. We somehow communicated in my broken Spanish and I could finally, on my last day, see the famous view from the road looking back to the Fitz Roy Skyline. I took a quick picture from the car as I didn’t want to ask him to stop and I only had my crap phone camera anyway, but this picture will always remind me of the great landscapes in this part of Patagonia and I’m happy to have it now. My next stop was the famous Perito Moreno Glacier near El Calafate and I will tell you all about that in the following Live Update :-)
>> Pictures
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Live #70, Glacier Perito Moreno, Argentina
23/03/2015 I was finished with all the hikes in El Chaltén, but had one more item on my bucket list near close-by El Calafate: Glacier Perito Moreno, one of the few growing glaciers in Patagonia. I knew it would be super touristy, but everyone I’ve met told me to go there nevertheless and I was not disappointed to do so. It was a perfect sunny day and the temperatures caused a lot of huge ice blocks to fall of the roughly 74m high glacier. You can see one of those video clips in this live update, while the complete video will come in a couple of months.
My bus to Perito Moreno left at 08:30 in the morning, costing 300 Pesos for a roundtrip. Not cheap, but I slowly got used to the prices in Patagonia. I left the bus at 10:00 at the first stop, starting to walk my way up towards the second bus stop, which is located at the Main entrance including a Restaurant and other touristic stuff. I think I don’t have to mention that Perito Moreno is VERY touristic, especially lots of Asian people that I didn’t really see in El Chaltén for instance; guess they are just coming down here to see the glacier. One interesting fact about the glacier is that it is one of the very few growing glaciers, advancing about 2 meters each day! I just wonder how long it will take until they have to built a new viewing platform…
The park offers various hiking trails and you can easily spend four hours here walking all of them and constantly stare at the glacier whenever it bursts off another piece of ice, making some really cool cracking sounds first. It is in fact a very spectacular view, especially looking over the glacier from one of the higher viewpoints. First though, I explored the lower parts and always ran into the same people again. I was always ready with my phone camera and shot tons of movies, hoping to capture a bit of the action live.
I was lucky to do so twice, once in the lower slopes and once in the higher ones (see the video above). It was pretty impressive to see those nearly 80m high Icebergs falling off and a complete different experience to my trip in Greenland and the Eqi Glacier, which you can check out here. Perito Moreno was smaller, but had much more action and it was constantly cracking down somewhere. You are also able to get much closer and I was especially lucky with the relatively hot weather.
I finished the upper and lower walks and then walked towards the end to see the glacier from a different perspective. I found myself a bit further away from the glacier then and could not see so much action anymore. It was still nice to see everything from this angle with the surrounding mountains on both sides. Heading back up, I was waiting for one more major “breakdown” of an iceberg with a nice motive of all the people staring at the lower slopes, but sadly nothing happened. I now spent over four hours here and it was time to head back towards the Restaurant, where the bus would pick me up again at 14:30 and drive me back to El Calafate. Next up was my flight to Ushuaia, followed by my long awaited cruise to Antarctica to see even more ice bergs
>> Pictures
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Video from Colombia
Time for the next video! This one is packed with interesting stuff: Starting with some diving in Capurganá, followed by the towns of Cartagena, Santa Marta & Minca, onwards to the amazingly beautiful beaches in Tayrona National Park, a quick ride to yet another beach at Palomino, climaxing with the trek to Lost City Ciduad Perdida before finishing it off in Bogotá & Villa de Leyva!
Check out the Live Updates and Pictures from Colombia here.
>> Direct Vimeo Link
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Live #71, Ushuaia and Drake Passage, Antarctica
25/03/2015 After a bit more than two weeks in El Chaltén and El Calafate, it was now finally time to leave Ushuaia and begin my voyage to the coldest, driest and windiest continent of our planet: Antarctica. Not too many people have the opportunity to go there and I felt very privileged to be one of them. Together with around 80 other passengers, we would take two full days to cross the rough waters of the Drake Passage before we would be able to set foot on Antarctica, probably one of the most impressive places that we can visit.
Traveling through Patagonia without a proper camera was pretty tough for me, but at least I would have a replacement of my broken Sony A6000 for the trip to Antarctica! It involved a lot of trust and research, but it all worked out luckily. I basically sent 500€ to a strange Couchsurfer through PayPal, who would buy a Sony A3000 in the duty free shop in Chile, then give the camera to a friend to take it on a 3-day boat trip to Ushuaia before finally handing it over to my Couchsurfer there. Everyone involved was really nice and I was so happy to finally have a proper camera in my hand again, even though it was not as good and not nearly as fast as my old one, but certainly much much better than my phone camera!
I had half a day to enjoy Ushuaia, the most southern town of Argentina and South America. Feeling unwell from some old Spaghetti Bolognese leftovers at the airport, I was forced to head back from my Photo-walk around town rather soon in order to relax and recover at my Couchsurfers place. My host was not around at the time, but I still had great company by her 50 day old little kitty It never felt better to just lay down, doing nothing other than playing with the absolutely adorable small baby cat. Eventually though, it was time to pack up and get ready! I booked my trip to Antarctica with the company Antarpply Expeditions and paid 5.000$ for a standard double room. Now it seems that the price actually increased to nearly 6.000$ just a year later.
Walking to the harbour at 15:30, it was very easy to spot my ship that would take me to Antarctica: The MV Ushuaia, an 85m long, ice-strengthened polar vessel with a maximum capacity of 84 tourists. A great size, because only 100 people are allowed to enter the continent at the same time and heading there with a bigger ship of 200 or even more would mean that not everyone could do a zodiac landing at the same time. I inspected my cabin, which was really nice for the fact that I paid for the cheapest possible option, sharing it with a funny guy from Taiwan. We also had our private bathroom! Heading back to the main room, I was still feeling pretty bad in my stomach and had to skip the great looking welcome appetisers. I really hoped to get well soon again to make full use of all the provided meals!
A safety check was mandatory to get used to our life jackets and we were shown some videos about what to expect in the following two days, crossing the famous Drake Passage. It is known as one of the roughest seas on the planet and the waves here can reach over 30m! (Check out some videos on YouTube, like this one on the same ship actually). A lot of people were worried about getting sea sick and started to take precautions. I was more excited to see some big waves, hopefully being able to capture it on video for you guys. Sadly though, it never happened and for the complete next two days on our Drake crossing, we only had some small waves and super calm conditions in general, smoothly crossing over the Drake Lake as it is called in that case. So I got no cool wave videos for you sadly! Playing chess was still pretty though and we constantly had to take pictures of the board, because it would eventually be flipped over by the movement of the ship. I actually installed the Settlers II as well, a really really old game to play in order to pass the time.
Another great way to pass the time was eating the breakfast, lunch and dinner. All of which were of excellent quality and quantity. It felt like eating in a nice restaurant and whenever I asked for some more, I got it. Adding a great taste to it made me feel like in heaven, putting on all the weight again that I previously lost in my treks in Patagonia The crew also presented a lot of lectures in the main room, either connected to the Antarctica as a continent itself, or to the story of the first pioneers discovering it. Really interesting and impressive stories, you should do some reading about Ernest Shackleton and all the other great people that dedicated their lifes to explore the unknown land in the south.
After days of staring at the open ocean, we finally spotted the first ice berg at 11:30 on the third day, meaning that we would be pretty close to the continent now. Weather wise, we were faced with a lot of grey and rain while crossing the calm Drake, but now it actually started to clear up and the sun came up a little bit in the afternoon, enabling us to finally see the continent in the distance! It was a great feeling, even though we were just tourists and not explorers. It is hard to imagine how they must have felt during the conditions of the 18th and 19th centuries. Now that we got closer to the land, we also felt how cold it became. With winds up to 200km/h – even stronger than those in Patagonia – the cold air felt colder than it actually was. Standing outside the deck to take pictures turned into a challenge, but most of us passengers would still do it. Nobody expected it to be warm down here anyway! After sunset, it was time for dinner again and get some more sleep. My room mate kept me awake in the last nights for various reasons, but at least I slowly felt better now and was able to eat more. Just in time for the next morning, when we would finally have our first full day in Antarctica…
>> Pictures
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Norway28263 Posts
that video is really well made. and everything looks so cool and awesome, great job with everything.
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The one from Colombia? Thanks hehe
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Finished a new video
Argentina, Patagonia Part 1
A lot of stuff happened back in March 2015 during my two weeks of hiking in the El Chaltén region in the Argentinean portion of Patagonia. In this first part, you will see El Calafate, the hikes to Laguna de los Tres, Laguna Torres, Loma de las Pizarras and finally, the first half of the hike to Paso del Cuadrado until we got stuck in a snowstorm and had to put up an emergency shelter at Laguna Piedras Blanca.
>> Vimeo Link
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Live #79, Ushuaia Bouldering, Argentina
05/04/2015 After my unfinished hike to Cerro del medio, I had one more thing on my wish list down in Argentina’s most southern town of Ushuaia: Go out for some Bouldering! In the end, I was carrying my climbing shoes with me all the time, so I was happy for every opportunity. Luckily, some friends of my Couchsurfing host took me out to some local spots about 30 km east of the town.
We were leaving Ushuaia in the only possible direction (east), since the road pretty much ends on the western side of the town. It really felt like being at the end of the world! Our 30km ride was really pleasant, passing mountains and a nice viewpoint until we reached our destination Piedra Barco, one of the top spots to do bouldering in the area on a massive boulder that was way to high to even think about topping it out! It had a lot of hard routes but also some easy ones, which even I managed to complete despite my lack of climbing-training and a resulting loss in most of my muscles that I have built up before starting this trip.
We spent about two hours climbing while our blue-eyed husky/rottweiler mix was watching us and then started to walk back to the car. My new friends had something else planned for today and it was one of my favorite activities in Latin America: eating meat! Driving another 60km along Lago Fagnano, we eventually reached a tiny piece of land they owned to have a small BBQ. It is common for the locals to buy a little area as a weekend escape from Ushuaia. We were lucky with the weather and it was still warm enough to enjoy a nice late-lunch in the woods. Sadly, we had no time to prepare a proper Argentinean asado and instead just threw some burgers with cheese on the grill.
All good things must come to an end and I was heading out of Ushuaia in the next morning at 05:00, catching the early bus towards Punta Arenas in Chile after a failed Hitch hiking attempt the day before. The area was just too remote and I only received offers to get a bit further towards the border – no one actually wanted to go all the way to Chile. I booked a Tecni Austral bus towards the border for 208 Pesos but actually had to use another bus in the end, which was pretty confusing but at least I made it to my destination after a few bus changes and ferries along the way to get off Tierra del Fuego. The second bus cost me 450 Pesos and arrived at the San Sebastian border at 10:00. I crossed the Straight of Magallan at 14:00 with another ferry and finally arrived in Punta Arenas at 17:00 in beautiful weather, being picked up by my next Couchsurfing host and eager to start the next adventure in attempting to hike to Cabo Froward. Feel free to google this place up before I will write about my expierences there in the next post
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Hi! Got my next trip report ready, hope you like it
Live #80, Punta Arenas & Cabo Froward, Chile
06/04/2015 I left Tierra del Fuego and Argentina towards Punta Arenas in Chile and was once again blessed with a great Couchsurfing host, taking me out for a spontaneous horse ride on her farm just after my arrival. On the next day, I started the four day trek to Capo Froward, which requires an exact timing for the tides because you might be stranded otherwise. Some blogger wrote that you should be a “hardcore trekking, camping, outdoorsy person (or German)” to do this hike. Meeting all requirements, it was a perfect match for me!
Punta Arenas is not really a nice town and the only thing I enjoyed was walking along the the old ship wrecks at the beach. Most people come here to see Penguins at Isla Magdalena, but I was too late for that and had seen plenty in Antarctica anyway. I did have a great Couchsurfing host though and was taken out for a short trip to the farm to ride some horses! It was just the third time on a horse and I did my best not to fall off, surely not looking very graceful in the process. Back at the house, I started to do my research in detail. Hiking to Capo Froward requires a proper planning as you have to schedule the hike with the tides. I planned to stay three nights in the tent and have a late start to cross the first out of three major rivers just before sunset. Walking a bit more than the recommended 4-5 days, I was confident to make it and only a bit worried about all the rainfall from the last weeks in the area…
It was raining a lot again the next morning and I started to doubt if I should really do this trek. After some consideration and waiting for the rain to end, I decided to give it a try late in the afternoon. My host was so nice to even give me a ride down to Rio San Pedro, the starting point of the trek, about 65km south of Punta Arenas. There are only two buses a day to San Juan, about 10km before the Rio San Pedro, so I was very happy that she could give me a ride. We stopped at the police station to let them know about my plans and provided my Passport number, so they would come looking for me should I not report back in time. We reached the end of the road and my host dropped me off about 3km before Rio San Pedro when we reached a usually small stream that now built up to a rapid river. Waves came crushing in from the Strait of Magellan to my left and nearly reached the road and I was pretty sure that this would become quiet the adventure…
I was reading a lot of reports regarding the hike before and knew that there would be three major river crossings. The first one after around five hours of walking usually just features knee deep water in normal conditions while the other two were described as impassable with more than waist deep water. However, this is only valid for a normal day and the situation changes once you had a lot of rainfall coming down like in my case. I had to cross a lot of rivers that were usually just tiny streams and not marked in any map. While the first few ones were fine and I only had to make sure not to slip on the wet tree trunks to cross, I was actually facing a pretty big problem just about an hour into the hike. The river was swollen up so much, it actually looked quiet scary! Being delayed so much already with the usually tiny streams, I knew that I would not make it for a lower tide around 20:30 to cross the first major river.
Just after sunset (not that I could actually see any sun anyway), it got really dark really fast. It was high tide and waiting about 3-4 hours for a lower tide was not an option, so I tried to find a way to cross the river safely, which was about 6-8 meters wide just before joining the open sea with very fast flowing at least knee-deep water. I did not want to cross it there, so I walked inland through the bushes to find another spot. I could actually find a big tree that spanned across the raging river, but decided it was too dangerous to use it because everything was too wet and all the moss made it really slippery. Walking back to the ocean, I took some time to evaluate the situation and decide to either return after just one hour or take the risk to cross it. Not ready to give up that quickly and because of the fact that I the river joined into the ocean, I decided to give it a dry, placed my pants in the backpack, switched from hiking boots to my neoprene shoes and started walking. The water was freezing cold and really strong, but I was able to keep balance while slowing crossing the river. Just about one meter away from the other side, I realised that I sank in deeper and was now nearly waist deep in the water. There was no way I would go back now, so I moved forward and the raging river eventually overcame me, pulling me down. I was so close to the shore that I could quickly throw my boots on land while I was falling and then grab on to something to get myself out. Water entered my backpack and everything was soaking wet now, there was no way to start a fire in the rain and I had no choice but to set up tent and somehow get myself warm…
By the time I set up my tent in the rain and shuffled out the water from the inside, it was already completely dark and all of my clothes as well as my sleeping bag were completely soaking wet. I ended up in this situation after just about an hour of walking and was already way behind schedule, forcing me to cancel the trip because I did not want to risk getting a serious cold just a few days before heading to Torres del Paine. At least I was lucky with the weather the next day and the sun finally came up, giving me a good reason to walk another two hours until I reached the Lighthouse. Walking along the rocky beach was pretty slow and I was glad to have left my tent and backpack behind. I enjoyed the moments of sunshine after all the rain in the past days and could get some cool shots from fishing boats appearing in the mist, leaving the area again as a happy person rather than a disappointed one. Sometimes you just have to accept defeat against mother nature!
Walking back, the Strait of Magellan was now on my right side and I could even spot some dolphins in the improved weather conditions, making me even happier. Knowing that some construction workers might be around, I was hoping that some of them could give me a ride back to Punta Arenas. Unfortunately, I was not so lucky and had to walk back way past San Juan for about three hours with no public transportation during the weekend. Finally, a car came towards me and stopped, letting me know that they could pick me up on their way back again in half an hour. So I sat down at the river, enjoyed my lunch and reflected on this short, but pretty intense trek. Maybe sometime I will come back and actually make it all the way to Cabo Froward in better weather conditions
>> All Pictures
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Got some more pics inlcuding a Dolphin!
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Live #81, Puerto Natales, Chile
10/04/2015 Puerto Natales serves as an entry point to the famous peaks of Torres del Paine in the Chilean Patagonia. I spent a few days in the charming little town to prepare my trip and enjoy the good weather while having a rather unusual Couchsurfing expierence…
Equipped with a new tent and poncho from ZonaAustral in Punta Arenas, I arrived in Puerto Natales with the bus and was much more pleased with the look & feel of the town. It looked really clean, was small enough to walk around and had a nice beach front with some interesting statues to take pictures. The weather was great and I was happy to see the promising forecast as well, offering mostly blue sky and sun for the 6 day hike at Torres del Paine. In terms of accommodation, I wanted to do some Couchsurfing again and was in touch with the mother of a complete CS-family, running a kind of hostel for Couchsurfers. It was not free, but still cheaper than the other hostels in town and I was very curious on how the communication would work out since they did not speak English.
Communication was actually a problem with my Couchsurfing family, nobody had replied to me prior to my arrival and I was not sure if they could still host me. Showing up at the door, all the worries were blown away though with the nice smile of the family’s mother opening up. She lived in her house together with her husband and three kids and had two other rooms fully equipped with beds. Some other Couchsurfers were just waiting for their overnight bus to leave town again and could provide me with some valuable information about the hike, the most important being that the complete O trek was not possible anymore because the Northern part of the trek was closed off. Instead, I planned to do an extended W trek, hoping to get up to Paso John Gardner at least.
7pm was dinner time in Casa Couchsurfing and one rule there was to have everyone staying in the house involved in some way. I was asked to buy certain ingredients from the shop and soon after found myself sitting with the five family members, two long term couchsurfers and two other short term guests at the big dinner table, sharing a nice meal that was kicked off with a prayer to god. It was a special atmosphere and some people would argue that it was not really Couchsurfing anymore (since you paid for it), but compared to a hostel I found the family-atmosphere rather pleasing and enjoyed my stay. It was also a good time to practice my Spanish with the members of the family
The bus to Torres del Paine left at 07:45 in the morning and I was ready to head out into the nature again after some relaxing days in Puerto Natales. Soon I would be able to answer the question if the hikes around El Chaltén or Torres del Paine are the highlight in Patagonia.
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Your photos are amazing! You're living the life!
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Since we already celebrate here in Germany right now, I wanted to wish you all a merry Christmas!
I hope you have some snow or at least colder temperatures closer to the ones from Greenland! Here in Germany it is sadly 10° C and it feels more like Easter...
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[url="https://chrisontour84.wordpress.com/2015/12/28/video-from-caye-caulker-belize/"]Video from Caye Caulker, Belize[/url]
*Vimeo re-upload* This Video is actually pretty short with just under ten minutes! Vimeo originally deleted it because of some music I used, now it works though and you can check out how I was swimming with sharks along with some snorkelling in the Hol Chan Marine Reserve. And don’t forget to Go Slow… since we are talking about Caye Caulker in Belize
https://vimeo.com/149584878
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On December 28 2015 20:24 Tak3r wrote:[url="https://chrisontour84.wordpress.com/2015/12/28/video-from-caye-caulker-belize/"] Video from Caye Caulker, Belize*Vimeo re-upload* This Video is actually pretty short with just under ten minutes! Vimeo originally deleted it because of some music I used, now it works though and you can check out how I was swimming with sharks along with some snorkelling in the Hol Chan Marine Reserve. And don’t forget to Go Slow… since we are talking about Caye Caulker in Belize https://vimeo.com/149584878 [/url] wow swimming with sharks! I had to see it for myself haha
The water looks crystal clear and really warm too
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