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Und ganz frisch gleich das heutige Update noch:


Live #08, At the farm..



31/10/2014 I just arrived in Toronto and it will my last big city before heading down to Mexico on Monday. Before I get an report out regarding the urban areas of East Canada, I now just wanted to give you a quick update about my day at a farm near Quebec City and my first contact with guns. Also, do you have any ideas for a Halloween outfit for me?

My stay in Quebec City was just another reminder on how awesome Couchsurfing is. When else would you have the chance to go to a local farm and even shoot some guns there before having a delicious dinner with the family? I have to thank Anne Sophie again so much for taking me and being such a wonderful host in general, the days in Quebec with her, her boyfriend, brothers and friends were really great and I hope to hear everyone saying SCHULZ when I come back haha (sorry, insider…). Prior to the farm, we also had a great dinner together, German fried potatoes with bacon and squash filled with meat and chicken, just awesome combination with a great jam session that night!

I will write another update about the city itself but thought that this special day deserved a special post Now I am waiting for the rain to stop in Toronto to start exploring the city a bit before heading to the first out of two halloween parties this weekend. I never actually celebrated it but will give it a try here since it’s really big – any ideas for a cheap costume? I was thinking of the Joker… Write your suggestion in the comments!

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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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Danke fürs teilhaben lassen! Viel Spaß weiterhin.

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Da bist Du schon mal weiter als der Landschaftsgärtner bekannt durch Fernsehen und Print.

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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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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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Hi, interessanter Bericht und ganz tolle Bilder! Danke!

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Hoffe ihr hattet ein schönes Fest!

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 “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!

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 zu den Bildern

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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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>> Video (29mins) from Yucatán, Mexico

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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…

>> All Pictures

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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…

Pictures >> Link

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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

>> Pictures

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Video from Guatemala (Part 1): Tikal, Flores, Semuc Champey & Guatemala City



The first out of two Videos from Guatemala features Tikal, Flores, Semuc Champey & Guatemala City. All the volcano action from Antigua and Xela will be featured in the next one Hope you like this one for now though, I will soon start working on the second part!

https://vimeo.com/118997745

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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

>> Pictures

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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!

>> Pictures

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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!

>> Pictures

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Video from Guatemala (Part 2): Atitlan, Xela, Antigua, Acatenango



And here is the second video of Guatemala, one of my favorite countries in Central America! You will see a lot of volcanoes in this one Lake Atitlan, Xela, Antigua Guatemala and, as the highlight, Volcan Acatenango with a top notch view on Volcan Fuego are all featured in this video. Hope you like it!

Video Direct Link

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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!

>> Instagram Video

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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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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…

>> Pictures

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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!

>> Pictures

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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 #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

>> Pictures

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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 #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.

>> Pictures

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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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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…)

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Warst Du schon im Parque Tayrona?
Kleiner Tipp:Was Du nicht mit reinnehmen darfst sind Glasflaschen und Alkohol.

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Übrigens gibt es dort eine sehr feine kleine Bäckerrei zwischen Playa Arrecifes und la Picina!

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Ja war ich! Und genau darüber ist jetzt auch das nächste Update hehe

Plastiktüten hatte man auch angeblich nicht mitnehmen dürfen, war dann aber kein Problme letztendlich...


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 #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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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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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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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

[GT] Guatemala Vulkanausbruch Fuego

Hallo! Hier mal eine kleine Reiseanregung für alle die einmal im Leben einen aktiven Vulkan hautnah und in relativ sicherer Entfernung erleben wollen. Von Vulkan Acatenango in Guatemala könnt ihr mit etwas Fitness und einem guten Guide direkt auf Vulkan Fuego schauen und euch von dessen Feuershow in den Bann ziehen lassen!

Mit 3,976m ist der Vulkan schon relativ hoch und es ist sicherlich kein Spaziergang. Vor allem am Ende muss man oft über loses Gestein wandern und rutscht mit jedem Schritt wieder einen halben Schritt zurück. Man kann sich entweder einen Guide in Antigua besorgen, wobei ich nur empfehlen kann mit einem lokalem Guide hochzugehen, zB aus dem Örtchen Alotenango. Guatemala ist nicht Neuseeland und Überfälle passieren vor allem auf dieser Route zum Acatenango ab und zu und soweit ich es mitbekommen habe, werden hierbei primär die größeren Tour Anbieter angegangen, während die lokalen Jungs keine Probleme haben.

Oben angekommen gibt es dann super Aussichten und danach läuft man wieder etwas nach unten zum Campplatz, von dem man dann super Sicht auf Fuego hat, einen der aktivsten Vulkane in ganz Zentral Amerika. Dieser Anblick auf die Eruptionen von relativ sicherer Entfernung lohnt sich auf jeden Fall und ich werde diese Erfahrung jedenfalls nie wieder vergessen!

Hier mal ein paar Bilder aus meinem Bericht und noch ein kurzes Video von einem der Ausbrüche, viel Spaß und Erfolg wenn ihr euch das ganze selbst anschauen solltet
















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Gruß,
Chris

AW: [GT] Guatemala Vulkanausbruch Fuego

hach, ich wurde ja verschoben, nun sehe ich einen Reisebericht in dem meine kommentierten Fotos eingefügt sind. Ich sehe hier zwar keinen Reisebericht, aber dafür tolle Fotos! Wie du schon schreibst, wirst du von diesem Erlebnis sicherlich lange lange zehren.