Nicaragua!

A warm welcome was awaiting Tino and me in Nicaragua! A hot Halloween-Party with the hot people we met up in San Pedro, Guatemala. It wasn't exactely a planned meeting, we just ran into each other in the streets of  San Juan del Sur. A common phenomenon here in Central America; you meet the same people on different occasions due to similar travelling routes, which can lead to drinking more than one beer on the same occasion.

Getting from A to B can be an exhilarating experience in Nica and is definately a big part of the travel adventure here. In order to get from El Salvador down to San Juna del Sur we took a pickup truck to the border, went through Honduras with a shuttle, crossed the border to Nica on rickshaws, took a chickenbus and a shuttle to Managua, a chickenbus to Rivas and a 2nd Class bus to San Juan del Sur. We made it in one day and on no other occasion could you buy the same experience for 25dollars...
On the picture above we are discussing the possibility of fitting seven people with backpacks and surfboards into this car. A local taxidriver saw a lot of money in us, we just didn't see it happening and finally a second taxi could be oraganized.

On the way to Popoyo we passed this oxcart in our two taxis. A common sight here, people collect burningwood from the beach and transport it with the help of these impressive animals.



Popoyo is a gathering of a couple of restaurants and hostels on the Pacific Coast of Nicaragua. Mainly known to surfers for it's quality beachbreaks and all-year offshore winds, created by the great Lake of Nicaragua. If you don't surf, there's not much to attract you there, except for a desire to escape zivilisation and society for the time of your stay. It might take you a day of traveling to cover a distance of 30km to get there. Talking of bad roads...

Our desire of course was pointed twoards surfing 'till the break of dawn every sinlge day.

Ometepe is a magical little island in the great Lake of Nicaragua, featuring two volcanos and lots of beatiful nature.

 

And a good way to get around is by hiring a proper motorbike.

Free as a bird. Going down the line on the Northern Islands paved roads.

Sometimes words just can't express a bikers true feelings. Alan reveals his deepest soul in a single and simple gesture!

The Crew. Bike Gangsters of Ometepe.

The mission starts on the South Island were paved roads are non existent and rising levels of the lake sometimes make passages a little bit sketchy.

Having mastered two hours of steep mountain dirttracks nobody was up for turning around and going back. Not even at the sight of hip-deep flooded roads.

Heimhuber once again makes it look so easy!

Made it! Rewarded with an unforgettable day on the Isla de Ometepe I close my blog entry. Next station Costa Rica!

El Salvador!

Hello! I reached El Salvador and experienced great coastlines, friendly people and the best surf! The reputation for beeing a dangerous country, full of robbers, highjackers and gang violence caused second thoughts about coming here when I was back in Guatemala. Fortunately it turned out that reality doesn´t meet up with the rumors and safety was never an issue, so far. Surely, beeing out in San Salvador at night or walking beaches alone after sunset asks for trouble, but that wasn´t a good option neither in Mexico nor in Guatemala... Around Central America one developes a feeling for safe and less safe places and we never had a bad feeling ´round El Tunco or Las Flores.

Here´s little Jefferson, rockin´on Tino´s guitar at Playa Las Flores near San Miguel. In the background Kane from New Zealand with he´s self-painted board!



My first stop was Playa El Tunco, close to La Liberdad. I experienced a warm welcome by Tino, my surf-buddy with whom I had already surfed Zipacate! Together with him, Noel from Canada and Daniel from Sweden it was big-time-surfing from the first minute! This is the place we stayed at, the casa McCoy, living together with the locals who own it. 5 Dollars per night were affordable and we cooked most of our meals ourselves.

That´s the boys!

There´s a good surfspot right in front of El Tunco called Sunzal, but the really good spots are Cocal and Km59. To get there you either ride the chicken bus or you get yourself a car. We thought a proper truck would do the trick too.

That´s the crew! From left to right Noel from Canada, always motivated, always pushing hard. Tino from Bavaria,  always chilled, always fun when he´s around and therefor my constant travelmate. And Daniel, the swedish ripper, always ten points for style.

Sunset in El Tunco. I never was a big fan of Yoga, nevertheless Noel headed us to one, sometimes two Yoga sessions a day. I definately changed my mind, stretching your entire body and focusing your mind in a 30-40min session is one of the best things you can do after a day of surfing. Definately a valuable experience on this trip!

After two weeks in El Tunco we decided to proceed to Playa Las Flores and had no regrets so far. The bay is small and peaceful, the living is very basic and the wave breakes just out the front door. No need for a car, no need for electronic devices of any kind. Just a hammock and a surfboard! The closest town is El Cuco, a ten minute walk across the beach, but only accessable on low tide. The perfect setting for reading Eckhart Tolles ´The Power of Now´ ISBN 978-3-89901-301-6. Go ahead and have a read, you might like it.

I don´t want to bore you with sunset pictures, so this is the sun rising at 5:15 at Las Flores. If you see the scenery in real live it means you´re all set to have an awesome surf-session, no wind and just a couple of blokes in the water!

We met this little fella´ in El Cuco at the best place to eat around.

And finally little Jefferson was rewarded for his playing skills, impressing all the local chicas! Que hombre!

El Salvador has been a great experience, if the waves stay as they are now, we might just stay a little longer. Next stop is Nicaragua, I´m already a bit late on my scedule, but don´t feel the need to push myself to any stress. Colombia and Perú can wait for now. See you in a bit!
Harry

Good times in San Pedro la Laguna

I´ve spent two wonderful weeks in San Pedro la Laguna now. This is my spanish scool! It doesn ´t look quite like the usual scools, kind of better actually.

Thanks to Hurricane Matthew hay mucha lluvia, it rains a lot.

A proper Tyrolian hikes the mountains. Even if it makes no sense. I probably picked the worst day of week one to hike volcano San Pedro with my spanish teacher Nicolas.  Of course it was only training for my hikes in Perú...

When it´s cold and rainy, there is not much more to do but to hang out at Yo Mama´s, just like Juanita is doing here in the picture. The little adventurer found a stock of spacecakes and could only be stopped after having already eaten two of those tasty cookis. Poor thing, I hope she doesn´t turn into a wild animal!  Taking a closer look though, it doesn´t seem that bad, I kind of get the feeling...

After a hard day of spanish school and chillin´ out we definately earned ourselves a cool Brahva Extra and some candlelight...

... which can lead to a blurry vision. Sometimes you can´t find your dormitory emediately and end up at a full-on fullmoonparty. It doesn´t happen every day... but every other day.

My time in Guatemala is almost over now, tomorrow I´ll be leaving to to Antigua and from there take a transport to El Tunco in El Salvador! Leaving this beautiful country isn´t easy, only the fact the beaches and surfing await me in El Salvador can compensate.

Final tip for Guatemala-Travelers: whatch for Gremlins under your breakfasttabel!!!

News from Guatemala

I met some awesome people in Lanquin, namely Tino, Lina, Matt and David and we had a terrific chenga-night at Zephyr! My next stop was Antigua, didn´t do too much there, just made plans to leave to Zipacate at the coast of Guatemala. This is the Chickenbus that brought us there, quite a fancy ride...

This is surfcamp El Paredon in the village El Paredon. Not much going on here, the camp was empty and we were the only tourists in town. Had the best burgers and licuados (milkshakes) for 18 Quetzales, equaling 1,8 Euros! This was our hideout, five hammocks under a palapa, about 20m from the shore!

Main activities: random strumming...

...getting smarter...

...surfing the slackline...

...and of course doing the real thing...

...and somehow another day has gone by!

After five days of chillin´ and good workout in the waves we decided to head twoards Lago de Atitlán. Yo Mama´s Casa in San Pedro is the place to be right now!

The view from the ´Nazri´ is quite a good one. The lake is formed by a gigantic ancient volcanic crater. There has been a lot of rain during the recent weeks, causing landslides, blocking roads and leaving parts of the lakeside flooded. We avoided the hassle by staying in Zipacate, right now there´s no need for worries in San Pedro.

The surf generally isn´t the best in lakes, but you can always try and find a boat captain that´s willing to tow you behind his lancha! Probably the most expensive quarter of an hour in my whole trip, but it definately left a smile on my face...

Yo Mama´s is actually quite a safe place, I got a shot of our security guards off duty...

Finally I have to say, I´m still having the time of my life! After one and a half months there is no boredom in sight! I´m doing a spanish language course for the next two weeks, hoping to gain more abalities to comunicate on my further travels. The odds of getting gringoed (ripped off due to beeing a gringo) get less and the fun with the locals even more... Greets! Harry

P.s.: ...thanx to the crew, good times, FARAUT BRA!

San Crisóbal was a very nice place to stay. A beautiful town inmidst the mountains of Chiapas, a lot colder than Puerto Escondido due to it´s altitude of 2100m above sea.  Since it was cold and it rained a lot it reminded me a bit of Tirol. Didn´t make me feel homesick though...  I did a daytrip to the small villages of Chamula and Zinacantan. It was an interesting experience to see how the Tzotzil, who are indigenous Maya people, live an practice their religion, which poses a mixture of Christianity and Mayan rituals. The Tzotzil are quite an independent group, they expelled the bishop from their church in the 60´s an he´s only allowed to show up on invitation. They have their own transportation network and even their own policemen. I have no photos of the villages, for the Tzotzil believe that taking photographs takes away the spirits... and  because my cameras batteries were empty.  What  impressed me was the way the Tzotzil approache people from other villages with other traditions and foreigners with a completely different culture. They do not judge other livestyles or traditions, they solely see them as different from their own. A Tzotzil could never live in western style, but he would also never try to convince someone to live in his style or even convert to his religion. I guess that telling other people what is best for them and therefor thinking ones way of living is superior, is quite a western habit.

Doing a trip to Chiapa de Corzo in the Steemer with Sarah and Tom. Roadworkers cleaning up mountain roads after landslides is quite a common view these days.

The Canyon Sumiodero reveals an impressive view on waterfalls, rock faces up to 1000m high, crocodiles...

... and a magnificent ammount of trash, swept in from Tuxtla Gutiérrez!

Next station Palenque! Stayed at El Panchan, a nice hideout for travellers and alternatives close to the ruins of Palenque. The ruins were impressive and the setting inmidst the jungle breathtaking.

A common appearance in the jungle: waterfalls!

...waterfalls...

 ...and more waterfalls!

Tempel I of Tikal!  After leaving Palenque for Guatemala I visited Yaxchilán a very beautiful Maya site that can be reached via boatride on  Rio Usumacinta and the Maya site Bonampak. The next day I crossed the boarder to Guatemala.  Eric and Niki, two Americans I met in Palenque seemingly had problems crossing the boarder due to a missing stamp in their passports. Obviously minor problems like these can be solved by the magic of 100 pesos all around Mexico...  We proceded to Flores, a small Isand in the Lago Peten Itzá  in Guatemala and from there  did our trip to Tikal.

 Ancient Skyscrapers in the jungle! Seven hours at the site were barely enough, but the heat, the humidity and the mosquitos set limits to the duration of  ones stay!

There´s loads of animals to see in Tikal, I kind of liked this fellow...

...  until it started chewing on my pants!!!

After a chillout-day in Flores I took a bustrip to Lanquin close to Cobán in order to see Semuc Champey. It is obviously rainsaison in Guatemala  as this photo taken from the bus reveals.

Lanquin is beatififul!

And the Zephyr is the place to stay! Met the coolest people there, greets to all you crazy Australiens, Americans, Canadians, Germans, Sweeds...

I´ve heared that Semuc Champey is one of the most beatufil places in Guatemala, now I can understand why people say that!

And it´s good fun too!!

As you have noticed I have switched languages to english, since the majority of people I meet on my trip aren´t too familiar with german. I´ll probably stick with that for the rest of the blog. Good internet connections have been rare during the last two weeks and I´ve been on the raod most of the time, so this was the first and best chance to uptdate my blog. I´m in Antigua right now, by the way. It´s about to rain and I have my mountain shoes out for drying, so I´ll end my writings now...
Greets! Harry