Just another day at the hostel...

Met this british guy in my room at this hostel im staying at in Bogota. Seemed like a normal guy, friendly and all. Well, i pass by him later in the day, around 6pm. He smells of beer and is a bit drunk. Still friendly though. Around 8pm he breaks a beerbottle and stabs himself in the neck. There's blood everywhere, a good amount of screaming (and growling, he actually growled) and it takes two guys to hold him down. The police come and take him away and spend a good amount of time searching our room. Apparently he'd been wacked out on mushrooms (of all things, this is Colombia after all). He's alright though, he was released after a lengthy talk with his consulate and the police. He even slept a few hours in his bed before he left earlier. If he was smart he went home, but i kinda doubt his intelligence after the show he put on...

Complexes much? This manequin must be sponsored by a local plastic surgeon. Unfortunately, this is not a one of a kind, it's just the most extreme i found (from Panama City)

A shot of Cartagena. Get it? Ahahaha..ha...heh...um, yeah...humor this bad is actually a hanging offense in some muslim countries.

I am currently in Santa Marta in Colombia, and in a fit of Christmas spirit i decided to share some of the wonderful decorations around town with you.

It's baby Jebus and his inflatable sheep. The impenetrable fence is there to keep the sheep molesters away. True story.

A bold interpretation of a classic scene. Set against a lovely shipyard in the background.

Yes fight fans, it's that time of year again, and how we have been looking forward to this moment. In the red corner, it's that dastardly devil, the sock displacer, the bringer of pain come straight from hell, Luuuucifeeeeerr!

His opponent in holy yellow in this fight for the light, straight from cloud nine, the Top Dog, the Parter of Puddles, the G to the O to the D, Allah, JWH, the one and only GOD!

We expect a long and drawn out fight here folks, and most certainly some dirty tricks from Big Red. It's gonna be one for the history books.

Lets get ready to RRRRrrrrruuummmblllllllle.

News updates on this fight around mid century. Be sure to tune in for the continuation of this epic saga.

These are all over the place. It's almost enough to make a grown man cry.

Here we see the result of the "No Tree Left Behind" act, closely modelled on a similar american undertaking. It just warms my little heart to see this kind of dedication to christmas decoration.

Although strictly not a Christmas decoration, this is incontrovertible truth that Colombia is a civilized nation.

These two cute girls were dancing on a bench in front of their house, obviously trying to entice passing men. The stippers have to start young to be the best in Nicaragua.












This incredibly peristent girl was selling drinks on the bus to the Costa Rica'n border. After about ten minutes i broke down and bought a bottle of water, the smile on her face was definately worth it:)











Those clever Nica's, always coming up with good solutions to their transportation needs.














Sleeping on the beach in Costa Rica. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon...

This pavement sponsored by Coca Cola. This one and rest of pics from Panama City.

This pavement sponsored by...uhh...the Pink Panther? He's really sunk low, next you know he'll be on one of those reality celebrity has-beens shows...

"For sale : Charming fixer-upper in quaint neighbourhood. Beautifully done in a classic style with french balconies. For sale by owner, serious inquiries only"

The quaint neighbourhood

Who you gonna call? Super Chicken! I feel so much safer knowing he's on the job, fighting crime and keeping everyone safe. Thank you Super Chicken!

Some more pictures

The busdriver who took us to the Pacaya volcano. The shotgun is to scare of the bandits in the area. We walked ahead of the main group, mindless of the danger like the tough guys we are.















A father and son clown act on one of the chicken buses entertained us in spanish. They come on board, do their five minute act and go around collecting money. Then they do the same on the next bus. Could you do this for a living and still smile all day long?











This friendly woman really wanted her picture taken. From Granada in Nicaragua

Whats this? Have i joined the Sandinistas? Nope, im just doing another volcano walk. This time to the Masaya volcano in Nicaragua. It was raining pretty hard earlier, so the crater was spewing alot of smoke and gases. Didnt see much, although standing on the rim of an active volcano and looking down into the smoke was pretty exilarating. Specially since there was no fence and very dark, so you had to guess where the edge was.








This deer lives in the garden of my hostel in Isla de Ometepe in Nicaragua. It really liked to lick the sweat off my arm, i had to go wash off afterwards:)

Honduras

I am now in La Ceiba in Honduras, waiting for the weather to improve so i can go to the Bay Islands. Its been raining here for a while (it is the wet season after all), so i might move on tomorrow if it doesnt improve during the day. No fun being on an island when its raining.

I've actually been moving pretty fast lately, not because i want to but because there hasn't been a whole lot to see or do. If i can't go to the islands, i will most likely leave for Nicaragua soon.

Anyway, here are some pics i took along the way.

A chicken bus in Antigua. Not recommended for people taller than your average garden gnome or if you don't like to have the sweat of your neighbour rub off on you.

Not too easy to see on this picture, but the boat is actually called "Titanic". I wonder if he would name his plane "Hindenburg" if he had one?

The boat actually runs as a ferry between the pueblos on Lake Atitlan.

The slowest man i have ever met. He could race a snail and lose. The road he is on goes down to the beach. With the pace he was going he'd have to turn right around when he got down to be sure to get home before dark. Picture from San Marcos on Atitlan.

One of the volcanoes surrounding Lake Atitlan. It used to be a supervolcano before it blew and left a huge crater which is now the lake itself. I was told a local hotel was trying to start up sportfishing on the lake. So they introduced a new species which promptly ate all the other fish. Now it's the only one left. It's crazy that things like these are still happening today, hundreds of years since the brits fucked up Australia with the same ignorance.

Another pic of Lake Atitlan. It really is a nice lake:)

Remember to eat your vegetables kids, you don't want to make granny mad. Picture from Copan Ruins in Honduras.

Another dark picture taken in the morning in La Ceiba. Two guys are leaning a ladder against some electrical wires, planning to climb up and fix the traffic light. Amazingly, this is not the most suicidal thing i've seen here. Their driving is much more dangerous.

Guatemala

I am now in Guatemala, currently in San Pedro (Atitlan). Since i cant be bothered to write much today, ill just post some pics:)




Sunrise over Tikal. We got up at 2:30 in the morning to listen to the sounds of the monkeys and birds waking up while the sun rose over the ruins.
















A small sized tarantula, could easily fit in your pocket. Why you'd want to put one in your pocket i don't know...

Yes, its another temple. Can you find Waldo?















Damn it, more stairs!

A bunch of cool guys frying eggs on the Pacaya Volcano not too fra from Antigua. I singed a few hairs here and there that evening. From down left to right : Jacob, Alan (who thought of the idea and carried all the stuff..kudo's man:), Me, Mikke, Tatto and Ida.







It's my one month travel anniversary today, it doesn't seem like that long to me. So many places to go and things to see, and only five months left. Guess i better hurry..naah...

Some more pictures...

"Caye Caulker main street. Its really got that caribbean vibe. Lotta friendly beach bums, rastafaris and Ganja sellers. There might not be much difference between the three actually, its really hard to tell:)"













"Not very original, but still gets a smile from me:)"













"The Caye Caulker cemetary. Right on the beach, just walk on through. It was actually kind of nice though."














"A Stingray was swimming around by the dock when we came back from diving. It had a mate as well, but it was a bit further out and didnt make a good picture. First time ive seen one, i felt extremely lucky that day."

Belize - Caye Caulker

After hanging around in Tulum for a few days, i decided it was time to go to Belize. Now, there
is really only one reason i wanted to go there, and that was to dive the Blue Hole. For those of you not familiar with it, this is a shameless quote from Wikipedia :

"The Great Blue Hole is a large underwater sinkhole off of the coast of Belize. It lies near the center of Lighthouse Reef, a small atoll 60 miles from the mainland and Belize City. The hole is almost perfectly circular, over 1,000 feet across and 400 feet deep. It was formed as a limestone cave system during the last ice age when sea levels were much lower. As the ocean began to rise again the caves flooded, and the roof collapsed."

I also shamelessly stole the picture from the Internet. I expect a lawsuit from the photographer any day now...As you can see, it is quite impressive from the air.

I travelled to Caye Caulker, which is a small island off the coast, so that i could be close to the dive site. Still, it took 2 hours by boat to get there.



"Caye Caulker. This picture is taken so that you can see how small it really is. If you look closely you can see the sea on the other side of the island, maybe 50 meters away. "








The dive went down to 40 meters, which is my deepest dive so far (i am only Open Water certified). I was a little disappointed i didnt get narced, as i was kinda looking forward to the sensation since alot of divers have told me how nice it feels:). We started the descent to a slope first, at about 15 meters. There were alot of sharks and Goliath groupers about, which was really nice. Just regular reef sharks, but there were so many of them it was quite a thrill for me. After the initial descent, we went into the hole itself. The drop is sudden, and the wall is vertical all the way down (well, at least as far as we went). When i hovered above it, i imagined it must feel quite similar to be in space. Just darkness below for hundreds of feet, with extremely limited visibility. We descended quite rapidly to 40 meters, where there is a cave of some sorts. Its really more like a large indentation in the wall, where stalactites and stalagmites have grown. We swam inside the "mouth" and behind the stalactites, and then it was time to ascend. We hung around at 7-8 meters depth for safety while we watched maybe 8-10 sharks circle us the whole time. They were only a few meters away and averaged at least 2 meters. All in all it lasted about 25 minutes. But it was all worth it:)

We did lunch on a tiny island which is also a nature reserve. While we were there, another group of divers came in for lunch at the same time. I thought to myself that i hope they paid more for their trip, as they had a much nicer boat. Well, after lunch we left for our third dive of the day and was gearing up. Suddenly we spot smoke in the distance and hear an emergency call. We gear down quickly and speed over there, only to discover that the nice boat we saw earlier is fully ablaze. Luckily, noone was hurt and we were able to pick up all of them and put them ashore on an island just a few minutes away.
Then we proceeded to do our third dive:)




"That sucker is really going. We heard later that it had sunk. While it was going on, i was joking with the other divers that when it sunk, thered at least be a new reason for divers to come here:) I also joked that this would look great in my blog, so i hope i was right:)

Tulum and Chichen Itza

Tulum is a small sleepy town not far from Cancun. Its mostly a backpacker town, so its not

really "progressed" much. Although there are souvenir shops wherever you look along the main street, the laidback feeling and the relaxed way of life is still prevalent. Tulum has a nice beach and some small ruins, but the main attractions here are the small Cenotes (sinkholes filled with water) and of course, Chichen Itza (Chicken Pizza as its jokingly called by some:).

"Chichen" means around the cenote and "Itza" was the ruling familys name at the time.

The site itself is very touristy, much more so than the others i have seen. Strangely its also not

one of the best sites in my opionion. The only pyramid is just 30m high, and you cant really walk on anything right now, although this might change later. Its fun to stand in front of the pyramid and clap your hands. The echo is a sort of ping, almost like a birds call. Apparently the sound is due to the way the small house on top is shaped.

The most impressive thing for me is the ballcourt, which is 168m long. The ballgame was considered sacred by the Maya, and as such was only played and watched by priests. Seven players on each team would have a bat in one hand and a racquet in the other hand, trying to get a 3kg rubber ball through hoops 7m up. Although the ball was made of rubber (tree sap) it had no bounce, and the ball was played with almost the whole body(legs, hips, shoulders). The captain of the winners team would be decapitated as a sacrifice to the gods. Although this doesnt seem to us like a very good incentive to play well, it was considered an honor at the time.

"The ballcourt. You can see the hoops far up on the walls on either side. This whole court was covered in smooth black stucco, even the ground was covered. The acoustics in here are great, designed so that the players and spectators can hear eachother easily."

"A closer look at one of the hoops. Imagine trying to get a 3kg ball through that little hole 7m off the ground. Kinda makes todays basketball players look a little wimpy actually:)"

Some pictures

"Three snickering schoolgirls who interviewed me for their class project. They had to do it twice because they forgot to turn on the camera on their phone the first time. The picture is taken at the palace in MC"

"Iiiiits Bimbo! Yes, get your morning bread from Bimbo. Im seriously considering buying the t-shirt even though its a football shirt. They sponsor some mexican team. Id watch their games all the time"

"Get your teeth cleaned by Dr. Poo"

"Its Dr. Poo again. It must be a family practice. If it were me, id drop at least one of the names though. Save money on signs, and stop all the tourists from coming by to point and laugh at you."

The trail to Cancun

From Mexico i headed south to the city of Oaxaca (pronounced something like o-ahaka). Its a "small" town of about 900.000 people in a fertile valley. Its claim to fame is the Monte Alban ruins which lie on top of a mountain smack in the middle of the valley. The ruins are worth a look, but the best part is actually the view of the whole valley from the top.

"Oaxaca seen from Monte Alban"

Right : "The mandatory shot through the bus window going through the mountains. It didnt turn out that bad actually. Most of the green stuff are cactus. Lots of cactus."

"Monte Alban ruins."

From Oaxaca i went to a small mountain town called San Cristobal. When i was there it rained alot, and was actually pretty cold at night. I even had to use the extra blanket. This town is famous for being quaint (quote unquote). Its a small town with lots of purdy little buildings. Supposed to be a centre for handicrafts as well. Me, i left for warmer places...

"Yes, them be stairs......my next vacation will be in Denmark or maybe Holland. This is San Cristobal seen from one of the churches. Hard to get a good picture of the town unless you wanna do a little treehugging in the jungle..

Palenque is the next stop, mainly to see some more ruins. The town isnt much to look at. If

it werent for the ruins, theyd still be arguing about who gets to ride the horse...Still, they had

a Burger King so i guess that counts for something..

"Yes, its me. Im about to have a heatstroke due to the extreme humidity and climbing up and down stairs for a few hours. How i manage to look this good without a dry patch on my body is beyond me...."

"This is probably the temple the Mayan king used to show his son to the people when he was five years old. Due to the construction and their knowledge of the sun, the king would step out into a ray of light just as he announced their next king. The effect would be dazzling to the religious masses.

"The administrative palace building. It had a sauna and everything. And yes, even bats."

My journey so far has brought me to Cancun. Its much like i expected. Its overpriced, overhyped and a monument to american consumerism. Its actually two parts, the downtown area which is an "artificial" city (This means it was started from scratch. Ive never seen a natural city before, but at least i know know what an artificial one looks like ), and the hotel

zone (which is 20kms of beach, american chains and...you guessed it, hotels). Not a place to stay, but at least i got to laugh at the drunken americans. I still giggle when i think about the blasted guy who came on the bus, paid for the trip and walked right back out again. He sat down, took a swig of his beer and waved at us. What a nice guy...

I spent most of my time either trying to get down to the beach, or back up. Due to mexican law, the beach is public property and can be used by everyone. The hotel chains have cleverly bought up most of the land behind the beach, and blocked it off from the riff-raff (me). There are a few accesspoints for us poor folks, but they are far between. In desperation i ended up going through a fancy hotel just to get to the road. I was pretty pissed at the lousy corporate fascists (you heard me!) at the time, so if anyone had tried to stop me i might have rebelled and sung "fight the power". Mexican jail would probably not suit me though...

"The nice beach in Cancun."

"The not so nice beach in Cancun"