mandag 29. oktober 2007

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...

fredag 26. oktober 2007

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:)

lørdag 20. oktober 2007

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:)"

onsdag 17. oktober 2007

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."










tirsdag 16. oktober 2007

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"

onsdag 10. oktober 2007

If you want to contact me please use email for now

I thought i was being clever when i brought an old cellphone with me, since i didnt want to get
robbed due to having an expensive phone. Well, turns out i outsmarted myself. The networks
here work on a different frequency than Europe, so even though its dual band, it wont work in
most of the countries in Central and South-America. I expect to have a connection in Guatemala, but i wont be there for another 2-3 weeks...So, please send me emails not sms:)

Just a few observations...

The subway in MC actually runs on tyres. If you think this helps with the vibrations, think again.

Mexicans seem to have an unhealthy relation with hairproducts.

Saw a man trying to sell two puppies at a tollstation. He was standing in the middle of the road with one in each hand waving them at passing cars.

In some catholic churches nuns are apparently also vendors, selling various religious paraphernalia.

fredag 5. oktober 2007

Safety first!

I have never seen so many police, security guards and traffic police as in Mexico City. Every store seems to have its own guard or two, even McDonalds has a guard. The record stands at five! 5! traffic police in one paltry intersection. One small two-way intersection, nothing special about it. Two were doing one way, and three were doing the other way. All doing the same thing, just waving the traffic on...

First few days in the big city


One word, Huge! Mexico City is enormous. You can`t really appreciate the size until you see it from the air. Situated in what is now a valley which used to be a lake before the spanish drained it, MC is home to between 20 and 25 million people. Nobody knows for sure how many. The largest poor suburb is home to about 2 million alone, and is a landscape of wall to wall concrete housing, most situated far up the slope of surrounding mountains. Dotted inbetween the countless grey "buildings" are a few painted ones, apparently only a few can afford to paint their home.
"A small part of the city."



The central part of the city is actually very nice, much nicer than i imagined it. The infamous traffic isn`t so bad as i thought it would be, and the pollution is tolerable even though it certainly blocks the view of much of the city. There are many museums to visit and countless colonial style buildings. Unfortunately, since the water table is constantly being drained, the city is sinking slowly but surely. Many of the older buildings are sloping, and on the street i live , the roofs look like a rollercoaster.








"The former headquarters of the Spanish Inquisition (que Monty Python:)"


"Church of Guadalupe. To the left they are selling plots for the graveyard being built next door. If you cant afford to pay cash, you can always pay in easy installments of 12 or 25 months. Gotta love the catholic church...



























"A building covered with murials"



"eehm...que?"


Yesterday i visited perhaps the most famous sight around MC, Teotihuacan. The City of the Gods is an ancient city which was built during the last half of the first millennium. The original name of the city has been lost, but it was later inhabited by the Aztecs who gave it its current name. Nobody really knows who the original inhabitants were or why they abandoned their city, which gives it an air of mystery. Today we can only see about 10% of the original city which probably housed over 150.000 people at its heyday. Most of it has been reconstructed, and gives us only a taste of what it once must have looked like. Originally all surfaces were covered with a white type of plaster which was then painted in magnificent natural colours. A few places we can still see some of the blues and reds in the murals, but most of it is unfortunately lost.


"Me on top of the Pyramid of the Moon. It represents the female aspect of the duality.
You can see the avenue of the dead going
past the Pyramid of the Sun."











"Here i am again, on top of the Pyramid of
the Sun. It represents the male aspect of
the duality. You can see the Pyramid of the
Moon in the background."