travelling around

From La Ceiba to Guadalajara

2006-04-17T08:38:00.000+03:00

route 1

This part of my journey starts in and around La Ceiba (1) where there are Garifuna villages like Sambo Creek, where Negro populations live since centuries. They are supposed to speak English, but I didn’t hear this until arriving on Utila (2), one of the Bay Islands. It is a cheap (?) place for not very interesting diving, but fortunately you can see the spectacular Whale Shark here. After spending one day in San Pedro de la Sula (3) I entered well known terrain, because seven years ago I already visited Livingston (4), Rio Dulce (5) to see the incredible canyon here, and Panajachel (6) that rests along the shore of Lago Atitlan, the most beautiful lake of Central America. Lago Atitlan sets the stage to meet on of the most beautiful and friendly people I have ever met, the Maja women, and around the lake there are pittoresque villages like Santiago Atitlan (7), San Antonio and Chichicastenango (8) well known for its colourful markets and mysterious atmosphere surrounding the churches. More colourful Maja’s can be visited in Todos Santos (9) in an intimate valley, where life looks like it hasn’t changed for centuries as well as in Zunil, near Quetzaltenango (10), where it was a delight to walk to Fuentes Georginas (some hot water pools) under while passing meadows, watching flowers and listening to the sound of birds. After a long bus journey Mexico City (11) was another stunning and unexpected highlight before moving to Guadalajara (12), a not well known city in Mexico where ca 6-7 million people are living, to visit my friends Leo and Ruth.

route 2

Happiness is a strange thing. Most of our life we strive for it, but most of the time it seems hard to find. And suddenly it pops up every day, unexpected, in things so small you hardly notice them. This happened to me on many days and many occasions during this last moth of travelling. Most of the time happiness was accompanied by amazement, beauty and emotion, and yes an intense feeling of love I haven’t felt earlier in life. Well only maybe now and then when I am painting.

So this time I start in the middle of my journey in Panajachel, where I fell in love with all the Maja women I saw.

Panajachel

Already sensitised by the indigenous people of Bolivia and Peru and their beautiful clothes, the Maja women drilled a deep hole in my heart and filled it with a lot of inspiration and joy.

Traditional Maja Clothes

From my memories from 7 years ago I remembered their colourful dresses and I was afraid these memories were (in part) fake, it all was a mind trick! .BUT IT WASN’T, IT WAS BETTER THAN BEFORE.

In many parts of Guatemala, mainly the highlands, you will find the Maja’s. In most villages only the women still wear their original clothes (In Todos Santos I saw mean wearing traditional clothes and they looked very tough in them.).

Tradiottional man in Todos Santos

All villages have their own styles and often you can see complex weaving patterns and incredible colour combinations. Although the women certainly are not very pretty, they look very sensitive and feminine, and most of the time I considered them living art pieces. Needless to say their little children behind their backs were another piece of eye candy. Those people are to be swallowed!

Todos Santos 2

Not only are they colourful, but also are they extremely kind. It really was difficult to say goodbye to all the 3 Maja women (the last in western clothes!) who were running hostels in Panajachel, Todos Santos and Quetzaltenango and also the women on the streets, in the shops and on the fields were normally melting my heart away. One of the nicest activities during the day is to make a Maja woman or child smile. Your reward will be a face expressing shyness on the one hand and joy on the other. It is an addictive game.

Happiness is also meeting an old friend. In this case it is Lago Atitlan, who is the friend. 7 years ago I rushed through this area in an organised tour. This time I just wanted to enjoy the lake and its surrounding villages. Lago Atitlan is the most beautiful lake of Central America. The scenery is spectacular with three volcano’s posing behind the lake, the lake itself being part of an old imploded caldera now filled with water.

Lago Atitlan

Although much smaller than Lake Titicaca it has the same spiritual energy, and it is easy to sit a few hours to enjoy the intense blue colours of the water, the mountains, the clouds, the boats on the water and the people.

The life around atitlan

On one of these days I made a boat tour to several villages along the lake. Some very touristy (San Pedro),

Vieuw from San Pedro

others less touristy (Santiago Atitlan)

Santiago Atitlan

and the third almost in its original state of mind (San Antonio Palopo). Here the people lead a peaceful life as farmers, many women are weaving the local textiles and invite you in their shop. They certainly have had sales training because always their first question was: “what is your name”?, and the second: “where are you from”? As for the view this is one of the most idyllic places along Atitlan.

San Antonio Polopo

Farming in San Antonio Polopo

Next day I return to Santiago

Santiago atitlan 2

The shops here are very tasteful and the colours of the weavings are always a delight. Walking around Santiago fills me for some unknown reason with a joy more than the other villages around Atitlan. Santiago is backed by 2 volcanos and around the tops the cloud formations are always spectacular. Little fishing boats contribute to the peaceful atmosphere.

Santiago Atitlan the shopping area

One of the busiest and most colourful markets (and therefore touristy) is in Chichicastenango, ca. 1,5 hours away by chicken bus. The most important market is held on Sunday and from everywhere vendors come to sell their goods, like woodcraft, jewels, stones, textiles, masks, bags, paintings, Maja calendars etc.

Chichicastenango market

You have to hassle before buying, an activity that becomes pleasing after a while, but you don’t stand a chance against people that do this all their lives. On one occasion I probably performed very bad, because two girls started to giggle when I had bought something. They gave me the feeling I was a stupid tourist, who doesn’t know anything all (which in a sense is true!).

One of the tricks to sell you stuff is that as soon as you enter their shop they name a price and ask you to bid. When you start bidding you are lost!

More wares

The market of Chichi is held on a square flanked by two churches. The atmosphere surrounding these churches is very strange. Although it is supposed to be Roman Catholic, the locals have integrated their former belief and f.i. you see people burning offerings in front of the church to chase away the bad spirits, and in the church you can see leaves which is some expression of the connection to mother earth (but that was a long time ago when I heard that). The mystery is enhanced by the music. It is difficult to define what it does to me. It has a strange rhythm, where I imagine people walking for a few meters in a slow pace, then standing still for a few seconds before marching on with a weary heavy stride.

waving the spirits goodbuy

This pig has been very naughty and is going to be send to Spain

I was glad that in 7 years not much had changed. Everything was in the same place and also the village hadn’t changed that much. A comforting observation in this era of rapid progress and bulldozers.

At the end of the day

How different that was in Livingston on the Caribean. As soon as I set foot on the peer I didn’t recognise anything at all, and so I changed my original plan and stayed one day to refresh and find my lost memories…..

Livingston

I didn’t find them. The whole village has changed. Originally most of Livingston’s houses were made of wood, but now in the main streets all houses are made of stone. I remembered a dirt road close to the sea, where the local fishermen were drying large amounts of fish. In my memory there were hardly houses there. Now you hardly can see the sea anymore, and only in some places you can still see the traditional way of drying the fish.

Drying the fish

I must admit that I liked Livingston better than before. The people are wealthier, the village is cleaner and tourism has not yet destroyed the friendliness of the people. But for how long? There are plans to build an airport in this place that nowadays only can be reached by boat, a beautiful journey along a coast with tropical vegetation and idyllic beaches. Who will move in next? Real estate agencies??

Livingston 2

With them a group of tourist will move in that will change the mentality of the local people. A small example that I saw was this when I saw a group of three awful Dutch women, the kind of tourist that have no respect for other cultures. One of the women was walking around like some sort of missionair, she certainly thought she was doing she was doing goods deeds – invading peoples personal space unasked- giving children sweets and pens. Later the two other people were talking to each other: ``did you see that, and they weren´t yet aggressive.``

More Livingston

By that time my blood was boiling. How can people have a brain size not bigger than that of a canary. It is this sort of tourist who ruins tourism. They should shoot them!

Livingston was the last beach town I visited and also here I found my happiness. It is one of the so called Garifuna villages. Originally they were black slaves that were put on the Island of Roatan (Bay Islands, Honduras) by the British in 1797. From there they have spread along the Caribean coast of Guatemala, Honduras, Belize and Nicaragua.

Recipe 1

And again it was difficult to understand where this happiness came from. I hadn´t won the lottery to become a millionaire. I wasn´t driving in a big four wheel drive. I wasn´t watching one of those mind puzzling series about extra ordinary people living extra ordinary lives (which are also called Soaps), my hotel wasn´t five starred with airco, luxury bar and colour television. I didn´t have sex with four women at the same time, or four women in a row (in fact I didn´t have sex at all).

Recipe 2

). I should be the unhappiest man on the entire planet, willing to commit suicide by throwing myself in front of that 4WD (which is difficult in Livingston because there are hardly cars), or jump from a rock (again difficult to find), or drown myself in the water (that I could do!). How can a loser like me feel happy under these primitive circumstances? You awful man!! That isn´t fair, you should be unhappy without all those commodities. You should be dreaming of a (very) well paid job, working your but off for 60 hours a week, so you can have a nice life in 20 years from now.

Recipe 3

In stead I was walking (op mijn ooie dooie) in an extremely low pace along the boulevard (actually a muddy path just wide enough to put my feet on) stopping every 100 meters to relax, to watch, to smell, to listen, and sometimes to sleep. Although this beach isn´t as glorious as Tayrona beach in Colombia, it did something peculiar to me. It more or less transformed my consciousness. The outer shell of my body melted, I became part of the environment and there were no empty spaces left. Everything was in perfect harmony. It is still hard to figure out what happened. I only have clues and here are some of the ingredients.

recipe 4

- a big stretch of space unfolding until the horizon
- some little wooden fishing boats (without noisy outboard engines)
- the various colours of the sea (going from emerald to deep blue)
- small rhythmical tidal waves (and their sounds)
- the smells of salt water and fish
- coconut palms (lots) close to the beach
- stretches of tropical rainforest (see those radiant greens?)

Recipe 5

- nice wooden houses with enough space around and a lot of green it to give you the feeling of liberty
- small streams running towards the sea (shall we try to find some little fish and tadpoles?)
- a nice cool breeze
- people walking on the beach (not running) talking to each other and laughing
- children playing in the water
- lots of birds (cormorants, herons, pelicans) living in peace with the locals, flying close by totally relaxed

Recipe 6

- nice sunny weather
- blue skies with some spectacular cloud formations
- a sandy beach where you can sleep for hours
- fresh water pools, where you can swim
- tiny mammals like squirrels (hear them squeak, see them waving their tails)

Livingston exit

Just a few kilometres away from Livingston and the reason I returned is one of the wonders of Central America. 7 years ago we rushed though this area, and although the weather sucked I was immediately enchanted by its beauty and disappointed we didn´t stay longer (I was doing an organised tour back then). And while I was travelling other travellers were telling me about Finca Tatin, a beautiful spot (paradise) on the Rio Tatin, a side arm of the incredible RIO DULCE.

Rio Dulce

Tropical rainforest around Finca Tatin

Rio Tatin

The canyon of the Rio Dulce is incredibly scenic. As soon as you see it you are overwhelmed by it. The only thing I could say for at least 30 minutes was: ``WOOOOOW`´. And again it is not only one thing that does this to you. For instance the canyon is not very deep (like the Colca Canyon) or very long (like the canyon de la Pata, both are in Peru). It is the combination of several elements that makes this canyon unique and gives you the intense feelings only beauty (well ok beauties too) and nature can give me.

The entrance to the canyon of the Rio Dulce

So one of my dreams of 7 years ago became true, kayaking through the canyon and becoming one with it. That day started at 5.15 an and anyone who knows me, knows that this canyon should be very special to get me out of bed that early.

During this time of the day the canyon is very peaceful. The only sounds you hear are those of the water, clutching against the steep walls of the canyon, and sometimes a splash, caused by a pelican that lets it self fall from a height of 10 meters to catch a fish.

Sunrise on the Rio Dulce

All day you can see birds flying in and out of the canyon, and in the trees close to the river there are 1000´s of herons, egrets and cormorants. If you’re a lucky you can see kingfisher, and eagles with fish in their paws.

Birds flying in and out of the canyon

Detail

And again there is the mighty rainforest. Although most of the canyon has steep inclinations, trees have managed to grow on 95% of the canyon walls with lush vegetation. The combination of bright green and the yellow from a few flowering trees completes the fiesta.

Flowering trees

Steep walls

This canyon is perfect. On top of this there is the Rio Dulce and its side arms. Although the temperature in the canyon rises everyday to circa 35 degrees, the temperature of the water is perfect for a swim.

More Canyon

The river is fed by water from the surrounding mountains and also underground wells are feeding the river. So the water is cool, but not cold, and unlike the Amazon and its side arms you don´t get boiled when you jump in.

The water is clean, it doesn´t stink or taste bad

Clear waters

bad – in fact it is the opposite – and it is very clear. You can snorkel and hee! I am swimming in my aquarium!! All around me are the fishes I know from back home. They are called cichlids (a large family of colourful fish you can find in central and south america and Africa) and here they belong to the big Cichlasoma family.

Mojarra

Can you imagine how it feels to meet your friends from back home in the wilderness, and see how they behave in real life? I swam for hours to watch these fish taking care of their children (sometimes more then 1000 in clouds like dust following their parents). Sometimes they are big (more than 30 cm) and they taste nice too! Here they call them Mojarra.

Rio dulce

One of the other nice things about travelling alone is that you often meet interesting people. In Finca Tatin (and later in Panjachel) I meet Marcus, an American who now lives in Thailand. He is a Vietnam veteran and receives a pension because he is not allowed to work anymore, thanks to the liberating efforts of our felliow Americans over there (f.i. napalm bombings and agent orange).

Fouraging heron

Marcus has been travelling almost everywhere and he is an excellent story teller. One of the most interesting stories is about the Kalash in Pakistan. They are relatives of the army of Alexander the great, who left them behind. Their culture and language is related to Classical Greece.

Rio Tatin

Furthermore he awakes my interest for Fang shui (the art of organic building) and Krishnamurti (one of the greatest philosophers of last century).

Rio Tatin2

At night you can sit close to the water, watch the stars, see the lights of the fireflies and listen to the incredible songs of the (howler)frogs. Memories of Serere fill my mind. Yes I am sure the Rio Dulce is paradise and the people that live here are the chosen ones.

Rio Tatin3

Another colourful person I meet is Jan Zaal, who runs a somewhat run down hostel in La Ceiba. Jan is a 80 old Dutch, and boy can he talk. For 5 evenings he speaks hours and hours about his life. He escaped many times from death, f.i when the Germans shot him in his foot when he escaped, and later he survived (with only one other survivor) an attack by the RAF on a German train. He served in the nay in Indonesia, and sailed on a merchant vessel for more than 15 years. He married a Honduras woman and settled down in La Ceiba in the 60ties.

Jan Zaal

He tells me about organised crime and corruption in Honduras, which is even far worse than I already had thought. He owns a piece of land close to the beach, but the Mayor has sold this piece to an American. His argument: “I am the Mayor, so it is mine”!

By the way this is only minor corruption in a country where the rich are extremely rich and most of the people are extremely poor. And there are not many countries where people go to the beach in private helicopters and park their heli´s in front of the have-nots.

Parking a heli

I explored the area around la Ceiba for a few days – I went to Sambo Creek to visit another peaceful but poor Garifuna village

Sambo Creek

Garifuna kids

Fishermen in Sambo Creek

and tried to explore the tropical rain forest of Pico Bonito,

Pico Bonito

but the main reason for going to La Ceiba was Utila, one of the bay islands. So I took the boat, left the harbour,

The harbour of La Ceiba

and 90 minutes later we crossed the reef and arrived. Utila is a place where you can dive and according to many people I have met it is very cheap place for learning and very spectacular.

Utila

Both of these statements are not true. If you want to learn diving for less money you can better go to Tatanga in Columbia, and according to me the diving is boring here.

Clear waters

Although the water is clear here and some areas have nice corals, the whole area is heavily overfished. So apart from small colourful fish inhabiting the reefs, the enormous big schools of fish and the big predators surrounding these schools, characteristic of a healthy ecosystem and witch I have seen in Egypt and the Great Barrier reef – are not seen.

Still I enjoyed the diving trips around the island because of the clear waters, the beautiful colours and the desolate beaches.

The colours

Me diving

Desolate beaches

Close to Utila you have the romantic uninhabited islands you dream of possessing one, and one (Pigeon Key) is actually inhabited. On a space of 400m x 100m (maximum) people are living in nice houses, and they haven’t left much space left to shit. But they were able to build three churches here! The people live from fishing and tourism.

Pigeon key

Another funny aspect of life on Utila is how people talk. It is a mixture of English, Spanish and other languages, and they speak extremely hard and like to curse. If you don’t curse you don’t behave well!

A great moment of happiness occurred during my boat trip with wsorc. I paid 40$ for a special trip to spot whale sharks. I WANTED TO SEE THEM. And it is very exciting to spot whale sharks.

First you have to look for birds along the horizon, and when you get closer you can see an amazing phenomenon. Over an area of sometimes more than a 100 meters it looks like the water is boiling (the boil!). As you get near, all along the edges of the boil you can see manta rays and ‘the boiling’ is caused by thousands of fish that are jumping out of the water.

The boil

(What actually happens is that tuna fish are hunting, they enclose schools of little fish, helped by mata’s, and force them to the surface.)

And somewhere in the deep………. lures the whale shark!!!!!, ready to pop up in the centre of the boil. It is this uncertainty that makes it almost a Hitchkock movie, and as soon as you see the contours of this very big shark, you are filled with amazement and happiness.

Part of the shark

And then……… you jump in the water.

You jump in to snorkel with this beautiful creature. If you are lucky you can see it swimming next to you for several minutes and you can observe its magnificent pattern of white dots. Sometimes the sharks are closely followed by pilot fish, which clean the shark.

Snorkelling in hell

We saw four whale sharks that day, and although they were not very big (5-7 meters, where they can measure 19 meters). I will always remember Utila for its wale sharks.

The dots

And so I am nearing towards the end of my journey. I had to kill some time in Guatemala before going to Mexico.

Going to Todos Santos

Of all the countries in Central America, Guatemala is by far the nicest and although less green (or because of it) than 7 years ago, the highlands reminded me in many ways of the altiplanos in Peru and Bolivia, helped also by – as earlier told – the Maja’s and their traditions.

Altiplano landscape 1

Altiplano landscape 2

In Todos Santos (north of Huehuetenango) another episode of Wim’s Happy Adventures. This probably has been the laziest hike I have ever made. I stopped every 5 minutes to inhale the landscape, and in many places I sat on my ass for at least 30 min.

Todos Santos

One time I slept close to a small stream on the verge of the road, and passing Maja women were probably surprised to see this western vagrant. But I enjoyed intensely the rural atmosphere, people working on the land, the women behind their ancient weaving machines, the sounds of timber cutting , the sounds of far away animals like chickens, barking dogs, booing cows, and farting pigs. Furthermore the views of the landscape, the narrow valley, the smells of the pine trees, the flowers of a relative of the Puya Raimondi and the round shaped hills.

Puya Raimoundi?

These valleys are so peaceful that it is hard to imagine that people are fleeing in large numbers to the cities resulting in big and dirty conglomerates like Guatemala city, Managua, Tegucicalpa etc.

Rural landscape in TS

In Zunil close to Quetzaltenango similar experiences. I wanted to see a big volcano, but it had hidden itself in a blanket of clouds,

Zunil

so I started to walk and again the beautiful far sights (this time reminding me of Colombia),

beautiful farsights

the friendly peasants, the incredible amounts of different flowers, hummingbirds and the sounds of numerous other birds force me nine kilometres up the mountains.

People working on the land

Flowers

For me it is evident that although according to our standards of living the people here are poor, the people here lead happy lives. There is more than enough varied food, they have a home and a family, the people live in social communities, and they have control over their lives and time. What more do you need? A beautiful environment? Of course it is not always so. This picture i made in Quetzaltenango.

Drunk on the streets

On the top of the hills there is Fuentes Georginas, natural sulphur hot springs where I swim for an hour in a tropical setting. A nice ending of again a beautiful day!

Fuentes Georginas

And then it is time to say goodbye to Guatemala and start my 30 hour journey to Mexico city. It feels like the end of my journey, because I don’t expect anything anymore. Many people have told me in the past how horrible Mexico city is (overcrowded, 25 million people, dirty, air pollution, traffic jams, dangerous etc.).

snow on the way to Mexio city

Pines on the way to Mexio city

My whole image of Mexico City shatters within 30 minutes upon arrival at the bus station. MC has a beautiful clean metro-system that brings you to almost everywhere in the city. Every 2 min. a new metro arrives at the station, so there is no need to hurry, and the metro is never stuffed. There are even separate places for women and children to get in, if they don’t want to be touched by horny dirty little men like Mauricio. The system transports 5 million people every day.

When I arrive in the historical centre, close to my hostel Moneda I see one of the biggest squares in the world (the 3rd biggest). This great square, called the Zocalo, has elegant buildings and a big cathedral. I am struck by lightning, this is a great place, comparable with Buenos Aires, and maybe even better.

Zocalo 1

Zocalo 2 national palace

So next days I explore this city and am impressed by the parques like the Alameda,

Alameda

Mexican patrol in Alameda

elegant buildings like the museo de Bellas Artes,

Museo de Bellas Artes

art exhibitions like the open air exhibition of the work of Rodin, large governmental buildings like the National Palace,

Rodin 1

Rodin's lessons

Colourful people on Zacalo

I realise Mexico city is not a place to explore for only three days, so I have to make a choice. First I visit the museo Frida Kahlo. Frida Kahlo is a Mexican paintress who’s very personal work give a deep insight in her painful life. As a young woman she has a terrible accident that always plays an important role in her life and causes her to die on the very young age of 47.

She was married to Diego Rivera, also a famous Mexican painter (of big murals), which can be seen in many Mexican cities. The movie Frida with Salma Hayek as leading actress gives a very good impression of their lives.

Although there are only a few paintings of Frida and Diego, walking through this museum and the garden was again a delight. Artists like to collect tasteful and funny stuff, and all the items in the house like pottery, chairs, tables, books, masks, strange objects, the decoration etc. create an atmosphere of joy and lightness. Immediately you are great friends with them. You actually can feel the joy for life these people must have had. I spent a few hours in their garden unwilling to leave this spiritual place, and inspired by it I begin to mumble: “to feel without feeling………” and I try to write down what has happened to me in the past year.

garden and part of house of Frida Kahlo museum

Then I move to the Anthropological museum. This museum is build in a newer part of the city, Chapultepec, in a tasteful park, where there are further a zoo, and numerous other museums. You can spent weeks in Mexico city. As if the Frida Kahlo museum wasn’t enough, the Antropol. Mus. completely erases what is left of my ego. As a little child with big eyes full of fire I walk around uttering OOH’s and AAAH’s and WOOOOW and HOW BEAUTIFUL. This museum might have been the best museum I have seen this year.

It has a lot in common with the museum in Lima, but this museum is even bigger, and the building itself is another piece of art.

Antropological museum

I don’t have enough time to see everything there is to see, it might take a week. So I walk instinctively and look at those things that grasp my attention. The museum gives an overview of all the pre Colombian cultures of Mexico and because Mexico is a big country, there is a lot to show. There are reproductions of temples, and sights. There are murals, art objects, pottery, ceramics, statues and lots of information. I was especially struck by an Aztec Sun stone. A round object more than 4 meters in diameter with very delicate carving. The view of this stone frees hidden energy in your body, and you are almost hypnotised by it. A good example to show how good the ancient people understood the force of the sub consciousness.

Sunstone

Maja stele

Leaving the museum I encounter another open air exhibition. This time it is pictures. The theme is water and they are hanging here because a few weeks before the world water forum was held in Mexico city. The pictures are of extreme beauty, it just can’t end this day.

Water exhibition

The main reason for going to Mexico City is the pyramid complex of Teotihuacan. It is one of the cultural highlights of Mexico and of Pre-Colombian architecture. In fact it is for me the most impressive temple complex I have seen in Central and South America.

Temple of the Sun

The Temple of the Sun f.i. is an enormous amount of stonework 63 meters high, Patrick would be glad to build it, and the plaza’s, the small temple complexes and broad avenue called the Avenue of the dead give me an enormous respect for the architects that build this place.

Temple of the moon

It again showed me the richness of the cultures that existed before the Spaniards discovered this continent and destroyed most of the civilizations that were living here. It nowadays is hard to understand the lack of respect the Spaniards had for these sophisticate people. But also in our times it is easy to see modern conquerors in the name of liberty destroying other civilizations out of greed, for power, money and lack of sensitivity.

The design of the city

Detail

Finally I left Mexico City and took the bus to Guadalajara –another bus journey this time 7 hours- where I met my friends Leo and Ruth. In this city and its surrounding I will stay three weeks before moving back home.

In mexico they have big toros

My travelling has come to an end for now. Hope you enjoyed this story!

Los endos

Van Santa Teresa naar Tegucigalpa

2006-03-08T04:46:00.000+03:00

I went to Santa Teresa (1) to see Niqui. From here i went to Liberia (2),and visited the playa of El Coco. After this I decided to leave Costa Ricca and went to the beautiful twin vulcano island of Omotepe (3 Nicaragua), visited another beach in San Juan del Sur (4), before I went to Granada (5), and from here visited Laguna Apoyo, Masaya (6), Managua (7), before I had a great time in Leon (8). After visiting Ocotal (9) I left Nicaragua and went straight to the capital Tegucicalpa (10).

Santa Teresa

My previous story ended in Puntarenas (Costa Rica). I’m on my way to Niqui, a friend who I met 2 years ago in Rio. She then started her journey through South America, and came back to Holland in December 2004, a few months before I started my journey. Nickey managed to stay a year in Holland but decided that surfing and good weather were resons enough to move to Santa Teresa in Costa Rica. She arrived here only a few days before me, but i was in the neighbourhood, so why not pop in for a few days.

Going to Santa Teresa

Santa Teresa, it may come as a surprise, is a surf spot. Until not so long ago, there were only a few houses, but since last August changes have been big, and now everywhere you can see building projects, land for sale, new hostels and houses, places for rent, places to sell etc. Etc. The hell has broken loose, ground prices have risen, and they say that prices might rise to $300 per sq meter, whereas they are now around 50, coming from 10. Nicky and here companion Teddy are planning a surf hostel here, and I must admit that i am a little bit jealous.

Santa Teresa is situated on the south side of the Nicoya peninsula, just above the Cabo Blanco reserve. It (still) is a beautiful place.

the beach near santa teresa

Long stretches of white sand,

Santa Teresa beach

some live coral here and there, tidal pools with little fish in it, lots of herons because of that, strange rockformations on the beach, remnants of what....... I don’t know,

strange rockformations

live coral

fishing heron

and of course the colours of the sea,

The colours of the sea

the surf breaking on some old coral banks,

Breaking surf

here and there some capes

A cape in an idyllic bay

and in many places (still) tranquil beaches, that most of the time you have for yourself.

On the hills behind the beaches some trees are blossoming with yellow colours, and on the beaches coconut palm trees. There are so many it is easy to find eatable ones, and I’m not the only one that likes them. Little crabs have opened many and when I come closer to watch it carefully, at least 20 of them rush out of the coconut, frightened by my noble looks.

Coco crabs

One of the coconuts I open is starting to form a sprout inside the coconut. It looks like a mushroom and it would have grown through the hard shell presumably within a few weeks to form a baby palm.

I make long walks along the beach. During one of these walks to the Cabo Verde Parque I see little parrots, vultures, pelicans flying in V-formations, sometimes more than 100 in a squadron, fishing herons, a spectacular flying bird of prey (a white body with a grey head and grey wings – which bird is this prof. Koenderman?) with a little fish in its claws.

Cabo Verde

There are some lizards and leguana’s, and I see squirrels. I am in a biologist’s paradise

Cabo Verde2

and suddenly I see a group of Howler Monkeys. The males are easy to identify.

Search the male

But I’m afraid all this will disappear. Already in Santa Teresa there are not as many Howlers as used to be, teddy the companion of Nicky tells me, and when the number of tourists will increase (f.i. 10 fold), the quiet beaches won’t be quiet anymore, and many animals will disappear.

It’s the tragic of a beautiful spot, one day it will stop being beautiful, what will endure are the many hotels, restaurants, bars and noisy disco’s, and a nice place for surfing.

And I must admit surfing looks great. Observing surfers for days, I also realise it must be horribly difficult to learn it. It is easy to understand though, that it gives a great kick when you are able to ride a big wave. Nicky wanted me to give me a lesson, but there was too much wind. Later when I leave Santa Teresa I feel bad about it. I realise too late that I should have stayed a little bit longer to try to learn it, although I realise it might take months to get out of the stage of a beginner.

Surfin beach

I spent a couple of nice evenings with Teddy and Niqui, unfortunately almost always surrounded by noisy Americans (why do more than 2 Americans always produce more sound than a group of Howler Monkeys?). I hope she does well, and has a great time in Santa Teresa.

Next I move to Liberia. This is a nice town an hour away from the Nicaraguan border. It is nothing special but there are not too many gringos and from here I can get to El Coco, another beach town, where it might be able to dive.

It is situated in between to capes, but there again too many gringos, too many real estate shops, and the beach looks dirty. Later (in Nicaragua) I meet a Dutch woman who has a divers shop here, and she tells me there were humpback whales in the bay in this period, and some wale sharks. Ahum…., if I had known that……..(grrrrrrrr).

El Coco

After Liberia I decide I have seen enough of Costa Rica. It is not that I don’t like the people here. On the contrary, the people here are friendly, the car drivers are tolerant, and the bus drivers are no maniacs, the country is clean and it is the most prosperous country I have seen in South and Central America. But I don’t know, I feel empty inside, something is missing.

I cross the border without any problems, pay an entrance fee and after crossing a forest of aggressive taxi drivers I take the bus to Rivas. The contrast with CR is shocking. I’m back in the poverty that you see in Peru and Bolivia. There are a lot of bicycle taxis, street vendors (which you don’t see in CR), chicken buses, without space and comfort, sometimes though with chicken, the streets are filled with poor people and the town is dirty.

Omotepe

Omotepe

I take a taxi to San Jorge from where a boat leaves to Omotepe, one of the great attractions of

Nicaragua

. Omotepe is an island in Lake Nicaragua and is born out of two volcanoes that are interlinked by a small isthmus. One of the volcanoes, Concepcion, is almost always covered in clouds, a nice picture is the reward.

Concepcion 1

Concepcion 2

According to some on the boat this is a rough ride but after my trip through the Darien I feel I am in a bath tub. On the boat I meet Avarel, the manager of Hacienda Merida and together with a group of other backpackers (Bas & Greet, Dutch; David, a Swiss guy etc.) we arrive in a great place where I spend 5 days, most of the time relaxing in hammocks, talking to other travelers, and strolling around.

Hacienda Merida

It turns out that Bas & Greet were the same time in Cartagena. They took the boat I wanted to take, but which was then full. They tell me their breathtaking story of the journey, and my ride through the Darien Gap is nothing compared with their fearful experience which lasted three days.

Bas and Greet in smoother waters

They left in a small 10 meter small sailing boat. During the first night the weather turned bad and they had to navigate through 10 meter high waves. One of these waves broke against the boat, and filled half of the boat with water. B&G fearing this is the end of their lives, luckily the boat doesn’t sink.Everything wet, no board computer anymore and it turns out that the captain is not experienced in this sort of weather. The second more or less the same weather, and in the morning of the third day they each the first island of the San Blas, but it is not over yet.

To get through the opening of the reef, they have to maneuver through a small opening and the sailing boat has to make a turn, but the stirring wheel doesn’t function and they are not able to repair it under these conditions because the boat is heading for the cliffs. The main anchor is heavily locked and in the panic on board the captain throws out the emergency anchor, but because he doesn’t secure it properly, the first big waves causes the rope to let loose, so there goes the emergency anchor, they are loose again, and the cliffs are approaching fast.

In the next 20 frightening minutes, with the reef getting closer and closer, Bas finally succeeds to free the main anchor!!!

Their story is or will be published shortly in a Dutch water magazine. I was very glad not to join this trip, although their pictures of the San Blas islands are absolutely fabulous.

Together with B&G we canoe to a swampy river. Thanks to the very strong wind in front (but B&G are used to this!) it is hard work,

Swampy river

but it is also enjoyable because the people along the shore are smiling and waving. In fact the people of Omotepe are the friendliest people I have met during my trip. For example the women in Hacienda Merida are extremely sweet, and every time I melt when I look at them. Is it their karma or is it the food they prepare, because their kitchen is the best food I have had after Argentina.

Sustainanble fishing techniques

Along the shoreline there are many orange flowering trees, there are a lot of noisy parrots, especially when they are being chased by a vulture, there are magpie jays, herons, cattle egret, kingfishers, cormorants and in the swamps we observe during twenty minutes a small group of Howler Monkeys.

Howler male

More swamp

The Hacienda too is a nice place to observe birds from the peer, and in the lake there are fishes that have relatives that swam in my aquarium. I feel sad when I see they are caught by a little girl, and lay dead on the shore.

And (oh no not again) the sunsets here…………..

Sunset Omotepe

I leave Omotepe with pain in my heart, but forever I will have good memories of the friendly people and the peaceful island.

My next stop is San Juan del Sur. When I step out of the taxi, my camera falls on the ground, and after I found a very basic hostel I inspect the beach. I’m here because they say you can surf here – and after Santa Teresa I really like to try it somewhere - but when I see the surf, there is no surf. FUCK!

San Juan looks a lot like El Coco, it lies in a bay with two capes, the beach is not very clean, although it is better than el Coco. Also here are many real estate agencies, selling houses to mainly Americans.

Back in my very basic hostel I discover that my camera is broken, because of the fall. I’m completely sick of it, it feels like I am castrated. I’m certainly not going to buy a fourth digital camera, so from now on I fall beck on my reflex camera.

That night it storms in SJ, and because I sleep under a tin roof there is so much noise that I hardly can sleep.

Next day I visit Playa Majagual, north of SJ. The beaches here are almost similar to Santa Teresa. It is even more pristine, and you can surf here when it doesn’t storm (what it does) and when the water is not freezing cold (which it is).

A big turtle comes ashore. She presumably wants to lay eggs and when she creeps her way up, a few young adolescents who are there as tourists see her and start to carry her to a place where the sand is very hot. They are after the eggs, although this turtle is protected.

When I object (together with two Americans) they reply we should mind our own business. It is their country, it is their culture and more of that sort of crap. Luckily the turtle is too stressed to perform her deed, and she creeps back to the sea. I can’t help it but I have to smile when I see the sad faces of those silly idiots.

Also this idyllic spot will change drastically, btw. Most of the land here and in many other places on the Nicaraguan coast is bought up by big American real estate companies. Two of the hills near Majagual will be completely developed, changing the whole atmosphere of the beaches. The companies will make huge profits (and local people will hardly profit from that), it will attract rich people, prices will rise, and as a result this will push people at the underside of society under the poverty line. If they dare to steal, big fences and armed security guards will push them back to their wooden sheds, where they can rot.

I’m in a cynical mood. As soon as most of this area is destroyed by shovels and bulldozers they will buy the remaining forest, make it a private reserve, built luxurious lodges in it, and kick the last remaining local people out. Business is business, and if we don’t do it, others will.

After another stormy and sleepless night I leave for Granada.

Granada

Distances in Central America are nothing compared to South America, so I choose Granada as a city from where I could make day trips to surrounding places, mainly because I stayed in a nice hostel (Oasis), and I am getting tired of moving from one place to another. First I go to Masaya.

Masaya is probably an ordinary Nicaraguan town. Which means it is poor. Everywhere you see houses falling apart, people that don’t have jobs, beggars (they have some sort of job), 1 horse power driven wagons,

Masaya

and dirt everywhere. I am not very tidy but this is even too much for me.

Like in Peru people absolutely don’t care to throw everything on the street, on the verge, in little rivers etc. etc. etc. If you walk to the boulevard next to the Masaya Laguna, this could be idyllic spot is dirty too, and what might be a nice spot for local people to enjoy their Sundays or to make money with tourism, it just looks disconsolate.

This is not tidy

Sometimes the old romantic fool that’s in me shows up, an old woman who is sitting behind something that looks like a spinning wheel. It gives me a familiar feeling, like it is connected with my past. Although my sister Thesy used to spin, the feeling is older, and my conclusion is that is must be related to the fairy tail Repelsteeltje (Rumplestilskin). Funny how your own feelings can mislead you in judging situations, if you don’t know what’s behind it all. I already knew that lesson, but it is good to re-experience this from time to time.

Old spinster?

There are also moments of despair. Walking through these sorts of towns gives me the feeling of total hopelessness and shame. There are so many beggars that giving money is useless. You can help one for one day, but the other 10000 or more………? Seeing all the disabled, blind, old etc. etc. there is nowhere to begin. It makes you realize so intensely that there are so many things not right in this world. Thank god that these people have a faith. If not, what would happen, if they believed there is no life after death. Would they be waiting patiently, or would they start stealing, killing or doing other nasty things??? It is easy to understand why Che Guevara is so popular in Central- and South America.

The main reason for visiting Masaya is the artesian markets.

Artesian market

I AM GOING TO BUY A LOT OF STUFF …………….but when I see all these precious little items my head starts to spin and I have the feeling that I must leave this place as soon as possible. What doesn’t help either is that every time when I look at an item longer than 1/10 of a second, a “helpful” saleswoman jumps in my neck, and starts to show me all the nice other things she has in this category. They don’t know (but I do) that if you treat me this way, I certainly loose my interest. Only one feeling left, get the hell out of here!!! I am just not born for shopping, I completely miss the feeling for this sort of beauty.

Earthquakes are common in Nicaragua. For instance in 1970 there was a big earthquake that killed more than 6000 people in Managua and many people became homeless. Most of the international funding ended up in the pockets of former President Somoza. The Somoza clan ruled Nicaragua for three generations, one of the main reasons (maybe THE REASON) why this country is the third poorest country on the American continent. Also in 2000 there was an earthquake, and in Masaya you can still see the traces of it. The San Jeronimo church looks like it is glued together in several places.

San Jeronimo church

When leaving Masaya I’m amused by the bus station here. It’s a mess, no organization it seems, and the buses are probably even worse than in Bolivia. The long distance buses are also chicken buses, and it doesn’t make long trips very appealing. All those buses are btw old American school buses, and from the texts in the buses I make up that they are at least 40 years old.

Masaya bus station

In this region there is a lot of volcanic activity, so after Masaya I go to the Laguna Apoyo. During this trip I can’t remember to have seen an old crater filled with water, and that is what Laguna Apoyo is. From the rim it is a nice view on the lake, and it is a nice place for a swim, but there is nothing more to enjoy. According to my guide book this seems to be a national park where you can spot a lot of birds, but the only things I spot are hostels, ugly little houses, and a lot of dirt and garbage.

Laguna Apoyo

But there is more volcanic activity to see in the area, and then I go to the Parque Nacional de Masaya. The Masaya Volcano National Park comprises an area of 54 km² and includes two volcanoes and five craters. The volcanoes have erupted several times in history, and were feared by both the indigenous people and the Spanish conquerors. The Spanish baptized the active volcano "La Boca del Infierno" or "The Mouth of Hell". They planted a cross, "La Cruz de Bobadilla" (named after Father Francisco Bobadilla), on the crater lip in the 16th century in order to exorcise the Devil. By the way, the indigenous people had another way to please the Gods, they threw in children and young women ALIVE. So this time the cross is certainly an amelioration.

Parque Nacional vulcan de Masaya

Everywhere you look you see the effects of volcanic activity, and it reminds me of the Galapagos, although it is not as dramatic here in Masaya.

Santiago crater

You can see old lava streams, little volcanoes, imploded calderas, extinct volcanoes (f.i. Masaya),

Extinct Masaya crater

a smoking crater (Santiago, which is close to Nindirí),

Santiago crater again

and crater lakes, and in the very distance you see many more like a volcano close to Managua, that might become very active in the near future, because - according to a Brazilian priest I met on the rim of Masaya- a lot of tremors can be felt in Managua

Laguno Masaya in the distance

More remnants of vulcanism

Granada itself is according to many people the nicest city of Nicaragua, although others say

Leon

is THE PLACE. Again a Spanish colonial town, and when I compare this one with the towns I saw in South America, Granada is not very special, although there is one thing here that is new for me.

Granada

The center is more a less like a center should be, but as soon as you walk away from it, it gets a rural atmosphere. The streets a couple of blocks outside the center look more like a village, with sandy roads, and wooden (and rotten) houses.

Rural Granada

There are some nice spots in Granada, but overall it has the same poor atmosphere like the rest of Nicaragua I’ve seen until now. When I think back of Granada there is really not much I can think of that is worthwhile. F.i. Granada is at Lake Nicaragua, and you expect they have a nice boulevard. Nothing like that. The lake is about 15 minutes walking from the center and it looks dirty. There is something that looks like a park with a lot of restaurants, but most restaurants are closed, probably got bankrupt, and the whole atmosphere is boring and POOR. Even the entrance fee is poor. I pay 2 Cordoba’s (10 eurocents), and even this is too much.

By the way, while in Granada I manage to buy a very tiny screwdriver from a man that is repairing watches on the street, and thanks to a stroke of technical insight I manage to repair my digital camera.

One of the few times I am afraid during my trip is when I visit the hair dresser in Granada. It is cheap (less than 1dollar), but he takes out a big razor, and starts to shave my hair. My hair is going in all directions, and I feel like a rabbit being striped from his skin, ready for the stew! Thank God, the guy knows what he does, it even is not that horrible.

After Granada it was time to visit Managua but I already was warned by Vicongo de Ototlan that Managua was even worse than San Jose. I am afraid he is right, Managua sucks!

Downtown Managua

As already mentioned, Managua was hit by several earthquakes, the last in 1972, which destroyed most of the historic center. Since then there hasn’t been much going on in this part of town. One of the reasons seems to be that in this area there are too many vaults, and it doesn’t make sense building here. It might be true, but to see that there are still people living in this area in houses that make all Granada houses look like palaces, to see a heavily polluted lake Managua, to see all the dirt on the beach, to see the boulevard here with poorer than poor restaurants, to see the old cathedral falling to pieces, to see parks made with any lack of fantasy (and money), to see the rest of Managua without any nice building, again I’m shocked by the poverty of Nicaragua. It may be the third poorest country in the Americas, on other criteria it may be the poorest. On one internet site they are able to come up with one interesting site to visit in this capital. It may be The National Palace of Culture... Well, OK that wasn’t too bad, that’s true.

The only thing there

The only other thing I could appreciate a little was a monument of which I forgot the name.

With sight on John Paul 2 monument

For the rest Managua gave me a same sort of feeling like Köln. A city without a heart, and what has replaced it, is giving feelings of alienation and malice.

For one thing though I will always remember Managua, it only took me two hours to see what I wanted to see, and after that I wanted to leave ASAP!!

After this I decide it is time to go to Leon. All the people I met have different opinions on Granada and Leon. Some tell me Leon is the place, while others are in favor of Granada. I belong to the Granada camp, I discover soon after my bus arrives. There is the biggest cathedral of Central America, in a poor condition, I stay in a crappy hostel with very friendly people, but Leon is not what I had in mind (sorry Leon).

The book says it is a student town, and normally student towns mean attractive chicks, attractive bars, and some places for intellectual conversations (in this order of importance), but not that I can discover.

Cathedral Leon

And then there is Mauricio. Sometimes you meet people you regret having spoken to after a few minutes. Mauricio was that sort of guy! He addressed me on the street, spoke a few Dutch words to me, told me he was a guide and has a language school, exchanged email addresses with me, wanted on a picture together with me (where he grabs me firmly), asked me what I liked to do with him (I already cautious said I was tired, had a head ache, and didn’t wanted to see him until next night 8 O’clock) and when I left, he gave me a firm kiss (with his prickly beard, ughh) when leaving. After this 5 minutes of intense contact I felt I as run over by a bulldozer.

Maurico and me in happier times

Back in my hostel I meet Mat, an American who tells me he has been studying Spanish in Guatemala for 3 months and that he plans to stay another week in Leon to do another language course. He has a contact, and he is going to meet the person in a minute, so of he goes!

Sometime later I go out for dinner, find a very cheap place and order a large beer. When I have almost finished my meal, guess who is coming to diner??

Mauricio grabs a chair without asking (I already start to feel uncomfortable), after almost a minute suddenly jumps on the 20 cm free space left on my chair (me thinking this is a normal custom for the people in Leon), and maybe thirty seconds more he starts to move his hand towards my knee (well it might be a habit in Leon, it is certainly not the sort of culture change I’m willing to undergo right now), so I tell him to keep his hands in HIS pockets.

After a few more embarrassing moments I decide to go back to my hostel and Mauricio the gentleman he is, decides to walk me back.

In front of the hostel when I shake his hand to say good buy, I suddenly feel that something or somebody is not only shaking my hand but also my Willy. Well I may be a dog sniffing my dick, but I suspect Mauricio’s fingers are on the loose again.

I consider myself relatively tolerant to guys kissing me, and touching my penus, Ok is there is some sort of mutual bondage I’m willing to undergo this reluctantly, but after two short oral contacts!??????

Go to hell Mauricio, keep those little sausages of yours in your pocket or putt them in your ass if you like. Mauricio is a funny guy though. When I tell him to I don’t like his treat, M. replies “No tengo problemas”, which I interpret as: “I’m not offended when you object when I give your mister a hand”. Well I reply: “YO TENGO PROBLEMAS”, which should be interpreted as: “I don’t want you to scratch my balls, they are mine and I decide who has the liberty to tickle them”.

After M. has left I am more or less furious, that little prick who does he think he is, horny dwarf!

Back in my room, Mat is already asleep at 9 O’clock, and early in the morning at 6 he leaves, he is obviously in a hurry! I leave at 9.30, and when I inspect the room for lost things, I see under Mat’s bed a note. I read the note and there is a name, his direction and his email address on it. Guess who’s…..

Mauricio’s.

At the bus terminal I want to take the micro express to Esteli, to get out of town ASAP, but the express only leaves when it is full, so I have to wait until 10 more people have shown up. Finally after 45 min. we have reached the magical number and we pay. The bus closes and………

We are not off. After 15 minutes the bus is still standing there, and yes 15 minutes later we still haven’t moved an inch. This certainly is a fast connection. After 45 minutes it turns out that there is no driver. I suspect M. is behind all this, and I am forced to take a chicken bus to San Isidro, after that another chicken bus to Estelli, and after Estelli a chicken bus to Ocotal.

This last bus however is fun to travel with. The cabin crew is very good humored, they make people laugh, they hurry people in and out of the bus, patting them on their back, carrying their hand luggage, and sometimes even pushing them into the bus. They even manage to get an old woman running, she doesn’t want to miss the show! Sometimes life can be very simple.

Chicken bus surprise

Ocotal is the last city before the Honduras border and it is a quite friendly place. This time I am approached by Sariah, a 21 year old girl, who is studying computer engineering, and in her free time she approaches tourists, because she wants to learn English (which she speaks quite properly), German and Dutch.

Her big dream is to live in Rotterdam (??), she tells me. So I help her with the pronunciation of a few Dutch sentences, and when we say good buy she keeps her hands in HER pockets, the little bitch!

Next day I leave for Honduras. Although I wouldn’t have mind to stay an extra day here (to help Sariah a bit more) I’m running out of money, my bankcard doesn’t work here, and in town they don’t change traveler’s checks. So into another chicken bus and of to the border.

At the Nicaraguan border I have to pay 2 dollars to leave the country. They give me another paper, which is the same as the one I got when entering it, and it is a tourist card. Why the hell do I need another Nicaraguan tourist card when I leave the country???

Meanwhile on the Honduras side of the border, at least two windows away from where I am standing, an English guy is yelling because he has to pay three dollars to get out. He is quite firm that there are NO FEES, but also he receives an “official” note, although it looks clumsy and at hoc.

So now it is my turn to approach the Honduras desk. Papers are flying everywhere, people are rushing in and out, it all looks very official, and when they see me, a foreigner, some boy gives me paper, looking me friendly and hopeful in my eyes, and tells me to pay 7 dollars. On my question why not 3, he replies sharply: “IN IS NOT OUT”, which makes perfect sense to me. They even help me to surpass at least 20 locals, and when I pay with a 20 dollar note, they cannot change ( I don’t have small cash), and the boy says: “well 100 Cordoba’s (which is 6 dollars) is also good. In a record time I have passed this tricky obstacle and I am in Honduras. The same English chap is telling me that he earlier paid only 3 dollars to get in!

Of course I feel screwed, but it is also funny. All those hard working border officials, who have infected their colleagues in far away Nicaragua, those people actually are working very motivated to earn their bribe. It even looks they are running an efficient business.

After the border I hop on another chicken bus to El Paraiso, where I take a chicken bus to Danli, there I take a chicken bus to Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, where I arrive at 5 O’clock in the afternoon. After 3 days traveling in chicken buses, I am rather exhausted.

Chicken buses are not very comfortable, in fact they are uncomfortable, no space to unfold your legs, only air to put your head against, and because they stop every 15 seconds to let people in or out, they hardly move.

I must admit that the landscape in this part of Honduras is quite nice. There are hills and some canyons, there are some pine forests that smell delicious. But there is not much vegetation and most of it looks dry and ochre. I realize I have left the tropics somewhere (but where?) with its lush, voluptuous vegetation. Tropical vegetation is almost erotic. It gives a lot of energy, while these ochre colors make me feel I am almost dead.

Just before arriving in the capital we cross the slums. On the small hills which surround Teguc. there are tiny wooden sheds and there are no goats living there. I am shocked! Compared with this, the people in Casco Viejo (see my previous story), Panama live in luxurious mansions. FAMILIES WITH LITTLE CHILDREN LIVE THERE, my GOD!

The slums of Teguc.

I’m dropped in the outskirt of Teguc and I take a taxi to my hostel. Of course the cab driver charges me far too much. Of all the people I have met, I have developed a strong antipathy against taxi drivers. 95% is scum, they cheat and they lie most of the time. Sometimes though I can understand it, there are probably 2 million taxis in Teguc, it might take months before someone enters your cab, so why not ask 6 year salaries?

Later that night I’m going to a Chinese restaurant. In front of it there is a guy with a rifle. Is the food that bad here? In fact it is even worse. They should park a tank in front of the building.

I decide to stay a day in Teguc. I am too tired for another day chickenbussing, and although I don’t want to admit it to myself, I also want to see this capital. There is an art museum here and I need some culture to energize myself. But I will get much more than that!!

Teguc reminds me of La Paz. Everywhere there are stalls, people selling an enormous amount of crap on every street, the traffic jams, the noise, all the buses, the beggars and the city is teeming with life. Also like La Paz, but to a lesser degree and without the snowcaps, there are mountains around, and a part is inhabited.

When I leave the museum, which is a nice building, but has only a meager collection, there is a little demonstration in front of it. It is a group of 50 persons who are asking attention for their lost relatives, who disappeared 20 years ago. Their faces are on pamphlets, and I see young people who presumably lost their parent(s) murdered by an inhospitable and corrupt regime. I feel tears almost welling up and I almost start to cry. I’m touched by the kind and open face of a woman on one of the pamphlets. She is (was) a kind of woman I immediately would have loved deeply. What kind of person could have done something to her? I also imagine me standing there with a portrait of one of my brothers or sisters (or they standing with my portrait). What more do I need to say…?

Lost

Well this, in that same square in a different corner, there is a little pamphlet about nowadays police hearing methods. In some places they like to cut fingernails during interrogation. Police men are not well enough educated for this task, so in many instances they cut a little bit (and some times a little more than a little) too deep. For the first time during my trip I decide to stay away from public officials as far as possible. Honduras has a rotten mentality, I can feel it everywhere. But there is more to come!

I walk to the Parque Central, where a lot of old men are sitting on benches doing nothing, watching people, maybe exchanging gossips, who knows? I visit the cathedral and yes enough gold here to feed the whole Honduras population for a year. At the back of the church there is a 12 (?) year old kid standing. When I take a closer look at him I feel awful. I drop one of my most firm principles, w.i. not to give money to kids. This little kid has a very heavy cross to carry. Most of his body, as far as I can see, is burned. He is blind, and his face is heavily mutilated. In a country like Honduras this kid doesn’t stand a chance. When I leave the church I cry. Life can be so incredibly unfair to people.

Later when I walk back from a hill where a hypocrite peace monument is erected and from where there is a nice view over the city,

Tegucigalpa from peace monument

I cross a bridge. Under me I see three poor young men digging in the sand next to the river. They remind me of the gold diggers in Bolivia. A miserable and hard job. I feel sorry for them. On the other side I see a cowboy chasing two cows on the banks of the river. The cow disappears between buses that are parked there, a comic site.

Gold seekers

At the end of the day I walk through the area around my hostel. It is crowded with street vendors and stalls. They say it is a dangerous area. Everywhere you see people with arms. Even our hostel has one, he doesn’t look smart, he probably can’t hold a pencil, but at least he has a job. I understand why people try to defend themselves, but I have more sympathy for the people that have no perspectives to lead a decent life.

Police force 1

On one of the streets I see a young and handsome beggar (about 20 years old) lying on the street. The look in his eyes says it all, he doesn’t have any hope left. He is absolutely hopeless. A few meters away I see a young girl, exposing her big tits in a narrow shirt, almost pushing them between my nose. She will find her way in life, I’m sure.

Los endos

From Tolu (Colombia) to Puntarenas (Costa Rica)

2006-02-16T21:39:00.000+03:00

I left Cartagena (1) and went to Tolu (2), another coastal town in Colombia, but this one is more for local people, and I liked the friendly atmosphere of the town. On my way to the Darien Gap, a rather dangerous place they say, I stay in Turbo, a not so very friendly place, but I have to take the launch here that will take me to Puerto Obaldia (4), where I get stranded a few days, because there are no planes, and I don’t have my papers in order. Puerto Obaldia is very boring, but when I finally get to Panama city (5), this changes. Panama city is interesting with a lot of contrasts, and later I meet a lot of gringos in Boquete (6). Unfortunately the weather is not too good, so I skip my plans for Bocas del Toro and move to San Jose Costa Rica (7), the most ugly capital of the world presumably. I end this trip in Puntarenas (8).

Before I reach Central America, I spent another week in Colombia in two coastal towns in the Caribbean. Most of this week I spent in Tolu. Tolu is an old fashioned beach town (it reminded me of the Mediterranean towns, a very long time ago when I still was young) and most of the people come from the region around Medillin to spend their holidays here. Is has a noisy atmosphere, because all the restaurants and bars are competing who can broadcast the loudest music, but it is also very friendly with people making music on the streets while dancing.

Tolu

There a lot of non-aggressive street vendors that sell artesanias and the local bicycle taxi brings you for not too much to every place in town. These bicycles are moderately sophisticated, because most of them too produce a lot of noisy music thanks to the large batteries, and only moderately because I expected at least colour television on board, where I could watch an interesting Colombian soap. I would love to watch them all day, these flag carriers of civilisation.

The beaches are small and after Tayrona the waves look rather silly. The water is very warm. I estimate it to be around 30 oC, and it is hardly enough to cool off, but it still is nice to lay on it, when around you it is 35 oC and cloudless. In Tolu I meet Peter again. He is a dive master and together with him I made two dives in Tatanga. He is travelling with another German Erich, a friendly chirugian from Munich, and Sole, a lovely woman from Bogota (who tells me has 26 brothers and sisters!) who works as an English teacher at the University although she has an education in graphics design!

Laffi and Alex place

They convince me to change my hostel to Villa Barbilla, which is run by Laffi, a German and world traveller, and Alex, his Colombian wife. They have a very nice place, a big garden with hammocks, decent beds and bathrooms, good music, and Alex is an excellent cook. She makes on a night a delicious Thai meal (curry, coconut sauce and langoustines) in a town where friendly said the food is relatively poor.

I stay four nights in Villa Barbilla and enjoy beer, rum (yes yes you know this by now) and the pleasant conversations of good company. Don’t ask I didn’t do anything in Tolu, besides lying like a pig all day in the sun (by the way in Holland pigs don’t lay in the sun!) on the beach. Laffie, Peter, Erich and I went one day to the San Bernardino islands, where Laffi and Peter went diving, while Erich and I visited Isla Palma, which has excellently been transformed into the island of bad taste.

Erich in front of the aquarium

It is called the Aquarium, but it is much more. Imagine an island in the Caribbean (2x2km) where they have mangrove forest, monkeys, a lot of different bird species (even birds from Africa like the Ostrich and the Marabou) combined with a naval museum, where strange Voodoo puppets seem to act as guides, and then the biggest treasure of all THE AQUARIUM.

Before entering this masterpiece of architecture we walk through secret caves of paper Mache where we can see pirates doing horrible things with women (and because little children read these stories too, I can’t further describe here)

Sailors are nasty creature

and we see a beautiful waterfall where even Patrick, the waterfall builder I have met in Bogotá etc, can find a deep source of inspiration.

Another waterfall

Our guide, a girl ca. 15 years old, doesn’t give us time to enjoy all these delicacies and starts to tell about all these little treasures, while she’s far ahead of the crowd, explaining everything rapidly with her back to the group and not interested if everybody is there. This certainly was an excursion to remember.

Next we go to Isla Mucura, and we cross several very small and idyllic islands. One of them is Islote. On this island 2000 people seem to be stuffed upon each others lips. Out of the air you can see that there isn’t a single tree left, every inch is covered by a house.

Isla Islote

Sometimes you can see an isolated house walking on the water, some sort of Jesus bird houses.

Jesus Houses

Mucara is the next island and every tourists dream. Beautiful beaches, white sand, palm trees, and the beautiful colours of the Caribbean waters. The main beach however is unpleasant.

Isla Mucura

The local people don’t even pretend hospitality. They want our money and fast. So while we are in the boat, ready to go aboard, they already start pushing us to order NOW, and I say in my ‘fluent’ Spanish, that if they behave this way, I won’t buy anything at all. Soon I regret me saying that, because this is probably the warmest day so far in my South America trip (somewhere around 40 oC). Even a dip in the water doesn’t help. But I’m a man of principles and so I buy my beer somewhere else when the lady doesn’t watch.

Swamp on Mucura

Still there are some nice pictures to be shot, although I’m glad not to spend my life here. I would be bored to death. Not even a computer.

Mucura palms

Mucura beach

Next day I say good buy to my German friends (Sole already left) and I go to another big attraction. There is a volcano near Tolu with a mud pool. Never have done this and every new experience is welcome. After that much sun the last few weeks my skin can use a beauty treatment!

Arriving on the spot, I miss the typical cone and when I reach the top, I can see a big hole in the ground and some people creeping and crawling in the dirt. I remember the pigs in Serere doing that, they also seem to enjoy it so OK WIM BE A BIG BOY NOW, don’t retreat, step into that shit hole and immerse yourself in that stinking and diarrhoea like substance. Be a good PIG!

Pigs in space

So there I go and as soon as I step into it, it is hardly possible to move anymore. One relief, it is not possible to drown in this murky (?) substance, and you can stay in every possible position.

While in there for an hour, it is fun to watch the people around me, how they transform into Pompeii-like statues and all sorts of dirty thoughts cross my mind (of course those thoughts are private).

Well it may be healthy, this sort of penetrating dirt, but after this bath I stink like a farting bulldog (and they can stink!!) so I take a minibus to San Antero where I spend a few hours on playa Grande, before going back to Tolu. For the time being this will be my last day on a Caribbean beach in South America.

Next day I take the bus to Monteria, and after that the bus to Turbo. This is my last city in South America, before crossing to Panama. Originally I wanted to take the boat from Cartagena to the beautiful San Blas islands and then to Panama, but unfortunately the first boat making this trip is leaving the 2nd of February and I don’t want to stay 11 days in Cartagena. The other option is taking a flight to Panama city (PC), but this option is too expensive (350 dollars round trip, or 200 dollars one way, but I might have a problem entering Panama when I don’t have a ticket out of the country –some sort of stupid law in that country-, see later for more details). So I will try my luck crossing the Darien Gap by boat and the Darien Gap starts in Turbo.

Turbo

Turbo itself is not much, it is a little port where they ship bananas. The people are not very friendly, the town is dirty, so it is not difficult to leave this place. Ohhh, the Darien Gap, they say, is the most dangerous place of Colombia, there is a lot of smuggling, drug transport, guerrilla’s, soldiers and police and I feel less comfortable about it this time.

Also when I see the immigration office in the port, where it says I can’t enter Panama, when I don’t have a ticket out of the country and I don’t have one. But the guy of the Colombia immigration office gives me an exit stamp and only asks me if I have enough money and have a vaccination against yellow fever. After that the police searches my backpack.

So off we go in a speedboat with 16 other people, first destination Capurgana. I thought I had some rough (bus) journeys during my travelling, but this trip is by far the worst. For 3 hours the boat dances over the waves that are getting bigger and bigger, and on the other side of the wave it falls down sometimes for more than 2 meters. It seems I am on a rollercoaster, but I prefer 60 rides in Goliath, one of the top attractions in Six Flags Harderwijk. Maybe you can compare it with riding on a mechanical bull. 13 days after this trip my bottom still hurts.

Darien Gap 1

After an hour the crew of the boat decides it is time to remove the plastic roof above our heads, so the next 2 hours we have a refreshing shower now and then (more now than then) and I get soaked rather thoroughly.

One row in front of me is an Argentinean lady sitting and it looks that she is going to vomit on my backpack. When I get more used to this shaking and stirring I notice the landscape and I can’t help admiring its beauty.

The rough

The waves that are splashing against the rocky shores, the cliffs, the colour of the sea, the capes, the rainforest with the bright yellow flowers and the beautiful little resorts and beaches where the boat stops to drop some wealthier tourists who will spend their holidays here.

Finally we reach Capurgana, the lady didn’t vomit, the police searches my backpack again, I have to go to the Colombian immigration office again (no problems again) and to the Panamanian Consulate ( no problem) before I arrange a boat to Puerto Obaldia in Panama.

Capurgana

First we walk through Capurgana and I’m a little sad that I can’t spend a few days here in this beautiful place. If I had known this. This resort has beautiful beaches and great backcountry, but I don’t have enough money. Who knows next time.

Capurgana sea

The next boat trip takes an hour. Fortunately it is not that bumpy, but it rains and now and then a wave brings us a visit. Then we reach the harbour of Puerto Obaldia (PO). I’m out of Colombia, left South America, Central America here I come, I’m in Panama!!

Puerto Obaldia

Needless to say we have immigration procedures. First the military police searches us, no problems and then immigration. Before me the Argentinean woman with two kids that are grown up by the way, has problems. No ticket out of the country, although she has a flying ticket from Bogota to Buenos Aires and that is not Panama.

They argue for half an hour and the woman opens up her whole register of tricks. She is misinformed by the embassy, she has a plain to catch the next day, and she then behaves pathetic and in the end she starts crying. The guy behind the desk is very clear and very strict not willing to cheat on the rules. When he hears I don’t have a ticket out of Panama either, he gets nuts and starts to complain that this way he can’t do his work!! He lectures me about rules, procedures and more of that sort of crap, (too many people stay in Panama, so therefore these clever politicians over there invented this rule, blablabla, as if people would make use of their ticket if they wanted to stay!!!). Impossible getting through his wall of speech I ask him: “Que hago”, and he says that I should buy a ticket out of the country for 25 dollars, it is an open ticket and I even can get off and on the bus without problems (which later I learn turns out not to be true). Well if that is all............., even the Argentinean woman immediately stops complaining. We will get this ticket when the plane from PC arrives and then we will get our entry stamps. Only problem, they don’t know when the plane arrives, and I’m short on money, so the next days I will eat bread and drink water.... Eh well OK two beers a day not more!

Puerto Obaldia street

Unfortunately PO is not like Capurgana. There is nothing to do, there is a lot of military, to go to the beach is forbidden on one side, and on the other side I should get a permit. I don’t even ask if I can go to the mountains, I already know the answer. So the only thing to do is learn some Spanish, watch the locals, where women of the Kuna tribe are the most interesting to watch, because of the colourful dresses they wear and the ornaments around their legs (Chaquiras). Life is too quiet here, most people sit on their ass the whole day. I like being lazy, but this is even too much for me.

The only thing here is the sea and there are big waves again. It might be dangerous here too, because of the undercurrents.

On the morning of the third day, I hear that a plane from PC will arrive and my name is on the list. The plane will leave at 11 AM. So I hurry to the guy of Immigration to get my entry stamp. Although I don’t have my ticket yet, he gives me an entry stamp. The guy is really not bad. I’m in Panama officially now!!!!!!!!!

Of course the plane is not on time, but around 1PM when the dog has sniffed our baggage, I get my bus ticket, and we leave to PC where we arrive 40 minutes later. Needless to say we have immigration procedures. First we have the dog again and I hope the other dog didn’t pee on my backpack. Male dog have the nasty habit of peeing over everything that doesn’t smell like theirs. Then there is the man of Immigration and although I have an entry stamp, the same questions, that stupid bus ticket and this is NEW, they verify my passport number. Then, probably because the dog had a cold, final inspection of my backpack by a guy, who is taking his job very serious (and I mean very serious....). So after 11 inspections (is 11 not the fools number?) I’M OFFICIALLY IN PANAMA AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At the airport I get a lift from a Panamanian woman who shows me the centre, brings me to several 3hour 10$ hotels, which seem too noisy and finally drops me in front of one of the nicest hostels in PC, “Casco Viejo”. After 5 energy consuming days I’m finally in Panama City.

Panama casco viejo

PC is certainly a city that forces you to think. At one end of the city is Casco Viejo, the oldest part and well worth visiting. At the other end is the new part with skyscrapers, malls, American food chains, and wealthy(?) Americans. In the middle you have the centre (very clever remark Wim!!!), which has nothing interesting to visit except for the 3h 10$ hotels. PC is built in a bay on the Pacific coast, and the views along this bay from the old town to the new town and vice versa are magnificent.

Old and new

Casco Viejo, some people told me, looks like Havana, which isn’t a compliment in one way, but it the other way it is. There is life on the streets and also the noise coming out
of the houses is very vivid, a lot of noise and temperament. A nice place to watch people and according to many locals in some places very dangerous, where you better can’t go.

Here do live people!

I even get police protection (recognize this Tony and Ainsley??) to guide me out of the area Chorrillo, when I was strolling around, interested by the old wooden (and almost rotten) houses, the life on the streets, the dirt etc.

My private guards

Casco Viejo is a mixture of these old wooden houses,

Casca viejo's life

newly renovated houses, old stone houses that almost look like ruins (most of the time people still living here). There are even stone buildings where only the frame is standing and it looks like they have been bombed. It might even be true because close to the theatre (which is a lovely place),

The theatre

there are the remnants of a building that was bombed by the Americans when they brought Noriega a visit in 1989.

House with lot of fresh breeze

One of the nicest places that combines a lot of these elements is near Plaza Herrera, where there is a remnant of the old city wall (like in Cartagena), old wooden houses falling apart, and a beautifully restored 19/20th century building, that resembles the bow of a ship. 100 meters further starts an area, where a tourist better doesn’t come. There are a lot of this sort of places with mixtures of renovated houses and houses falling apart and therefore it is a pleasure to walk around to discover all these extremes in every single street. I enjoyed it very much, this vibrant part of town.

The bow of a ship and the city wall

Unfortunately this situation won’t last long. They are going to renovate Casco Viejo. Although I understand the necessity, the plan is also to throw out the poor (probably to where they belong which is the slums that surround every big city in the third world) and then the project developers march in, renovating it in a sterile fashion and degrading the place into a shopping area for the rich at day time, and a dead object at night time, with the exception of some plaza’s where the rich will eat in expensive restaurants and the poor are performing some silly dances in the hope that the rich will spare a few dimes for this pleasant minute if diversion in between the soup and the lobster.

I said the fool

Kuna uniform

The presidential palace has a curious guard. They are cranes and they don't like the competition from there human collegues, who is very proud of his task.

Presidential gard

city life

Panama new

I hope that PC will not develop into something the centre of Cartagena already is. Then on the other side the sky scrapers, which suggest that there is a lot of American money in Panama.
Talking about Panama city, the absolute must is the canal. And since I am a former employee that worked on this sort of installation, I have to go. The Panama canal connects the Pacific with the Atlantic and is 80 km long.

Panama canal

To get from here to there you have to cross three locks that raise the ships about 100 metres (and drops them again the same height). The French started the first project (by de Lessep, the same who built the Suez canal), but it failed very soon. Then the Americans came in and they finished the project successfully in the second decade of the 20th century. Until 1999 the Americans had the jurisdiction over the canal, but handed it over in 1999 to the Panamanians. The canal is an impressive piece of technology but the 5$ entrance to the visitor centre was too much for me, so after the more or less obliged pictures, I walked to Panama bay, where there is only a small strip between the bay and the last part of the canal. Also here you see they are investing a lot of money to attract the wealthy (American) tourist.

Panama bay (left) and Panama canal

All in all I had a nice time in PC. One of the nicest experiences was a street concert, where I just happened to be, and enchanted by their music, I sat down and watched happily these incredible musicians and their poetic music. Malpais –the name of the band- is Costa Rican, and it reminded me of the Nits, Angelo Branduardi and other bands that integrate local music with pop and classical music. I even bought their CD, and felt refreshed for two days. Art is really comforting.

Balboa monument

Next day I take the taxi to the bus station and meet a guy who already travels 10 years. He is around 30 and I realise I’m still an amateur. I take the bus to Boquete,

Panama buses

How to make ice (a big ice block, scrap it of, and add sirup)!

a 7 hours long journey to the border of Panama and for the first time the landscape is boring and I realise I really have left South America. Gone are the mighty mountains of the Andes.

I hardly have a good reason choosing Boquete. I wanted to go to Bocas del Toro (islands in the Caribbean) but the weather predictions are not good and being on a small island when the weather sucks, that never again. I learned that in Belise once. Boquete has some nice countryside and is close enough to Bocas may the weather turn to good.

Boquete

All in all I stay 4 nights. The little village is slowly being transformed into an Anerican countryside village. Many Americans buy property here the largest being retired. They surprise me too. They are very critical about their government, and although I never met any American during my travel who likes the Bush administration, I didn’t expect this from an older generation. One of them even speaks of “this corrupt government”.

Valle Escondida

Outside Boquete an American has bought a whole valley and he now slowly (?) transforms this valley into a village for the rich. I must admit (after paying 2 dollars entrance) that the houses are built in a beautiful environment and even the houses are altogether not that bad, but a closer look upon the lots learns me I will not spend my money here. 250000$ for a house where the neighbours are almost looking in your bedroom, and there is only a front garden, no I’m going to spend my money elsewhere. I think of Patrick Ryan again. He really could build some great waterfalls here.

Valle Escondida 2

Boquete is advertised as a place with a lot of flowers and this is certainly true. It is a long time ago that my nose did some work (although I mustn’t forget the little stream in Turbo Colombia, that looked black and smelled as if at least 1000 elephants had been shitting and vomiting into it), and the friendly sun gives these flowers a mighty aura.

Flowers in Boquete

There are even gardens to visit according to my guide book. One of them is Mi Jardin is su jardin, but this garden is not my garden. The initiative of the owner is however very friendly. He opens his garden for the public for free, and all Dutch love this sort of gesture. Unfortunately this garden doesn’t give me any thrill at all, and for a little while I wonder why. I start to think of the garden my mother had in Utrecht. A heavenly garden. My mother, she is a gardener. Always when I was in there I felt at home (which is true by the way), and also the garden of my sister Marleen has the same atmosphere. What is the difference with this boring garden????

I walk further through hilly landscape with some nice views on the surroundings and I stumble onto another garden, El Explorador, but to enter this one I have to pay 2$! That is a lot of money for this Scottish Dutchman, and I hesitate………….

OK, I’m in a good mood so I give this monstrous sum of money to a friendly looking lady, and here we go…….

THE GARDEN EXPLORADOR

MMM, this seems to be interesting, although all that moralistic stuff in here, I don’t know, that could be a little bit less.

Translate lesson

Hmmm, but I love that view over there and heee what an interesting flower. Shit, I never saw such a palm tree. WOW, a green humming bird, hihihi that’s funny, I have never seen that, mmm that saying certainly has some true meaning, I can’t deny that…….HAHAHAHAHAHA, don’t drink when you fly hilarious,

Don't fly when you drink

OOOOOH this reminds my of Bert’s (de Wilde, my art teacher) little objects in his atelier. Maybe you should call them “Little sparks of Joy”.

Sparks of Joy 1

Sparks of joy 2

And so I wander around a few hours in this lovely garden; nice flowers, funny objects, things that make you think, nice places to sit and to watch the landscape in the right spot. In every corner there are things to be surprised of, or just to laugh about. Yes I’m touched again, like before in Sucre, in the textile museum (Bolivia), or like in La Paz, just walking in the streets, like Serere, seeing the colourful insects and what to think of that wonderful museum in Lima, there was so much to DISCOVER.

Yes it is about discovering, that makes a good garden, that was there at home, that is still there in Marleen’s garden and I hope will be there when Thesy’s (my other sister) garden gets more shape.

To discover, to explore………..

My last day in Boquete with still bad weather, I spend walking around a little bit more.

A walk through the Boquete area

This time to the hills where there are some coffee plantations, and later I talk with Diego and Natalia in hostel Palacio. They make articrafts and sell it on the streets. They make long days, but earn enough to combine travelling with working. Natalia is doing this for 3 years now, and Diego started when he was 16. Now he is 25 and has seen most of central and South America. I admire them, these friendly people and they change my way of thinking a little bit further.

Coffee

The weather in this part of Panama stays windy, rainy and cold, so I decide to skip Bocas del Toro, and move to San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica, 7 hours by bus from Boquete.

Raining cats and.......

I cross the border in Paso Canoas, and to my surprise the lady behind the desk doesn’t even look at me. She just stamps my passport. No controls, no dogs, why didn’t I smuggle a shit load of cocaine. I could have made a fortune.

The bus from Neily to San Isidro, a greater part along the river El General, is rather nice again. The part from San Isidro to San Jose in a full bus, where I have to stand most of the time is in the dark. I arrive in San Jose, while there are presidential elections going on. It is very exciting because Arias (40,5%) leads Solis (40,2%). Many people drive in their cars, making noise and flagging.

Through Costa Rica

Through Costa Rica 2

I go to hostel Nicaragua, an old and worn out place, run by an old and worn out lady with grey hair (but I have respect for her grey hair). San Jose is however the most ugly capital I have ever seen. There is nothing interesting and the architecture is awful. Wait!There is one interesting spot.

San Jose

If you think away the fences, the concrete and the litter, and you just look at the virgin soil, that his how I would like to see San Jose. No time to waste in this place.

Next I spent 1 day in Puntarenas. It is not an incredible place, but after almost two weeks clouds and rain (yes Barbara and Walewein, be glad you are in Holland, because the last 2 weeks were awful!) it is nice to see the sun again. Puntarenas is built on a small strip of land (6km x 600m) surrounded by the pacific. It could be a nice beach town, but it is not, so after one day I leave to Santa Teresa on the other side of the bay.

Puntarenas

Why……??
I’m going to meet a friend, next time more.
Love Wim

Los endos 1

Los Endos 2

From Bogota to Cartagena

2006-01-18T22:35:00.000+03:00

Bogota to Cartagena

The last 5 to 6 weeks i have been lazy. Allready in Bogota (1) there was a lot of booze, party, getting late into bed etc. This multiplied itself for the next weeks where i had a great time in San Gil (2) doing activity sports, and later a lot of work on the plaza to keep up with the locals, as well as in Santa Martha and Tatanga (around 4). Next to that finally there was the beach with temperatures in between 30 and 35 degrees, lovely water to swim, and nice views. But i have been cultural again. First i went to Villa de Leiva (not on the map but 4 hours north from Bogota), I did one of the nicest tours you can do in South America to the LOST CITY (near 4), saw Barichara, another colonial town near San Gil, and finally ended up in Cartagena (5), yes another of those colonial city's, but this time with city walls, which made in special. The biggest sensation for me was Tayrona national park (east of 4) where the beach was stunning as wells as the landscape surrounding it. It is the perfect beach.

Tayrona National Park

I'm starting to write this story on Tyrona beach in northern Colombia. tayrona beach is the most incredible beach I have ever seen. Was 2 months earlier Tortuga bay on the Galapagos allready a memorable place to be, this beach beats all the beaches I have ever seen.

Waves Tayrona beach

You can stare for hours at the incredible waves storming in and tumbling over each other with roaring sounds,

Tayrona beach waves 3

Tayrona beach waves 4

or enjoy these waves in the water although you really have to take care, because the waves are so powerful they might break your neck. It is very spectacular when these waves toss a group of people over.

Big waves

Raging waves

And then there are the beaches in all varieties.

Tayrona Beaches

The biggest beach is ca. 1 km long with beautiful white sand, the smallest beach not more than 50 meters wide in a little idyllic bay, where coconut palms line the beginning of the tropical rainforest that starts immedeately here after.

Tayrona beaches2

Behind one of these beaches there is a little fresh water stream with tadpoles and you can see some big toads here every night like in Serere.

The most beautiful beach in the world

Behind the beaches you can see steep mountains with big boulders.

The most beautiful beach in the world2

These mountains rise up to 5700 meters, some 45 km further, and there are SNOWCAPPED PEAKS over there again. I allready started to miss them, but there they are.

the Sierra Nevada

Then there is the colour of the water that goes from blue to turqoise to green, and although the waters are fierce, in many places it is cristal clear. Outside you can see a reef about 300 meters away, where the first waves are born.

Big beaches

Palm trees and fresh coconuts

Palm trees

All around you can see big boulders lying around in the water, and sometimes a whole pile forms a little island, covered with lush plant life, and sometimes even palms.

Island made of boulders

Then there are the pelicans here. They fly in V shaped formations. It looks like a group of cyclists that are on a nice day cruising along the country side. It really seems they are enjoying this, because they don't have anything else to do. I never saw pelicans do this elsewhere!

Pelicans in v formation

The combination of all these elements creates an incredible scenic place, where i stayed for 10 days, not doing more than enjoying the surf, lying in hammocks,

Sleeping place

drinking rum and beer, enjoy the full moon on the beach, etc. etc. I enjoyed the company of some Aussies for the first 5 days (Don, Rob, and Charlie, with whom i played Shithead, a typical card game for english speaking travellers), and later i had a good time with Joan and Ben (Canadian and Kiwi), who like me like to kill some rum bottles from now and then. I met them all when i was doing the Lost City track.

A little turttle beach in Tayrona National Park, see the turttle?

The Ciudad Perdida

What Machu Pichu is for Peru, is the Lost City for Colombia. A must do 6 day trek for Gringo's. Nicky already wrote me last year about the beauty of this trek, and everybody else i met told me the same. It is not as touristic as Machu Pichu and not so expensive (150E), and because 2 years ago a group of tourists where captured and kept hostage by guerilla's for 10 months the amount of people that do this has dropped considerably. But not this time!

Girls welcoming gringo's at the start of the track

25, many native english speaking gringo's, set of on a trail with steep green hills covered with lush tropical rain forest, refreshing streams, and little waterfalls in which you can have a refreshing bath after stripping off clothes that are soaked with sweat. Temperatures during the day rise to 30-35 degrees in a humid environment, and NOEL KEMPF certainly learned me that that means smelly clothes and dirty rags after a few days.

Vieuwpoints on our way to the city

And then there are my friends, the sandflies, those horrible little creatures that nibble your feet, your arms and everything else that is uncovered, leaving behind little red bloodspots, that start to itch intensely after a few hours, and they itch at least for a week, preferably just before you go to bed or just after waking up. As a result you scratch everything open and then the itching becomes unbareble.

Hills before CP

Bathing opportunities in first camp

Fortunately for the group, there was a girl, Jane, a very funny Aussie, who was particulary popular with the sandflies. Her bright white milk bottles were the central meeting place for those sucking monsters, and as a result after a week her legs looked like yoghourt with big strawberries popping up from the surface. I had learned my lesson in the Yungas in Bolivia and wore long trousers all day.

Gringo's and Cogi (the local tribe), Jane the sandfly mistress in front

The Ciudad Perdida was built by the Tayrona people, some 800 years ago. Nowadays part of their offspring is living in villages around the CP, and they are called the Cogi.

A local cogi village

More Cogi

The Ciudad Perdida is built in the hills that surround the highlands of the Sierra Nevada in a superb setting. As soon as you have climbed the 1200 stairs that leed to the central meeting terrace,

The Stairs to Ciudad Perdida

you can see that on one side the the ciudad perdida is shelterd by steep hills, where a single cascade is finding its way down in between the abundant rainforest, while on the other sides there are open views to several valleys. It is easy to understand why the Tayrona chose this place. It immedeately gave me a WOOOOOOW feeling, because of its beauty, and after that you feel safe and a spiritual energy flowing through you. The same sort of sensation I felt in Serere.

CP vieuw from the main terrace into the valleys

A part of the main terrace

The CP reminded me of KUELAP. Same sort of setting, high on a hill , the round terraces. The stone work done here is not for the construction of a fort, but in the construction of many stairways and also the base of all the terraces is made of stone.

Terraces under vegetation

More vegetation

Most of it is overgrown with ferns and mosses. About 25% of CP, discovered only recentely in 1975, when it became clear that graverobbers dug up gold artefacts in this area, is uncovered. The remaining 75% is overgrown by the jungle. The Cogi tribe that is living in this area, doesn't want further excavations which they consider unrespectful to their ancestors.

An old street

The CP was abandonded by the Tayrona around 1600 after Christ, because the shamen didn't want to live under Spanish rule, so they fled into the mountains where the Spaniards never came.

Ciudad peridia in the mist

Yes i was there!

Upon arrival we are welcomed by a shaman, who because of his birthday, is completely pissed from drinking some own brewn poison and because the guides gave him a bottle of rum. It was a wonder he didn't fall from the slippery stairs, but ok he is a holy man.

The Shaman

Next day during new years eve he visits us again with his whole family (2 wives and 12 kids). This time the shaman behaves respectable, but not two of his sons (12 and 16?) who are very amusing and naughty, grabbing all they can lay their hands on., mainly rum, cigarettes and marihuana, which results in his oldest sun (the future holy man) puking on the table, as well as in the face of one of my travel companions. Well (future) holy men are still men.

I by the way didn't make it until 12 O'clock. After starting drinking rum at 4 pm, I thought around 8 pm it was 11 O'clock, so i knew i wasn't going it to make it until 12. Only the three Aussies and Jennifer, an english girl I had met in Tatanga and who was absolutely indestructable, survived until the end. Still it was a memorable night with live music, made by Philipe, our Colombian gitarist, and Nicholas, one of the porters, the lead singer.

Nicholas on new years eve

San Gil

In my struggle against travel fatigue I'm trying to do new things. So I went to San Gil, about 9 hours north from Bogota, where there are possibilities to do rafting. I had wanted to do this earlier in FUTALEUFU (Chili), but alas Chris and I turned up too late in the season. Futhermore i met Shaun, the hostal owner in San Gil, in PLATYPUS (BOGOTA) and he told me that San Gil is starting to become a center for activity sports. So I sent Shaun, an Aussie again, an email, took up my backpack and went to san Gil, where I stayed for 6 days. Main reason, I had a wonderful time there!

San Gil, Shaun's place

Christmas lights in San Gil

As soon as I got there, Shaun took care of me, showed me the most interesting pubs, bought me beer and introduced me in the local community. He really is a wonderful host and besides that a very nice guy! The people in SG were very hospitable as well. Every night there are hundreds of people drinking beer, aqua diente (a sort of raki, yes wouter that one!) and rum and they are always willing to talk and share their drinks in large quantities with gringo's. One night, Jason the local parasail instructor bought us all continously beer, because Morales has won the presidential elections in Boliviaand he was happy that for the first time in South America an Indian had won the presidential elections! So after Bogota SG was the second place in Colombia where i hardly could get into bed (out out of bed), and searched for excuses to stay a day longer.

Beer Plaza

Back to rafting, I spent an exciting day on the river Suarez and according to Kees and Emiel (two dutch kayakers who saw a lot of different rivers around the world), this raftng trip was the best they had seen around the world.

The river Suarez

Rafting

The scenery as well as the rapids were breathtaking, one rapid was too dangerous, according to our guide Cesar, a kayak champion of Colombia). When I said I wouldn't mind doing it, Josh, a dreamy Jim Morrison kind of American asked me if I really need this sort of kick to feel excitement. I am afraid he is totally right.

Too dangerous rapid

The end of the rafting trip

Another highlight of SG were the waterfalls of Juan Curi. yes another waterfall. I have something with falling water, whether it is fluid or it is frozen. This waterfall is multi level and it took me a day to discover and enjoy all the different levels, and to look for the righ angles. A lovely day.

The waterfalls of Juan Curi, lowest parts

Juan Curi, middle part

Detail

From above

The highest part

On another day i went with Shaun, Julia ( a 19 year old German girl) and Nathan, one of the most original and nice guy i have met so far, to Pescadito.

Pescadito

Pescadito is a place where local people swim and it consists of a set of pools interconnected by a stream and some tiny waterfalls.

One of the pools

The stream

A lovely place for a swim or just to relax in a cartube floating on the water.

Relaxe!

More pools

It was one of the nice things of the last month, lovely sunny weather, nice beaches and good opportunities to swim, booze, relax, a lot of good people, friendly Colombians and sometimes beautiful landscapes.

The countryside

One of these landscapes was near Barichara, 40 min. by bus from SG. Barichara is an old colonial town that looks a littlebit like Villa de Leiva (see further down), but it is not as pittoresque

Barichara

Climbing to the top of the village, there is a great view on the back country with a valley and a canyon, and although I can imagine that seeing this sort of pictures om my website for allmost a year is becoming a bit tedious, the live experience stays great, and I spent an hour watching it, and another hour sleeping next to it.

View from Barichara onto the village

The other side

Villa de Leiva

I spent two days in Villa de Leiva, some 4 hours away from Bogota. VdL is special because this is one of the last unspoilt colonial cities in South America, and when you walk around town it feels you step back in time at least 400 years with all the cobble stone streets, the almost absence of cars and the beautiful houses.

Spectacular is the plaza, which is big and gives an impression how Lima might have been 4 centuries ago.

Villa de Leiva, the plaza 1

Villa de Leiva, the plaza 2

Villa de Leiva, the plaza 3

Another pittoresk place is the church and monastery of Santa Teresa, that looks like it has escaped from a 18th century painting.

Villa de Leiva, Iglesia del Carmen

The other side

And like everywhere else in South America the setting is spectacular, and invites me to try my camera in as many different angles as possible.

I love clouds

Tatanga

A few days before Christmas I go to Tatanga, a 10 hour busride from San Gil and on the Carribean coast. It gives me mixed feelings. On the one hand, I really am longing for the beach after allmost 11 months mountains and fresh nights, on the other hand by reaching the coast I realise that my journey to South America is running to its end. After having seen so numerous incedible spots, it shall be hard to say goodbuy to this magnificent continent (allthough there is still Central America to discover).

Tatanga, playa grande

Tatanga is a little fishermens place colse to Santa Martha, where I stayed in the Casa de Felipe, a lovely hostal where you can sit outside all day and night, enjoy a snore in a hammock and it is possible to cook! That I do often. If there is one thing negative to say about south america, it is the food. It certainly is not haute cuisine, and there is not much variation.

Tatanga

Girl enjoying the sea!

Wim enjoying the sea

Carribean sales woman

Tatanga is a place where you can dive cheap, so i joined a german company (Poseidon), and made two dives outide on the reef. The diving howver was not very spectacular (low visibility and not as many fish and corals as i hap hoped), so i skipped my plans for making a diving cruise of 5 days. For the rest I didn't do much in Tatanga. There are some nice views to enjoy but i was glad that i did Tatanga before Tayrona, otherwise i would never have enjoyed it so much. Tayrona is so devastatingly better!!!

Near our diving spot

In Casa de Felipe i met new friends, for instance Jennifer, the indestructible party animal, and old friends Harriet, Don and Christophe from Platypus. With Christopher and Don I spent Christmas eve in the Garage until 5 O'clock, one of the local dance joints in town, where it is stimulating to see the colombian girls doing Salsa! It is certainly better than DE KLOMPENDANS (a dutch folklore dance, imagina dutch women on wooden shoes in a sexy farmers outfit). And those Colombian girls are horrible. They are just too beautiful!

Tatanga fishing boats

After the lost city I spent a few days in Santa Martha, close to Tatanga. There is not much to say about SM, it is a rather dirty city, although Colobians go in huge amounts to this town in their summer holidays. The beach is also crap. One night i went with Patrick, an American i had earlier met in (again) Platypus to the beach, when a police patrol car stopped close to us with sceaming tyres. They put us against the wall as if we were dangerous criminals and started to search us very brutally. It made me ver angry. The guys were searching for drugs, and on Patrick they found a quantity hardly enough fo one joint. After more intimedation Patrick gave them 80000 Pesos (about 40 dollar) and then they left, giving him back his marihuana. It was clear, these suckers were only looking for bribe money, and presumebly that night more tourists would fall into the hands of these corrupt assholes. It was the first time I encountered corruption in S.A. It felt worse than when i was robbed in Guiaquil.

Cartagena

Finally I managed to get to Cartagena. Presumably my last spanish colonial town in South America. Cartagena, they say is one of the best and most beautiful. One thing is sure, it is special because there are walls around the old centre of Cartagena.

Cartagena, the old center

Cartagena is also a very touristic city, and one where groups of Americans in buses are seen frequently. Therefor there are a lot of crap selling people, and they are more aggressive then elsewhere in Colombia. And there are the beggars again. You don't see them in Colombia elsewhere, but here there are many. Cartagena is like Santa MArtha not very clean. The locals like to drop there stuff everywhere. The city walls are nice, and give me again an excuse to try to make some pictures. Here we go.

The walls of Cartagena

More walls

And more walls

Sometimes there are not only walls but also some fortresses, the highest is Fortress Tenaza and its walls are 17-18 meters high.

One of the fortresses (Tenaza)

Fortifications

Outside the city walls there are some little and dirty beaches where the local fisherman clean there fish, and share it with the bird that are waiting patiently for things to come.

Fishermen in Cartagena

Inside the walls are some nice coloured houses and tiny plaza's.

One of the plaza's

Plaza de los Coches

The fortress de San Felipo is the biggest fortrees in South America. It looks impressive from the outside. Inside there is however not much to see, so only some pictures to give an impression of its magnitude.

Cartagena, the fortress of San Fernando

Nice textures

A lot of stonework

Ok i hope you liked my story and my pictures again. There were a lot, but i promise one thing next story won't be from South America. I will leave in less then a week, and then up to Panama. I finish this story with a few special pictures. Most of them from devastating Tayrona!! Ciao Wim

Tayrona at night 1

Full moon at night in Tayrona

Tayrona at night2

Los Endos

From Quito to Bogota

2005-12-16T00:44:00.000+03:00

Quito to Bogota

Quito (1) was quite a boring town so, i left Quito only after three days to see the beautiful cemetery in Tulcan (2). On the other side of the border is Ipiales where you can visit a church in a beautiful setting (3). After Pasto (4), and Popayan (5) which is again a old spanish colonial town, I went to see mysterious stones in green rolling landscape around San Augustin (6). Green rolling landscape but also a desert, a sort of negative oasis was in Villa Vieja (back in the tropics again, 7), before I went to Bogota (8) to hostal Platypus where i stayed two weeks, not doing more than drinking, sleeping and talking. Only a daytrip from Bogota is the incredible salt cathedral in Zipaquira (9).

Moving from one capital to the other there are big differences in between them. Quito (Ecuador) is expensive and boring, Bogota (Colombia) less expensive and many great places to go out. I stayed in a nice, clean and almost empty hostel in Quito. In Bogota the hostal is packed with backpackers, less clean, but very cosy, and as a result i spent almost two weeks in this place, not doing much more than drinking, sleeping, talking, going to the pub, eating unhealthy food (hamburgers, falafels, pizza's) and hardly being cultural at all.

In Quito it is difficult to do cultural things. In the old town the churches, musea, plazas and other things didn't look very appealing, and the new town was looking too American for me with all the Fast food chains and the big shopping malls.

Quito at night

Off course i’m a little bit spoiled by my travels, and i really start to feel that my head is overfilled with expericiences, - f.i. old spanish colonial towns with its churches, plazas and museas- , so it might not be fair to judge Quito in this way (It is certainly situated in a nice valley surrounded by beautiful green mountains, but alas IT IS NOT LA PAZ!),

Actually I'm happy to be out of Ecuador. I didn't like the country. Allthough the Galapagos were great, the rest of the country didn't thrill me much. The landscape was not new anymore (except for the north), and always less spectacular than Peru and Bolivia, the weather was not too well, so Vulcano Street was not an option to do. Until now it is the most expensive country and i simply didn't like most of the people. Not very friendly, unhelpful in shops (and often showing contempt), and probable one of the only positive things in Quito were the Thai and Indian restaurant there. You can wonder why this country is so different, is it me who has changed, am i just tired of travelling or has the american dollar changed the peoples mentality?

Quito, view from the roof of the hostal

Certain is that ecuador surprised me because it seemed less poor than the rest of south america, f.i many people drove in brand new (and expensive) cars, and in the country side many (new built) houses had bright colours, in stead of the ruines people lived in in Peru and Bolivia. But still Ecuador I don’t have to go back to this country (well okee for the galapagos i will gladly make an exception).

In Bogata i meet a lot of travellers and for the first time since long I enjoy the company of backpackers again. It is also a long time that i meet so many, because in the period from Quito to Bogota i hardly saw tourists at all.

For instance i met Pattrick, an american living in upstate New York, who travels 5 months a year, and who in summer makes waterfalls in the gardens of rich people. I saw pictures of his work and i only can say that i envie his beautiful and artistic work. Furthermore I met Ryan, a canadian from Vancouver who’s sexual adventure with a colombian girl was followed by a live studio audience. It almost was a conspiracy from the whole hostel to get him into the (right) bed! Apart from that Ryan was original and funny and his intonation of POR QUE became widely used in the hostal. Christophe was the second nice Belgian guy i met during my travels, we had many many beers, funny and dirty conversations, and we saw many different pub and dancing places. I certainly will have to mention Corinna and Karin, two sweet Swiss Girls, who were very warmhearted (Karin even got me on the dance floor again in what looked like a clumsy and silly attempt to do style dancing, OOOOOOW), Alex, the German guy from near Stuttgart (what do i have with Stuttgart, i met so many Germans from this part of the country) with whom i played many chess games (yes Verhofstad groep!, i still will beat your ass, next year!!), Stewart from Brisbane Australia, Tom, Chris and Don from America, Carlijn from Holland (nee erik niet die van jou!), Wilhelm from Germany, Gina from Colombia, Jason and Harriet from England, and many many more. What many people had in common was the love for travelling, the wish to escape the western mentality, and the search for more spirituality. The last thing they certainly found, because every night (better said early in the morning) the tables were filled with empty bottles and full ash trays. Needless to say that i never joined these barbarian bacchanals!!

Hostal Platypus Bogota

Oh buy the way I forgett the hostel owner of Platypus in La Candelaria, Herman. I never met someone who was so good in creating a wonderful; atmosphere in a hostel. As a result most people feel at home in the very beginning of their stay, and they always stay much longer than planned. And there is a whole other bunch of people with many different nationalities with whom i drank too many beers. So put Platypus on your list, it is a wonderful place.

Beautiful houses in La Candelaria

BUT WAS THERE NOTHING TO DO IN BOGOTA, except for wine, beer, booze, drinks, bars, rum, disco’s, salsa bars, pubs, restaurants………………..???

Well actually no, but ok I visited the Museo de Oro. According to my guidebook this is one of the best museums in South America, but they also said that of the Nariz del Diablo in Ecuador. A stupid boring tourist train ride. I was imagining tons of gold (the guidebook mentions 35000 gold objects in the collection), halls filled with impressive masks, jewellery, art, sophisticated craftsmanship, I would feel like ali baba when he discovered the secret cave etc… I entered the museum and then………………..

After 10 minutes I stood outside. I might have missed something but besides the La balsa de la ofrenda there was no object that could thrill me. Okee that was the gold museum.

La Balsa de la Ofrenda

Fortunately they have one beautiful museum in Bogata, and that museum shows work of Botero, and many others, and is part of the Casa de la Moneda. Botero’s work is very humoristic and he not only paints, but he also makes sculptures. I spent two days in this museum with excellent collections of Columbian artists and Botero’s private collection. In the casa the Moneda there is an excellent exhibition on the history of money making in Columbia. The museum is in a beautiful building, and it was great to walk around. Until now this is the best art museum I have seen in South America.

Botero's work

Botero 2 Adam and Eve

For the rest I wandered around in Bogata, no more churches, plazas, climbing Cerro’s to have a view on the city or sightseeing. I really am tired of travelling and every effort you make to do more of the same is punished by a feeling of tiredness, boredom, and resistance. They only thing to prevent these feelings is to search for really new things, or things you haven’t done before. So together with Ryan I went to a soccer match. Having been in South America without seeing one, that is impossible.

Before entering the stadium we were body searched three times, and the last time we even had to take off our shoes. I pity the guy that inspected my shoes, those awful smelly socks I had been wearing for three weeks. I’m glad that he allowed those socks in the stadium, they were a mighty weapon that could have tear gassed the whole side where I was standing!

I went to Santa Fé – Pereira, and was surprised to see that the stadium was only half filled, although it was an important cup game. A Bogata team in a city of 8 million people, that is not able to fill a stadium of 45000 seats, that’s strange. The crowd that was there were not less enthusiastic. They cheered the whole game, singing songs and making noise the full 90 minutes, and even the soccer was quite acceptable. By the way Santa Fé (from Bogota) won 2-1.

Bogota Plaza Mayor

Zipaquira

While being in Bogata I went together with Pattrick, Christophe and Stewart to the Salt Cathedral in Zipaquira. According to my guide this cathedral is one of the true wonders of Colombia, but after my previous experience I already was convinced it would be another footprint trick to fuck a backpacker. HOWEVER I was wrong!!!!!!!!!!!! (doesn’t happen often!?)

Salt mine

The salt cathedral is amazing and we spend hour after hour trying to make pictures of this wonderful place, lying on our bellies, and backs, and I tasted salt for two days. This salt cathedral was built 10 years ago, when the first cathedral was starting to detoriate too much and was too dangerous to visit.

Cupula

It is built in a working salt mine, and you can see old walkways with religious sculptures and crosses, and the cathedral has three main halls that are impressive in this underground setting. The tasteful music and the lighting made this place more an artwork than a church, although they use it in regular services. (Visit there beautiful website!!!!!!!!!)

One of the big halls

Statue

Inner structure

This is an example of something really new, and while travelling to Bogota I visited other interesting sites. One of these places is the Sanctuario Virgin de las Lajas. It is on the border of Colombia and Ecuador in Colombia and this church is built in a narrow canyon.

Landscape South Colombia

Sanctuario de Las Lajas

According to the legend a woman (why are it always women??) was walking with a little child in the area of Ipiales when the child saw a woman being guarded by two men. Many strange wonders later there suddenly was a picture of this woman (Maria) and the two men( two saints) on a rock, and it is said that this picture is not a painting, but the actual colour of the rock, and that these colours go down seven meters.

The miracle

Around this painting they built the church, and you only can say it is a beautiful conception. The church in the small canyon surrounded by green rolling hills, a nice waterfall, and a little river in a tropical setting.

The canyon and waterfall

And of course the little stores that sell all the possible crap you can imagine. Thanks to the wonder the people can make a living which is a second wonder indeed!

The miracle 2

Another interesting place was near Villa Vieja, also in Colombia. I hadn’t seen deserts for at least two months and in Villa Vieja there is a desert. So you like desert pictures and I had to make them.

Villa Vieja the desert

What makes it special is the surrounding landscape. This desert is only 200sqk, and it is surrounded by green hills, meadows with grazing cows, and enough water. The desert looks like an oasis the other way around.

Landscape around Villa Vieja

Villa Vieja is close to this desert and in Villa Vieja I took a motor taxi to LA PISCINA that is 13 km outside the village. I imagined a natural pool with a nice beach, and I already saw myself lying in the sun for hours, taking a nice cold beer and/or ice cream surrounded by beautiful sexy Colombian chicks with hardly anything to cover their tight bodies………….

When I got there, I actually saw a swimming pool, 4*6 meters, and filled for a quarter. So good buy to the chicks! Still the water was very refreshing, I met a few very nice people there, and it was a good starting point for walking back, because I could jump in the water with all my clothes on, and wet some towels, to start my way back to the village under a warm and burning sun.

La Piscina

This desert is here because of erosion and the best place to see this is Cusco (not the place in Peru). A small 2 sq k place which reminded me in a way of Bryce canyon, although not as spectacular. Nice clay textures and isolated rocks, but also cactuses and many birds. A nice play to walk around for a day.

Cusco

Old painting

Villa Vieja will be in my mind also for other reasons. I probably had the dirtiest room here since I started travelling, some slimy insects lying on my bed, cocoons, a decomposing fruit under my bed, a 2cm matrass lying of wooden planks, no ventilator although it was outside ca. 30 degrees, and during the night bats were visiting my room by flying in and out. Well it always can be worse is one of the things you got to keep in mind when you are a low budget traveller!!

Room in Villa Vieja

And there is always the reward! Villa Vieja is in the tropics so at night it is warm, and what is better than sitting outside on the square with a few beers enjoying the heat and having the excuse that you need to cool off!

Square Villa Vieja

One of the nice things of Colombia is the bright green landscape. This landscape, which actually starts in the north of Ecuador lacks the high mountains of the rest of the Andes, which in the beginning is a pleasant change, but after a while I start to miss them. I miss glaciers.

Green colours in Colombia

The hills are round and in some places have strange patterns that I never saw before. The canyons are steep and there are many waterfalls to be seen. And although these waterfalls are not the IGUACU FALLS, every waterfall has its own charm, which never bores.

Just another waterfall

Green Columbia 2

Green columbia 3

This typical Columbian landscape you can find around San Augustin, a place I visited because in and around this place (according to my guide) there are mysterious statues all around the countryside. While traveling I met Daren from Taiwan, and together we walk to Chaquira, on of those mysterious statues. The setting is brilliant, the statue one of the better ones, although I prefer another Shakira!

Shakira?

Viewpoint near Shakira1

Viewpoint near shakira 2

In other places around San Augustin you can find many other statues, often in combination with tombs, but my too full hard disc is not willing to store these in the category Exceptional.

Daren and me

The next day only the waterfalls Salto de Martiño, and Salto de Bordones give me the pleasant feeling I sensed many times during my South America trip.

Salto de Martino

Salto de Bordones

Landscape around San Augustin

Rio helena near san augustin

Columbian chicken buses

Some things in Colombia are certainly different. For instance the way bus drivers drive. I thought I was used to something now, but Colombian bus drivers are true maniacs. They love to overtake in blind curves, and speeding through towns with 100 k per hour is obligatory. In Popayan you can see the statistics of all the bus companies and some have shocking results. I think I was lucky when I traveled with Trans Ipiales to Pasto!

Suicide is painless

Another different thing are the amounts of soldiers and national police. You can see them everywhere, reminding you that in Colombia there is a guerilla war going on. Most of this war is in remote places, and as a traveler I feel safe. Many times they do body searches, but for the rest the soldiers are friendly and like to talk. One the Cerro Tres Cruces in Popayan, where I could smell the tropics again (hurraaah), and in Villa Vieja I spent a few hours talking to them. One of them more or less openly admits that he killed the murderer of his brother out of revenge, and both say that although they are married they have no problems in keeping at least seven girl friends (macho talk?). Silly me who admits that peeing in a different toilet is not done when you know that the toilet at home is unoccupied (Sorry Chris).

Another soldier in Popayan gives me a compliment when he secretly is peeping over my shoulder when I am looking at my digital pictures. I am flattered, although I think it is not so difficult making these pictures. Popayan is a beautiful old colonial town, and although I thought I was fed up with this sort of architecture Popayan has something different and it makes me happy when I am taking pictures from all angles trying to capture the feeling here.

Popayan

Popayan 2

It has something to do with intimacy, eye for detail and inner peace. Didn’t I feel that earlier in the monastery in Arequipa? A wonderful experience again! One of the things I learned in this trip is that nature, beauty and art are comforting me, while most of the time I feel sad about the worlds we are living in.

Popayan 3

Maybe I’m just a romantic fool. When I see a horse pulling a wagon in the middle of Bogota I get emotional. And this horse is not even on my plate!

Romanticisme

Yes the people in Colombia are friendly. In Bogota an old woman in a church is smiling friendly and she starts to speak to me. In the end she gives me a prayer and although I’m not religious the prayer I will keep!

In San Augustin a troop of Columbians asks me to join them to a bar. There I can see the drinking habits of men and women, most of them are pissed at the end of the night after too much beer and rum. Somewhere during the night I loose there pace.

The (younger) women here are beautiful. Something I noticed when I arrived in northern Ecuador. Suddenly the altiplanitas are gone. In return you can see little horny goddesses, openly licking young fellows with ugly yellow spots(meeëters) on their faces. I’m NOT jealous at all!

By the way I crossed the equator and now I’m on the northern hemisphere again. It has made me a bit sad because I am now heading towards winter instead of summer and the days are shortening! Crossing the equator however has something mythical, and while I was in Quito I went to the Museo Intiñan. On the equator you can balance an egg on a nail and observe the coriolis forces that cause a vortex going left or right on the different hemispheres. It is surprising to see that only 50 cm from the equator the direction of the vortices already differ on north or south. Standing on the equator is really confusing. Am I moving towards summer or winter and what about the length of the days??

Search the egg

Close to this museum you can see Mitad del Mundo. This monument was built by the French (en met de Franse slag). They built it 200 meters from the equator.

Mitad del Mundo

The most intriguing thing in the museum however was a little skull that belonged to a 10 year old boy. I already had seen somewhere in Peru miniature mummies that however were that small that I couldn’t imagine they were humans. In this museum they told us that Indians had a technique of cooking skulls/bones in a watery fluid with herbs, that shrank the skull to a proportion similar of a grown up cat. The reason why they did this?

Skull of a 10 year old boy

The boy was killed because he was captured in a war, and decapitated. He has was then cooked and he was kept as a trophy. Imagine him in your living. To prevent his spirit to escape from his skull they sowed together the place where he was decapitated. I love this sort of wicked ¨reasoning¨.

More things about life and death. After leaving Quito I went to Tulcan in Ecuador,

Landscape around Tulcan

,close to the border. In this little village they have a beautiful and very original cemetery. In 1936 it was started by José Franco, who is now buried here (his sons are doing the work now). He started designing and modeling hedges in all different sort of shapes.

Cemetery Tulcan

The figures chosen are from different religions and mythologies, and when you walk around, because of the green colours and the smells of fresh cut leaves, this dormant/dead place becomes very vivid. Normally when I visit a cemetery I can sense death and sadness, decay and the inevitability of fate.

Cemetery Tulcan 2

Here death becomes a fiesta, you imagine skeletons that become party animals, making the area unsafe until deep in the morning, doing hallucegenous drugs and having sex in the bushes (Although it is difficult to imagine with what they are having sex with, ever imagined a female skeleton doing a blow job on a male skeleton?!). I wish I was dead and buried here in this vivid and truly wonderful place!

Cemetery Tulcan 3

Plaza Tulcan

Los Endos

The last partof the pictures

2005-11-16T03:58:00.000+03:00

During uploading something went wrong so this is only a part of the story. For more go to the Galapagos story! http://wimvdm.blogspot.com/2005/11/galapagos.html

Sunset on San Christobal

Tortuga bay

Tortuga bay idylle

Sally light crab on Bachas

Detail

Ufo's in the Galapagos

Flamingos on Bachas

Scenic shells

Lovely colours

Paradise

Another sunset part 6

Sunset in Puerto Ayora

Sombrero Chino bay

Sombrero Chino bay 2

Pelicansare extreme good parasailers

Los Endos

The Galapagos

2005-11-16T03:49:00.000+03:00

After awakening from my robbery in Guiayaquil, and having two frustrating days for buying a digital camera, I flew to the Galapagos where I spent a wonderful three weeks in paradise. First I spent a few days on the isles of Santa Cruz and Isabela, after that I made a cruise of a week, and ended another week spending my time on San Christobal and Santa Cruz. Sadly I had to go back to the mainland and on 14 November I flew to Quito.

Route

When I was young I got Walt Disney’s Wonders of Evolution and since then the Galapagos isles are certainly one of my childhood dreams.

Map of the galapagos

Although I don’t remember much, I still can recall the pictures of Iguanas, diabolical monsters that look like they were created by Jeroen Bosch.

Diabolical creature

I never imagined going to this place, but now I’m here lying on a beach (La Loberia on San Christobal) surrounded by sea lions,

Sleeping with sea lions

animals that you can see on all islands in the most strangest places, leading a comfortable life most of the time sunbathing on beaches, benches or boats.

Snoring monster

The Galapagos were discovered in 1535 by Tomas de Berlanga, a bishop who was travelling from Panama to South America, when because lack of wind their boat drifted on the currents to the isles. Since then the isles were used and exploited by whalers, buccaneers and pirates. Especially the big tortoises were killed in large amounts because their tasty meat and there very fine oil. In 1832 Ecuador took possession of the isles.

In 1835 the isles were visited by Charles Darwin and many of his observations here led to the Evolution Theory. You can read his personal description of the Galapagos in the “Voyage of the Beagle”, an excellent travel book, which shows Darwin as a very know ledged naturalist and an sharp and intelligent observer. Most famous are the Darwin Finches. These are tiny little birds with little color and short tails. There are 13 different species and the biggest variation is in their beaks, all adapted to a different kind of food.. although not very handsome, they are fun to watch, because they are extremely tame. Since I’m lying here on the beach several came to visit me and got as close as 10 centimetre. Sometimes they don’t mind to sit on your knee or rob food from your plate.

Tame Darwin Finch

In 1936 the Galapagos were made National Park. In 1958 this was further extended.

My favourite animals here are the sea lions. You can find them everywhere and they don’t fear humans.

Enjoying life in all possible positions 1

Sometimes they are very curious, especially the young and then they like to examine you. I could spend hours watching them.

I made a friend

They enjoy life, that is easy to see when they are sleeping in all kinds of positions, or floating on their backs in the water.

Backfloater

The males behave like real males should behave!! They spend most of the time in the water making a lot of noise when they are guarding their territory by swimming along the frontiers. Whenever another male shows up he starts to make a lot of noise and hurries to chase away the intruder.

Macho Talk

They told me that a male normally occupies a territory for 12 days. In this period he hardly sleeps and doesn’t eat, he only tries to conquer (and fuck!) as many women as possible.

Lucky him

After this period he is so tired and hungry that he seeks shelter in a quiet place where he can acquire new strength. We saw one of those places on Rabida and it reminded me of an home for old folks. The atmosphere was very relaxed, animals floating on their backs in the water, far apart from each other, in what like some sort of yoga position.

Penopause lake

The females have an even more relaxed life (although the women in our group didn’t agree with this) . Most of the time they are sleeping in positions a well educated woman shouldn’t do. Shamelessly rolling over and crawling on top of each other. Most females have a lot of young and normally one every year. Although they look rather clumsy on land I was surprised how fast they are able to run, especially when a male chases a female.

In the water however they are more than excellent swimmers and they reach speeds of 65 km an hour. It is great to watch them while you are snorkelling and sometimes they come as close as 10 centimetres. One sea lion was actually looking in my snorkelling mask to see what silly/clumsy creature was on the other side.

Playing sea lions and a lost turtle

And then the most adorable creature of all, their young. It is hard to imagine that people exist who are able to kill these lovely creatures with a stick.

Adorable young

Whenever you hear them beg their mothers for milk or you see their big watery eyes you immediately melt.

Playing young

It is difficult not to cuddle and hug them or put them in your backpack and keep them in your bath tub! I easily can spend a day on the beach and watch sea lions, how different that is when lying on a beach in Zandvoort, although many people have similar rounded and flabby shapes.

Adorable young part 2

The first days I stay on Santa Cruz in the main town Puerto Ayora where ca. 10000 people are living. Immediately you can notice that animals don’t fear humans very much because all around P.A. they crawl, walk, fly, swim and sleep in many different places. Very amusing are the pelicans at the end of the day near the fish market. In great numbers they are waiting what falls from the tables where the fish are being cleaned. They behave very well and although very excited – their bodies trembling all the time of excitement- they wait until the fishermen throw the parts they don’t use.

Porn??

Pelicans shopping in the fish market

I told a joke!

The Galapagos are of volcanic origin and the first islands were created ca. 5 million years ago. It is situated on the Nasca plate, and the main hotspot is situated under Isabela and Fernandina Island. A few days before I went to the Galapagos the main volcano on Isabela, the Sierra Negra started to erupt, so on the second day I took the boat to Isabela in the hope of seeing it with my own eyes.

Arriving on Isabela is already exciting because the island is beautiful. Everywhere you can see black lava rocks in shallow emerald and turquoise waters and on top of the rocks you can see green mangrove trees. Some parts look like a labyrinth, and it should be a great place for snorkelling.

Mangroves on lava rocks in Isabela

Then there are some nice sandy beaches, where you can find the biggest iguanas of the Galapagos.

Isabela iguana

Isabela has one main town Puerto Villamil where ca. 5000 people are living. I stayed in the hostal San Vincente with very nice owners and even more important working hot showers!

Puerto Villamil

The next evening we took off with a group of 8 people to see the volcano live in action. The road towards the volcano climbs to 1200 metre and during the climb it started to get misty, so we all feared we wouldn’t see anything at all. This was strengthened by one man on the way back who answered on our question if he had seen anything: “more or less”.

The walk towards the rim of the crater took us 45 min. After a while we could hear rumbling and later we could see the clouds lightning up orange, because of the glowing magma. I already imagined huge lava streams, a valley on fire, blistering heat and suffocating sulphur fumes. When I got to the rim I was a little bit disappointed to see the spectacle, because far away I could see two fumaroles spitting out lava and a very thin red line indicated where the lava was flowing into the crater. It probably was ca. 3 km away from the point where we were standing. Only with a telezoom it was possible to see how impressive the spectacle really was, because the fire fountains were ca. 200 meters high, and whenever the lava felt down you could see it burst. I surely wanted to get closer, but this wasn’t allowed by the local police.

Sierra negra erupting

How lucky I really had been was shown two days later. I went on a daytrip, but when I got to the rim the spectacle was no longer there. The volcano had stopped its activities (the bastard!). All what remained were two plumes of smoke in the distance and the impressive size of the crater, which is second in size of active vulcanos in the world. It has a diameter of 10 km.

Sierra negra a few days later

Sunset on Isabela

Everywhere in the Galapagos you can see other spectacular remnants of volcanism and apart from the wildlife this alone makes a trip to the Galapagos worthwhile. One of the most stunning is the lava tunnels. On santa cruz I visited one of them close to Puerto Ayora. I was not prepared for what was to come and when we walked down the ladder suddenly I was standing in some sort of catacomb I’m used to enter while playing Doom or Diablo. This lava tunnel is ca. 500 metres long and 10 metres high. They are formed because the outer part of the magma cols off more rapid then the inner part.

I was the last in the tunnel, trying to catch its grandeur in my pictures when they turned off the light. It was completely dark and I started imagining the bus with the others had already left and that I had to find my way out of this tunnel in the complete dark. It probably would take me weeks living on salamanders and water, just like Gollem! Not a very pleasant thought, but ok I started walking while keeping contact with the right wall. After a few minutes the light went on again. Somebody had started counting!

Lavatunnels on Santa Cruz

The third example of the impressive forces of nature are the big lava fields of Sullivan close to Bartolomea, which we visited on the 6th day of the cruise I made. It was formed 100 years ago. Apart from a lost cactus there still is no vegetation on this field.

The lavafields of Sullivan

What makes it spectacular is the texture of the surface. It is like a giant sculpture created by the cooling down of lava. While one part already has coagulated (?), another part is still flowing until it can’t go no further and freezes shortly behind the first part, creating a wrinkled surface.

Frozen patterns

Details

Here and there you can find small not working chimneys that were once emitting gases and water vapours.

Fumarole

Around this lava field you can see many (extinct?) volcano’s and the landscape shows varying colours. Enough material here for some nice pictures (and paintings!).

The wonderful colours of Sullivan

Lavafield2

Oystercatcher on lavafields

Leaving Sullivan

I stayed a few days on Isabela where I met Riok, a Dutch woman who is staying on the Galapagos, because her husband is making a documentary for the BBC on the Galapagos. I couldn’t help feeling a bit jealous about this.

The next week I did a tour around different isles. I booked the tour in Puerto Ayora and it was on a tourist class boat called the free Enterprise. It is much cheaper booking on the Galapagos then in Quito or Guiyaquil. In Guiyaquil they offered me a tour for 1100 dollars, in P.A. I had to pay 660 dollar which still is a lot of money when you consider the normal prices in south America. By the way somebody told me that the local people don’t see anything of this money. They work for a low salary and all the money that is earned with the tours goes to the American owners of the boats.

Free enterprise

It is probably the most expensive trip I will make during my journey, because the flight and the entrance to the Galapagos cost me another 400 dollars. So together with 20 other tourists (most of them English speaking) in the first part of the week, and 14 in the second part of the week we visited around 12 different islands, some big others small.

Allthough it is possible to do a lot of islands on your own by doing day tours from Santa Cruz, Isabela or San Cristobal, cruises bring you to nicer places and not all islands can be visited on your own. The islands we visited were surprisingly very different from each other. Different animals and different landscapes.

Plaza island for example is rather small, has a beautiful bay, a cliff coast and the red of some succulents combined with the black from the lava rocks and the turquoise from the sea and the azure from the sky give some beautiful contrasts.

Plaza island

Frigate bird near cliff on Plaza

Swallowtail on Plaza

I told again a joke, theyoung doesn't understand it

The cliffs of Plaza

Close friends

On this island you can find land iguanas. Iguanas are rather ugly animals and on most islands you can find different species.

Land iguana

Iguana's on Santa Cruz

One group of iguanas is sea animals living from sea weed, and they are thus able to swim.

Swimming iguana

They don’t look very clever, like to sunbath all day and some are well camouflaged. I almost stepped on a group lying on top of each other because I thought it were lava stones.

Camouflage

Normally you can approach them very close, again animas on the Galapagos are not afraid. They have a very uneducated habit which is that they like to cough or sneeze at each other. In the beginning I thought they had a cold, but after a while I guessed that this is a way to get rid of an excessive amount of salt sea water they ingest during eating.

Iguana from Santa Fe

The land iguana’s feed on cactus leaves. The cactuses on the Galapagos are sometimes very impressive. They are Opuntia’s and sometimes can get as big as 10 metres. They even have a wooden stem.

Iguana's practising for the olympics

Another part of the Galapagos I loved was Sombrero Chino, Sullivan (see above) and Bartolomea. In this part volcanic activity was short but very intense, so you can see many small pretty isles with many colourful views, the bay here is extremely scenic.

Near Sombrero Chino

View onPinnacle rock and Sullivan (Bartolomea)

The landscape reminded me of Riven, a graphic computer game of extreme beauty. It is hard to describe my feelings here. The islands, the sea, the animals, the nice weather, life is almost perfect here and a happy tranquillity fell upon me. Just like in Serere (Bolivia) I notice I feel the best when I’m surrounded by unspoilt nature, a lot of animals and some nice people. I don’t need more in life to feel happy.

Detail of bay

Pinnacle Rock

Bartolomea

Bartolomea2

Intermezzo

Riven sunset?

In another beautiful bay we see some sea turtles and sometimes they come very close. You can observe them quite regularly here and although they are impressive compared with the giant land tortoises they are only dwarfs.

Turtle soup

Before man discovered the Galapagos these big giants were living in large numbers here and most islands had distinct species. Nowadays the biggest individuals live in breeding centres on Isabela and the Charles Darwin centre on Santa Cruz. Were the turtles earlier killed in large amounts by profit hunters, today many by men introduced species like pigs, rats, dogs and cows compete for food or eat or destroy the nests the turtles make. Introduced plants and animals (and a growing population) are certainly one of the big threats to the uniqueness of the Galapagos.

Charles Darwin Centre

It is impressive to see a big male of 250 kilo’s speeding towards you. When he was ten metres away from me I moved out of his path, you never know if he would crush me like a leopard tank. 5 minutes later he crossed my path, moaning and cracking, yes they are not very athletic, they could use some grease to lubricate their moveable parts! They say that these giants reach ages up to 150 years. Probably they sleep 140 years of this.

Giant turtel

The breeding of turtles is one of the main research goals of the Charles Darwin Centre. Another one is to find ways to reduce the damage done by introductory species. I wouldn’t mind working here for a while.

Turtles laughing after one of my jokes

Apart from sea turtles there are many wonderful creatures in the waters around the Galapagos. Because the water is very clear it is easy to see many colourful fish and it is not very difficult to see sharks (mainly the white tipped reef shark) roaming the shallow waters in search of ignorant humans.

Shark looking for feet

During the cruise it is possible to do some snorkelling, so you can observe playing sea lions around you, eagle rays that look like flying carpets in the water, and numerous amounts of colourful fish that I’m not able to show because I lack an underwater case for my digital camera. Some had with beautiful results so in Quito I will search for one.

There were for instance some beautiful starfish with bright red dots and stripes, and it was a pleasure to see a couple of Galapagos penguins hunting in a school of thousands of tiny fish. I was surprised to see how difficult for them it was to catch one. I had thought they were living in some sort of paradise. Swim, open your mouth and voila!

The only thing that surprised me was an almost complete absence of dolphins. In the three weeks I was staying I only saw a couple near Isabela.

Galapagos penguin

Another dazzling experience was the fluorescence of algae during the night. Whenever there was turbulence in the water you could see little sparks of light. Spectacular was when a sea lion was speeding through the water. You could see it was surrounded by white light and he left a trail of light. AN INCREDIBLE SIGHT AND EVERYBODY ONE THE BOAT CHEERED.

The most beautiful island we visited on our cruise was unmistakably Española. The island is packed with animals and the views are superb. Already to get on the island you have to stumble your way through the sea lions

Espagnola

and immediately after this you encounter the most colourful iguana of the Galapagos. This ugly animal is beautiful.

Espagnola iguana 1

Front side

Then there are the numerous birds. First we see nestling Nasca Boobies, and you easily can make close up pictures of this cute animal.

Nasca boobies

Closest up

In its skull they have some sort of airbags that they need because when they hunt for fish they let themselves drop from great height into the water. They look like harpoons being shot into it.

Young parents

Nasca boobie watching the surf

Close relatives of the Nasca Boobies are the vain Blue Foot Boobies.

Blue foot boobie

As the name says they have blue feet, and I can’t stop comparing this with blue enamelled (gelakte?) moccasins (laarsjes), of which they are very proud.

Look at my blue suede shoes

Males and females both have them, so it has no sexual meaning. Somebody in my group said they have blue feet to attract fish while they are in the water. It sounds unlikely to me because they hunt like I described above.

The catwalk

Walking along Española you see a beautiful cliff coast with nestling birds and changing colours.

Espagnola cliffs

Cliffs 2

A spectacular phenomenon is the blow hole. It is a narrow crevasse in the reef and every time a big wave comes in it is being pressed through the hole, and it spits out the water like a geyser.

Blow hole

When you turn around you look in the eyes of the albatross! They are nestling here. The albatross is an impressive bird. When it flies the wings have a span of ca 3.5 metres. It is one of those animals I had hoped to see once in my life.

the albatros

Their young look like a crossing of the Beatles and a poodle, and trio sex is not only an invention of humans. All around me the young and almost full grown albatrosses are practising the mating rituals, often three birds stands close together and shake their heads and make sounds with their beaks in an attempt to impress the opposite sex. When they mate male and female stay together for the rest of their lives, unless one of them drops dead.

Albatros young

The last island of the cruise is Seymour, home to the magnificent and great frigate bird. It is mating season and the male is trying to attract females by inflating a sac under his throat and use this as a percussion instrument.

Frigate bird with throat erection

Sometimes when the red sac is not inflated it looks like this animal has its scrotum hanging under his throat!

Something in the wrong place

Frigate bird young

The frigate bird is a hunter and a pirate. It tries to steal fish from other birds and it looks for weak and sick young birds of other species.

We saw a frigate bird trying to catch a young bird that was floating in the water. He attacked the young and tried to grab the beak of the young and lift the young out of the water. This young however was already to strong and was able to free itself. Later we saw when they young bird tried to escape by flying away, the frigate bird caught the young in full flight, again trying to crush its head with its beak. Again it didn’t succeed and everybody in the boat started to applaud.

Young bird under attack

Later I could see the young again taking off, the frigate bird had left and you an only hope the young bird is old enough to feed itself. Otherwise that frigate bird will show up once again!

After the tour was ended I stayed another 6 days on the Galapagos. A few days on San Christobal in Puerto Baquerizo Moreno where about 2000 people are living.

Puerto Baquerizo Moreno

They try to attract more tourists to this island, but when I was there were not many of them. This town belongs to the sea lions. On all beaches, boats, benches and plazas you can find them, and even at night you can find them making the streets unsafe.

Sea lions nightlife

Most of the time I relaxed or made some little walks to lay on the beaches. There are some nice views from frigate bird hill, but after the dazzling experiences from the cruise, I was content with doing nothing and at times some snoring next to sea lions.

Frigate bird hill

View from frigate bird hill

San Christobal view

After two days Santa Cruz enjoying Tortuga bay, one of the most idyllic sand beaches I have ever seen, where I again encountered some hungry sharks, and drank a couple of beers with Christian Thio who I already met in Serere I ended my Galapagos experience by flying to Quito, feeling sad to leave this wonderful place.

The Galapagos, my child’s dream became true. A unique and everlasting experience. I hope you one day also may be able to visit this paradise! Love to you all.

Wim

More pictures are on

http://wimvdm.blogspot.com/2005/11/last-partof-pictures.html ENJOY!!

From Lima (Peru) to Guayaquil (Ecudor)

2005-10-24T00:37:00.000+03:00

Route

Hola Amigos,

Another three weeks in Peru where I spent a few days in Lima (1), that turned out not to be as horrible as I first thought, then I traveled to the beautiful Cordillera Blanca (2,3), where I also visited a pre-Columbian settlement Chavin de Huantar. The Cordillera Blanca is certainly a highlight of Peru and one of the highlights of my trip. The cordillera Blanca ends with the most beautiful canyon I did during this trip (the canyon del Pato). After this I spent time on cultural stuff around Trujillo (5) and Chiclayo (7), where Chanchan and the temple de la Luna where very interesting to see. In this period I traveled in a camper with Antonio (Wolfgang), Charlie, and Luigi, and spent a week in their company. I really had a good time, and I certainly will see them again. When I left them I went to Chachapoyas (8) to see the ruins of Kuelap, another impressive remnant of cultures that were in South America before the Spaniards came into this continent. In La Balsa I crossed the border into Ecuador to end in Loja (10) where I meet my German friends again. In Guayquil (14) i was very lucky, read further down and you know why!!!

Lima

When I arrived in Lima first, I thought it wouldn't be for a very long time, because I arrived in Miraflores, the yuppie part of Lima. This part is not interesting for me, because it is modern, western and loaded with malls, Kentucky Fried Chickens and McDonalds.

However if you go to the centre, there is a lot to see, and so I spent another three days looking for the cultural stuff. Highlights of Lima are the Plaza de Armas, which is spacious and nicely restored after many earthquakes. It is one of the best plaza's I have seen in South America. Around it are the cathedral, wherein are the remains of Francisco Pizarro, the Palacio de Gobierno and many old colonial style buildings with wooden balconies.

Lima Plaza de Armas

For me one of the highlights of Lima is the San Francisco with its monastery. The convent contains many works of woodcraft in a peculiar style, strange architecture and a lot of art. Although it needs restoration it still can be seen that the Franciscans had a good taste, and in those days were quit rich.

San Francisco monastery

Woodcraft

Under the San Francisco church are the catacombs and visiting them is certainly an experience. In it they say (because I didn't count them) are the remains of 70000 people. They are not scattered around here and there, but the bones are neatly sorted. There is a well which is 30 meters deep (unless I didn't understood the Spanish). A disadvantage here is that you have to follow a guide to see the convent so after 45 minutes I'm out again. You easily could spend a few hours here.

Fountain of youth

The nicest church in Lima is the San Piedro. In this church they have wood carvings more than 20 meters high and again the gold and silver here is breathtaking. From this and all the other treasures in the city you can see that Lima once was very rich, and why it was called the city of kings. Now Lima is a very big city with more than 8 million people, a lot of traffic, and even more pollution. Compared to La Paz Lima is very western where many people dress up that way, and you hardly see women dressed in traditional clothes.

San Piedro

The highlight of Lima for me is the Museo Nacional de Peru. In this museum you can find lots of information about many cultures that live in South America before the Spaniards came. They show maps, pictures and models of many sites, and there is a huge collection of beautiful ceramics. It is amazing to see what people already where able to make 1000 years before Christ. Again the symbolic language of the cultures in South America strikes me as very rich and intriguing.

Pottery Museo Nacional

On my last night in Lima in a pub I meet Sean, the Belgian again who I saw earlier in Torotoro (Bolivia) and who now has only one month to go. Unfortunately I have to leave early the next day so I only speak him shortly.

Just before I leave I discover that somebody has stolen my walking boots. Some people are really pathetic. To steal not very fresh boots, which also aren’t completely undamaged, ………………..

Huaraz (Cordillera Blanca)

Huascaran seen from Huaraz

Huaraz is a nice town of ca 80000 inhabitants, surrounded by the mountains and it is situated in the Cordillera Blanca. I wanted to go to this place mainly because I wanted to go to Chavin de Huantar, one of the oldest pre-Inca settlements in South America, and not because of the landscape, which are mountains and mountains. I thought I had seen enough mountains by then after traveling almost 8 months along the Andes. How I was wrong!

Cordillera Blanca to Huaraz

Although there are many tourists, mainly hikers, the town isn’t spoiled. You can see here the highest mountain of Peru (Huascarán), which is ca 6700 meters high. From the village you have a great view on the Cordillera, and if you make a tour it even gets better. Unfortunately the weather in Huaraz is starting to change, and the rainy season is getting near. So every afternoon clouds start to obscure the sky and it starts to rain at the end of the day.

In Huaraz I go to Albergue Churup, which is probably the best hostel I have had until so far. The people that run the hostel are extremely nice, the hostel is clean and well organized, and they have real hot showers! They even work properly. I meet some nice people here, one of them is Martijn Breen, who is traveling South America for five months and just finished his university study space and aeronautics technology. Together with Martijn, who is learning Spanish here, it is time to do some pub work again. The people here are not very often doing this, and also the disco isn’t stuffed, but I had a nice time, and it is pleasant to speak Dutch again. I speak it that little that sometimes it is difficult to find the right word. It is even more complicated when I start speaking something else as Spanish or English, because then I can speak a mixture of three languages.

Chavin de Huantar

The tours in Huaraz are incredible cheap. You pay 20-25 soles for a day trip (4-6 euro). It takes three hours to go by bus to Chavin, a nice little town built in an incredible environment with steep mountains. Still I’m glad I’m not living here because when there is an earthquake you don’t have much chance surviving it (see further down Jungay). On the way the landscape again is very scenic and the highlight here is the Laguna de Querococha. It probably is the 1000th lake I saw until now but every time I see mountains water, and many different colors I start shaking and I get a reflex to make pictures.

Laguna de Querococha

The archaeological site doesn’t interest me much in the beginning but when you enter the old stone complexes that were build probably more than 3000 years ago, I’m fascinated by the enormous amounts of stone they used here, and why they built this in the first place. According to my guide it was some sort of fortress and palace, and inside one of the galleria's you can visit the prisons. I don’t think Houdini could have escaped from here! During my trip I meet Lily an American woman who speaks excellent Spanish and two women from Lima that teach some Spanish while we are under way.

Chavin de Hunatar

Catacombs of Chavin

The ruins of Chavin

Nevado de Pastoruri

Next day I go to Nevado de Pastoruri. After one hour however the bus breaks down, and we have to wait and wait and wait until………….. a camper with three Germans passes. They immediately ask me if I want to join them and off course I don’t hesitate on this kind offer. There are already three people in the camper who also get a ride, and then somebody else knocks on the door and asks if she can join. Wolfgang never says No and after 20 minutes the whole bus has taken place in the camper, and there are even 10 people on the roof. Never knew it was possible to get 30 people in a camper for only 4 people.

World record filling motor homes

What is the Nevado the Pastoruri. It is a glacier. And because I didn’t see many glacier this trip, I decide I should see this one. Again the landscape is stunning with a lot of high and white peaked mountains, lakes, different colors etc. Together with Wolfgang I walk towards the glacier, and Wolfgang offers me to travel with their group for as long as I want, so I gladly accept this, and we agree to meet again the next day in Huaraz

PastoRuri Glacier

Stunning landscape

Detail

When on the glacier it starts snowing hard, so it gets cold and we go back to the bus that finally has arrived. On the way back we again have problems with the bus and it takes another 1,5 hours before we leave the glacier. The landscape however again is great, there is a great sunset, but sorry folks no picture this time.

Early snow

Furthermore in the valley, and what makes it special is the Puya Raymondi (Bromeliacea). The Puya Raimondi is a mid-blowing odd plant. "Discovered" by an Italian of the same name, you can find groves of them throughout the highlands in Peru. It grows to a height of 12-meters and only flowers once in its lifetime.

When the Puya Raimondi is 100-years old, it produces 15,000-20,000 flowers that bloom on 400-500 conical spikes. The plant will flower for 2-3 months and produce as many as 10 million seeds during that time. It is a beautiful plant, unfortunately because of the problems with the bus I’m not able to make some very nice pictures of it. Search the internet if you want to see more of it.

Puya Raimondi

Next day I meet Wolfgang, Luigi (Wolfgang’s father, who is Italian but lives in Germany for 45 years), and Charlie on the plaza of Huaraz. They are traveling since June and are planning to do South America in a year in a camper. They live in the vicinity of Stuttgart in a little place called Bartolomae. Wolfgang is houseman (former truck driver), his father is enjoying his pension and Charlie is truck driver, so he does all the steering. Wolfgang is the cook, Luigi does the cleaning up, and I, well I give every night a snoring concert, just for free. I travel with them for a week, in Chiclayo I say goodbye.

Marcara

Before I can join them I first have to wash myself, so we go to Chancos, which is a thermal bath with a natural sauna. There are caves and the caves are heated by boiling water that surrounds the caves. It is a pleasant experience. The rest of the day we stay in Marcara because locals tell us that there is a party in the village with live music, because of the 100th anniversary of the town. We are the only tourists here and there is a real parade with this time children carrying balloons and colorful puppets, and they don’t march like soldiers. That’s more like it should be! (He he that feels better).

When the electricity dies down the fiesta continues with candles.

Next two days we are having incredible scenery and although the weather is not very well we can get a glimpse of the incredible landscape of the Cordillera Blanca. First we go to Yungay a small village that was completely destroyed in an earthquake of 1970. Actually it was not the earthquake that did it, but after the earthquake a big part of the Huascarán mountain came down, and the ice and snow avalanche that resulted from it buried the whole village under a thick layer. 20-25000 people died with it. Now it is a wholly cemetery, and they rebuilt the village next to it.

First we visit lago Llanganuco. Although it is situated at 3800 meters, you wouldn’t think this, because there is a lot of tropical vegetation, many flowers, humming birds and trees. The landscape is spectacular, the valley is very narrow, there are two lakes with a small bird reserve, and they have trees here. Probably because the valley is very narrow the temperatures can rise more than the altiplanos somewhat further. It is very surprising to see Bromelia’s growing here.

lago Llanganuco

the narrow valley of lago llanganuco

We drive to a pass at 4700 meters (Punta Union), but unfortunately the views are not as good as the postcards we saw. Still I find enough nice viewpoints to show you here. In the right season the Cordillera Blanca certainly is one of the nicest places in Peru and South America.

the pass over Punta Union

the road to Punta Union

Another view

The second day we go to the canyon del Pato. We have to through this canyon because we want to go to the coast, and I’m glad I joined the Germans, because otherwise I may not have seen this incredible Canyon! I was already thinking that canyons were out of the book for the rest of the trip, but this is a real canyon, and according to Wolfgang who has seen most of the world, this is probably the best canyon you can drive through. The scenery is fantastic. At some points the canyon is not more than 15 meters wide,

Canyon del Pato 15 meters wide here

More Canyon del Pato

and there is an incredible variation of rock formations, stone structures, colored layers, valleys, and there is an incredible variation in cactuses. It takes almost the whole day to cross this canyon, and we meet some brave bicyclers that do this canyon in three days. I am thinking of Michiel and Steffi. This is something for YOU!

Colourful canyon

Canyon del Pato more

Art

Strange cactuses

Towards the end of the canyon

In the end the landscape changes, the valleys get wider and the desert like country transforms into a fertile valley where they grow rice.

The end of the canyon with rice fields!

Santa

We stay the night in a place called Santa, near Chimbote. Many people tell us it is not very safe in the vicinity of Chimbote, but we are only awakened at 4 am in the morning by a local who asks for a coat because it is cold outside. Sometimes you meet very amazing people. In Santa we meet a Belgian girl that is doing North and South America on her bike, and all by herself. It took her until here 15 months.

Trujillo

After the spectacular landscape of the Cordillera Blanca it is time to do some cultural stuff again. The area around Trujillo (our next stop) and Chiclayo is filled with a lot of ruins, of which some of them are worth visiting. We visit the Sun and Moon temple South of Huaraz. Only the moon temple can be visited and is worth visiting because of the many decorations on the walls. The site was used for religious purposes, and after every governmental period they closed the building, they were using and built a new floor on top of it. Therefore you can see many different wall paintings on different levels. Here again you can see many symbolic figures.

Moon Temple

The site was used for religious purposes, and after every governmental period they closed the building, they were using and built a new floor on top of it. Therefore you can see many different wall paintings on different levels. Here again you can see many symbolic figures.

Different periods of ruling

The temple of the sun, which had an administrative function is not for visitors, but probably there is not much to see, because it was robbed by the Spaniards in the 17th century. For this they used the river to flush away much of the sandy material of which the temple is made. Still it is an impressive complex. In between the temples the people lived in a large village. While we are exploring the complex, we feel an earthquake. It is only a minor one, and it doesn't last more than 20 seconds. Not even one stone falls on my head, so consider it was really nothing!

View on the village and the sun temple

Then we go to Trujillo which is a city of more than 1 million people, but I’m disappointed because it really is not very nice. In the center there is not much to see. At night we go to a drive in bar (La Barra) where we enter at 9 o'clock being the first. At 11 it starts to get busier, but no live music until late in the night. Next morning Chan Chan is on the program.

Chan Chan

This is the largest Adobe built city in the world and it was deserted by the Chimu when the Inca's besieged the city and shut off the water supply. There used to live 100000 people but somewhere in 1400 AC it was deserted. Adobe is a mixture of mud and stone, and because the material is not very hard it erodes very fast, leaving behind walls, parts of houses and religious structures. I was impressed by the size of the city. One part of the city is restored (the Palacio Tschudi) so you can have an impression how it looked like.

Chan Chan

The ceremonial plaza

Remnants of adobe structures

Ceremonial well

Next day we visit two Huaca's that are part of the tickets they sold us, the Huaca del Arco Iris, and the Huaca Esmeralda, but because of the lack of information it is hard to see what it means. I liked the friezes, but they aren't original. The Huaca Esmeralda is less impressive and it took us 15 min to walk around.

Huaca Arca Iris

Hereafter we go to Huanchaco, which is in our guide and they say it is a nice plays to stay, and there are some special reed boats that are worth visiting. The boats are indeed nice, and they are still used by the local fisher man. the rest of the place is not very interesting), we are clearly not in high season, so there is nothing to do.

Huanchaco

At the end of the day we park near the sea shore in Puerto Eten, a small village with a harbor, and it is very quiet here. The next morning we go to Chiclayo which is a nicer place than Trujillo, but I won't stay long here. There is another site to visit, which is called Sipan.

Sipan

Sipan also consists of pyramids, but they are hardly recognizable and here in 1987 they found tombs filled with skeletons and may treasures. There are three graves you can visit, and one is called the Senor of Sipan. This was a warrior priest, and when he died he invited 8 other people to share his death. They were buried with him, which was a great honor! What amazed me the most was that the guardians that were there to guard the Senor had their feet cut off.

Senor of Sipan

Although they were dead, and although it was an honor to go with the Lord, the feet were cut of to prevent the guardians could run away in the afterlife. It sounds pretty illogical to me! The lord was important so he was buried with a lot of gold and some ornaments made of turquoise and gold, and take away food (llama).

The other two graves you can visit belong to less important figures, and there are other graves that can't be visited. Actually the graves are reconstructions because the original material is in different museum in Peru. The original grave of the lord is now in Lima in the museum de la Nacion.

Pyramid of Sipan (with wolfgang and Luigi)

Back in Chiclayo I say goodbye to the German friends I traveled with for a week, and I take a bus to Chachapoyas, almost 500 km to the east. I want to visit more old stones, and they say that Kuelap is the most important archeological site of North Peru.

Luigi

It is again a tirering bus ride of this time just 9 hours and I arrive in Chachapoyas at 5.00 am. Chachapoyas is a nice plaza with a pleasant plaza and I spent my day doing some Internet. Actually writing this story).

the plaza of Chachapoyas

The next day I go to Kuelap in an organized tour where I meet two nice Irish (Siobhan and Chris) and together we walk around Kuelap, which is quite an impressive site. The place is a sort of a fortress, and is surrounded by walls 6-20 meters high, 600 meters long and 100 wide, and it is situated on a mountain top from where you have a splendid view of the surroundings.

The fort of Kuelap

Traditional weaving

the view from Kuelap

In this place around three thousand people where living in round houses with conical shaped roofs. There is not much left of these houses but there is a big project to restore the walls, and I wouldn't be surprised they will rebuild the houses also.

What used to be a house in Kuelap

There was one restored house at the time I was there. Kuelap was probably built somewhere around 600 after Christ, and they used a lot of stones to build it. In my guide they say they used 3 times as much stone than to build the pyramid of Chizeh.

Bromelia with in background restored house

In Chachapoyas I say goodbye to Siobhan and Chris and hop on a bus to Agua Branca. About this place there is nothing to mention, I only go here because I want to travel to Ecuador from here, and after Jaen, San Ignacio, La Balsa where I cross the border, Zumba, I end up in Loja after 17 hours traveling in micros, taxis and buses. Not even that dead this time, I'm getting used to traveling.

Ecudor border

Now I'm in Ecuador where everything is paid in American Dollars. The music here has changed too. Instead of the Peruvian folk music, it has changed to Latin/Caribean and Salsa. I must admit I like this far better!
I meet up with Wolfgang, Luigi, and Charlie in Loja and we travel from here to Saraguro, where there is a Sunday market with beautifully dressed women, and nice local music in the local theater, we go to the city of Cuenca, with hot thermal springs in Baños. After this we visit the most important Inca ruins in Inga Pirca and in Alausi we take a breathtaking ride in a train to de Diablo the Nariz. This last trip was according to my guide one of the highlights of Ecuador. I hope the Galapagos is better.

Finally we end up in Guayaquil, where Wolfgang and Luigi meet 4 local woman and invite them to dinner in our motor home. Two days later we wake up. We were drugged by them, they put some strong sleeping powder in the food and robbed us of money, my Ipod and my digital camera.
That’s not very convenient before going to the Galapagos. It took me two days to fully recover from the sleeping drug, and hope to leave within a few days to the Galapagos. I have felt better.

Los Endos

From Arequipa to Lima

2005-09-27T22:35:00.000+03:00

Map

I finally made it to Peru, and I made a big jump into the country. From La Paz I travelled to Arequipa (1), which is in the South of Peru. After two days Arequipa I decided I had seen enough of the city. After La Paz it is difficult to get used to an ordinary city, and thereafter I travelled to the Cotahuasi Canyon (2,3), the Colca Canyon (4), & Nazca to visit the famous Nazca lines. All in all it meant 5 busjourneys of ca 15 hours in one week! In an oasis near Ica (5) i relaxed a day before going to Pisco (6)to see some more see animal life in an area called Ballestas islands and Paracas, to finally end up in Lima (7), the main capital of Peru.

I left La Paz, where i said goodby to Edgar. Edgar is 18 and works in Hostel Cactus. He is very friendly and works the whole day. Cleaning, washing clothes, doing the administration, doing the finances, answering the phone, comforting the guests, and on top of that every night he is opening the door when guests arrive half drunk from the pub. And this 4 or 5 times a night. He is clearly not overpaid, and the manager of the hostal treats him like shit, while she is sitting more or less the whole day on her ass. But Edgar probably is quit happy with this job. He is meeting a lot of people, who help him to learn english.

Most of the first part of the journey is along Lago Titicaca. This time the crossing of the border is going rather smoothly, and in Puno (which looks like an awful town) i change buses to Arequipa, where i arrive somewhere at 10 in the night. My first busjourney of ca 14 hours. In Arequipa there is a congress of miners, and therefore it is hard to find a hostel. A very correct taxi driver is helping me patiently and so i end up in Misty, a not very comfortable hostel, but the owner is a very gentle guy, who is very helpful all the time. This is one of the differences with Bolivia. The people are a little bit more friendly and open. More used to tourists too. One of the other differences seems to be that the country is better organised. Certainly the busstations look that way.

Titicaca revisited

In Arequipa I start my hunt for culture by going to the Museo Santuarios Andinos. This museum has very good preserved mummies, of which Juanita is famous. She was found in 1995 and she is 500 years dead. She was found like Oetzy in a glacier. Unfortunately i'm not allowed to visit this museum on my own. I had to take a guide (which wasn't included in the price), and this was too much for me. I'm not going to walk with a group of tourists and a guide, who is telling me:

¨And there is the mummy, it is a girl and she is dead. Yes she looks rather good for her age. She only has winterfeet.¨

No thank you not for me. (I day later I encountered a Dutch group in a church looking at the ceiling exclaming intelligent remarks as ¨Oh do you see that they use water paint¨ etc.) From that moment this first interesting mummy transforms in a piece of dead, and dried out meat, and I DON'T THINK SHE IS THAT WELL PRESERVED. I have been in Lapland and a piece of fire dried rendeer meat looks better than that horrible witch with a hole in her head! Go to hell with that ugly dead deep freeze chicken!!

He He that feels better. Next i walk along the plaza which looks quite neat. Beautiful arches and spanish architecture, and a spacious plaza. Unfortunately there is a parade going on. They seem to do this every sunday to increase patriotic feelings, and therefore they let little girls of ca 4 years old parade like commandoos. I get mad again. I can appreciate John Cleese's imiation of Nazi’s parading, but seeing little girls march like grown up war machines looks ridiculous, pathetic, dum, outrageous etc.etc.. And look at the faces of these poor stupid little creatures, they even enjoy it walking with stiff legs, it seems that the Hitler Jugend has invaded Arequipa. I bet they have dreams of erections and power, RIGHT NOW. Yaaagh!! For a moment I'm wishing i had handgranades. That will teach those little monsters a thing or two (for instance you can't walk without two legs!). Hope you keep one hand, silly girls, begging without will be very difficult!

Arequipa plaza and church

He He that feels better. Well my cultural day isn't finished yet. My guide (the paper one) told me that there is a beautiful old cloister in Arequipa. It is the Santa Catalina convent. The convent was founded in 1579 and it is a dominican convent. The girls that became nun promised to go behind bars for the rest of their lives, and not lo leave to cloister ever again. (maby something for these horrible marching little creatures from above, they can certainly do less harm here). Even dead they stay within the borders of the convent.

The Dominicians have a strict religious order and like the Franciscans you can divide the order in first, second and third order. The first order are the priests, the second order are the nuns, and the third order are the seculars. In my previous report i erroneously wrote that Charlie Spencer, one of the Franciscans I met in Serere was second order and therefore a SISTER. Well i didn't mean to offend him, and i could see he was not a woman. It was just my lack of intelligence!

San Fransic0 Church and street

When becoming a nun was very popuar there were 490 nuns living in the convent. In 1970 the nuns which were diminished in number (now there are only 29 nuns left and there number is rapidly deceasing) moved to a little more luxurious penthouse just west(?) of the original buildings. The convent was restored beautifully and opened to the public.

Colourful St Catalina

So i spent the rest of the day in this beautiful cloister, and i was impressed by the architecture, the quiteness, the simple life the sisters lived here, and the spirituality of the place. On top of this it was redecorated very beautifully by using nice painting colours ( i must admit i have a weakness for that), friendly flowering plants and bushes, some fountains, and nice cosy little streets with coble stones. It is easy to imagine how the sisters lived here centuries back, locked away from the world, where hardly any sound could penetrate (and which was probably the only thing that penetrated them).

Santa Catalina convent

Colourful Santa Catalina

Not all sisters were living a very simple life. Some nuns only had a little cellar with a bed and a chair and a table, but others, maby higher in rank, had an extra room and also sometimes music instruments.

Guinea novice nun

It was a day for making pictures here, 1 the colours here invited me to experiment with my camera, and 2 the light and the objects in some places forced me to make stillife pictures of times long forgotten. I think the results are really wonderful.

Stillife

Stillife 2

It is strange to see time frozen (no mummies here though) on this place. The area is about 2 hectares big, and you can also see the new convent and sometimes you can even spot a nun!

Imagining the old situation is easy to do. A cosy little old town with only a few streets around the convent where people are living peacefully ( i now i am a romantiac), the new situation seems a bit archaic. A small cloister surrounded by a 1 million people big city, with the sounds and smells of cars that are penetrating the poor nuns (no not that same joke again!).

Guinea nuns

Now the place is empty. The only living creatures here are some 29 guiney pigs, that are living in a part of the cloister in a little cell. I bet they are all feminine! Very impressive, a lovely place. Maby i will become nun some day!

Next day I leave for the Cotahuasi canyon. According to my guide this is the deepest canyon in the world, and even deeper then the Colca Canyon, which is also in this part of Peru. I decide to do the Cotahuasi canyon, because nobody goes here. All others tourist do Colca which is much closer to Arequipa (only 3-5 hours by bus), while the Cotahuasi canyon is 13 hours. And what a bus journey it was his time.

Cotahuasi Canyon near Alca

I am so lucky to sit on the last row in the bus. The first three hours i practise my spanish by talking to David Paredes, a local who is going to work in Cotahuasi, the next 10 hours i'm sitting next to David who is sleeping rather decently, and a very fat and smelly woman that is always trying to invade my personal space with at least one leg, but sometimes also with her hand (I KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!).

On top of this the bus is going very fast on a very bumpy road so most of the time you fly high up in the air and sometimes land in a wrong place. I get my revenge on the fatso because on one occasion when i'm standing to put my backpack back in place after it had fallen on the floor, the bus makes a salto and i land with my bottom in the stomach of the smelly fatso. A soft landing for me, the lady however was not as amused as i was. He He that feels better.

The next day i am broken and arrive in Alca where i meet Joerg and Connie, two germans from chemnitz, and i travel the next few days with them. Alca is very friendly, the people here live mostly from farming and most people are greeting me as if i live here since long. The prices here are ridicously cheap. A meal is around 3 soles (0.75 euro).

Alca

The weather in Alca (and the next two days in Cotauasi) is lousy. It is cold and it is raining, so therefore a little bit bored i walk through the canyon, that is not very deep here. The landscape here is a mixture of Bolivia and Chili. You can see that it is much dryer than in Bolivia. Although there are much green trees and plants in the valley, higher up there are appearing many different types of cactuses and the higher it gets, the more desertlike it looks.

Coathuasi Canyon near Alca

Later that night i give english lessons to the boy who is working in the hostel. It is a good practice for my spanish and it is fun to do it.

Cotahuasi

Next day the weather is still lousy, and it even has been snowing in the higher part of the mountains. Together with Jorg and Conny we take the bus to Cotahuasi, where the canyon should be deeper, and where we visit the Sipia falls. These falls are 150 meters high and you can look down into the canyon but here it is not very deep (300 - 400 meters probably).

Cotahuasi canyon near Cotahuasi

Cotahuasi Canyon to Sipia falls

Sipia Falls

The landscape around the falls is beautiful but it is difficult to judge if the canyon is impressive. We are only at the beginning of the canyon, and it is not to easy to get further into it. There seems to be a path, but it would take a few days to get to the deepest point. I'm not having a tent so it will have to wait until a next time when i visit Peru.

Cotahuasi canyon colours

Cotahuasi canyon

We leave Cotahuasi the same day, again a busride of 12 hours. It is snowing and on the road we encounter stranded trucks. The road probably again is gorgeous but unfortunately it gets dark and i miss most of it (later during my trip to the Colca Canyon I fortunately see a part of it again). This time I have some sleep. Back in Arequipa i leave Joerg and Conny who go to Puno, and I jump almost immediately on the bus to Cabanaconde in the Colca Canyon. Another 5 hours by bus. And thank god they have video in the bus. In Peru the buscompanies have a strong preference for extremely violent movies, and it is always nice to see bodies flying around, and seeing the most cruel torture techniques while you are eating a sandwich. It really gives a kick, and hell wouldn’t it be nice to spit on your neighbour or even better stab him to death and strangle a few oldies! He He that feels better.

To Cabanaconde

The road is beautiful, and the landscape has changed because of the snow. I finally see a volcano with a nice coat of snow. The clouds give some nice additional pictures.

Mysti Mountain near Arequipa

After the snow

The bus brings me to Cabanaconde which is at the end of the canyon. It gives me the opportunity to see most of the Colca canyon, and i especially like the terraces in the valleys and again you can sse a lot of cactuses.

Colca Canyon

You also can see a new dress code for the women here. It is very colourful, and i think it really is a fiesta seeing these women, with there dresses and the motives of their textiles. They look very sweet in those dresses. I also like the pittoresque villages with the little churches and the traditional lifestyle. This journey is again a feast for the eye.

Colourful dresses

When i arrive in Cabanaconde i walk to a mirador and have a view into the canyon. It is a nice view but also here i’m not that impressed as i was when i saw the grand canyon for the first time. The grand canyon impresses because you can see the enormous erosion caused by the Colorado and all the different colours. Here you don’t see that to that extent.

Cabaconde mirador

In my opinion the definition they use in the South America guides for canyon is false (that tells us that the Colca or the Cotahusi canyon are the deepest canyona in the world). In my view a canyon is formed through the erosion of a river. In the definition of Colca/Cotahuasi they use the top of the mountain and the bottom of the river which is ca 3300-3500 meter. That is false. The canyon here is if you look at the erosion patterns probably not more than 600 meter.

Next morning i’m asking the old man (ca. 75) in my hostel the road into the canyon, and he brings me to the starting point. He tells me it is only 45 minutes down, and up it shouldn’t take much more than an hour. He jumps over a little stream is if he is 20 and runs down!

The decent into the canyon is ca 1200 meters and it takes me two hours to get down, enjoying the landscape. The snow on the mountains adds more colour to the canyon. The path down is steep and difficult to walk, mainly because there are stones on the path all the way. Walking down is easy, and i wonder why also those people that are walking up are looking so devastated. It can’t be that bad!

Walking down

This time it is not too difficult to get down and i spent some time near the river, with my feet in the water. I walk around a littlebit near an small oasis, and if you want you can stay the night here enjoying some sunbathing and relaxing near the pool. It looks inviting but i didn’t bring anything so I decide to walk back, the same way i came.

Oasis in colca canyon

Colca canyon

I’m not the old man. He probably runs up, i only can walk, and it takes me three hours to reach the top. By then i’m almost dead, the heat, the steep trail, and the stones take their toll, and it also lookes that i have been sitting on my ass in Serere too much. My muscles are starting to convulse. I get to my hostel and the rest of the night i stay in bed. I’m not the old man, that´s for sure!

Colca canyon

Next morning i go back to Arequipa, and immeadeately go further to Nasca. Again a long busjourney through desert landscape where hardly anything grows.

Nasca

The reason for going to Nasca are the Nasca lines. They were discovered in 1920 and many different theories are available who made them and why. Fantastic theories of aliens visiting earth were proposed, but the most plausible theories now consider that the lines have shamanistic origin, and also were used to beg the gods for water, in times when the rains were becoming less and less.

Astronaut

You can see the lines the best when you are going in an airplane, so in a little Cessna for 40 dollar together with Vivianne and Jean-Michel, two Swiss people, we were flying over the lines in ca. 35 minutes. The figure i liked the best was the humming bird. The figure is very powerful and especially the way it is carved, and which is a very good representation of the flight of the hummingbird, gives this figure a lot of energy. Another nice figure is the Chaucato bird.

Humming bird

Alcatraz

the figures

The figures are 40-150 meters in size. I spent two days in Nasca, which is a little town and a nice mixture of tourism and normal life.

Huancachina (near Ica)

From Nasca I took the bus to Ica, and again the landscape is barren desert. Hartly anything grows here, it is one big sand playground. In fact from La Serena in Chile to here it is almost only desert.

To Ica

In Ica I took the taxi to a little oasis in the desert. It is called Huacachina. The oasis is beautiful and surrounded by high sanddunes. Unfortunately the oasis is also spoiled by too many hotels, and it is not very clean. If you like you can do sandboarding here, and a popular attraction is riding in a buggy through the desert. I stayed here a day to relax. Then I had seen it and took the bus to Pisco. Another place were the Pisco grape grows!

Huacachina oasis

Sand dune

Huancachina oasis

Desert near Huancachina

Pisco

Pisco is an quite normal town on the coast. I spent there two days, and you can see the tourist season is ending. The place i spent two nights was completely empty, although there still were enough tourists that were wanting to do the tour to Ballestas isles and the Paracas reserve.

Ballestas islands

To begin with the first, they are beautiful. The islands are packed with birds, and on the rocky cliffs before the isle you can see a lot of curious sealions. It is always fun to watch these animals jumping out of the water, and making their characteristic sounds. As above mentioned you can see many birds here, f.i boobies (Sulidae, een soort genten), further you can cormorants, pelicans, the humboldt pinguin, terns, seagulls, etc.

Boobies

I liked the cliffs very much, with all the arches that have been shaped by wind and water. The most spectacular was seeing hundreds (thousands?) of sea lions lying on the beach, it almost was a normal summer day in Holland at Zandvoort. Children playing in front of the parents, while the machos were purving around to see if there were some more women to conquer, and most of the time you could hear them making sounds to impress the neighbour (nothing new in the animal kingdom). The ladies were more a less lying on there bellies, to get a nice brown tan. And i must say, tanned they were. It only was a short trip, and on the way back we saw dolphins only a few inches away from the boat.

Life sucks

Zandvoort al mar

Detail

Unfortunately the skipper wasn’t very interested in stopping the boat here. I notice that more during my trip in South America, the tour agencies offer trips but don’t realise why people are coming. They just have their own program, and when it is finished it is finished. Improvisation is not in their dictionary.

Paracas peninsula

Peilcan

The next part of the trip to Paracas reserve was more a less a waste of time. Although i liked the coast and the formation of the Cathedral that reminded me a lot of the twelve apostels in Australia (sorry it seems there are only eleven apostels now!), the touroperators were determined in letting us wait, first an hour before we started, then we went to a museum where we stayed 1,5 hours and which easily could have been done in 15 minutes, after this we drove to the Cathedral and stayed here for about 30 minutes, and then we went to a little fishing place to eat for 75 minutes, before they took us back to Pisco!

Sedaceae

Paracas coast

The cathedral

Well it was not a very expensive tour, I have to be honest about that, but i gladly would have payed more to see something from the coast, instead of wating until i weighed an ounce.

What amazes me is that all agencies in South America until now almost always do exactly the same thing. In a way it was amusing to see our guide directing us to a restaurant telling us that we were going to eat on our OWN expenses in THIS restaurant. It was even more amusing to see many of the tourist in my group following the man like sheep. The guide irritated me a lot. He was treating us like little children, and even told the group to pee because it was the last opportunity for 1,5 hours. NO THANK YOU I DON’T HAVE TO PEE, and if necessary i will pee in your shoes!! And yes i know that i should whipe my ass with paper, but for this occasion i will just just your handkerchief! He He that feels better.

Next day I went to see some Inca ruins. The side is called Tambo Colorado, and it is one of the best preserved coastal ruins in Peru (this is from the folder and I like the expression ¨best preserved ruins¨) . The site is some 500 years old, and was left by the inca's after their defeat by the spaniards. It is situated in a fertile valley along the river Pisco (yes from the grape) and in many ways it reminded me of the Pisco Elqui valley in Chili (see my story about La Serena), although the people here say that here Pisco Sour is MUCH BETTER!

Pisco valley

The caretaker told me they also had an cemetery, so I walked a few hundred meters to find graves that had been opened by grave robbers, and it was somewhat macabre seeing all the bones of the deceased, with many times some pieces of old clothes, and even sometimes some hair here and there. Furthermore you could find many fragments of pottery. The hill was stuffed with graves.

I wanted to see the site mainly because i was told that the buildings still showed their original colours. Indeed you can see still some of the original paint, which is alternating red, orange yellow and white, but most of the paint has fallen off. Still you can get some sort of idea how the inca's painted there houses and it learned me that i wasn't very original in my own house. Two of the three colours they allready had used!

The main building here is the palace. Furthermore there is a big plaza with a place for ceremonies and you can see here and there some remnants of houses. From some points you have a nice view on the complex, but sometimes it is hard to find it not just a dump yard.

The palace in Tambo Colorado

Original Colours

Interior

After this i had seen it and took the bus to Lima (well first a evening drinking a lot with a few english guys and girls). Next time more about Lima and further. See you!

Lima

Los endos

Titicaca

2005-09-08T21:45:00.000+03:00

Yo Wim,

Ook de drijvende eilandjes in het Titicacameer gezien en bezocht ?

Last days in Bolivia

2005-09-08T21:38:00.000+03:00

Hello everybody,

Yes I’m still alive. It has been a while since you’ve heard from me. Since my La Paz dip much time has gone by and while most of you probably spent their holidays somewhere, I decided I wanted to do something useful and therefore I spent more than a month in Serere, north of Rurrenabaque, doing voluntary work. More about this further down.

First back to La Paz again. I have been waiting in La Paz almost a week before doing a little tour of two days with Andino Tours around the Huayna Potosi. I did this tour with Desiree, a Dutch Girl, who studies biology in Utrecht (funny but it reminds me of something), our guide Isaac, and two Altiplanitas, that were guiding the mule that was carrying our luggage. It is funny to see their reaction when I wanted to sit next to them. I took a large stone to sit on and both Altiplanitas ran away, probably afraid that I was going to stone them to death. Well I didn’t hear them say JAHWEH.

The altiplanitas were very shy, one of them was called Ruth, but the other one was too shy to say here name (I called her Ruthless), and most of the time the Altiplanitas didn’t say anything, although it seemed that we were quite amusing, because they were always giggling,

giggling altiplanitas

and especially Ruth was most of the time looking at me with a funny face. I got the impression that I looked a little bit like her donkey, and that she was very amused that suddenly it could talk.

Ruth

Needless to say it was a marvelous walk in the mountains. The altiplano here is about 4500 meters high, there are very beautiful lakes, and the landscape is very bare. There are still people living here, although we saw at least three abandoned villages. Those people are now living in el Alto, the fastest growing city of Bolivia, and one floor above La Paz. It is easy to understand why they go. The altiplano is very cold, there is not more to do except herding llamas and Alpaca’s, and there is no pub!

We walked two days in this landscape with the main peaks Condoriri, with its special shape,

Condoriri

and Huayna Potosi. Maybe you remember my picture from the previous blahblah I produced, this time we walked around the massive, and we camped in front of the south side of the HP at an altitude of 4800 meter,

camping in front of the Huayna Potosi

which resulted again in a lot of beautiful sunsets, and I warn you I have many beautiful sunsets
this journey!

Sunset1

The people here are quite tough, I must admit that! While Desiree and I were starting to freeze, the Altiplanitas were sitting outside our tent in a windy and cold environment wearing their normal clothes without many additives, drinking coca tea. Because it was THAT cold I didn’t mind having some of this, but as I could have remembered from Uyuni, I’m not a very good sleeper on coca, and as a result I didn’t sleep that night. Or maybe it was the cold?

Probably it was more than 15 degrees below zero, and dressed with three pair of socks, three trousers, a t-shirt, two thick sweaters, my normal coat and my rain jacket, two pairs of gloves, a scarf and a hat, I inserted myself in my sleeping bag, only nose outside to discover that it took at least two hours to get the temperature in my tent above zero. Maybe I also should have worn my boots!

Luckily for me Desiree had the same problem, …………………………she told me next morning.

I never saw that many ice crystals when it started to get light. Luckily my eyes weren’t frozen, and no crystals hanging at my nose. When I got out our guide was already busy, and a few moments later the altiplanitas were arriving from there hotel a kilometer further away, some sort of windy shed. We were by then watched by a little girl, that gave us even more the feeling we were some wimps. She was wearing a short skirt and even worse she was walking on flip flops, while we – still shivering - were wearing our whole wardrobe. And yes the altiplanitas were laughing again. Was it because of this, we might have looked a little bit ridiculous with all these clothes, but I don’t laugh that much when I see altiplanitas. Why don’t these people behave like normal human beings, and wear some alpaca short socks, just to make us feel comfortable?

I have warm feet

When the sun had warmed us a little bit, we were able to move again and we had coffee with frozen buns. Then we started the second day walking and we crossed a mountain passage ca. 5300 meter above sea level. There was a nice breeze (it stormed), while crossing it, the view to both side gave differing landscapes, and in the distance we could see Chacaltaya (see previous story). The rest of the day we were walking around the HP, and many artificial lakes that are there to generate electricity for La Paz. The lakes have different colors from deep blue, turquoise to milky white in the direction of the glaciers, and this color is mainly caused by calcium carbonate.

Pass

The HP is one of the mountains that can be climbed by non expert climbers, it is possible to get to 6000 meters, and there are two ways for climbing it. An easy one and a very difficult one, the French route. I didn’t do any. I was hesitating –there was a pub!- but when we were in front of the main massive, and we saw some other tourists I decided not to do it for two reasons. First the tour is three days, one day practicing ice climbing for three hours, and the rest of the day waiting, the next day there is the walk to the first camp at 5300 meters. A relatively easy walk, and you arrive at one in the afternoon. Then you wait again until the next day.

Huayna Potosi

Reason two, day 3 starts early. Most agencies start the last climb at 100 am. That is a time I’m normally in my bed (yes boys and girls, since I’m traveling I lead a very regular and boring life!) and I hate to get out of bed when it is dark (that hasn’t changed). MY BIG EGO telling everybody that I have been standing on a mountain more then 6000 meter, couldn’t beat my lazy inner me that likes to snore the night away! And by the way I went by car to almost 5500 meter, and that too is higher than the Mont Blanc. That should be enough to impress you people back home.

That said and not done, the HP massive is an impressive piece of ice, and it is understandable people like to climb it. Well who knows next time in my next life.

Surrealistic Colours

Back in La Paz I had received an e-mail from Rosa Maria Ruiz. I had sent an e-mail a few days before to her with some questions about doing voluntary work somewhere in the vicinity of Rurrenabaque, that dreadful place north of La Paz which I had left without doing any touristy crappy tour (see my previous blahblah, search for Rurrenabaque). Rosa Maria leads an agency called Madidi Travel, and the reason I was interested was an article in the National Geographic, which told about Madidi Park, Rosa Maria’s work in this park which dealt with ecology, conservation, and preserving indigenous territories. I walked by their agency in La Paz, which was only a few doors away from Hostel Cactus, the hostel I was staying. They could use volunteers and why not, it was time to settle down for a while and I really had the feeling I wanted to something useful, and that feeling didn’t go away after going to bed which I normally find VERY USEFUL.

After having two conversations with here we agreed I would do some voluntary work in Serere, but first I had to renew my visa, because it would end somewhere in the middle of August. So the end of July I left La Paz and went to the well known town Yunguyo in Peru. My Spanish seems to be improving because for the first time I express my anger to an asshole that sold me a bus ticket to Copacabana and told me the bus would be leaving in 20 min. Well that bus was full, so had I had to wait for 2 hours. I think he understood my message because they gave my backpack priority when they were packing the bus.

Crossing the Peruvian border was a formality and I stayed one night in Yunguyo which was a totally uninteresting little village in the middle of nowhere. One good thing there was the prices. A dinner for only 0.5 euro.

Next day I took the taxi to the border, and crossed it but unfortunately the border patrol men were only giving me 30 more days free in Bolivia, they were not willing to give me 90 days more. Staying longer in Bolivia might cost me money.

From the border I went straightly to Copacabana, which is situated at the border of Lake Titicaca. The lake is beautiful but Copacabana is a horrible touristy town again. I don’t know about you but I’m traveling to see new cultures, not to see pizzeria’s, artisanas that everywhere look the same, and not to mention the disco’s, pubs, and all the tourist organizations. I think I’m getting allergic for this sort of traveling and it makes me afraid of going to Peru, because from what I hear of others, it is ten times worse there.

To the madonna

Copacabana has an interesting cathedral, and a Madonna high up the mountain that overlookes Copacabana. She performs miracles, and there is a road up this mountain with the main stages in the suffering of Jezus. I didn’t understand some of the rituals because many people were throwing little stones at the stages. I thought Jezus was popular here, but it reminded me again of a scene in Monty Python’s Life of Brian, where the highpriest (John Cleese) is stoned to death by an angry mob for the mentioning the word JAWEH).

Another interesting thing has certainly something to do with the Pachamama ritual from the old cultures. Many families from Peru and Bolivia come to Copacabana to ask the Madonna for favors. They hire a sort of priest (normally older men from the village) that performs a service and they give offerings in the form of fake money, wierook, beer!, and many things I couldn’t make up what it was. In the end there are fireworks probably to scare away the bad spirits.

Pacahamadonna

Later I heard that the Madonna of Copacabana is a disguised Pachamama. It was the only way the Spaniards could make her acceptable for the native population.
The main view from this mountain on Copacabana is very beautiful

Copacabana

and Lake Titicaca is really a world wonder. The intense blue colour of the water, the size of the lake and the surroundings make it very serene, and it is easy know why the Inca’s said the lake was sacred.

Lago Titicaca

Next day I took the boat to Isla del Sol, which is situated in front of Copacabana. Christiana told me that the north part of this island is beautiful, so I went to the north and not to the south part. And yes the north part is an oasis of tranquility after hectic La Paz, and the touristy crap of Copacabana. I arrived in the morning at 9.30 am at a little village of ca. 100 houses called….. with a group of tourists that later would go back to Copacabana, and only a few people stayed here during the night. There also MAYOR drawbacks to a non touristy place (yes I always have something to complain!). If you order breakfast at 9.45 it might be served at 12.00. The people are very relaxed here and it takes some time to peel an orange and bake an egg.

I walked around the island for the rest of the day. Fist I went to the one of the capes and sat there for an hour or more. There was a great view on the massive of Sorata, with Mount Illampu as the main peak.

Mount Illampu

At the end of the day I walked to another part of this part of the island. Maybe I could make a picture of a nice sunset here! It really is an idyllic village, the people and animals live very peaceful here, you can feel that they absolutely have no stress at all, and many people look like they enjoy this way of life. An amusing thing is the people that go back home after a day working hard. They also take their work home. In this case this doesn’t mean that they bring their paperwork but their herds (pigs, cows, donkeys, goats).

Isla del Sol north part

Happy cow

Lake Titicaca2

Happy me

Next morning it goes the other way around. All the animals march to the fields followed by the shepherds. One shepherd was remarkable. It was a very very old woman (probably as old as my mother!). She hardly could walk, her nose was almost on the ground and every now and then she had to rest. In front of here was a pig with one young that were walking much harder than she could, so in the end she was sitting on the beach while the pigs were on their way to the mud. It really touched me to see this old and vulnerable woman still doing here normal thing. I thought she really looked sweet.

Going to the office

The second day I walked from the northern part to the southern part. This walk was very enjoyable because there were many views on the mountain range in the distance combined with the true blue color of Titicaca and the ochre colors of the island. New material for some paintings probably. The people on this island are very friendly, but have no respect for grey hairs. At least two young girls were bursting into laughing when they saw me. And I even wasn’t walking nude (which I normally do when I am walking on islands of this size). Believe it or not, it can make old grey man make very insecure when young girls are starting to laugh on the mere sight of you. Should I start swallowing Viagra already? And how do they know?

Island walk

Finally I arrived on the south part of the island, and there you can see the horrible influence tourism has on the normal life of the people here. Everywhere are restaurants, hostels and hospedages. It seems that people now only live from tourism. I spoke to a young woman and she told me that five years ago there was hardly anything for tourists. (The same will probably also will happen on the north part of the island. There you can see that many people are building extra rooms next to their homes, and it won’t take long before people will start a restaurant, and who knows when the first disco will be opened.)

Island walk

It certainly is a drawback of tourism, although for the people here it is of course easy money, and a lot easier then their way of making money now. But I’m a romantic and I like to see people in an idyllic and romanticized version of life with nothing to scratch their ass.

Island walk2

Back in La Paz I have a final conversation with Rosa Maria about what I will do for her. First I’m going to join a group of Franciscans that are traveling to Serere, first by 4WD, and the second part by boat. I will make pictures of the journey, and furthermore I will do some writing for their website. In Serere we’ll talk further what must be done.

So next day I join the Franciscans Judd (he is a priest in Camden, New Jersey), Charlie (a second order Franciscan, he’s living in Springfield, USA), Enrique, a Spanish priest that has been working in Bolivia for almost 26 years, he now works in Mozambique, and Octavio, he is living in New Jersey, originally from El Salvador, he is professional photographer and also Franciscan. Further Rosa Maria joins us and the first part of the trip Iggy ahum……….. Father Ignacius brings us by 4wd to Guanay. The trip will last 4 days and during this time I can have a look into the inside of the life of Franciscans, and I must admit that I was very positively surprised by the sensitivity, kindness and openness of these people. The Franciscans have as their slogan ´´working on issues of peace, justice and care of creation´´. And although I’m normally very cynical about this sort of thing, the Franciscans I met here gave me an absolute feeling of sincerity.

At the end of the first day, after driving down the death road again and this time in good weather (see my previous blahblah, in case you have forget) we spent the night in Carmenpampa (near Coroico). Carmenpampa is a university and founded by the Franciscans 12 years ago with the main goal of teaching people from the countryside in the countryside so that they would return to their communities after their study instead of staying in La Paz or any of the other cities in Bolivia with universities. The place is run by Franciscan sisters and in only 12 years they have managed to build a nice campus. Also here the atmosphere was very warm and incredibly positive. I felt sorry I had to leave this very pleasant place with a lot of laughter and coziness. Sister Damon (Demon for friends) invited me to stay a little bit longer (but at least three years) because they were looking for an art teacher. Well who knows, it really is a place where I would be happy to live, although teaching art is a little bit different from making paintings for a hobby.

Next day Iggy brings us to Guanay, where we shall take the boat to Rurrenabaque. By then I feel very comfortable traveling with interesting group, although it is funny to see that some Franciscans not always have a strong believe. Especially Jud is from time to time a bit worried about Iggies driving, and he sometimes fears to see his maker very soon. I however am totally confident. I can’t imagine our creator is willing to crash a car with this bunch of defenders of the faith!

In Guanay we hop on the boat. At the beginning the Kaka river transports us along the many little camps with gold hunters, which live a tough life hoping for more wealth. These people live in very poor circumstances, digging into the mud for not more than 50 Boliviano’s a day (5 euro). Most of the time they find gold particles that tiny that people are wearing or should wear reading glasses don’t see anything at all.

Gold seekers picture by Octavio Duran

One very big attraction here and along the banks of the river are the little sand flies that are very fond of human flesh. I, a little bit naive expected only mosquitoes during the night, so I’m wearing shorts. After a few hours my legs are starting to look as if I have the measles and it is itching like crazy. And they are everywhere, those fucking little bastards. Next day Jud and Octavio are swimming in the river and when they get out there flesh looks like little strawberries. Well shared grief is half grief!

The landscape varies continuously. We sometimes maneuver through steep canyons, but also we can see the great planes which are characteristic for the Beni basin. We ride many rapids, although unfortunately for me they are not very big but the Franciscans already think this is really heavy, and they are glad when we pass them. In different spots the muddy water of the KaKa river mingles with sometimes blue colored little streams, which reminds me of the Encontradas de las Aguas in Manaus.

Encontradas de las aguas

One of the many highlights is the Beu Canyon, and we are lucky because we see here the Ara militaris, a rare macaw species. Here I’m a little bit much jealous of Octavio because his material is far superior compared with my cheap and lousy camera. He’s able to shoot animals that I only can dream of, but ok his equipment is about 30 000 dollar and mine only 260. The Beu Canyon has petroglyphs here, they don’t impress me much, but amazing are big silvery flat rocks, which look like they were made by giants. The reflection and the texture of these stones are very strange, and the combination with some black stones makes a beautiful site.

Beu Canyon

We camp two nights on one of the many sandbanks in the river, and fortunately the sandflies have gone home during the night. Octavio turns into a little child and he starts to build fires, the second night he finds in Enrique a brother in arms and together they manage to build five very big fires.

Campfires on the banks

Although the Franciscans are nature lovers, they are not very experienced campers, and I help them putting up their tent. I am sleeping under some plastic shelter in a mosquito tent, because Rosa Maria thought I had a tent. During the first night we are visited by capybaras, the biggest rodent in the world but only Rosa Maria hears them. The rest is snoring too loud to hear other sounds.

Sunrise on the river Beni

At the start of the second day we are welcomed by the toucans through their characteristic sounds. Octavio makes pictures and later in Serere I see how good his camera is. With some photoshopping you even can retouch the colors. I didn’t see then how beautiful these toucans were. (Picture made by Octavio Duran). I consider throwing my camera in the lake, but since I have no alternative it might be wise until I have a decent replacement.

Toucan picture by Octavio Duran

Along the river there are many birds and we f.i. see eagles, macaws, parrots, kingfishers and vultures. We find a very nice waterfall, where we wash our somewhat smelling bodies.

waterfall

On the fourth day we get close to the place where Rosa Maria used to live. It is called Charque and it is in Madidi National Park. Until a few years ago Rosa Maria was involved in Madidi but the article in the National Geographic changed here life somewhat drastically. The Bolivian government was not very pleased with the article because of this Chinese investors decided not to invest in a big building project (a dam was planned in Madidi, and the costs were about 3 billion dollars). The Madidi park management (that by the way sells mahogany to the foreign wood industry) decided to throw her out of the area, and they burned Charque, although there is until now no real proof who did this. It was a beautiful place but nothing of it has survived it, an investment in capital and manpower of ca 3 million was destroyed. Rosa Maria is emotional but also happy to see that the macaws she dearly loves are still alive.

Macaws in Charque picture by Octavio Duran

They are beautiful and they recognize Rosa Maria.
Many other places in Madidi National Park, where Rosa Maria had built lodges suffered the same fate, and during my stay in Serere I hear a lot of amazing stories about how things go in Bolivia. Later maybe something more on this topic. (Well one little story now, because the dam was never to be, the sun of a former president never received his 10% commission!, and this guy according to Rosa already doesn’t know what to do with all his money.)

After our visit to Charque we visit the old neighbours of Rosa Maria. They live in a very primitive settlement and it gives a good impression how people live here. I’m afraid I wouldn’t like to change positions. It is ok for them not to have television, but it would be nice to have some more stimuli from time to time. The animals that walk around are in a very poor condition, the chickens and the ducks probably have survived many attacks on their lives because the plucking (?) process has robbed them of most of the feathers, and the dogs (about 12) are very thin.

After this short visit it is time to go to Rurrenabaque but on the river there are many people Rosa Maria is familiar with so we stop from time to time to have a chat. One of the boats is bringing palm leaves to Rurrenabaque, and there are two young girls that look smashing. Those are certainly not altiplanitas. We arrive in Rurrenabaque where a big thunder storm is breaking loose, and after this we go by boat to Serere.

two girls picture by Octavio Duran

Serere is a private protected area of ca 4000 hectares. Rosa Maria bought it a few years ago, and when she started having troubles with the government she decided to invest into this area. She hopes with the money earned in Madidi Travel to buy more land and make it a protected area too. She thinks this gives more hope for conservation than a park owned by the national government in Bolivia (later more on this topic). It is tropical rainforest and in the area are five lakes with many birds and caiman. The cabins are in the forest, and it is a very nice place to have your office, because all around you it is green, there are many birds, and sometimes you can see the monkeys by passing while making a lot of noise. After about two weeks spending my time here it really started being my home and all the animals around me were friends that passed by. You relax while you work, and I have been working rather a lot. Normally my days were starting at 9.00 am and I worked till 10.30 pm.

Flower

I’m sleeping alone in a cabana, on the first floor, and to get there I have to climb a ladder that is not very stable if you don’t pay attention. As a result I fall from the ladder and land on my back, some three meters lower. My fall is broken by my elbows and my ass!!, and I am glad this wasn’t the Toro Toro canyon!

Further more there is a big place where people can sit, eat and relax, and can see wonderful sunsets on the Lago San Fernando. I developed a habit of making a picture almost every night because every night the sunset looked so beautiful it was impossible to resist my feelings to make another one.

Lago Gringo

Spectacular were the nights here, sometimes you could see lots of fireflies circling around the lake, and with the reflection it looked like a fairy tail, then other nights the frogs/toads were on the loose and the concerts they were giving were incredible, what a sound a tiny animal like the frog can produce. They have a sort of vibrator under their throat, this they use to produce the sounds.

vibrator throat frog

Sometimes you can find very big toads that are trying to catch little mosquitoes.

giant frog

One of the attractions is to look for caiman during the night, and with torches you shine around until you see a red spot, which is the eye of the caiman, I made some very nice shots of caimans, and sometimes they are bigger than thought.

eye of the caiman

My activities were making pictures to put on their website building a pictures database, building an access database, and writing stories for their website. After a few days I concluded that the website they had was not very well designed and in some places not structured so I decided to design a new website. It probably is not yet on the internet because the building will be done by Tim, a guy in La Paz who built the fist web site. If you’re interested to know how it looks, this is the link http://www.madidi-travel.com/. Here you can also read more about how the local and national governments deal with protection and conservation. It really was a lot of work this time, because I wanted the site to look very neat, and especially the pictures should give a very good impression of Serere. I hope I have succeeded, I’m rather content with the result.

Back to my Franciscan brothers, they stayed for three days, and in this time I really get fond of Enrique. He is the older priest that now is working in Mozambique. Although he only speaks Spanish – which is for me a good practice- and so sometimes it is difficult to communicate, he is a very gentle and calm man and his way of laughing makes you laugh.

The Americans were giving me lessons in American politics. I was surprised to learn there are Americans which have thoughts that resemble more the European way of thinking. They were very cynical about what was going on in America and I’m afraid poor George is not very popular within the Franciscan society.

The Americans aren’t heroes when they are in the jungle. Charlie is walking around dressed as bee holder wearing some sort of mosquito net and gloves. At night he’s glad I’m walking him home to cabin, because you never know what might show up. Well maybe Charlie is right, while I’m writing this in my Serere cabin a jaguar is patrolling in the vicinity. This morning it attacked a pig they keep here as food. The pig survived but has some wounds, that aren’t lethal, but the jaguar smells it and wants more! Later that night we start searching for the jaguar but after three hours we come back with only some fresh tapir marks. These marks show that a tapir is around, and next morning it is seen by the cook, close to his sleeping place. A night walk is very exciting. You spot the animals by shining a light around, and sometimes you see a red spot, the eye of something. By the way when we leave Serere we found fresh jaguar marks on the road we had been walking. It probably was close that night, but jaguars don’t like (to eat) humans, and it probably hid in the bushes.

Also Judd is not a hero. One night we hear a loud cry, as if somebody saw his final hour, and I’m afraid Judd is stabbed to death by an intruder. It turns out that Judd was intimately approached by two spiders in the bathroom (The spiders were killed by the FRANCISCAN), and as all women know, spiders are very dangerous so I can understand his fear for death. I have a not yet published picture where Alejandro, one of the guides is being spied by a Tarantula. Alejandro is walking here, not knowing in which incredible danger he is. That spider is waiting to strike, sting and kill. Poor Alejandro…………………

Spider waiting for the kill

In the meantime I’m working on my pictures, to put them in a database and to do some photoshopping on them. In the end I made around 1000 pictures and together with pictures of Octavio, Judd and Enrique there are around 2000 pictures, so it wasn’t too difficult to make a nice selection. After a few days the padres leave and I stay alone in Serere with Jairo, his wife Laura and two kids. It gives me the opportunity to make long days working, and sometimes to explore the area.
There quite a few monkeys here, and especially waking up by the sound of the howler monkeys is special. Although they aren’t big and only live in small groups of 4 individuals (one male, three females!) they produce a noise that sounds like a football stadium. There are also capuchin monkeys and squirrel monkeys.

Capuchin monkey picture by Octavio Duran

It is funny to see that after a month in Serere they start knowing me. In the beginning, there is big panic when they see me, and they are fleeing higher up in the trees. Now they think I don’t mean any harm, and they stay in place, or even sometimes they climb lower to look at me. Judging their looks they are very surprised and it seems like they are rubbing there eyes as if they can’t believe that such beautiful creatures can exist.

Capuchin2 picture by Octavio Duran

One of the nice things of staying in the jungle for a month is that you can get a good impression of the abundance of life forms here. In the beginning it is difficult to notice anything at all, too much visual input, but after a few weeks you start to discover the enormous amounts of beautiful insects, frogs and butterflies you can see here. There is a place near Lago San Fernando where the butterflies and frogs gather, and I have been creeping many days in the mud next to the other pigs to see all the little animals there.

One of the many beautiful insects

Serere surprises everyday because you see the strangest insects. There are many odd looking caterpillars, one of them you can see below.

Caterpillar

Poisenous frog

Butterbeauty

Butterfly 2

The crew of Serere is helping me and as soon as they see strange creatures they search Bien Laden, which is my nickname here. Fascinating are the leaf cutters. These are little ants that have the habit to cut leaves, and bring these leaves to their nest, where ca 8 million ants are living in a complex that can be 15 meters wide and 5 meters deep into the ground. Day in day out you can see them march from their nest to a tree, and when the tree is almost leafless they change course and find another three. You can see them march for more then 50 meters with leaves that are at least 20 times as large as they are.

Leaf cutters

Serere is named after a big, beautiful and clumsy bird. Together with Rosa Maria and Alejandro we go searching them in a distant spot on Lago San Fernando and later at Lago Gringo I can see a pair of Sereres that I can sneak at. In the bushes while being eaten by the mosquitoes, I stay there at least half and hour to make pictures. One nice trick I learned here was using a sound recorder. When playing the sound the Serere produces, they start looking rather strange because they hear one brother, but can’t see one. Sereres are not very good flyers so it is comic to see a Serere falling into the water, when it tries to flee when we are approaching in a boat.

Serere bird

This is also the first time I have the honor of getting some parasites. A few days after I have been stung by some flies, my wounds are not healing, no they are growing, and sometime I feel something strange. It feels like somebody is pulling the hairs on my arm. When Rosa sees my arm, she says I have hookworms, and that it is better not to let them get too big. So first we try to kill (six of ) them with an insecticide, which is successful for one of them, which I can extrude one day later. The others however not, and next day Alejandro smokes some cigarettes and concentrates the nicotine in a black piece of shit, that he puts on my heavy (war)wounds. These hookworms don’t like it and try to get out before they are dead. This way two more come out but the other three didn’t like to leave, and choose my arm as their grave.

Wasp

Two days later my hand looks red, swollen and hard. A strange place to have an erection! Might be handy with fistfucking though. It seems I have an inflammation, and one of the guides Rodolpho seals my hand with some papaya pancake, and some days later the inflammation seems to starts to lessen. And now it is almost gone, and probably the hookworms too. I survived some very fierce enemies!

After one month I return to La Paz, leaving behind a few friends I have made in Serere, especially Alejandro, El Capitan and Ricardo have been very helpful and kind, and I will miss their friendship and laughter. In the end I finally started to understand their dialect a little bit, and I certainly hope to see them again.
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I’m now doing some final work in the madidi office in La Paz, and it is time to make up my impressions after almost 4 months Bolivia. The country is magnificent, the variety in nature is enormous, from La Paz at 3600 meters to the tropics at 200 meters is only one bus journey. The people in Bolivia are very colorful and diverse, so you really can enjoy days just watching people.

The backside of the country is the enormous corruption and the division of poverty and wealth. A few people here have everything and the rest has nothing. The families that have everything, control political life, and to make sure that they stay in power they have members in all political parties. Politicians here have two golden rules, get as rich as possible, and as soon as possible. They sell all the resources they have for peanuts to foreign companies, as long they get a good share.

caiman

In the country side, nature and resources are exploited. Foreign companies gain concessions to extract wood from the forest by giving the local people in charge large amounts of money. This means that for only 1000 dollars they gain the rights to extract large amounts of timber. The rights to extract silver and oil were also sold for peanuts, but the politicians involved receive enormous amounts of money. Other examples you can find on the madidi website.

Tree in Serere

If further look for the cultural differences, they are big, and because also the differences in life standards are big (the east part is much richer than the altiplano) there are many people in the east part in favor of more autonomy. This resulted in a movement in May that was very powerful, and it still is a ticking time bomb. When the blockades were at its height there was a general fear it could end up in civil war, but when the president resigned the situating became more at ease. I wouldn’t be surprised though that in the near future the situation here will be uncontrollable. The division between the rich and the poor is too big. Too many people have nothing to loose.

So for the last time in LA Paz, I will end my story with a few sunsets of Lago san Fernando. Who knows I will be here again some time in the future. Time to go to Peru!

Sunset1

Sunset2