Ecuador y Colombia

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Peru

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America Central (segunda parte)

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Hawaii January ´09

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America Central (parte uno)

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Colombia - A la orden!

A la orden señor! An expression that can only be heard in Colombia and an expression that I want to use to describe Colombian people. Friendly, respectful, considerate and interested. That`s how the large majority of Colombians will appear to you.

Before I went I heard so many good things. Almost every South America Traveler recommends Colombia as the best place to go because of its amazing people and good vibe. So I had been excited to go for months. My expectations where high, very high and what I got from traveling this country pleased me a lot. Of course there is not a 100% of outstandingly friendly people, but the large majority welcomed you warmly and appreciates your bravery of visiting their country.

Colombians are well aware of their reputation in the world and try to do everything to change it. Colombia is not what it was anymore. Guerrilla, drugs, and crime are still present but somewhere distant, somewhere where the common traveler will never go. The new commercials everywhere say: "Colombia - the only risk is wanting to stay!" I think that is true.

On the other hands, more things that Colombia is known for are clearly visible every day. Those are plastic surgery (Boob jobs are almost obligatory and butt implants necessary for every "nadadora" :-) and the prettiest women in the world (the reason why might be arguable, I guess).

Tourism has picked up so much over the last 5 years and it's beginning to change the country. Wherever you go there are people interested in you as a traveler, as a foreigner, as someone who comes to exchange cultural experiences. But in the busiest tourist spots this spirit is almost fading. Tourism has it's bad sides and besides money cultural exchange or tightening international relations, it can bring indifference, confirmation of prejudices and unkindness to local people. Especially in places where rich tourists visit relatively poor areas, behave disrespectful, take drugs and disappear after a short time. A place like this is Taganga at the Caribbean Cost in the North. The clearest sign that tourism has the power to destroy, to change the maybe friendliest and happiest people in Latin America.

Therefore my recommendation is, go to Colombia, and go now, before it is too late. To many people you are still a stranger, a brave person that made it to their country, someone who believes in Colombia. But there are already lots of those who are accustomed to travelers, who see you as someone who brings money and not much more - which is sad.

I was more than lucky already 4 month ago when I met David y Lida in Argentina. These two people as well as Daniela, Alex (a friend from Indiana and with 2 weeks hanging out together my longest travel buddy on the whole trip), Matt and Alisa, Karen and many others made my trip to Colombia unforgetable. After visiting stylish Medellin, historic and romantic Cartagena, beautiful Parque Tayrona and colonial Villa de Leyva, I spent my last 4 days in Latin America in Bogota. I felt super welcome there, learned a million things and I am very sure there could have never been a better end to my trip in South America. Thank you so much again David y Lida, you are great Chibchombianos!!

I left South America after 5 moths, 8 countries, and more than 360h of bus rides, with loads of experiences that will last a lifetime and the will to come back one day - maybe soon, maybe later, who knows, but one day for sure!!

Since my new passport just arrived on time in Bogota, one week before my old one expired, I was able to go to the US without any hazzle. Spent the last week in Florida, went to the Keys, to the Bahamas and incredible Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. Only Problem is, that I spend as much money in one week as I did before in a month in South America - I think it's time to go back home... :-)

Soon! Greeting from Texas!

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Ecuador - A smelly bag and a fake experiment

Arriving about a week too late, I still didn`t want to rush it too much and allowed myself 7 days to see at least some of the most important places in Ecuador. Within one week I made it to the super pretty city Cuenca, to beautiful Baños, to the amazing crater lake of Quilotoa, to the obligatory tourist destination of Mitad del Mundo and of course the capital Quito.

My first impression of Ecuador was the shitty bus service. Although I don`t really need the alround service of Peruvian bus companies, which sometimes take security a bit too serious I think (fingerprints, passport checks and video filming before departure), I really like to have more than 15cm leg space, especially on a night bus. So in addition to no comfort, one company returned my backpack soaked in fishwater when I got off in Baños. First I didn`t recognize the smell but later it was pretty obvious. Fortunately I had my cover on the backpack and only a little bit soaked through, but even hard handwashing couldn`t kill the smell entirly so far. Obviously I am not the first one with this experience, because the staff at the hostel in Baños was quite unimpressed and just asked me if I came from the coast.

But apart from that, Ecuador really is a nice place. So much greener than northern Perú and friendlier people in the streets. Everybody likes to help out and answers questions whenever you are lost or just not sure. Laguna Quilotoa is a place not to be missed when going to Ecuador I think. An impressive crater lake that makes for stunning views and good hikes. Remembering that Melbourne is supposed to be the city of 4 seasons in one day - Ecudor is the country of 4 seasons in 4 hours. On my way from Baños to Quilotoa i went through everything from fog, to burning sunshine, to rain, and finally to hail. Then sunshine again - pretty impressive when you don`t know what the weather will be like in the next 15 minutes.

Finally Quito is a pretty nice place, too. The Equator is only 22km away and has some nice museums. At the new one, where there is supposed to be the real equator line measured with GPS, they do a lot of demonstrations like the classical sink experiment which shows water flowing clockwise on the southern hemisphere and counter clockwise on the northern one due to the Coriolis force. My group was unlucky because I disillusioned them by showing them that the experiment is fake and that this force doesn`t have any effect on such small amounts of water. After we put the sink on the equator, then 2 meters to the South and then 2 meters to the North, I asked the guide if I could move the sink around to another position. Suddenly the water spun around in the other direction and the guide admitted that it should just give an idea of how it works - buhu!! However I didn`t say much more about the egg and the strength experiments - I guess the guide would have been mad at me...

Then after one week of restless traveling I thought Saturday night might be the right time to hit the nightlife scene of Quito and see what bars and clubs would have to offer. Unfortunately at 9pm I had to find out that it was election week and nobody was allowed to sell alcohol or be drunk??!! That meant no bars, no clubs, nothing. A city of 2million people just dead on a Saturday night. I couldn`t believe it, but I had to face this sad truth. They say Ecuatorians are irresponsible when they drink, and especially during election week they would drink too much and then kill, fight, drive cars and walk around the streets without caution - hmmm anyone for a drink with Ecuatorians to prove the statement??

I already arrived in Colombia and again received a tourist visa that exceeds the expiry date of my passport by far. I really would love to try an cross a border with a totally invalid one now - I am sure it`s possible!!

soon ST SB CT

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Gone MAD!

Wow, what a week! Somehow I have the impression that all my reports from Perú have to start either with the words wow, or amazing, or incredible. Why is that? Maybe because I wasn`t expecting much when I first came here. Maybe because I meet incredible people all the time here. Maybe because I stay longer in every place than I actually planned. I mean during the first week Perú was pretty much what I expected - with touristy Lago Titicaca, tourist trap Cuzco and Machu (Rip off) Picchu. But after that... wow!

So anyways, let`s not waste precious time and words. The last week I worked for M.A.D. (Make a difference) Voluntarios in Pisco. In this little city of 90.000 inhabitants an estimated 80% of the buildings either collapsed or were seriously damaged during the last earthquake in 2007. As there were "only" about 600 deaths and some 2000 injuries, the president declared this earthquake of 8.0 on the Richter Scale as not serious and therefore Pisco didn`t receive any international aid. Only desaster relief voluntary groups like M.A.D., Burners without Borders, or Pisco sin fronteras arrived to help people sort out their lives and housing situations.

So I thought I might be able to use some of the strength I gained during my last weeks at high altitude to do some good for a couple of days. Planing to stay only for a couple of days I moved into the M.A.D. House. Immediately I had to find out that the work is very rewarding and the people I worked and live with were very clever, ambitious and really keen to Make A Difference. Thus my 3 day plan turned into more than a week and leaving was not easy. I would have loved to stay longer but time`s running out and there´s still so many places to visit on the way to Bogotá...

To just give you an idea of what I did while I was there. First, we moved a house and poured a concrete floor for this lovely old lady who has to look after her disabled sister. She lives in a hut with mud floor and walls of straw since the earthquake. We went to a school to paint and renew tables and chairs, we dug holes to errect a wall and a roof for another disadvantaged lady, we taught English at the house as well as at an institute, and we improved our own house to host more volunteers and set up signs in streets so they can find us. I also operated as a translator since spanish speakers are somehow scarce amongst volunteers.

The learning part for me this time not only included practical things like woodworks, concrete and paint but also how to talk to the people and how to find out whom to help and how. It`s not easy when people know how volunteers assess personal situations and then hide valuables or make up stories to get their work done for free. Unreliability is the next big problem. So it just happened that 8 people were waiting at 9am on Thursday for a guy who has been promised help with his concrete floor. He was supposed to pick us up but never showed up - no phone call, nothing. Obviously help wasn`t that necessary.

A nice thing is to walk around with the Voluntary T-shirt. All of a sudden prices are only half as much and shopping at the market gets incredebly cheap. So maybe help is appreciated.

Going fishing, playing chess, having lunch at Chicho`s, dancing like crazy in the front yard and taking care of the mental cat called Fleebag added some unforgettable flair to my stay. I really wish I could have stayed longer.

Thanks Jun, William, Robin, Hanna, Ashley, Katie, Dom. Keep doing the shit you do, you are doing it really good - the concept of the house is perfect, just maintain it!! I will look for new smart volunteers...

Check Mate!

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View from the Summit

Wow, this has been an experience. One of the greatest ones ever I guess. I climbed the Chachani - a volcano that is just a little over 6km high. 6075m to be precise. In a two day approach me and 5 others of my group reached the peak. The first day we just did a little warm up and carried all the equipment from 5150m where the Jeeps dropped us off to 5400m where the base camp needed to be errected. After some sort of dinner everybody went to bed (tent) and tried to sleep at some degrees below zero. Nobody really slept. Tim, who claimed to have slept 1 hour while we had our breakfast at 1:30am was envied by the rest of the group .

At 2:30am we begann the ascend. 6 hours of crawling uphill followed. 6 hours in which everybody was constantly contemplating their own physical and mental condition and probability to reach the peak. I must say that I never walked that slow before. At an altitude of more than 5000m every step costs a lot of energy. If you do one step to fast, your lungs and your heart will immediately remind you that their power is limited. The closer we got to the top the more breaks we took. While we more or less walked the first two hours without any breaks, towards the end sometimes breaks were neccessary every 15 steps.

The weather was perfect for the ascend, almost no wind and moderate temperatures. They say Chachani is a good mountain with a good spirit and good energy. Well, he (actually in Quechua this mountain is female) more or less took all my energy but the feeling that you get standing on the top compensates for everything.

At this point I really have to thank my tour guide Yudy so much. Without her I certainly would not have made it to the top. She taught me many important things like how to breathe, when to eat, when to drink, how to walk. I doped myself with coca leaves and Nasenspray to fight my cold and any possible altitude sickness and apart from some stomach aches (because of wrong breathing) I only had to fight against my inner Schweinehund to accomplish my mission.

I am very happy I did it and actually can only recommend doing it to everyone, because words cannot describe what it feels like. And in the end it definetly is something that changes you and your perception of things - and 100% positive

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Machu (Rip Off) Picchu

I doubt that I have ever felt more like a dumb tourist. Well, some might argue now that I am, but I usually don`t feel like one I must admit.

Machu Picchu is the top tourist destination in South America and once you go there you won`t doubt it a second. Wherever you look, there are well equipped gringos with all their professional camera and outdoor gear or my so loved hippies, with all their beards and hair and odor and fancy dresses. Simply everyone goes to Machu Picchu but not everyone refuses to pay the $120 for the 4 hour train ride.

Some people like me take the cheap version. Instead of taking the direct train for 4 hours from Cuzco, I had to catch a bus to St. Maria (6hours), then transfer to St. Theresa (1hour), stay there over night, get the first taxi at 6 a.m. to Hydroeclectrica (40min) and then walk 2 hours on disused train tracks. Of course I wanted to save the $7 rip off fare for the shuttle bus to the top of Machu Picchu as well, so I had to walk or rather climb another hour to the top, where a super friendly lady (this is ironic!) took my $40 entrance fee.

Pretty exhausted from the first 10km walking that day I decided to take the bus down and was willing to pay the 7 Nuevas Soles until I was friendly reminded that the sign means Dollars, not the Peruvian currency. So I put my 10 Soles bill back in my pocket and walked the 2km track down again. Then I thought, wow man you saved so much money, just pamper yourself a bit and take the train half way back and from there the bus, so you avoid walking all the way back and save about 6hours. But when the super friendly lady at the counter of the Peru Rail (monopolies are bad, very bad!!) told me that the 1,5 hour train ride would cost me $66 (btw. for Peruvians $1) I resigned one more time, turned around and once again set foot on the disued train tracks with my super hiking boots for another 2 hours. I started calling my 20km walk that day, the longest foot massage ever, as I guess my 5mm soles are not exactly proper boots for train tracks. Anyways, I ended up paying about $60 for the 2 day trip including food and accomodation or let`s say I ended up saving $130 or so. I call that success.

Apart from all that, Machu Picchu is nice, very nice, even nicer and more spectacular set than I expected. Only tourists will eventually trample it down. Experts say, the walking paths draw back by 1cm per month...

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Bolivia - du schönes Land

Having said that Chile gave me back my travel spirit, Bolivia doubled it! Un País tan diferente! As my photos have already been online for a while, some impressions are already comunicated. But even they cannot reflect the actual beauty and the feeling that you get traveling this country. From the High Andes, the largest salt flat in the world, the highest city, the most dangerous road, the highest capital, the largest indigenous population and the highest mayor lake to the Amazon - Bolivia has it all. It has all but beaches. But honestly, nobody will miss them, given the mentioned abundance of sights.

Of course all this beauty has its price and that comes as follows:

• Single room (including breakfast): $4
• Set lunch (soup, main, desert): $1,40
• Taxi (2h inter city): $3,90
• DVD: $0,90
• Cinema: $1,10
• Internet (per hour): $0,28
• Shoe cleaning: $0,28

Traveling the country is pretty easy and although some mugging stories can be heard every now and then, accidents are more of a danger. The poor hospital facilities receive regularly tourists from the Uyuni Salt Flat tours or the Mountain Bike tours just outside La Paz. Amongst Backpackers horror stories about drunk drivers and bus crashes are quite popular and unfortunately mostly true. So one should be quite careful but if you use common sense, Bolivia is beyond limits.

Every day dozens of tourists take the famous Camino de la Muerte - a road that has only been closed for traffic a mere 3 years ago. Until then 150 people died there every year in bus, car or truck accidents. The road winds itself along a steep mountain range with cliffs of up to 800m deep. Of course it is not paved, in some sections only 3m wide, has no guardrails, and allows traffic in both directions.

Por sopuesto, I had to take that adventure. We started with our mountainbikes at an altitude of 4766m and rode downhill for 67km. 3 hours later and 3600m closer to sea level I thought I survived the most thrilling. We stopped about every 5 to 20mins to watch car and bus wrecks in the abbys while being told when and how many people there died. 3 years ago 102 people here, 5 tourist here 2 years ago, one Israeli here just last year and one Spaniard fell down this cliff just a couple of months ago. And so on and so on...
Anyways, as I said I thought downhill was already enough, we were asked if we wanted to take the new road or the death road on the way back. I don`t know for what reason the 3 Australians immediately yelled Death Road, but it seemed to be my destiny. Another hour of adrenaline followed, while I was sitting at the window of the cliff side not being able to see the road anymore and thinking if the rain could have any serious impact to the road conditions or our minivan.

However, I survived that as well as I did the thrilling mine tour a week earlier in Potosí. Those mines are just another chapter for themselves. People working under the worst imaginable conditions, blasting themselves with self-bought dynamite through the mountain, without anybody mapping the routes they are taking (collapses only predictable). Life expectancy is still a mere 45 years and the average miner doesn`t survive his 10th year working there because of some sort of lung desease. To visit those mines you just find a former miner, buy some dynamite and coca leaves in the streets as a present and then you start crawling through the mountain. You`ll loose orientation in an instant and if you turn off your light there will be nothing but darkness. You`ll visit some devil shrines and get yourself really dirty while crawling, climbing and walking through the mines. If you are man enough you try a sip of the 96% alcohol that your guide brought and which is usually partly sacrificed to the devil and mostly drunk by the miners.

Sin embargo, now I am in Peru, got a 90 day visa although my passport is only valid another 68 days and already saw some more really impressing things but I will tell in a later post...

Liebe!

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Chile, chili and Chilenos

First of all I have to say Chile saved me. Saved me from loosing my travel spirit and thinking I have seen enough or having met enough people. It proved to me once again that a thin line on a map really makes a huge difference. Maybe it was also that things only could get better regarding the people and that my mind was fully opened for new encouters. From the first day I only had a good time in Chile.

But before I keep up the tradition and tell how to be a good Chilean, I have to say that there is really no need to try to be one. Because Chile is super safe, and you will have more fun with the Chileans as an "Extranjero"! People here are actually interested in those who visit their country and wherever you go there will be a friendly person trying to help you out.

If you still want to be a Chilean try the following:

- be as small as all other latin americans
- have darker hair than the rest and keep it mostly straightened
- be cheerful and look around yourself to notice who else is there
- try to mix with foreigners as much as possible
- party hard and drink a lot
- call your flag the prettiest in the world although it just a copy of the Texas one (just kidding, Chile`s is 21years older)
- call your official language Spanish but don`t use it
- speak Chilean instead, which means not pronouncing the end of words that are to long and adding "po" to all the words that are too short (therefore all words will have the same lengths and you can speek so fast that no foreigner will understand you)
- don`t do sports
- spent your freetime in Shopping Malls and even call one them "The most important shopping mall in south america"
-don`t tell anyone what makes a Shopping Mall "important"

So that`s about it. Chile has a very diverse countryside from Glaciers in the south to the driest place on earth in the north. It`s all just fascinating and if you wonder why I haven`t said anything about chili yet, well, I didn`t have any over there but I just thought the headline sounds better with it...

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Argentina - who`s crying?

Traveling is all about getting to know the people, learning from them, integrating in different cultures and figuring out the differences compared with oneself. Knowing about local habbits and modes of interaction does not only show respect but also prevents oneself from getting scammed and treated like a tourist. Especially in Latin America it can also mean to avoid the danger of getting robbed.

That`s why I want to give any potential traveler to Argentina a list of advices on how to be a genuine Argentinian. Btw. being Argentinian differs a lot from being Brazilian.

How to be Argentinian:

• be small
• pretend you are twice as tall as you really are
• be stylish
• use the mirrors next to every door in the subways to check your style
• don`t try to find an open restaurant before 10pm
• don`t go into a night club before 3am
• don`t talk to foreigners (unless they are blond and feminine)
  
• don`t smile to them (only smile amongst your friends - but be careful it might happen that you laugh)
  
• if you are forced to talk to a German, tell him he has a lot of money compared to you
• paint a sun with a face on your flag
• don`t expect waiters to serve you in bars or restaurants
• don`t expect to get past a register in a supermarket in less than 20 minutes - even if there is only one customer in front of you
• drink Mate (google, if you don`t know what it is!)
• call a bus seat "Bed" or "Semi-Bed" just because you can tilt it backwards in a 45 degree angle
• don`t speak spanish, speak castezhano
• say "lindo" about every place and piece of your country
• put "muy muy" before it
• say it 100 times a day

Of course Argentina is not so bad as it might have sounded in that list, but there are definetly friendlier and more open minded people on this planet. Having stayed here for almost 4 weeks and having visited half the country I think I can generalize it that way. But no generalization can exist without exceptions. So I had some really nice couchsurfer hosts again who offerd me a hotel-like bedroom and a nice Asado in Córdoba. They were very friendly and interested, so I will thank Ezekiel and Vero again at this point. Hope you`ll make it to Germany.

Regarding the landscape and the Cities of Argentina I can only speak for the north as I skipped the supposedly awesome Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego part for money and weather reasons. Apart from being pretty european and american, the cities and countryside reminded me a lot of Mexico, which made me miss the hospitality and friendlieness even more - ¿Dónde están, Carlos y Fernando?

Anyways, I got to see another natural beauty which totally made up for everything, including the more than 70hours on buses so far - A Salt Lake! The Salines Grandes north of Salta was an amazing trip over a 4200m mountain pass without any snow caps and down again to the salt flat at 3500m. Can`t wait now to go to Chile and Bolivia to see more of that...

The very good thing about Argentina is that it`s pretty cheap and reasonably safe for latin american standards. I personally haven`t felt as safe as here in quite a while but somehow I keep hearing mugging stories all the time. The crime is different though. People get tricked and bags snatched in parks, at bus terminals or internet cafes. Actually, there are never any weapons involved - so at least one thing that Brazilians could learn from Argentinians ;-)

I am off to Santiago now, crossing the Andes and not really crying for Argentina...

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Panamá, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina

I know it`s been a very long time since I wrote the last time and things have happened in such an abundance during the last 6 weeks that it´s going to be hard to put it all here. But I`ll give it a try.

First of all, after my volunteering experience I tried to get through some other places in Panama but as soon as I hit the road I got stuck in a tiny village for 24hours because the roads were washed away by heavy rainfalls which didn´t stop for 4 days and 4 nights. Actually it`s nothing too special because Panama has 8 months of rainy season and the rest of the year it pretty much rains a lot.

Being the last country of my Central America journey, Panama was also one of the best ones from my point of view. Besides a pretty interesting and totally not typical central american capital (lots of high-rise buildings and construction sites almost make it look like Dubai), the SAN BLAS Islands were one of the prettiest spots in the world I have ever seen. These islands are ruled by the indigenous Kuna people and their law doesn´t allow any foreigner to own property there. So to get there is already a little challenge because nobody from the hostels in Panama City really knows where to go and what sort of accomodation they have and basic things like that.

So from Panama City after 2 hours of a very bumpy Jeep ride and another 1,5 hours in a tiny tiny wooden boat, Linzi and me arrived totally soaked and a bit freezing on Robinson Crusoe Paradise Island (I just made that name up). We stayed there in Bamboo Huts without electricity and running water. The ocean served as the toilet on one side of the island, meals were cooked by the kuna people and usually consisted of rice and whatever the fisherman could catch during the day.

There were hundreds of islands everywhere, some as tiny as a couple of square meters so there would only fit a single palm tree on the sandy ground and many islands just gave shelter to a couple of kuna families in their palm tree huts. Ours was a bit bigger, though. About 15 backpackers stayed there and to walk around the whole island once we needed almost 5 min utes. So if you are looking for an almost untouched piece of paradise go to SAN BLAS in Panamá!!! Better than Fiji!

As there is only a 60% chance of survival if you want to cross the border from Panamá into Colombia overland, I decided to take a flight out of the country and do a little bigger jump straight to Rio de Janeiro and spare Colombia for later.

There I met this Fuenftourist Ritter also known as Hannes Ambelang, who once again took 4,5 weeks of from work to join me for a little trip from Rio de Janeiro to Buenos Aires. Starting with the Carnaval in Rio was pretty nice, a little different than expected but a must see for sure. Since everybody says that Rio is so dangerous our main focus during the first days was how to dissimulate that we are tourists. Here are some basic rules on how to be Brazilian:

• be tanned
• walk around the city without a t-shirt, even better if you only wear your swimsuit
  
• you need a least one ugly tattoo. more are better of course
  
• don`t take a towel to the beach. nobody has one, it`s to heavy to carry and drying in the sun is much cooler. In addition to that a wet body looks much hotter...
• don´t go swimming, most of the brazilians cannot swim, they just stand around the non swimmers area in the water and play with the waves, only tourists swim
• don`t ride a bicycle
• for car drivers: as soon as it gets dark never stop at red traffic lights (danger of being robbed and economy of time)
• be a good football player

Following all these rules we pretty much had a blast of a time in Brazil. After Rio we went to Sao Paulo, stayed with locals, got invited to dinners and pool parties, got presents and learned a lot about the brazilian way of life in Sao Paulo. Thank you André and Nina and also all your family and friends! It´s impressive how hard working you people in Sao Paulo are and how much you are enjoying life.

Going to Curitiba got us our first couchsurfing experience. We stayed with Fabio and had a short but intense and funny stay with him. Even shorter but not less fun was our night at the Iguassu Falls with Wellington, another couchsurfer! The waterfalls (most famous in South America) were very impressive, too.

Only some 16hours on the Bus and we found ourselves in Florianópolis, supposedly the party place in Brazil with the prettiest women in the world they say. Well, the latter could be true but the parties were giving us a bit of hard time. Unfortunately we stayed there from Sunday to Thursday - not really the party days. But as the main season was over, it was not to easy to find a good spot. The beaches were really pretty, though, and got us both a bad sunburn. We tried the surfboards and even became more brazilian when we started playing this one beach game with the two rackets and a rubber ball. Posing and being cool is the most important part of that game.

Another short bus ride (only 7 hours) brought us for 1 night to uninteresting Porto Alegre before we crossed into Uruguay. Montevideo on a Sunday is a ghost city, very strange and not more than a bit interesting. We walked about 20km that day and felt happy to leave the next day and take the ferry to Buenos Aires.

And that´s where I am right now. The Ritter left and I am on my own again. Looking forward to what is coming, improving my spanish (after 4 weeks of portuguese messed it up again) and making plans on how to compensate the constant negative cashflow of my bank account...

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Volunteering en un Asilo

Panamá!
Been here for more that one week and was more public spirited than ever before. I worked in an old people´s home and definetly had some good experience. So, what I got in return was neither money nor food or accomodation. Instead, I once more got a deep insight in central american culture, people´s beliefs and panamanian politics.

My work mainly consisted of talking to the people(which often meant just nodding and smiling :-), read the Bible, play games and help out in the kitchen. 31 people live in that home, aged 72 to 101, and all so different that it´s almost unimaginable that they can live together under the same roof. After a couple of days I already would have been able to write a book about their characteristics, their stories, their daily routine, their rivalries, their harmony...

There was this 83 year old folk studying the Bible every day, fed up with the "Yankee Man" who opressed the Blacks for more that 200 years, and mad about having ended up in this poor people´s home. Still totally capable of constructing new furniture for the home (see pictures) and secretly probably still very happy when there is someone to play cards with (needs to be a stranger though as he avoides everyone in the house).

Then the 72 year old Alejandra with only one eye left, always smiling and telling me everyday about how excited she was to get her new dress on Sunday so she looks good and can model for me.

Also the 79 year old Nicolas who just lost his legs four years ago when he was still digging for gold in the jungles of Panama, getting hit by falling rocks. He loves to play domino, teach me Spanish and categorizes his roommates into "Almas de Dios y Almas del Diablo" (Soul of God and Soul of the Devil)

Mrs. 101 still likes to put up her fancy hat every now and then with which she looks cool and still remembers the Lord´s Prayer.

These people and some more, including the ladies that run the place with so much love and care and little money, gave me another lifetime experience. What more can you ask for?

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The longest year ever

The fact that 2008 had a 29th of February plus me starting the year in Berlin and letting it end in Hawaii already made this year 1 day and 11hours longer for me than any average year. But when I finally found out that the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service also had to add another second to that year to keep it synchronized with the earth's revolution around the sun, I was pretty sure I had the longest year ever.

And it felt like that as well. Including the weekend trips in early 2008 I visited 18 countries that year and spending Christmas in the States and New Year's in Hawaii just meant making it superb.

So of course there would be plenty to tell but as always I want to keep it short and let pictures and videos tell the full story.
Just so much: I want to thank everybody very much for their birthday wishes and since I just got back from Hawaii (where internet access was $12 an hour) I will now take the time and reply...

I also owed pictures from Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua. The latter one was my favourite of those three. Comparatively quiet and secure and a very beautiful landscape. El Salvador is quite rough, meaning it is obviously the most developed one and in some parts very similar to the States. But on the other hand has one of the highest crime rates and every chewing gum shop or supermarket is guarded by security guys with pumpguns. At nights the streets are patrolled by the same guys and I have definetly never seen so many armed forces before.

However the parts of Honduras that I have seen were very poor, had a lot of unpaved gravel roads and lacked of charme and tourism infrastructure. Actually during the week in Honduras and El Salvador I have hardly ever seen any tourist, so it was just me and my backpack most of the time...

El Salvador / Nicaragua El Salvador / Nicaragua

Honduras Honduras

So I will refer to Hawaii in a later blog entry... Read more on this article...