Rolo on Tour

y venga conmigo!
Vamonos al viaje para
buscarlos sonidos mágicos
de…

Ecuador!“

That´s how the awesome song Ecuador by Sash starts. But what else do you know about this country? I did not know much, that is why it took me some time in Quito figuring out how to proceed.

Meanwhile, I was discovering this city and its surroundings:

Photo taken at the Basilika of Quito, the figure in the background is the so-called Panecillo

View of Quito from above at about 4000 metres, a cable car takes you up there.

Yes, the landscape around is more beautiful than the city itself.

Nearby Quito is a place called Mitad del Mundo and as the name suggests, the equator passes through it. Well at least that is what some french scientists thought in the 18th century and so they built a monument there.

If they knew….

Funny thing, it was later found out by GPS that the equator passes actually 200 metres away, where there is now a museum. In this museum I got a diploma for balancing an egg on an nail:

It is really much harder than it looks!

Also you can make the „flush-test“. People who watched the Simpsons (or paid attention in school) may know this but for everybody else: On the northern hemisphere water flows down a sink counter-clockwise whereas on the southern hemisphere it does so clockwise. On the equator itself it just drops down. This is quite amazing to see there, walking 1 metre north or south and seeing that effect with your own eyes!
Furthermore, if you want to lose weight, you might want to travel to the equator ;-). As the gravitation forces are not as strong here (why, I have no clue, ask a physicist), you lose approximately a kilo in weight. (Of course when you go back it will appear again, so don’t take that advice seriously.)
Wow, there is a lot to learn in this entry. I will see you after a short break.

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3 months of travelling through Central America will be over tomorrow and the continent of South America is waiting for me next. Time for a little resumee:

On the 19th of October 2010 some travel-greenhorn, namely me, got on a plane to Mexico to see something of the world. I discovered quite quickly that Backpacking (at least around here, as that is all I can talk about right now) is really much, much easier than I thought before. It didn’t take long and I had the impression I never did anything else in my life! So what have I done so far:

I have visited 28 different locations in 6 countries (Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama). I was swimming in Cenotes and climbed 4 volcanoes. I was attacked by 3 dogs at once. I can call myself an Open Water Diver now, I went down a volcano on a board and I was dressed as a Canadian Hockey Player at Halloween. I took part in a waiters run and was flying on a 1km-canopy-cable through the air. Many cool memories will remain of the time I spent here and of the people I met on the way.
Still, travelling it is not always exciting, but that is a thing you have to deal with. As it is at home, there are always ups and downs and sometimes the places are not what you expect of them or you don’t meet people to connect with. But there is always another day and another place to go…

Now lets come to some „travel wisdom“ I gained so far:

• As most people do, I realized soon that I got too much stuff. Here we have an example how you get everything you need in a very small bag and still got your hands free for important supplies for the bus ride:

Still some little things are quite essential and I would not go again for example without a travel towel, a bandana or flip flops. And I would bring an Ipod touch, which would help getting through all the bus rides and considering there is Wifi in every hostel around here it would come quite handy.

• It is normal to see the same people over and over again. At first I was really surprised about that, but now I have seen people I know in all locations besides the first stop in Cancun and one night in Tegucigalpa. And I can tell you that it is always funny when this happens.
• Everybody is a teacher. I don’t know why, but if I ask people what they do back home, that is by far the most common answer.
• If I ask people where they come from, London is the city named most often. Surprisingly Vancouver is named the second most.
• The amount you pay for a taxi ride is inversely proportional to your spanish skills (At least that is my theory ;-)).

Furthermore my budget planning should be OK, also considering that I can always save money by drinking less, making not as many tours and cooking instead of eating out. The last aspect will also help me improve my cooking skillz further and if that is the only thing I learn on this trip ;-).

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Escaping the rain I wound up in the second biggest city of Panama called David, where I had a nice relaxing time. At the beach next to it I had a very tasty pescado frito, which to my surprise came as a whole fish!

Birds like fish too

For new year´s eve I went to Panama City to celebrate it there. The first thing which struck me when I arrived is the skyline: After having traveled for quite some time now, where the tallest building I saw was maybe 15 metres high, this one came as a big surprise:

View of the skyline from the balcony of my hostel (Luna´s Castle)

Well at least that explains where the money earned off the canal might go to…

Quite unorthodox: The Revolution Tower in Panama City

The first night I had to sleep in the hostel´s „movie theater“, because all the regular beds were taken, nevertheless I had a surprisingly good sleep there. Besides that, the time I spent in Panama City was rather unspectacular – including the visit of the Panama canal.

Having seen enough of scyscrapers for the moment I went to the valley of Boquete, situated in the mountains. From there I climbed Panama´s only volcano – Barú (Yeah, another volcano, I know. It is really funny how you never do that back home and here you do it every other week or so..) starting at 11 pm in hope of seeing the sunrise the next morning. Also on some days you can actually see both the Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean.
But me, I was not that lucky. All I saw was clouds and all I felt was rain and wind, so it was freeeezing.

Rather disappointed near the top of Barú

Besides that Boquete is a very nice little town, where you have many options to wander around or visit some gardens. You can also do many activities there, which I did not do as I considered them quite overpriced. As well it was funny to find many brochures where Panama is trying to attract US citizens to retire here and especially go to Boquete for that.

View of Boquete

Deciding that Boquete was still not remote enough I spent some days in a hostel called Lost and Found, which is situated in the middle of nowhere in a cloud forest reserve. Unfortunately it rained again almost all of the time, which made hiking difficult and also it got a bit monotone therefore – the major distraction being the foosball tournament which is held there every night.

View from the hostel: Rainbows were quite common to see as the weather there changed so quickly.

The most difficult thing turned out to be getting back to civilization: I waited 2,5 hours on the road, where there are supposed to come busses by every half an hour. I saw 4 busses while I was waiting, but all of them were full. Finally some truck drivers picked me up, so I got my first ride ever as a hitchhiker!

Waiting for somebody to pick me up…

View of the inside…

and of the beautiful landscape outside of the truck.

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