Rolo on Tour

Some time passed since I posted the last blog entry (Meanwhile I have not been totally lazy, as I have added now the map features to the blog.), so this one will be about the two weeks I spent in Honduras.

Copán was the first place in Honduras I visited. There you can find the most southern mayan ruins and as there is not much else to do, I went there. For me it was not that spectacular, but I have to add that I have of course seen many other mayan ruins before. Also the entry fee was quite expensive, that is probably why those beautiful parrots prefer to stay outside of it ;-).

From Copán I made my way to the island of Utila in order to do my PADI Open Water Dive Course there. The place is known to be a good and very cheap place to do it, so I gave it a try. In order to get the license you have to watch some videos, do some homework, answer some quizzes and some final exam. But of course you also do a lot of exercises above and under water. At the beginning those are really simple ones at 1 meter below surface, but at the end you are doing more complex ones at a maximum depth of 18 metres. Unfortunately throughout the whole course I had some problems, not doing those exercises, but equalizing my ears.
The day after finishing the course happened to be my birthday, so as a present to myself I scheduled my fun dives (2 free dives you got included after the course) on this day. Unluckily my ear problems persisted and moreover I got a little bit seasick on the boat so this was not as much fun as I hoped.

The course itself was very well organized and there was always some helper around if you had a problem. Especially for me that was a good thing, so whenever my ear started to cause problems, I had my ¨private tutor¨ from Holland around, who does not happen to be on the following group picture:

Helpers and students surrounding our instructor Fernando

Afterwards I backtracked to Copán to relax a little from the course. Now you might wonder why I don´t relax on this caribbean island instead. The reason for that is that you can´t do anything besides diving there and everything there evolves around that topic.
In Copán I thought about what to do next: Going back to Guatemala or head to Nicaragua next, which is what I did after some days of curing a minor case of food poisoning. Besides that I was very happy to witness Roger Federer winning the ATP masters cup in an impressive manner including beating his major rival Rafa Nadal convincingly in the finals. The other big sports event of the last week the ¨clásico¨between Barca and Real I missed though, as I visited some hot springs nearby Copán. I have to say I was very surprised how many of the people around that area were interested in that game and and how many of them had shirts of either of the two teams!
Two bus marathons later (which included one night in Tegucigalpa and feeled like sleeping on the highway plus an adventurous Tuk-Tuk-ride across the border) I managed to enter country number 4 on this trip, Nicaragua, which directly brings me to the next topic:

As I have spent now quite a lot of time in buses, especially within the last week, I thought I´d write some thoughts about that down now:

When going by bus here, first of all, you have to stop thinking about some things like „Damn, I don´t have a seatbelt!“. Most of the time you won´t have one, so you should stop worrying or not travel to this part of the world overall.

Secondly you should not watch the road. It just drives you crazy. Why? Because the bus drivers here have some kind of suicide mentality regarding their passing maneuvers. Some kind of advice like „Don´t try to overtake another car ahead of a turn or a hill!“ is unheard of over here. So you just relax and hope that „he knows what he is doing“, as you can´t do anything about it anyway.

Another point: You can´t expect to have a comfortable seat. Most people are very small here (especially in Guatemala) and the buses are built for them. In Mexico the buses are more comfortable, but many of them have the disadvantage that they turn into a „Fridge on Wheels“, as they would turn on the airconditioning on full power all the time – no matter what the actual temperature was. But I knew of this before, so that did not cause that big of a problem, still I cannot understand it, nor does anybody I met over there.

So let´s say you have managed to find some kind of position you are trying to get some sleep (which has been impossible for me so far, I really envy those people who can sleep in a bus). Then (especially in Mexico!) there is another obstacle you have to pass: Speed bumps (called „topes“ in Mexico). It is really ridiculous how many of those are around. I remember passing a village with 10 house along a road of length of 500 metres, where there were different 5 speed bumps. The speed bump building industry must have a big lobby there I suppose 😉 What those speed bumps also do is, they make the drivers go in the spaces between the bumps even faster, as they know that soon they have to hit the brakes again for the next speed bump, so they want to get back that lost time. And for the cars it can´t be too good either, so there can surely be some better way than that.

One really nice thing about going by bus here is the service. Although it can be very annoying that the bus deliberately stops to pick up and drop off passengers, this also involves that it is always full of people who want to sell their stuff: cookies, water, softdrinks, chips, newspapers and so on. Moreover their products are quite affordable. (This of course is quite logical as there is much competition among them as there is lots of them. Compare this to the service in a plane, where there is only one supplier offering food and drinks: the airline.)

So let´s turn to the plastic bags: When you spend some days over here, you will notice pretty fast that everything comes with a plastic bag. (On top of that I lately discovered that some drinks are actually served in plastic bags. Edit(4.3.2011): Fries, salsa and ice cream as well. Bon appetit!) I once saw in a bakery how somebody bought 10 donuts. Well each donut then got its own plastic bag and all of them where then of course put into another plastic bag. So where do these plastic bags end up? The mentality for many people seems to be: „Mother Nature will solve that problem for me“, so some places have really big problems with all the garbage. Especially signs like „No tire la basura“ (Don´t throw any trash here) seem to be understood as a challenge to do the contrary.
Everytime I buy something now I really have to be quick to tell the vendors that I don´t need a plastic bag; so this is my small part in fighting against pollution…

(*)BWRAF: BCD, Weights, Releases, Air, Final Okay is an abbreviation for a security check you have to do before each dive you are doing.
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So I was in Antigua for a few days. Some things to mention about my time there:

• I climbed the volcano Pacaya:

Carlos, our guide on the Pacaya

This was not as much fun as I hoped, the main reason being feeling like a mainstream tourist, when going up there in groups of 15-20 people. Also the weather was quite cloudy that day, so we could not have the expected view there.

• I discovered, that nobody is interested in game theoretic thoughts, when playing drinking games ;-).

But if I think about Antigua, I think of the following, wich is actually 3 stories in one:

• How I became a waiter for 20 minutes

It all started, when I was shooting some „magic“ video in a shop (You can watch it here ). This way I got to know some of the people working there and actually on the following days I happened to visit this place several times.

Why I was there that often also had to do with some negative experience I had with a travel agency, which was supposed to transport me to Copán, Honduras. They failed to do it 2 times and made up some excuses why they could not go. But the truth was simple: They just did not have enough people, who wanted to go there, to make the transport profitable for them. So this way I ended up packing my things 3 times (once at 4am), saying goodbye to everybody etc and 2 of those 3 times I had to unpack, check in again and many people were surprised to still see me around. It became some kind of running gag and I felt like Bill Murray in the movie Groundhog Day.
What did I do about that? I did what every good citizen should do: I filled out a complaint form at the office of tourism ;-).

Well, this way I also ended up 3 times saying goodbye to the girls in the shop. They recommended another agency to me and I gave them some little presents to thank them for their help:



Laura, Reina and Wendy

They wanted to redo the favor, so now I have another shirt to carry around in my bag.

They told me about the „Carrera de Charolas“, a Waiter’s run, which they said was supposed to happen at 8am the next day. I thought, well you can’t miss this event, so I was there at 8am to watch it. But when I talked to some of the waiters, it turned out that the start was one hour later. They explained me the rules and at some point they said: You should take part too! I thought that was a great idea so I went to the place where you registered yourself and received all the stuff you needed. I told them that I am not working as a waiter and don’t have the clothes requested to wear with me. But everybody was really cool about it and encouraged me to participate.
So little time later I found myself at the starting line. The rules were the following: You have to carry 4 kinds of drinks (bottle of gatorade, can of beer, can of coke, small bottle of water) during a race of 2 kilometres and the drinks are not allowed to fall over. Moreover you can only use 1 hand at a time and are only allowed to switch hands once. When I looked around, I discovered that I was kind of unique there: I was the only foreigner (as far as I could tell), the only one not wearing a waiter’s uniform and also the only person taller than 1,75 metres taking part. But nobody got disturbed by that fact, in contrary many people were talking to me, asking me which restaurant I was working in and wishing me good luck.

Allright, I thought, let’s now find the best technique. I looked around to find out how the others where holding the tray and how they placed the drinks on it. I tried different combinations and when the race started I thought I had found a good arrangement.

Well, that lasted for 50 metres 😉 Afterwards I never found a stable position, especially the gatorade bottle would move all the time causing the drinks to fall several times. So I could not apply my running skills and finished something like 950th out of 1000, but nevertheless it was a lot of fun.

One journalist noticed me running, so after I finished I answered some of his questions. He took some photos of me and I ended up on the following guatemalan newssite:

CGN Noticias

So all in all, I am really glad that this travel agency failed to do their job twice, because this was the only reason I was still around for that race!

Later that day I got to Copán, Honduras on a quite fully packed bus shuttle. The following picture was taken before 4 more passengers got onto it..

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On Sunday I got by bus to Panajachel, Guatemala, a small town situated next to the beautiful Lake Atitlan.

Lake Atitlan

Fortunately I did not have any problems in crossing the border, so I could enjoy the beautiful mountainous landscape of Guatemala. In fact one couple, who were on the same bus as me, spontaneously decided to get off the bus in the middle of nowhere because they liked the place so much. In Panajachel I went for some „hostel“ mentioned in my guide book and when I arrived I thought „How funny, they even have chickens.“ If I had not grown up in a city, I might have considered the fact that those animals tend to produce a considerable amount of noise in the morning…

I had always wondered how long it would take me to meet somebody from Karlsruhe, my home town. On monday I got the answer (20 days!), as I met Hanna, whose brother used to be my classmate.

Later that day I went towards one activity included in my bamba pass, a home stay at a local mayan family. And the way there was quite adventurous: I was transported up a mountain road on the roof of some little pickup truck with 20 other passengers. And it was more than one time that I thought, that the truck would fall onto the side…

A Guatemalan way of transportation (Pic taken on the way back with only 15 passengers on board)

At this local family there did not happen much, besides the following incident, which happened on the next morning:

I was recommended to go up the hill some steps to have a great view of Lake Atitlan, so I did just that. I ended up on some small path, from which you indeed had this great view. I discovered that you could go up that hill some more, where I saw some dog loitering around. Some time later another dog showed up and the two of them did what dogs do when they meet each other. I was still standing at the same point some 15 metres away from them, when a third dog entered the scene and the three of them celebrated again their greeting rituals. But all the sudden an unexpected change happened: They looked at me and at the same time started to run at me at high pace and barking loudly.

So put yourself in my situation: What do you do?

My first thought was that they would just stop after a while, but they did not seem to have that intention at all. So I knew, that you should not run away in that situation, because it would make them more eager to get you. Well, I started to run anyways, until I reminded myself of that fact and turned around. Not knowing what to do, I had the brilliant idea, that they might be scared by a bigger and louder dog. So I started to bark at them as loud as I could, but it did not help so I ran backwards on this little path full of stones downhill while continuing to bark. Luckily I did not fall and after 50 metres the dogs stopped as they saw familiar people behind me.

That scene for sure must have been hilarious to watch but as there was nobody filming it you have to imagine it for yourself ;-).

The next few days I spent in San Pedro de la Laguna, which is also situated at Lake Atitlan. There I managed to run into a lot of people I met before, most of those were having spanish classes there. I preferred to become active:
The second day I was there I went by kayak to a rock (my guess: approx. 8,5 metres high) from which you could jump into the water. As I was alone on this trip it was really adventurous. Afterwards I was really done and had pain almost everywhere, so the next day was used for relaxation.

On this relaxing day I did some walk through the city and got to some less touristic area where I just sat down. And I discovered that all the people walking by where smiling at me and greeting me. (In the touristic areas they do it too all the time, but they then want to sell you something: „Hola amigo, quiere pan/cashews/tambores/weed… ?“) That was an experience I have not had before and I felt really great about it.
The second activity I did was climbing on some hill called the indian nose. The view was amazing and certainly worth the effort.

Me, our guide and Gosha from Canada on top of the Indian Nose

That was also the last thing I did there, as later that day it was time to head on towards Antigua. Some boat and bus ride later I was happy to catch some sleep there.

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I spent the last couple of days in San Cristobal de las Casas. Unfortunately it was so „fucking freezing“, as Marcelo never got tired of mentioning, so we did not do much there. One big problem was, that inside the Hostel (Casa Babylon) we used to have the same temperature as outside..

One day, we met Mike, who was on a stopover in San Cristobal and was not really appropriately dressed, as you can see below. Mike’s plan is to travel around the world for 2-3 years and then open up a hostel in the place he liked most. As a consequence of him travelling for such a long time period, he watches his budget very closely. Now a friend had told him, that you could get tacos on a specific market of San Cristobal (that is where we met him) for 1,5 pesos a piece. It turns out we could only get them for 2 pesos (which is something like 11 cents), so Mike was very disappointed ;-).

Mike, very disappointed having to spend 2 pesos per taco

Later we climbed our way up to 2 churches, from which you had good views of the city.

Marcelo, Jeremias from Argentina, me and Mike

The city of San Cristobal seemed really beautiful, but it was just too cold to enjoy much of it. You probably should go there another time in the year.

One activity I did was to visit the Sumidero Canyon. There a boat would drive you around and show you some spots. I did not really like that trip, because the boat would go super fast and then stop for 5 or 6 times to point at some ape, bird or crocodile, of which you could then try to take pictures. I would have rather enjoyed for example canoeing, so that the surrounding landscape does not fade away so quickly.

Some lazy crocodiles – maybe tired of too many visitors?

Finally this morning I got onto a bus to Guatemala. I have spent nearly 3 weeks in Mexico and have had a great time there.

One thing I want to mention is that you should not take the warnings about mexican food too seriously! The food I had was great without exception, my highlights being the Chilaquiles breakfast in Playa and a caldo (that is a soup with all kinds of stuff in it) I had in San Cristobal. Let’s see which other delicacies there will be on my future way :-).

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After having tried without success to get some sleep on the nightbus from Mérida to Palenque, I arrived there very tired at something like 6 am. From there I took a cab to a place called El Panchán, which Anastasia had recommended me. When I arrived there, I was really flashed, because all of the sudden I found myself in the jungle. The name of the place where I stayed – Jungle Palace – therefore described the circumstances pretty well. Actually it can also get a little bit lonely there, so I decided to just stay in Palenque for one night. But I think for a couple this is really a perfect place to be in for some days.

I got a little cabana next to a small river and tried to rest for a while.

Later I looked around Palenque town, where there was not really much to see, so it was time for another nap :-). For dinner, I joined 2 swedish girls and Marcelo from Uruguay. Afterwards we watched some live music, which was actually pretty good. Also it was kind of relaxing to hear some other music than the „We don’t speak americano“-stuff, which you hear about 20 times a day just walking through the streets. On top of that there was a fire show, so we got pretty good entertained over there. I discovered, that Marcelo and me had quite the same plans for the next day (Palenque ruins + Waterfalls watching in Misol Ha and Agua Azul), so we both hoped that the rain, which had just started would not last until the next day. During the night it did not look like it would stop, so it was really hard for me to take the decision to get up the next morning. The little river next to my cabana was now a big river, but the sky was more or less clear, so I packed my stuff and took some breakfast. There Marcelo and me met Linda from the Netherlands who happened to be on the same tour as ourselves.

So we started with walking around the Maya ruins of Palenque,

NED(2nd in FIFA World Cup 2010), GER(3rd) and URU(4th). We did not meet anybody from Spain to complete the picture 😉

then our next stop was the big waterfall of Misol Ha, which happened to be much more impressing than usual because of the rain which had fallen the other night. There was a little path, where you could walk to find yourself under the waterfall. Well, we kind of just ran there the way we were dressed, which ended up in us being soakingly wet and having to change clothes. We were actually so wet, that some guys asked us on the way back, if we had gone for a swim like that ;-).

In more appropriate clothing we then visited the waterfalls of Agua Azul. I could not help myself but climbing on some of the rocks:

Unfortunately my brain decided to take a break again, when I rechanged for the bus, so I forgot my swimming shorts in the bathroom :-(.

The last time I was seen with those shorts..

A 4-hour-bus-ride later I found myself in my next stop on this journey, San Cristobal de las Casas. But why was this so cold here? Marcelo´s watch knew the answer: We were on 2200 metres…

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