I can hardly believe that I only have one day left! On monday it's time to fly home! So it's starting to be time to say good-bye. But I won't say good-bye quietly and sad! I'm trying to say "cu soon" with laughter, hugs and kisses! More »
I've just been to a scary place. Scary because it is in Guatemala Citys most dodgy part. But even more scary because of the poverty people live in there. The place I visited is the city dump of Guatemala City where thousands of people try to salvage food and a living from what other people have thrown away.
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I just returned from Tikal, which is easily one of the most amazing places I have visited on this trip: You are literally in the middle of the djungel, around you nothing but rainforest, all you hear are animal noises like you have never heard before and and then, all of a sudden, you see teh top of a pyramid tower over the trees. More »
December 7th is "La Fiesta del Diablo" in Guatemala, the "Day of the Devil". On this day people are supposed to remove all bad influences from their lives, clean their house and to rid society of all evil. And apparently one of the ways to do this is to start a massive fire between two petrol stations. More »
It was windy as hell, cold as in a freezer, too little oxygen in the air and the visibility was at times less than ten meters. It was tough, boy was it tough! But the sense of achievement! And the sunrise we got from the very top (3,976 meters) of Volcan Acatenango: We could see all the way from Mexiko to El Salvador! More »
In three weeks I'll already be home. And I'd be lying if I said that I'm only looking forward to going home. Actually, the thought makes me more than a wee bit uneasy. But of course there are also a lot of things I'm really looking forward to. So here is a short list of things that come to my mind. I prefer dwelling on them to dwelling on the things I'm not looking forward to :-). More »
I just bought my first ever piece of art! "Tea with Milk" by an American guy, Lavon, who lives in Antigua for a large part of the year. I'm really quite proud of my purchase and already have a rough idea where I might hang it. If I had money I could easily have bought another two of his pictures and given my appartement a more artsy touch when I'll get back. More »
Yesterday I went on a daytrip to do some rockclimbing at El Picacho, an oversized pile of rubble just outside Antigua. I was absolutely great but I can't remember the last time I had been sweating as badly or had been as tired. I had drops of sweat run down my glasses! It was a fantastic day! More »
In the end I made it to the thanksgiving-dinner at No Sé. And it was great. The food was good (though a bit cold by the time we got it) and the beer lasted until I left. Unfortunately today I'm suffering for it. I had already strongly suspected that my stomach wasn't really up for turkey, cranberry, mash and pumpkin-pie - but I simply had to go. Well, in the night I got the shakes and today I'm feeling everything but fine but whom have I to blame but me? More »
Ooooooh - that was a nasty surprise. After having been violently sick on Sunday I felt really good on Monday and was really up to 100 % again on Tuesday. And that's when it hit mit again. More »
If there is one leitmotif for the past weekend, then it should probably be "shitty". First we crawled, slipped, climbed and fell into bat-shit, then I was pretty much shitting myself for most of Sunday. And finally, we had to deal with some shit with the shuttle. But you know what? I still had a lot of fun! More »
Coming from Germany, which is very, very secular (I think roughly a third of the population of 82 million is not baptized) I find strong displays of religiousness slightly peculiar. From my point of view even the US are an extremely religious country where faith permeates more aspects of society than I'm confident with. So you can probably imagine that the importance of religion in Guatemala is something that I find slightly strange. Even more so after I found out that not everything is as it seems. More »
It seems like a tentative plan as to what to do next is slowly forming. I'll probably go to the lagunas of Semuc-Champey with a few people I know this weekend, then to Tikal and after that I'll see. As always things were a bit more complicated than I originally thought. More »
The problem with Antigua is that it is always someones last night. And of course that means that you have to go out. And that you have to toast them. And then you also have to toast all those people whom have left earlier and who are not with us anymore ("Out of sight out of mind" doesn't apply here). For his last night Tom, who left this morning, added a new, playful variant to this merry tradition: Pub Golf. More »
I'm being really indecisive right now. On the one hand I really liek Antigua. On the other hand going to school every day and doing homework in the afternoon is starting to get kinda old. Besides the original reason I was learning Spanish for was so that I could use it while travelling. If I only stay here it'd be kinda a waste of money. So what should I do? Should I stay or should I go? More »
Kathy was down in Antigua for the weekend. But unfortunately things didn't quite work out as planned. Originally we had planned to climb Acatenango together but since it was so frigging cold all week I sortof chickened out. As it turned out though, that was quiety lucky 'cause neither Kathy nor me were at our best this weekend. More »
This has been a pretty bad week as far as violence in Guatemala is concerned. Almost every day you read of tourists getting, robbed, shot or raped. And of course you hear even more than you read. The problem is, I don't know whether whether we here in Antigua simply pay more attention to it, since a lot of tourists have recently been victims of violent crimes or whether the situation really has gotten worse. More »
I did something really cool today - I climbed my first ever active volcano: Pacaya, about two hours away from Antigua. Ben, Julie and me had to get up at an ridiculously early hour (05.45) - but it was definitely worth it! By 10.00 we were right at the edge of the crater and the view was simply fantastic! More »
What is the world coming to if you can´t even trust ex-paramilitaries to be good to their word? I was supposed to be halfway to Panajachel by now, but the roads are blocked by loads of people who want money for things they did in some war 20 years ago (mainly slaughtering Mayans). And that´s after they promised on thursday that they wouldn´t do anything like that for the next eight days. Dammit! Can´t you trust anyone anymore these days? More »
Oh oh. This hasn't happened to me often on this trip, but I think I could easily get stuck in Antigua. As a matter of fact, there are plenty of people here, to whom exactly that happend. They came for a day or a week and have been here for months or years, got a job in a bar, opened a business etc.. And why not? This place is really amazingly loveable. Though imho partly for the wrong reasons. More »
I do not want to talk about it, ok? I simply do not want to talk about it. About that nasty, ugly thing that happened in that big, stupid country to the north of me. I mean, in a way it´s even worse than last time. ´Cause after all, the last time he wasn´t really elected at all. But this time he won the popular and the electoral vote. Dear God!!! Aaah - now I am talking about it, after all. Damn him! Well, fortunately my favourite pub here, Cafe No Se, is offereing cheap Tequilla (Q 8) tonight to make it easier to forget. For everyone else, here is a little something to cheer you up. Dancing on graves. More »
Whoooo - time flies! I can hardly believe that I've already studied Spanish in Antugua for a whole week now. But then again, there was always much to do. I build a kites, saw it not get into the air, dressed up for Halloween, spend the weekend at the beach and generally enjoyed the nightlife in Antigua. More »
I just came back from a daytrip to Chichicastenango, a small town that is known for it's colourful markets every thursday and sunday. And while the market was nice, getting there and back was almost more fun. Though, admittedly, my sense of humor is not everyones. More »
I just arrived in Antigua, the old capital of Guatemala. And, guys and girls, this place is stunning! Surrounded by lush green hills and three huge volcanoes (one of the active – I can see the smoke), the scenery is just breathtaking. And Antigua itself isn’t half bad either. The city is full of old historical buildings and has been a UNESCO world heritage site for some years.
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