Reunion in Mexico

Well, flying into Mexico from Quito via Bogota is maybe not the best idea for going through customs... It took me three hours to get out of the airport and convince them that I'm not a drug dealer coming from Columbia.

But then finally in the B&B it was just such a treat. A big room with a comfy bed, air conditioning, a big flat screen TV, nice shower etc. Everything I missed in all those cheap hostels I found there. And a few hours later my parents arrived and I got to spend some time with my family after a whole year away. We had delicious dinners and a lot to see in and around Mexico City.
There was the old town center and some nice restaurants, cafes and museums. And of course the big Aztec ruins, Teotihuacan, a short bus ride out of town. This place is really impressive, it's a huge area and super tall pyramids.
Can't imagine how they built all that without having machines and electricity.

After three days we took a bus to Puebla and stayed at lovely bed&breakfast again. The best part of that was the delicious home made breakfast every morning. Puebla is a nice town in the center of Mexico and has a good climate. The views are fantastic, three big volcanoes surround the town and sometimes you can see some smoke coming out the tip of Popocatépetl.
The historic town center is beautiful with old buildings and the cafes around the main plaza create a relaxed atmosphere. Of course we enjoyed the time strolling around here. Good food and friendly service were a positive surprise for me and for what to expect from Mexico.

As a side trip we went to the little village Cholula and had the traditional menu del dia and saw the old ruins. On top of the ruin hill was a little chapel built just one on top of the original pyramid that is covered with grass now. The Spanish wanted to demonstrate their power over the indigenous Mayan people. There is a beautiful 360 degree round view with all three volcanoes in the background again. It was a beautiful day with sunshine and it ended with another nice dinner in Puebla with a friend who lives in Puebla and is originally from home.

Next day we went to see a big zoo that has huge wide open areas and the animals run around freely everywhere. Only the tigers and lions were in a separate areal. We saw all kinds of animals, from all over the world. Impressive place. One of the few zoos where animals have enough space and have actually an almost homelike environment.

After three days in and around Puebla my parents flew down to Playa del Carmen and moved into a nice 5star all inclusive resort. I continued my trip to Oaxaca because that was one of the places in Mexico I really wanted to see and hadn't yet. Oaxaca is very beautiful with pretty architecture, lots of old churches and just a nice flair. Cafes and restaurants everywhere and friendly people. Relaxed place with some tourists and even some night life. Enjoyed two days there and then took a night bus to Playa as well.

Got to move into that fancy hotel resort where my parents stayed and spent four more days with them. That was a great change to hostels as well, 5 star, full service, eat and drink as much as you can and being lazy. What a great time, cocktails after breakfast and all day long, some perfect quality time with my family. Thanks a lot for that.

When my family left for Germany again, I took the ferry to Cozumel and hung out there for two more weeks. Had a nice hostel with a big garden and lots of iguanas. Did some diving with Jon (Utila DM buddy) and enjoyed my lazy time. Went as well to dive the cenotes again which was awesome. So my second visit to Mexico was as good as the first one, only that my Spanish language improved a lot in between. :) Begin of September I found a flight into the US and that's where I spent the last part of my trip.

Ecuador

With an overnight bus I made it into Ecuador to Guyaquil. The town is not very interesting and dangerous from what I heard. But it was a great starting point for a discovery trip to the Galapagos.

Had a flight the next day and luckily met a dive guide at the airport who helped me finding a nice cheap place in Puerto Ayora on the main island. From there it was perfect to explore the islands over an under water.

The first three days I went diving with the best luxury daily dive boat available and got to see stingrays, schools of eagle rays, hammerhead sharks, Galapagos sharks, lots of big fish, thousands of turtles, played with seals and more. That was one of the best places for diving I've been to.
Wanna go back and dive again!!!
Only thing it was cold water and I wore a double 7mm wet suit at the end. Every day I got to see a different spot (Bartolome, Gordon's rock, North Seymour, Daphne, Cousins etc.) and did some side trips to see all the animals that are typical for Galapagos.

After seeing the underwater world I did some boat trips to other islands like Isabella and Floreana and checked out tortoise farms, pirate caves, volcanoes and beautiful beaches. Ten days were not enough to see all of this nature preserve but great to enjoy animals and scenery.
Can as well recommend the street food there and my bed and breakfast for 15 USD a night, called 'Casa de piedra'.

When I left this little paradise I flew straight into Quito and strolled around in the old city there and I didn't feel unsafe although everybody warned me. Took the table car up the mountain and enjoyed the great views over Quito and the Cotopaxi volcano. Well food was not so great and when I found bugs in my rice for the third time I stopped eating local food. ;-)

So Ecuador was pretty and I wish I had more time to explore some of the mountain ranges and do some hiking, but I was on my way to Mexico to meet up with my family (after a year! - yay) what cut my time short.

Peru

Hola desde Peru!
Yes it is an amazing country and I understand why so many people travel here. Beautiful landscape and a lot to discover. But it couldn't top Bolivia, at least for me. For my taste, maybe because unluckily I was here during main season, it was too full with tourists. Especially the ones who don't even speak a word of Spanish. :-/
Well, but still there is a lot to tell about the country and my travel.
First I stopped in Puno, just on the other side of Lago Titikaka and visited the floating islands. Interesting how they build those islands and how they live, but the tour was made to sell only their handicrafts which was bit annoying. But had a very nice hostel there on top of the hill with a great view over Puno and the lake.

From there I went to the famous Cusco and stayed for a while. Nice town, just a bit too pricey and still very cold at nighttime. A good place for a hot chocolate with view of the cathedral...
The bad thing was, I had a cold so I wasn't feeling like hiking and so I decided to book the more boring tour to Machu Picchu. Even had to wait a few days to get a train ticket because of all the people. But finally I started towards MP and experienced something really awesome. Beautiful scenery in the sacred valley and lots of markets and ruins. Met Sophia from Hamburg which was a nice change to speak in German and to have great company for the Machu Picchu day! And it was incredible!

The green mountains and the huge ruin on the ridge between Cerro Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu are just breathtaking. We arrived there before sunrise and got to see everything without the crowds. Then when the sun came out it turned even more stunning. We stayed for 6h up there, including a tour for two hours. For lunch we found a little pick nick spot and then we just sat and enjoyed the views. But eventually we had to leave this beautiful place and go back to Aguas Calientes. I had a train earlier than Sophia and got back to Cusco around ten at night. Right on time for late dinner and shower.

Next day I did some more sight seeing and bought a ticket to Arequipa. Tried to avoid the overpriced tourist buses and got some good deals for traveling by bus. One overnight trip later and I was in the white city of Arequipa and tried the Wild Rover hostel again. La Paz was better. But the city very nice. Many colonial buildings, an interesting and colourful monastery and super views of the volcano El Misti. And the food was great there, too, lots of local specialties. After exploring the city, I had a tour to the Colca Canyon for two days.
It is the second deepest canyon in the world. I was just a bit irritated about what the definition of a canyon is, cause it looked to me more like a deep valley and not like a canyon. Sorry. But the views were spectacular. And we got very close to those huge birds, the condors! Very graceful how they glide through the air with mas o menos 3 m wingspan.

Back in Arequipa I took a bus to Nazca and stopped only for a flight over the famous lines. Got to see the astronaut and the colibri and some more figures. Weird place! But I was lucky, I got a plane with only four people in it including the two pilots, so they flew the round as we wanted.
And in the afternoon I continued to Ica, or better to the little oasis Huacachina in the middle of big sand dunes. The dunes are up to 300 m and there's a lagoon with palm trees, some hostels and restaurants. It is actually a very touristy place, because only few families live here.
Everybody comes there only for the dune surfing, so did I. Cruising with a dune buggy up- and downhill, even jumping and enjoying views over the lagoon, the dunes and the sunset. Looks like you are in the desert. And during the ride you get to surf or slide down some of the dunes with a board. That was such a great fun, I liked it more than the volcano boarding in Nicaragua. And at nighttime there was a lot of party going on and I had to drink a lot of Pisco, uuuahh. In Pisco Sour it's fine, but pure... ;-) Had a good time there and still amazed by how many different landscapes exist within Peru.

From there it was only 4h to Lima and I checked into a really cute little hostel named the Link. Sophia was in the same hostel and so I had nice company again.
Sightseeing in Lima is not so big, there are only a few places but they are pretty. I had the feeling it is more a city to live in. Anyways the old centre and the coastline are worth a visit and of course the districts Barranco and Miraflores. There is a shopping mall in the cliffs towards the ocean and you can do paragliding from those cliffs, too. The food is amazing, everywhere you can have fresh seafood and I love Ceviche! :-)
But after four full days in Lima, I couldn't stop thinking about sun and beach, so I took a long bus up north to Mancora.
As expected it was nice and sunny, great waves and cute surfer boys all over the beach. ;-) Stayed in the Point hostel first, which I really liked, but moved then to the Loki for some party and to see a friend from Australia, Ashleigh (met her in Patagonia). That was a full week just relaxing at the beach or pool and partying all night. Fun times! Every day beautiful sunsets and yummy happy hours drinks. So I had a good finish for Peru but was already excited for the next place in Ecuador.

Bolivia volunteering

I'm in Cochabamba and first I stayed at hostel Buenos Aires and wanted to find volunteer work. I heard about an organisation Sustainable Bolivia, so I stopped by there and were lucky. They offered me three different opportunities and I chose the energy one. ;-) So in the next days I had a visit in the organisation CECAM and learned about what they do and started work the very next day.

The organisation is a little family run business and has an open air workshop in the back garden of the house. They build solar ovens and efficient wood burning stoves. I started helping with office work especially translating from or into English for correspondence with other countries companies, organisations, volunteers etc. Further I continued updating their facebook page which was actually an easy job and then I helped with some new projects in a suburb of Cochabamba. We provided food and medical support to impoverished families in Villa Esmeralda. I as well donated some money to build five wood burning stoves for five selected families.

It was good to see how the people there are thankful for the work we did and it was heart-touching to see when a dentist, who helped us for free, checked the kids teeth.

The whole time I was living in a house with seven other volunteers which was really nice. I had a home for a while with my room that I shared with Justine, a french girl, a kitchen and a TV in the living room. Every week we had shared dinners with all other volunteers in the main house. We were appr. 25 people plus some local friends. Me and another German girl cooked once a typical dish from home. The weekends we went out for party or visited different places close to Cochbamba. Besides shopping on the big local market or hanging with friends it was a welcome change from the work.

First trip was to Tupiza, the wild west of Bolivia. I had a long weekend and did a two day horse back riding trip. The landscape was so stunningly beautiful and I have never seen anything like it before. Canyons, rock formations and those colours, so intense in blue, yellow, red and green. It was great wherever I looked, just my but didn't like the horse ride that much! ;-) But it was worth it.

A few weekends later we went to Santa Cruz and from there, after visiting the zoo, to Samaipata. That's a little village in the rain forest and with one of the most eastern Inca sites. The ruins were nice and offered good views over the mountains and valleys around. A lovely weekend with friends.

Another 'fin de semana' we went to Torotoro national park. What a weird place, the landscape shows formations where you can see what tectonic geology means.

It looks as the earth just moved into that position recently and not thousands of years ago. We crawled through a very narrow cave, hiked into a canyon and saw some dinosaur footprints. They looked quite real, so I was very impressed!

We hiked in Pico Tunari national park what is right next to Cochabamba, met many new people from Cocha and international.

And I went to La Paz a few times to just enjoy good food and party. This city is so breathtaking and not only because of the altitude. ;-)

Further we took part at the Aymara new years party and celebrated into the year 5520. We got up to meet the local people on a hill to dance around the fire and to welcome the sun the first day of the new year. We expected a llama sacrifice, but luckily there wasn't one, only some herbal and alcohol gifts for Pacha Mama, the god of the earth.

I had a great time in Cocha and met so many great people, thanks to everybody that made my time so special. And it felt good to give at least a little help and support to some of the people there. After a great laving dinner and three days of partying, I left Cocha for my last tour and into Peru.

First Justine and me travelled to Sorata, a little town in the mountains north of La Paz. It was a curvy ride because we went from 4500m down to 2700m and we got the most amazing views. We could see down the valley into the rain forest at 1000m and up to the snowy peaks of 6500m. The altitude difference was huge and the landscape stunning.

We wanted to hike to a lagoon but because the taxi dropped us at a wrong start point we walked and walked and found only a little pond. 1,5h turned into 4h hiking uphill and the 4000m lagoon was suddenly 5000m high. Well, it was so beautiful so we didn't mind that we hiked for 7h instead of 4.

After that beautiful side trip into the mountains we went back to La Paz and met some of our volunteer friends from Cochabamba, they came to party with us and to visit Lake Titikaka together. We stayed at the Wild Rover where the bar is next door and where we started the night out with some drinks. When the bar closed at two we went to a club and I got home last, early in the morning. But after a shower and breakfast I was fit again to continue.

We took a bus to Copacabana and enjoyed the fresh trout from the lake for dinner. Next morning we took the ferry to Isla del Sol and started to hike over the whole island. We saw some ruins in the north and followed the path towards south with amazing views over the deep blue coloured lake and the snowy peaks of the Bolivian mountains in the back. It's beautiful and it was warm in the sun.

After three hours we got to the village in the south where we found a little place for the night.

Next morning we got up to see the sunrise from the view point what was freezing, but so lovely in reward. Then we had breakfast in the sun and took the ferry back to Copacabana.

We ate another trout and enjoyed the sunny afternoon. Then it was time to say goodbye! Everybody went into a different direction and I left Bolivia to Peru.

I was sad and happy.

After three months Bolivia, I loved the country and wished I could stay longer, but I was as well excited to continue and see Peru with famous Machu Picchu! Just, everyone please go and see Bolivia, it's great!

Bolivia travels

Bolivia! Yeah! Was so excited to go there and I stayed for the whole length of my visa. Three months!
I think I didn't do anything wrong with this decision, I had so much fun here.

Well, first I went traveling to the best places of Bolivia before working as a volunteer. When I arrived in Uyuni I met Grady again and we started a tour to the salt flats and the national park in the south west. What an amazing place on earth. The landscape dry like a desert, but with snowy volcano peaks, rock formations that appear alien like as from another planet, then colourful lagoons in white, green and red and as well pelicans and llamas everywhere. It was just incredible. I think I took a thousand pictures because it was so inspiring and stunning.

It was very cold at night but sunny every day. We stayed one night at about 4600m and it was freezing. But from there we were going to see some geysers going off early in the morning and could jump into a volcanic heated pool.

And at the end of our tour we got to see the big white salt flat which was a highlight itself.

Salt as far as you can see and a blending white that your eyes start to burn. Without sun glasses no chance. But so amazing! With the white clouds and a blue, blue in the sky it was overwhelming! And we had fun with the camera and took the photos that have these special effects because of the wideness of the flats.

When we got back to Uyuni town we just took a shower and continued to Potosi, cause Uyuni itself is only the start or end point for the salt flat tours and therefore a bit boring. But Potosi was interesting, it is located at an altitude of 4000m and you can feel how easy you get breathless when walking somewhere. We visited the mines and had to crawl through some pretty narrow tunnels with almost no safety precautions. So I got a little worried, but it was adventurous in the end. For the miners inside we bought some presents like Coca Cola or dynamite. And because it's so crazy to buy dynamite legally, we just bought some more to try it out and have some fun. We hired a taxi, went out of town and hiked into a little deserted valley. There we blew up a cactus and some stones. The explosion made a big pressure wave and even I was 50m away, I could still feel it and thought to sense some cactus needles blowing over as well. ;-) And because it was so funny, we had to buy some more including the catalyst to make the explosion even bigger the next time. But because our bus was leaving soon, Grady had to carry it in his bag. Weird feeling to travel around with some explosives in your baggage. ;-)

In Sucre we enjoyed some warmer weather and great food. It is a super nice town with lots of colonial architecture and nice cafes. We went to the recoleta cemetery, the view point, the centre and to a castle outside town. There we blew up the dynamite again, finally got rid of this dangerous accessory. ;-)

Wish we could have stayed a little longer in this nice place with the sweetest mangos ever. But we wanted to see some more places before Grady had to fly home and my volunteering started.

So from Sucre we went to La Paz, the highest capital in the world at 3800m. It got colder again and the air was thinner. Because the city lies in a valley with hillside extensions, it goes up and down when you walk the streets and makes you gasping the whole time. But it has great party and good food. We found the best Thai place in town.

We explored the city and wandered through the witches market where they sell llama foetuses and other ritual or witchcraft accessories. Odd place but interesting.

It was nice to hang out in La Paz for a few days and we went as well to Tiwanaku to see some Inca ruins and hear some history.

Not to miss, of course, was the death road biking and it was a spectacular ride. From freezing cold and fog into beautiful green mountains and a swimming pool finish. Only thing, the next days I couldn't sitm because my but was in pain. ;-) But still highly recommendable.

But then it was time to say goodbye and I went to Cochabamba to find some volunteer work.

Cochabamba is the city of eternal spring and the weather is like it, sunshine every day and warm temperatures daytime and cold at night. Surrounded by mountains and an overlooking Cristo statue on a hill in the middle of the town. There were not many tourists, but that made the place so special. I liked it a lot and found the organisation Sustainable Bolivia where I got a volunteer assignment.

Finally I started to do something useful during my trip! ;-)