Well, this is it! On June 26, exactly six months after I left Switzerland I boarded the plane back to Switzerland.

It was a great and unforgetable trip and time of my life. I was able to visit the following countries as a part of this trip (no of weeks in brackets):
- Brasil (5)
- Uruguay (1)
- Argentina (3)
- Chile (2)
- Costa Rica (2)
- Nicaragua (2)
- Honduras (1)
- Guatemala (2)
- Ecuador (3)
- Mexico (4)
- Panama (1)
And of course it was never enough time at all to see everything but I think I got a good taste of all the different countries I was able to visit. And to most of them I would really like to return in the future.
Of course not just because of nature and flora and fauna but also because of the people of latin america!

So to all the travellers I met on the way during my trip, I would like to say thanks for all the tips, friendship and great times we had and all the best to you in the future and hopefully on your forthcoming trips.

And to all the people back home who sent me their feedbacks and emails during the trip and to those who have been thinking about my: thank you very much indeed. It is great to back home to friends.

And to all the people of Latin America: thank you very much for the warm welcome to your beautiful corner of the world! I really enjoyed South and Central America and it is great to know that there are new friends in that part of the world as well... because I would definitely like to come back... and I will be back!

Back where it all started... back in Brasil, back in Sao Paulo



And back again to meet with my good old friend Philipp.
Yes, same name, same spelling... so this is a true Philipps picture:



And of course we spent the week watching football (when all was fine and both Switzerland and Brasil qualified for the round of the last 16), meeting friends, going out to eat well and have a drink or two ;-)
So this is Philipp with his future wife Karina and myself at the very last night in a great small bar/pub where there was great live music on Sunday night:



And this is the swiss good-bye wave with Philipp, Hansjörg (aka JJ) and myself:

In the evening of June 15 I took my last overnight bus of this trip: 10 hours by bus and 30 minutes by boat form from Panama City in the south center of the country to the beautiful island of Bocas del Toro in the north west of the country (very close to Costa Rica, on the carabeen coast.

I heard that this is a really relaxed and beautiful place which is really was; this is the little hotel/guesthouse I stay at:



And on the north coast the weather was also still a lot better



And this area is also know for beautiful beaches and great diving so I took a day trip to go diving combined with visiting on of the most beautiful beaches in the the area:





Unfortunately I don't have the diving pictures ready yet. But as a compensation here are quite nice pictures of the beach we visited:





This beach is called Red Frog Beach and very close to it you can acutally find them (even if they are only 5mm long!) - the Red Frogs:



And to be honest, there are quite a few others as well, just as beautiful:








So I spent a great 4 day on Bocas del Toro and really enjoyed this place very much.

And since my trip would end in about 10 days anyway and since I didn't feel like another night bus ride a flew back to Panama City with this plane:



Which was quite okay and the view of the Bocas del Toro Archipelago was also very beautiful:





A really nice end of my time in Central America - the next day I flew back to Sao Paulo for a last week of Brasil!

Well, my trip will find and end soon and on my way back to Sao Paulo (from where I started almost 6 months ago) I stopped in Panama.
I heard so many good things about Panama, I country I never really though of visiting before.

Panama City is quite a modern city with great restaurants, lots of shopping and with a modern look with lots of high buildings:


Lots of traffic:


Old colonial buildings next to new ones:



And they have some of the coolest public busses there:


Real works of art ;-)



And these cool dudes are actually regular cops


And then Panama is of course mainly known for the canal which really quite impressive:


When I got to Panama City the rainy season in Central America was already starting so besides of discovering the city I also spent some time indoors watching matches of the football world champion ships or went to shopping centers when it was raining really hard.

Since I heard that the divesites in Cozumel are some of the best in the world and still not too expensive I went some days to that island just 30 min from Playa del Carmen.

Unfortunately the underwater pics are not ready yet to go online but here a few pics from Cozumel:



So the water there is really Caribbean turquoise, warm and just beautiful. And they were some of the best dives I have ever done!


Cozumel is also a famous stop for huge Cruise ships, as the one in the background of this pic:




And when these Cruise ships stop at Cozumel hunderds of mainly US tourists invade this small city to shop and drink.
Cuban cigars are a big favorite with the americans of course.

Well, how to start? If you are a scuba diver there are a few things out there in the oceans that you just want to see once in your lifetime. And the Whaleshark is one of these animals!

The trip we booked was actually 190.- USD... so only by that you can see how important these Whalesharks are to divers. And it wasn't even a diving trip, it was "only" a snorkeling trip. But more to that later.

What is it about these Whalesharks? Well, they are actually the biggest fish in the world, up to ca 18m long. They live on plankton and they are rather rare and only appear in certain places on this planet. And a lot of things about the Whalesharks are actually still unknown.

It started at 3.30h in the morning, with a 2hrs bumpy ride in a big van to the northern coast of the Yucatan peninsula. The we got onto a small little boat which seemed really small. And then it even started to rain and it was awfully cold... not the best start of a new day and I wasn't very hopeful that we would see just one single Whaleshark.

But then the weather cleared up and pretty soon we spotted the first Whaleshark:



These animals are about 10m long! And really impressive and beautiful.




So as soon as we got close enough with the small boat (it made sense now because it is easy to navigate) two snorkelers and a guide hope into the water and tried to get as close as possible!


(in lucky situations like this, you can actually snorkel with two Whalesharks at the time; on this picture you can see one on the right and also another one on the left hand side of the picture).


I only have a really simple underwater camera and so the pictures are not perfect but it gives you an impression of how big and how beautiful these animals are:



Usually the Whaleshark is followed by a lot of other smaller fish who also feed on plankton.











I was on this trip with friend from Switzerland - Elena & Aris - who also happen to be here at the time (and those of you who follow this Webblog remember them from Antigua, Guatemala). And Aris took a lot of pictures with a digital underwater camera and worked on the pictures with Photoshop, so this is of course an even better picture of a Whaleshark.



So this was it, the massive Whaleshark, what an extraordinary experience!


And on the way back to shore we passed some beautiful places at the north end of the Holbox ("ol-bosh") Island:






Huge groups (flocks?) of Flamingos...



... once again some Pelicans:




Definitely a really beautiful spot:

Playa del Carmen is quite a touristic place, no doubt. But it is not the main season right now (start of the rain season, later Hurricane season; no school holidays in the US or in Europe) and so it is rather quiet right now and actually quite nice:



And as you can see, it is definitely in the Caribbean:

After an overnight bus ride from Palenque I arrived in Tulúm. Tulúm is on the east-coast (Caribbean side) of the Yucatan peninsula in the state of Quintana Roo (not Yucatan).

And it is famous for it's pristine beaches and the the only Mayan ruins that were built right at the coast:



Really beautiful and I was really there!




The beaches are almost empty, the sand is perfectly fine white sand and the water is really turquoise and really warm!










In the whole Yucatan peninsula there are numerous so-called Cenotes.
These are sink holes, caverns and caves in the ground, partly filled with water (fresh water; 24 degrees warm).

So you can go snorkeling or diving in this fascinating and strange underwater world. I went on a snorkeling trip, here some of the pictures from there:





This is me and a German guy I met in Tulum snorkling:



And this is me with the mexican guide:



And because it is not so easy taking nice pictures there here some pics from the website of Hidden Worlds (as this place is called)

On the way to another Maya ruin site, we stopped at a place called Agua Azul:



It was very nice, but not all that blue (azul) as expected because it had been raining in the last few days.




Another stop was at a really nice waterfall, called Misol Ha:



The interesting part was that you can actually walk behind the falling water cascade:




And then we came to the Maya ruins of Palenque.



We started in San Cristóbal de las Casas early in the morning and it had been raining at night and it was cold at 2100m. About 5 hrs later we arrived in Palenque at 200m where it was over 30 degrees and really humid!



These ruins are some of the most famous in Mexico...



...but after I had seen the Copán Ruinas in Honduras and then the magnificent Tikal in Guatemala, I wasn't all that impressed anymore.



Maybe there were just about enough ruins and temple for me on that trip... so instead of staying another night I changed my plan and took a nightbus to the next beach place right away!

The next stop was in San Cristóbal de las Casas in the state of Chiappas.



Chiappas is the poorest state of Mexico and the home of the revolutionary group of the Zapatistas. But it seems like the state is doing more and more for this region and so today it is mainly an nice little town with lots of caffees and restaurants in the mountains (at 2100m) of Chiappas





As you can see on these pictures the weather wasn't always beautiful and it got quite cool at night.




By the way, look at the car from the picture above: a broken back window can also by some sort of moving fruitshop:




Even though there aren't any significant military activities at the moment from the Zapatistas, they are still present all over town:


(Ejército Zapatista de Liberacíon Nacional)


One of the natural sights near San Cristóbal de las Casas is the Cañon de Sumidoro:



This canion used to be a wild river until a powerplant was built further down the stream. Today they do speed-boat-tours trough these up to 1000m high canions:






And today this river is also home to many crocodiles:






And since the town of Tuxtla Gutierrez was really close, I also visited their famous zoo. It is a beautiful zoo in the middle of the forest with all the animals that live in Mexico and Central America.

So I finally got to see some animals from up close, that were so hard to spot in the wild; like the famous Tucan bird:



So it really is all that colourful:




Another animal I really wanted to see was the Tapir... but that stupid thing was asleep and you could not see it.

But I found another funny looking guy:



This is some endangered ant-eater that lives in Mexico. Funny guy and really cute I thought:

The first stop after Mexico City on my way south to Chiappas and then to the Yucatan peninsula was Oaxaca.

Oaxaca is a really beautiful colonial town, with coloured houses in all the streets...:






and a really nice cathedral:




(in the foreground is the Agave plant... which is of course used to make the national Mexican spirts Tequilla and Mescal)


Near Oaxaca is what they say is the biggest tree in the world: "El Arbol del Tule".
It is not the highest but the "fattest" tree in the world and the biggest single biomass growing in the world.



The tree has a circumference of 58m, it is 48m high, has a diameter of 14m and is estiamted to be over 2000 years old and weighing about 640'000 tons!




Also near Oaxaca I went to see more ruins, this time not Mayan (they were further south) but from tha Zapotecs.
The place is called Monte Alban and was founded in 700 BC.



At the peak of the Zapotec culture in 300 AD about 50'000 people lived here... more than in every other city in Europe at that time!




But back to today's Oaxaca... which is also notorously known for demonstrations and protests.
And so when I was there the teachers decided that they did not get enough money fro their work and staged a one week demonstration.
This was done by putting up "tents" and camping on all the streets in the inner city pedestrian zone:



This had three major effects for me:
- it is hard to see anything!
- it is hard to get from one place to another
- walking upright is virtually impossible because there are strings and cords all over the place
- a lot of nice restaurants had to close because 'teachers' were camping in front of their doors



So even though this would be a nice place to stay for a while I decided to leave after two days because this protest has become such a hassle.

The fascinating thing about Mexico City is the fact that it is a very international but then very destinctly latin american city with the typical latin american streetlife!

And one important thing about Mexico is food - all the time and everywhere!

Like this Taco booth:


(Tacos are small soft corn tortillas with usually meat and finely chopped tomato-onion-cilantro (coriander leaves) and spicy green or red chilli sauce. And they are just delicious, nothing like the super heavy Tex-Mex-food that some of you might know!)

Or anther one:




Fruits in any colour:


(most fruits are sprinkeled with chilli powder here in Mexico and this really brings out the taste of these sweet fruits even more)

Another typical thing that I have seen in all central american coutries as well: drinks are often served in small plastic bags.




An indigenous woman selling corn on a cob, which again (of course) is sprinkeled with spicy chilli powder!


(nice sun hat, huh?)


Anther important thing are music CDs and movieDVDs



(by the way, The DaVinci Code was available on DVD in several languages two days before it's international release... for 110 Pesos which is just under 10 USD or about 7,5 Euros)


Nothing special really, but I just like these over-filled latin american newsstands




And one thing that is always in the news and that is present in dayly life is the so-called Lucha Libre... wrestling! Yes, mexican wresting! The special thing is that almost all of the wrestlers are wearing this really silly masks. And it is a real family happening, from little kids to grandma's, everybody goes to the wrestling matches:



Pretty stupid, as expected, but quite athletic sometimes:

I arrived in Mexico City on May 9 first but only stayed one night before I went to the USA quickly to return to Mexico City on May 15.


(the main square - Zócalo - on that first night in Mexico City)

Even though I only spent a night in Mexico City then it was easy to see that this country is of course by far different than the last few I visited (Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica).

We are talking about a developed country and a capital with almost 25 million people - his place is huge!




This is the Palacio Nacional at the Zocálo, the government building (the president doesn't reside here anymore though).




The Zócalo is also a place for all kinds of activities, demonstrations, concerts a.s.o.

Here a group of indigenous people holding a special ceremony (in front of the catholic cathedral...)



And since there are presidential elections inthe beginning of June the Zapatistas also show their presence at the square.




Another thing about a city of 25 million people is of course traffic. Mexico City has a really well working underground system, lots of loud busses and even more taxis... in any sort of colour. And they all block the streets at all times of the day!



World famous are of course the Volkswagen Beatle taxis (the seat in the front right is usually removed so one or two or more passengers can get in and out much more comfortable:




And then there is also a variety of architecture to see in Mexico City, like the Palacio de Bellas Artes:




Torre Latinamericana - the highest building in Latin America... noteably Mexico City has a lot of earthquakes but this building was build by a insurance company who claims it is earthquake-proof!




And this is part of the Museo Nacional de Antropología!

From Quito we set out to another adventure, this time in the Amazon. We took a plane from Quito to a place called Coca (quite a dump to be honest) and from there it was supposed to be a 3 hrs ride in this pick-up truck:


Which eventually broke down because they had used gasoline that was not really clean or something (I still guess they filled it with diesel instead of gasoline!). So there we were, in the middle of nowhere... waiting for somebody to pick us up...

This is what the traffic looks like on these roads:




It seems odd at the beginning but Amazonía is not only this huge green lung of the world, it is also one of the regions where there is oil:




Not really a beautiful idea, but then that's how it is. And the workers live along the roads and pipelines in poor little wooden shacks like this:


Some local kids came up to see what was going on when our car broke down:


And then finally (after about 2 hrs) this truck/bus came and gave us a lift:


Happy campers on the road again:

(what was Barbara saying on this picture... maybe she was not all too happy at this very moment)



So the 3 hrs ride with the pick-up truck eventually took 6 hrs. But to get to our lodge there were another 3 hrs in a motor canoe down a river.

But first we met some Huoarani Indians who actually own this part of the Amazon rain forest as well as the lodge we were staying. But they don't really like to turn up as a tourist attractions at the lodge so sometimes you meet them, sometimes not... just as they please:

So after this first greeting we did not meet any others any more in the coming days (which seems okay, it's up to them to do as they please after all)

And then we were off on the motor canoes down the river towards the lodge:


And this is the Bataburo lodge, in the middle of the jungle:




The first encounter was this guy here:


Let me introduce, Pancho!


Pancho is actually a wild Ara who just seems to like to be near humans (like Barbara, here early in the morning) and is not shy at all:


He drinks water from the tap:

(even though he prefers beer and cheese!)

In this situation he was far less surprised than I was... Pancho is not a trained pet after all! He lives in the rain forest and just comes to the lodge for daily visits if he likes:


By the way, it was really hard to get rid of him; he just would not let go and these claws really hurt and in the end he also bit me...

...so I had to tell him off afterwards!


Then we really went exploring in the jungle:


Massive trees:


Here you see a tree with this special roots. They are up to 100m long in all directions to give these huge trees stability (the roots don't go into the ground very deep though):


Barbara and two guides who were with us:


These trees are called "Walking trees":

They constantly grow new roots from the top to the bottom. With these roots they absorb humidity and water and later when they reach the ground they become normal roots. So they grow leg/root after let/root.

Some trees are really twisted:


Some have really funny fruits:




Then there are beautiful flowers in the forest:


And lots of vines; some are strong enough to hold a lot of weight:

(nice boots, huh?)

And some contain absolutely clear, fresh and drinkable water!




Of course we also wanted to see a lot of animals in the jungle, but this is easier said than done!
We have seen a lot of birds which were too far away to take pictures) and a lot of monkeys which were to fast to take pictures...

...so we took pictures of slow animals like this sloth:




The we also got to see part of an Anaconda!

I know it is hard to spot! And I think our guides were more excited than we were at that moment... but just like you, we were just able to point out part of this snake which in full length is actually a 14m long!

And this thing is called Agouti. It is one of the biggest rodents which means it is like a rat without a tail, the size of a mid-sized dog!

(By the way, this would be a nice sized snack for an Anaconda!)

And then we found out why it is called "the rain forest"... it rained really hard:

And the rain brings out some really bright colours like the red wood in the foreground.

So we tried our luck at the blowpipe:


This thing is about 5m long and heavy and therefore it is really hard to hold it still and aim properly:




Next day we went fishing for Piranhas... I am not an avid fisherman, I have to admit. I find it rather boring. And also in this case it took quite a long time until I finally got one:


And since I was the only one who caught a Piranha this day I was the one to get it for dinner as well:


It was really nice, so this is what was left of it:


The night-walk was also very interesting. The guides take you for a walk with torches and I still don't know how they do it, but they see and find a lot of small interesting and fascinating animals (mostly insects).
Like this millipede:


Or this tiny little frog (original size ca. 5mm):


This is a "stick-insect"; hard to spot even though it is more the 10cm long!


And this is a Zycade which is very hard to spot but easy to hear because they make a lot of noise at night:


So, this was the Amazon adventure, more to come soon!

Back from the Galapagos on the main land we decided to go for a biking trip on the highest active volcano of South America: Cotopaxi (5911m)!

Well, it sound more challenging that it really was because this is the way we went up to 4600m:


And this is what we have seen of Cotopaxi... the top was covered in cloud unfortunately, but still very impressive!


And it was really cold up there, so Barbara and myself were nicely packed up when we started on the 1300m descent:



It doesn't really look like it but it was quite fun to bike down these mountain roads as fast as possible.

And this is the view on the way down:




By the way, I was very lucky about 10 days after this trip when I had a very early flight out of Quito on my way to Mexico City: this is the view of Cotopaxi form the plan just after take-off on that morning:

Well, I have to admit I never expected to be that fascinated by birds but in the Galapagos there just are a lot of really interesting, beautiful and also funny birds.

One of the most famous is the Blue-Footed Boobie!




They look really funny with their blue feet:








And even though they sometime look a little bit stupid...




...they definitely look like business when they go fishing!



Like fighter planes they attack small fish who swim a little bit too close to the surface:






This is Blue-footed Boobie with another bird who fishes in the same fashion - the Pelican:



Even though some of them try fishing the easier way at the fish market:



When in flight barely above the water surface they are really elegant:



Standing around, they are maybe not as elegant...



...and they don't like it when you make comments like these about them:




But then these Flamingos are definitely more elegant:






Another special bird of the Galapagos is the Fregate Bird - here in flight above the boat:



And here showing off his red pouch to attract a female:





And this is actually what they look like when they are really young:




This is the Galapagos Hawk:




And last but not least there are also little Penguins on some of the islands of the Galapagos:

There are of course all sorts of fish and other sea animals in the pacific ocean around the Galapagos Islands.

Here an overview:



So to see as many of these sea creatures as possible we also went diving... and we have seen one of the most amazing animals you can see under water: A Manta Ray!

We had already encountered the most amazing school of fish: hundreds of thousands small fish in one huge tower about 20m high and 5 to 8m in diameter! We dived underneath it and then right into it in the center: it was pitch black and considerably warmer in this huge swarm of fish!

And then, about 5 Min before the end of our dive (we were already at about 6m depth again) Barbara spotted this huge Manta Ray. And it just came closer and closer and passed by us in no more than 4m distance! Absolutely amazing, this animal was at least 3 to 4m wide and it moved in the most elegant way you can imagine. They almost fly through the water. It was definitely my greatest diving experience ever.

To give you an idea of this animal here some pictures. All these pictures are taken from websites since we did not have an underwater camera with us on the dives.

These animals also made the Galapagos Islands known world wide - Land Iguanas:








They actually eat Cactus!






And these here are Marin Iguanas (they eat algea and swim really well):








And these little things are called Lava Lizards:

Another animal that made the Galapagos Island world famous is the giant land turtle:



And these really big animals are quite agile and not as slow as you might think:



The long neck helps them to get to the leaves of bushes and small trees:



And this is how big they are (our guide in the background):



And this is me next to a saddleback turtle:



These guy can easily get 150 to 200 years old!





By the way, did that face remind you of somebody or something? Yes, it is true, the creatures of E.T. actually took this animal as an inspiration when the created their creature from somewhere in space.

Look again...




The spitting image of E.T., isn't it?



We have also seen sea turtles while snorkeling and diving but unfortunately I don't have any underwater pictures. But I was able to take this shot from the boat when one of the sea turtles surfaced quickly.

There are colourful crabs on all the islands of the Galapagos we visited. Not easy to photograph because they don't really like you to come to close. So you need a little bit of patience and luck to get good pictures of these beautiful things!






There are different types of course, that come in different colours:




Some of them are really hard to spot:




Some of them hide in holes as soon as you come closer:




And other again just use an old mussel as a house!



(and when they get bigger they just look for a bigger "house" and move!)

HELLO!


One animal that you can see all over the Galápagos Islands are sea lions.

Really cute animals who seem to enjoy every minute of the day, also doing nothing is very popular:






Or lying at the beach:








Or swimming is of course very popular. And whenever you are in the water, swimming, snorkeling or diving there are always a few sea lions who come right up to you to check you out.
They want to play with you and do all sorts of funny things around you. And they come really really close at times (unfortunately I don't have underwater pictures to put on this website):




This little guy was really courageous



Usually they don't come up to you all that close on land... but this one definitely took a liking to my shoes and feet!



And Barbara's water bottle seemed just as interesting:



When your boat is not moving at night they also like to use the back of the boat as a nice resting place:




One last thing, as nice and funny and cute as they might be, they also have one huge negative thing about them...

So on April 23 we flew from Quito (via Guayagil) to the Galápagos Island which lie roughly 1000 km off the coast of Ecuador, more or less right on the equator.


The Galápagos Islands are national park to make sure that this really unique place in the world is protected (entry fee is 100 USD)


And this is really how we were welcome before we boarded our boat:

Only a first impression of how many animals you can see here and how close you can get to them... truely unbelievable!

And this is the boat that will take us (a group of 14 tourists, 8 crew and 1 guide) from island to island in the next week:





Not too bad! We can definitely get used to that!

The biggest problem in the Galápagos is to limit the number of pictures you take every day... and I failed completely so there are a lot of pics form all different kinds of animals and of course also from the beautiful islands...

Lets start with some impressions of the islands:










The islands are actually volcanos which is really obvious in some places:




A "river" of black lava from the last eruption on this island about 100 years ago (other volcanos on the Galápagos have erupted in 2003 the last time):


The lava has formed really beautiful natural formations






Cactus that grow on these lava islands:




So the next entries will be with lots of animal pictures: sealions, iguanas, lizards, birds, turtles, and and and!

Yes, I have moved again. On April 19 I flew from Guatemala to Quito in Ecuador to meet with my friend Barbara from Switzerland because we have planned to visit the Galapagos Islands together!

But first we spend a few days in Quito. Well, it's another relatively big city in Latin America, not exceptionally pretty but with quite a nice old town center.

Here the view from one of the mountain ranges surrounding Quito which lies in a valley at 2800m!


Some impressions from the old town:






Traffic in Quito


Ecuador has given up it's own currency a few years ago and adopted the US Dollar as their national currency (to fight inflation). So everything is payed in USD, like this lunch at a small restaurant: rice, chicken, fries, soup, salad and a small Coke which costs USD 1.25 !!!

And it tasted really good as well!

While in Quito we also visited the Midad del Mundo, the middle of the world, the equator: