On Sunday (and Thursdays) they have this famous market in Chichi which is quite famous. It is about 2,5 hours from Antigua.

The market has become quite a touristic thing on this outsides but if you get right into it you come to the food and daily products market where all the indigenous people from the regions shop... quite a sight and a great chance to take pictures!

Antigua Guatemala is surrounded by Volcanos. These are three of them: Agua (r), Acatenango (m) and Fuego (l):


Antigua is actually behind of Volcano Agua on this shot because this view is taken on the way from Antigua to yet another Volcano, called Pacaya... which is active!

And this is it, Volcano Pacaya:


And this time I was lucky, not only was the weather perfect, the volcano is really active and this is the field of lava pouring of of the side of the mountain:


It is not possible to go the the very top of this volcano right now because it is highly active right now. But on the this lave field we could get really close, see the lava flowing and feel the incredible heat:


Flowing lava right in front of you... really impressive!


Here with my swiss friends Elena and Aris in front of the volcano:

Well, I am not a very religious man in the traditional sense but what the people here to during the week of Easter is just anbelievable.

The town is full of people from all over Guatemala, Central America, in fact from all over the world to see the world famous SEMANA SANTA PROCESSIONS.

Here are some pictures of various processions during the Semana Santa, they actually have almost 10 different processions at day and at night! And each procession can last up to 6 or 7 hours easily.

Starting point in front of a church (of course!)


Lots of incense ("Weihrauch") is really important, sometimes you cant see a thing anymore or breath!


Even the youngest kids get involved:


This is the actual beginning of one of the processions:


Huge wooden structures with with Jesus and Mary figures are carried around town by dozends of men and women (seperatly of course and men first, this is still a catholic thing, don't forget!)





What you see on the street are so-called "Alfombras"

An ALFOMBRA - is a carpet made out of coloured sawdust, flowers, native plants and fruits:


These "alfombras" are being layed out on the street by the local people a few hours before the processions and it seems to be in the pride of the people to make them as elaborate and beautiful as possible:








And then comes the procession!




Followed by the people:


So this is what is left of the Alfombra after the procession:

And they build new ones for the next procession!


But then this week is also a big chance for small businesses buying and selling whatever you want... and a so a great oportunity to take pictures!
Enjoy the STREET LIFE IN ANTIGUA DURING SEMANA SANTA:
























And then it is also a good chance for people watching!

Antigua is a beautiful colonial town about an hours drive from Guatemala City.
I went here especially for the Semana Santa, the holy week of Easter - because it is supposed to be something really really special... and it was.

But first to the city as such which is beautifully set at the foot of (inactive) volcano Agua:


Cobbled streets, coloured houses, the volcano... just beautiful:






Big old buildings around the main square (this one is the town hall, "Palacia de Ayuntamento":


And churches... lots of churches! This one is La Merced, built in 1548, like most of the buildings in Antigua badly damaged and sometimes destroyed by a huge earthquack in 1773 and then reconstructed:


And a typical local bus in Guatemala, here in the streets of Antigua:


And I also met some friends from Switzerland here in Antigua: Elena (Ex-Völkl) and Aris are here to learn Spanish... after they travelled through Thailand, Australia and Vietnam before (so much for a strange route!).
Here you see me with Aris... probably at the very moment he got Amoeba from food from a street stall. I was lucky so far even though I have mainly been eating at local street stalls.

To go to Semuc Champey I stayed in a small town called Coban, where I got the first impressions of what awaits me in the easter week in Antigua Guatemala.

Being a very catholic country they hold these processions on Palm Sunday...

First come the men carrying a Jesus figure:




Followed by the women who carry a figure of Mary




And no age group is excused!


But then this is nothing compared to what was going to expect me in Antigua Guatemala!

On my way from Tikal in the north-east of Guatemala to Guatemala City in the oposite corner of Guatemala, I made a stop in a place called Coban, from where you can do a day trip to Semac Champey.
I was told by some other travellers about this place and it really was a very special place... look for yourself!

A series of natural pools (over the actual river, that flows underneath it!), here seen from a viewpoint up on the hill:


And then up close:






What a beautiful place to enjoy, relax and swim!

The world famous Tucan bird... very far away (as usual)



... and a little closer...


...even more close:

But then this is probably the limit of digital enlargement!

But then I got really lucky and I got a shot of another Tucan:

I know it is hard to spot, but its the coloured thing in the middle!

The majestic La Ceiba tree!




And these are pictures of the Cotomundi




This one even waved at me...

A really cool dude!

A so-called Spider Monkey, hanging around, but then thats what they do all day!


A woodpecker


A pheasant








And last but not least, a so far unknown, but pretty happy creature seen running around the ruins of Tikal.....

Sunset at the mayan site of Tikal in Guatemala. Well, I guess the pictures speak for themselves!

Tikal - another one of the major Maya sites, this one in north-eastern Guatemala in the middle of the jungle!


The pyramids here are really big...








...and I climbed all of these pyramids, some of them twice, once during the day, some again for sunset and others again for sunrise!
Easier said then done because it was over 35 C and really humid!

Up to 150'000 people used to live here in high time of the mayan culture.


And what you see these days is only about 15% of all known ruines, it takes a long time to escavate and renovate them and it also costs a fortune to do all that work.

This is a country where men wear cowboy hats and tight jeans... in 35 degrees!


A place where even small market girls have security...

(well, to be honest, this is in front of a bank and in Central America it is absolutely normal to have heavily armed guards in front of every bank and other "wealthy" establishements) - I sight you just get used to after a while.

Happy kids in the country-side:


A great bar/restaurant in Copan...

...where the beer (and anything else) is served in a very special way on top of the head (also upstairs, also with plates full of food!):


And these are the Honduras Driving Rules

(these rules actually apply to all of the Central American countries as I have found out so far)

More rules, this time in a toilet


It wasn't this one though:

Copan Ruinas on the northern border of Honduras with Guatemala was my next stop and my first visit of Maya ruins (Copan is as south as their empire stretched).

And I was really impressed by these ruines in the middle of the jungle:








Copan Ruinas is mainly know for stone carvings in quite good conditions:




And this is Ingo, a german guy I met in Copan Ruines and with whom I climed these ****ing steep pyramids!


And this is me in front of one of these really big trees in the jungle:

From Laguna Apoyo I went to Managua where I only stayed for one night (not much to see and not the safest place on earth, they say) and then by bus across the border to Honduras to the capital, Tegucigalpa. Another big central american city, not much to see or do so I only stayed on night there also.

And no pictures... :-(

From Granada I went to Laguna Apoyo. This lagoon is actually a big crater lake, great to swim, relax and just do nothing!

On Sunday, March 26 I went to this Volcano called Mombacho very near to Granada:



Unfortunately it was a bit hazy so you could not see all that much of Granada for them top but you can tell that Granada is on the shore of Lago de Nicaragua:


There is cloud forest on top of the volcano:




On fertile land of the volcano they grow coffee (on the right side)...


...and bananas.


But as you can tell by the look of this "farm house", the farmers are very poor here and live in huts like this:


Or this family built a home out of an old bus:


This is another typical central american thing I have seen in Costa Rica before and then again in Nicaragua, the so-called Living Fence:

To fence off you piece of land you just cut off branches of trees and stick them into the ground. And because the soil is so fertile the branches start to grow again and you end up with this living fence!

Well, this was another reason for coming to Nicaragua. Through the organisation World Vision I have been supporting a kid in Nicaragua as a sponsor for the past couple of years and now I had the chance to meet her.

And it was one of the greatest days of my trip so far. Too much to tell in a few words but I got to meet with this 8 year old girl called Keli Damaris Martinez Guevara (isn't that just a great name!) and her family, spent some time taking, looking at postcards from Switzerland and then we also went out to see some projects of World Vision.

I haven't got a lot of pictures (yet) but this is me with Keli (sorry about the bad quality of this shot):



And this is Keli on the right in the fornt with her younger sister, her parents and her granddad. Her older sister couldn't come along because they only have 3 bycicles to make the trip to the comunity center where I met them...



Now if you are interested what World Vision is all about you can check out their website in Switzerland www.worldvision.ch or their international site at www.worldvision.org

In this "case" Keli, her sisters and her family get heath check-ups, the kids get there vacinations, they can buy school books at lower prices, they get f.e.building material for their house, the community gets colour to paint the school, water purification systems are being built and so on. Generally the support should help them to survive (!) and go to school and learn to help themselves when they are grown up... it as simple as that!

Well, okay, it is a strange name for a hostel, I agree, but this place is one of the reasons why I got stuck in Granada for almost 10 days:

The courtyard photografed from the dormatory:





So I got stuck in this place... but I wasn't just hanging around, drinking at the bar...


The bar, happy hour from 16h to 19h, double Flor de Caña (nicaraguan rum, the best there is!) for 1 Dollar!

... No! I also took Spansish lessons there! 3 hours a day, private lessons with Angelica Mojica (a great teacher) for a full 5 days in a row and I really learned quite a lot in that short time!
So that was another reason for staying in Granada for quite some time.

Granada in Nicaragua, what a great place. I came directly from Costa Rica to this old colonial town and really liked it form the first moment. Really friendly people, colorful,... just nice!

The cathedial on the main quare:



Street scenes:





Public transport - the old american schoolbuses you see all over Central Ameria:



The market:

Diving off Playa Flamingo great for me! I hadn't been diving since May 2005 so I was really excited about going again and it was fantastic. We even came across one of the Big 5 - divers know what I am talking about, we have seen a big Manta Ray which passed just above us!
(unfortunately I don't have an underwater camera with me)

In the afternoon we went to Playa Conchal which was just absolutely beautiful:

After returing to San Jose to pick up some luggage I met up again with Patricia and we headed for Playa Flamingo on the north eastern coast of Costa Rica to go diving.

Unfortunately I didn't take pictures but we had quite an unbelievable story happing to us on the way up north, just about half a hour from Liberia: the roads in Costa Rica are generally in not the very best condition (well, they are really bad, actually!) so suddenly the left rear tire virtually exploded in the middle of nowhere in blistering heat...
Patricia pulled the car safly over to the side street, we got out of the car, walked around it, looked at the exploded tire, started to discuss options... when we suddenly realized that in the middle of nowhere we actually pulled over just about 100m away form a... car mechanics place specialising in tires! What a coincidence! So to cut the story short: they couldnt fix the tire because it was really all torn up but they had a used replacement tire and worked on the car for 30 min... for only 5000 Colones (about 10 US dollars)! How lucky can you get?
We were wondering and laughing for quite a while in the car afterwards about the guy working at that tire-garage: what must he have been thinking, seeing us pulling over with a torn tire, then standing in the blistering sun looking at the tire pretty hopeless and discussing options... before finally walking over to him to ask for help. The whole time he must have been watching us, knowing that these two foreigner would sooner or later walk over to his place...

Reserva Biológica Bosque Nuboso Monteverde/Santa Elena

With minibus, boat and minibus again I arrived in Monteverde/Santa Elena. There are two cloud forest national parks right next to each other with lots of activites. Day and night walks, canopy zip line adventures, ATV, bird & animal watching and and and...
Lot's of choices!

This is what the region looks like looking west toward the pacific:


And the cloud forest:


The most famous animal in this cloud forest is the...

...sloth. There are acutally two different kinds of sloths here. And both are hard to spot because they are high up in the trees and active mainly at night. So I have seen 4 of them at night but this is somebody else's picture, to be honest!

More wildlife I have actually seen myelf and taken these pictures:






And the most famous bird here in this region: the Quetzal... well, I was told birdwatchers actually travel to Costa Rica to see this bird... it's really beautiful, I have to say.
(by the way, this picture was taken through a telescope)

Actually I am sort of a bird watcher myself! But more on the human side of evolution ;-)

And then I did one of these canopy zip line tours: really good fun! Up to 600m on a steel cable, 80m over the ground!


And then I cound't resist and a also did a ATV (Quad) Tour:

Because at the exact time when I did the tour no other tourists were taking this tour it was only me and the guide and therefor even more fun. We went much faster than normal, he taught me quite a few fun things to do with the ATV and I had a great time. I guess I miss my motorbike back home a little bit form time to time.

Finally on the road again!

I went from San Jose north to see the Volcano Arenal which is still active:


And there are great hotsprings (up to 40 degrees) right at the base of the Volcano where you can go swimming:






And lot's of beautiful flowers in the garden of the hotspirngs. Flowers that grow naturally here and are sold for a small fortune back home...




And this is the Volcano at night!

Well, to be honest, I stole this picture from the a website.
I did see some activity of the Volcano at night but not as perfect as this and it was hard to take pictures too.
If you want to know more about this Volcano and where I got this picture (taken on Feb 12, 2006) go to:
http://www.arenal.net

But to end this, another of my pictures take form the Lago Arenal, on the way to Monteverde, or to be correct: to the Monteverde (and Santa Elena) Cloud Forest Reserve.

So off to the next adventures in Central America!

I flew from Sao Paulo via Panama City to San Jose in Costa Rica for my first stop in Central America.

San Jose is of course latin american but there is a lot of north american influence (incl. Mac Donalds, KFC, Shopping Malls and all that). A lot of people speak here english and there are also many US tourist:


And for the first time since I got started on Dec 27, 05 I got really tired of travelling!
So I just hung around for a couple of days, enjoying the garden and the pool of the Costa Rica Backpackes, spent the days reading, sleeping,... basically doing nothing much!

Friends of Philipp in Sao Paulo got me in contact with Patricia (a Columbian living in San Jose) and she took me out on the weekend: first a fun eventing with friends of her's in San Jose and then on Sunday we all went to the Volcano Poas near San Jose which you can see in the background...

...or not, well there were lots of clouds and we actually couldn't see the crater but we had a great day anyway!

First of all: my sister has asked me to cuddle with Penguins... well, I played cards with them, I hope that's okay!

By the way, they cheat!

And this guy is still a hero here: Maradona all over! It's like they didn't have any other good football players in the last 20 years...


So I thought I show him a thing or two...


The other heros right now - this very week - are U2: they play two sold out open air show on March 1 and 2... I will of course try to get tickets somehow :-)


And they are present all over town:


And then there is still Tango:


And the ultimate Argentinian steak!

(in this case a 500g Bife de Lomo, Tenderloin... I had to say no to the 800g Bife the Lomo which was also on the menu!)

So this might be the last entry from Argentina, so why not a nice good bye picture - I hope to be back one day. Definitely a great country to visit!


Well, it wasn't the last picture after all... Evita Perron is of course not to be forgotten:


And I was told this is the original Rodin sculpture (I am not sure if that's really true, but it is a nice picture to end the Argentina chapter)

If you would like to know where all these places really are and don't feel like surfing the web or getting the old world maps out from the closet... check this, anther webblog without pics (so far) but with a map of the route including all the stops in Brasil, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile so far!

http://www.travelpod.com/members/Peppo2006

Or here is a map of the route so far...:

(to be continued!)

And an absolutely great satellite picture from Patagonia that my sister emailed to me!

"It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine!"
(REM)

Well, this is it now, the most southern town of the world...
...and the weather is nice (partly clowdy and 15 degrees right now at 11am) and the town is like, well, just one of those touristy places with a harbour with cruise ships to Antarctica and a few restaurants, a couple of internet places and lots of souvenier shops!

And this is what it looks like from the sea (yes, we did the tourist boat trip in the Beagle Channel!):


Seals...

... or sea lions or whatever.

And this is what it looks like at the end of the world:

Quite nice, actually.

Well, this is the end of this Patagonia trip, which was really great and I am glad I have finally made it to this part of the world!

On Sunday we will fly back to Buenos Aires and I will have a week to enjoy all a big, bustling city like BA has to offer...


PS: King Crab ("centolla") are a local speciality here and we had the chance to enjoy this great seafood at the home of a guide we talked into inviting us!

The second part of our Patagonia trip brought us back to Argentina, first to El Calafate and then to El Chaltén. There we did day walks and bus trips to some of the most scenic places in Patagonia.

No 1 on the list of tourist attractions is Perito Moreno Glaciar near El Calafate:



Perito Moreno is of the biggest argentinian Glaciers of the Patagonia Ice Field, which is the third biggest ice mass after Antarctica and Grönland (350km long and up to 40 km wide):


This glacier wall is 60m high... but Perito Moreno is relatively small to the even bigger glaciers in Chile!





Near El Chaltén there is one of the highest and most prestigious mountains of the Patagonia region: Mount Fitz Roy


And right next to Fitz Roy there are the even more spectacular Cerro Torres



Fitz Roy (in the right) and the Cerro Torres (in the left) on the way back to El Calafate, from where we flew to Ushuaia.. the end of the world!