Columbia: The last path…

So this is the last part of our travel in Columbia!

 

3th of June

We took in the night of the 2th of June a bus to San Agustin. In the early morning hours Bastian woke me up because of the incredible landscape! Yeah it was really beautiful. After 30 minutes I was awake the bus drove ove a bump… i thought that! Then the bus stopped and I thought it was maybe a dog or something. Then we could hear some cryings and after a few minutes we realized what happened. We got off the bus and then we could see the corpus with some people around it. Our busdriver knocked a human down. But the whole situation became more curious! At first a women which looked like a man came to Bastian an me and she tried to say something but it was impossible to understand her. She showed us all the time her tongue. Then she passed us and took a line of cocaine. We thought we are in the wrong movie! At second after 20 minutes a fire truck arrived but it drove very slow! Then the guys got off the car also very slow. Then they took a barrow, realized that the peron is dead, brought it back to the fire truck and just do nothing! Fuck…. that was one of the most craziest things I have ever seen! This whole situation was so unreal! After another 20 or 30 minutes arrived finally an alternate bus! When we arrived in San Agustin we checked in a hostel! The rest of the day we didnt do something special!

 

4th of June

We rented horses and walked around the region. San Agustin is famous for his archaeological sites! The things there are from the same time like the Inkas! It was really interesting but after a while its just the same stuff ;). yeah I will upload some pictures, we just did that at this day!

 

5th of June Today we drove with the Jeep around the area. We had a amazing view at a waterfall and the sourroundings were in general pretty cool and a lot of coffee farms!

 

6th  of June

We headed to Coconuco. There are some hot water springs, but after we arrived we saw that this was just crap. One funny thin which will remind me always at Coconuco: We had for 2 people the biggest room ever. There were really just 2 beds inside and nothing more and I think this room was twice the size then my apartment in Germany!

 

7th of June

Today we hitch hiked to Puracé. Thats a small village in the Andes and there is a Nationalpark with a volcano named Puracé! When we arrived we walked a little bit around and the village and then we found a small path which lead us to a waterfall! After that the trail conintued and we had to walk a lot of stairs and after that we had a incredible view over the village and the whole valley! I love these moments!

 

8th of June

It should be another amazing day! We took the bus to the Nationalpark and got off and walked in the direction of the volcano Puracé. The volcano has a height of about 4900 meters! After one hour walking we passed a sulphur mine and your could smell it! The wind became all the time stronger and stronger the higher we walked! After a while it was possible to lie in the wind without to fall at the bottom! After a while it started raining and it became more and more misty. At 1:20 p.m. there came 2 guys the volcano down and one of them was a local. He told us that it is still 3 km till to the top and we should descend at 2:00 p.m. otherwise it could be a problem to find back. So Bastian and me decided to hang out a little bit and enjoyed the view and after that we climbed down another way then we climbed up. It was a really good day for us! After this trip both of us had the first time some problems with the stomache and it should need 6-10 days until everything was fine again!

 

9th of June

Today we just went to Pasto. We wanted to visit the Nationalpark Galerac but this one is since two years closed because of a Volcano which is very active at the moment! 10th of June Today should be our last day in Columbia! We crossed the border (wasnt a big deal) and then we drove too our first destination in Ecuador: Otavalo There is the biggest handcraft market in Ecuador. The things they sell are really pretty cool and very traditional. You can see there so many traditional people, thats amazing. One funny thing was: There was a girl, in very traditional clothes (its very colored and a lot of clothes) and she made photos of herself with an iPad. That was interesting. I bought also some handcrafts. After that we ate a enormous Pizza and walked around the city! Ok guys, that was Columbia!

Mirador in San Agustin

Mirador in San Agustin

First landscape in Ecuador

Liquid Panela

Sugar cane which will be prepared for making Panela

Highest waterfall in San Agustin (400 meter)

Mirador close to San Agustin

Hitch hike to Puracé

Puracé

the industrie at the mine

the industrie at the mine

One of the mines

Puracé

Puracé 3 km from the top

Puracé

Statue in San Agustin

Statue in San Agustin

Panela

that is Panela: Made out of sugar cane and you heat it up with water and you have a tasty sweet cup of Agua Panela

Waterfall close to San Agustin

some plants and behind the sulphur mine

close to the sulphur mines (the yellow one is sulphur 😉 )

San Agustin

American History

Otavalo market

San Agustin

What a nice comfortable room!

Puracé

The way to Puracé isn’t just easy

The weather really wanted us to stay at the Puracé

„This way won’t be an easy one“ -Xavier Naidoo

Cheerio

Columbia part 2

Hey people

My last entry was from the 7th of May today is the 4th of July, so after 2 Month it seems to be perfect to write a new entry 😉  (photos are at the end of this entry)

8^th of May

This day we left the Tayrona Nationalpark and headed to the west! To the most beautiful city on the South American continent (people told us 😉 ) ! Cartagena!

In the bus, Bastian asked for his MP3 Player (that stuff was with the passport in a special plastic bag). I didn’t find it in my normal bag and after the second time I searched for it again, I told myself, ok it must be in my Bagpack! When we arrived in Cartagena I searched for it but it was nowhere… oh fuck… but… I am so sure that I didn’t forget it in the National Park so I searched for it in my normal bag again and hell shit… there was it! Puh that was a big shock for me and my heart was running like speedy conzalez!!!

Then we took a bus to the Center and searched for a cheap Hostal. And then a guy on the street gave us his card and told as its 18000 Pesos with breakfast (which is a very good price). So we went with him to his hostal and find out that he could speak german because he lived 3 years in Oldenburg.

When we arrived there we checked in and who else was there? Of course Felix from the Tayrona National Park! We had a good time together and had some dinner!

9^th – 13^th of May

In these days there is not much to say. So I make a shortcut!

Cartagena is still for me (and its 2 month later now) the most beautiful city! It’s a very old town, it has a old colonial wall because in the colonial era Cartagena was often attacked by pirates, so they decided to built a big wall. For me Cartagena has a lot of charm, its in the Caribbean, its hot, I can recommend to go there ;).  So we just relaxed there, take a bath in a volcano which was full with mud. We had a good time, some good cheap rum and ower Hostal owner was great (he went out every night with us!) and we met some other cool people from around the world!

14^th of May

With a detour, we took a bus to Medellin. That wasn’t the bus, which tourists normally us. That were just small buses, we stopped many times, and we needed 4 hours more than normally (17std).  Right in the middle of the trip I called Johan (our Couchhoster in Medellin) to tell him that we arrive very late at night (2 o clock) he just was like: “yeah that’s cool, my mother will open you I am in the hospital I have to work”. I don’t know if people in Germany would say the same.

Another cool thing was: We made another stop to have dinner! So we had a look what they have and a guy started to speak in English with us what we are doing, where we are from and so on, and then he bought us some food and drinks….. this would definitely never happen in Germany or further more in whole Europe!

So when we arrived at 2 o clock, we took a cap, drove to Johans home and she was pretty nice, explained everything to us and so on! But we were also happy to sleep finally!

15^th of May

Today Johan went with us and his girlfriend to a restaurant and invited us for lunch (I was a little bit confused because normally we should invite him but he was like: “no no that’s ok”! Cool guy! Afterwards he had to learn (Johan works at night in the hospital and in the day he has to study. Pretty hard!

Is girlfriend Carolin showed us the Metro and how it works and afterwards Bastian and me walked around Medellin. At night Bastian and I cooked Spaghetti Bolognese because Carolin wanted to eat that. Carolin went out at night with us for some cocktails, Johan had to work….and I danced the first time (and for now also the last time) Salsa hehe. I think I wasn’t so good ;)!

16^th of May

Today we cycled and walked a lot in a Mountain Park close to Medellin and a height of almost 2500 Meters. We spend the whole day there. Was a good trekking day but nothing more!

17^th of May

We went to the new city of Medellin but that wasn’t so special. Afterwards we wanted to go with the Metro to Poeblido which is a small Mountain in the City and you have a great few over Medellin. The Metro was very crowded and. Then Bastian could feel a hand in his pocket where his wallet was. The guy was very fast and the wallet was gone…dam it! There were almost 50 Euros inside but whatever…shit happens and it was just money!

Bastian was of course a little bit pissed off but to rise is mood we wanted to go to the Mountain and hell, that was definitely a good idea. We had such a great view over the city by night!

At night Johanns Mom cooked for us some pretty good stuff.

18^th of May

Today was a good and bad day at the same time!

We walked in Medellin Center and Bastian bought a new bag because his one was too old and small. Afterwards we kept walking and a felt a drag on my bag. I turned around and saw the hand of a young woman she put it very fast away and looked at my bag and hell shit, the bxtch opened it! I was totally pissed off and was asking here was she was doing but she just were saying “No sé, No sé” what means “I don’t know”! I was a little bit happy to know that we would leave the next day!

In the evening Johan and a friend of him brought us with their motorbikes in to the mountains of Medellin where we drank some beers and had I guess the most amazing view over a City I ever had! That was such a good spot, hell! And a cool thing is that he told us that there are never tourists, because you have to drive through a “dangerous” part of the city. Afterwards we drove to the university where we had the best party since our whole trip! That was a good night!

19^th of May

After we woke up, Johanns Mom made us a perfect breakfast then we said goodbye and headed to our next destination Guatapé!  The drive was already amazing with this amazing lake landscape! Something to Guatapé: Guatapé is a small village and it has the biggest lake of Columbia which supports Columbia with water engery!

So we drove directly to the Lakeview Hostal which is managed by a guy from England and the other one is from the US.  They had some good recommendations for us. The following evening we relaxed just a little bit!

20^th of May

Today we hiked with some locals through the nature to a waterfall in the jungle. The hike was about 2-3 hours. It was pretty nice nothing special but we had something to do. The rest of the day we watched a movie, cooked something and were upset about the time we went to Guatapé because it was holiday time and I felt like whole Medellin is in Guatapé!

21th of May

This day we cycled with the Mountainbikes 20 km to a part of the lake where the waterlevel was so high that water was running above the wall (it’s a dam). It was a good ride and the surroundings were so beautiful and just a few people hang out there learned some Spanish vocabularies (yeeahh… we are not just having fun we have also to work!!! 😉 )  Then it started raining very heavily so we cycled back but that was kind of fun. Ah ja on the way back I saw a very big spider I think it was a bird spider but she was already dead, but have never seen something in the wildness before!

22th of May

Today was a really cool day. We took a Kayak and we kayaked to the Villa of Pablo Escobar (the famous drug baron of Columbia). The Villa was bombed before they killed Pablo Escobar and I think it was once a pretty nice Villa hehe.  But before we arrived there we kayaked I think 3-4 hours to there because we didn’t find it! So we asked all time some people where it is and so on. We were a little bit tired afterwards but it was totally worth it! Good day!

23th of May

Today we walked to the emblem of Guatapé. The Peñol. It’s a 200 Meter high Mountain everything is flat that’s the reason why its so special! We walked all the way up and hell shit, the view was so amazing with the Lake but you will see it later!

24^th – 25^th of May

Today we headed to Manizales. There we had another Couchhoster, Marianna her name. We had a really good time with her but we just didn’t stay a long time there, because there was not much to do in Manizales. We wanted to go to a national park close to Manizales but it wasn’t possible because it was closed because of activity (2010 was the last big blow out). The last night we had a pretty good time with some beers.

26^th of May

I woke up and had a hangover but I wanted to leave to be early in our next place Salento  (in this place are the highest palm trees in the world: 80 Meters).

So we went to the bus station and normally I have my wallet always in my bag. But because I bought the bus tickets and put my wallet in my trouser. So we ve entered the bus and two other guys with us (nothing special)! I wanted (while I was standing) to open a window at my place. So one guy wanted to pass me and sit at a seat behind me. But before he told me “mas duro, mas duro” (he meant I should push the window more hard to open the window) and shaked in a strange way on my ass (I totally forgot that my wallet was there at this moment). So he sat behind me and then the other guy put Bastians Backpack (which was in front in the bus) at somewhere else and we were so confused! Then some other people came inside and 2 mintues later they left the bus….. 1 minute later I recognized what happened! But it was already too late…I gave a shit that there were 40 Euros inside, but there was as well my credit card in…dam it!!! So after 3 hours it was able to call my brother (it wasn’t possible to call my bank, because the number doesn’t work in Columbia) and he could block it for me!

This day I was pissed off and I couldn’t  eat for 2 days….

27^th – 28^th of May

At these two days we made a coffee tour. I don’t like coffee but it was very interesting. What you should know is. A lot of rainforest is cut off because of coffee farms and they cut every day more forests off which sucks. The same happens at the moment here in Ecuador (jep I am at the moment in Ecuador). But whatever, it was interesting and now I know how to make a good coffee (also when I think that coffee does never has a good taste 😉 ).

The other day we went to the Cocora Valley. There are the highest palm trees in the world. And hell, they are high! Bastian and me hiked there for 4 hours. It was really beautiful and we had a very good time there!

29^th of May

Time to go to Bogota!!! We took a night bus but arrived also very late at night (3 a.m.). So we took a cap to our next Couchsurfer Daniel! When we arrived he opened the door and showed us our room and went to bed.

At 8 or 9 o clock we woke up Daniels mum made us breakfast and then we watched at a masterthesis presentation from Daniels friend (Gabriel).  After that we went to another friend o cooked for us lunch and at night Daniel and his sister went out with us.

30^th of May

This day we hiked in the mountain region close to Bogota. This was a great adventure for all of us! We hiked a way which even Daniel never hiked and after a while it got pretty hard. So we followed a river and after I guess 2 hours hiking we couldn’t continue because there was a (I guess) waterfall which was 30 meter high. So we had to go back a little bit and find another way (I have to admit that the way we walked wasn’t a way! We just walked through the river and climbed some mountains to find a way back to Bogota). It was a great day and I think it was the most adventuresome day for Daniel in his live! At the end he said: “I go hiking with some friend from Germany in my city and they help to find back to Bogota”…

In the evening we cycled with the bikes 4-5 hours through Bogota…hell such a cool city. I really could imagine living there.

31th of May

Today we cycled again this time in the day and Daniel showed us the university, the biggest park in Bogota where every 28^th of June Rock in the Park is. This is the biggest Rockfestival in South America and the entry is for free!

Bastian and I cooked for the whole family a typically German dish and I  hope the liked it!

1th of June

Today we headed with Daniel and Gabriel close to Villavicencio. Gabriels father owns a Mountain in the Andes and he has a small hut in the rainforest there. So the idea was, to hike to there and sleep there for one night.  The hike was awesome but very rainy. The hut was really in the middle of nowhere. We had lunch and dinner in the “kitchen” but yeah, watch the fotos ;). The next day we had a shower under some waterfalls…. Great experience!

So I am too lazy to continue! And I think also for you its enough!

I try to continue in the next few days

Cheerio and thanks for reading!

our wildcamp in Tayrona

our wildcamp in Tayrona (bastian sleeping)

our wildcamp in Tayrona

hiking in Tayrona

Cartagena

Cartagena

the mud vulcano

Medellin

Medellin

The bombed Villa of Pablo Escobar in Guatapé

The bombed Villa of Pablo Escobar in Guatapé

View from the bombed Villa

The amazing view from the Peñol (Guatapé)

The amazing view from the Peñol (Guatapé)

Goodbye photo from Marianna in Manizales (view hours before the got my wallet)

Piña

Salento (place where the highest palm trees in the world are)

Salento (place where the highest palm trees in the world are)

a fucking high palm tree

palm trees

palm trees

Graffity in Bogota

Bogota at night with Daniel and Paola

the hike to the hut in the rainforest

the hut in the rainforest

me and the palm tree

bastian and a palm tree

the dangerous hike with Daniel (that was before it got dangerous) and Bogota behind

the way through the river

quality shoes from germany (never buy Buffalo shoes!!!)

Bogota

Daniel at the end of the hike

our bed in the rainforest

the kitchen

still the kitchen

the stove

oh yeah it will be good!

self made arepas

the beach in tayron and because of rain the beach was flooded from a river!

campfire at our wildcamp in Tayrona with felix

I cant recommend doing long hiking trips with Flip-Flops

Especialy after Venezuela, its nice to see that anybody cares about the environment (mountainpark in Medellín)

The death of Pablo Escobar in Medellín from Botero

on the Peñol of Guatapé

The Peñol of Guatapé

the colored town of Guatapé

Yeah, renewable energy

almost impossible to take the wrong way

Columbia part 1

Jeeeppp I told you I will write and I know thats a long time ago that I wrote!

Its a long time ago now but I try to write short!

So where we ve been…

the end of Venezuela right…

Jeah hope you remember that the last place was Mérida in the Anden. After that we drove do Coro (the mainpricture is from there). The town is not really special even when its unesco heritage but in our opinion its not worth it to go there! But one thing was really fun… sandboarding. Just 40 Minutes out of the town by walking are huge sand dunes. So we got some boards from our hostel and walked to this place. The first try wasnt so got for me… it hurt a lot when I lied down. But after a while I got used to it hehe. And hell.. you cant imagine how vast the wind was. we couldnt see a lot while driving down because all the sand was blowing in our faces. So after almost 2 hours alter and a lot of sand almost everywhere (and with everywhere I mean exactly everywhere!!!) we went back to the hostel…

the next day we decided to go to Adicora, a very small village just 1 hour north with the bus from Coro. This small village is at the caribbean. We read that it is possible to kitesurfing there but then we realized that it was way to expensive for our wallet…(dam it!). So we decided just to surf. Yeah.. that was quite fun but the waves werent that great (caribbean is not the best spot for that!). At our last day some people from Maracaibo (the Oilcity of Venezuela) arrived. So they started drinking in the evening and we joined them… you cant imagine how funny that evening was. After some glases of rum one of those guys gave me a T-Shirt with the South American continent on it as a present and a few minutes later another guy with a animal on it… hell that was fun (bastian payed our owner of the hostel at this time)…

The next morning we wanted to get up at 5 o clock to be as earlie as possible in Santa Marta (Columbia). I think you can imagine what happend. We partied till 3 o clock. Bastian went a little bit early because of special problems (;) ) to „bed“ (our bed was a hammock). Sooo at 9 o clock the sun was shining directly in my face I woke up and… shit..I just realized at this moment how obvious it was that we cant get up at 5 in the morning. Ok whatever. I woke Bastian he and I had a hangover but we had to hurry up. So we packed everything and got the bus at 9:20! We bought a lot of coke to feel better again. When we arrived in Maracaibo (hell I never saw such an ugly city… never go there!) we had to get a cap because all the buses were already gone! Shit! So we took a cap and I have to mention that a 3 hour ride with a cap to the border of columbia was just 12 euros! I mean its still expensive for Venezuela but with a cap… ! Ok so we were on the way to columbia…jihhaaa… and after 3 hours and more then 15(!!!!) military checkpoints we arrived at the first town in columbia (Macao). Our first impression of Columbia wasnt that good. We just got into the next cap which drove us another 3 hours to Santa Marta. And finally we arrived there! We took a crappy hostal which wasnt that cheap but it was just for one night!

The next day we bought two hammocks for 8 euros and took a bus to the tayrona nationalpark (everybody told us how amazing this place is). When we arrived there (with backpack and small back) we paid entry, hitch hiked till the end of the road and continued walking. All the other people took horses but we though, why should we spent 18000 pesos per person (6 euros) when its just 1 hour by walking. At this time we didnt know that the way was just muddy (bastian weared is flipflops and I weared sneakers…not the best choice). But it was fun and it was ok to walk just 2 or 3 difficulties but nothing special. Then we arrived in Arricifes (a very very small… uhm.. its not even a village… a small something I would say). There we find a „hostel“ where it was possible to mount our own hammocks. The place was nice and the ocean was beautiful as well. Some big rocks in the ocean but it wasnt allowed (or its still not allowed) to swim there, because to current is very strong and more then 100 people died already at this place!

6th of may

The next day we packed our small backs again left our backpacks in the hostel and walked 2 or 3 hours west. We passed some beautiful beaches but our plan was to camp wild at a lonely beach. And jes we found a beach like this. We walked all the way up and then we found a perfect place to mount our hammocks (but didnt mount it at this time because of rain! Every day between 15-18 o clock it started raining). The funny thing was, that we werent alone at this beach. Another guy at the same idea then we had. So after checked our place we went to the guy we saw and find out that he was german as well and travelled already almost 7 month in south america. Not bad when you consider that he was just 19 years old and it was is first big journey (normaly in this age people go to south east asia or australia. I mean south america is I think one of the most dangerous places in the world). So we had a really good time with him and enjoyed it a lot… so thanks a lot Felix from bavaria and hope you feel fine to be back in germany ;). A good thing was, that he had a machete so we could open the coconuts which were lying at the beach.  At night we tried to make a campfire but it wasnt that easy because it was still raining (20 oclock!) but after 1 or 2 ours the wood burned… Tom Hanks would say „I made fire“ (Cast away)! So Felix cooked his potatos and nudles and we could dry our clothes…perfect (and thanks again for the potatos!).

7th of may

the night was pretty good. It didnt rain and I could sleep till 8 or something like that! After packing all our stuff again we said good bye to Felix and continued our trek! Our plan was, to go out of the national park, get some food and walk back to another lonely beach even more to the west then the last one.  After 2 hours we arrived Pueblito (thats a very old city from the tayrona tribe). There is not much left and wasnt so interesting, so we conintued…after another 1 or 2 hours I felt like shit. Dam it… I could see the ocean… but normaly the ocean should be behind us and not infront us. So I dont know how it happened but we took the wrong way (we even didnt realized that there are more ways). So we decided (because we were running out of water and walked already 1 hour in the wrong direction) to continue the trek and sleep again in Arricifes! So when we arrived there we just relaxed ate some good chocolate muffins, had dinner and slept. ah jaa i forgot something. a few minutes after we arrived in Arricifes, there was this guy who stood under the palm tree. I just saw how this coconut fell down and BAAAM on his nack… dam it. I even had pains just to see how it happend. This guy was crying like he was burning in hell. But he was lucky that it didnt fall on is had. Here I have to add something…

every year there are more people which die because of coconuts then on shark attacks…

 

sry guys but its 10 in the evening i am tired and I swear I will continue soon 😉

At this point should be picutres but this computer is not able to do it…I will fix that

Cheerio!!!

From the east to the west

New day new entry

17^th of April

We get up at 5 am to escape the rain. We never had rain in the morning time. But before I continue with new stuff I have to say that this night was horrible. I forgot to mention, that Basti and me lost one of our camping mat so we had to share the only one which was left. I can tell you that it was freezing there.

Ok here we go….

So the first we walked was the crystal valley. There was everywhere quartz crystal stones. The surroundings around the Tepui looked like a moon landscaped just that there was a little more water and vegetation. Many weird flowers. Then we walked to the edge of the Roraima. First it wasn’t possible to see anything because of the clouds, but a few seconds later the sky became clear and what we saw was such a wicked few…hell. And the country in front of us we could see was Guyana. Because the view was as fast gone as it came our Guide Calio brought us to another viewpoint. This one was even much better then before. We had a view to the twin mountain of the Roraima and everything looked just so faked with the waterfalls which falled down of the Tepuis, rainforest as far as you could look. Yeah that was a good start in the morning. Then we walked back in our camp. It started to rain and we just hang out. In the afternoon the rain stopped so Stephan, Basti, Calio and me walked to the edge where we climbed up and after that we went to a cave with a small lake inside and the water inside the cave is coming out of the edge of the Roraima as waterfall. Because it was already late we walked back, waited for dinner had some shots (just because it was freezing 😉 )

 

18^th of April we got up at 4:30 am because we had to leave and wanted to avoid rain. But this time it was raining the whole night. So we drank a hot cup of chocolate (yummy) and waited until the rain was over. Basti and I started at 7:30am after 3 hours Martina, Stephan and both of us reached the base camp (without rain…great!). Alejandro and Vivianne were still high in the mountains. So we four kept walking walking and walking. Basti had some problems with his knees because of climbing down, I was tired but we kept walking. After another 1 ½ hours we were at the first river, we crossed kept walking and reached after 30 minutes the next river… hell yeah we reached the camp (that one we missed the first time). But before we went there, Basti and I took a shower in the river. You cant believe how necessary that was! Basti and me walked to the camp and were happy that we were there. I guess you know already what happened with Alejandro and Vivianne… and jep you are right, they became wet again. It started raining like shit. Stephan, Basti and me played scissor, stone and paper (in German: schnick schnack schnuck) because we had to choose one who built a moat. Stephan lost…but after a while the rain became so hard that all of us helped to build the moat. We had a lot of fun, really! An our later Vivianne and Alejandro arrived, totally wet. Poor argentines, first they lost against Germany in the world cup 2010 and now this, hehe. We played some luegen maexchen (I don’t know the English word for that and I am to lazy to explain that, sry) with some rum and went to bed.

19^th April the last night in the tent was over… yyyeaahhaaa!!! We started walking at 7am! I guess the most sentence for this last trek was “Basti, I think this is really the last river we have to cross” but I wasn’t right… almost never… just once… so I recommend everybody, you shouldn’t trust me in such things!

But how could it be that this time the trek was so hard. When we walked this stage when we walked to the Roraima, Basti and I learned Spanish vocabularies but now…

Ok I skip this part, we arrived at the start camp 3 hours later. We took off our shoes and gave them a massage (no no, not each other)! I don’t have to mention that Vivianne and Alejandro became wet, I guess. An hour later the Jeep for us arrived with beer, awesome!!!

A big surprise waited for us at the Touragency in Santa Elena de Uairen! The secretary wanted to have 400 Bolivars (40 Euros) for the camp mat we lost in the heavy rain! I told here that I wont pay this amount. So she called her German boss. I talked with him, he wanted to have 200 Bs I told him I will just pay 100 Bs and at the end we were at 150 Bs! From 400 Bs to 150 Bs… My ass (heist auf Deutsch: verarschen kann ich mich selber)!!!

Then we had to say bye bye to Alejandro and Vivianne, but we will see these guys in Buenos Aires again. Martina and Stephan took the same bus then we did but they had to get off earlier. So Basti an I were alone going to Ciudad Bolivar.

20^th April

At 5:00am we arrived in Ciudad Bolivar, still tired! We called our Hostel where we booked all the trips. They told us that we should come to the airport, because of whatever! So after a good morning beer (we had from the evening before) we walked to the airport waited 1 ½ hour and back to the hostel. At that day nothing special was going on just one thing. The sweetest thing we have ever seen appeared. I we both think  that because of that the word sweet was invented ;). We find a Opossum which fitted in our hand. The eyes of it were bigger then anything else. We had a lot of fun with it. We both wished to take it with us but of course we didn’t. We brought it back to nature.

21^th April we packed our bags booked the night bus for Mérida and that’s it!

22^th April we reached Barinas at … I don’t know, maybe at 13pm there we had to take another smaller bus to Mérida. This trip was another 4 hours but not because it was so far away (maybe 170km) the reason was that we drove through the Andes (Anden). Dam it, great landscape, but here the cut over is also already in progress. When we arrived we called directly Carlos (also from couchsurfing). After a while he answered, gave us his address. We took the cap and I was really wondering because it was the right address… yeahhaaa.

We crashed into a birthday party of Eduardos mum (it’s a flat share here are living 3 guys: Eduardo, Carlos and Nick). But it wasn’t a problem, we complimented her had a cup of soda and a piece of cake. Then Iwan and Alvaro arrived from the mountains (two other couchsurfers) we talked a little bit and then went to bed.

23^th April Eduardo went with us to a river nearby, there we had a shower. Refreshing! Then we went in the City and yeah… that’s it!

24^th April. Eduardo wanted to go with us to Paramo (a region in the mountains of the Andes). So we drove 2 hours with a bus to there, checked in a hostel, got a cap and went in the national park. In this national park they planted Canadian trees with success and there are a lot of lakes around. There we were at a height of 3500 meters. Air was thin, walking a little bit exhausting and I had some problems with my foot which wasn’t helpful. But the trek was really beautiful and we were almost the only one who walked there. Afterwards we hitch hiked to another very small mountain village with an amazing few and 2 Condores. Condores is an endangered species so they had 2 of them in cages (way to small) that they can make more Childs. Then we went back to the hostel, I couldn’t walk anymore because of my foot the other guys prepared dinner, drank a bottle of rum and good night!

25^th April. Iwan and Alvaro went back to Mérida, Eduardo and we both went to the hot springs in the mountains. Awesome, just awesome. We were almost alone there, we took a bath and had just a great (more then a great) view. We were a long time there so there is nothing more to say. We went in the evening back to Mérida, Eduardo brought us to a touragency where we booked for the next day a canyoning tour, had dinner and dot

26^th April. Bastian and I got up early. At 9 am we were at the touragency. A Venezuelan couple did the tour with us. These guys were horrible.  The man was not the thinnest and the woman was afraid of everything. Normally the tour is 3 hours we needed almost 5! But the tour was great.

So what is canyoning: You walk in a river all the way down. You have to climb down some waterfalls and yeah that’s it. But its so much fun really. We wished to show you some photos of it, but they wanted to have 170 Bolivares (17 Euros) just for photos? What the f**k!

The next following days was nothing interesting. Just one thing. I drank an aphrodisiac with a lot lot lot of ingredients, but just a few are special: Brandy, wine, beer, eggs of a fish, eggs of a chicken and bull eyes real bull eyes! And then everything mixed. It didn’t taste so bad but was still a little bit weird just because I knew that there were bull eyes in.

Ok that’s it. Now you are up to date.

And of course I know here are a lot of mistakes, but I have to say that I am to lazy after writing 2-3 hours to read everything again to find mistakes. So if something isn’t possible to understand, let me know.

See you amigas y amigos und haut rein

 

 

 

The very right one is the Roraima

Picknick at the Paramo Park at theLaguna Negra

Bastian disguised as tourist

at the foot of the Salto Angel

Paramo

Bastian is eating a flower. Our Guide told us that u could live at the top just eating this

Jepp...we like us! At the Paramo National Park

Have a break, have a look

Jepp…we like us! At the Paramo National Park

Bastian is eating a flower. Our Guide told us that u could live at the top just eating this

endemic frog, which cannot jump just walking like gollum

you cant catch it how high the Roraima really is

infront of the Salto Angel

The Salto Angel

The incredience of the aphrodisiac

me while i am drinking the bull eyes

that are the bull eyes, yammy

hot springs in paramo

Bastian on the south american continental plate and me on the caribean plate

Laguna Negra

sweetest animal alive! the opossum

On the top of the Roraima

From the north to the south

A lot happened since the last entry. You maybe remember that Basti an me wanted to go to Trinidad and Tobaco to get some Euros or Dollars because of the Black Market here! Yeah you know, sometimes things come in a different way around then you think. We found out that T&T is way to expensive for us, just to get the money. Venezuela wants to have an exit charge fee of 1000 Bolivar (per person) what means 100 Euro, then another 25 US Dollars for what ever and the same when we want to enter to Venezuela again. So we decided to go to Ciudad Bolivar and from there a Bus to Boa Vista which is in Brazil, to get some Dollars or Euros there. So when we arrived in Ciudad Bolivar (3am), the pick up service from the hostel we called the night before, was already there. So we were very happy to get as fast as possible in the next bed. When we get up at 9 there were the first tourists we saw. Two guys from Germany (Frankfurt and on of them is working for you fm a radiosender in hessen) and three from Switzerland. Here an interesting way of travel from Thomas (one of the swiss guys). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F_1K4KbGC4 He is traveling now for 6 Month and he had a funny idea. To make a zorrovideo. So enjoy the video ;). But the best thing for Basti an me was, that we didn’t have to go to Brazil. The hostel owner is from germany or more precise he lived just 10 kilometers from Bastis home in the black forrest. After that Basti realized, heey I don’t have to speak german anymore I can speak badenerisch… no sry just joking 😉 Soo.. the reason why we do not have to go to Brazil. It was able to transfer money at his bancaccount and he gave us a course for 10 Bolivares (you remember the official course is 4,3 Bolivares for 1 Euro). We both were very happy about that and so we planed everything for the trips in this region. We booked at the hostel the a three day trip to salto angel (with 980 meters the highest waterfall in the world). At the 11^th of april in the morning the hostel drove us (7 people) to the airport. Why to the airport? Because we flew to an indigenous village (Canaima with 1500 habitants)  where no road is going to. For I guess all of us was it the first time to fly with a Cessna airplane. Very small, you cant hear your own word but a great feeling. The flight was amazing just because of the landscape. A lot of rainforest, mountains, tepuis (that are tablemountains, I will show you). But one thing I have to mention. There is a big area just rainforest you cant imagine. But almost the same surface area is cutover. That’s really hard, when you see what was ones rainforest, and how big is it now. I forgot to tell you how it was when we flew from Sao Paolo to Caracas. The flight was 6 hours, and 2 hours of that, we flew over a region which was ones rainforest, and know its acriculture surface. I just want to say that because its very common to hear that in newspapers or whatever, but that it is even much worse then they say is horrible. But ok enough bad things… So the flight there was really cool and it took maybe an hour. After the flight they brought us to our accommodations and we had lunch. After that we had some time to go the the “beach”. There was a small beach and an awesome view to three big waterfalls very nearby. After a while we took a boat and drove next to the waterfalls at the other side of the lake. After a little walking, we were at the top of a waterfall, and the view we had is not possible to write in words. Everywhere water, the tablemountains and you tried to catch everything with your eyes, like then you wish to have this view when ever you want to see it. Then we walked a way down and they told us we should take off our clothes. The reason was, we walked under the waterfall. Hell, how powerful water can be, but it was fun and very refreshing. Then we walked back to the boat and walked under the next waterfall. Then back to our accommodations, dinner, babble a little bit with all the Swiss people (hell so many people from Switzerland… this country must be a ghostcountry). At the 12^th April we were very excited… Salto Angel was our destination. So we got up at 7:30 am and took the boat.  After an amazing 4 hour boat trip through the rainforest, and some turtles, a lot of Tepuis and much much more wafterfalls flowing down of the Tepuis. Then it appeared…. the highest waterfall of the world. So big, so much water just incredible. When we arrived at the shore, it was just an hour of walking till we were at the foot of the Salto Angel. We made a stop on a plateau just to look all the time up to see how the water falls all the way down… then we walked 10 minutes further and we were at the a very small lake where it was possible to swim and to feel how powerful the water is after 980 meter free fall. After all that, we walked back to the boat drove to the counterpart site where our camp was. We ate chicken which was made at the campfire. Tasty… after that we went to bed… or better to our hammocks! 13^th of Aril, I sleept awesome, Basti “a little bit” less awesome! We just had breakfast and then we took the boat and all the way back. I could tell you know how awesome the landscape was but you know already, so I skip this part. The only “new” was, this time we just drove 2 ½ hour. We went directly to the little airport and back to Ciudad Bolivar in our hostel (posada). And this night it became a little bit stressful. Basti, Martina, Stephan and me booked already before our trip to Salto Angel the next trip to Roraima (the highest Tepui in the world with 2870 meters). It seems like that Venezuela has always the highest things, maybe its true. We packed very fast our bags and then to the airport, there our bus was going to Santa Elena de Uairen (very close to the border of brazil). This bus sucked!!! I mean ok the buses hear and all the countrys where its hot are always very cold (I think it was 15 degree there and outside 28) but the air con at my place was driping all the fucking night on me. I can tell you… I slept maybe 30 minutes of almost 11 hours. In the early morning a guy chopped my head…. military checkpoint. All four of us had to go out of the bus (of course just the four white people). They checked our bags maybe because of drugs. After that each of us must go alone with this guy in a small room. Basti was the first of us and I had already a bad feeling. Basti came out everything was fine, the next one was me. I had to empty my trouser pocket he looked at my mp3 player. Ok everything was fine. After that Stephan had to go in and he told us afterwards what happened with him. He had is wallet in his trouser pocket. So the military guy said to him open your shoes and while Stephan went down to open them, the guy took the wallet and took 100 US dollar out of it and threw it in the corner. But Stephan was tough enough to get it bag. Basti and I saw already a lot of corruption here. That sucks really, especial policemen and military are the guys you have take care of. But ok, we arrived then in Santa Elena at the Touragency. After a short introduction our car was coming. All in all we were 6 people Alejandro and Vivianne from Argentina joined us. Our guide was Calio from Guyana (the neighbor country) he was a great guy and 3 people who carried food and so on. The tour was for 6 days! Alejandro and Vivianne offered us while we drove to the start point a couch for Buenes Aires… great!!! When we arrived we found out that we could not start our Trekking tour. It was raining a lot and we had to cross two rivers and their current became too strong to cross. So we just had dinner, spoke a lot and tried to improve our Spanish and then to the tents! 15^th of April at 7 o clock we started walking. The view was like always amazing it was already able to see the Roraima, but the mountain was wrapped in clouds. Pretty nice. The first river wasn’t that strong anymore and Basti and I thought that the trek was really easy. The base slope wasn’t a problem. We arrived at the first camp, which we normally should arrive the day before, after 3 hours walking. But we just made short stop and continued walking. After 30 minutes we crossed the biggest river on our trip. After 1 or 2 ours walking Stephan and Martina were much before us and Alejandro and Vivianne were behind us we realized that it starts raining. So we put Bastis bag in a plastic bag and my one under a rain jacket. Then it starts very very heavy raining. So much that we almost couldn’t see the way anymore. And then…. Basti and I made a mistake. We took a wrong way and we were in the middle of nowhere because there was no way anymore. I had nothing on me just trekking shoes and my swimming trunks and the plastic bag with Bastis bag inside. My shoes were completely wet inside and Basti was sweating because of the rain jacket. Then Basti had a good idea to find the right way again. He climbed up a little hill and he was able to see Vivivanne and Alejandro.. how lucky we were. Because of that we lost more then an hour and hour mood was not so good. But ok, we found back and kept walking. And after an hour and a very hard way because the base slope became much harder, we arrived the base camp in front of the Roraima. Stephan und Martina waited already there. We changed our clothes and almost 2 hours later Alejandro and Vivianne arrived. The reason why they were so slow was because Vivivannes foot was hurting. We had dinner and because everyone was tired we went to bed at 19 o clock. 16^th of April we started to climb up the Roraima. Now the base slope was just straight up. And we had a good view… no clouds jiphieee. The first viewpoint was at a hight of almost 2500 meters.. great. A sip of water and keep walking. After another hour and another shower because of a waterfall we had to walk under we arrived at the top! The view wasn’t good. It was very cloudy and much colder then at the base camp. After 30 minutes walking we arrived in our mountain camp. Then it started raining again and Alejandro and Vivivanne arrived almost 2 ours later… again totally wet.. poor guys… Ok people.. I am tired, and don’t wanna hang out more at the computer… I continue the blog as fast as possible…. Cheers Basti and the me

view out of the cessna

waterfalls of canaima

in the cessna

the oppositve view from the salto angel

thats the way we climbed up on the roraima

the mountain next to the roraima

Feel like home

Hey guys, so here is our  first entry…

sooo finally we did it. we are in caracas. but i should start at the beginning.

to come in to the culture very quickly basti and me wrote on couchsurfing gabriel if we can stay at his couch. after some messages later he wrote that he will pick us up from the airport. so we thought hell yeah that would be awesome…

after saying good bye to sarah, melanie was so affable to drive me to the airport of Frankfurt. We met basti and evelyn there at almost 7pm. after some nice words we had to say also goodbye to melanie.

and after another 2 hours we had to bid farewell to evelyn as well.

at 22:05 was the take off to sao paolo, the flight was ok the food was shit and after 12 hours we arrived in sao paolo at 5:30am. we didnt see much, just that it is a big city. after some games and spanisch phrases later we had to catch our flight to caracas at 14pm. and jes our waiting time in sao paolo was 9 hours.

 

sooo when we arrived at the airport of caracas at 18:55 pm we looked around for gabriel. he told me that he will have a sign where sandro is written on. so we searched the sign.. but after a while we realized that there was nobody who was waiting for us. but we thought… oh come on, he will pick us up otherwise i wouldnt say that on couchsurfing… and hell yeah after 40 minutes waiting, he was coming with henry… FANTASTICO!

soo henry was also a couchsurfer who stayed first at someone else home. sooo after we put our backs in the…rataplan… opel corsa, same car which I drive..(and henry as well, hell these people know which car rocks!) we started driving to gabriels home… yea u know… corsa is a very old car so we didnt complain that the stoped at the motorway and didnt move any longer hehe.. that was a very good first experience. Henry, basti and me pushed the car from the motorway and gabriel was steering the car.

after 2 or maybe 3 hours a roadside assistance service was finally coming. henry and gabriel were sitting in the pickup, basti and me in the corsa. so after almost 20 minutes we arrived at gabriels home. we ate a little bit and were introduced to gabriels mom and then went to bed.

 

4. april

i thought we have a jetleg… after just 5 hours sleep my body thought its enough… both of us couldnt sleep anymore and so we were already at 9 am awake. gabriel made for us arepa which is a typically venezuelan food. its consists of cornflour, some water and some different spices. then you bake it in a pan till its hard. after that its like a bread. you can fill it with scrumbeld eggs, beans, meat whatever you want.. that was really good

after that we drove with the local bus to the city and we had to cross one of the biggest slums in south america. that was like a wave of houses we did not expect!

soo then we were in the city and tried to change some euros but its not that easy as normally. they have here two kinds of exchange rates. the offical one which is 1 euro is 4,3 bolivar. and the black market rate. 1 euro is 12,5 bolivar but this one is „forbidden“. the reason of all that is, that the state of venezuela does not allow the people to draw out more then 2000 euro out a year.  so there is a protest movement and the people buy euros for more then the twice then the government. its a very strange situation and its not that safe to change at the black market but yea… there are some people which know some people who can help you ;). so basti an me didnt know that before, thats the reason why we go tomorrow (9. april) to trinidad and tobaco to buy some euros or dollars… ah i didnt tell you.. of course you cant get dollars or euros here.

so gabriel showed us a park from where we were able to see chávez house. so i have to mention that caracas is not beautiful but the landscape around is awesome. the mountains here are 2500 meter high… just incredible. there were also a lot of people which were wearing purple shirts. its because of eastern… they are very religious. so after some more parks we met karla a friend of gabriel. we were eating some pizza and afterward we went in a bar to drink some local beers. i have to tell you… the people can dance really good salsa… basti and me not… but the people sitting there invited us for a little bit dancing. that was quite fun. a guy gave me his guitar and told that i should play something… belivie me also drunken people would say that it was horrible 😉 at 3 am went to bed…

5. april

this day was very a relaxing day. we slept long get up had some breakfast and learned some spanish, and gabriel and karla some german. in the evening we went in another citypark, and ate afterward arepas, with chicken and cheese (really really awesome) and capacha. its like a pancake with cheese but i guess better 😉

6. april

we get up very early because we wanted to go to the beach with karla. gabriel wanted to stay at home. the reason why we had to get up at 7 was that they wanted to avoid the traffic but the funny thing was that they arrived at 9:30!.. sooo we drove with karla, ricardo and ana (ricardo and ana are studying languages and also german). it took almost 2 hours until we arrived the beach. but the ride was i guess the best. there was just rainforest we drove through… that was really amazing. when we arrived the beach it was totally overcrowded but we find a very good place. basti and me enjoyed the waves. I guess that would be also a good spot for melanie, steffen and nico to surf a little bit. Another very interessting thing were the pelicanes which fly in a swoop into the water to get some fishes. really cool to see…

7. april

gabriel, basti an me decided to go to the mountains here in caracas. so we get up at 7:30 to start as early as possible. after buying some food for the trip and get some sleeping bags and a tent we started at 3pm. so the beginning was pretty easy and a little overcrowded. but after 2 hours it starts to get harder and we were almost alone. we felt like then we are in the rainforest. it was also really amazing. it was everywhere green and some birds i have never seen before. at 18 oclock it was getting more dark and the clouds where also almost everywhere. at some point the vegetation starts to change. it was really awesome but basti and me were also very exhausted. basti looked like a ghost. but we still had to walk for another 3 hours.. higher and higher. we startet at 1000 meter above the sea and climbed up to 2400 meters in 5 hours. you cant belivie how happy we were when we arrived at the camp. basti and me had our lights with us so it was no problem to build up the tent. I guess we all woke up very often because its was a little bit colder then we expected so i got up at 7:10 walked around and enjoyed the amazing view. the view to caracas was at this time was still good. when the others guys woke up there were already everywhere clouds. soooo yeah after a while we continue walking and after another 1 1/2 hours we were at the end of our walking.. we made it… jiphieee… we arrived at the hotel which is at the top of the mountain and took from there the cable cars back to caracas…

 

and here i‘ m sitting and riding you what happend…

 

so today was our last day in caracas. i really really have to thank gabriel. he was a great hoster and he gave us a start for our trip we never could imagine. thank you so much…or how you would say it.. muchos gracias. you, karla, ricardo and ana will always find a couch when you are in germany. Adios Amigos!!!

 

 

 

And you guys see you next time and continoue watching bastis and my roadtrip….

 

cheerio

ps: here some pictures

basti and me at the airport in sao paolo

Gabriel is making some arepas for us

 

at 18 oclock in the mountains nearby caracas

 

the view to the city of caracas

Our tent in the mountain and the hotel behind

Time to move

Hey guys

at the second of april a friend of mine (basti, I think i will write more often about him so its easier for you to know his name 😉 ) an me are travelling for 6 month around south america so i thought heyy… maybe i could reawake my old blog and so i do.

last year basti asked around if somebody would join to travel next year (now its this year 😉 ) around through south america. from the first time I thought hell yeah I really would like to join but it was like… yeah you can’t, you have to finish your studys. but after a while there was a voice which whispers all the time how great it would be to travel again around the globus. I can tell you after a few weeks it was now whispering any more, it was more or less a big scream. so i told basti i´m in.

so after some meetings with him and far more whiskeys we booked the flights and planned a little bit.
The map below is just a abrasive overview I guess it will change continuous. we will start in caracas (venezuela) and fligh back from buenos aires (argentina).

In chile I will take a plane in the nothern area and fligh to patagonia.

 

so yeah thats it. I try to write constant but I dont know if there is always internet available.

 

so see u in octobre.

 

cherrio

Spit bitch

Hello there,

finally I found a place where I can enter to my blogside. I have not so much time because I wanna go to bed. Damn I so tired. I had 10 hours ago a 25 hour ride with a sleeper bus and hiked the whole day.

ok i try to write a little bit ;）！

soo my stay in Hong Kong was really cool I met a lot of cool guy over there and had just a good time. Hong Kong is a really cool city.  I just explored all around and I think that I walked almost 40 km there. U can imagine how my legs felt after that. I ve done there some cable car riding to the big buddha. Very cool place there. Hong Kong is altough there are much skyscraper very green and in the middle of the city center is a park where many exotic birds fligh. So its very easy to relax in this big city.

what was also cool was to take the old tramp (built sometime between 1880 till 1920 from the english dudes). to the top of the highes mountain. the few was just fantastic. u can have a look to the whole city. and i walked the whole way down and i was alone. that was pretty awesome. it was almost a 3 hour walk but very relaxed.

hong kong has still old places where u can buy all shit u need and the animal markets are… jes.. i dont know how to say, its a little bit crazy to go there. i saw a big fish which was killed and is head jumped around for almost 5 minutes. i filmed that with my camera. u upload that when i have more time ;).

in the hostel we had also great partys. i think there was no evening without some beers but quiet funny. and i never know that so many people from europe are here as english teacher! some are younger then me.

i upload all the pictures later. the internet is very slow over here.

after hongkong i headed with david (a glimber who was just travelling for glimbing) to yangsuo. ouh yeah this place was phantastic. i ve never seen such a cool landscape. there where so many very small mountains around and two bigger rivers. i ve done there some bambooboat riding along the hulong he and it was like in the movies what u ve maybe seen in vietnam movies.  the next day we rent some scooters and took a ride for almost 7 till 9 hours through very old villages and everything was just antouched. u can really say that the nature there is nearly not destroyed from human beeings.

so … aehm.. jep i am a little bit lazy for the moment and i really need some sleep.  the last days were very exhausting for me. i fucked up my camera. i throw it in the water. this is the second camera i killed in this way. damn! but bought already another one.  and 10 days left till i have to leave china. i cant get in extension because of new years festival. its the biggest public festival in the world.  (u can imagine when 1,3 billion people start to celebrate!).

ok one thing i have to tell u! i knew when i come to china, that the people spit everywhere around. but i always thought that is just on at the streets but nope. when i took the bus from shenzen to yangsou there was a women next to me in the sleeper bus with a plastic bag. i saw that there was a liquid in and only thought: funny who fill in a plastic bag a liquid. in the night i woke up and i heard that the women made sounds like to chuck up. i looked at here and saw that she opened her plastic bag and spit in there. the plastic bag was already half full. wuahhh… that was really abhorrent!

another one was when i took a boat through the three gorges. the room was for 4 people. at least there were 8 in! and the spit all the time at the boddom and smoked the whole fucking night. and there was one child in. i think the kids here a used to breath the good fresh coal air.  i think that was one of my worst nights ever. but there was another one i tell u later.

so i go now to bed and i try to write as fast as possible. dont know if its possible to write at another place here in china because my blog was the whole time blocked. and its also difficult to use facebook. but yeah sometimes it works. i will write latest when i am heading to laos.

ok dudes see u!

cheers!

Picture Gallery

Hey guys…

finally i ve got all the best pictures of my trip

here is a link of all them

http://picasaweb.google.de/108316512828553667969

tomorrow i will post some videos.. know i have to sleep..

ps: finally after almost a month in germany i am completely back in germany

Istanbul and my last great day

puhhh…. i think thats the right word to start with my new article.

when i arrived in istanbul…. thats a joke… my whole 7 months in the middle east i had never rain and when i woke up after a 12 hours trip from cappadocia (and i was at the european site!!!!) it rained. first i was really very excited, it was great to feel rain again but i didnt think that the rain should last 4 days!!! i prefer the sun… jes.. i am a sunny boy haha.

i arrived in my hostel at almost 9 o clock in the morning and i couldnt sleep so i decided to have a walk. i wasnt in the mood to make sight seeing i was a little bit sick of only to rushing through the city to see all the famous stuff.

so i walked and walked and walked and after 9 hours just walking i made half a rounding around istanbul and my legs felt very used. ahhh i forgot there was one highlight at this day. when hang around at the port i saw a building with a big poster with the letters „Body world“ (in german: körperwelten) u guys know that? if not google gunter von hagens its the guy who develeoped how to preserve a real huming beeing to see everything inside of the body. it was great u cannot imagine whats everything inside of the body… its really much stuff in us!!! after 3 hours i finished the tour through body world and i was very exalted.

the next day i was with some german guys. one guy came by bycicle from klagenfurt to istanbul. christian… this is maybe a challenge for u hm? 😉

hanging also more or less only around and walked through the grande bazar. this bazar is really cool and its exciting to raom around there. u have in a very short time many impressions and u can buy muuuch stuff.

yeah after this day i felt ready to make some sight seeing. so i was at the blue mosque and at aya sofia but not inside. the reason was very easy. when i saw these mess of people i became sick of sight seeing and i decided spontanous to have a walk around the other part of istanbul. this walk was more or less 8 ours and i saw again so much things of istanbul.  i think it was much more exciting then to see the normal touristic things.

next day …again no sight seeing hehe… i booked a ticket to the prince islands and i met 2 german guys there (jes we are everywhere!!!!). we rent bikes and drove around the island. it was awesome it looked like that u are somewhere at an island in the mediterranean. we climbed a short way down to the beach and we were the only one. ive never seen so clear water. when i swam 30-40 meters away from the beach and looked down i could see everything.  it was a very cool day and i felt a little bit like on holiday haha..

in the evening the hotel made in  barbecue with all the people. so i played some backgammon with simon and at the end we end with some great italian guys (there were very happy with my name…) at the nightlife in istanbul. the next day started with a headache but it was the first since month so… it was more or less a new experience 😉

my last day… the 25 september. this day could really describe my whole travel. everything happened completley diffrent then i planed.

i started with my breakfast (to here everything was the normal planed way). then i met maxi at the table. she just checked in. she traveled with in interrail ticket through south europe and her last destination was istanbul. so she decided to walk with me only a little bit to the grand bazar and the port. till here everything was very relaxed.

then we bought some fish baguetts and sat down at a wall next to the port. after a while we wanted to go but…. damn shit where is her bag… i thought only… ok it seems that somebody dont want that i will go home… i can understand him.. it would be fine for me to continue travelling. the big problem was…. in her bag was everything…passport, interrail ticket back to germany, camers, mp3 player, money, mobile…

then i realized what happened. there were to kids. the boy was maybe 15 and the girl almost 8. they were playing around us and the one guy nudged me. i was only looking at him and he stopped to do it. and then suddenly he was away. 2 minutes later we wanted to go… and the bag was also away. i never thought that it could happen so fast.

we looked a little bit around … but of course there was nothing. so we went to police and told them what  happened. the police officers were very funny and helpful and started to send some undercover agents..haha (some civil policemen) to search for the bag.

i have to say maxi was very relaxed. and 20 minutes after that we could already laugh again and made jokes about it. i think i had also not a problem when that would happen, but i would be very very angry about my photos. these reminder are irreplaceable. but ok after 1 hour at the police we went to the german embassy. but there was only a guy which gave us a phone number we should call. ok back to the hotel and made some calls but the guys from the embassy told us only that she should try it on monday again. (thats also her departure day). so i have to make some phone calls when i am back in germany if shes still there or not…here i have to make some advertising. if you are one time in istanbul stay at mavi guesthouse. this guy is great he was so helpful.

i felt very sorry because i had to go but i didnt want. but damn the flight was so expensive. otherwise i stayed there. the only thing ive done was to give her all the money i had with me and get again some turkish lira from the atm which i gave to her. so she hopefully have no problems at the moment.

jes it was a very exciting last day for me but despite of all what happened we had much fun, as i told u she was very relaxed

so now i am in cairo again and my plane goes in less then 26 hours. I have some jimjams and i think all the time how it is to be in germany again.

For me it was one of the best things ive done in my live and i will never forget what happened the whole trip. i never met so many interesting people and so great storys. and it was specially in iraq exciting to be the only traveller.

But i can tell u. after such a trip u are not the same person anymore. i feel some big changes in my person and i see some things completley different then before my trip.

for the people who are interested to travel in the middle east. jes it is safe!!! also if u are a women and u want to travel alone. the only thing u have to do is. wear the right clothes and do not piss the people off. be very conservative. thats it! ive never thought that the middle east has so great landscapes. i will definitely go back to here. and if u have the chance to go to iraq-kurdistan do it before it became to touristic!

I am looking forward for my next travel. But for know i try to relax at simons house turn the music on and drink a beer

Cheers guys and thank you very much for reading my blog. i hope u enjoyed it and u have a little overview about the middle east.

but before i say goodbye one joke from a aussie guy i met:

whats the difference between australia, new zealand and a yoghurt?

the yoghurt has more culture hahah… 😀

SEE YOU IN GERMANY UND EINEN WUNDERSCHOENEN GUTEN TAG

CHEERS

SINCERELEY

YOURS

SANDRO NEUMANN

PS: photos are of course comming soon 😉