We are back in Europe

Unfortunately, we have had to interrupt our travels (for family reasons), and are now back in Europe until further notice.

Below are the links to the photos of the last few weeks through the USA:

RTW - U.S.A. (Part 1: Texas - Houston, Galveston)

RTW - U.S.A. (Part 2: Louisiana)

RTW - U.S.A. (Part 3: Texas - Austin, San Antonio)

RTW - U.S.A. (Part 4: San Diego, California)

RTW - U.S.A. (Part 5: Arizona)

RTW - U.S.A. (Part 6: Utah)

RTW - U.S.A. (Part 7: Las Vegas)

Giant cacti, a ghost town, a truly grand canyon and many other natural wonders

Our road trip started by crossing the mountains of California into the desert, taking us to the state of Arizona. Spending the night in Phoenix, we left early in the morning to explore the area around this desert city; the route we wanted to take is called Route 88: The Apache Trail. This road, through a beautiful mountainous desert landscape decorated with some man-made lakes, took us to a ghost town (previously a mining village, now a tourist attraction) called Goldfield, complete with a prison, saloon, brothel, and gunfights like you know them from classic Western films. Continuing further north, the route took us through the spectacular landscape around Sedona (called the "Red Rock country") uphill to the snowy mountain town of Flagstaff, where we slept for the night.

The next day we got up early again, as it was time to drive to Grand Canyon National Park, where we made several stops along the South Rim to admire the truly awesome views down into the most famous canyon in the world.                 

On the way back, we intended to drive parts of the Old Route 66 (no route trip would be complete without it), which was unfortunately undriveable due to the fact that the route is no longer maintained and was therefore very icy. Inside the village of Williams, we did, however, get a glimpse of the historic "Mother Route".
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
Continuing with the non-stop spectacular scenic views (we have seen very few boring landscapes since we left San Diego more than 1000 miles ago), Monument Valley, inside the huge Indian Reserve that is the "Navajo Nation", was next. A 15-mile self-guided loop on a very bad road took us down into this otherworldly land, where many a Western films have been produced. While the sun was setting and the rocks were red, we drove (in our car - not on horseback like in the films) across the border to Utah.

Hot wintertimes in California

Arriving in San Diego (by plane from Houston), we rented a car for the next two weeks to start our roadtrip through the Southwest of the States.

Before leaving for the roadtrip, we spent one day in San Diego, staying with Moe and Karl, and their dogs Armani and Mia. San Diego has great weather year-round (we had about 25 degrees Celsius - not bad for the middle of January), perfect for spending time at one of its many great beaches and coastlines; we especially liked La Jolla (where sea lions are chilling in the sun), Black's Beach (a beautiful nudist beach which can only be accessed by a 20-minute hike), and Coronado (an island with great views of downtown, and a beautiful long beach in front of a huge attractive Victorian Hotel).

Moe and Karl, on the morning after having taken us out for wine and dinner (during which Charlie's ex-flatmate Barry from Glasgow and his girlfriend Louise joined us - great to catch up), went for a superb breakfast with us (Açai bowl with fruits), which was representative for their great and unforgettable hospitality.

Goodbye Texas

Back in the "Lone Star State" we spent Saturday afternoon in the St.Arnold brewery with Ales, Amelia, Ainoa and Gianncarlo, where we tried several beers for free :-) but sometimes after a very long time in the queue :-(

Some days later, we said goodbye to Texas, but not before visiting Austin, with its big and beautiful Capitol, its "lake" that is in reality a river and its green areas. The day after, we drove to San Antonio to see the historical Alamo and to walk along the "River Walk".

Thank you, Ales and Amelia, for the great times, we will miss you!

Comments open for Anonymous

We have finally changed the settings so that everybody can leave comments without the need to register. Just click on Comments below a post and select Anonymous to leave us a message :-)

Click here for the first batch of photos from the country where everything is BIGGER.

Around Louisiana with Penelope

Ales and Amelia kindly lent us her car, named Penelope, to go on a little road trip to Louisiana for a few days. We stopped for a night in Lafayette, where we stayed in a cool little hostel called "The Blue Moon". The fact it was a Monday night and the town was pretty dead (to say the least) might have played a part in it, but, although the people are friendly, we were rather unimpressed by this little city described by our guidebook as "a place that is likely to entice you to stay longer", so we decided to leave town immediately after breakfast and continue to New Orleans.

The French Quarter, lined with beautiful colonial houses (French and Spanish style) and other historical districts like the Garden District with its Victorian architecture have either been largely unaffected, or have entirely recovered from, the devastating hurricane Katrina which hit the area in 2005. Some other neighborhoods, like East New Orleans are apparently still in ruins (we decided not to visit these parts). We spent two pleasant days in the so-called "Big Easy", tried the traditional Louisiana Gumbo stew and pastry (beignets). Of course we didn't leave before seeing some live music in one of the many bars, where we caught a truly authentic atmosphere including an elderly black person enthusiastically "playing" his broomstick along to the ethnically diversified blues band.

Happy New Year!!!

We have been a little lazy during the last few days, and our blog isn't really up to date, as you will have noticed. We have enjoyed Christmas in Houston with (Tere's) family and are ready now to continue our trip through the US.

Merry Christmas from Oaxaca

After a few days in gigantic Mexico City (link to photos below), we are now in Oaxaca to escape from the smog and celebrate Christmas in a quieter and more relaxed place.

We would like to take the opportunity to wish you and your families a beautiful and pleasant festive season. We are thinking of you and will certainly drink a shot of Mezcal or Tequila to your health. And here's a little dance for you...

Mexico City Photos

Click here for Mexico City photos.

4 new Photosets online

We have landed in Mexico City, and have finally been able to upload some photos of the past few weeks. Click on the links below to view them.

Mexico - Part 1: Chiapas

Guatemala - Part 5: Flores & Tikal

Belize (Caye Caulker)

Mexico - Part 2: The Yucatán

Celebrating St.Nicholas, snorkeling with sharks, and walking slow.

For a whole week already, we have now been traveling together with 3 other people we had met in Chiapas: Ebel and Marissa from Groeningen, Holland, and Michael from Hambourg, Germany. We decided to celebrate Saint Nicholas by giving a present to each other, draw-a-name-out-of-the-hat-fashion, and had a nice evening together. In Holland they celebrate it on the 5th, in Belgium and Luxembourg on the 6th, and in Belize we waited until the 7th due to Charlie's stomach problems.

Belize is the only English-speaking country in Central America, populated by the descendants of slaves and pirates, but also by Mestizos, Mayas, Garífuna and immigrants from China, India, El Salvador... a colourful mix.

We are on a small island named Caye Caulker (islands not big enough to deserve the name "Island" are called "cays" here), a short hop away from the same coral reef on which we had been diving in Honduras, second in the world in terms of length, after the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. There are some golf carts and bicycles here, but no roads - just some white sandy paths. Charlie hasn't been wearing any sandals or shoes now for 3 days, and we are kindly reminded by the street signs (and also by the friendly locals) to please "Walk Slow".

Yesterday we had an amazing day of snorkeling - we went out by a reggae-playing
sail boat to various sites where we saw sea turles, sharks, spotted eagle rays, and fish of literally every single colour in the rainbow.


Thanks to Kerstin and Andreas for recommending us this small paradise.

The New York of Maya cities

After a bus-journey and a very interesting 40 minute-ride by canoe across Río Usumacinta we were back in Guatemala, greeted by a very friendly, but corrupt, border guy charging us 40 Quetzales for the pleasure of his entry stamp (no receipt, of course). 4 hours later we were in Flores, a peninsula on Lake Izabal, 70 minutes away from Tikal. After the busy last week, our plan for the first day was to do nothing, and that's what we did.

Refreshed, the next morning it was time to get up at 4am to catch the shuttle bus to Tikal - The site is in the middle of the jungle, and the reason why we came so early is that there is more wildlife to be spotted around sunrise time. The effort to fight the desire to ignore the alarm clock in the morning was rewarded quickly: During the first hour of our guided tour, we saw a crocodile, monkeys, a couple of coatis, many beautiful toucans and other birds.



Tikal is named the New York of Maya cities due to its high-rise pyramids rising out above the already very tall trees in the jungle. Some astonishing views can be had over the endless jungle from the top of these temples. We learned even more impressive stories and facts about the ancient Maya culture from our knowledgeable guide, but felt like we'd had enough ruins now to deserve some relaxing time in the Carribean for a few days, which is why we headed further North-East to Belize.

Zapatistas, Waterfalls, Posh and Ruins

We knew that our first visit to Mexico would be a short one, because our plan was to visit only the region of Chiapas, and then travel east through the jungle back to Guatemala before heading to Belize and finally back to Mexico to see the Yucatan peninsula.

For our week in Chiapas, we had a rather busy programme. Using the beautiful and lively colonial city of San Cristóbal de las Casas as a base, we headed out into the surrounding fur-wearing Tzotzil Maya village of San Juan Chamula, where we tried the sacred sugarcane aguardiente named posh. Inside of the church we could observe a very special ceremony - the church has no chairs, only a floor full of needles from local pine trees, hundreds or thousands of candles, and Maya families sitting on the floor praying and pouring soft drinks and posh over the candles.

On the way to the colourful lakes (everything from dark blue to turquoise) of Montebello, we explored some caves nearby San Cristóbal, and got wet at the spectacular 70m-waterfall of El Chiflón.

We took a boat ride through the crocodile-filled river on the bottom of the Sumidero Canyon, and on the following day left for the famous Maya ruins of Palenque, stopping on the way for some beautiful scenery around the "Agua Azul" and "Misol-Ha" waterfalls.

After being impressed by Palenque's high-rise temples and pyramids (very different from the lower constructions we had seen in Copán Ruinas, Honduras), we spent the night in a cabaña in the middle of the jungle, getting woken up by the roaring sound of the howler monkeys, ready to go back to Guatemala.

You better Belize it!

Hi!!! We are now in Caye Caulker (Belize), after some days visiting Chiapas (Mexico), and Tikal, in Guatemala...we will add some pictures soon...

Guatemala photos - Part 4...

  ... are here.

Our last days in Guatemala

After a rather sad last day with the kids of Nuevos Horizontes, we did some more excursions in the area surrounding Quetzaltenango (Xela).

We visited the sacred (for the Maya communities) volcano lake of Chicabal, and went to see the bright yellow painted church in the village of San Andrés Xecul, for which our Guatemalan friend Minor was our excellent guide. In this village we also saw the figure of San Simón a.k.a. Maximón.

We passed our last few days in Guatemala back at Lago Atitlán, where we first spent a couple of days in Panajachel, enjoying the hospitality of Fernando and Germán, two Argentinian friends which we met in Xela, and the last day in Santa Cruz La Laguna at Isla Verde. The view over the lake from the little cabaña we had there was amazing, as is the truly beautiful garden of the property, but unfortunately we didn't get much sleep as during the night a family of rather loud mice tried to eat their way through the walls and roof. The pretty large spiders invading our room via the splits in the wooden floor didn't help either. So although we spent a relaxing day at Isla Verde (siesta in the hammock included), it was not exactly the way we imagined our last night in Guatemala, for which we splashed out a little more than in the usual cheap hostels.

Thus, rather tired we passed the 9 hours in the bus to Mexico (where we are now, in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas) on the following day. Somehow, we are now really looking forward to a new country.

Guatemala photos - Part 3...

... are here.

Boiling hot water and colourful textiles

Our last weekend break consisted of two little day trips, the first of which was a visit to Fuentes Georginas, very hot hot-springs with supposedly health-giving properties in a picturesque tropical setting. We didn't spend much time in the water (it was simply too hot to stay inside for more than five minutes at a time) but nonetheless arrived back in Xela really relaxed.

The second one - Sunday - was a journey to the famous (and therefore very touristy) indigenous market town of Chichicastenango, in the Quiché area. Thursday and Sunday are market days, and the village, chaotic but full with beautiful textiles and artesanía, gets as colourful as any village could possibly get. Incense is burnt in front of the simple but beautiful 16th-century church, giving the tiny square in front of it a mystical atmosphere. It was in this mystical atmosphere that one of those "how small is the world?"-experiences happened: Tere bumped into Belen Calzadilla's (a friend from Oviedo) family: her brother Alfonso, who is living in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and Mari Carmen, their mother.

Trying to come up with entertaining activities for children

The experience with the children is being very rewarding. Although they lack basic discipline and sometimes are hyperactive, they are very cute and love to hug us. We are mostly working on afternoons and have made some fun activities with the kids.

We made playdough (plastilina) out of flour, water and salt and used pieces of wood and coloured paper to built barriletes (kites) which last wednesday were inaugurated on our excursion with the children to the nearby hill. The children only leave the shelter about once a month and are very happy to be able to run around a field with the kites.

They also love to dance which is why we organized a dancing competition which left them sweating and smiling. This week we are planning to build snow flakes using paper and scissors, and then use them to make "Guirnaldas"....

Second batch of Guatemala photos

Click here (Part 1) or here (Part 2) for Guatemala photos.

Discovering the Loma Linda community

This Saturday we went on an excursion to a community a couple of hours outside Xela, called "Loma Linda" (pretty hill). This is a collection of little farms who until recently were relying exclusively on coffee production, and are now trying to diversify their economy by attempting to attract tourism. As a promotional launch, we (together with 40 other travellers and residents) were invited to discover their community.

They gave us a tour around the local flora&fauna, and an insight into the coffee-making-process.

For the "tourism committee", it was the first time they saw a tourist bus enter their village, and you could feel a very special emotional mix of nervousness, pride, and hospitality in the air. They truly made sincere efforts of making us all feel like at home, and give a good impression of their community.

Kayaking on Lago Atitlán

Photo by Andreas

For our first weekend break from Xela, we headed to the spectacular Lake Atitlán. We met up here with Andreas and Kerstin, who we became friends with in Utila, Honduras. It was Día de los Muertos (1st of November) so a visit to the colourful cemetery, where the families were painting the graves of their relatives, children playing, and where the atmosphere struck us as being overall rather cheerful - a strong contrast to the serious, sad ambiance on European cemeteries on this day.

San Pedro is a little village with many tiny little streets, and some steep cobblestone streets. It counts with many foreign residents, often backpackers or hippies who got stuck here, and decided to postpone their departure date to an indefinite day in the future.

We rented kayaks and went for a little paddle around the lake, which in some sense reminded us of the lakes in Switzerland - but then again, at the same time being in Guatemala is something like the very opposite of being in Switzerland...

Our new base: Quetzaltenango

We are now in Quetzaltenango, also named "Xela", and started working as volunteers in a project called Nuevos Horizontes yesterday, a shelter for women that have been victims of domestic violence. The women live there with their kids (some of them with up to 7 kids), and work during the day. We will spend time with the children, playing with them, doing exercise, excursions, activities, and maybe teach some English or French to the older ones (>10 years). On the weekends, we normally will have some free time to continue getting to know Guatemala.

It gets very cold here during the night, as Xela lies on 2333 metres, so that's some good news for those of you who have been jealous seeing us in the Carribean sun all the time. We're now freezing as much as you are back in Europe, and there isn't any heating here.

Swimming on top of a natural bridge, and through bat-filled caves

The ride was very long - more than 8 hours in a crammed minibus. The weather was very bad - it had been raining very heavily a few days earlier, and the river was still very high. So basically, for the first evening, we had regrets to have travelled so far only to find what we wanted to see covered by a dirty brown river.

So when we went to the national park Semuc Champey the following morning, we didn't have very high expectations, we thought we wouldn't see much. However, we were lucky, and the river had already dropped a metre or two overnight, and the views we got were just spectacular.



It's difficult to describe what Semuc Champey is... the river flows underground, but some of the water coming from the mountains flows overground, over a sort of natural bridge, through a series of natural swimming pools, forming little waterfalls between them. At the end, both waterflows join together again.

We also went on an adventurous cave exploration thing. We didn't really know what to expect... a Polish guy in our hostel talked us into doing this. The guide gave us a candle each, and we followed him into this cave. After a few metres, the water was already too high to walk, meaning we were swimming through cold water in a dark cave, with one hand, holding the candle with the other hand. The water became lower, and we could walk again, climbed up a few ladders, kept on swimming again, etc... The only light in these dark caves was coming from our candles (which was extinguished regularly, either because we accidentally put our right hand into the water while swimming, or because we had to cross under a waterfall), so it was a very special atmosphere, and an experience we probably won't have to repeat in the short future. Unfortunately we don't have any photos of this adventure, for obvious reasons.

Getting close to the lava

Our first stop in Guatemala was Antigua - a very beautiful colonial city - but so touristy you could be almost anywhere in the world. We felt like we saw more tourists in Antigua than in the first two months of our trip combined.

A very active volcano - Pacaya - is about one hour away from Antigua. We didn't lose the opportunity to climb it and inspect the lava from close-by. It was pretty amazing, we literally had to watch our step to make sure we don't step inside this "liquid fire".

Click here for more photos.

Video: Greetings from the jungle

During the last month, we made a few videos, but never had the chance to upload them. Here's the first one, from a jungle trek "Sendero de los Quetzales" we did back in Panama in August, between Cerro Punta and Boquete. The trail was in really bad condition, very muddy... On some places trees had fallen down on the trail, making it difficult to pass. We even had to take off our shoes to cross a river at some point.

Photos from Nicaragua and Copán Ruinas (Honduras)

Part 3 of the photos from Nicaragua:

Photos from the Maya ruins of Copán (Honduras):