Travels 2005

All,

from Granada to the Ometepe Is on Ometepe lake. The island formed when the bigger volcano Concepcion erupted and the flow of lava connected it to the other volcanic island, Maderas, making it one.
Ometepe island is a magic place, the view of the two volcanoes as you approach it by ferry is stunning and the island itself has not yet seen masses of tourism and retaines its slow pace. Distances especially on dirt road are far and it truly seems to be in a different dimension.
Fully recovered from my ankle injury I attempted the first volcano climb of my life, the smaller one Maderas 1304 m but had to give up 4/5 up the mountain as the sliding mud and rocks just were to much for me. Still very beautiful the banana and coffee plantation and further up the forest becomes wetter as you approach the top mostly covered in clouds.
From Ometepe I moved onto San Juan del Sur, a beach stop on the Pacific. The tiny town is very picturesque set in a bay surrounded by cliffs but very very americanised. A lovely spot so much to keep many American estate agents at work...
On a dirt road a couple of kilometers away is playa Majagual: I was surprised and happy to find a place which beauty would leave me speechless after so many months of travel...so beautiful I had to return the following day only to find once again more rain...
Nicaragua a magic mix of lakes and volcanoes, one of the countries I expected the least from and that turned out to be a revelation. What are you waiting for just go !
Another border crossing, the usual amount of people, money changers, confident people walking towards you with an entry or exit paper saying¨give me your passport, I´ll fill it out for you¨¨Yeah, right...¨, somehow always stressfull, no directions, buildings with no signs then walk a km and welcome to Costa Rica Que Dios te bendiga and the same story...
Costa Rica -pura vida- a country of nature and National Parks, not exempt from the heavy rains of this seasson which are continuing even now when verano (the dry season) should be starting...
Monteverde cloud forest, thick forest, trees covered in moss and on top a canopy of large leaves and flowers.
Well if I missed it in New Zealand, this time I was not to miss the chance of 'extreme' sport (that is beside carrying my backpack): canopy, whre you fly through and above forest up to 130 m from ground attached to a wire. Amazing adrenaline thrill, I was really proud of myself (being normally scared of heights), I enjoyed it so much I could have done it again...the most thrilling probably when you are flying through the white wet clouds, all you see is the cable until you reach the other side...well enjoyed it yet, but not ready for bungee jumping yet...And last not least the cutest (young male) guides (anche l'occhio vuole la sua parte)
San Jose, the only capital in CA I have spent more than a couple of hours in: terrible, so many people living in the street, drug users, mentally instable, prostitutes, just so many pasteboard and plastic covered sleepers in the city´s centre after the shpos´closing times.
More like South America nicer areas have private security, high walls and iron bars to protect properties.
Another volcano, Irazu, this time to the very top over 3000m by car...different ´lunar craters´and in one a green lagoon.
Manuel Antonio a coastal Nat Pk, one that sees many visitors, still beautiful even by rain and with the masses and where the animal are so used to people they are not scared anymore: monkeys, slots, racoons, etc.
My last stop in Costa Rica: Montezuma, a relaxing little spot on the Pacific, long beaches with lush vegetation and driftwood, unfortunately the constant rain only giving me a break on the last day.
Back in San Jose I will be catching my next flight to Trinidad via Miami on Tuesday 22nd. Hope rain in paradise is not following me...
Difficult it is to leave this part of the world after so long and still so much I would like to see. But also looking forward to family and friend after the only two familiar faces in the last 5 months have been small backpack and big backback...
To New York from Barbados and finally to London from Lisbon...

Lots of love

Jasmina

All,

well I did go back to Isla Mujeres...after a couple of days in Tulum where I have possibly seen some of the most beautiful beaches but very much a place I would consider for a honey moon, I decided against all backpackes' rules to backtrack...
Nice feeling though getting back to a place: no need to ask for directions, bargain for prices, find your way through unknown streets.
And at Pocnas everything as I had left it: Matias, the cute Argentinian from reception and my favourite dj at night at the beach bar, Victor, the event organiser after every girl that walked through the door, Nancy, the always smiling cook, Roberto "Chaparrito", the Mexican musician who had just returned from Germany where the first sentence he had learned was "Wo kann ich Grass kaufen" ...and even the dogs: Guera (Blondie) the real boss at Pocna's, Mexico my favourite, Kimba always after tiny Chihuahua Chiquilina and Pepito protecting her...
I also was lucky enough to meet a special guy: for those already running ahead with their imagination, no romance there I'm afraid, just some very good company...
Still many Israelis in Isla, so many that even the Mexican beach volley boys learned a few useful words like the numbers, what's the score, (the ball) is on the line, etc. Well Hebrew is definitively a useful language for backpacking especially if travelling in India, SE Asia, Central and South America. One guy told me that a man in India asked him if Israel was as big as China due to the number of travellers visiting his country...
The Israelis only to be shortly outnumbered by German university students on a quick break with Condor offer flights at 99 Euro one way at the end of September...
My second home on this trip, the island is a safe travellers oasis and a break from some heartbreaking scenes of poverty.
I took my chance to leave my second home on a day of rain. "See you next week" Victor said to me, but this time I went all the way to Belize to be sure not to return...quite excited as to my first time in a black country. Just across the border I spent my first night in Corozal.. Looking for I place to eat I didn’t manage to find anything but Chinese restaurants...a guy a met some time ago told me that the Belizean citizen have a kind of privileged access to the US so the government in need of some cash decided to sell some passports and the Chinese bought them so they got a Chinese minority...The Chinese control all restaurant and supermarkets and are not an unusual sight in Belize...
Finally Caye Caulker on the Belizean reef: a couple of sandy streets and 'go slow' signs everywhere.
As anywhere in Central America it doesn't take long until a single woman gets company: a rasta guy, beer in one hand, he told me he had 19 brothers and sisters, they all left the island, he stayed, has never worked, drinks beer and enjoys life...
As you slowly walk through Caye Caulker you may be overtaken by a slow cyclist, a deep black voice saying 'Hello beautiful', that's Caye Caulker.
That was Belize, a short stay, a big hole in the budget but worth it.
Onto Guatemala, most Central American travellers favourite country. Yes, definitively Central America, right after the border the road becomes a dirt road, images of poverty that reminded me of Bolivia. Tikal, a major Mayan site, is a very touristic place, people try to rip you off and I didn't think the locals were too friendly, a bit the same feeling as getting to Siem Reap in Cambodia...
Although I was really looking forward to Tikal, a combination of rain that had now been going on for a while, tiredness and great expectations made the experience not quite what I expected. Don't get me wrong though: the nature is amazing, set deep in the forest, spider monkeys in the trees holding onto the branches with their tail and looking through leaves, loud howler monkeys in the distance and soo many hard working ants carrying pieces of leaves on their busy 'roads'.
Due to the rain there was neither sunset nor sunrise but some impressive mist lifting up from the forest in the early morning.
Rio Dulce is one of the safest places in the world for boats, packed with sailing boats hiding from hurricanes and sailing on the lake Izabal instead. Some people end up staying here for years...the ride to the sea on the Rio Dulce is beautiful and Livingston an interesting Garifuna town, more Belizean than Guatemalean, but still very mixed. At this time news from the devastion brought to the country by hurricane Stan were becoming more evident and these people who themselves have very little were collecting rice, sugar, clothes, water, etc. to send to the south of the country.
Quirigua next, a Mayan site with stelae up to 10 meters on banana land, a visit to a Del Monte plantation and factory, people work for 10 dollars a day, a good job they say, always smiling and interested in new faces.
A bit more than a week in Antigua, the loveliest of colonial towns with many hidden gardens and corners, cobble stone streets and pretty houses. Many travellers stay here for a while learning Spanish on intensive one to one classes in lovely garden settings.
I stayed at Chofo's house on reccomendation of a girl I met in Isla. A lovely guy, Chofo has a couple of rooms in his house he rents mainly to long term guests (soo many Dutch Sapnish students and volunteering workers) and provides 3 meals a day. He let me sleep after breakfast time and skip lunch but I really enjoyed knowing I had my fixed time and would get food at home. Like many poor countries I have visited here as well there are many volunteering associations but still so many desperate people with nothing to loose. Antigua like the rest of Guatemala is not safe, it actually is very dangerous, you constantly have to watch yourself and your belonging, a country difficult to travel alone. Most tours and city walks are done escorted by the police, but it remains one of the richest country in terms of indigenous culture. In Antigua being a tourist centre you can buy many handcrafts and traditional weaving of the different indigenous tribes inhabiting mainly the lake Atitlan area at that time unreacheable as severly hit by the hurricane.

Another border crossing into Honduras, Copan ruinas a pretty little town near the ruins. Big stelae and amazing hieroglyphs, the escalinata de los hierogliphycos an open book of the story of the rulers of Copan, immense, impressive, much still remains to be understood.
I did a walk through the deforested but still beautiful surrounding hills and saw some peasant families living on big lands owned by few rich people. They work but don't own the land, they own nothing, they can live on it on almost collapsing houses made of wood sticks. They will never be free, neither will their children be, belonging to the land or tied to who owns it.
My other destination in Honduras were the bay Islands, the cheapest place in the world to do the PADI diving course. More gringos here than Hundureans, prices in dollars. I had to get there by plane as the ferry was under repair following hurricane Wilma. I actually held the plane up as there was something in my hand luggage: batteries, too many he said, not dangerous he said just too many... Anyway once on bord I put my hand luggage on top of the pile of checked in luggage: was my Swiss Army knife in my big backpack not a riskier item in the cabin than too many batteries, I wonder...

The crossing to Nicaragua: at least 20 tricycle taxi drivers around me trying to grab my luggage and putting it onto their tricycle shouting at me "Pick one" and not calming down or leaving me alone until I choosed one. The usual money changers, taking any currency this time, dollars, pesos, quetzales, lempiras, cordobas, colones...trying to rip me off by tiping 0.805 instead of 0.85 as exchange rate in the calculator. Nicaragua, a country of stunning beauty and incredible poverty: lakes and volcanoes, 70% of the population living in poverty of which half in extreme poverty, high rates of analfabetism. The dirtiest countries I have seen, the rubbish goes anywhere best out of the window, road are littered with plastic.
Poverty is not that apparent in the cities, although there are many street children and beggars, but no ones seems undernourished. I met a lady who works for an organisation dealing with rural development and she told me that peasant are often left with nothing to eat as the rainy season destroys the harvest.
On the other hand people are very friendly and chatty, even the young ranger at the Parque Nacional Volcan Masaya could talk for ages...Nicaraguans look at tourism as a resource and they have much to offer: from the top of the cathedral in Leon you can see 10 volcanoes of the cordillera de los Marimbios, active and dormant, more now here in Granada and Ometepe lake (shame most lakes are polluted). Granada, Leon's eternal rival (so that they had to choose a place in the middle as the country's capital city, Managua) is probably the place where most tourists go: everyting the tourist may need or want including pricey hotels and resaturants are to be found here.
Guess that's it on catching up for today just one more thing: it looks like I have a date for my return to Europe: 17th December, but there still are many places I could get stuck into...
And this time some pictures that go with the stories above, I have added to the Mexican Album and created a Belizean and Guatemalean one:

http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jasneg/album?.dir=af7d&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jasneg/my_photos

http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jasneg/album?.dir=74d3&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jasneg/my_photos

http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jasneg/album?.dir=28b2&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jasneg/my_photos

Lots of love

Jasmina

All,

From Chiapas onto the Yucatán peninsula. Impressive ruins at Edzna and on to the Ruta Puuc which we visited from Santa Elena a small village between Campeche and Merida. I was travelling with two German guys at that time, well organised and into early starts to avoid climbing pyramids during the midday hours. Just so much easier to travel with someone…in Santa Helena we stayed in a jungle lodging, too scared to do it by choice on my own, lots of wildlife and a scorpion in our room…
We stopped in the village to take a picture of a typical Mayan house and the guy invited us in and showed us his garden with all the flowers, herbs and trees explaining what they use them for and showing us how he makes his shoe strings from maguey. Very interesting, friendly and with this musical accent when speaking Spanish.
Uxmal a very impressive site and not as full of tourist busses as Chichen Itza, the only cultural destination for package tourists on a beach and party holiday in Cancun…
Cenote: underground water reservoirs now often used for swimming all over the Peninsula, very deep with amazing blues and greens my favourite ones near Merida to be reached only on a truck (carriage on rail pulled by a horse) from Cazama.
Finally the Caribbeans: Isla Mujeres with amazing Pocna hostel for a couple of days of rest and catching up on some sleep under a palm tree or on a hammock. Great crowd even if overrun by Israelis(...) the coolest place to relax, all you need to manage are the couple of steps to the beach during the day and the ones to the bar at night. Great place to hang out, great atmosphere, lovely beds and room, communal areas, lots of friendly people and staff. At night lots of cool music and dancing under the full moon with your feet in the sand...only downside I suffered my second flip flop theft of this holiday , obviously a travellers´ favourite...
Well I left this morning for Tulum and am already missing it too much, wanna go back. Just so many places that are hard to leave, stay in our heart, the intensity of brief encounters, people you feel so close to, you share so much with in such short periods of time.

Well for everyone who wonders about how stressful it is to travel…it is great fun but it also costs a lot of energy, every day is completely new, the lack of routine is complete, you find yourself waking up one day not knowing where and how you will sleep the next night. My stops have become a lot longer and days on the beach are really welcome although the will and curiosity to see more and to keep on going is always there.
Guys, if anyone was starting to wonder, I am still positive about making it back to Europe

Lots of love

Jasmina

All,

just managed to get some more pictures on the web. Again it is a bit mixed, old and new, but hopefully dates and descriptions will help.

Looking forward to your comments.

Love,

Jasmina

http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jasneg/album?.dir=fff7&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jasneg/my_photos

http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jasneg/album?.dir=a0f0&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jasneg/my_photos

http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jasneg/album?.dir=af7d&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jasneg/my_photos

http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jasneg/album?.dir=539c&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jasneg/my_photos

http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jasneg/album?.dir=70ec&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jasneg/my_photos

All,

I started the mail below a while ago trying to keep up with it as I go along...As some time has gone by and I am now in the Caribbean Is of Isla Mujeres I´ll send you what I wrote so far:

All,

Puerto Vallarta is set in a beautiful bay, lovely beaches framed by rocks and to the back lush forest and to the horizon emerald green water. The film The night of the iguana with Liz Taylor and Richard Burton (at that time married to other partners) was set here and as the story goes they fell in love and tourists have been coming since then.

I had not heard of it before but it really is a major tourist resort for Mexicans and Americans, a bit like Cancun for Europeans…big hotels, many big hotels and many more tourists flying in on packages for a couple of days, 22 hours on the bus or a week-end trip from Guadalajara, Mexico{s second largest city…

The town is still very pretty, steep little roads up the hill, small restaurants and then the long promenade congested with tourists walking up and down…

Many of the beaches are to be reached only by boat, so I booked myself on an all inclusive day trip to a couple of beaches on a lovely looking little boat.

As it turned out other 501 passengers were to share the day with me…the day started with a light breakfast which left most people longing for crisps (on which Mexicans pour lots of chilli sauce) and refrescos (soft drink) within a short time. As the big boat could not enter the small bays, they had to get everyone off the big boat and onto smaller ones. Well done on the boatmen, 502 people are a lot a mixed crowd of gringos and mainly Mexican families most of the time with granny, granddad, aunt 1, uncle 1, aunt 2, etc parents and kids onto cousins, friends, etc.

First boat full and the lady shouts: "My husband, my husband!!!!" and the boatman " Madam everyone will get off the boat, your husband will be on the next boat and you will see him on the beach in a couple of minutes"…

Once everyone was off the walk (or ride on horseback) to the waterfall began with the trip that had looked as I nightmare to me when I boarded the boat turning into a funny day with granny aunt, uncle and kids crossing rivers, falling into the water and stepping on horse dug…

502 people back onto the small boats to the big one, gathering around the shores and jumping onto the boat like it was the last one… A fat lady next to me finally made it onto the boat letting it swing vigorously. She managed to squeeze herself between me and the side of the boat and was holding onto the side of the boat and to…my knee: "My heart, my heart, I am going to have a heart attack". The boatman was making the boat swing on purpose "I wish I was in my hotel room" she shouted firmly holding onto my knee…

At lunch time everyone was digging in as if they hadn{t had anything for ages…

Later another transfer another beach made the horrible day of fun complete…

Onto Guanajuato, beautiful mining colonial town in a dramatic setting and with an amazing system of underground roads congested by buses and parked cars.

From there to the DF (Distrito Federal) as the Mexicans call their capital. Well a truly amazing place. A bit scared at the beginning by its reputation and by warnings of theft and violence from other Mexicans, it actually soon turned into a very manageable metropolis where I felt quite safe. The number of policemen and guards patrolling the centre is the highest I have ever seen and literally everyone wears their backpack on the front…

In Mexico City I was totally overwhelmed by the offer of arts, architecture and archeology finding myself running from one museum to the other and enjoying it so much after I thought too many visits in school years had left me with nothing more than wanting to walk past them very quickly…

Mostly impressive are the murals, especially the Rivera, Orozco and Siqueiros ones, with a deep political message of workers and peasants fight for better conditions as well as depicting the impact of the Spanish conquest on the pre-Hispanic civilizations. The murals cover the walls of public buildings and were meant to be accessible to everyone. I was very surprised by the political movement in Mexico City in the first half of the XX century. Trotsky found here a new home after years of exile and was eventually shot dead. Frida Kahlo´s art and her struggle on a very personal level, her sickness, her abortions, her love-obsession for Diego. Well bad timing though as Frida has gone to London (Tate Modern)…still very impressive even as copies …

My favourite face of Mexico City ? The thousands of Beetle cabs cruising the streets of the city. I could not resist the temptation and indulged in a couple of rides…amazing how familiar that car still is after so many years, although I must say it is slightly different to our old family car: the passenger seat is removed to facilitate access to the bench on the back and the seat belt is generally tied to the door and front handle so that the driver can just pull the door closed once the passengers get off…clever isn´t it ?

A view from the top: the Torre Latino Americana, 44 floors only and old but still worth the view from the top. Difficult to imagine this is the biggest city on earth, buildings are low and green mountains are at sight. San Paulo was much more imposing with the jungle of skyscrapers to the horizon…

It is very easy to get around the city with the underground, the cheapest I have ever been on (2 pesos a ride /10 for USD conversion) and very efficient, incredibly crowded every time of day or night…a number of vendors invade the cars, selling from pirate cd to toothbrushes, stickers for kids´schoolpacks and many beggars, many blind people singing along a song they play from a rudimental portable player with attached speakers.

Los ambulantes: the streets are congested with vendors who set their stalls up every day in the streets of the centre, somewhere in between the pavements and the road, shout the whole day what they have on offer and take the shop down and home at night, every day every night.

Unemployed professionals offer their service on the Zocalo, the main square. They sit there the whole day with a sign: carpenter, plummer etc. waiting for work.

Taxco, the silver town, dramatically set on the side of a mountain and even more Beetles than Maxico City ! Public busses are VW combis, the sliding door removed to facilitate access and inside a couple of benches…Just went mad taking pictures of beetle, sometimes 5 in one go...

Puebla beautifully set amid high volcanoes, a quick stop and onto Oaxaca: more and more obvious here how many indigenous minorities populate Mexico, very poor people leaving their villages in the mountains to look for better luck in the city. I went to a centre that helps children with schooling and uniforms and ended up spending a couple of days with a young lady, totally illiterate, with seven kids, selling scarves on one of the squares. "At least here there is eggs and beans" she said "in my village there is nothing, I started collecting tomatoes on the fields when I was 8". The kids are used to staying out the whole day, eating something here and there, asking passers by for a peso.

Around the city the beautiful ruins if Monte Alban on a mountain cut flat to allow constrauction of the town and 360 view on the valles centrales and mountains. Many markets in the villages of the Valles centrales, handycrafts and pottery. But best of all Oaxaca is Mexico´s chocolate capital! Yummy!

And after Oaxaca a week of beach in Puerto Escondido, a surfers paradise, big waves, little bays with sandy beaches and a relaxed atmosphere…

Early mornings watching surfers on the world´s third top spot for waves, Zicatela beach and onto minor safer beaches to enjoy the waves myself like kids on a rollercoaster. Nice crowd to hang out with and a true week of rest.

San Cristobal, Chiapas: a beautiful colonial town and many minorities with they colourful dresses, languages and traditions and poverty. Chamula a small village nearby with one of the most amazing churches, the walls are covered with images of saints, John the Baptist in the centre and hundreds of candles everywhere and people kneeling and praying. It is not unusual to see people kneeling down in the middle of the church and walk the rest of it on their knees...

Still in Chiapas the beautiful ruins of Palenque set amid forest, waterfalls and howler monkeys in the background.

Lots of love,

Jasmina