Costa Rica, Panama og hjemkomst / homecoming

(for english, scroll down)
I Leon, Nicaragua nåede vi at tage på tur til vulkanen Cerro Negro som man kan surfe ned ad. Man kan vælge om man vil sidde på kælk eller stå på surfbræt, men da ingen af os er overdrevet erfarne surfere valgte vi at kælke ned. Det var en smuk tur, som startede ud med en 1,5 times gåtur op ad vulkanen, lidt vandring rundt på toppen hvor man kunne se damp komme op af jorden og forskellige lag af lava, og til sidst turen ned som tog cirka ét minut. Vi er glad for vi valgte at kælke ned, for man fik pænt meget fart på alligevel, og de som havde valgt at surfe ned kørte til sidst og var yderst ynkelige at se på, så denne ydmygelse slap vi for.
Det var svært at få ordenlige billeder af selve kælkningen, men man kan billedgoogle 'volcano boarding leon' og selv forestille sig Søren og jeg kælke dér. Nedenfor er der dog lidt billeder som jeg tog med min telefon på vejen op.
I Leon var vi også heldige at finde en rigtig god restaurant hvor man kunne få vegansk (!) mad - det skulle selvfølgelig udnyttes når maden i Mellemamerika ellers generelt er yderst veganeruegnet, så vi endte med at spise der to gange selvom det var en smule dyrt.
Derefter gik turen videre sydpå til Costa Rica med bus. Turen var lang, og vi havde på forhånd besluttet at kun tage én overnatning i San José, hovedstaden, fordi der er dyrt, så jeg håber ikke vi gik glip af det helt vilde. Dagen efter tog vi så videre med natbus til Panama City, og taxachaufføren prøvede også her at snyde os ved at tage os til et meget dyrt hotel først, selvom vi sagde vi skulle på et billigt hostel. Han blev lidt frustreret over at skulle køre en ekstra tur, men mest fordi hans bil var sænket så undervognen skrabede mod alle bumpene i de gader han havde taget os ud i. Se, så kan man lære at ikke sænke sin bil for at se smart ud.
Vi endte heldigvis på et rigtig godt hostel som havde egen bar og gratis cykler man kunne bruge. Fedt, tænkte vi, for så kunne vi lige drøne ud og kigge på Panamakanalen, og efter 7 måneder væk hjemmefra har jeg virkelig også savnet at cykle. Men nej, det var en dårlig plan, for ikke nok med at byen er total cykeluegnet kunne man heller ikke komme ud til kanalen, da der kun var motorvej i den retning. Da vi kom tilbage til hostelet ville vi så undersøge hvordan vi kunne komme derud med bus, men fik at vide, at bussen ikke stopper, men barer kører direkte hen over broen. Vi endte så med at se kanalen fra en sluse lidt længere væk fra byen, som også var det hele værd. Vi nåede lige at se et containerskib blive trukket gennem slusen ved hjælp af små tog på begge sider.
Turen hjem gik helt perfekt og smertefrit bortset fra et lille økonomisk problem, så vi er nu hjemme i lille Danmark igen.
Det har været nogle helt fantastiske 7 måneder af mit liv som jeg aldrig vil glemme, og jeg har oplevelser nok til mange år. Jeg vil gerne takke jer som har holdt ud og læst med på bloggen - i skrivende stund har den fået knap 2100 besøg !
KH Niels
THE END

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In Leon, Nicaragua we made it for a trip to the volcano Cerro Negro which you can surf down from. You can choose to sit on a toboggan or surf on a regular surf board, but as neither of us are super advanced surfers we chose to hop on the toboggan. It was a beautiful trip which started out with a 1.5hr hike to the top, a little walk on the top where you can see steam coming up from the ground and different kinds of layers of lava, and in the end, the boarding down which took about one minute. We're glad we chose the toboggan cause it went pretty fast anyway, and those who chose to surf down went after everyone else and looked extremely pathetic, so we were free from this humiliation. It was difficult to get any proper pictures from the ride down, but you can google image 'volcano boarding leon' and imagine Søren and I in those pictures. Below, there's a few photos from the hike that I took with my phone on the way up.
In Leon we were also lucky to find a really good restaurant where you could get vegan (!) food - of course, we had to take advantage of that as the food in Central America is extremely non vegan friendly, so we ended up eating there twice although it was a little pricy.
After that we went on south to Costa Rica by bus. The trip was long and we had already decided to only stay one night in San José, the capital, because it's expensive, so I don't hope we missed out a whole lot. The next day we went on to Panama City, and also here the taxi driver tried to rip us off and first taking us to a very expensive hotel although we asked for a cheap hostel. He got quite frustrated from having to give us an extra ride, but mainly because his car was lowered so the bottom of the car scraped on all the speed bumps that were in that part of town. See, that's what you get for having to look cool.
Luckily, we ended up staying at a really nice hostel that had its own bar and bicycle you can use for free. Great, cause then we could go on a ride to the Panama Canal and have a look, and after 7 months away from home I really missed riding a bicycle. But no, that turned out to be a terrible plan cause not only is the city super non bicycle friendly but also there's only highways in that direction. When we got back to the hostel we wanted to see how we could take a bus to get there, but apparently no buses stop there - they all just cross the bridge. Then we ended up having to see the canal from a sluice a little further away from the city, which was all worth it. We got there just in time to see a container ship being pulled through the sluice by few little trains on each side.
The trip home went just perfect and without complications except from a minor financial problem, but now we're back home in little Denmark again.
It's been 7 really fantastic months of my life that I will never forget, and I've had enough experiences for many years. I want to thank each and everyone who's been holding on and reading my blog - in the moment of writing it has had almost 2100 hits !
Best, Niels
THE END

Honduras and Nicaragua

(for english, scroll down)

Efter at have overnattet en enkelt nat i havnebyen La Ceiba, Honduras tog vi færgen til Utila næste morgen. Jeg havde fået anbefalet Utila som et smukt og billigt sted at tage dykkercertifikat så jeg blev skrevet op på et sted hvor man så kunne bo gratis på deres hotel. Hotellet var ikke noget at skrive hjem om, men selve dykkerkurset var helt fantastisk og smukt, og min makker var en flink fyr fra Chile. Det var en lækker følelse at være vægtløs og bare udforske ting på bunden af det Caribiske Hav – vi så hvalhajer og en masse fisk som jeg slet ikke kan huske navnene på. Imens jeg dykkede brugte Søren tid på at udforske andre ting på øen og snorkle forskellige steder. Selve øen er ikke specielt charmerende – vi snakkede om, at den er det vi forestiller os Caye Caulker vil være om 10 år, når den efter en sørgelig udvikling er totalt spoleret af turisme og turismeindustri. Selvom øen er meget lille har folk alt for travlt der, og man er tæt på at blive ramt af en knallert uanset hvor man færdes. Derudover skal man også lige vænne sig til eksotiske dyr som fx landkrabber på størrelse med ens hoved der kommer op af gulvet når man sidder og spiser på restaurant.

Da vi var færdige på Utila tog vi videre sydpå med en enkelt overnatning i hovedstaden Tegucigalpa. Vi fulgtes med en fyr fra USA og et canadisk/japansk par, og det var vi glade for, for hovedstaden virkede meget usikker at færdes i. Der lå skrald overalt på gaderne som børn og gadehunde spiste af, og folk kiggede sultne efter den gruppe vestlige turister som gik forbi dem. Selv foran bageren stod der en vagt bevæbnet med en shotgun, og vi læste senere at byen er den 5. farligste i verden (San Pedro Sula derimod skulle være den farligste, en by som vi tidligere havde kørt igennem for at skifte bus). Generelt har der været mange gange på turen hvor jeg ville tage billeder af gader/bylivet men har måttet opgive da jeg ikke følte mig tryg ved at tage mit kamera frem.

Næste morgen tog vi en bus til Managua som er hovedstaden i Nicaragua. Derfra tog vi en bus til Granada som ligger lige ned mod en Nicaragua sø hvori der ligger en vulkanø, Ometepe som vi ville besøge. Vi tog to overnatninger i Granada, for vi havde lige brug for en sovedag. Granada skulle være den ældste bevarede by i Nicaragua som blev bygget af spanierne. Det kunne man godt fornemme, for arkitekturen virkede meget spansk, og der var en plaza mayor i midten præcis som i de fleste spanske byer. Pga. vores manglende sans for research og planlægning måtte vi tage en bus 2 timer yderligere til en anden by for at komme med færge til Ometepe øen – vi troede vi kunne tage med færge fra Granada, men den sejlede kun to gange om ugen. Vi troede også at vi kunne surfe ned af vulkanen på Ometepe, men det viste sig at være ved en by som hedder Leon som vi var kørt forbi tidligere på vej til Managua. Hovsa! Vi besluttede os for at bruge et par dage på Ometepe alligevel og så tage tilbage til Leon for at surfe ned ad vulkan. Ometepe var en meget smuk ø, den er dækket af jungle og kaffeplantage rundt om vulkanerne, og vi boede på en gammel kaffefarm som var bygget om til hostel og som vi havde fået anbefalet. Det hele var rigtig idyllisk og meget lokalt, men (igen pga. vores manglende planlægning) kom vi i økonomiske problemer da man kun kunne hæve penge ét sted på øen. Vi fik dog lige råd til at tage på en guidet kaffetur inden vi forlod øen igen som var en meget positiv oplevelse. Derudover var servicen på hostelet helt elendig – vi ventede først én time på at få vores mad, hvorefter de bringer os en ret MED kød. Da vi så har forklaret at den er gal på vores gebrokne spansk tager de maden ud, kommer tilbage 20 minutter senere og spørger (igen) hvad vi har bestilt, og kommer så med den rigtige mad yderligere 40 minutter senere – ingen undskyldning. Da vi snakkede med andre gæster på hostelet gik det op for os at det langtfra var et enestående tilfælde, og jeg tror kun det kan finde sted fordi de ved, at der ikke er andre alternativer i nærheden.

Efter kaffeturen i går tog vi tilbage til Leon som planlagt – busturen hertil var en historie for sig, og hvis folk kørte busser på samme måde i Danmark tror jeg ikke folk ville turde færdes på gaderne. I Leon tjekkede vi ind på et hostel og tager så ud og vulkansurfer i dag eller i morgen. Efter Leon tager vi direkte videre mod Panama med enkelt stop i San Jose, Costa Rica, for at nå vores fly hjem den 23. fra Panama City.

Generelt har vi oplevet at maden i Mellemamerika er ringere end vi havde forventet. Det er utrolig svært at finde vegetarisk/vegansk mad mange steder, og vores forestilling var ellers oprindeligt at de dyrker mange gode grønsager. Folk er generelt mindre hygiejniske og smider skrald alle steder – i busser, ud af vinduet osv. Og når skraldet langs landevejene har hobet sig nok op laver de bål af det og tilbereder mad over det. Biler udskiller rigtig meget forurening, og jeg havde håbet at de ville passe bedre på den ellers så fantastiske natur de har. Men dette er bare endnu en kulturforskel og mit eget vestlige syn på tingene som skinner igennem, og som jeg også er blevet mere klar over ved at rejse rundt.

Jeg er ved at være helt klar til at komme til Danmark igen efter disse snart 7 måneder, selvom jeg stadig nyder alle de fantastiske oplevelser og mennesker vi støder ind i. Inden jeg stoppede på Glide gav jeg et interview hvoraf resultatet kan læses her hvis man skulle have lyst. (Jeg er åbenbart studerende på Københavns Universitet nu, haha).

Jeg håber alle har det fantastisk og jeg glæder mig til at se venner og familie derhjemme meget snart

– Niels.

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After spending one night in the harbor town La Ceiba, Honduras, we took a ferry to Utila the next morning. I had gotten this recommendation about Utila as a beautiful and cheap place to take an open water diving course, so I signed up at a place where stay at a hotel was included. The hotel itself wasn’t very exciting, but diving was absolutely awesome and beautiful, and my buddy was a cool guy from Chile. It was a great feeling being weightless and exploring things on the bottom of the Caribbean Sea – we saw whale sharks and several types of fish that I can’t even remember the names of. While I was diving Søren spent time on exploring other parts of the island and snorkeling at different spots. The island itself isn’t very charming – we concluded that the island is how we imagine Caye Caulker in 10 years from now when the sad development has spoiled the place and turned it into mass tourism and tourism industry. Despite the small size of the island people seem super busy there, and you’re almost run over by a moped no matter where you go. Besides, you also need to get used to exotic wildlife as crabs of the size of your head crawling up through the floor while you’re eating at a restaurant.

When we were done at Utila we moved south spending one night in the capital Tegucigalpa on the way. We traveled with a guy from United States and a Canadian/Japanese couple, and we’re happy that we did cause the capital seemed very unsafe. There was trash all over the streets that children and street dogs were eating from, and people stared hungry at the western looking group of tourists walking by. Even in front of the bakery there was a guard armed with a shotgun, and later we read that the capital is the fifth most dangerous city in the world (however, San Pedro Sula is the most dangerous city, a city that we had passed through earlier to change bus). Generally there’s been plenty of times during our trip when I wanted to take pictures of the streets/city life but then had to change my mind as I wouldn’t feel safe taking my camera out.

The next morning we took a bus to Managua which is the capital in Nicaragua. From there we took a bus to Granada which is located right by Lake Nicaragua that has a volcano island, Ometepe in it that we wanted to visit. We ended up staying in Granada for two nights as we needed a day of just sleeping. Granada is supposedly the oldest town in Nicaragua built by the Spanish. You could easily tell, because the architecture seemed very Spanish, and it had a plaza mayor like most Spanish towns and cities. As a result of our poor sense of research and planning ahead we had to take a bus two hours further to get to the ferry to Ometepe island – we thought we could take it from Granada but apparently it only ran twice a week. We also thought we could go volcano surfing down the volcano on Ometepe, but it appeared to be by a town called Leon that we had passed on the way to Managua. Oops! We decided to spent a few days on Ometepe anyways and then go back to Leon to go volcano boarding. Ometepe was a very beautiful island, it is covered by jungle and coffee plantation around the volcanoes and we stayed at a former coffee farm that was remodeled as a hostel and that we got recommended. It was all very idyllic and local but (again, because of our poor planning) we had financial troubles as there was only one atm on the island. We only just had enough money to go on a guided coffee trip before leaving the island which was a great experience. However, the service at the hostel was terrible – first we waited one hour for our order to come until they bring us a dish WITH meat. After trying to explain with our poor Spanish skills, that it’s wrong  they take the food away and come back 20 mins later to ask what we had ordered once again and then bring the correct food additionally 40 mins later – no apology. After talking to other guests at the hostel we realized that this was far from being a unique incident, and I think that it can only take place because they know there’s no other alternative in the area.

After the coffee tour yesterday we went back to Leon as planned – the bus ride was a story for itself, and if people drove buses like that in Denmark I don’t think people would walk on the streets. In Leon we checked in at a hostel and will go volcano boarding today or tomorrow. After Leon we’ll go directly to Panama with a single stop in San Jose, Costa Rica to make it to our flight home on the 23^rd from Panama City.

Generally we’ve experienced that the food in Central America is worse than expected. It’s extremely difficult to find vegetarian/vegan food at many places, and our original anticipation was that they grow a lot of delicious vegetables. People are generally less hygienic minded and throw their trash everywhere – in the bus or out of the windows etc. and when the trash has piled up alongside the roads they set in on fire and prepare food over it. Cars and trucks exhaust so much pollution and I had hoped that they would take better care of the amazing nature they have.  But this is just another cultural difference and my only western point of view that comes up, and that I’ve been realizing more about by traveling.

I’m getting ready to go back to Denmark after these almost 7 months even though I still enjoy all the great experiences and people that we run into. Before ending my internship at Glide I gave an interview and here you can read the outcome if interested. (Apparently now I’m a student of University of Copenhagen, haha).

I hope everyone is doing great and I’m excited to see friends and family back home very soon

- Niels

Belize and Guatemala

(for english, scroll down)

Det endte med at blive til 5 nætter hos vores couchsurfing host inden vi forlod Cancun og Mexico. Den sidste dag tog vi til Chichen Itza som er et gammelt Mayaindianertempel. Det var meget smukt men man blev konstant forstyrret af folk der ville prøve at sælge souvenirs eller lokke os hen til deres bod. Da vi kom tilbage til Cancun tog vi med en overnatbus til Belize City, Belize. Ved grænsen skulle vi betale for at komme ud af landet, og det var vi stærkt utilfredse med (inklusiv et par fra Las Vegas som vi snakkede med på bussen) så vi klagede over det, da det lugtede meget af korruption. Der var åbenbart ikke andet at gøre end at betale gebyret, og vores generelle oplevelse af Mexico var ikke specielt positiv – korruption og turismekultur, selvom de lokale vi mødte og snakkede med var rigtig søde og hjælpsomme.

Da vi ankom til Belize City (hovedstaden) besluttede vi at tage en vandtaxa til Caye Caulker som er en ø i det Caribiske hav. Vi havde fået det anbefalet af parret fra Las Vegas, og det viste sig at være et godt tip. Belize City virkede nemlig ret farlig og usikker som hvid turist og vi blev forelskede i Caye Caulker med det samme da vi ankom. Selvom den var ret turistet var den utrolig afslappet og alle folk havde lidt en Jamaicamentalitet og hørte reggae. Øen er rigtig smuk og i øvrigt bilfri, og hvis man går får hurtigt siger folk ”go slow” som også er øens motto. Man vænner sig hurtigt til at skifte helt ned i gear på øen, og der bor ca. 1700 lokale som virker meget søde. Da vi om aftenen havde ledt efter lægehuset spurgte folk dagen efter om vi havde fundet det og om vi var okay (jeg havde trådt en sten op i foden på stranden og Søren havde fået en flænge på skinnebenet da vi var ude at svømme.)

Vores hostel hed Dirty McNasty og om aftenen var der gratis rom punch. Vi kunne gratis låne cykler og kanoer på hostelet så vi tog på ture rundt om og på øen. Vi endte med at være der i 4 dage, og det var underligt at skulle forlade øen igen da man lige havde vænnet sig til det langsomme tempo og ingen biler.

Vi fik anbefalet at tage til Flores, Guatemala så der valgte vi at være i to nætter inden vi tog videre. På vej i bussen fra Belize kom vi i snak med en flink fyr fra Mexico som vi endte med at bo på hostel med. Vi tog sammen til Tikal dagen efter, som er en gammel Mayaindianerby midt ude i junglen. I modsætning til Chichen Itza virkede Tikal meget mere autentisk og man blev ikke overfaldet konstant af gadesælgere. Vi så aber, tukaner, myreslugere og andre dyr som jeg ikke kender navnene på. Det var en positiv oplevelse, og i går gik turen videre til San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Vi har planlagt at tage ud til Utila i dag onsdag som også er en ø i det Caribiske hav hvor der skulle være rigtig smukt og godt og billigt at dykke og snorkle.

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We ended up staying 5 days at our couchsurfing host before leaving Cancun and Mexico. The last day we went to Chichen Itza which is an ancient Maya temple. It was very pretty but we were constantly disturbed by people trying to sell craft and souvenirs or showing us their stand. When we got back to Cancun we took an overnight bus to Belize City, Belize. By the border we had to pay to exit the country and we were strongly upset with that (together with a couple from Las Vegas who we talked to on the bus) so we tried to fight it as it smelled like corruption. Apparently there was no other way than paying the fee, and our general experience of Mexico wasn’t very positive – corruption and tourism culture, however, the locals that we met and talked to were all super nice and helpful.

When we arrived in Belize City (the capital) we decided to take a water taxi to Caye Caulker which is an island in the Caribbean Ocean. We got this recommendation from the couple from Las Vegas and it turned out to be a great tip. Belize City seemed to be quite dangerous and unsafe to white tourists and we immediately fell in love with Caye Caulker when we had arrived. Despite the amount of tourism it is super relaxed and everybody has a Jamaica mentality and listened to reggae music. The island is really beautiful and without car traffic and if you walk too fast people would say “go slow” which is also the motto of the island. You quickly get used to the slow life and there are about 1700 local people on the island who seem very nice. One night we had been searching for a doctor and the next morning people asked if we had found it and if we were okay (I had stepped something up in my foot and Søren had gotten an open wound on his leg after swimming).

Our hostel was named Dirty McNasty and there was free rum punch every night. There were bicycles and canoes to use for free so we went on trips on and around the island. We ended up staying for 4 days and it was strange having to leave the island as we had just gotten used to the slow life and no cars.

We got a recommendation going to Flores, Guatemala so we decided to stay there for two days before moving on. On the bus on the way from Belize we talked to a nice guy from Mexico with whom we ended up staying at the same hostel. The following day we went to Tikal together which is an ancient Maya city of ruins in the middle of the jungle. In comparison to Chichen Itza Tikal seemed more authentic and you weren’t constantly attacked by craft salesmen. We saw monkeys, toucans and other wildlife I don’t even know the names of, and it was a great experience. Yesterday we moved on to San Pedro Sula, Honduras. We’ve planned to go to Utila today Wednesday which is another island in the Caribbean Ocean which is supposed to be beautiful and a cheap place to dive and snorkel.