• India 07/08
• Spain 09
• Central America 11
• South East Asia 13/14
• Myanmar 17

Uploaded videos

I finally got to converting and uploading the videos into the blog. You need a HTML5 compatible browser for this. Check out the following updated blog posts:

Semana Santa
El Rey de España
Diablos Rojos
Mini Super Loco

Politica popular

There is a special truth in that song for Central America, and especially for Guatemala. From the countries I have seen in Central America (so, excluding Honduras, San Salvador and Belize), Guatemala seemed to be poorest, most corrupt and dangerous. In Guatemala, a lot of things seem to be missing. But one thing is certainly not missing: As a taxi driver told me, there are about 36(!) political parties, though he added that “only” about 12 have a realistic chance to get into parliament.
He also told me that currently the country is governed by the wife of the president. And that the same is now getting a divorce just to be allowed by law to run for president in the next elections. As long as they are in power, they can not be prosecuted as the president seems to enjoy some kind of immunity. Why is that important? Here it comes:
The president and his wife have been formally accused to several murders – in a videotaped message of the victims lawyer that was to be released in the media in case of his (the lawyers) death! Sounds like a movie, doesn’t it? – “If you watch this, I am probably already dead….”.
I don’t know about the details of the accusations, but do make a google or wikipedia search if you are so inclined. What I know is that the news of this incident died down within a few weeks and since seems to be forgotten by the media.

Street scene in Huehuetenango (huehue = way-way)

This is how the buses in Guatemala look like ♥

I was currently leaving Guatemala City in a bus into the mountains which – as usual – stopped for every passenger on the main road but otherwise was in such a hurry that the bus driver had to overtake all other cars on the road and rev the engine every time he accelerated, leaving a black cloud of smoke. 30km/h limit signs were blatantly ignored. (Perhaps this was because of the fact that his speedometer always showed 0km/h? Well, at least there were no traffic lights he could run :-))

The main street of Guatemala City leading out of the city was lined with election posters that show the many different visages that want to be president after the next elections. The difference between the modern megasized posters which rose high above and the dirty and chaotic street life was striking. The politicians depicted on the posters looked like they come from another world or at least another country – I couldn’t really make out any difference between all these parties, anything they would stand for, anything they want to or don’t want to do when they are in power. I would have thought that in a country with that many problems, politicians would be more outright with what they want to do when in power but the opposite seems to be the case.
The only thing I read were hollow phrases like “Baldizón. yes he can!”, “Only the people can save the people” (Lider), “There will come better times for everyone” (UCN), “Guatemala, I accept you for what you are” (UNE + GANA, the presidents wife), “I love Guatemala, I am a patriot” (Patriota) or, the best:

“Different!” (Creo) (- this is even better than Obama’s “Change”)

Another one of these house-paintings, they are everywhere. I heard that this particular party offers that if they may put their logo on your house, they will pay for the paint to paint your house… oh man.

The scenic serpentine road from Solola to Panajachel gave great views onto the Atitlan lake, we came by even a few waterfalls. However, the landscape around the streets has been disfigured by taggings of the logos of the various political parties on the bare rock. Did they try to mark their territory? ;-)

A French student that currently studies in San José (Costa Rica) explained to me hat democracy works differently here. It’s called “popularism” – officially it is a democracy but there is no deep democratic culture or tradition here. One could assert the people just vote for a new dictator every few years here – perhaps that guy who gives out the most presents before the elections?

We got this from some people handing out info on the Lider party. Now, what do you think does it say about what exactly they want to achieve when in power?

Semana Santa

Semana Santa is what is for us Easter. However, as the name suggests (=Holy week), it is a much bigger thing in Central America. It is one week full of processions, other religious rituals and a tremendous stream of locals that use the opportunity to have a vacation with the family and rush to tourist locations, primarily beaches. The beaches were incredibly full during Semana Santa.
In Nicaragua, this lead to a traffic situation on the public busses that was as bad as the normal situation in Guatemala. Taxi drivers telling you “no hay autobuses” (=there are not busses) were not even really lying – all the busses were packed!

Semana Santa chaos in Rivas, Nicaragua

In the bus Thorsten was ranting about.

However, we succeeded in mostly avoiding the crowd, except for the one or the other (accidental) bump into the processions.
Just to give you a short insight: In a procession, they carry figures of Jesus (normally carrying the cross), Maria and sometimes other saints through the town into a church, where a short mass is held afterwards. A procession is accompanied by a priest, an orchestra of brass players, a cart with a diesel generator to light the figures (“wrwrwrwr…”) after dark and of course lots of people who march together with procession.

A snapshot of a procession in Flores, Guatemala. I think this is Maria.

Before the procession starts, however, the locals often create colorful “alfombras” (=carpets) out of dyed sawdust along the way of the procession. In Granada, a van with megaphones roamed through the town hours before to announce the procession.

One of the alfombras in Solola, Guatemala.

Impresiones aleatorias

Before I get on with writing about the Semana Santa, here are some random pictures from the last weeks which did not fit into a particular story but are still worth to show :-)

A vending machine at the bus station of Panama City. The yellow warning sign says: “Warning! Never incline or rock the machine. The machine can fall and cause serious physical damage, including death. This machine does not dispense products for free!“

Skyline of Panama City on a cloudy day.

Gallo Pinto with eggs (and cheese, bread). This is pretty much how the typical breakfast (at least) in Costa Rica and Nicaragua looks like. Gallo pinto (=Spotted rooster) is a mix of rice and beans. Love it!

Random sign on the road: “My eggs are not the solution. VIAGRA.” Tortoise eggs are (illegally) sold as aphrodisiacs.

Bad-ass VW van in Granada, Nicaragua

Very modern electronics store in Masaya, Nicaragua :-). (Whoa, why is that thing on the roof?!)

One of these small shops selling crisps, cookies and soda, at the border to Honduras.

Streetfood in Guatemala City

Pretty adventurous wiring for a shower, eh? These kind of showers are pretty common in central america. They heat the water directly at the showerhead while it is flowing through: 110V, 4000-5500W. Sometimes when switching it on, one can see a little flash of light inside the shower ;-). People told me that they already got an electric shock when they turned it on, hmmm.

Our hostel in Flores, Guatemala. We arrived there at 2:00 in the morning and they told us that everything is full – however they let us sleep on the hammocks there :-)

Mayan ruins at Tikal.

Classical Tuc-Tuc shot (=Auto rickshaw). The flag on the top says: “GOD, bless this TUC-TUC and its passengers” :-)

While I rummaged through the pictures, I found lots more I want to post. So you can be sure that there will be at least a second “random pictures” post :-)

Playa hundida

Another thing I noticed on Ometepe was the odd condition of the beaches.

At the hostel I stayed, there was supposed to be a beach. There was none. And at the beaches near it, lots of disrooted trees were lying across the narrow beach. Rey (see last post) told me that normally, the water in the lake is several meters lower than it is this year. During the last rain season, it rained much much more than usual, creating a flood that made hotels near the beach repair the damages months after. With the water still being as high as now (my hostel had a sand beach, but it is under water now) at the end of the dry season, the people on and around the Nicaragua lake will have to face an even higher flood. According to him, it is the biggest flood since 30 years.

Now that I was also in Guatemala at the Atitlan lake, I can say it is the same situation there: vanished sand beaches, disrooted trees and even flooded buildings. Actually, the flood there is this high that they had to rebuild many of the docks as the old dock is now under water. According to a local, the water now at the end of the dry season is 3 meters higher than normal. He said, the last time the water was this high was during the eighties. If the next rain season will be similar, many lakeside hotels and houses will be flooded.

A building at the docks at the Atitlan lake

El Rey de España

The lake of Nicaragua is the biggest lake in central america and right in the middle of it, there lies a truly magical island called Ometepe. The island was formed by two volcanoes, one of which is still active. It is a pretty rural place, great for exploring the nature or just hanging around. Here are some impressions.

One of the volcanoes seen from the other side of a lake on the island.

Thats me :-) … in the background, mangrove trees

Exploring the island…

When we were at the beach, there suddenly appeared a group of horses (and earlier: cows) out of the nowhere to take a dip in the lake :-)

More adventurous than the island itself however was the boat ride from San Jorge to Ometepe. A “proper” ferry to the island was only leaving every few hours, the other passengers were transported by smaller wooden ships.
Since these kind of transports were also about one dollar cheaper than the ferry, I went onto one of those wooden boats. These boats are also used to transport cargo to the island so before we left, the crew went to greath lengths to stuff as many people and as much cargo inside the boat as possible. :-)

Loading into the cargo hold

The cargo for this boat mainly consisted of soda tins and sacks full of sugar which were thrown into the cargo hold and er… between the passenger benches.
But well,… those boats really came into age I guess: during the way, the crew had to operate a (manual) pump all the time to pump the water which got onto the passenger deck out of the ship again. Didn´t help too much to keep our feet or luggage dry though ;-)

Later while on the island, I saw two ships of the same type in a “dry dock” on the beach where large scale repairs were being conducted.

The wood which has not been painted is the replaced wood

I talked with one of the workers that introduced himself with “Me llamo Rey, como el Rey de Espana” (I am Rey, like the King of Spain). He told me that the ships on the beach are kinda emergency-repaired right now because they were sinking during their (last) journey. Having in mind the condition of the ship I came, I imagine their sinking was a little bit more serious than the passengers getting their feet wet. While the repairs are being conducted, there is no replacement for the routes that they served.

Sala de videojuegos

After Panama, I made my way up to Nicaragua in several all-day bus rides. One thing I noticed when reaching Nicaragua that apart from Internet cafes, everything is full of those game centers where kiddies go to play the newest videogames. Most of them play football videogames, also popular are egoshooters and GTA.
The cool thing about that, however, is that some of those game centers have really nice paintings on their wall. Here are some :-)

This is the first game center I came across, in Rivas. The sign on the left says that they also sell cacao-milk – it tasted disgusting :-(

Absolutely awesome artwork, isn´t it? On my further travels, I have not seen anything that looks similarily professional yet. Also from Rivas.

Yeah, Super Smash Brothers! Found in Granada.

Blogs from fellow travellers

I added the blogs of two people I have been travelling with the last days to the link list. I have not so much (computer) time here that I can keep up with the blogging, too much happening at once and too few computers with Internet around. The few computers at the hostels we stay in are normally blocked by Facebook nerds. :-P
So for updates about my travels, you might want to check out these too:

Footprints in the Sand from Senana. I have been travelling with her the last few days in Nicaragua and in Guatemala. The blog is sometimes in German and sometimes in English, depending on her mood. Now that she gets to speak enough German with me though, I think it will be in English for now ;-)

and

Rico Custa 11 from Thorsten. A German soon-to-be student who I met on Ometepe (Nicaragua) and with whom I visited some places in Nicaragua. The blog is in German.

Diablos Rojos

When I arrived at the bus terminal in Panama City, this was one of the first impressions.¹

These former American schoolbusses serve as public transportation in Panama and as I found out when I travelled northwards, actually every country in central america except Costa Rica uses these kind of busses. In Panama City however, these busses are painted more colorfully then anywhere else in Panama.

Some busses are painted all over, with one great graffiti-style artwork after the other, pimped up with big speakers and powerful subwoofers inside the bus, additional blinkers, and flashing lights that the destination of the bus seems to be an almost negigible detail.
I asked some local about these busses and how they are organized. However, it was really hard to understand what he was saying. This was not because of any strong accent but because the bus driver put on some Reggaeton music at full volume. It is normal in busses here that the driver puts on some music though.

The bus in above photo is going to “Tumba Muerto”… if you look close enough, you can see it :-)

How much the busses are pimped (and how secure they are) pretty much depends on the owner of the bus. There is no central bus company like the HVV in Hamburg, instead there are a bunch of people who each own and run some busses; theoretically, if one owns a bus and has a public bus drivers license, he could just start his own route. Of course if he starts to charge anything else than the standard fare (25 cents within the city), he will jeopardize his license.
That the busses are privately run like taxis might be one reason why the bus drivers are often happy to stop for anyone who wants to get on or off the bus in the middle of the road :-)

The busses, though, are really really old which makes them a bit dangerous. One can see and one can hear that – some engines get so loud when the driver steps on the gas that the ground literally starts to shake. Locals call these busses “Diablos Rojos” (=Red devils), probably because of that. The one I talked with said that “they sometimes catch fire and burn out”. Hm.
He also told me that the Diablos Rojos will vanish from the streets of Panama City within one year and be replaced by the “Metro” busses. These busses look as modern as our busses with proper seats, are not painted, have no additional blinken lights, no sound system and the destination is displayed in big letters on a digital display on the front. They are completely white and feature overregulated air conditioners which is why the locals also lovingly call them “Frigorificos” (=Refrigerators). The complicated and more expensive fare system is inclusive. :-P

Snippet from the newspaper

If you want to see some more pictures of the Diablos Rojos, there are plentiful.

¹ Yes, you read right: Panama actually managed that its capital has ONE central bus terminal, as the only country in central america :-P

Mini super loco

After Bocas, I went to Panama City. Man, I love this city! I don’t know why exactly, perhaps because it has all the elements I loved about India while at the same time is so cosmopolitan and modern(!) at some places, that one can always take a breather of the chaotic streets and pedestrian zones of the city centre. In my next blog post I will also write about the one big thing I like the most about Panama City :-)

The following are the thoughts I had when I went through a particular(ly funny) supermarket near my hostel. Of course, like almost all mini-supermarkets, this supermarket was also run by Chinese (“Chinos”). These “mini super“s are typically quite narrow but deep, the cash point is at the front and the shelves go into the shop.

In the entrance of the supermarket, a woman and a man clamored loudly about politics(?). While still wondering whether they were drunk or just like that, I almost stumbled over some men who were playing some kind of card game with dominos(?) on the pavement right next to the supermarket entrance. Inside, I had to climb over some obstacles to actually get to the shelves cause there was just stuff lying around in the middle of the already narrow gangways :-) The goods themselves kinda just unmotivatedly lied around in the shelves like all that shit that piles up on your bedside table (or desktop) after some time. – What is being sold and what is just lying there? Hmm, I guess that carton of milk on the floor next to the fridge and that orange juice with the straw already inside the carton are not being sold. Probably there is some private area in that supermarket-fridge? And what is this further in the back of the shop? Is this underwear on a line? Is someone doing laundry in the supermarket? I also hear someone watching TV there. Ah true, I see some kind of living area there. So yeah, better not enter too deep into the supermarket, I don’t want to end up in someone’s living room. Just when I got my stuff and backed out of the shop, some dwarf came inside and also started shouting something repeatedly, I think about him being a dwarf, which made the situation …quite bizarre.
Almost next door, there was a modern McDonalds-like fast food restaurant.

One of these “mini super“s. Not the one I was writing about though.

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