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Latin America
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Latin America

From the most southern town Ushuaia to the border wall of Mexico. Discover the continent on a backpacker’s budget. Get off the beaten tracks, having life-changing experiences and immerse in local culture. Lue lisää
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  • Pascal SteckLatin AmericaPascal Steck

    Rio Dulce

    25. elokuuta 2021, Guatemala ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    The hurricane meeting point.
    Rio Dulce lays between a lake and a wide river which leads to the Caribbean Sea. During my two nights staying in Rio Dulce I met 4 different sailing crews. Either of them told me the same story. We came here to pass through the hurricane season. It seems to be a famous shelter for all the fancy American sailors.
    After meeting those humble people I started picturing myself discovering all those plentiful islands in the Caribbean Sea as a crew member of one of those big Catamarans just like the ones which were anchored in the bay of Rio Dulce.

    However after this short imaginary detour I made my way back to reality where I decided to visit a thermal waterfall. Casacadas Calientes El Paraíso is located on the lake Izabal 30 minutes outside from Rio Dulce and even it’s not very famous, I met a bunch of foreign tourists who treated themselves with a thermal shower.    Lue lisää

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    Concepción Las Minas

    26. elokuuta 2021, Guatemala ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    No entry to El Salvador.
    The bus journey from Rio Dulce to the border of El Salvador was long and pricy, 4 buses and about 20 dollars for a trip of 6 hours. I arrived at half past three in the afternoon. After some lunch I went to the migration office to get the exit stamp of Guatemala. I continued to the Salvadoran side where they just got some parasols next to the street and a little table. I went to the man siting in the shade of this parasol and handed him my passport as well as my covid test.

    He showed my test to his assistants and after a bit he told me that I need a PCR test with this antigen test I couldn’t enter the country. I was puzzled when he said that it is an antigen test. I took it read it through and had to admit that I foolishly didn’t read my text properly.

    I went back to a small village and even though the migration officers told me that I will be able to do the test on the same day, I highly doubted it. I arrived at 5pm just at the time when the clinic had closed its doors. I bought a Guatemalan SIM card and so asked the young folks on the streets if there are any accommodations nearby. Next to the main square was a hotel with a dirty uncomfortable bed for ten dollars.

    At the next day I went straight to the clinic paid 35 dollars and then explained that I need the result in an email as well as the paper form. Two hours later I got my result and went back to the border where I finally could continue my trip to Santa Ana, El Salvador.    Lue lisää

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    Santa Ana

    27. elokuuta 2021, El Salvador ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    Invasion of the barbarians.
    I spent two nights in Santa Ana in a small hostel owned by an old lovely lady. At my arrival I bumped into a young German couple who just orders an Uber to the Mayan ruins north of the city. They asked me if I’d like to join, I was tempted to go with them but I didn’t have any money and hadn’t had eaten for 6 hours. I kindly refused their offer and made my way to the city center to withdraw some money.
    6 hours later I found an ATM which finally coughed up some dollar bills. I could buy a SIM card and returned to my hostel.

    We took a bus to the volcano Santa Ana on the following day and hiked up to the crater with at least 100 local tourists on our side.    Lue lisää

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    San Salvador

    29. elokuuta 2021, El Salvador ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    …is the capital of El Salvador.

    I met a Swiss girl and two Israelis after I came back to my hostel from late lunch. We were chatting and decided to go for dinner and then to a nightclub afterwards.

    After a beer and some tapas in a bar everyone was tired so we didn’t execute our former plan and went back to the hostel instead. The next day I could drive the rental car of this group up to the volcano San Salvador better known as El Boqueron. The girls and I enjoyed the cold morning (20°C) on top of this inactive volcano (1893m) and at midday we went back to the city where I hopped off and the girls continued to the beach to return their rental car.

    I spent one more night closer to the historical center of the city before I took the bus to the coast.    Lue lisää

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    Atami

    31. elokuuta 2021, El Salvador ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    I overslept my bus stop.

    When I checked my position on google map I realized that we already drove past the famous surf and party village El Tunco. I knew that the friends I met in San Salvador staid in a Hammock Hostel just a few kilometers outside El Tunco, so I decided to go to the same place instead of jumping off the bus and trying to get another one back to El Tunco.

    Once I arrived in the Hammock Hostel, owned by a Salvadorian/Dutch couple, I also met my friends again. They were packing their stuff to go back to the capital where they would then take a bus the next morning at 5am towards Honduras.

    I had a relaxed day in this small village where I could take a bath in the rock pools which probably belongs to a luxury resort. I was told it costs 25 dollars on weekends and it’s free on weekdays.

    With Creed, a guy from New Orleans - Louisiana who was already on the road since 2014, I went to a delicious Comedor/Pupuseria where I had some epic Pupusas.    Lue lisää

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    Los Cobanos

    1. syyskuuta 2021, El Salvador ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Somewhere deep inside an all inclusive luxury resort.

    I arrived in Los Cobanos with about 20 dollars of cash left in my pocket. Google maps showed me an ATM 3 kilometers outside the little town. I didn’t completely trust this search result since tonnes of banks and ATMs shown on google maps are just not where it shows which is a very annoying google maps phenomena. Nevertheless I needed cash so I walked towards this ATM. The last 2 kilometers belonged to a crazy huge luxury resort. I just sneaked into this resort and walked to the very beginning of it where as it happens an ATM was found.

    After a beautiful sunset and an uncomfortable night, due to the dirty mattress and bed sheets I had to use my sleeping bag which made me sweating like a pig, I made my way further along the cost towards Guatemala. But before I Frises the border to Guatemala I decide to stay one more night in El Salvador.    Lue lisää

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    Barra de Santiago

    2. syyskuuta 2021, El Salvador ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    Last night in El Salvador

    Here accommodation can be found for around 60 to 80 US dollars. After walking around the place I decided to go back to the beginning of this peninsula where I finally found a place for 15 respectively 10 bucks.

    I paid the lady and she showed me the room. There was no shower and no toilet in this place so after having lunch I decided to search for another hostel. Three houses further down the beach was a better hostel for 10 instead of 15 dollars.
    I changed places and asked for my 15 dollars back. She wanted to give me 10 dollars back since she had some effort to clean the room and for preparing the bed. I didn’t agree with her and therefore went straight to the police station which was just next door. The police officer came with me to the lady we sat down on the table and she started to talk to the police officer. After she finally finished her charade I asked her if she could give me the full amount back. She denied once again so I asked for the 10 dollars and after she handed me the money I left the table immediately.    Lue lisää

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    Ciudad de Guatemala

    3. syyskuuta 2021, Guatemala ⋅ 🌧 17 °C

    Nation shows flag.

    Independence Day like for most Central American counties is the 15th of September. However it seems the country celebrates its freedom for the entire month of September. At this point I should mention that if you use Polarsteps you have no limitation of photo uploads per post. Since I am restricted to 6 photos, it devalues the app to a certain degree… and who wants another subscription¿

    Anyhow I spent two nights in the capital where I met two polish girls who did their internship as geology students in Flores, north of Guatemala.

    Also mentionable: some crazy Guatemalan guys gave me a lift from the border of El Salvador to a city called Escuintla. From there I could easily take a chicken bus to the capital city.    Lue lisää

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    Antigua

    6. syyskuuta 2021, Guatemala ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Old but gold.

    Most first-time travellers who are backpacking Guatemala will start their trip in Antigua. This is a classic colonial town with beautiful neighbourhoods to stay at, and a great place to kick back or wander around the cobblestone streets. You’ll find quite a few hostels in Antigua as well, which makes it a great hang out spot for backpackers from all over the world.

    I was looking forward to visit this place for quite a bit. I knew it’s the starting point if you want to climb Acatenango an inactive volcano next to El Fuego, the most active volcano in whole Americas.

    So stay tuned for this epic journey.    Lue lisää

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    Acatenango & El Fuego

    7. syyskuuta 2021, Guatemala ⋅ 🌧 15 °C

    September equals rain but…

    The day started quite inconvenient. It was 8am. and the shuttle bus didn’t arrive at the Hostel on time, in fact it never appeared. After an hour waiting, I made my way to the agency which was supposed to be open at 9am. However it was still closed. A restaurant owner on the other street side tried to help me. I already called three different numbers for several times but nobody picked up. Luckily the restaurant owner had two private numbers of the agency, thus he could broadcast on WhatsApp and tell them that I was waiting near the agency for the shuttle bus which at this time was already supposed to be in front of the volcano. At 10am. a shuttle bus stopped in front of the restaurant and the journey finally started.

    With 6 other people we hiked up the volcano Acatenango where we watched the sunset, had a cozy campfire and last but not least enjoyed every singe eruption El Fuego had to present at this mostly cloudless evening. After a dozen of eruptions and some informative conversations we went to bed around 10pm to get at least 6 hours of sleep.

    Next day at 4am. we went up to the summit of Acatenango. The first 5 hours to the basecamp the day before weren’t too stressful whereas the sunrise hike to the summit in the darkness up to 3976 meters above sea level was quite exhausting. Nevertheless we made it up there and had a beautiful sunrise around 5:30 in the morning.

    The decent was long and one or the other was suffering from any kind of pain in their legs. Even I was not in top form by virtue of my 18 days of quarantine, I was not suffering of any muscle aches even not the following days.

    With mentioning, we never had any rain which was a huge fortune by knowing that it rained day for day for day before and after our unforgettable trip up to the volcano Acatenango.    Lue lisää

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    Hobbitenango

    10. syyskuuta 2021, Guatemala ⋅ 🌧 17 °C

    Not far from Antigua lays the little hobbit town which goes by the name Hobbitenango. It’s more like a fancy place to pimp up your Instagram stories. A place in the mountains with a beautiful view to a valley unlesss you go there between August and October when the rain clouds cover the whole place.

    It was certainly a cool little half day trip which I could do with a Brazilian girl from the same hostel.    Lue lisää

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    San Pedeo de Laguna

    11. syyskuuta 2021, Guatemala ⋅ 🌧 18 °C

    Guatemala has 21 mayan dialects whereas Tz’utujil is spoken at the lake Atitlan by roughy 100’000 people.

    Once in Lake Atitlan, you can spend weeks here, as many backpackers do. The lake is rather large, and all of the surrounding towns are completely unique to one another. Some towns are rather small and most tourists go there during day time and spending the nights in San Pedro for instance where you have all the bars and tattoo parlors.

    Most places have written their tours or menus in Spanish and Hebrew. It is definitely one of the highlights for the Israelis on their humus path from Patagonia towards Mexico. Since they always travel in big groups it is almost impossible to make friends with them, if you found one or two nice guys don’t expect them to become travel buddies. They are often insecure with their English which always brings them back to other compatriots where they can speak their mother language.

    Apart from that, the lake is famous for its hikes to the Indian Nose or to the volcano San Pedro. I tried to hike the volcano but was stopped after 30 minutes at an entry point where they tired to charge me 100 Quetzales. They even had a banner with all the prices written down. The weather was always cold and cloudy so I turned around snd went back to San Pedro.
    Later on the girl working at the hostel told me it supposed to be free of charge to hike up

    I decided to spend my second night in San Marcos de Laguna.

    P.S. If pack of dogs is chasing you try to find some stones and branches to protect yourself. If you do nothing they start to attack you after a while.    Lue lisää

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    San Marcos de Laguna

    12. syyskuuta 2021, Guatemala ⋅ 🌧 18 °C

    San Marcos is a 5 minute boat ride from San Pedro and it is much smaller, calmer and relaxing.

    I spent my second night in this place aiming at visiting a road which leads up a mountain. I thought to see an amazing meandering road. But after a 2 hour hike to this place there was no such road visible, not only through the heavy rain but also because the forest covered it all.

    I was happy with my 20k steps when I arrived back in town and spent the rest of the rainy and cold day in my hostel deep inside the forest.

    When I checked the altitude of the following place I planed to visit, I started having doubts about staying there for a long time. Lake Atitlan is located on a height of 1500 meters above the sea. Quetzaltenango aka. Xela was with its 2300m higher and colder than Lake Atitlan. Nevertheless I wanted to go there to see another rather bigger city of Guatemala.

    I watched some YouTube videos to learn some cool expressions in Tz’utujil and enjoyed my last night in San Marcos before I moved on to Xela.    Lue lisää

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    Xela

    13. syyskuuta 2021, Guatemala ⋅ 🌧 16 °C

    Quetzaltenango is commonly referred to as Xela (pronounced Shela). This bustling mountain town is a great city to organise 1 to 7 day treks in the stunning mountains, or base yourself for Spanish lessons, as many gringos do! Xela isn’t as clean or extravagant as Antigua, but it’s also not as expensive.

    You can arrange a home stay with local families around here and see a side of Guatemala many travellers miss.

    Thanks internet for this introduction.

    I spent the day asking around what hikes snd tours I could do. The weather was still bad. The rain came in at midday and didn’t stop until the next morning. It was cold and the city was dirty and it was quite hard to find a good, cheap Comedor in the city center.

    I decided to skip the hikes up here and move on to Semuc Champey in the heart of Guatemala. The next morning I took 4 buses towards my new place and after 10 hours I made a overnight stay in Cobán, not too far from Semuc Champey.    Lue lisää

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    Cobán

    15. syyskuuta 2021, Guatemala ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    I arrived at 6pm in Cobán where I had to find an accommodation on account of the hostel I booked earlier which texted me that they had to cancel my reservation. For a surcharge of 20 Quetzales I could sleep in a super cozy hotel located just in the heart of this little town. I slept almost until 10 in the morning went out for a good coffee and a ham and cheese croissant, withdrew some money and made my way to the bus station to chat the next bus to Semuc Champey.

    At the bus station I bumped into Cornelia and Steffi, Swiss and German backpackers, I met back in Antigua. We all had the same idea by sleeping close to the waterfalls in Semuc so we ended up going to the same hostel.

    Happy Independence Day Guatemala.    Lue lisää

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    Semuc Champey

    16. syyskuuta 2021, Guatemala ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    One night at the river 10 minutes away from the famous waterfalls. The three of us met 4 Belgian travelers in Pachamaya the hostel we were staying at.

    We relaxed at the hostel took a swim in the river and got ready for our Semuc Champey waterfall trip on the next day.Lue lisää

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    Lanquín

    16. syyskuuta 2021, Guatemala ⋅ 🌧 31 °C

    Before Steffi, Cornelia and I hit the road again to go up north to Flores we spent another night near Semuc Champey, more precisely in Lanquín, which is the gate to the waterfalls in Semuc.

    We had a nice thunderstorm that night which didn’t make us leave the cozy warm water of our pool at the highest point of the town where we enjoyed a stunning view into the surrounding mountains and forests.Lue lisää

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    Flores

    17. syyskuuta 2021, Guatemala ⋅ 🌧 29 °C

    A small man-made island at lake Petén Itzá. Flores itself is tiny; you can walk around it in about 20 minutes. It’s a chilled out little island and a good place to base yourself before you head to Tikal.

    The three of us staid at Los Amigos, a hostel and restaurant, located in the middle of the small island. The restaurant had a ton of delicious food starting with about 20 different breakfast dishes and a hand full of delicious juices and smoothies.

    We spent 3 nights at Los Amigos before we split up and continued our trip on our own again.

    On the second day we got up at 4am. to catch the 4.30 shuttle to Tikal.    Lue lisää

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    Tikal

    18. syyskuuta 2021, Guatemala ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    l is a truly amazing place. Often times you will have the national park to yourself to wander around the massive temples with spider and howler monkeys swinging above you as well as rainbow-billed toucans, colorful woodpeckers and the white-nosed coati.

    It was an unforgettable day even though my cameras battery was totally exhausted owing to my stupidity I had it all the time turned on inside my bag for days.    Lue lisää

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    Caye Caulker

    20. syyskuuta 2021, Belize ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    I took a direct bus from Flores to the island Caye Caulker. The border crossing was hassle free even I had to pay 50 USD for an antigen test. Which I knew and therefore wasn’t shocked anymore.

    On the island I found myself surrounded by creole people who had a super crazy Jamaican-like language.

    I skipped the golden standard accompaniment and went directly to the cheapest hostel on the island where I staid 3 nights for 10 USD per night.

    Already on the second day I did the full day snorkel tour which unquestionably makes it into my top 5 list of things I did in my entire travels. Swimming and diving underneath docents of nurse sharks which some were almost 3 meter long. Feeding some giant tarpon fishes as well as birds, snorkeling in the most beautiful coral reefs I’ve ever seen (I’ve already been to the great barrier’s). Lots of different fishes from small to big in all the existing colors. These were only a few things we could do on this amazing snorkel trip.

    I occasionally met the Israelis I met in the ferry to Caye Caulker but mostly discovered the island by myself where I could enjoy the peaceful coastal walks around the island. Due to the fact that the island is super small there aren’t any cars, all you see on the streets are golf carts and occasionally a cheep who spreads sanitizer liquids into the environment.

    Curfew on the mainland started at 7pm on the islands at 8pm hence no party life thus the tourists came here only for some day time activities.    Lue lisää

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    Crossing da border

    23. syyskuuta 2021, Meksiko ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    Da recipe:

    There is a public bus from Belize city until Corozal for 10B$.

    From there you need to take a taxi to the Belizean border. It is 30 respectively 25B$ (negotiate)… try to share it with other people. At the border you pay 40B$ exit fees.

    From there you are not allowed to walk to the Mexican border. So you need to take a second taxi which costs approx. 10B$.

    The taxi does not bring you to the migration of México you are dropped off earlier. Where you show your passport to some random police officers and then you have to take a third taxi to the real migration. You are not allowed to walk this way either. So you are going to spend another 10B$.

    At the migration office you pay your 31 US$ or 596 MX$ entrance fees to get into México and there you finally get your entry stamp.

    Don’t even try to walk from the Mexican migration to the highway it’s not allowed and you need to take a fourth taxi they charge you between 200 to 350 MX$ depends on how many people you are and how good your haggling skills are.

    You finally arrive in Chentumal where you try to withdraw money and then you recognize that each bank has a different service fee from 30 to 180 MX$. Try them all.    Lue lisää

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    Tulum

    24. syyskuuta 2021, Meksiko ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    A sweat lodge with some nice north Mexican native language songs and prayers.

    After a somewhat annoying border crossing day I finally arrived in Tulum at late night. A drunken French Volunteer did my check-in and I joint some people on the roof too bar to end my day with some cold beers.

    The next day I could already do some sightseeing by joining a Belgian couple in their rental car.

    In almost every corner are some taco vendors or other delicious food stands. This makes Mexico already a total different experience and I am very happy to finally have arrived in this beautiful country.

    I spent 3 nights in Tulum and certainly had a decent increase of my alcohol consumption. But I was fortunate when a bearded American guy invited me to join the Temazcal ritual on Sunday morning. We were almost 40 people sitting in a little stone house not high enough to stand up and without any windows. When the small door was closed the ceremony master started with some prayers followed by native songs and then they opened the door and brought some hot stones inside which were heated up in a fire station outside. With herbs and vaporized water the first out of for steam sessions started. 2 hours later the ritual ended and everybody came out half dizzy half dehydrated, craving for water and a cold shower. The swat lodge was hot, super hot and the duration was almost too long. Luckily nobody fainted in this packed little stone cave. Some people even had a spiritual outtake of this session. I heard people a reading, crying but almost everybody supported the ritual masters with singing and yelling this prayer words. The only one which I remembered was Ome-teo. I surely enjoyed this crazy Sunday morning ritual b it i was shredded for the whole way after that.    Lue lisää

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    Dos Cenotes

    25. syyskuuta 2021, Meksiko ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Cenote Aktun aka. Car Wash has a very complex cave system underneath and when we arrived there, we could see some scuba divers discovering the underwater world and diving deep into the caves.

    Cenote Zemway was closed and that made it a very special place for us. We sneaked into the property and jumped into the water well and enjoyed the this beautiful Cenote just for ourselves.Lue lisää

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    Playa del Carmen

    25. syyskuuta 2021, Meksiko ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    Just for the sake of it.

    I had the opportunity to join a Belgian couple on their day trip to some Cenotes around Tulum. We started with a rather famous Cenote as well as some smaller ones and ended up in Playa del Carmen for lunch and a little hang and chill at the beach.Lue lisää

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