Resumen
4月16日, オーストリア ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C
I didn't end the trip or footprint with "what did I learn?"
- dont trust the straps on the outside of saddlebags. Kathi lost a sandal and destroyed her jacket; I destroyed my jacket even more.
- check and double check brake-pad compatibility with all models, because manufacturers change things constantly (fucking sram)
- food poisoning is not something to take lightly.
- cycling in austria isn't that bad (though it can be improved!). And if cars honk, just assume it is a "I'm here; I'm coming; hi!" Honk. In a car honk all the time, everywhere.
- small local villages and their cultures are always the most interesting. Don't trust tourist must-see's.
- fireworks. All the time, everywhere, all at once.
But I come home to baby-food being contaminated with rat-poison through blackmailing, and people attacking random others on the street in Linz. 🛖🏚️もっと詳しく
I can see why tourists do not go here.
4月13日, グアテマラ ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C
There was only one road, although I could have tried going offroad, going to Guatemala city and it was busy with cars. It was manageable, until I had to merge onto the Pan-American Highway (there was no alternative) which was crazy initially, and it only got crazier the more I approached the city. So busy most traffic was standing still at least half of the time, and I was going in between cars, trucks, busses, motorcycles, even around 10 or 11 am for about 5 kilometers. It probably is not as bad as cities in India, but the amount of traffic and amount of malls (and fast-food signs) everywhere I had not seen for a long time or ever: it was way worse than Tuxtla or Oaxaca by a long shot.
After having found my way off from the worse traffic, I actually found a cycling path (welcome, because there is traffic everywhere) through the city and also arrived in what was clearly the richer part of the city. Just (mini-) malls, security, restaurants, big hotels and shopping centres everywhere. It felt like Nairobi, with the big difference that here the inequality between the people going to these places and cheaper places downtown (zona 1) was not of ethnicity, and rich Guatemalan people went to these venues all over. When cycling through Zona 1, the city center, you got to a more "normal" area, although this was definitely not a poor or dangerous zone. More food stalls on the street, more markets; the Mercado central being the biggest one, quite touristic, and huge with multiple floors offering different foods, crafts, souvenirs, and groceries.
However, the worst thing is finding food in the evening, around the hostel. Restaurants are very, very expensive (more expensive than Austria by some), luxurious, and also frequently close at 6 or 7. Some also have way too much staff. The first night I went for takeaway pizza because other affordable places were closed, the second night I actually went for a run to go to a vegan burger places 2 km out, which then also turned out to have closed an hour early; I ended up cooking myself. Joining the upscale evening joggers and runners, and ending up in an area where the expats live (big apartment complexes with lots of security). It is just not a nice area to stay, but the city center was too far or go to at night (and presumably not all too safe).
In the end, the total vibe of the place is just big inequality and lots of luxury in some places, with crime being forced to other areas of the city.
The only thing it has going for tourism is museums, with Popol Vuh offering an excellent display of Mayan relics, and Miraflores, situated on the location of the ancient, but perished, huge Mayan city of Kaminaljuyu. Kaminaljuyu used to be (one of the?) biggest mayan cities in the highlands, but has completely faded away under the construction of the city of Guatemala. They still find old archeological remains under the city constantly, and a lot of it is on display in the Museum Miraflores. That did make the stay worth it and were very good museums.
There were other museums around but they had ridiculous opening hours (closing at 3pm, opening at 10am), so "opening hours" is the thing I will remember of this place. Plus, being sent all over looking for something like an Ikea bag: I should have gone to a street market straight away.
In the end Canada nearly made me unable to catch my flight because the ETA system did not work properly, and you need a visa even for connecting flights. But it got approved after paying four times, after presumably the people started working in Toronto and realized the system was down. Fuck them, this visa system is broken.もっと詳しく
Antigua Guatemala
4月10日〜13日, グアテマラ ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
Antigua Guatemala was once the capital of Guatemala, but apparently it was not even the first or second, as the country capital was moved many times. The first time in 1527, when Iximché (the city of archeological site which I visited) was the capital, but the Kaqchikil rose up against the Spanish so the capital was moved and the city destroyed by the Spanish. The second time the capital city was destroyed by a volcano eruption, in 1543. So they built a new city, Santiago de los Caballeros, now called "Antigua". Antigua Guatemala was itself plagued by many earthquakes—not surprising given the active volcanoes around—which destroyed many parts of the city, and so the Capital was again moved to what is now called "Guatemala ciudad" in the 18th century, after three devastating earthquakes. Antigua Guatemala (with all its beautiful churches, or ehat remained of them, was left pretty much abandoned, as far as I understood.
Antigua Guatemala does really not deserve the title a city, and is a small but very cute town that consists entirely of old buildings and cobblestone streets. My gps said I was there, when I had expected to have to go through many extra districts to get to the centre: not so. And it really is a cute little town. And touristic. There are boutique shops selling their own "artesanal" products, lots and lots of restaurants, lots and lots of hotels, and lots and lots of coffee shops. And vegan places. And pizza, smash burger, bars, etc.
But first, my hostel experience: I booked ahead online knowing it would be tricky, and went for the high-star hostel with a nice garden. And sometimes I don't get why people give high ratings: the staff was a bunch of teens unable to make decisions, and the bunk beds were a mess to climb on to, it was hot in there during the night, and, even worse, there was no space for me to leave any of my stuff. So everything fell down during the night, I lost everything (which I am extra susceptible to), and I actually decided in the middle of the night to "fuck this" and blew up my sleeping mat and slept outside on the courtyard grass. The next day they did offer a lower bed, but I was just annoyed, tired, so I insisted on wanting to leave and look for something else. Luckily, they did: that is, after having woken up (at past 9 am) the reception guy, insisting that he calls his manager, insisting again, etc etc. I ended up pitching my tent in the garden of another hostel, which saved me money and is just a safe option.
Ok, Antigua: it is super touristic, and expats and locals alike want to open their restaurant, bar or coffee spot to exploit touristic interest, and you have to know where to go. I went to a fancy vegan place and was very unimpressed by the food, for example. But there is excellent (local and foreign) food to be found, excellent coffee, and even excellent mezcal and craft beer. Yeah, I spent too much money. But of course the reason of it being having become a popular tourist destination is the old city, and viewing the old ruins of the destroyed cathedral, destroyed convent, and the like is... I don't know, actually. For one, I found the convent deeply unimpressive, despite what it might once have been, and the cathedral also maybe not worth the entry price, though it was interesting to see. I think it is now popular because it gives what western people want and enjoy, just a little bit different and with enough of a local influence to make it special. But, sorry for the tourists, it is not the actual local culture, just a touristic extraction. (But hey, I cherish some of the products of tourism as much as anyone.)
However, next to the ruins of the cathedral is the Palacio de los Capitanes, housing the National Museum of Guatemalan Art, and this was for me really worth the visit. It traces (in a weird non-chronological order!) Guatemalan art and artists, and there are really nice artworks on display there. And it was quiet and free—I do not understand why tourists mostly don't go there, but better for me.
Well, actually I do know: everyone seems to be there to hike the volcanoes, and see the mythical (life-changing?) Volcano peaks and constant eruptions of Fuego up-close. And the way Antigua is situated between many volcanoes is really special and a beautiful sight. I am perfectly happy not having ckimved the volcanoes though, crazy as that might sound to sone of the people I have talked to.
The next day I spontaneously took part in a chocolate or cacao workshop which was very well done and fascinating. I already knew that cacao beans have a special place in Mayan religion, but the background of this, how cacao was used, how it is processed, was really interesting and enjoyable to learn about. And delicious.もっと詳しく
No tenga pena
4月9日, グアテマラ ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C
And suddenly I started hearing this phrase a lot. "No tenga pena". It is supposed to be a phrase you hear all over guatemala, but I had never noticed hearing it as clearly as after visiting the archeological site of Iximché. I ordered a chocofruta, and after having talked a bit with the lady about what I am doing here, she refused me paying for it (1 euro probably) : "no tenga pena, no tenga pena". Basically, hamna shida, no worries.
After having left the lake Atitlán behind me, and having climbed the first 500 meter to the next small village, the world had changed noticeably again: zero tourism. I went to views of the thousands of holiday homes built into the hills embracing the lake, to small villages with no tourist in sight. My legs were painful from the hiking though, which didnt help with climbing the steep hills I had to take. I actually didn't manage to find anything decent to eat the entire day until the archeological site, so it was just bread, nuts and fruits: I was pretty hungry as soon as I got to Iximché.
Iximché is a site very unlike the ones in the jungle, or Mayan lowlands, being mostly flat. However, it is remarkably big with six plazas, all surrounded by their own pyramidial structures, and having two big ball courts; basically it was laid out as two separate administrative cities combined. None of the remains are as well kept as Tikal or Yaxchilán though: the spanish burnt everything to the ground. You see, the people of Iximché initially sided with the Spanish against the K’iche people, before trying to revolt and being beaten down and burned by the Spanish. The k'iche were the people of the towns I mentioned in an earlier footprint.
And after that I had the chocofruta, and these should only be eaten when the weather is really hot, otherwise the chocolate just becomes something of a "crust" that falls off and on the floor, as soon as you try to eat it. Frequently, they are impossible to eat. But hey, I got it for free!
Afterwards, I found some food in the nearby town of Tecpán—chicken tacos, because I could not find anything else—and bought food for the day after. I pushed my bike up a long, steep gravel path to what was supposed to be a "mtb guatemala campsite", but the place was closed as closed can be, with barbed wire around it. I wasn't going to cycle back to town and stay in a shitty hotel, so (on advice from a local guide I came across on the way up) I decided to wildcamp in a deserted shed just off the road. Good views of the city included. No tenga pena.
And afterwards I also heard it again a lot in Antigua, where I arrived the next day. The hostel there wasn't quite "no tengo pena" but thats something I will complain about in the next footprint.もっと詳しく
I lost two years of my life for this pic
4月6日, グアテマラ ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C
Some clickbait there, but I do not remember a truck this disgusting, passing me on an uphill, this trip or at any time. I felt it in my throat for at least 30 minutes after. And yes, I took a day-long detour to take a picture—or have it taken— of a colourful church, and probably won't have been passed by a truck this disgusting, hadn't I gone there. And some other things would not have happened.
The reason for me taking this picture is that I find the local adoption of Christianity, at different places, fascinating. The procession for Good Friday, the shamans/priests lighting incense in front of the church, even the weird posh-drinking ritual in Mexico: it is all different kinds of combining elements of Christianity with local Mayan traditions. This church isn't that well known, or not visited frequently at all, but still quite special due to its vibrant colours: I thought it would be worth the detour. It would also give me a chance to go above 3000 meters elevation, and it made me make a new friend at a rather random store, who referred to me to the next customer as "mi gringo amigo". And it made me go down a super steep hiking trail by bike, which meant an hour and a half of pushing and carrying my bike down the hill, fully engaging the brake. Which was not a worthwhile experience; this, on the other hand, partially went through coffee and avocado plantations, and made me stumble on a new fruit that I really like and haven't found yet, the white sapote. So, upsides and downsides.
I arrived in San Pedro La Laguna, at lake Atitlán, which is really a tourist hotspot. Insta girls and boys posing for selfies, and tourists that just do not seem to even look at other people or their culture but just their phones and being occupied with themselves. However, I ran into a dutch couple who were also travelling by bike, and have been on the road for 5 months, and it was great sharing experiences and talking to them for a bit. In a place where I feel more alienated from the people others (the locals) see me as similar to, it is great to come across like-minded people, if you know what I mean.
To elaborate: I don't hate tourists or tourism and the town and local people are very nice—the amount of effort a lady put into packaging some eggs for me was super cute—and I am also a tourist that wants touristy things (vegetarian food, good beverages, a hot shower). But the lake has been conquered by tourists, and the local culture is suffering under the pressure of building fancier places all along the lake. And I always dislike when the the gap between what the tourists are consuming and what local people can consume is so large.
I decided to spend three nights at the lake, to also try a touristy volcano hike up to 3000 meters, the Volcán San Pedro. Got up at 6am, hoping for the best views at the top and beat the clouds, but I kind of feel like I got trapped in a tourist trap: just clouds at the top, and the best view of the lake was close to the bottom. They did a lot of trail building though (would have been cool with a Mountainbike), so I did something for the local community; you pay 100 quetzal (11 euros) just to be allowed to do the hike. And my legs hate me— glad I can get on the bike again tomorrow. Don't get me wrong, I love the lake and the area, and am enjoying good coffee and food (just not good craft beer, sorry, it was piss water with cacao added). And now only two more days of cycling though, before Antigua Guatemala.もっと詳しく
Chichicastengo
4月4日, グアテマラ ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C
The chichicastenango (or Chichi) market. Allegedly the biggest market in Central America, I made a point out of visiting this on one of the two market days, Thursday or Sunday, and was curious about how big it would really be, what would be sold there, and how the vendors would behave.
Markets in Mexico and Guatemala are really different: in Mexico Kathi and I found that whatever we needed, be that fruits, vegetables, batteries (except for the very special ones), Isopropyl alcohol, snackies, cheese, or chapulines, the best bet was the market. And the markets seemed to be there daily. Not so in Guatemala: a lot of things you only find in Supermarkets and stores, and the markets seemed to be mostly for veggies, fruits, random clothing (really all kinds of cheap clothing dumped on a pile, mostly), sometimes the fabric for Maya clothing, and usually some food stands—my reason for always going there. Batteries, plastic containers, and all that random stuff I haven't seen on these markets. I also found Guatemalan markets a lot smaller than markets in Mexico.
Before Chichicastengo (long names are a thing here), I visited the city of Santa Cruz del Quiché, on the Saturday after Good Friday, finding everything closed. I was actually hoping to, you guessed it, have some good coffee (the local method isn't bad, with sugar, but I still prefer espresso or filter by a lot), but all stores were closed. The market, though, was taking place, like on every day it seems, to have some tayuyos (pupusas by a different name) and mango with pepita; this one didn't have a drink stand though for Horchata or Tamarinde juice (also a lot more reliable in Mexico). What is notable about these markets, the non-touristic ones, is that I always get stared at: especially if I walk around with my bike looking for something and end up on the same spot twice, some people start full-blown staring and joking about me. (I find that quite annoying; there are always some friendly and helpful people though!). That was also the reason I left Santa Cruz quickly and went ahead and pushed on to Chichicastengo on Saturday late afternoon. Worth mentioning also is that on this way, I actually carried rocks in my backpack to throw at some the f*cking annoying dogs, and I have my knive ready. You cannot imagine how annoying, exhausting, scary it is to be harassed by dogs on a steep climb; they also attacked some couple on a motor, but motors are quicker of course.
On Saturday, there was already a small market happening with some food stands, but clearly not the main event. What was immediately notable was the number of foreigners (gringos) around. And I must say, although it is nice sometimes to be in towns that noone visits, people are more relaxed in touristic towns: they have seen "our kind" before: foreigners, tourists. (Being not the most social person, I always frown on how the other tourists behave, but I don't get stared at myself.) So, on Sunday, although I was way early with visiting the market and it was still getting set up at 7 (I don't know why I am waking up earlier and earlier...), pretty soon some vendors started to try to sell stuff to me, but not (!) with "gringo! gringo!" at a clothing stand where I'd have to dig through the pile, but just trying to sell something touristy. It was a huge difference.
So what was the market about? It was a very interesting mixture of local stuff, with lots and lots of stands selling the traditional fabric for the Mayan dresses, called "Huipils", lots of fruit stands and vegetables, some stands selling souvenirs and crafts, some selling masks for traditional dances, and some of course selling all kinds of clothing. Some also couldn't decide and sold the traditional fabric, but also meat in between. Live animals were also to be found, and on the steps to the church were the flower ladies located. Of course some of the vendors were quite aggressive in trying to sell stuff and get my attention — also because I was really the first gringo walking around — but not overly, and they were super friendly or relaxed throughout (unlike some experiences I have of Zanzibar). Haggling was definitely to be done though, because the prices went down significantly during some interactions I had...) The one thing I was really hoping to buy here, sandals, I didn't manage to find here. Sandals for men just doesn't seem to be a thing here.
There was also a hidden food market that was placed in a gym, which I tried to locate only for a picture, but found myself being forced inside due to the many local people wanting to buy food there. And in this area, I seemed to one again be the only tourist. By the way, some tourists are just overdoing it with the "oh this is interesting, wow!" and trying to talk with everyone. So yes, despite it being so big, there was one group of women who scared me in their overly be-happy be-social behaviour, such that I was trying to avoid them.もっと詳しく
K'iche' maya villages
4月3日, グアテマラ ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C
I entered the Maya highlands alright, and the road went from 300 meter to 1500 to 2150 meter. And then back down to 1200 again. The Spanish once wanted to capture the Cuchumatanes, as it is called here, hoping to find gold and other treasures, but they didn't manage to capture everything here due to the very difficult terrain (and I can't blame them). Also, there were a few smaller Maya clans, the Ixil and Uspantek Maya, who were frequently, quoting Wikipedia, "harassing" the Spanish, which led the Spanish to want to capture both of these territories; the Uspantek lived in (and around, I guess) a town called Uspantán. When the spanish tried taking Uspantán, they were ambushed from the rear by the Mayans, routing the Spanish. It took another year and a long battle for the Spanish to finally capture both the Ixil and Uspantek Mayans.
Also worth mentioning is the faith of these Maya villages in the civil war: government forces considered the Mayas to be part of the guerilla movement and targeted the villages purposefully. Then, in the 80s, came "Operation Sophia", targeted at ending guerilla warfare. What happened is that (U.S. backed) government forces of Guatamala committed genocide on the indigenous Mayans in a lot of these small villages, most notably (if I have it correctly) on the Ixil, and killed around 200.000 people and destroyed 626 villages across Guatemala. (This genocide is what I also mentioned in an earlier footprint, about Nueva Horizonte, but that was Petén.)
Nevertheless, both Ixil and Uspantek belong to the Quiché department, or k'iche'. I didn't visit the Ixil — one or two mountains too far— but did end up in Uspantán, which lies up a long climb starting at 620 and ending at 1800 meters. And I had a surprise waiting for me on Friday the 3rd, when I had planned to continue on to Sacapulas (another small Maya town). Well, two surprises, as on Thursday I learned about the platana drink, which is made from plantains. But the bigger one was on Friday: Viernes Santo, or good Friday! (I am not keeping track of the calendar properly...). I had heard of there being parades worth seeing on this day, and they put up very delicate, very long, very beautiful "carpets" all through the town. And as far as I know, overnight(!), because I didn't see them on Thursday evening.
So I waited for the procession, had some hot chocolate, and sure enough they started carrying the cross and Jesus all around town, accompanied by (not too in-tune) music and incense. Insanely impressive how much work went into the carpets, and for how long they were carrying that heavy Jesus grave around town.
Then, while cycling, I saw the same thing in small villages on the way, and in the smallest of villages they even constructed these carpet artworks on the roads. In the evening in Sacapulas there was another procession, without carpets, and I don't know enough about Christianity to know if this was a different one or not. I had a quick look, and online there are large descriptions of all the different processions they do throughout the week in Antigua, so I am sure I missed out on some important details.
I am now on the way onto the capital of the El Quiché department, Santa Cruz del Quiché, but since I already had enough material for this footprint I will wrap the K'Iche' story up for now. Next up should be the Chichicastengo market.もっと詳しく
Where the river hides under the earth
3月30日〜4月1日, グアテマラ ⋅ 🌧 23 °C
This title is definitely not original and probably used and abused by countless travel-bloggers, nevertheless the Q'eqchi' Mayans could hardly have picked a better name for the phenomenon at Semuc Champey— that is what "semuc Champey" means in their language. And hide under the earth it does, and it is truly a weird sight to witness.
From Finca Ixobel I had a hunderd kilometer partially-rough-gravel (and that means something in guatemala) route in front of me, and then a steep uphill which I would have to descend again too, to visit the waterfall and sight. And since I don't see much sense in going up a hill, going down, and then going up again a day or two later, I opted for asking around for busses to nearby Lanquín, which is close to where Semuc Champey is located. I was told there was a bus, then that there wasn't, then that there was one at 9.30 (first I was told 8), and in the end one showed up at 8.40 am. So there was, indeed, a bus, but it was crammed. Like all the way people-hanging-outside-the-door crammed, for the entire 3 hour drive up a horrible steep gravel path, with nothing to hold on to. (It would have been less crammed if you would spread the people over the bus, but apparently the seats in the middle are holy and so everyone who doesn't have a seat, like me, has to stand in the small space next to the door and hold on for dear life onto whatever you can grab... Guatemalans.)
Anyway, all went well, the bike survived, and I descended to where I thought Semuc Champey was located; turned out I still had to push it over a 4 km hill with 15-20% incline pretty much all the way through. I was dead just from those measly 4 kilometers.
On Tuesday early morning I went to visit the natural sight, and because I was early got both the viewpoint and the pools nearly all to myself. Basically, Semuc Champey consists of a natural limestone _bridge_, and the river formed a path underneath through erosion. The swimming area and calm waters is the "bridge", and the river goes underneath. The pictures don't do it justice.
I took one of the small "tuktuk" (made in India) taxis to Lanquín and back again, and also checked out the caves next to the sight: the Kan'ba cave. This was another unexpected adventure, as visiting the cave involves swimming in the dark, walking over underwater rocks, climbing, and going down an underground dark hidden waterslide. It was really fun; except I think I pissed off the guide at the end, because I didn't tip. I didn't think tipping a guide, if the price is specifically for the guide and him alone, would be a thing. I am just not good at that.
One more thing worth mentioning: I have come to insist like 4 times on looking for something "sin carne", and also now explain to people that "rez" is meat, "jamon" is meat, "pollo" is meat. With all that out of the way, I answered the question "how would you like your eggs?", with "omelette". And I get served a ham-and-cheese omelette. Come on, that's just taking the piss.もっと詳しく
Nuevo Horizonte and Finca Ixobel
3月27日, グアテマラ ⋅ 🌧 25 °C
I will start with the end: I was still quickly losing motivation on the bike, quickly tired on the bike, despite not having done that many kilometers and the temperatures being pretty good. So I will chill a day extra to just do something else and relax for a day in a beautiful location where not many tourists go: Finca Ixobel. Or, the location isn't that amazing, but the accommodation all the more so.
But the highlight of the last two days (yes, I am posting a lot of footprints!) was definitely a very small community called "Nueva Horizonte", which I didn't know anything about, except that it was only 33km from Flores and that I could sleep there. So I left Flores sometime around 11 or 12 on Thursday, found the very small town (if it is even that!) and, after having been led to my room, checked out the nearby cute little lake. There was a big group of other tourists there in town, all Guatemalans, and the tour guide was a guy from Belize who spoke immaculate English, so I had my first full conversation with a local here; nothing groundbreaking, just saying. However, back in "town" I checked out the Museum, museo de nuevo horizonte, which was incredibly detailed and well done. I found out the following during and after the museum (of which I don't understand everything yet...), but will summarize it here.
Nueva Horizonte was founded by men and women demobilized during the civil war to a small farm nearby Flores, having fought on the FAR, a communist guerrilla group, side during the civil war. They started a small community nearby, centered on community organization, and set up a museum in 2022 to showcase the history of Petén, the civil war, and the community. And here they did an excellent job.
It starts of with information of the old Itza-Maya culture—these were the people that also lived in Chichen Itza, and settled around Petén later —moves on the battles with the Colonialists, where they resisted for a very long time; something I already hinted at in the last footprint. Apparently, the Itza and Flores (or Nojpetén) were the last unconquered native kingdom to fall to the Spanish. Then, glossing over this part of history, there was a lot of internal fighting in the 19th century. But the most interesting is the modern history of the 20th century: after authoritarian and corrupt governments in which the United Fruit Company had something to say, when a social revolution took place around 1944 with the October Revolution, which led to the best period in Modern history in Guatemala: socialist government which led the country to a modern Capitalist state. But also, the government around 1951 tried to stop the influence of the United Fruit Company and the US, and tried becoming more communistic. That wasn't allowed by the US, and they installed one of their own authoritarian leaders into power in Guatemala with a CIA operation PBSuccess. Like they did in so many other countries.
Well, the civil war kicked off and lasted until the agreement of 1996, and the Museum showed a lot of pictures of camps within Guatemala, in Petén, of victims and refugees of the civil war. Truly impressive. I also got to talk with one of the artists who did some of the paintings in the Museum, and had a very brief talk with him about politics and the Museum.
Also interesting is that, in the Museum, I again ran into the guy from Belize mentioned above: he said that currently, in his opinion, Guatemala now has the worst president of all time. I didn't know who it was, but this is also interesting: it is the son of one of the most beloved presidents, Arévalo. People feel betrayed by him. I did some research though, and it turns out that he is mostly facing an uphill battle against a highly corrupt system, where the Attorney General, María Consuelo Porras, has constantly tried to obstruct him at every single move, and is considered highly corrupt. And as such, the promises of his campaign have mostly failed. He also lost a lot of popularity with the declaration of the state of emergency this year, which arose due to his actions against the Cartels, where no arrests were made. Conclusion for now: it seems like a premature or somewhat naive conclusion to call him the worst president, when corruption and crime makes his job rather impossible. But maybe it is me who is being naive.
Ok, that's enough of that. In the evening the town also gave a cultural presentation for the group that was visiting, and I was allowed to also join. I slept in a hall in which they put up a dormitory, and I imagine army bunk beds to be better: it was hard, with a rock for a pillow. Then the day after (Friday) I also visited a small museum of Maya pieces in a small city called Dolores, where they were super happy to have me as a guest. They showed me around and insisted on taking pictures of me: I think I look tired. Nevertheless, the Museum was very interesting.
Last thing: to get where I am now from Flores, I took the main road because otherwise it would have taken forever. Well, drivers here are crazy, and trucks can be very, very dirty (African level dirty). They frequently overtake before blind corners when you cannot possibly see what's coming behind, with not enough speed, where it could only go well if there were no traffic coming. Which they cannot know. It is really crazy and scary to see; I haven't seen an accident yet and I don't know how—just a dead dog freshly killed on the road.もっと詳しく
Flores and Tikal
3月25日, グアテマラ ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C
There is always something exciting about crossing country borders: will things be the same? How are the people? How safe is it? How are the roads? Did I miss the immigration office? The last question was relevant in this particular case, as the physical border was quite distinct from the administrative border: a 3 minute boat ride took me across the Usamacinta river, changing cash was easy (having the exchange rate saved on my phone helped in negotiating), but because the border crossing was so remote the immigration office was about 10 km up the road. Or, it was hard to call it a "road", as it was a rough welcome with hills across very very rough gravel. The video I uploaded isn't nearly the worse part— the bobbing up and down (this is actually a stabilized video) is what it was like for 30 km in total, and it got worse—the video was taken when I finally reached the immigration building after 10 km. Had something of a chat with the immigration officers who wanted to know about my bike, and not too far further up the road I got to the first real difference: Chocobananas in a small roadside tienda! I had heard if these chocofrutas, hadn't seen them anywhere in mexico, and in Guatemala they seem to be really a thing to be found throughout: frozen fruit, dipped in chocolate. Its really good, with no plastic waste either. Of which there is plenty.
The gravel turned better and eventually turned into tarmac, and I decided to make it a long day in the saddle. (It was hard.) Ended up in La Libertad, took a very shitty hotel, and found another new thing for dinner that I had been wanting to try: Pupusas. Basically, fried filled tortillas. Really heavy but a reliable vegetarian option(!) The hotel was a horrible choice though, as there were a lot of cockroaches walking around to greet me when I got back after dinner and there was mold on all the walls; a thing to note is to not rely on these shitty places and take time to find decent accommodation. For the rest part of the route, I have kind of planned ahead.
The next day it was only a short ride to a tourism hotspot: picturesque Flores and nearby Tikal. Flores is a small cute little island lying of Santa Elena, and there is only tourism here; tourism that makes it a safe option to chill for a while and have (hopefully) good food, opportunities to watch the culture mismatch (lots of Dutchies here!), and have a hostel with AC, drinking water, decent showers, and no cockroaches.
Flores used to be a maja city itself, Nojpetén, and was actually very long-lasting — a lot longer than Tikal — even withstanding attacks from the Spanish conquerors for nearly 150 years from the first attacks, until it was successfully destroyed (that's what the Spanish wanted after all, wasn't it?) Now it is a popular tourist town for checking out nearby ruins in the jungle, and that's also the primary reason I came here. For visiting tikal you have to lay down quite some $$, and there are multiple options, including (paying maximum price and) getting up at the inhumane hour of 2.20 am to do a sunrise tour and watch the sun rise from on of the highest temple. Naturally, because I have to do some crazy shit this trip, I went for this option; also to see if the hype is justified.
However, I fucked up the evening before by eating from the wrong street food stand (I really should have known better and not have trusted her), which upset my stomach and kept me awake until 12 am. Me worrying about food is really a theme I would love to do without in this trip. Hence, my preparation of the ungodly early pickup time was as bad as it gets, and although I was doing reasonably well at the start, I was barely able to stay awake at the end of the tour. And, I learned that I didn't know enough of food poisoning, bacteria, food-safety, etc; you're always supposed to learn something life-changing on trips like these so I count that in.
Alright, Tikal: the sunrise was nice indeed, I saw a tucan and yellow-breasted falcon waking up, and we were there before the loud monkeys got to do there thing. I also realized I thought the sunrise had happened before it did, apparently, because I thought it was done before it had happened. Our tour guide was the most enthusiastic you can imagine about the spider monkeys around and the different birds to be seen, and tried his best explaining the very cool astronomical layout of the temples that the Mayans set up: they are laid out so that by cross-referencing the temples and sunrise, the time of the year can be determined, and their calendar is really advanced and interesting. (However, I think he got some details wrong.) Also, the pyramids are set up to echo sounds, demonstrated with clapping; "Tikal" is interpreted to mean "the place of the voices". And having watched the National Geographic documentary on Tikal (and its fall) before also helped me bother him some more with some questions, which ended up being quite interesting. For example, one of the last rulers (chocolate head? I don't know his name) was massively obese, which was determined by scientists to be because of bacteria in the water around the palace. And here all or some of the temples are also actually layered, being built by multiple generations over previous generations to celebrate new battles, or just as acts of pure vanity. Not sure what else to say about Tikal, other than that it is really, really big, and I'm glad I visited it.
I'm not entirely sure yet if I'll leave tomorrow or the day after, in any case I calculated that visiting Belize by bike and doing some diving will make me short on time, so I have decided to go straight south to Semuc Champey. This way I won't miss the parts in Guatemala I wanted to visit.もっと詳しく
Yaxchilán
3月22日, メキシコ ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
I didn't do the full trip in one day, as I was tired and not motivated, and the 130 km I had planned was overly ambitious. So I visited a crocodile sanctuary somewhere along the route — I didn't see any, just some lakes and mosquitoes, but I did find company in a dog who showed me around—and went to another old Maya tourist village near Bonampak and treated myself to a cabin for the night. This particular Maya village, Lacanja Chansayab, has adapted a lot to tourism: souvenir shops and campsites everywhere, and lots of activities that are quite expensive. Visiting the local Maya site Bonampak is also only allowed by using their transport, and they wanted too much money for it so I passed. Did have a really nice cabin next to a waterfall there, where I made my own dinner and breakie because vegetarian food is so difficult for Mexicans.
Around this area — most certainly "the jungle" — there are a lot of interesting sounds. At the lodge there were birds making cat-sounds (I thought it was a cat...) And on the road to Frontera Corozal I could already hear the Bronchitis monkeys (aka "howler monkeys") screaming. And now, having lunch, I hear some sound of which I'm not sure if it is a bird or a monkey. (It was a parrot!)
I reached the border town Frontera Corozal at about 10, and saw a few tourist busses passing me, so I thought to be sure I would manage to join a tour for visiting the Maya ruins. I go to the right place, and the difficulty starts: first the guy asks 3000 something pesos. I tell him, in my broken and admittedly horrible Spanish, that no, I want to join a group; he tells me it's quiet today and there might not be a group. So I already know he's bullshitting me, because I saw all the tourist busses, but I ask to wait. Literally 3 minutes later he tells me that there is a bus coming and I can join; next I had to talk a bit off of that price, too, and I'm sure I still paid more than needed, but I was able to join a tourist group with maybe ten minutes of waiting time. Mexicans...
The boat trip is quite long with 25 km to the site by boat (we did see a croc) , but the ruins are beautifully situated in the middle of the jungle. You walk up steep walking paths between lush forest and hearing the monkeys scream, and then the acropolis(seses) suddenly appear. The family of Jaguars (they were all Jaguar head 1,2,3,...) built some pretty impressive buildings there with funky artwork (celebrating their greatness). By the way, all Maya cities used a lot of "stucco" for painting their buildings, for which they took and burned down huge parts of the rainforest for painting their houses. So they certainly weren't that environmentally friendly. Fun fact: using e-DNA scientists found that this also contributed to very bad water pollution (at least in Tikal), which might have contributed to the abandonment of the cities. And another fun fact: in Yaxchilan they found arrow-head remains in one of the acropolises, indicating that it was used as a defence "castle" during the last siege, and that was probably also when the city was abandoned. Lots of fighting, like I mentioned in the last post.
I could not imagine ending my last post in Mexicans without complaining about Mexicans: they guy from the boat told me "doce en punto!", which meant only one hour of walking around, but I was sure he said twelve, and so I hurried to get back at twelve for the boat back. And of course," twelve, sharp" does not mean twelve in mexico; I was the only one there. So I ran back up the (seriously steep) hill to have look at the acropolis (there are three!) that I hadn't found yet, and then also found the rest of the group. In effect, the return time was 12.40, and he told me another time. (There is no way I would not have understood "doce y cuarenta".) Figure your shit out, especially if you feign punctuality, *sshole.
Tomorrow morning I will leave for Guatamala and reach Flores in one or two days, where I will stay for a few days.もっと詳しく
旅行者Side note: I did enjoy it here, I just always complain about people everywhere all the time. Many people have been super friendly and, for example, gave me directions even when I didn't ask for it, and greet me on the street when cycling past. (Although some also give me angry looks.)
Toniná Maya site and zapatista villages
3月19日, メキシコ ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C
I was really close to stopping this trip and booking a flight home, given the food poisoning and especially the fever and forced bedrest. Luckily people from home supported me, and luckily things turned a bit better slowly. I left from San Cristóbal on Tuesday morning feeling fine again, just a tad weak, but definitely good enough to continue.
After a day of cycling through coffee fields with amazing views — and having a "gringo!" shout on camera — I decided to not go for weird rooms over a pharmacy that someone mentioned online, but to ask somewhere if I could camp somewhere. And after a (really beautiful) downhill my legs and body really screamed that it couldn't go on with the next uphill— that I did start—so I turned around and asked at something that looked like a Restaurant, a Restaurant with a big garden behind it, if I could maybe camp there. They were super accommodating (even if there was garbage lying around everywhere and the dogs were a nightmare) so I had a safe night of sleep. Turns out, this town was actually a "Zapatista" town, of local government and not following what the government says, primarily advocating for the rights of Indigenous people in the southern state of Chiapas. I ended up seeing a lot more of those towns — basically all the towns past Ocosingo. It's a bit of a rebellious community-driven anti-capitalist movement and a very local form of government, as far as I could understand, also from talking with the guide of the Toniná Maya site; more on the Maya site in a bit. (What definitely didn't improve from their self-governance and resistance is the quality of the roads.)
The following day was again a lot of climbing, that would bring me to Ocosingo. I was warned of this place—two cyclists were murdered here a few years back—so I was extra weary. However, everything was fine, no weird looks, no weird faces, just a hectic (due to traffic, like every Mexican city we've been to except Oaxaca), chaotic, and not exciting city. Also asked for a quesadilla without meat there, and that wasn't possible; I really thought I explained well to just make one sencilla, but still ended up getting one with ham inside. It's difficult. Nevertheless I managed to get to the campsite near the Maya ruins: The Maya ruins that turned out to be closed for two years, due to land disputes between the owner of the land and the government. (I wasn't the only one not to know, I talked with other German guests and they also had no idea.) I was explained the entire story from a lady from Czech who came to volunteer here for a while and has a big interest in Maya culture (not the one we saw in San Juan Chamula, where the culture seems to be a tourist travesty of what it once was, and they just drink and have tourist-funded posh-ceremonies all day long), and she also told me seeing the site IS possible, just have to ask for a private tour and pay more.
That campsite was nice, but the campsite the following day (Friday) near Nahá—after another super heavy day of cycling—is even nicer. Really quiet with lots of birds around and a beautiful area. I also met two Belgium cyclists who did the same route as we did there.
So, about the Maya: I watched a documentary before from National Geographic, and researched wiki a bit to learn about the many battles between Palenque and Tikál, where one kidnapped the leader of the other and vice versa, and that many times over (slight oversimplification there). It was really a lot of wars and fighting, despite the beginning of Maya civilization probably having been unification through religion and worship. The guide also talked with some pride of how the Tonina rulers captured the palenque city, and how Toniná became the dominant city that got paid tribute to from everywhere around, because it was so powerful. (Except, as I understood it, fighting and diseases also caused all Maya cities in the area to fall apart and be deserted, except highland and places like Chichen Itzá that were farther away.)
In the town I am now in, Nahá, live Lacandon Maya who still preserved most of their traditional culture and habits, and live only in a few remote villages. (They do have blenders in the kitchen, and they seemed all to eager to let me hear it.) It's an interesting read on Wikipedia; and I did see some people in traditional white robes.
Tomorrow I will go to the border town of Frontera corozal, and visit another Maya site there (by boat), to then enter Guatamala the next day (also by boat).もっと詳しく
旅行者Must read about Zapatistas: https://www.cafe-libertad.de/zapatismus. They achieved a lot for their own social well-being, against military power of the government. It is said the region is more dangerous, but I didn't notice anything. (Except they do distrust foreigners and the state, I have heard.)
Continuing on
3月14日, メキシコ ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C
I am not sure if we have mentioned it, but Tuxtla Gutierrez was hot. 35+ degrees hot; and that's not ideal for cycling. So on Wednesday I left a little after sunrise (6.40) on a route around the canyon, to take a more scenic route to San Cristobal. And I planned something Kathi would have hated — I hated it too, partially — namely, small, steep, rocky, bad gravel paths, all to avoid the car road out of tuxtla. It was heavy and I was sweating even that early on. But at some point the single- and double-tracks leveled off and become a gravel road again, I entered farmland with a flock of cows, horses, dogs and Ponys all in one picture. (Sadly, the picture isn't worth sharing). Oh, and in a town a bit further up, I got my, and our, first genuine "oh my god, a gringo!" Shout. Worth it, I guess: it made me laugh out loud.
The route went back to the canyon and gave me amazing views, this time from above, and went to Osumacinta. From there it went up-up-up again, and it was already getting hot-hot-hot. So, I was suffering. Luckily at some point a few genuine mountain streams (with lots of water!) Showed up for amazing cool-down options. At one, before another big climb, I met some other local bikers of whom one spoke English, so I had a genuine conversation about cycling. (Well, as much as I was capable, given my fatigue, to hold a conversation.)
I made it to another shitty hotel in another small village where I got faces of disbelief upon asking for vegetarian food, and slept for about 10 hours.
The following day I wanted to reach San Cristóbal early, to enjoy coffee, a drink, and maybe buy new shoes (because mine are, excuse my Spanish, proper fucked). The only thing standing between Ixtapa and my destination was 45 km and 1550 meters of climbing (how does this only go uphill?!), on gravel. But, the scenery was very nice, starting from mountain waters and forest to hills covered only with greenhouses containing what looked like only flowers. I finally reached Zincantán sometime around 11, and was somehow surprised it was a shithouse town with nothing to show for. Yes, there was another parade and fireworks, and maybe there is indigenous culture hidden behind the walls, but for a supposedly popular day-trip town there was nothing for me to see— except maybe the flowers of the local greenhouses on the local market. Some places don't understand tourism well; it's more than just opening a stand and selling mangoes and flowers. I did have a brunch tostada there which was very good; it is just not amazing cycling food, and of course there was another climb to go for San Cristóbal.
But, I reached the destination, and visited two bike stores. And guys, I don't get it, and didn't mention it before, but bike and bike-gear prices here are way higher than in Europe. So I would have paid significantly more (like 1.5-2 times!) of what I would pay in Europe. I opted instead in asking a local shoe-repair guy to fix it, and he did an excellent job in an hour for about 8 euros. [Shrug]
I also needed another battery and some more ride snacks, and of course the best place to look for batteries (standard cr2032 ones) is at the market. The market where some young girls giggle constantly over a foreigner (gringo?) talking to them, people constantly walk in different paces and run into one another in way too small corridors, and the market where you just walk around until you find something; but you generally will find it if you search long enough.
So I will go for Guatamala while visiting one or two or three Maya sites on the way, which I should reach in a week. I would say the next post will be all about Mayas; that, and about crossing a bit more dangerous area in Mexico.
I also talked with a guy from a coffee store, and I had coffee upon arriving in San Cristóbal from a village that I am about to visit soon, tenejapa; he mentioned that the local way of drinking coffee is boiling the coffee, like we had it already when camping. He loved it—we were not amazed. Traditional is definitely not always better.
But first, two more days in San Cristóbal, not of my own choosing. The last time of puking wasn't enough, so said Mexican tap water (which I do not drink!) or mexico in general, and I got a slight infection going. Luckily, the closest doctor just one block away from the hostel spoke German(!) and said it wasn't malaria, gave me antibiotics, probiotics, and painkillers. Already feeling slightly better. Plus, this gave me a chance to listen to traveling/hostel people. Should I interrupt a conversation and object to their quest of finding meaning in life through traveling? (Would that be hypocritical?)もっと詳しく
Mexicans *eyeroll*
3月6日, メキシコ ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C
Another (and last) guest commentary by Kathi
Due to the gastrointestinal issues mentioned in the previous post we took the bus to San Cristóbal. It’s a cute little city which was founded by the Spanish and is now conquered by tourists. The mexicans adapted by opening souvenir shops and indian restaurants (not recommended), integrating christianity in their existing mayan religions, and figuring out that coca cola has magical effects; they didn’t figure out, though, to not locate the museums at the very far end of the city.
We educated ourselves on Mayan Medicine as well as Chocolate- due to the included tasting the latter beats the first. Apparently there is one thing I do have in common with Mexicans: chocolate is sacred to us. I just wouldn’t go as far as including it in my prayers or wishing to be fertilized by a cocoa tree.
„O divine chocolate, we grind it on our knees, we beat it with our hands in prayer, and we drink it with our eyes lifted to the heavens.“
Since the puking really messed with my stamina we only did a small biketour to Chamula. The one and only attraction there is the church, where they hold ceremonies including lots of shots of „pox“—the local high-percentage alcohol used for burping, sometimes alternating it with cola to save money— super strong incense, very off-tune music, and sometimes even chicken sacrifices. Luckily, on the day we went there were only families lighting candles, praying, music; and of course more fireworks. (Jacco thought it resembled a couple of drunks trying to have a party more than a religious ceremony.) The plan was to go to Zinacantan after that to buy some souvenirs at the market, but the odds (Komoot, which sent us on a dead end forest track) were against that.
So we went for churros and chocolate instead, Jacco had a mezcalweedbeerdrink, followed by a great vegetarian dinner.
We’re back now in Tuxtla from where I‘m going back to Austria tomorrow.
Yesterday we were supposed to do a tour to Sumidero Canyon but this time it was Jacco’s stomach that interfered with our plans. [I didn't want to leave the puking fun to Kathi alone --- A. d. Red]. At least the agency was very accommodating: „so you cannot take the tour. There’s no cancellation policy, but what you can do is take the tour!“. Uhm, no?! Mexicans....
But things were ok again the next day so instead we took a Colectivo (small bus that stops in random places) to Chiapa de Corzo and did a boattour in the scenic, plasticfilled cañon.
And I must say, as much as I enjoyed this trip, there are certain things that are starting to get on my/our nerves (thus the title). First, people are super loud super early on and late at night. What seems to bother Jacco the most apart from that is the slow walking and not being able to pass--even though I explained to him that most Mexicans are approximately half his size; plus it’s frequently simply too hot to move faster. We also haven’t figured out the traffic rules yet, but when in doubt, honk. So some things we just accept with the explanation „Mexicans 🙄“. But who am I to judge. My tacos are still falling apart.もっと詳しく
Mierda que pasa
3月3日, メキシコ ⋅ 🌙 23 °C
After writing the previous footprint in Ciudad Ixtepec, there was another go-see-what's-up call: fireworks and loud music. Turns out to have been another carnaval parade with dancing and music on the streets, where Kathi also caught a useless little Cheetos bag that I am now using as a coin-wallet. After that, we had dinner in a US-style diner — or at least that's what we took it to be— to pay too much for a salad and a sandwich, so we went to a taco place afterwards for the main dish.
The next day was supposed to be a longer flat ride on the way too tuxtla, but after some weird gravel section I felt super weak, and was struggling to keep up with Kathi on the highway that followed. And we were supposed to follow that highway for the entire day with no alternative... So we changed course, decided to go to the beach, and figure things out there. Kathi also spotted a coffee shop in some town on the way, and of course a coffee break is hardly ever a bad idea. Then, when I was talking about the podcast I was listening to about the Anthropic vs Pentagon fight, another (white) guy who had just shown up started quite loud with "what are you doing here!?!". Initially, our reaction was to not start a conversation, but he seemed genuinely interested, and it turned out he was a Gringo from Florida who had moved nearby to a ranch (close to in the middle of nowhere) who just didn't expect any white people in THIS town. Because, according to him, there were a lot of sketchy people around; he even pointed some out to us. We were invited to visit him and his wife on his ranch, and they gave us some tips on where to go near the beach. It was an amazing conversation with them.
Coffee did wonders for me and we reached the, I must say, super uninteresting and ugly town of Salina Cruz; it was good the two people just mentioned gave us a nice beach location, because the town itself is really not worth it. We went to "playa brasil" and, after the price for a beach room magically went up from 200 pesos to 800 pesos when talking with some woman at the first spot we tried (she also didn't seem to notice or acknowledge the peculiarity of this abrupt and drastic price hike), we were allowed to camp on the beach in front of some beach restaurant. An amazing spot.
(Well... During the night I got scared that the waves were getting too close due to the tides changing, but that was fine. And in the morning, after the attached tent-view beach photo was taken, one of our first conversations was:
- "did the dog just shit on our tent?!"
- "yes. Yes he fucking did."
Not ideal.)
We had decided the evening before to go visit the people mentioned above this day and then take the bus to Tuxtla, but Kathi's movistar network again didn't reach to the beach, and it turned out that they, because they didn't hear from us [shrug] were going to a wedding instead. So, yeah, instead we decided to take the bus to Tuxtla, and cycle to San Cristóbal from there.
All of that went fine, until Kathi started feeling uneasy in the evening, and that unease quickly developed into a full-blown food poisoning with a full night and half a day of vomiting. According to some, "part of the foreigner price [of travelling in mexico]". We still don't know what caused it, because we shared basically everything. Ah, she also had her credit card sucked in by an ATM; Glück im Unglück, because of the food poisoning, we were still there on Monday to re-collect the card at the bank.
In the meantime, I checked out Tuxtla a bit: a much more modern city with not a lot of tourism, but big markets, food chains, and very very busy traffic. I had coffee with the locals (in a not hipster store, which I enjoy way more due to the authentic feeling), tried eating vegetarian but failed twice (once by ordering the wrong thing—rez is not arroz— second time by not getting what I ordered), and wandered rather aimlessly in the markets. Also tried understanding the Cartel situation and the who's-who of Cartel gangs and who's-where, and apparently we are now in a sub-gang (?) of the Sinaloa cartel.
We tried cycling today, as Kathi was looking better, but it was too early and we turned back. So tomorrow we are taking the bus to San Cristóbal and the cycling fun starts again in a week — alone. =(もっと詳しく
Getting out of the jungle
2月26日, メキシコ ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C
The rain in San Miguel Quetzaltepec did stop, just at the point we were about to say "fuck this/hilft ja ned". When I wanted to get some peanuts for the road when leaving, I nearly bought local unroasted coffee beans in a supermarket, which is a pleasant catch in multiple ways; I don't want to chew on coffee beans. (By the way, the coffee that you find in the rainforest, brewed locally, doesn't taste like coffee and is worse than the instant coffee we ourselves are making for breakfast.)
We started cycling /pushing our bike up more than 10% hills again and realized that it actually was a rainforest. We just didn't know how big it was. As Kathi put it on day one: "wow, this is endless 😍". And on day three: "wow, this is endless 😵💫😭". The riding was frequently beautiful with amazing vistas, but we really wanted some signs of civilization again: not having to ask around for food, having power, maybe even internet reception. We have already given up on expecting good or decent roads, though.
We camped twice, first by asking a farmer if we could acampar on his land for a night (between the f*cking ants), and the second time by following a river downstream and, again by asking, camping on a beautiful spot next to cocao beans and seeing tucans in the morning. We did have to cross a river by foot for that one, though. And we might have gotten ripped off by a jungle grandma we stopped at for lunch.
The initial road we planned went straight through the country, and we deviated from that to now go through a shorter route, close to the Pacific ocean, to tuxtla. On the way here, ciudad Ixtepec, we found the end of the rainforest and with that again dry and hot lands. We both had no idea however, that the rainforest that we were in, stretches all the way to north of tuxtla, so we will catch up with that again in about 4-5 days.
Today, the rest and restocking day, we had among other things some good tlayudas, huevos, chilaquiles, and horchata. We visited the local market — as I learned an excellent way to see culture and local people — where, as in so many places, the first row of stores were all selling the same stuff, chicken, then all vegies, and then some other stuff. The way of organizing (?) these is just remarkable.もっと詳しく
A mix of everything /entering the jungle
2月23日, メキシコ ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C
Starting from oaxaca on... which day is it again?... we had two more "must-see" tourist destinations to visit: Mitla and the Hierve el Agua. The first was must-see it because it was on the way anyway; the second because after the excruciating climb up there, anything becomes worth seeing by virtue of being the reward of the journey.
Actually, Mitla was a bit of a let-down with a very small archeological site and very few information — but I had Mexican "pizza" (tlayuda) with grasshoppers and Kathi a maassive quesadilla which was the highlight of the town for us. The climb to Hierve el Agua never got down 10% and was 600 meters of climbing, the descent to the town was so rough it also destroyed my jacket, and we were passed by multiple tourist busses going there (stupid tourists) but it _was_really nice there. A small pool, "waterfalls" of hardened calcium, and amazing views. Just bad facilities.
At that point we decided to not do any tourist-trap hunting for a bit (consciously or unconsciously), and we had even more climbing to do. Seriously, it just goes up and down continuously. We stopped early in a bigger town on the second day in a hotel with hot water (!), but the day to come was really an adventure.
First, I found out by accident that Kathis rear brakepads were through, and came to the very unpleasant discovery that Sram Apex 1 brakepads are not the same as sram apex 2 brakepads. I would like to post the meme of Bauke Mollema yelling "FUCKING SRAM!" Here. Luckily, it seems to work. Then came the dogs. These f*cking dogs here are really a nightmare, and as bad as in greece. Then came the rain, sometimes when pushing our bikes uphill, and the rain doesn't come in small doses here. We decided we have now visited a Rainforest: it is still raining while I write this (Monday morning).
In the late afternoon, soaking wet, we came to San Miguel Quetzaltepec, where we first wanted food and then a hotel. We asked around for food and were pointed by people to literally abandoned buildings. While having given up, and looking for the hotel, some guy said "how are you" without laughing, which we were grateful for, as it is generally a sign of speaking English. We asked for food, and he let us into another empty looking building, up two flights of stairs, to a room with two chairs, one table, and a big kitchen. Yes, there was a woman cooking there and she served us Mexican hot chocolate and Tamales (with chicken, which I ate because sometimes you don't have a choice). A very weird experience. We did have the Mexican thick cinnamon-spiced hot chocolate which was amazing.
Then we got to the hotel—a real shithouse—without electricity, where the lady asked 200 pesos which is way overpriced. She even asked for money for toilet paper when I asked for that: I refused the kind offer.
While now still hoping the rain lets off, another "communist" announcement in some native tongue is blasted through the local loudspeakers.もっと詳しく
Oaxaca touristy things
2月19日, メキシコ ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C
As the improper tourists we are, we had a bit of stressing around town to do to find spare batteries for my water purifier, electrolyte powder, and cooking alcohol. And we might have gone to thirty stores in total asking around for those things, but we got it all. First things first.
After all that, we had time and energy to do sightseeing, drink some excellent local coffees — not instant like you get in the small towns — and have some amazing food. And we didn't even have the shits yet, after having had some cold rice drink (horchata) with ice, tacos from roadside stands, and icecream from the market. In oaxaca you will manage as a vegetarian; in smaller pueblos it is not always easy and we will resort to cooking ourselves a bit more often.
On Wednesday we went to the biggest archeological site around, the _real_ Monte Alban, which was a city more than 2000 years ago and has a lot of temples. Temples temples temples. And a ball court (unknown if they also sacrificed the winner to the gods here). Mostly, it was super hot up there, which robbed you of all energy pretty quickly. We are both happy to have taken a tourist bus up there, and not to have tried going up there on our own accord (least of all bike up there).
Today we did a Mexican (Oaxacan) cooking class, where we made our own tortillas, empanadas, mole, saw foodbunnies that were so cute but "not ready for eating yet", and drank mezcal. Good way to get ready for more days of cycling, in the direction of tuxtla.もっと詳しく
One battle after another
2月16日, メキシコ ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
A guest commentary by Katharina Varga
After leaving the hotel in the morning we started the part of the route that scared me the most. Lots of uphill, somehow no downhill. What kept me going was the occasional coke from a small Tienda and the rush of adrenaline you get when a pack of dogs tries going after you.
So when we reached Santiago Apoala after a rare “wobbly bobbly” downhill section (which cost me a sandal and the sleeve of my jacket) we decided that we deserve a rest day. Came in handy that it was not only really beautiful there, but also a big carnival hotspot. So naturally the gringos had to crash the party.
The day after started as usual by pushing our bikes up a hill (yes, we also ride them from time to time) and ended in an amazing view, where we set up our tent.
Then came our last day before going back to Oaxaca. We stopped in St. Ines at what seemed to be a restaurant to get some breakfast. Actually we got invited by a family to join their brunch. Jacco asked one of the guys what they were celebrating. Turns out someone died. Oops. So I didn’t dare to tell them that I was a vegetarian and silently ate my way around the chicken they served us (sauce was pretty good though).
Today we treated ourselves by taking a zero elevation route to Oaxaca. The price was to nearly get bitten by a bunch of dogs- still worth it.もっと詳しく
旅行者Best conversation of the trip (Struggling up a steep climb) : - why would you put a river up a hill? - they didn't [we weren't there yet] - no who would put a river up a hill?! - they didn't - who didn't?! Ah, never mind...
Vamos a volver por el gato
2月12日, メキシコ ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C
Our first dinner in mexico was street tostadas served on a roadside stand by some grandma, and were — also due to the difficulty involved in eating them — an amazing welcome. We love the food; but we wonder how long it takes before we get sick of tortillas with beans. Certainly not yet.
Despite the many cars really stinking the place up, people are chill towards cyclists and most of all super friendly in general. Even with my broken Spanish (which kinda works, though!) I/we love the openness of los gentes here 🇲🇽🇲🇽.
We had (local) coffee at a coffee shop with a super cute cat, and either for the coffee or for the cat we might try return there after our cycling trip. Then we wanted to go up Monte Albán, some archeological site, but with my amazing planning we ended up going up the _wrong_ Monte albán: Monte albán Chico. Nice view, but not the same.
(Ah, and we had huge cockroaches in our first apartment.)
Today (12 February) after the usual problems with the first day of cycling, we started tracing the old railroad track that once existed between Oaxaca and mexico city: super steep, heavy, rough, hot, but partially very nice. We had planned to stop at a hotel that was listed on bikepacking.com in an village in the middle of nowhere next to the railroad that no longer exists and, despite our doubts on there being anything whatsoever, we found the hotel operational and the town not deserted. So more tacos and beans for us tonight =).
And also more (different) tacos and beans tomorrow for breakfast.もっと詳しく
Why are they all staring at us?
2月9日, オーストリア ⋅ ☁️ 2 °C
We are on the way to 🏜️fiesta mexicana 🌮 and had a blast carrying the bikes to the train station at 7 am. Either I look like a bum or something was constantly going on behind us, because we were getting a lot of genuine stares. (We just waved back.)
We are flying to mexico city, then to oaxaca (by bus), at which time the cultural education and colonialism can start.もっと詳しく
Things that happen on the way
2024年3月9日, ルワンダ ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C
I have considered taking the bus for a while, because the heat, monotonous landscapes, and mud was getting to me. But I didn't want to give up on either Tanzania or the trip. And I wanted to experience these landscapes the best way I know how to: by cycling.
Well I had to cross a few rivers (because I chose a recommended "shortcut"), maneuver through a mudpool (without again being stuck), but everything went well. Then actually the landcape gradually became greener, and after about 100 kilometers I stumbled on huge boulders in nature; I have no idea where they came from but it was an amazing sight! (Sorry for the bad pictures.) And then I almost got lost in a very Dutch-seeming landscape —except it was ricefields instead of polders—but as in a miracle a sign showed up, saying " jana-isaka road": Exactly where I was headed. And the road was a decent, newly built, gravel path, not flooded anywhere; a miracle or gift from above, saying I should continue.
After that I went fasttracking my way to Kigali, only paved roads and following the quick route, to get there as soon as possible. I haven't done this much cycling during the entire trip, but I loved pushing it to finish the 1100 or so km in around a week. I also got some help from locals giving me momentary pulls; even an old man who was cycling faster than all the kids did.
So I am now in Kigali, and will probably end this blog here. It's been fun. Although I ended it with a flu in Kigali and just spent a few days in bed.
I guess I will end this with life lessons I have learned:
Bring a towel
Bring a toothbrush for cleaning your chain
Bring ducttape (it has saved my trip on numerous occasions: and the cargo of others)
Bring zipties
Keep your chain clean
Chamois cream rocks
Get a better saddle
I have not gotten enough of cycling yetもっと詳しく
Arusha and maasai
2024年3月4日〜7日, タンザニア ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C
Being in countries so bent on incomes from tourism, I also went on a safari and did tourism stuff with a friend here...
All tourists that come here, and there are many, come for Kilimanjaro or Safaris. So I felt like I had to do one, to see what the fuss was about. Well, it's fun seeing these animals =). The coolest was spotting a hornbill (I think an eastern yellow-billed hornbill...), red and yellow barbets, and vultures... But no pictures of that.
I am flying back soon from Kigali, and wanted to blast through the last days to end it with a bang. First day had to cycle up to the plateau of the ngorongoro crater (long climb), and yesterday along lake Eyasi: super long hot stretch with nothing to see except masaai walking around. And then the road turned into sandpaths, which disappeared, reappeared, and turned into a river... I had to call a friend to ask for translation, and apparently I could take a canoe across. Which was fun, except the other side was flooded, so the mud turned into clay, which clogged up my wheels completely... Again.
So I spent that evening, just before dark, removing clay from the wheels and fenders, and about two hours the next morning because I was constantly stuck. If it wasn't for a local woman patiently helping me, I would probably still be in the mud (screaming). This was not fun. Oh, I also took of my front fender because it was the hardest to clean. So no rain anymore for the next stretch, please.
But the pictures are nice.もっと詳しく
Back to tanzania
2024年2月29日, タンザニア ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C
So I just learned the origins of the word "mzungu". It has originally nothing to do with skin color, but rather came from the bantu meaning: wanderer. Kizungu actually means" behaving rich, and so locals could also be called "mzungu"; given this it is no surprise to me that they think all white people have money. Language games dictate lifestyles.
Anyway leaving aside this philological preamble, I left Nairobi on a rainy day and quickly regretted it. Thing is, roads around Nairobi are busy with crazy driving, so I tried a detour, which made me get stuck in the mud for an hour or so: mud or clay got between the fender and my wheel and blocked everything. I managed to escape the mudhell with help from locals, got a bikewash, and following main roads, with tailwind, I got on my way to Moshi. I was recommended a country road and paths north of amboseli, which was absolutely beautiful: very little traffic, amazing views (also of mt Kilimanjaro 100 km away), and even some giraffes. Just sandroads occasionally though, which can be quite tricky to maneuver in.
Like mentioned but deserving a special paragraph: mt Kilimanjaro towers over everything unlike anything I have seen before. Amboseli is nearly completely flat, and you can see the mountain from very far—if it is not in clouds, which it almost always is—standing alone in the Savannah.
Those perpetual clouds also made me have to cross the border in rain, which also made it free from people offering to exchange money: normally there are at least 10 on both sides.
In Moshi it is interesting for me to see the difference with Kenians: Tanzanians like to relax. Everything seems more slow — except the driving. I was very inclined in Moshi to also go and climb Kilimanjaro, but at 1600$ minimum, I will leave this for another time.
I did visit the Materuni waterfall, which is amazing. I also think I got ripped off by a local guy, at the materuni village.もっと詳しく
Nairobi (and some of Kenya)
2024年2月21日, ケニア ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C
From the border at Kenya, where they have replaced visa with "electronic travel authorization" for which you have to apply and pay 30$ but which is _not_ a visum, because Kenya is "visa-free" (the biggest bullshit I have encountered anywhere on this trip), I went to Kakamega forest, the only rainforest in Kenya. On the way I again had problems with my front brake—it was getting worse — so I again did road-side piston cleaning somewhere in a small town, which only helped for a while. It was rubbing constantly, so I tried to brake as little as possible: kind of deathgripping some sections.
Kenya is definitely more developed than Uganda, with much more schools, supermarkets, and buildings rather than "shacks" as in Uganda.
In kakamega forest I joined a sunrise walk for amazing views, and spent the afternoon trying again to make the brake work: I got some improvement done. The next morning, earlier than my early alarm: diarrhea. So did a 30 km ride only with lots of climbing and with a visit to a local church where they were jamming like it was a party, helped by imodium. That only lasted one day though (probably caused by bad water...), so the next day I climbed yo nearly 3000 meters, first encountering lots of kenyan long distance runners (kapsabet), and then encountering very bad gravel roads downhill, with bad functioning brakes (just enough to save me, it was really cool actually).
In the end of the day my front brakes really refused though, after the pistons were rubbbbbing again and pushing them back rendered them unusable, so I was forced to take a bus to Nairobi.
Ok so now I get finally to talk about Nairobi. As you know I am interested in (in)equality, living conditions, observing cultures, etc. Well I read "going down river road" before I got here, and I was dropped off by the bus a street away from river road, in the center of "genuine" nairobi, the real deal, the real mess. The area around the busstop struck me as a shithole: busy, cheap, somewhat poor and dirty, with many beggars (I was corrected later that "those beggars were very few") but many friendly locals. Very very busy with traffic. Go a few blocks out and you have small shopping malls, which are like western cities. Go 5 kilometers out—were the bike shop was, a very good one by the way— to the UN complex, and it is a separate world, with western people living luxuriously, lots of international restaurants, guards everywhere, and clear cultural divisions: the locals serve the foreigners. Go a bit outside of that and you have massive villas and houses, where the expats and UN personnel live. The division and different worlds of Nairobi are unreal; the inequality is possibly the biggest I have experienced anywhere. What's more, near the hostel I am staying there is a street full off big houses and hotels, and the street itself is guarded because of it (no embassies or anything). Go one street behind it, and the people serving there live, in shacks, slumbs, and poor makeshift housing. It is just a city of divides, where the separation of colonialism has been swapped by a similar economic separation.
I have heard a defence that these lifestyles also create jobs for the locals, and so it helps them. It's self-gratification; the poverty is not combatted by receiving big salaries and living in houses built by very low salaries.
To end this polemic, let me rephrase what an austrian cycling couple I met here said about cycling in Rwanda with satisfaction: that they, after having their bikes carried by children, gave them "some cookies as a thanks". I flinched. At least give them something worth to them, if they help you that much... But of course, I am not solving anything myself. (Not blaming anyone, it just proves the different worlds we are in and how they are kept intact.)
However despite all my quarrels with the city and, as a friend put it, " the UN where they manufacture poverty", my bikes is nearly fixed. The chain is fucked and the casette is fucked, but it will get me to Dar: on o ring in the piston seems damaged because there is air getting into the system, but they did an awesome job in getting it to work as good as possible. Plus, new pads.もっと詳しく
旅行者I also just visited the real nairobi slums, Kibera. Its nothing I havent seen; what I have not seen is the luxurious Hilton 100 meter away, shielded off, on the main road. The differences in Nairobi are insane.
旅行者Now another comment: it is both hilarious and pathetic how rich locals try, with much fervour, to try to sound like they do not come from a poor area. Posh laughs, fake forced accents, faking everything. They pick up all the wrong things of western society.
旅行者Pffff na deze ervaringen kom je als een ander mens thuis, denk ik. Daarom is reizen ook zo mooi. We reizen nog steeds met je mee 👍
Scheisse on the way to Kenya
2024年2月15日, ケニア ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C
I knew cycling out of Kampala wasn't going to be fun, but I hadn't counted on a bit of rain turning the gravel roads into sticky mud swamps, which demanded a lot of my brakes and drivetrain. That was one part. The other was the loads of traffic (once the rain stopped) which just makes cycling so boring. It was either sticky mud or heavy traffic (or both) for the morning; and since I stuck to the roads I started to get really annoyed with cycling here in the afternoon, too much traffic, nothing to see.
So I accidentally ended up at a touristic campsite at the Victoria Nile, where I also went rafting the next day. (I was not motivated for cycling, just too much traffic.) Bit of a letdown bit of fun, but we did have one section where the boat flipped over and all of us where in the water. A huge tourism group was also staying at the campsite—some people were cool, some people just reinforced my prejudices about tourism groups. Hehe.
The next day I first talked to another guy on a bike: a local guy carying a big stick, which he told me carried the spirit (I think) of his grandfathers or heritage, and he was part of the tribe of the buganda kingdom (Im sorry, I forgot)... Interesting to learn sth about the culture though. But I got to witness a lot of different tribes later that day.
I took a detour from the road that was a detour from the main road, and ended up, via gravelroads and small tracks, to a singletrack through a swamp; I couldnt find the road anymore. Luckily in Uganda you are never alone, and an old guy on an old bike saved my day. I followed him for 15 km or so, and the old guy just ripped it down the hill on his shitty bike: so much fun. Then I got to very small villages with twenty or so (over exaggeration) different tribes, with I dont know how many languages between them. Every tribe has their own language, and so everyone speaks quite a few languages; at least the guy did who showed me to a hotel with dead cockroaches on the floor. Good times.
Next morning was a nightmare. First, my front brake pistons were stuck, and I seemed to have broken one of the seals when pushing it back, rendering the brake totally unusable. Then I wanted to just make it to the main road, but the road was so muddy due to the rain, that my tires kept clogging up 5 times: every time took 10 minutes to clean at least. Kids pushed and helped me, and I finally managed to get out of the worst mud after an hour.
I reached the main road and the first car mechanic immediately on the left was run by an american, with no knowledge on bikes but lots of knowledge of how to make makeshift tools, so we actually managed to bleed my brakes again and fix everything. Well, almost, I still spent another 2 hours elsewhere cleaning the pistons and am now carrying dot fluid just in case XD.
But I made it to Kenya. Sorry for the delay: this "to Kenya" story ends here.もっと詳しく
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