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Old Feb 19, 2015 | 4:36 pm
  #76  
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Live #38, Tegucigalpa & Santa Lucia, Honduras



19/02/2015 I just came back from four amazing days cruising through the San Blas Islands and am really happy to get all the salt and sand off my body now! This last update from Honduras is probably my smallest ever, covering the capital and close by Santa Lucia.

Honduras capital Tegucigalpa doesnt really offer a lot to see or do, so instead of spending much time there, I was checking out the nearby small villages of Santa Lucia and Valle de Angeles. The latter is actually pretty famous for tourists, but I thought that Santa Lucia was much nicer and we spent most of the time there. I was joined by a friend of my Couchsurfer and another friend of is and we had a great day! Not really much more to say, other than that I will go out for an all-you-can-eat Italian buffet dinner now here in Capurgan, Colombia. The next update will be from Nicaragua and I swear it will be bigger than this one
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Old Feb 22, 2015 | 10:19 am
  #77  
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Live #39, Somoto, Nicaragua



22/02/2015 Sitting in an air conditioned dorm full of snoring guys in Cartagena, I can now finally use some fast internet again to update my blog! This is actually the very fist update from Nicaragua and my first stop was the town of Somoto, close to the border. The Somoto Canyon is one of the least explored tourist attractions of Nicaragua, so check this post out to see how my non guided tour turned out

I actually had no idea about Somoto until the day I arrived there. Luckily some fellow traveler adviced me to go there and after checking out the reviews on the internet, it sounded really cool to explore the canyon there. I met a guy from Costa Rica at the bus stop in Tegucigalpa before and he spontaneously joined me as well. We arrived just after sun set and could not make it up the view point close to the city unfortunately. Consequently, we decided to check out the sun rise from there instead in the next morning.

Somoto as a village was really pleasant as well. Not too many tourists (yet) and people are very friendly. The trip to the canyon is usually done with a guide, however we both did not have the time to do the long six hour 20$ tour that was already scheduled with a few other people, so we decided to do it on our own. First though, we walked up to the viewpoint at 4:30 AM in the morning to be there for sun rise at 5 AM. At least that was the time the owner of the hostel told us, making us wait until 6:30 AM until the sun finally crawled up behind the mountains.

Being delayed quiet a bit, the guy from Costa Rica decided not to go to the canyon anymore and so I joined the big group to take the public bus together. We left at 8:30 AM and the bus was really cheap, so getting to the canyon on your own is certainly not a problem. After around 15 minutes, the group started to ascend deeper into the canyon and I had to stop since I was not equipped with waterproof bags and you have to swim a lot. Instead I used the time to climb around a bit and enjoyed the pretty nice view that you get from the beginning.

Afterwards I walked back to the street to reach the Viewpoint. I received some directions from a local and was pretty sure that I followed them as I know that right means derecho in Spanish. However, after taking the right turn and walking up the path for about 90 minutes, I eventually realized that it could not be the right one. A lot of fences crossed my way and I had to cross a few farms until I decided to turn back. At least I was able to find a cool spot to see the canyon in the end, even though it was not the official viewpoint.

Coming back to the point which led me to the wrong direction, I turned left this time and quickly noted that this would have been the right way. Unfortunately, It became pretty late already and I did not want to miss the last bus, so I just walked down for about 20 minutes and then headed back towards the street. Luck was on my side this time and the last bus just arrived two minutes after arriving at the street! We passed a burning car on the way back to Somoto and my next destination Esteli to find the Stone Man Alberto. Read more about this adventure right here!

>> Pictures
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Old Feb 22, 2015 | 8:30 pm
  #78  
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I am still in awe - keep the updates coming ^
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Old Feb 27, 2015 | 6:27 am
  #79  
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Video from Guatemala (Part 2): Atitlan, Xela, Antigua, Acatenango



And here is the second video of Guatemala, one of my favorite countries in Central America! You will see a lot of volcanoes in this one Lake Atitlan, Xela, Antigua Guatemala and, as the highlight, Volcan Acatenango with a top notch view on Volcan Fuego are all featured in this video. Hope you like it!

Video Direct Link
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Old Mar 1, 2015 | 7:15 am
  #80  
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Live #41, Len & Volcan Telica, Nicaragua



01/03/2015 Im about to start a five day trek through the jungle to the Lost City in Colombia and thanks to my tour operator Turcol, I can give you a quick update with their Wifi before I head off into no-wifi-land once more. Len in Nicaragua is a beautiful city, but after having seen so many beautiful cities, I could not wait to get out again and hike Volcan Telica, which eventually became one of my personal highlights in Nicaragua! Check out this post to see why.

I really have to keep the text very short in this update, sorry about this guys!! Len is lacking an ocean and therefor a breeze that would make the 35C heat more bareably. I was rushing through the city to take a few pictures. It is very nice for sure but I had one main priority: Doing the overnight hike of Volcan Telica!

The Hike started early and I was joined by a french couple. They had a good pace as well so we made it to the camp as the first group. After several hours of walking and saying hello to a very nice green snake along the way, we were all in awe when we could see Volcan Telica for the first time. It has a really cool shape and looks majestic, even though it is pretty small!

Since we arrived so early, we had a lot of time to relax at the camp site until around 20 other people eventually arrived. Once the mid day heat passed, we made our way up to the crater to take a peak into it. We were not able to see the lava yet because it was too bright, but just looking down the immense hole was a great sensation. We stayed around for a while and then checked out a nearby bat cave, which was much smaller but actually nicer than the one I visited in Semuc Champey.

I climbed all the way to the top of the volcano rim to see the sun set and could spot some really strange animals over there. The sulfat smell in the air was not really nice and eventually forced me to go down again. We got up early for sun rise and then hiked back the next day. Its been one of my highlights and I can just highly recommend it to anyone going into the area!

>> Pictures
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Old Mar 2, 2015 | 7:35 am
  #81  
 
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Chris - did you use Quetzaltrekkers for Telica? If so, what were your thoughts?
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Old Mar 5, 2015 | 3:13 pm
  #82  
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No I didnt, they always have been a bit too expensive for me..

Rumble in the jungle



05/03/2015 I just got back from the Lost City trek in Colombia and it has been pretty eventful! I won’t have the time to get another Nicaragua Live Update out now, but hope you will be entertained with this small video in the meanwhile. Fingers crossed that the guy made it to the hospital in time. We actually killed a poisonous snake on our way back as well, this place seems to be fully of them!

>> Instagram Video
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Old Mar 8, 2015 | 10:13 am
  #83  
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Live #42, Cerro Negro Volcano Boarding, Nicaragua



08/03/2015 I’m sorry for the limited internet access in the last days; now I am back though and can deliver some pictures from the Volcano Boarding on Volcan Cerro Negro in Nicaragua. Later today I will leave Colombia behind and fly from Bogot to Buenos Aires in Argentina!

I wasted no time after the wonderful climb to Volcan Telica and started the next trip to Volcan Cerro’s Volcano Boarding on the very same day. This time, our former guide Bismark was now the driver and we had a new guide taking four other people and myself up the mountain. Everyone had to carry their own board while we could enjoyed the views on the black lava fields from the 1999 eruption around us. It was pretty windy up there and I had to hold on tight to the board from time to time. The hike in general is pretty easy though and you will find yourself at the top after around 45 minutes.

Before it was time to slide down again, we were headed to the very peak to take a look into the crater. After ten minutes, everyone put on the extra clothes and protection gear that were provided in a small bag and the full outfit including an overall, gloves, buff towel and goggles looked pretty funny. The others went town first and seemed to have some problems getting the board started on the first meters. Eventually though, everyone was on the way down and in the end it was just me left on top because I wanted to take videos from the other guys first.

My ride had a slow start too, I was actually stuck in the ground and had to walk a few meters forward to get to a steeper part. From there, it worked better and I slowly began to pick up speed on my way down. Soon after though, the board drifted to the left on its own and despite my efforts on keeping it in a straight line, I eventually lost speed and stopped half way through. The same thing happened closer to the bottom and it turned out that my board was not the best according to the guide. It was a shame because It would have been cooler with a speedier board I suppose! Still, it was a great and fun way to end the day and I can just recommend it to anyone, even though it is a pretty touristic activity.

>> Pictures
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Old Mar 10, 2015 | 8:56 am
  #84  
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Round-the-World Trip Statistics



Its been 162 days since I started my trip in Canada back in September 2014 and so far I have spent 10.000. Check out this insight to see where I left my money

A lot of people have asked me how much money I would spend on this trip. It was always hard to answer before I actually started, but now that I am on the road for nearly half a year and thanks to my neat little Excel sheet, I can now provide you with some information!

My total spendings so far add up to 10.130,13

This figure includes everything: food, accommodations, booked trips and all the rest like buying new shower gel or paying to get into a climbing gym. Whenever I spend money, I convert the local currency to Euros and add it to my Excel sheet. The biggest part of the above sum is my upcoming cruise to Antarctica in two weeks from now, so if you would remove that, it would come down to around 6.000 for nearly half a year so far.

More interesting for you guys as fellow travelers yourself might be how much I actually spend on the food (including all sorts of drinks too) and accommodations in each country. The following stats will give you an insight on my spendings. Luckily, I was able to Couchsurf every single day in Canada, making the average spendings in North America look a bit low because it just reflects Mexico.

Hope you liked that information, I will continue to gather the data in my lovely Excel sheet, haha. (Im soooo German, I know)

>> Stats
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Old Mar 10, 2015 | 1:12 pm
  #85  
 
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i would never be able to do that since i would find out how much i actually spend on booze....
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Old Mar 11, 2015 | 5:35 am
  #86  
 
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Pretty cheap for 144 days of travel! Awesome
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Old Mar 14, 2015 | 3:09 pm
  #87  
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Live #43, Laguna de Apoyo, Nicaragua



14/03/2015 I had a great day hiking to Laguna Torres yesterday and then up one of the higher mountains in the area today after sleeping at the camp ground. The wind nearly blew me off my feet this time and it was a shame I could only take pictures with my phone and GoPro fake, the views were just amazing even though I could not see Cerro Torre. The internet here is very bad, so Im keeping the update very small as well. But at least I can get an update out

There is not so much to say about Laguna de Apoyo in Nicaragua anyway. I think going down to swim in it for at least 6$ or more is not really worth it, but I really enjoyed the viewpoint up the road, so if you are passing through you can at least check that out and go swimming somewhere else for free

>> Pictures
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Old Mar 17, 2015 | 9:58 am
  #88  
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Live #44, Granada, Nicaragua



17/03/2015 Good news! Thanks to Couchsurfing, I will have a new camera similar to my old one just before I depart to Antarctica. The weather here in Patagonia is not the best right now anyway, so I have time for some Bouldering in the area and to plan the rest of my South America trip. As the Internet is still very bad, I can just provide small updates and it takes me nearly a full day to upload those pictures from Granada in Nicaragua.

Nicaragua offers a lot of beautiful towns and Granada is one of them. I liked it more than Len, mostly because it is closer to the lake and a bit less hot. By a bit less hot, Im actually still talking roughly 28-30C. Add a little breeze from time to time and it makes walking around the streets much more comfortable. I was also trying to get a boat to La Isletas. However, there was only one boat waiting at the harbor and the guy wanted way too much money. Instead, I walked around closer to the islands and eventually came to a group of homeless people. There was also a police guy and he told me I should better not walk around here. But I really wanted to get a nice view on the islands, or at least get a bit closer to them to see if there is any view at all from the mainland. In the end, the police guy escorted me a bit further down and gave me some advice in Spanish, half of which I could actually understand

Walking back towards the center along La Calzada, I discovered the prettiest supermarket I have ever stepped into. Everything was so clean and well placed and the whole area was extremely spacious. Even though I did not buy anything there, I really enjoyed just walking around in it For the night I actually had a Couchsurfer to stay with in Rivas. He picked me up at the Parque, where I could enjoy the free WiFi while waiting for him. We had dinner together with his other two guests from Argentina and ended up watching some of my travel videos on the street before his house. Getting up early the next morning, I walked towards the harbor at 5:30 AM to catch the 7:00 AM ferry, which was eventually cancelled and it took another hour before I could finally get to my highlight in Nicaragua: Isla de Ometepe.

>> Pictures
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Old Mar 22, 2015 | 8:29 pm
  #89  
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Upcoming: South America



22/03/2015, 23:30 I have had a lot of time to plan the rest of my time in South America thanks to the bad weather in El Chaltn. At least now I have a pretty good idea about what to do in Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. First though, I will head to the Lake District near Bariloche before getting to Buenos Aires. See if you have some feedback for me

Travelling from 26/04/2015 to 23/06/2015

This is just the first draft and I think I have to change a bit more. My main questions are how to spend the time in Pantanal as some people say it is not worth going to both entry points? I will be coming from Paraguay, so getting in from the land via Bahia Negra sounds like a nice adventure but Im not sure if it will delay me a lot? Seems like flying from Asuncin is pretty expensive, so I guess the weekly 8:30 bus on Saturdays is the only option?

Also, which of the many national parks could I skip because they are similar to others? I need to get rid of at least one Pedra Azul is a bit out of the way but looks to good to skip, I cant decide so help me please! You can see all the upcoming destinations in that map, marked by the yellow stars:


>> Help me to plan, please!
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Old Mar 25, 2015 | 9:28 am
  #90  
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Video from El Salvador



The lack of internet and partly bad weather in El Chaltn allowed me to finish the next two videos! This is the first one and since I didn’t spend a lot of time in El Salvador, it is pretty short as well I will start my cruise to Antarctica today and you will hear back from me in about 10 days!

Check out the Live Updates and Pictures from El Salvador here.

>> Direct Vimeo Link
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