Ludwig
Ludwig Hartmann Joined: February 9th 2008
Logged in: October 19th 2011
Logged in: October 19th 2011
Ludwig
Travel Blog Posts
Old cars in Cuba
The last country in my one year trip around the world: Cuba. I had big expectations for Cuba and I really wanted to visit the country as soon as possible, and certainly before any further political changes would take place. I wanted to see Fidel Castro’s Cuba. I had already travelled through many communist countries in Eastern Europe when I was a child, back in the 80’s and early 90’s, and had been through Russia and China this time around, but Cuba is so different in its own way, socialism under palm trees and salsa rhythms already sounds much more appealing than the colder, defunct version of it. Political slogans and four names/faces can be seen everywhere around Cuba, in each city, in each village, on each motor highway, on each government building, on each and ... read more
Chichen Itza
I had now less than one month to go on my trip around the world and was really looking forward to go to Cuba. I wanted to buy a plane ticket in Cancun that would allow me to stay in Cuba for about three weeks. I had therefore only one week left for Yucatan, in Mexico’s south. I came from Belize and went up to Merida on one long travel day by bus. Yucatan is much more westernised than all the rest of the countries in Central America that I have seen. Houses, cars, shopping malls, people …pretty much the same as in the south of Europe…with a bit more of salsa vibes though. I met up with Anabel who happily showed me around in the city and surrounding areas - the best way to visit ... read more
Caye Caulker
Not wanting to spend too much time in Belize City, a place where sunset means danger, I took a quick boat ride to Caye Caulker, or otherwise called Backpackers’ Paradise (despite the fact that it is relatively expensive). There is not really much to report on my five days spent on this small island…I went fishing most of the time, even did some spear gun fishing trips (where I lost the spear…typical!), got my introduction to wind surfing (really hard), chilled out at the beach and then partying with other backpackers at night. Caye Caulker is a really relaxed place, where you feel the reggae vibes coming out of every little hut, where most locals are Rasta men enjoying their little smoke outside of their shops…a very different feel from all other central American countries I ... read more
Pacaya volcano
After a couple of hours in a small touristy bus coming from Honduras, I finally arrived in Antigua, Guatemala. Antigua’s setting is gorgeous, nestled between smoking volcanoes in the central highlands of Guatemala, the city is famous for its well-preserved baroque architecture as well as a number of spectacular ruins of colonial churches which offer photo opportunities at every turn. I had planned to stay three or four days…and stayed ten. I took a one week one-on-one crash course in Spanish, from 8am until 1pm, then, after some good lunch, I would sit at a sunny terrace of a café and do my homework, like a good student has to do, drinking some nice coffee and eating my favourite cakes. Having already spent a month in Spanish speaking countries and speaking French fluently, Spanish came pretty ... read more
Guards
On a tough travel day, I took six different buses totalling 18 hours of driving, crossed the border, saw thousands of gunned guards in Tegucigalpa ready to shoot at someone (wishing it was not me), hitchhiked at night in a forest (yes, I could have chosen a better place and time) to finally arrive at my hostel/micro brewery on the edges of lake Yojoa. On the following day, I went on a bird watching tour with an old English “birdie” who had been travelling the world since 28 years and decided to settle close to that lake, given its beauty and rich bird life. Imagine a huge lake surrounded by volcanoes, covered by a dense forest, a small boat, yourself and a 65 year old English guy with big glasses and a big white beard who ... read more
Volcano boarding
It was a long drive up to Granada where I arrived in the middle of the night. I saw my first gunned guards patrolling the streets while I was walking towards my hostel. I felt a certain sense of security, but then again…why all these guns, is it really so dangerous? Anyway, so here I am in Granada, Nicaragua’s oldest colonial city, founded in the mid sixteenth century. Hiding from a ferocious sun, I relaxed during the day on my hammock in the comfy courtyard of my hostel and enjoyed the carved colonial portals, elegant churches, colourful houses, fine plazas and Lago de Nicaragua, Central America’s biggest lake, in the late afternoons, when the temperature started to fall. After a couple of days in Granada, I took a boat ride to Isla De Ometepe, an island ... read more
Pura Vida
Pura Vida! After another short night in Santiago de Chile and a pretty heavy earthquake during breakfast at the airport, I took a flight to Lima and transferred immediately to San Jose, Costa Rica. I had been warned that Central America was probably going to be the most "dangerous" leg of my trip. Costa Rica, however felt more like Disneyland, overwhelmed by thousands of (pretty loud) US tourists during this Christmas and New Year holiday season. Karen, a very nice Tica girl I met on WAYN a couple of months earlier, showed me around San Jose and neighbouring villages for a couple of days and provided me with great advice on which highlights I had to visit in her country and the rest of Central America. Pura Vida Karen! (Pura Vida - Pure Life, is the ... read more
Rano Raraku
I took a long flight across the Pacific Ocean from Auckland to Santiago, Chile´s capital city. After a day of relaxing at the hostel in Santiago, I boarded yet another flight to Easter Island for a five day journey. Easter Island (Rapa Nui in Polynesian) is one of the world's most isolated inhabited islands. The island is a special territory of Chile. Its name was given by the island's first recorded European visitor, the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen, who encountered Easter Island on Easter Sunday 1722 and is famous for its monumental statues, called Moai. Moai are monolithic human figures (the 'living faces' of deified ancestors) carved from rock between 1250 and 1500 AD. Nearly half are still at Rano Raraku, the main moai quarry, but hundreds were transported from there and set on stone platforms ... read more
Taupo - Skydiving
Kia ora tatou ("Hello everyone" in Maori language)! After a couple of sunny days in Sydney, I flew over to Auckland, New Zealand's biggest city. An hour after having landed, I had booked myself into a 25-day trip through the country with Stray, a flexible bus network for backpackers with an hop-on hop-off facility. I left at 6.00am the next morning on my journey. I hadn't realized that New Zealand had such a stunningly diverse scenery, wild and remote beaches, volcanoes, glaciers, caves - absolutely everything that you can think of! Hot Water Beach and Hahei My first destination would be Hot Water Beach and Hahei. Hot Water Beach is pretty unique as an underground river of hot water, heated up by volcanic activity, flows to surface in the Pacific Ocean. Armed with spades, we dug ... read more
The Outback - Ayers Rock
G'day! I did a little two-day trip to Toronto for a friend's wedding before heading to Australia. Seoul - Vancouver - Toronto - Tokyo - Seoul - Cairns was completed in five days and left me pretty exhausted afterwards, so it was time for some "chillaxing"… or so I thought! During my "busy" one month stay in Oz territory, I traveled from Cairns to Alice Springs and then down to Airlie Beach, Fraser Island, Brisbane and finally Sydney. Australia was the first developed “western” country in my trip so far, which made traveling much easier than in other parts of the world. Cairns Cairns is a pretty, small and relaxed city in Queensland, close to the sea and a great place to explore The Great Barrier Reef - one of the best diving spots in the ... read more
