Ola amigo, where u from?

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Long time no see aye 😊

Kay so I didn't know internet was hard to come by in Cuba, like I didn't know a lot of things when I arrived in Havana(amongst which the address of the hostel -.-' ) but that wasn't really a problem.
It just meant that the blog wouldn't be updated as frequent as some people might want it to be 😉

For those of you that didn't notice yet, I am writing this entry from the Hostel(which I did manage to find 😊 in Havana, Cuba.
And as far as my first impressions go, it(Havana) is really cool but a bit scary at the same time as there is police, army and cameras all over the place.
So when I arrived at the hostel I was immediately warmly greeted by the family who ran the place and the people whit whom I am sharing the room.
After talking a bit with the roomies, we decided to head out for dinner.
The four of us went to a place which the bloke whom has been staying the longest in Havana between the four of us, named Francis, had discovered a while ago.
I was also told that, besides that place, good food is hard to find in Havana as there are many state-run restaurants which don’t really have a reason for trying to make good food I guess and the private restaurants are harder to find as they tend to be tucked away most of the times.
So on my first night I immediately had a good time, having dinner in the city of la Habana, as they call it over here, in the company of some nice people(I am actually still waiting to meet my first unfriendly-traveler :o )

I guess I should briefly cover my last days in Tulum too, so here it goes 😊
The last few days in Tulum were as relaxing as I could have hoped them to be(besides a near death experience actually) and were only interrupted by one half a day of rain, which was rather welcome after 10days in 33to40degrees Celsius.
Between swimming in the sea, visiting another two cenotes and just plain chillin I didn't do anything really.

U can imagine how surprised I was though when I walked out of my room and one of the staff yelled at me' be careful' and pointed to the area behind me.
Where I saw, to my amazement, on the little wall in front of my door, at about 2m away.... a giant Black Mamba snake looking me square in the eyes...
Well it was black-ish with a bit of yellow and appeared to be scared of me(can U blame it? 😉 )
I have a picture of it on my cellphone as I didn't have my camera on me, but a bit later animal control arrived and took it away …

After the little snake show I moved on to Tulum town and went in to some diner place where I ordered a … spaghetti 😊 (a short brake from the Mexican cuisine) and as appetizer they served tacos accompanied by some spicy mingle of bits of tomato, peppers and onion, which I knew was spicy, and a bowl of thingies which looked like peppers and pieces of carrot covered in some kind of sweet-sour sauce...
So I figured I would try the bowl of peppers/carrots as I had never seen it before 😊
The carrot which I tried first was ok but not special so I took a pepper(the only orange one in the bowl) and while I was thinking 'o this wont be hot, nobody covers hot peppers in this kind of sauce' I tried to bite the tip of the pepper.
At this point I, well, failed basically as I ripped the entire pepper off and thus was left with it, in one piece, in my mouth.
Now at this moment I could feel the first juices of the pepper slowly filling my mouth and well, it is safe to say that this was by far, and I mean by a trillion miles far, the spiciest thing which I had ever experienced. Now, I do like spicy stuff, peppers back at home and U know spicy sauces and stuff but nothing I ever ate could have prepared me for this one pepper. It was like the T-rex of peppers, a pepper set out to kill xo
So as first contact was quite heavy my first reaction was 'just eat it, I’m sure it wont stay this hot' … -,-' but I guess U can imagine that with every bite it simply became worse... so there I was in a restaurant in Mexico with a pepper in my mouth which was hotter than anything I had ever imagined, so I took a napkin and spat it out.
Which sadly didn’t change much :/ my mouth was on fire and it took the most of the next 600ml of coke and my spaghetti to make it bearable …
I sat there for another half an hour sipping on my third 350ml coke hoping that the last of the spicy after taste would just go away …

After that life in Tulum just pretty much carried on until I needed to head back to Cancun to catch my flight to Havana, Cuba.
Which went easy as usual and so I found myself walking out of Havana airport soon enough and getting into a cab, as there was no frequent bus service to Havana city.
But then when the cab driver asked me for the address, all I could come up with was ' well that’s a really good question', so I asked him to just drop me off in the tourist area of Havana.
Along the way he seemed to be a really nice guy and after some talking we decided it would be a good idea to go to a place where I could access the internet to check my email for the address.
Which we did and well, I found myself at the hostel/casa particular some moments later.


Over my first Cuban breakfast I decided to head out along with Sue, one the gang with which I had dinner the other night, as she was the only one who had also quite recently arrived in Havana.
So without a real plan, besides reaching el Capitolio, we set out for a good walk and some exploring.
Besides being offered a cigar every two and a half step, it was both fun and well I guess educational as I never really had an idea about how things were in modern day Cuba.
We arrived back at the casa at about the same time as Juan, who went to his salsa lesson, and it didn't take long before we figured it was time for an icecream.
Juan knew about this place, where besides waiting outside for about half an hour together with a couple of hundred Cubans, was really good for getting icecream.
Now imagine an icecream parlour the size of half a football field, completely full, with a waiting line of over a hundred meters.... welcome to Havana :p
It only took like half an hour though before we got in and were asked how many we wanted(not which, as there was only caramel flavour at the time 😊 ), so in this place apparently 1 icecream is 5balls of icecream, and costs about … 20cents :D so obviously I had two(ten balls of icecream yey) plus cookies.
While eating we got joined, out of the blue, by some elderly Cuban fella who was friendly and everything so we didn't mind.
Besides claiming to be turning 97 next week, having had 9wives in the US and 8 in Cuba and chucking down, I kid U not, 3 of the icecream portions he seemed normal enough as well...

So when we arrived back at the casa we met Kate, who had just arrived and would be sharing the room and Francis who wasn't pleased at the fact that we went out for icecream without him.
So we were left with little option and returned to the icecream place with Juan, Francis, Kate and myself... I ate only one portion this time.
After this we took a cab to old Havana, which is like the touristy area, where we enjoyed some beers and spend the rest of the evening.

The day after I decided to head out on my own as I wanted to see as much as possibly of Havana.
It ended up being an 8hour hike and took me pretty much everywhere.
At the university of Havana I got shown around by some history student(who I had just met there) who told me all about el revolucion and the universities role in it.
At el plaza de revolucion I got basically sent away by multiple military personnel, they were present in numbers and didn’t want me to stick around for too long for some reason.
On my way to the famous Necropolis Cristina Colon I got 'bohoo'ed(spooky-sound) at by some really big girl in well they seemed like slums, which was pretty funny actually.
On my way over to the Malecon(seawall) I sat at a bench together with John Lennon(yes the Beatle).
And back in old-Havana I enjoyed a meal while being serenaded at by a mariachi and saw some really nice places, buildings and the Museum of el revolucion.
Once I got back at the casa, I met yet another really nice girl, who was from Ozzie-land but come to think of it never told me here name :l
At the evening we went out for milkshakes but no beers as the next day I was getting up early to make my way to Trinidad, which was a 6hr bus ride down south.

In Trinidad I got picked up at the bus station by the owner of the casa which I contacted trough the casa back in Havana.
After putting my stuff in my (private)room I went out for a little walk, and Trinidad turned out to be just perfect for doing so.
It didn't take long though before I was greeted by a bwittish girl, named Kate, the one I met in Havana obviously.
We ended up plotting the next day over a bunch of Mojitos and some local honey-rum cocktail for the rest of the evening.
(At this point I guess I should add that I killed my camera, I will be looking to buy a new one asap. But until then I guess I wont be adding pictures :x )

In the morning we met up at the main plaza of Trinidad, from where we made our way to the museum of History which included a cool look-out tower which was said to give a really cool view over the city. Sadly the museum was closed 😞 So we wondered of to the next best museum, where well we decided we didn't really wanted to enter this one.
We then decided we wanted to do a hike trip into the valley located just outside of Trinidad so we went to a local travel agency where they told us the train into the valley was out of commission... luckily though they could offer us a horse-back-riding trip into that same valley(ye I know we probably got lied to a bit here) but anyway, we decided to go ahead with this so found ourselves riding a couple of horses out of Trinidad city a bit later.

Riding a horse was proving to be ok and even fun for as long as they were in walk-mode... but the moment they switched into second gear all hell broke loose, my legs rubbing against the leather, my bum being smacked into the saddle time after time again while I couldn't find a comfortable way to sit or stand while the horse was running, so big respect to the cowboys and other people who did ride horses for days on end 😊
Along the way we stopped at a little ranch where two men were busy squeezing the juice out of sugar canes which combined with some lemon juice turned out to be a really refreshing drink.
After playing around a bit with the local pig, we mounted our horses once more and continued deeper into the valley.
Another hour of riding took us to some pond at the far end of the valley, sheltered by an overhanging cliff, which made it ideal for a refreshing swim.
Half an hour later I sadly had to get back in the saddle of doom to ride all the way back to Trinidad city.
Once we got back we had some lunch and decided to meet again after changing clothes and stuff to go for a little hike up the hill behind Trinidad from where you should have just about the most awesome view over the region.

Sadly Kate never showed this time(I hope she is allright ;l ) so after waiting half an hour I went of on my own to the top of the hill.
Once I had reached the top I was greeted by a friendly dude who was a guard at the broadcasting tower of the local tv/radio and actually gave me a tour of the place since I was an hour early for the sunset.
The tour ended at the roof of the main building from where we had a panoramic view over the valley, mountains, city and beaches of Trinidad.
There we sat a bit while he pointed out the historic buildings down in the valley and gave me a little history lesson of the region, which was nice and involved pirates arr :p
About half an hour later the sun set behind the mountains in yes, an awesome display of colours in a panoramic view which i discribed earlier, which meant that it was time for me to make my way back down to Trinidad city where I enjoyed a couple of mojitos before I went to bed.

The next day I went to the beach and well, there isn’t much to be said about me laying down in the sand under a tree and taking a plunge in the Caribbean sea every once in a while 😉
So, the 17th(happy birthday sis ;D) I will make my way down to Cienfuegos, where I will spend one day before going back to my first Cuban love, la Habana 😊
….
So Cienfuegos turned out to be a nice city as well located at a gorgeous bay.
I spend most of the day just strolling around, laying on a bench reading the lonely planet guide, being asked to marry by some woman...you know the usual 😉
The day after I got, in a fight for survival, the last seat on the bus for Havana which resulted in me reaching the capital about 4hrs later.
The last two days in Havana I spend mostly exploring the lesser touristy places and eating the cheap street-stall food until U never guess who showed back at the hostel... yes Kate :o
Apparently she got send all over Trinidad in a search for an ATM just before she was supposed to meet up with me and arrived just after I had left, but anyway..

Since we got along quite well we headed out together again.
First we Walked to old Havana where we first tried to take the ferry to the other side of the river, where el Castillo de tres santos is located.
But upon seeing the ferry we figured we did appreciate our lives kind off and would rather not join 50 Cubans on a little boat which looked like it could barely support 2...
So we went back to the malicon where we sat on a little wall and watched the sun set over the Mexican gulf, after which we hailed a taxi to make it to the Castillo in order to watch the cannon-ceremony.
Apparently every night there is this ceremony in the castle during which a canon get fired, and some dressed up people in uniforms, from the time in which this castle was used by the Spanish to fight off pirates and other enemy invaders, did some kind of ceremony which was amusing enough.
After this we wondered off to explore the castle, ending in a dark underground mine-shaft like thing, where I was pretty sure people aren't supposed to wonder off into.
But as we were kinda fans of Indiana 'Indy' Jones we found ourself moments later in a chamber, as dark as U can imagine, with five corridors leading away from it...
Relying only on the light of our cellphones we each picked a corridor in search for treasure xo no this was the point where we both chickened out and turned around to look for less scary places in the castle.
So we walked around for a bit, finding some really nice views of La Habana and places in the castle where not a whole lot of people came so yes nice times were had.
After this we took a cab back to old Havana where we went to look for a restaurant which I found the day before and served something else than rice, beans and pork/chicken.
We enjoyed a lovely meal there(to Cuban standards anyway 😉 Cuba doesn't really have a food-culture like most countries do, here it seems to be something to get quickly out of the way in order to be able to go out drinking and dancing which in turn they do finely on the island..)
A long walk over the malicon took us back to the casa where we didn't make it any later since we were both taking the plane the day after.

I arrived in Cancun at around noon and took the collectivo to the bus terminal where I purposely didn't take the immediate bus but the one that left two hours later in order to … go and robbbb the nearest McDonalds cause goddd I had enough of beans, enough of rice, and certainly enough of the only way to get a peace of meat(not even real meat but only pork/fish or chicken) is in a half a cm thin plack and appearing closer to be having been cooked than baked so I went in and said 'quiro una menu big mac, mas grande y una menu mc chicken normal y una mcheese solo burger por favor … y rapido'(kay, the rapido part wasn't true but the rest was and I enjoyed every last bite of it in an extent of which I’m sure the gods themselves envy me for 😉 )
So the bus to Chetumal was pretty straightforward as buses tend to be and I spend the night there in a little cheap hotel... with no wifi(the gods must have been getting me back for the little micky D's débâcle)

In the mourning I went to back to the bus terminal to find out how the hell I was supposed to make it to the border(which I was planning to find out on the wwweb the day before) and ended up being informed about how to make it al the way to the Belize/Guatemala border by a really friendly Belizian family and thus took the cab to the border where there were no buses, or people even, since it was some freakin holiday -.-')
But the cab guy was really friendly and offered to take me all the way to Belize city for a mere 100USD, so I quickly said goodbye to him and decided to take my chances on a bus showing up, which the one guy at the terminal said would arrive(and this is actually what the guy in charge of the terminal said) 'in some time'... luckily it didn't take too long though.
However it only took me to one town further for some reason, where I was stranded with another ten travellers who had been waiting there for some time already.
Amongst whom a really friendly Austrian couple, together with the other travellers we found a guy who was willing to bring us all the way to Belize-city's bus terminal for a 'small fee' which turned out to not much more then the bus would have been.
We arrived at the terminal just in time to catch the bus to the Guatemalan border( we actually needed to honk at it in order to wait for us).
Once in Guatemala I was greeted by a really friendly horde of Taxi drivers who all offered to drive me to Flores for a 'little' price as there were no buses or collectivos today since it was a holiday.
So I must admit I came close to just taking the taxi but decided to think it over on the side of the road for a minute, during which a little white van stopped terrifyingly close to me and the driver asking me 'going to Flores?' .. so basically two hours later and only 3euro poorer I found myself at la Isla de Flores in Guatemala.
Where there was just a lovely parade exiting the local church which was a nice spectacle to watch while resting a bit after my first enduring trip overland(of many to come hopefully 😉 ).

So I didn't really explore Flores just yet but while coming over here I did see that it was plenty beautiful(its a town on a little island in the midst of a lake basically).
I will be staying here for four days during which I will be looking to visit the ruins of Tikal.
After which I will be taking the bus to San Pedro, north of Guatemala-city, where I have a little surprise in store for the most of you 😉
But until then, I bid you farewell and hope you are enjoying life at least half as much as I am, which would mean you are pretty damn happy.

Cheers,
Peter.

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Photos

Jose Marti
Who is pretty much at the same level here as Jesus is back at home...

Plaza major - Trinidad
The last picture my camera ever took ;'o

A random Havanan car
and some cuty's shadow ;)

Comments

[Annelies]

Oh... little brother! This entry made me so emo and happy at the same time! It's been so long since we've seen you and I must admit I might be starting to miss your teases, punches and annoying comments... But also... you write the same way you are: interesting, entertaining and funny... and I might possibly be missing that aswel! Reading this entry... just also makes me happy to see you are so happy! As a big sis that means everything to me... Haven't known you to be this happy in years and years... and I'm just happy that you now finally are! Keep it up Peter, but keep it safe aswell... and I'll try to keep our dad sane when you can't update us for a while again... ;-) My holiday is almost finished... back to the real world... consider yourself lucky, lots of people envy you! Live the life! ... for all of us that can't be there with you! We do love and miss you a lot! Hugs from your big (yeshyesh, 28yo) sister, Annelies.