Category: Travels
Blue waterfalls in Mexico!
An eight hour bus and boatride after leaving Flores in Guatemala, I found myself on the Mexican side of the river – and made my way to Palenque where I met up with my friend Chema. The first thing we did in Palenque was going to the waterfalls called Agua Azul – and I want to dedicate an entire blogpost just to that, because of how beautiful it was. And because I have a video – I was so happy in the water!
Tikal, the Maya capital – Guatemala part 2
After a 30 minute walk in the dark early morning, with the humid air smelling of jungle and mystery – we climbed Tikal’s temple number four, to await the rising sun in silence and watch the mist slowly lifting and revealing the rest of Tikal’s grandeur. It was magical.
Guatemala winning again? Definitely. I like temples, but tend to find them boring as they get flooded with “please don’t sit here” signs and tourists in orange caps. In Tikal, there were tourists, but not too many, and the dense vegetation always allowed for a moment of solitude and experiencing the pyramids and temples as if there was nobody else there – or actually, as if it was still the time of the Mayans and everybody were just still asleep. I went with George, and we spent hours just sitting on different pyramids and exploring by ourselves. “George, you need to climb this one, I feel so small up here – it’s amazing!” We sat watching the tourists come and go again, looked at the amazing stone buildings, and spoke about essentials.
Tikal was an amazing place. Without any doubt topping my list of places worth visiting, much of it thanks to that jungle around the temples, but mostly thanks to the fact that it felt so real.
My new passport has been marked
Just got my passport back from Stockholm – I spoke to a staff member from the agency issuing Indian visas and he agreed to bring our passports personally instead of sending them via mail. It was all very urgent due to a huge mistake made by the Swedish Embassy in Mexico that delayed the delivery of my new passport for weeks. (Ridiculous story by the way.)
So he said he was driving to Malmö anyway on Friday and could bring them – so we wouldn’t have to wait and worry for the mail to be delayed or something and could already book our flights yesterday!
I get genuinely happy when people do these little things for other people without any personal gain. That’s first class service and people skills – I know where I’m sending loads of good karma. Thank you, Joakim!
We’re leaving sooner than soon despite me looking like an alien on that blue visa picture. *aliensounds*
And I just answered my “What now?” question. :)
Traditional Antigua – Guatemala part 1
People don’t have to ask me twice about which my favourite country was in Central America, Guatemala wins hands down.
Antigua was a place filled with tradition, fragrances, tastes and impressions, and I was happy to be able to walk around by night without fearing assault and without being called a princess. Even the most traditional ladies were open for a chat that didn’t feel like I was buying something – valuable talks about life and their convictions. I was in Antigua only for two days and spent most of my time with two new friends who I met on the road – George who I met already on the bus from Nicaragua, and Stephanie who we met on the shuttle between Guatemala City and Antigua. Both lovely people.
Hover the photos for more info. I’m sorry for shortening the stories like this, I will share some highlights separately on a different occasion – right now there’s just too much.
my passport 2005 – 2013
A quick run through my old passport that has been joining me since I started travelling five years ago. I had to renew it as I only had two pages left for stamps and will be travelling soon again. Receiving the new, empty, modern passport felt like starting from scratch, like rebooting the system. What’s next? What now? Was that it? I don’t know.
After speaking to friends who’s biggest obstacle to travelling is the whole process of standing in line for, applying for, paying for, waiting for and hoping for a visa, I have become increasingly thankful for my EU passport that opens doors of trust in most places. Truth is, I’ve only had to apply for visa through an embassy for three of the 38 countries I visited since this passport was printed. Thank you, Sweden.
Please define yourself
First of all, a big kudos to this online visa application system.
We have been out shopping all day, my mother and I, and it has been a rather interesting experience.
“Wait wait, are you sure these shoes will go with my new backpack?”
I’m taking my mother on a real trip for the first time ever. Passion for fashion and perfect structure thrown into the most random, hot and humid of places. There will be quotes.
Black goes with everything. And works well on trains and dusty buses. I’m more into “whatever” mode on the fashion part – but super excited about this trip. If I get my visa on time, that is.
Now or never
One thing I’ve learnt is that if I don’t unpack immediately when coming home, I kind of never do.
So now the big process has begun again; sorting and washing every single thing that accompanied me on this trip, trying to find a place for my new treasures – and rediscovering my old wardrobe, my room, and all the things I have forgotten that I own.
That, and seeing family and friends, of course. It’s Saturday and I’m not THAT tired, so see you later Malmö!
All done, honey!
I’ve had two hectic but wonderful last days in New York, spending time with the two funniest and sweetest of friends, running for important meetings, visiting a friend in the UN building, walking around, and taking care of all that was left to take care of before my take-off – back to where I will be able to drop off these 23+15kg bags and think about what will be coming up next.
Girls, thank you so much! You gave me a wonderful ending to these six months of both pleasant and unpleasant experiences. You welcomed me to your world, life and magnificent city as if I had always lived here – you made me feel at home – and very eager to come back!
I will miss you dearly!
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So I just had really nice chicken with asparagus, mushrooms and white wine sauce here in the airport. As I was done, the beautiful waitress passed by, asking “are you done, honey?” – another thing I will certainly miss about NY is the excellent service – I have never tipped this much in my entire life.
Washington DC – Taking your parents out clubbing.
So I took a one-day trip to Washington DC to go for a meeting, wave to Obama and see some friends.
I arrived in DC at 11.30 yesterday, after a 5 hour busride with Megabus which wasn’t bad at all. I took a walk around the Washington mall where many of the big monuments and buildings are and then met up with a friend from Mozambique for a really good seafood buffet. It’s always so much fun to reconnect at people’s home base!
Washington was hot, much hotter than New York, but at the same time it was much quieter, cleaner, and less personal. Filled with huge impressive buildings and monuments, mostly empty or with the presence of tourists and security guards, the city offers free museum entrances and is a perfect place to explore if politics and history are your things. For nightlife it’s pretty quiet, and the seats in the Metro are padded. Random like that.
After talking to the Spanish lady who has been protesting outside of the White House since 1980, and having some German tourists take a picture of me and the building, I went for a very inspiring meeting at an Italian cafe by DuPont Circle.
After the meeting I called Nishant. You remember Nish, the falphin dreamer that I met in Brazil in 2008, right? It was so much fun to meet up and felt as if we had just seen each other last week, we resumed our random and flowing conversations immediately. So Nish took me to Columbia Hights where he and his friends play Bocce ball every Tuesday. Apparently it’s the big thing to do in DC, and it was pretty hilarious.
After the game, we went to a bar with a couple of friends, where we were soon joined by Nish’s girlfriend, Hollie – she is even more hilarious than Nish! I had an absolutely wonderful time with the two, as they would come up with ideas and complete each other’s minds in that playful ping-pong kind of way. It was beautiful.
On our way back home, Nish and Hollie took me for a drive around the city, where I got to see the monuments once more, lit up and with explanations worthy a professional city tour by the two – “Many people give DC a hard time for being boring – but this place is packed with interesting history.” Nish said, after throwing out the rumour on how the city was planned to confuse British spies and talking about the grandeur and details of some of the buildings – including the story of the sculpture of Darth Vader’s head on one of the big Cathedral towers.
“Actually, DC is like the old and wise parent of the country, the foundation of our history. So when people say that it’s boring because they want to go clubbing, that’s pretty mean – you can’t take your parent out clubbing because that would just be awkward. Right?”
I spent the night at Hollie and Nish’s new place and got up early this morning to go to the zoo that is just next to their house, and free as everything else. I don’t like zoo’s, but Nish and Hollie insisted that I should see the baby panda that had just been born and it was actually a pretty pleasant zoo. The panda wasn’t there yet, she was still sleeping – but at least I didn’t miss my bus back to New York.
N&H – Thank you so much for your hospitality and kindness, you always have a home wherever I happen to find myself. :)