Mexico 2 - "Mexico is the bestico"

Hello mundo,

we just wanted to keep you Updated on our last news. Well, we are still in Mexico but tomorrow we will leave this beautiful country, passing through Guatemala again and enter El Salvador probably in 3 or 4 days (yes, travel by bus takes time here...).

But lets start about our last experiences here in Mexico:

Well, as planed since our last blog entry we left San Cristobal to go to the Caribbean sea. Because we wanted to save some bucks (ca 12 EUR) we (well, it was me – Roman - in reality…) decided NOT to take the 1st class bus but the 2nd class one as they are cheaper. Unfortunately we didn´t know too much about how things work so we ended up buying a ticket not for the 2nd class one but for an illegal "sardine tin": The windows in the bus where broken, our seats where falling apart (this is not a matter of speak, literally they were FALLING APART), the bus was overcrowded and because the battery of the bus didn´t work they had to start it with an external battery - this meant that the bus was not allowed to turn off the engine - not in short pee breaks, not in long eating breaks, not even to take gasoline. If this is not enough the 2nd bus driver started to drink beer as soon as we started and was drunk after 2 hours. This ended up in an "interesting" conversation between me (Roman) and him as he approached me at one short stop. He says in a very basic English:

2nd bus driver: "Hello! Where you from?"

Roman: "Belgium"

2nd bus driver: "Ahhh, I love Belgium. I always want to visit"

Roman: "Do you even know where Belgium is located?"

2nd bus driver: "No!" – “You are looking for a girl?"

Roman: "No, I´m just looking to arrive safely at playa del Carmen - which I´m not too sure about anymore!"

2nd bus driver: "Don´t worry. My friend drives good. He drive 18 hours to playa del carmen, I drive back!" - "You are sure you don´t want a girl? I organize for you!"

At this time I decided that even talking to a tree would make more sense than to the alcohol smelling bus driver and left him as quickly as possible.

This was the "good side" of the bus with intact windows

After a small revolution in the bus (initiated by a transvestite girl/boy which macho Latino boyfriend probably didn´t know about - bus this is another story) we arrived "safely at Playa del Carmen. Patrick and Silvia picked up from the town center and we had 3 lovely days in one of the world most famous vacation spots. Those 3 days where amazing: we could stay at their beautiful apartment, we were eating in very nice restaurants, seeing beautiful cenotes - and that they filled their fridge completely full with beer didn´t necessary make things worse...

Silvia has a (much bigger and professional) travel blog by herself. If you understand Spanish and want to inform you about your next trip you should probably check here page as she is giving great tips where to stay, what to see and where to eat: http://www.latrotamundos.com.

We even gave our first interview about our trip what they published on their page: http://www.latrotamundos.com/2014/04/30/somos-un-mundo-razones-para-viajar-y-compartir-experiencias-en-un-blog/.

All in all it was a great time and a nice break from being a backpacker running around with your 20 Kilo backpack everyday looking for cheap rat holes to stay...

Our next stop was Tulum. Carla was keen to see the place as a lot of Telenovelas (soap operas) are filmed at this place. This has a specific reason. Tulum has probably the most beautiful beaches in Mexico. White sand, turquois water and a spectacular beach front. We can everybody just recommend to go there - but only if you are not cheap backpacking. Tulum is very expensive. The only way to access the beaches is by taking a taxi as no buses are going there. Hotels and restaurants a crazy overpriced. It is a beautiful spot for a honeymoon of for some nice 10-14 days holiday trip, but not the ideal place for backpackers.

We found near Tulum a relative cheap Hostel but as we realized at night this hostel was situated between a fitness studio and a discotheque. And both places where competing for the loudest place on earth based on the worst music. The only new things in those places were the subwoofers they had outside. Well, the discotheque didn´t have new subwoofers, the bass didn´t really work. If you had once broken bass boxes in your car and you were still listening the music you can imagine how the sound was we had to listen to the whole night. But well, what can you do?

In Tulum we didn´t find any soap opera actor but we did in Merida - This is Carla with Ariel Lopez Padilla, better known as Andres Alcazar in "Corazon salvaje"

Our next stops where Valladolid and (now we are in) Merida. 2 more inland cities in the Yucatan state. Really nice colonial cities that reminds us to Antigua or San Cristobal. 

As the rainy season has started (it is still very hot but cloudy and it rains at night) we decided to move on with our trip. Next stop will be El Salvador. WE decided to change a little bit our way of travel. As we had every time so far a guided book what gave us information about the places we decided in El Salvador that we won´t see into any guide. Just buy a map of the country and go wherever faith will guide us. Maybe we will miss out of some tourist places but travel will be more authentic.

Have a nice time in wherever you are and let us say that we are proud that already nearly 800 clicks where on our side. Great to see that some people don´t forget us.

Carla & Roman

Mexico 1 - Viva Zapata

Hello followers,

We just wanted to send a "Hello" as we are back in the civilisation. The last 2 weeks where amazing: We stayed in indigenous villages, sharing their food and get a deep view inside their day to day live. As this was part of a "human right mission" (we had to do some special trainings before that in Spain) and the situation in those villages is a little bit dangerous we are not allowed to give you more information where we where exactly and with whom we stayed. As well our pictures have to be screened so nobody of the people is on the picture or the place can be recognized.

With this blog we will try to explain in short their situation and give as much information as we can:

The last 2 weeks we stayed with indeginous people related to the "Zapatista movement". As everywhere in the world the poorest people with the lowest financial ressourses and the least political influence suffer most from programs as their voices are bairly heared by the public. There is no difference in Mexico. As the country grew in the last decates the indigenous and farmers (who are most of the time one and the same) are left out of the new wealth comming in. Land had been taken away and given to big oil companies, forests got destroid for tourism reasons and a lot of people got replaced from their land - land they where using and living in since centuries.

In 1994 (the same day as the free trade contract between Canada, USA and Mexico was announced) the Zapatistas screamed "YA BASTA" and took several cities in the south of Mexico (department Chiapas). The first speach of their leader Subcomandante Marcos explaind their needs. They where asking for nothing more than a dignified life. With enough food, land and houses to live in peace.

The Zapatistas hoped for a general uprising in Mexico but this didn´t happen. Instead the military moved into Chiapas willing to take back the cities with violence. Thanks to many demonstrations in Mexico and a lot of international pressure a massacre could be avoided and the Zapatistas moved back to their villages from where they started their so called "other campaign".

As they didn´t trust the Mexican goverment anymore (during the years 94-00 they tried to have several unsucsessfull meetings with goverment officials) they are now trying to create a new and parallel society. A society where the community is more important than the individual. This means they every Zapatist has to help as well in different work groups and give some of his time to the community. Also the financial situation is controlled and they are trying that everyone can benefit from their work in the same way and not only some individuals.

They don´t accept any money or help from the goverment. They build in the last 20 years their own school system, health system and goverment system.

Also part from this new structure is that they are now claiming back their land what provokes as well a hard response from the goverment who are going directly (or most of the time through paramilitary movement because they are more difficult to track back) to intervene in order to get the land back. It is not an open war but a continious low level war. This means they burn fields from the zapatistas, beating them up at night, throwing stones through their windows in order to make their live as hard as possible so they will leave.

Our job as "human right wacher" is first to document all the attackes the Zapatistas have to suffer but also to prevent conflicts with our presence. Most of the time it works but sometimes even with human right observers people get attacked.

Our stay in the villages was amazing but very hard in the same way: We slept on the floor, had no shower (we had to take a bath in a small river nearby) and make fire outside in order to have a coffee, tee or some rice in the evening. But at the same time you could talk with the people and live (even only for 2 weeks) their life. The stories they told you, their views and their willing to get on with their life was something very very special. It also reminds someone like us how fortunate we are just having the basic stuff like a matres, electricity or a toilet.

All in all a great experiance both of us will never forget.

We are now staying for 2 more days in San Cristobal (a city in Chiapas) and on Saturday we will be heading to playa del Carman where our Spanish/Belgium/Mexican/United states,... friends Patrick and Sylvia are living (one of the few people we know who are even more international then we are ;) ). Looking forward for some cold beers on the beach!!!!!!

We hope you are all fine and enjoy the European spring

Carla & Roman

PS: For everyone who things we had a "romantic" time in the villages - here our toilet for the last weeks we had to share with 6 people (and diarrea!) :

Guatemala 3 - This is the end (of Guatemala)

Hello together,

we are a little bit late to Update our blog but as we where travelling for the last 48 hours in order to get to the Mexican border we weren`t able to write before.

Still, the last week was the most amazing week we had so far. Last weekend we stayed for 3 days in Livingston in the caribean coast. As you can imagine did we what everyone is doing in the caribean: nothing - basically hanging 3 days in our hammocks and reading (and got some cold beers in order to refresh us). We didn`t stay too long over there because Guatemala doesn`t have beaches on this side of their coast and as we will bee in the caribean in Mexico Honduras and Nicaragua  we decided to move on.

The next step was Tikal. Tikal is the biggest known city of the Mayas (in peak time more then 200.000 people where living there) in the middle of the Guatemalian jungle. We went there at 5am in order to see the sunrise over the jungle sitting on the highest Mayan temple over there. Unfortunately it was very foggy so we couln`d see the sun (well, its a good thing as the rain forest gives us the waether we have in order to live on this planet - so it would have been a bad thing if it wouln`t been foggy in the morning ;) )but just sit there and listen how the rain forest "woke up" was amazing. First some birds, then more and more noises where to hear until the gorillas took over the scenery with there territory screams. A very unique experiance.

Later on we went to Semuc Champey. Well, what can we say about this place? If you die in Semuc Champey and you go to haven you will ask god if he can send you back - because there is no way heaven could top the beautiness of this place. Clear water surounded by high hills in the jungle. Both of us have seen a lot in our lives, but never something like that. If you want to do one thing more in your live: Go to Semuc Champey!!!

After two days of Semuc we went into a samll village near by as we met a woman from the evangelic church who was presenting a movie in this village. The movie was in Qéchi (the Maya language) so we didn`t understand a word but being in this village between the indeginous people was as well something very special.

Maybe a word more to the transportation in Guatemala: IT¨S CRAP!!!!

An example: To go from Livingston to Tikal we needed to take a boat at 6am. Well, it sayed 6am but as the boat wasn`t full we had to wait until 7am. Once arrived in the harbour we needed to take a minibus for 3 hours. There are 14 seats in the minibus - and 25(!) passengers. 3 of them had to do "Bus sufing" (beeing outside of the bus and grab whatever they could in order not to fall down). After the minibus we had to change to a bigger bus - but not less crouded: This time we had to stand for 4 more hours in a bus who was passing through the jungle streets with a very high humility. We arrived at 7pm (13 hours of trip) at our destination, a trip of maybe 200 KM. Welcome to Guatemala.

Now we are in San Cristobal de las Casas in Mexiko. We will be here until Wednesday, then we will go to the villages for the human right observation. We will try to write a short blog tomorrow to explain a little bit more what we are doing and in what situation the people a living in.

Saludos a todo que leen eso

Roman & Carla

PS: Pictures will follow tomorrow - the internet here is too slow for that