I had to get up early to repeat the ritual of pouring money into the parking machine, which is becoming a significant  expense and something that we had not anticipated.  Our accommodation in the towns in which we have overnighted so far – Girona, Huesca, and Pamplona, has been in the heart of the old town.  Great for centrality, great for taking in the atmosphere but terrible for parking.  Parking in Spain, it transpires, is a high maintenance activity.  If you are lucky enough to find a parking spot the maximum stay, as enforced by the the parking machines, is two hours.  We have to keep sneaking back to our car and replacing our expired ticket with a new one.  You are not really supposed to do this but it works for us so far.

On the way back from my early parking sortie I got talking to two Korean girls who were looking for accommodation.  They were doing the Camino de Santiago and had just arrived in Pamplona.  I wish now that I had asked them how long they intended t stay for, as that would be useful hostel information, but it is still encouraging to know that tourists are in Pamplona in October.

The Camino de Santiago is a ten centuries old pilgrims trail to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia.  The walk has many start points including Canterbury and Milan but they all converge over the Pyranees and so that region is held to be the proper start of this walk.  Naturally France insists that the CdS starts in France while Spain is equally adamant that it does not actually start until it hits Spanish soil.  In any case the mountainous walk staggers through Jaca and and then West via Pamplona.  The pilgrims way has clear religious significance but it also popular with walkers and adventurers, you don’t have to be Christian, or even religious to enjoy it.  I knew that the Camino was popular in the summer but was not too sure how many people would be brave enough to cross the Pyranees on foot once the snows had arrived.  So far the snow has only claimed the mountain tops but by January there is far more white territory around. Even in October the cold wind and the heavy rain can’t appeal to that many hikers but there are clearly a few hikers in Pamplona.

The two Korean girls told me they had met lots of other walkers along the way, and that they were enjoying their walk so far.

Jana was pretty tired after her driving the day before but I managed to coax her out of bed with a description of how nice the food is likely to be for breakfast and a reminder that we were in Pamplona, a place we both really enjoyed so far.

Jana and I have been dreaming about opening our own backpackers hostel for years.  We have talked and talked about it, we have made detailed plans and spreadsheets about how we want to run the place, we have told our friends and family about our plans; so you might think that looking around Spain for a suitable location would be an absolute pleasure; unfortunately not so.  We have been on the go for over a year, first in South America and now here.  We are adept at living out of a bag and moving on every few days but what we are both yearning for now is some stability.  We look forward to having our own place, I am craving a desk, Jana wants a wardrobe and we both want to have jobs again (and an income).  We are also finding it hard to stick to our budget because Spain, not surprisingly, is far far more expensive than South America.  Accommodation here in Pamplona is $35 a night and that is the cheapest we have found so far, the average is $50 and we always pick the budget spots.  Plus we don’t want to sit in our room and do nothing, we need to get out and about and learn about the city as much as we can.  It all costs money and it is leading to a few tensions.  I think some how we have to remember to enjoy ourselves and not feel so downbeat, as we have felt, on and off, for the past couple of days.

Pamplona has helped enormously with all this.  The more we wander around the more we like the place.

We popped into the tourist information office today to get some idea of the type and extent of accommodation in town.  There are plenty of pensions but only one proper backpackers hostel, Hostal Hemingway.  Tourists come to Pamplona all year round but there is a spike in July when people come for the Sanfermines.  At this time the hotels and hostels are choc-full and many residents open their houses to guests, making a tidy sum from grateful tourists who would otherwise be sleeping in the streets.  The tourist info people were unable to tell us how many visitors have a year but they claim that the numbers are high and that only a handful of hotels are closed in the winter.

We think that Pamplona is the favourite spot so far but we still have two weeks left to go and there are likely to be plenty of other potential towns around.  We also need to talk to more people about tourism in Pamplona.  The city is quite small, about 200,000 people but there is lots to do here – especially if you enjoy walking – and it is quite famous for its’ size.

We went to Hostal Hemingway today to check out how they are doing.  The place is run by three young guys who went into business together and opened a backpackers hostel  Prices are average, around $20 per person per night, and there are a mix of dorms and private rooms.  The kitchen seems adequate and there is a large-enough lounge area for hanging out and meeting people.  It looked like a small scale but decent hostel.  Sadly for them there were not many guests there.  The guy on the desk, one of the owners, told us that they are very busy during the summer months but things are quiet right now.  Not such a good sign perhaps.

I think that being here out of season is a good way get get an impression of how a town does for tourists outside of the high-season summer months and is probably more useful than making this tour in July or August.

We have decided to have one more full day in Pamplona as we like it so much and then head to San Sebastian, or Donostia as the Basques call it.

Huesca awoke to rain.  We took a look out of our window and as we had already done some sightseeing, and were not massively taken with the town as a potential hostel location, we decided to move on.  We had planned a rough route around Northern Spain that took in the major towns and tourist spots like Pamplona, San-Sebastian, Bilbao, Santander, A Corona, Santiago and more.  The road to the nearest of these, Pamplona, took in the town of Jaca, which is known to be the gateway to the Pyranees.  Since it was on the way and, more-importantly, since I love skiing, we though a look around Jaca would be in order.

We took a few hasty, rain splattered, photos of Huesca which do not adequately capture what a nice place it can be, and then hit the road again.  I would recommend a couple of days in Huesca to anyone doing a tour of Aragon, but I cannot see Jana and I living there.

The road to Jaca threads through the foothills of the Pyranees passing through mountains at some points and affording spectacular views over precipitous drops at others.  The drive, much like the one we had to Huesca, can be extremely beautiful and is worth doing as experience in itself.  We take the slower but more pleasant N roads whenever we can as we are not in any tearing hurry and the stunning scenery is so much more apparent from the N roads.  The A roads are excellent but you do not tent to see as much (A for Autopista or motorway).  We decided that N must stand for Nacional, much like the French Route Nactionals, and there are also E roads.  Since one sometimes have to pay a toll for using the E roads we have named them E for Expensive.

Our little Toyota Yaris is rubbish on hills of any letter, be they C, N, A or E. When driving up gradients on the Autopista’s we have to change down to third gear.  We booked and paid for a VW Polo as we thought this would be an OK car on our budget to do a lot of kilometers in.  The Yaris was all they had at the airport, it is a city car and the only good thing I can say about it is that it has a nice tight turning-circle.  Having a low-powered engine is probably not even a petrol saver when it has to work so hard to get us up hills.  We were overtaken by lorries a couple of times.

Jaca, also in Aragon and proud of its’ Heritage as the city of Ramiro I, is the service city for the Spanish Pyranees and seems like a pleasant little place.  We arrived during Siesta but there was still some folk around and all of the cafe’s and restaurants were open.  I imagine that when the snows come and the skiers arrive the town can get very lively.

We spent the afternoon wandering around town, happy that we were not being deluged with rain as in Huesca and Girona, and we enjoyed the town very much.  We took a stroll into the old town, then up to the Citadel and had a picnic near one of the churches.  We didn’t really get a chance to talk to any locals but we felt as if the town was just awaiting the start of another ski season when the economy can boom and the tourists spend their money.

Personally I would be happy to open a backpackers hostel in a place like Jaca, the town is pretty, it is surrounded by mountains and there is a good chance of business, with skiiers in the winter and walkers (it is on the Camino de Santiago) the rest of the year.  We even saw our first backpackers hanging around near the bus station.  Jana is a little dubious because of the cold and snowy winters and the fact that backpackers, in her opinion, do not really go skiing and we might be offering the wrong product in the wrong place.  I think that Jaca should go on our list but appreciate that it is going to be pretty low on the list once we have visited a few more promising places.  The thought of a full seasons skiing every year for evermore has probably influenced my feelings about Jaca more than sensible considerations such as whether it is the right location for our business.  Good job I have got Jana here to be the voice of reason.

The drive from Jaca to Pamplona was also beautiful, I believe we are falling in love with the Spanish countryside, and there were many occasions when we exclaimed how stunning the view was.

On the outskirts of Pamplona we spotted a Media Markt, and so we popped in to get some SIM cards for our mobile phones so that we could have Spanish phone numbers and be able to keep in touch with each other and people back home.  Having a number is also a must when job hunting, how else are companies and agencies going to get in touch and ask us to a job interview?

Despite the rather generic and built up outskirts Pamplona is a very attractive and charming city.  Jana had a feeling about Pamplona and I have to say she was right.  We have been here for only a few hours, long enough to find some accommodation and grab a bite to eat, but already Pamplona strikes us as an excellent location.  It is world famous due to the Sanfermines (Running of the Bulls) plus it is on the Camino de Santiago and has an airport and good transport links.  In addition it is not too far from the coast or from the ski resorts of the Pyranees, both within a couple of hours drive.

Dismayed with Catalunya

Jana and I arrived in Girona (Ryanair’s version of Barcelona) late on Tuesday and drove our rather feeble hire car into Girona for some much needed rest.  We got rather confused driving around the old town of Girona at night and in the end Parked our car in Plaza de Catalunya and decided to find our hostel on foot.   The place we stayed at, HI Cerveri de Girona, was your typical youth hostel international type place and there was not anything particularly wrong with the place and yet we both felt it was a disappointment and the uncomfortable nights sleep we got in the only room available (a dorm) just emphasised that.  Thank you to the group of French girls by the way, who came in at 3 am and then proceeded to snore all night.  When we open a hostel we are going to have  a snorers dorm I reckon.

I think that perhaps Jana and I are not suited for dorms.  We slept mostly in private rooms in South America although the odd night in a dorm was quite fun as we always made friends.  If we can find a proper backpackers hostel it might well be worth looking at a dorm again but in our experience, HI places don’t count for some reason.  It rarely seems to conducive to making friends in an HI type hostel.

The following morning it hit us that we barely understood a word anyone was saying to us.  This might not trouble your average Brit abroad on the Costa del Sol but Jana and I have both studied Spanish and travelled extensively in South America.  We ate and drank Spanish when we were working at our hostel in Nicaragua and so to be stumped when asking for directions in Girona was mighty disheartening.

The reason for our incomprehension, as you possibly have guessed, is that people here speak Catalan.  Even when we ask a question in Spanish, we get a response in either Catalan, or a Catalan dialect of Spanish that is virtually indecipherable.

That morning, our first full day in Spain, it rained gatos y perros (cats and dogs) and that, coupled with our dismay at the language barrier and the bad nights sleep we got in our hostel dorm precipitated a  mood of desolation bordering on deep depression. I took to smoking cigarettes and even Jana, often the optimistic one in our partnership, could not be anything but downbeat about our prospects.  We jumped in the car and drove.

Girona seems nice enough and climate is good.  Night-time, even in October, is a pleasant temperature, and the summers are balmy and sun-drenched. However, our overall impressions were that this is not the place for us.  For one thing there were no backpackers there, even in the towns only youth hostel. The old town of Girona is very attractive, with narrow cobbled streets, attractive old sandstone facade and an interesting array of Tapas bars, fashion boutiques and explorable alleyways.  Even though there were a couple of Irish Bars, a sure sign that international tourism is close at hand, there does not seem to be enough in Girona to sustain interest.  And then there is this Catalan thing.  How disheartening, having spent a year learning Spanish, to find that no-one wants to speak Spanish with you.  I think that the heavy rain did not do Girona justice either, we may have felt differently in nice weather but the soaking we received only reinforced our feeling that Girona is a non-starter.

Once on the rain soaked road out of town we decided, more or less spontaneously, to get out of Catalunya.  We had spend a couple of hours researching hostels in Barcelona but in the end we didn’t even get close to Gaudi’s hometown.  Apart from an unexpected diversion (got lost) to the town of Quark where we talked to a lovely old man in a coffee shop who deigned to speak Spanish to us, we did not see any more of Catalunya and instead headed through the mountains to Huesca in Aragon.

The old guy in the coffee shop was great actually, and he cheered us up no end.  We must have looked pretty despondent;  here we are, the beginning of our great adventure to live in Spain and open our dream hostel together, and we are tired, soaked, unimpressed and can’t even converse with the local people.  Jana, with her instinctive penchant for exaggeration, even told me that she wanted to die. The old chap told us to come back in the summer when the world was beautiful. He also told us about his grandchildren and then decided to launch into a brief history of Catalunya and how they have never really been a part of Spain.  He even used the term occupation at one point.  Clearly he harbours sympathies for the Catalan separatists.

The drive across the middle of Catalunya to Huesca was beautiful.  The route is fairly mountainous, the roads, like in much of Spain, are good and the traffic light.  The twisting mountain highway, which our low-powered Toyota Yaris really struggled with, would bend to reveal yet another beautiful village nestled on the top of a hill, usually crowned with an old sandstone church.   We also passed countless farms and villas which looked stunning and that, coupled with the landscape, also helped to lift us out of our funk.

Jana took on a good share of the driving, which is noteworthy because it is the first time she has driven any distance since passing her driving test last year.  She did a fine job.

We arrived in the ancient town of Huesca shortly before sunset.  The city is the capital of the Aragon region and has a charm and character quite different to  Girona or Barcelona.  Here in Aragon they speak proper Spanish and that is a big plus for us.  We booked into a little “hostel” called San Marcos and went out for a bite to eat.  Anyone who finds themselves in Huesca can do a lot worse than the Taberna de Pinxos in the old town.  You just help yourself to delicious Tapas and then pay at the end by presenting your wooden toothpicks, there is one sticking from every dish, to the waitress.  I love honesty systems like that.  In just about the whole of Spain the customer pays at the end of the meal or if you are in a bar, you order your drinks but do not pay until you are ready to leave.  Somehow expecting customers to be honest like this seems more civilised to me.

Hostel San Marcos was adequate but it is not what Jana and I class as a hostel, it is just a budget hotel.  We got our own, fairly nice, room with a TV and a bathroom but there was no common area or chance to socialise with the other guests.  No information on things to do in Huesca and no sense of community or of being welcomed.  Jana and I need to think very carefully about what we name our backpackers hostel.  Here in Northern Spain, Hostal (or hostel) often just means budget hotel.  We want our visitors to understand that they can get accommodation but also so much more.  I suppose we are modelling our ideal on many of the South American hostels we have visited but such places also exist in Europe, some key ingredients being plenty of space and communal areas to socialise, food and drink served, excursions and activities, helpful staff, lots of info, a chance to make friends with other guests, an ambience that encourages people to hang out and make friends.  It does not even have to be that cheap, private rooms are often the same as in a hotel, although a few budget dorm beds definitely works well.

We had an evening stroll around Huesca and decided that although the place seemed infinitely preferable to Girona, we would not want to live here.  The recently added airport and good bus station means that there may well be tourists but at the time we were there we were not aware of any and the town seemed just a little on the small and provincial side.  We are not looking to live in a huge Metropolis but a little more culture and life would be welcome.  The old town of Huesca is very attractive and there are some good bars and restaurants there, such as the student hang-out we went to called Jardin Botanico, and even though there is a university as well we do not think the town would be a great backpackers magnet.  Onto the next one, we decided.

There is one place in Central America that I regret not visiting on my last trip. It is impossible to do everything and a mistake to try because you are always rushing to the next temple/volcano/beach. Tikal however is one of the highlights of the region and the most extensive and famous of the Mayan cities where, at one time, king Moon Double Comb, ruled the Mayan world and built the iconic temples that would be the Americas tallest structures for a thousand years.

Jana went to Tikal seven years ago, shortly after she had met me, but we did not go together as we were not a couple at that time. I passed up on the chance to see the site because I had to get back to Mexico city in time for a mugging. Well to be chronologically accurate I had to get back for a flight but the way events packed up, my passport and bank cards were liberated from me and ultimately I ended up staying in Mexico city a lot longer to get my affairs in order.

So, fast forward to 2009 and here we are again, Jana Planz and Luke Harris, still together and back in Central America. We had planned to do a little backpacking, maybe see Tikal, before we started work in Granada, Nicaragua but the constant momentum of backpacking, plus the near daily ritual of packing and repacking the same old chattels had driven directly to the stability and routine of a job. We did however, promise each other that we would “do” (as backpackers seem to say) Tikal before we left Central America. I am happy to write that Tikal has now been well and truly done.

We took an overnight bus from Guatemala City and arrived in Flores, the access town to Tikal, at around 7 am. Night buses are great as I have written previously because they save you a night on accommodation and also increase the chances of you getting a room as you tend to arrive just as others are checking out. One observation I will add, for any would be Guatemala-goers, is that the country has really geared up for tourism in the intervening years since our last visit. This has some good and some bad sides that I won’t go into here, bla bla bla economy, foreign business ownership, national identity etc etc. You know the story.

The impact of the tourist trade means that there are far more scalpers and chancers after your tourist plata. In Antigua (Guatemala’s colonial gem) all the agencies offer transport to Flores as this is arguably the most popular route and everyone wants to see Tikal, except me obviously. However, the tourist agencies in Guatemala, more so than any other country we have encountered, rob you blind.

We are accustomed to independent travel so we learned the names of the bus companies and booked direct over the telephone and saved ourselves over half the price as a result. No other agents that we saw slapped a 100+% fee for the service of making a phone call in Spanish to a bus company. I suppose if there are plenty of people willing to pay then why not? Its the typical spiel of imbalance of information that Steven Levitt writes about where people with expert knowledge, in this case a phone number and the ability to speak Spanish, make it seem as if they are the only ones who can do the job and whack on a whopping fee accordingly. It annoys me but then again, there are usually ways around it.

So Tikal. We had a brief catnap and shower to freshen up and we headed to Tikal only hours after stepping off our night bus. Jana was armed with her beloved camera and I had a packed lunch, which is the way we usually manage day trips, and in we went. I won’t go into the same level of rhapsodising prose as I indulged in when describing Machu Picchu but I will say that Tikal is a wonder and every but is beautiful as the aforementioned Inca Site.

Tikal is, of course, Mayan and has nothing to do with the Incas although the Mayans did trade with pre-Inca civilizations and it is plausible that some knowledge was passed on from the Mayans to what would become the Inca empire. The city is set in the vast expanse of jungle that extends from Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula through Northern Guatemala and Belize. A jungle that even today, after centuries of deforestation, is the size of Wales.

We hired a guide at my insistence, something that we do not usually bother to do, and split the cost of doing so with a couple from Washington DC who were nice but forgettable. The guide took us to the main temples and explained a little about the history of the Mayans and their rituals but nothing particularly insightful or outside the remit of your average travel book, but what really did it for me was to see these amazing structures, still standing majestically despite centuries of being lost in the jungle. The setting is pretty special, the jungle makes you feel at once enclosed and at the same time part of a vast expanse of green. That duality is never clearer than when climbing one of the temples.

We climbed number four temple first and got a sweeping view of the jungle, with green canopy undulating away as far as the eye could see, and just the upper parts of the towering pyramids peeping through the trees. The effect is breathtaking, quite literally as you have to ascend lots of steps in 80% humidity to reach that elevation, and made a big impression on me. There are some moments in life that you unlock in your memory remember via a photo, and there are others where we have a mental picture that is so strong that is so vivid there is no need for any other cues. Jana’s pictures of the day are great but I don’t need any of them to remind me of that first canopy view, taking in the pyramids of the Great Plaza in front of us, the acropolis and temple number five off to the side and the unending verdant sea of green.

We were lucky with the weather that day, so the sun smiled on us the whole time only to make room for a small shower just as we boarded the near-derelict mini van that we used to transport us back to Flores at the end of a glorious day. Tikal was our last full day in Guatemala for what is likely to be a long time and it will leave us with fond memories and a renewed interest in Mayan culture for evermore. I think that Jana enjoyed the day almost as much as I did even though she had visited the site once before.

Friday was also our last day at work and Maria, the owner of the hostel and her husband Joge invited us to their weekend house in Pochomil on the Pacific Coast of Nicaragua. There they showed us a really good time and fed us different kinds of local seafood’s basically from arrival to departure. The two really have a lovely house with pool and we enjoyed hot water for the first time in several month when we sat in the whir pool. Coincidentally the president Alvaro Alemán and some other friends came by the house later that night and we talked, drank and ate with a real president. He is not the president in office right now but the power sharing agreement between him and Daniel Ortega means that he still is very influential in Nicaraguan politics. Anyway, it was weird because we did not expect to meet the ex president anytime soon.

Granada has been so lovely and I am very glad that we had the opportunity to return there and spend some time. Working at the hostel has really given us a good insight into the hostel life and we have learned that our dream of opening our own hostel is really what we want to do in life. Of course we have also encountered negatives and things we would like to make different but on a whole we are very grateful for the good opportunity. Now we just have to find a place where we would like to open our own place and get some money for a deposit together. That is of course easier said than done. Having said that, Luke and I are still really set on the idea and are eager to fulfilling our dream.

On Tuesday we took the direct Bus to Guatemala City. After the 18 hour bus journey, by the way we did not encounter any problems passing through Honduras, we took a direct Taxi to Antigua. We only arrived here last night and after a quick bite to eat all we could think about was bed.

Today we roamed around town and re-discovered places that we had visited together last time we met up in Antigua. We even had another romantic pick-nick in the old ruins of the monastery, just as we did seven years ago. Very romantic in deed. Tomorrow night we are off to Flores in the north of Guatemala, which is the place to go when you want to see the beautiful Maya Ruins of Tikal. We are moving quite fast as we are already fast approaching the end of our travels. I guess we still have a little stop over in Vancouver to see lovely Elisha. Hasta pronto amigos, with more info and some photos!

Although we both have been pretty lazy since we arrived at the middle of April and plunged straight into work which was quite a change of paste for us. The last eight month were incredible and we experienced the most wonderful places and met interesting people along the way, but everyone who has been on extended travels also knows that it is not all holiday and that you do get tired of constantly moving and packing your bag. Hence, we were relieved to have made it to Granada and not only find the city as we remembered it but we also felt straight at home as we moved into our gorgeous new house. Now, I don’t want to brag but we have four bathrooms. I am sure you all remember our tiny bathroom at Blenheim Square, well now we can choose which one to use.

We started work pretty much straight away as we felt ready to embrace a routine and were interested to learn how much the Hostel itself might have changed and what we can learn. Luke started work in Reception and I worked in the Kitchen, which serves breakfasts every morning. Since then we have swapped around, so we both get to experience as much as possible. We both only work half days in the morning and a free in the afternoons to re-discover the city, so we thought at least. We have not really done anything since we arrived last month as it has been so nice just to have a home. I particularly enjoy having my own kitchen, we have been cooking pretty much every day. I admit that we have been a bit lazy but why not, you can not really spend much time outdoors during the middle of the day anyway as it is extremely hot here, particularly when we finish work. So we have just enjoyed our house, a few restaurants and bars and I am embarrassed to say I particularly have enjoyed cable TV. Our house is very beautiful, an open plan building which we have made our home already. Specially as we already had the joy of having guest in our house. First Belinda and Jonno an Australian couple that we already met in El Salvador. We travelled together to Nicaragua and we invited them to stay with us straight away as we enjoyed their company so much and felt a bit lonely in our big house being used to having plenty of other travellers around in Hostels. They only stayed a few days but we had such a brilliant time. Recently we had the Peña family staying with us for a couple of days. We met them a long while ago in Ecuador but stayed in contact and as they recently went to Cost Rica they contacted us to meet up. We invited them of course to stay with us as we always enjoy the company of guests and we had a truly brilliant time going on little excursions and cooking for each other (their Curry was wonderful).

Right at the beginning of our stay we made friends with Odysseus, a little ginger kitten that came to our door for help. Of course we could not do anything else than care for this abandoned little thing and after a few days he already was much healthier. Sadly Oddy only stayed with us a few days, he passed away after the vet gave him some injections, the vet explained that he already had too many parasites in his tummy that he could not fight. It was really sad saying goodbye to the little friend as we had to bury him in our garden, at least we were able to be his family for a few days so he did not have to die by himself.

A week after we went to a Spanish school to enquire about Spanish lessons, another thing that we have not quite got around to do, where we met our next little pets. Oscar and Ometeppe got abandoned a few days earlier in front of the Spanish school and one student had been taking care of them for the last couple of days as they still needed feeding with a pipette, they were so tiny. She was going home a few days later and the Spanish school said that they did not have the time to care for them, they would take them back once they are more independent and can east solid food. So of course my heart melted once again and we took the two little buggers home with us. They both have been such a joy and we feel so happy to have them around, even though we did not quite grasp how much work you have to invest into little kittens. When they arrived they were very small and fragile but they have been growing daily and they are full of beans, jumping around and are up to no good as I write this. They have learned to use the potty and we mixing their diet with solid food now, so they are on their way to independence but of course we will keep them as long as we live in Granada.

Granada itself is incredibly beautiful and just as I had it in my memory. The colonial architecture is very colourful and pleasing to the eye. It is a bit more touristy than seven years ago when Luke and I met exactly at the same place where we are working now. Hostel Oasis is more or less the same as well. There are some more rooms now, the space from that got taken away from the common areas, which is a shame but the vibe of the hostel is still chilled and relaxed and we really enjoy working there. We have already learned so much in our first month of work, I won’t bore you with the details but I think it is so important that we made this experience to find out that it is really what we would like to do with our future. Opening our own hostel is now even more appealing and we have so many amazing ideas and plans. We both can’t wait to move to Spain and get started.

Even though we enjoy life here in Granada, we are both excited to be back soonish. We are planning to work at Oasis until the end of July and then take another month of travelling to explore the corners of Central America that we did not see at our last visit. Which will mean that we will see you all at some point in September. We are booth looking forward to seeing and hugging all of you on our return. For now I am looking forward to my parents who will be with us on the 9th June, I am very excited and can’t wait to see them both again.

Unsere erster Stopp nach Chile was Salta im Norden von Argentinien. Hier blieben wir aber nur zwei Tage da wir so einen engen Zeitplan haben. Hier hatten wir wieder große Supermärkte, Rokula und einen Swimmingpool. Yippi Zivilisation.

Von dort ging es dann auch gleich weiter nach Paraguay. Hier hatte ich auch ein kleinen Ecke von zu hause da wir in der Deutschen Gemeinde von Hohenau untergekommen sind. Hier haben wir ein Ferien Park gefunden wie in Dirty Dancing, da es aber keine Ferien waren, waren Luke und ich die einzigen Gäste und wir hatten drei Swimmingpool für uns alleine. Die brauchten wir aber auch, es war sehr heiss und und wir brauchten jede halbe Stunde eine Abkühlung. Von dort haben wir auch die Jesuiten Missionen von Trinidad und Jesus besucht. Sehr interessant aber viel zu heis dort. Es war auf jeden Fall sehr cool in Hohenau und total komisch. Auf der Strasse gehen Leute an dir vorbei dir nicht nur Deutsch sprechen sondern auch total Deutsch aussehen.

Nach Hohenau sind wir zur Ciudad del Este gefahren, eigentlich nur um von dort die Iguazu Wasserfällen zu besuchen. Wir haben uns aber den Itapu Damm angeschaut der einer der groessten Hydroelektrichendämme in der Welt ist, war ok aber ein bisschen langweilig.

Igauzu dagegen war amazing. Wir haben die Wasserfälle von der Brasilianischen und dann der Argentinischen Seite an zwei Tagen gesehen. Beide Seiten waren toll aber die Brasilianische Seite hat mir ein bisschen besser gefallen. In Brasilien hat man einen besseren Blick auf die Wasserfälle aber in Argentinien konnte man oben über dem Hauptwasserfall laufen und runter gucken. Obwohl es sehr voll war haben wir beide Tage genossen und viele schöne Fotos gemacht.

Weiter ging es in die aufregende Stadt Buenos Aires. Hier verbringen wir ungeplant sieben Tage. Wir wollten eigentlich gleich mit der Fähre weiter nach Uruguay fahren, haben aber vergessen das es gerade Oster Ferien sind und haben kein Ticket mehr bekommen. Also haben wir uns dazu entschlossen zwei extra Tage in Buenos Aires zu verbringen.

Wir lieben es hier und haben eine super Zeit. Den ersten Tag bin ich erstmal einkaufen gegangen und habe mir ein neues Top und Schuhe gekauft. Und habe ein Friseur Termin gebucht. War seit Peru nicht mehr beim Friseur und meine Haare hatten es nötig. Hier haben wir auch Museen besucht und ich konnte endlich mal wieder Foto Ausstellungen angucken. Wow, ich haben Museen, richtig gute Restaurants und Shoppingcenter vermisst. Aber das kann man alles in Buenos Aires finden und vieles mehr. Wir wohnen in San Telmo, den Künstlerviertel und heute waren wir auf einem Antikmarkt und haben uns schöne alte aber viel zu teure Sachen angeschaut. Unser Hostel ist auch total nett und wir haben schon viele nette Leute kennengelernt. Ich freue mich aber auch schon ab Mittwoch wieder in Mittelamerika zu sein.

In Uyuni angekommen haben wir und Ed, den wir schon in Potosi kennen gelernt haben, uns für einen Trip nach Chile entschieden. Hier nach Uyuni kommt keiner ohne die Salzwüste zu sehen und da wir sowieso in Richtung Süden reisen dachten wir gucken wir uns noch mal ein bisschen von Chile an. Morgen reisen wir schon weiter nach Argentinien, haben aber einen weiteren Stempel im unseren Pass.

Obwohl alle Reisenden die wir getroffen haben und die in Uyuni waren, von der Salzwüste nur so schwärmten, reizte mich die Reise nicht so sehr da wir teilweise 4800 Meter hoch waren und es extrem kalt wird in den Nächten. Unsere Tourgesellschaft Estrella del Sur kann ich nicht empfehlen aber trotz der Kälte war es ein ganz besonderes Erlebnis, da die Landschaft so spektakulär war.

Am ersten Tag haben wir hauptsächlich die 12.000 Hektar große Salzwüste an geguckt und eine Insel inmitten des Salzen auf der ganz viele Kakteen wachsen. Die Landschaft war toll aber es hat sehr genervt das es so viele andere Tours gab, die genau die selbe Richtung genommen haben wie wir. An jedem Stopp hat man die selben Reisenden wieder treffen  können und am Abend haben wir sogar alle in dem selben Hotel geschlafen.

Das beste an dem ganzen Trip waren aber die Sterne, die einfach unglaublich waren in der Nacht. Da es für hunderte von Kilometern kein Dorf mit Licht gibt, sieht man Millionen von Sternen nach Sonnenuntergang. Ich habe es sogar geschafft Fotos zu machen.

Der zweite Tag bestand hauptsächlich aus fahren und anhalten um ein paar Fotos zu machen. Alles sehr touristisch aber zu gleichen Zeit atemberaubend schön. Wir haben Lagunen und Sandwüsten, Berge und Täler sehen können. Viel leben gibt es hier nicht, in den Lagunen leben Flamingos und wir haben ein komischen Chinchilla-Hasen gesehen der in der Wüste wohnt.

Die zweite Nacht war besonders ungemütlich mit -5 Grad in der Mitte vom Nichts unser Jeep hatte auch keine Heizung und ich bin fast erfroren. Wir haben aber schon mittags die Grenze nach Chile überquert und sind jetzt wieder auf genießbaren 2400 Metern, mit viel wärmerem Klima. Chile gefällt uns total toll. Das essen ist Super und obwohl San Pedro del Atacama sehr touristisch ist gefällt uns das kleine Städtchen mit den vielen Restaurants und Hotels. Chile ist sehr Europäisch und ich muss sagen das ich dafür bereit bin. Ich habe leere Versprechen und überkochte Nudeln satt und freue mich auf Argentinien, wo wir morgen hinfahren und es auch viel mehr Europäisch im Einfluss ist als der Rest von Südamerika.

In dem einen Stadtmuseum gab es gerade eine temporäre Ausstellung von Masken zu sehen. Die Masken waren faszinierend und waren ähnlich zu denen die man im Völkerkunde Museum bestaunen kann.

Das zweite Museum war ein privates Museum das die lokalen Webereien ausstellte. Es war sehr interessant mehr über die Webereien zu lernen und sogar eine Demonstration bekommen. Die besten Decken brauchen drei Monate Arbeit und das ist wenn die Weber konstant an dem Stück arbeiten. Oft haben sie aber auch noch einen Haushalt und Kinder um die sie sich kümmern müssen und sie brauchen viel länger.

Am Sonntag sind wir nach Tarabuco gefahren um uns dort den Mark anzuschauen. Es war ganz nett aber nichts besonderes von vielen anderen Märkten die wir auf unserer reise gesehen haben. Viele Besucher haben ihre lokalen Trachten getragen und das war sehr bunt und interessant aber ansonsten wurden die gleichen Artikel verkauft die man sonst auch überall auf den Märkten finden kann.

Von Sucre sind wir nach Potosi gefahren. Ein sehr starker Kontrast zu dem reichen Sucre. Potosi ist eine Stadt die vom Bergbau lebt. Seit den 1500 Jahrhundert wird in Potosi Silber und andere Metalle abgebaut. Heute ist nur noch wenig Silber zu finden und Bergarbeiter müssen sich mit weniger wertvollen  Metallen zufrieden geben. Die Arbeitskonditionen sind harsch und die Lebenserwartung eines Bergarbeiters ist nicht höher als 45 zu 50 Jahren. So gut wie alle, haben Lungenerkrankungen und sterben früher oder später an Silikose. Die Mienen sind voll von Sulfur, Arsenik, Asbest und anderen schrecklichen Chemikalien die die Bergarbeiter täglich in ihren 12-24 Stunden Schichten einatmen und dazu kommt noch der Staub der durch die Explosionen schwer zu umgehen ist.

Hier angekommen haben wir eine Tour der Minen gemacht. Die Tour wurde von ehemaligen Bergbauarbeitern geleitet. Bevor es zu den Mienen geht wurden wir erst zum Markt gebracht wo die Arbeiter vor ihrer Schicht hingehen um Dynamit, Coca Blätter, Alkohol und Zigaretten zu kaufen. Das Leben ist hart hier und die Arbeiter glauben an Gott solange sie Außerhalb der Mienen sind. In  den Mienen kann sie sogar Gott nicht mehr beschützen, unter der erde glauben sie das sie in der Hand vom “Tio” dem Onkel (oder dem Teufel) sind und darum geben sie ihm Regelmassig Opfergaben um ihn bei guter Laune zu behalten.

In jeder Miene gibt es mindestens einen Tio der aus Stein und Teracotta gebaut wurde, manche stammen sogar noch aus der kolonial Zeit. Die Opfergaben sind die typischen, Alkohol, Coca und Zigaretten. Nach dem Karneval im Februar werden Lama geopfert um den Blutdurst des Teufels zu sättigen, so das er nicht das Blut der Bergarbeiter nimmt.

In Sucre haben wir den Film “The Devild Miner” gesehen, der über einen Jungen namens Basilio berichtet hat, der 14 Jährige Junge arbeitet seit 4 Jahren in den Mienen weil er für seine Familie sogen musste. Sein Vater ist gestorben und er muss nicht nur für seinen kleinen Bruder und Schwerster sorgen sonder auch für seine Mutter. Der Film hat uns viel über die Mienen und die Menschen die dort arbeiten müssen gelernt und das es für viele Leute, wie zum Beispiel Basilio einfach keinen anderen Ausweg gibt.

In den Mienen des Cerro Rico Berges arbeiten heutzutage 4000 bis 5000 Menschen. Noch vor zwei Jahren lag sie Zahl bei etwa 14.000. Seit den sind die Metall Preise aber drastisch gesunken und für viele Arbeiter war es einfach nicht mehr profitable genug um ihre Familie zu ernähren. Es arbeiten auch viel Kinder in den Mienen, dieses ist zwar offiziell nicht erlaubt, es gibt aber auch keine Kontrolle und oft sind die Kinder die einzigen Brotverdienter der Familie und die anderen Mitglieder der Familie verlassen sich auf das Einkommen der Kinder.

Wir haben dir Candelarie Miene besucht. Viele der Mienen sind Kooperative Mienen die von den Bergarbeitern besitzt werden, obwohl es aber auch viele private Minen gibt. Bevor wir in den Stollen gegangen sind haben wir auf dem Markt Dynamit gekauft. Ja, das ist richtig, man kann hier einfach so auf dem Markt Dynamit kaufen, sogar Kinder können kaufen was sie wollen. Wir haben das Dynamit hauptsächlich als Geschenke für die Bergarbeiter gekauft, da die das Dynamit von ihren Einkünften zahlen müssen und oft noch nicht mal genug Geld haben um Coca am Morgen zu kaufen.

Dann ging es ab in die Mienen und ich kann euch sagen das es nicht zu einem Stollen in Europa zu vergleichen ist. Die Schächte sind klein und an vielen Stellen muss man sogar auf seinem Händen und Knien kriechen um durch die Tunnel zu kriechen. In den Mienen kann man dann regelmäßig Explosionen hören und fühlen und das ist ziemlich angsteinjagend. Wir haben aber erst den Tio besucht und ihm Zigaretten gegeben um ums nicht lebendig zu essen. Viele Bergarbeiter sterben aber doch jährlich durch Unfälle. In den Schächten haben wir Bergarbeiter getroffen die hart am Arbeiten waren. Darunter auch Nelson, ein dreizehn Jähriger Junge der schon seit vier Jahren mit seinem Vater in den Mienen arbeitet.

Die Tour war ziemlich anstrengend, alleine schon das Atmen viel uns schwer. Wir sind aber nur zu besucht gewesen und müssen hier nicht jeden Tag für den Rest unseres Leben arbeiten. Ich weiss wirklich nicht wie die Bergarbeiter es machen können und alles was sie am ende ihres harten Lebens erwarten können ist ein früher Tod.