astrid

Carnival in RIO 2008....

2008-02-23T16:01:00.000-08:00

was TOTALLY amazing... and I already want another one... :)

have a look at my favorite Samba school of this year.... GRANDE RIO..

http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ8LBfEx5Kc&feature=related

BEIJA-FLOR - the winning Samba school for the 2nd year in a row - was really good as well...

http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=C7JDBnniiH0&feature=related

xoxoxoxx

I went to the "End of the World"....

2007-10-30T15:35:00.000-07:00

and spent some wonderful days in USHUAIA... visiting friends... and also the amazing National parks there... even managed to dance some Salsa there.... and had a really great time... :)

Then did a fantastic, crazy road-trip back to Buenos Aires with my good friend Joaco... stopping in Rio Gallegos and Puerto Madryn on the way back...

will try to post some pics of this trip to Patagonia as well some time soon...

beijos...xx

tttttaaannntttooo tiempo...!!!

2007-09-17T21:10:00.001-07:00

oooii.... shentshi... gente.... where do I start...?!?!? so much time has passed... so many months.... so many things have happened.... tantas cosas that I´ve seen and done.... don´t even know where to start writing.... been too busy living life... jajja... ;)

y entonces.... let´s see....

I had come back to Buenos Aires in April... Easter weekend... 3 great nights here....dancing... salsa... seeing old friends again....

and then I went on this amazing trip around ARG and Chile... first to Mendoza and Santiago with Jesi.... amazing... crossing the Andes by bus was spectacular...!! Mendoza was really beautiful... and I just lloovveeddd USPALLATA... Bachata.... jajja... ;)

Santiago really nice as well.... met some really nice people there... saw some wineries... Valparaiso... Vina del Mar....

and then from there I continued the trip on my own... further down South to Puerto Montt, Puerto Varas.... Chilean Lake District.... BEAUTIFUL...!!

from there CRUCE de LAGOS to Bariloche... amazing as well...!! I just never had enough time in none of the places I visited....

really have to take up Olayo´s invite and go back to Peulla some time.... and also my 15 hours in Bariloche were NOTHING....!!
this place is ssssooooo nice.... even though it´s ssssoooo German.... (or Swiss) really wanna go back there some time.... too bad it didn´t work out in July when Mariano went there for a week.... bueno... next time... ;)

then another quick stop to see the glaciars in El Calafate... spectacular...!! I had never seen any glaciars in real like before... WWWOOOWWW...!!!
and met some really nice people there too....

bueno.... then I had 2 days in BUE before flying to Germany for Beate´s wedding.... and that was just enough time to have my suit-case with all my stuff stolen...!!! by a BS- Buenos Aires- taxi-driver... aaahhhh - ssssoooo annoying... !!!!
I was really upset.... pero bueno... ya esta... y ya paso.... und aendern kann ich´s jetzt auch nicht mehr... only learn from it.... oh well....

then 6 weeks in Germany.... wonderful..!! Beate´s wedding was great.... and so was the time I spent with my family and friends en Alemanha...!! :)

even though I was missing my life and my friends in South America as well, I had a really fantastic time back home...

and then came back to Buenos Aires in June... and am still here....hahaha.... ;)

having a great time living and working here again... :)

was looking after Regina´s house for 9 weeks while she was in Europe and living here with some other nice, friendly, some a veces rather complicated, y well... ever-changing people....

pero bueno.... all is fine... the house is great... and I´m having a great time in Argentina again... or still..(?!?) todavia... whichever way you wanna see it... ;)

Salsa here is still really good... but now I wanna learn some Tango as well....

took a short trip to Peru last month.... to finally visit Machu Picchu...!!
it was amazing....!!!
and sssssooooo good to see all my friends in Lima again...!!
aaaahhh - I wish I could have spent more time there... well... hopefully next year some time... :)

and coming back to BUE always feels like coming home....so this was really nice too... :)

next month I´ll be going to ¨The End of the World¨ for a few days.... USHUAIA.... visiting some friends who live there.... and to get to know the Southern-most city in the world...!! :)

y bueno.... till then I have another month to enjoy here in Buenos Aires....:)

aaahhh - and it was mi cumple hace 2 semanas...!! :)

muchas great fiestas aki...!! y asados na minha casa.... everything was perfect... :)

thanks to everyone who was here to celebrate with me... who thought of me.... sent me Glueckwuensche.... called.... emailed... etc. etc. love you all...!!! xxxxxx

bueno... ya es tarde aki.... tengo que dormir un poco....

les mando besos y abrazos desde Buenos Aires...!!! :)

hasta la proxima...xxxx

Finally having to leave Rio…!!!

2007-04-04T19:23:00.000-07:00

Ooohh jjjeee…..the last time I wrote here on my wonderful blog was BEFORE CARNIVAL….!!

Ggggggg…..that is aaaaagggggeeesss ago... almost 2 months now…WWWOOOOWWW…!!

My time here in Rio has been flying by…well… and got extended and extended and extended once again…. Until right now… today… I really HAD to leave… and am actually sitting right now on the bus back to Buenos Aires…

Aaahhh – este Crucero del Norte bus is wonderful….!! Ssssooo comodo…!! Huge Coche Cama seats…. If you’ve never been on a long-distance bus in Argentina - or anywhere in South America before - those are like business class seats on a plane that you can fold back and convert into beds…. Wonderful… ☺

Y bueno…. Soooo my time in Rio was nice enough in the end that I stayed 4 weeks longer than I had planned originally…

CARNIVAL was totally amazing…!! Parties, fiestas, blocos, concerts on the streets, na praia, nas pracas, clubs and bars constantly and everywhere for almost a week….

Also the official Winner’s Parade that we went to see with Filip and Melanie at the Sambodromo was amazing…!!
We had negotiated some pretty good seats for VERY reasonable rates and actually got to see this Champions Parade from the Sector where most fans of the Samba School Mangueira were sitting…. All Brazilians….great…. not touristy at all…!! ☺

And the presentation of the winning Samba school BEIJA-FLOR was….WWWOOOWW… fantastic…!! So beautiful everything… so many details…. In the costumes, the huge themed and decorated trucks….!! Amazing…!!

We had seen the dancers and bateria of Beija-Flor a couple of weeks before when they were doing a practice-run on Avenida Atlantica…. And Marcelo and I had been dancing all night long in the rain… hahaha… ;)

That was fun already…!! But to see the final presentation and outcome of the year-long hard work and practice… outra coisa…!! It was great…!! Wanna come back again for this next year… ;)

Also had a really nice time with Miguel and Nacho - 2 of Joaco’s friends from Rosario who came to visit for a couple of weeks in FEB - and took them around to some nice places in Rio…. Just too bad they don’t like salsa….jajajj… ;)

With Jesica, Nahuel and Joaco we had done some other nice day- and weekend trips in FEB…. to Paraty, Itacuraca and some tropical islands, Jeep-Tour in the Tijuca forest, la Cidade de Samba.… all really nice too….

At the beginning of March my friend JoseLuis from Lima finally made it to Rio….after he never got here during carnival…. Now he came with some other friends…. We took them to CUBA LIBRE - a salsa place in Ipanema - the night they arrived…. And then met them again in Buzios over the weekend….

Aaahhh Buzios…. That was probably the most wonderful weekend of all my time in Rio this year so far…

I finally got to use the free flight from RIO to BUZIOS that I had won at a function last year…. And my great colleague Simone had also arranged 2 nights at the beautiful Pousada VILA BOA VIDA for me… Flavi could only get there on Saturday, but then we had a wonderful time on a few of the 17 different beaches of this beautiful peninsula…. And also with JoseLuis and his friends in the Rua das Pedras at night…. Some great Caipirinhas there… ;)

Y bueno… e verdade – ever since I met Flavio at the beginning of March my time in Rio had been a lot more fun…. ☺

Finally a great Salsa-dancer and very sweet guy (whenever he wants to be….jajajja…) to hang out with, spend some amazing and very fun times with… ;)

i.e. great nights dancing in Lapa, Ipanema, Ilha dos Pescadores y la casa de Mari… having Acai and Pizza in Leblon…. Sleeping on the beach and watching some super-beautiful sunrises over Arpoador and Ipanema beaches… y bueno… el finde en Buzios… etc. etc. ;)

Sssoooo…. I stayed in Rio till today… met some more, very nice people… danced MUCH more than before… got to know some other and MUCH BETTER salsa places…. And dancers…. Who are now great friends… Thanks guys…!!

And all this made it much, much harder to leave Rio…. Much harder than I would have ever imagined…

Pero bueno… I have so many nice things to look forward to now in April… and if I hadn’t left now, none of them would have worked out…

After this weekend in Buenos Aires, I will be flying to Mendoza with Jesica on Monday…. Stay there for 3 nights… then continue on to Santiago de Chile, Puerto Varas, Puerto Montt, Bariloche and El Calafate….

I will have one more day in Buenos Aires before I gotta fly home to Germany at the end of the month for Beate’s wedding… ☺

Uuuiii….this bus is shaking too much now…. Gotta stop typing… jajaj… bbbuuuuuttt…. Well…. It’s tough to put 2 months pf my life in Rio into 2 A4 pages…
Mais, melhor que nada… at least a few updates on here again… ;)

Hugs… und bis bald… xxx

Astrid

Carnival in Rio..!!

2007-02-11T23:27:00.000-08:00

oohh jjeee... this blog has been so so so abandonado for over 2 months now... hhmmm...

a short review...?? last year I left Buenos Aires on 14th DEC after 6 great weeks there... then spent X-Mas and New Year in Germany and had a wonderful time there with my family and friends... :)

and now I've already been back in Rio again for a month... time is flying by...!!

y ahora ya esta todo aki carnival y samba, fiestas, musica, blocos, ensaios... y mas CARNIVAL...!! re loco... but todo also a lot of fun...!! :)

have been living with Jesi and Nahuel in Arpoador since I got back to Brazil, and apart de unas cositas con la gente who lived in our Apto antes it's all really great... funny sometimes, when I think back to May last year when Jesi and I had a not so nice argument in Buenos Aires, I would have never thought that one day we'd be really good friends and living together en Rio pasandolo re bien... :)

y bueno... last weekend we all went together with Joaco to Paraty, a nice little Colonial town in between Rio and Sao Paulo... (about 4 hours from here by bus)

very cute little place to spend a weekend...!!

we went into la mata / selva / type of rainforest con las bicis to see the cachoeiras (waterfalls, cascadas)... really nice... and great to get out of Rio for a weekend and spend some time in the nature...!!
took a Schooner cruise to some beaches and islands... and got really sunburned..!! Pobrecito Joaco - he really was the worst off... :(

and then just spent some time en la piscina de nuestra pousada, walking around las calles coloniales de Paraty, on the beaches close by, seeing some local samba bands / groups... really nice weekend... :)

y ahora - como arriba - aqui en Rio ya esta TODO CARNIVAL...!!

everywhere is Samba y fiesta y dancing... yesterday con el bloco SIMPATIA en Ipanema... thousands of people dancing en la avenida na praia... amazing..!! :)
then later last night un concierto de un grupo de Forro... na praia tambien... nniiicceee... :)

also found a new little Salsa place in Ipanema that Ricardo took me to 2 weeks ago when he came over from London and was visiting his family here... nada del otro mundo, but nice enough... ;) faltan solamente unos buenos bailarines...

y bueno, hoy bastante lluvia todo la tarde.. :( pero igual... la escuela de Samba de BEIJA-FLOR was still having su ensaio en la Avenida Atlantica... and great...!! went there with Joaco and another friend Marcelo... and we were dancing 3 hours in the rain con otros locos Brasileiros... jjajaajja... si, got home totally wet... pero igual - was fun...!!

so yeah - the real official Carnival only starts next weekend, but in reality it's already everywhere now... :)

hhhmmm.... there are a lot of people coming to Rio this week to visit and spend carnival here as well... Filip and Mel from Wiesbaden... Miguel y Nacho from Rosario... y JoseLuis from Lima... soooo, I will try to write some more about the Carnival here... just not sure when I'll find time to do so... might be a while... ;)

beijinhos desde la Copacabana... na cidade maravilhosa...
xxxx

Just some stuff to keep this space here a bit more updated... :)

2006-12-02T17:28:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I had MON off and went to Rosario for 3 - 4 days... FRI night - TUE morning... nice to go back there again after my first visit in June... and really good to see Miguel y Maxi y Joaco´s family again...

y bueno - even though it rained a lot on SUN and MON morning too... y ademas Miguel had to go into hospital on SAT night to have his appendix taken out the next day... it was still a nice wekend and I had a great time hanging out with Cristina, Agustina, El Chino, la abuela, Facu, Lisandro... and of course Cabo... :)

Tuesday morning I got back to Buenos Aires and went to the FIT with Luciana, Waggy and Diego in the afternoon... FERIA INTERNACIONAL de TURISMO...
bastante interesante, but the ABAV in Rio was a bit more fun...jajjaj.... pero oh well - we really only spent 1 hour at the FIT... so for sure, next year it´s gonna be better...!! :)

Then Luci and I had some Pizza y Vino con Waggy en un bar/ resto in Palermo, que s queda justamente opposite de Regina´s GARUFA guest-house... so we met her and her sister Martina as well... :)

Later we went to a house-party that Waggy had invited us to... y bueno, interesante, very tranquilo la musica... y tembien en general, very relaxed the whole atmosphere there... hhhmmm...

Wednesday - Really good night at SUDACA...!! SALSA... Claro... ;)

Thursday - Went to "Fin del Ano" party at hotel Dazzler Splendor con la gente de la ofi... y encontramos Pato y Pablo por alla tambien... nice enough fiesta... we stayed till Luci had won an MP3 player and then went to Shamrock... to teach Diego how to dance to some house-music...jajja... very funny... :)

Friday night - We went to Patricio´s apartment with the guys from the office and had some pizzas y vino y cerveza there... very nice evening / night... and great to hang out with some old friends again..!!
y bueno... nada... but everyone was already kinda tired and getting a bit sleepy on his nice Futon... so when Pato gave Pabli a ride back home, I convinced Luci to stop at SHOW-CENTRE on the way back to her house and even though she doesn´t really like Salsa she went there with me por un rato while I was dancing... nice...

hhhm... SAT... vamos a ver que hacemos tonight... y manana por la noche tengo unos invites to a Tango Show at MADERO TANGO...!! :)

hugs y besos from beautiful Buenos Aires..!!
xxx

More reasons to love Buenos Aires...

2006-11-12T16:34:00.000-08:00

So even if I don't have beautiful beaches only 2 blocks from my apartment anymore, there are still quite a few reasons why I do really love being back and living in Buenos Aires :

- Here I can leave my friend's house in Nunez (where I'm living at the moment) at 1.45am tranquilamente, take el colectivo (the public buses here) en la esquina (something I wouldn't even do in Germany, London or NYC..!! and for sure NOT in Brazil...!!! ) ,
get to a really good Salsa place in 20mins, have a great night dancing till 6.30am, then a wonderful breakfast with Medialunas & Cafe con Leche... and walk home in the sunshine...!! :)

- Salsa here is sssoooooo much better than in RIO...!!

-Yes, my Portuguese has been getting better and better in Rio, but it's still great to be back in Argentina where I can understand petty much all people again...!! ;)

- The weather..!! Beautiful sunshine and a great weekend hanging out and sun-bathing in Tigre and los parques y lagos del Palermo... :)

- Even though many things have changed and are still changing in our office in BUE it's still a lot of fun working here again... Thanks Jesi...!!

Sometimes I just wish somebody could MAKE IT BE JULY AGAIN...!!!

well... sometimes...?? actually pretty much cada dia de LUN a VIE... casi siempre... hhhmmm...

and in a month I'm already flying back to Germany for X-Mas...!!

Abrazos from Argentina...xxx hasta siempre.... ;)

Back en BUENOS AIRES...!!

2006-11-04T19:40:00.000-08:00

... and it feels really good to be here again...

Argentina is wonderful..!! epecially in spring-time...

and seeing all my friends here again even better...

abrazos y saludos...xxx

Finally... on my last day in Rio...

2006-10-28T21:07:00.000-07:00

I finally manage to write something on here again... after over a month... WOW...!!

and also finally today, Joaco and I went up to CORCOVADO mountain to see "Christ the Redeemer" from close-up... and not only out of a distance and from way below.... ;)

WOW...!! amazing the views you have from up there over Rio, las playas, Guanabara Bay, Niteroi, los aeropuertos, and, and, and.... all really, really nice...

but also our walk / hike up there was pretty amazing... through the Tijuca forrest.... re lindo... :)
we actually walked all the way from Copacabana to Laranjeiras, up to the Corcovado mountain and back down again.... nice long tour on my last day here in Rio...

well, last day aqui por este ano... ;) tomorrow morning I'm leaving to go back to Buenos Aires until X-Mas.... yyaaii, yyaaaiii... and freu, freu... :)

Rio is amazing and yes - I will miss the beaches here.... ;)
But I'm also really looking forward to go back to Argentina...!!!

And I will be back here in January and February next year anyway.... so it's not too bad to say "Hasta luego" to Brazil y mis amigos aqui for a while now... ;)

what else happened in my month here in Rio...?? well... sssoooooo much... but then again, nothing really spectacular either.... just living my life on the Copacabana.... spending time on the beach, hanging out with friends, cycling around La Lagoa, Botafogo, Flamengo and Santos Dumont airport, dancing in Lapa and some other fiestas, Samba nights in Mangueira, eating Churrascos, y muitas coisas mas.... just always too busy to keep this space here much updated... :(
sorry...

oh well... at least the month is not over yet and I managed to give you some news... :)

hugs y besos...xxx

RIO - then my wonderful month in Germany - and back to RIO again...

2006-09-26T11:33:00.000-07:00

Ui ui ui… long long long time that I’ve written here for the last time…. And soooooooooo much has happened in between…. Hhmmm… entonces, we’ll make this a bit easier on me and I’ll just give you a quick rundown of what I’ve been up to since my last report from RIO…. ;)

So, actually my time in Brazil was still really really great…!!

- Spent a wonderful weekend on the paradise island ILHA GRANDE and the amazing beaches there… the whole trip was great, and even though Filip and I didn’t manage to meet up there, I met a lot of other real nice people and stayed in beautiful POUSADA TAGOMAGO por una noche… thanks again Nikki… :)

- Then back on the Copacabana for 2 more weeks…!! :)

- Had a great time hanging out with my nice Brazilian colleagues and other friends there…. Lotsa fun parties and nights spent dancing Samba, Forro and Salsa in LAPA… :)

- On my last night in RIO we went to this BUZIOS launch-party at Hotel Internacional and in the draw at the end of the evening, I won the main prize: A Return flight from RIO to Buzios..!! :)
Brauch’ dann jetzt nur noch das passende Hotel für ein weekend dazu – y listo… :)

- Flight home to Germany on 25th AUG was over-booked, so I ended up staying on the COPA for one more night… but wasn’t really a bad deal, since I spent it at beautiful SOFITEL on Arpoador… y un dia mas en la playa….And all covered for by IBERIA… ;)

- Flight home the next day went all well and smoothly hen… Nona and Anja came to pick me up…. :)

- Unfortunately I had now missed Isabel’s wedding just by one day… :) but then it was also lotsa fun to go dancing at SCHIRN and see most of my Rhein-Main Salsa-friends again….. first time since January…!!

- On Monday my great cousin Andreas helped me to install lotsa stuff and programmes on my new laptop and now I was ready and all set to also work from home… :)

- The next weekend was my birthday and Olaf, Claudi and Paul came to Wiesbaden for a week as well… I met my nephew PAUL ANTON for the first time…!! So cute… und schon richtig fit… :) and had a wonderful birthday weekend with my family and friends…. :)

- Next weekend was Eva’s and Jörn’s wedding in Wiesbaden-Naurod and then fiesta afterwords in the Nerotal…!! Una boda muy linda…. And lotsa fun dancing till the early, early morning… all those songs that we used to listen and party to in 95, 96, 97, 98,…. Aahhhh funny… :)

- The next weekend I went to Berlin for the Salsa Congress there…. Great city – as always, good event and parties, perfect weather…. Spent one night at Eva’s & Jörn’s place in Schöneberg and the next night in Olaf’s & Claudi’s flat in Neu-Kölln…. Each was the perfect location for the parties on FRI & SAT night… :)

Also, real great to see Stef and AJ and some other old friends from London again…. But Henry, you were missing… :) after all that time you spent in Berlin….too bad you’re not there anymore now that I finally made it again… hhmm…. Proxima vez… ;)

- All month long many fun nights dancing in Park Café, SCHIRN Café, Coyote Café, Conexxion, Limao, bei Bier and Wernecke… and yes, of course, in Berlin. :)

- So, and now it already was my last week and last weekend in Germany..!!! Tried to fit in as much, and spend time with as many people as possible… it was wonderful , but unfortunately I still feel that I didn’t have enough time for everything I wanted to and everybody I wanted to see…. :) Sorry, wenn ich ein paar Leute vernachlässigt habe…. Wish my days could have 36 hours (at least..!!!)
And will make up for it when I come back in 3 months… less than 3 months actually… ;)

And yes, even though I have been missing South America during my wonderful month in Germany, it wasn’t all that bad, cause I’ve been talking to my friends over there lots lots lots as well…
And looking forward to going back to RIO now…. And then to BUENOS AIRES very soon as well… :)

Hugs y besos…. And I promise to keep this space here a bit more updated again… ;)

xxx

Wow...!! It's hard to believe...

2006-08-05T20:23:00.000-07:00

...that a city can be as beautiful as Rio...!! and I think somehow it hasn't really sunk in yet for me that I am actually here... it's more still kinda like a dream... ;)

everything is just soooooo nice... with the beaches, the ocean, mountains, green, sunshine.... everything here is just beautiful...!!
and people are very nice too, muy buena onda.... y aunque mi Portugues todavia no es tan bueno como mi Espanol puedo comunicarme bastante bien... :)

only sad thing maybe that's it not as safe here as in Buenos Aires and I wouldn't feel as comfortable y segura going out at night here as I did in Argentina....

y tambien, todavia no conozco mucha gente aqui... but I've only been here for a day and a half so far.... so I'm sure that's gonna change soon and I'm still gonna meet enough nice people here too... :)

xxx

Ya estoy en RIO...!!

2006-08-04T02:49:00.000-07:00

hhhmm.... yes I know - there's still a lot of stuff missing on my blog from my last 4 days in Blumenau y Sao Paulo.... pero hopefully I'll get to this over the weekend.... and just wanted to update here real quick that now I'm already in RIO...!!

got here safely last night and had a great first evening with all the people from my office here... dinner in a Brazilian Churrasceria.... and then mas Caipirinhas en la Copacabana.... what a great start for my 3 weeks in RIO...!!

y aunque I still miss Argentina I think I'm gonna have a nice time here too...!! more soon.... beijos....xx

AAAAaahhhh - and of course HAPPY BIRTHDAY today for you, Liebe Lotta....!!
Would have been great to be in Stockholm today to celebrate with you and your family...!! Thanks so much again for the invite...

aber im Moment leider too far away and a bit complicated for me to get there....
Wir holen das auf jeden Fall irgendwann nach...!!
Und ich denk heute ganz besonders extra-doll an dich...!! :)

Besos and a big birthday-hug from RIO...!!
Deine Astrid xx

BLUMENAU and SAO PAULO…!!

2006-08-02T22:33:00.000-07:00

Hhmm, that my weekend in Blumenau was great you can probably already see on the pics here… ;)

SAT night when I arrived at Tati’s house her Dad was just preparing a CHURRASCO (the Brazilian way of BBQ, Grill-Party o Asado in Argentina.. ;)
A lot of her family and some friends came over for that too… really nice evening / night with the Churrasco in the garden of Tati’s house… and meeting and hanging out with her family and cousins…. ;)
They had also hired 2 musicians / cantantes for that night who were taking care of the music and some entertainment... ;) what a great welcome to Blumenau...!!

Then el domingo we took a little road-trip to some beautiful beaches approx. 1-2 hours from Blumenau, i.e. 4 Ilhas, Bombas, Bombinhas y Camboriu... todo muy lindo.... just see the pics... ;) very nice tour....

the next day, el Lunes, we went to the centre of Blumenau and I just looked around the city while Tati had her French class.... lindo la ciudad y bien gracioso porque todo aqui es tan Aleman y parece un poco raro ver una ciudad tan aleman aqui en la Serra y paisaje de South Brazil... very funny for me... ;)

we also went to the area where they celebrate the OKTOBERFEST every year... y claro - todo tambien fue muy Aleman aqui.... seeehhhrr lustig.... :)

then I took the night-bus to SAO PAULO where I arrived the next morning...!!

super-comfortable bus-ride, just sad that it was night and dark all the time and I didn't get to see anything of the countryside that we were driving through... oh well....

SAO P. is a huge city - Brazil's economic power-house - and unfortunately it was a bit grey and cloudy during my 2 days there.... so it wasn't really worth driving down to the beach and my friend Luis just showed me different parts and barrios of the city.... and also the domestic airport... ;)

really nice and he was a great host....!! also thanks to his super-sweet Mum who cooked wonderful food for us...!!
hopefully the next time I can stay a bit longer with more time so that we can also go to PERUIBE....

muito obrigada por todo y ya estoy aprendiendo un pocito mas portugues tambien.... ;)
hasta entonces....xx

En Balneario Camboriu con Tati...

2006-07-30T21:54:00.000-07:00

Playas de Bombas, Bombinhas y Estaleru

2006-07-30T21:37:00.000-07:00

Con Tati en Praia 4 Ilhas..

2006-07-30T21:05:00.000-07:00

IGUASSU and CURITIBA

2006-07-28T23:35:00.000-07:00

So after it was a bit sad to leave Buenos Aires I really didn’t have too much time to think about this and be too triste, cause there were already bastante other high-lights waiting for me…

Unfortunately my flight from BsAs to IGUASSU was a bit messed up and we had to Emergency Stop in Cordoba for 2 hours to fix the plane before we could continue on to Puerto Iguassu airport… Oh well, back again to Cordoba for a little while… Because I liked it there soo much… ;) hahhaha…

So instead of 9.30am as planned we got into Iguassu airport IGR at 1.30pm, which only left me 5 hours to visit the Argentine and the Brazilian side of the falls…!! Not too much time really, but my guide Noely and driver Fernando were already waiting for me at the airport and we were on our way to the Argentina National Park (www.iguazuargentina.com ) straight away and got there 10 minutes later… Perfect services…!! (organized by 4star and Cuenca… jaja… Thanks Pato… ;)

I had read about, talked about, seen pics and sold tours to those CATARATAS of IGUASSU many, many times already during the last 6 months, but to actually see them in reality myself was totally OTRA COSA…!! WWWOOOOOWWWW….!!

They really are more impressive, amazing, beautiful, espectacular than I had imagined…!!
(me faltan un pocito las palabras para describir como fue…)
pero siiii - muy impresionante…!! Even though Noely told me that after the last 2 weeks without rain they were actually pretty “dry” at the moment and usually carried a lot more water in them….!!

Wow – definitely a reason to come back here again…!!

Spectacular again to see them from the Brazilian side later with an even better all-over Panaromic view…!!
And yes – on the way we had also gone through la frontera (ARG – BRA) and immigration and I am now IN BRAZIL for the VERY FIRST TIME…!!! Great… :)

After a very long and busy day I just spent the night relaxing at my great hotel in Foz do Iguassu and the next morning I had to leave again early to take my 10 hrs bus connection to CURITIBA…

Also a very beautiful journey and I got to see lots of the Brazilian landscape, country-side on the way… And also 3 pretty good movies… Hahha… ;)

Learned a few more Portuguese words from some guys that I met on the bus… Then arrived late that night in Curitiba and again my services there were organized and delivered perfectly… !!

Guide and driver were waiting for me at the but terminal already… Hotel here in Curitiba was nice too, but not as great as in Iguassu and Internet connection not as good…Pero bueno, igual… Pool and sauna were great…!! ;)

And all was made up for the next day anyway when I had a full-day tour of Curitiba, Serro do Mar train ride with lunch in Morretes...!!

Aaaahhh – again I was totally impressed –which really doesn´t happen all that often to me anymore- with this city and even more the beauty of Serro do Mar…!!
Curitiba is Brazil´s Ecological capital and you can really see that everywhere… Lots of green, parks everywhere, very clean city, Brazil´s best recycling system, buildings constructed to be in balance with nature and the environment… It´s really beautiful and I loved this city…

Then even better – in the after noon our tour to Serro do Mar and road-trip along la Estrada de Graciosa to Morretes… Serro do Mar is the Atlantic rainforest - immense and impressive with its endless green and trees and hills and plants and fruits and flowers… Well, a huge rainforest eben… fantastic…!!

After a 45mins drive over the cobble-stone road LA Graciosa we got to the village MORRETES, a little pueblo on a river… Now very popular with tourists and gearing more and more towards serving their needs… We had a great lunch with traditional Brazilian food from this region of the country…

And after looking around Morretes for an hour or so, had to take the train back to Curutiba… WOW, WOW, WOW again…!!

This train-ride through the Atlantic rainforest was very amazing too and just left me with ganas to come back again with much more time to spend in Morretes or hiking / trekking to the rainforest here… hopefully some time soon… :)

Sooo…tomorrow I’m already leaving Curitiba again to go to Blumenau and visit Tati there for 2 days…
Beijinhos from Brazil… xxx

My wonderful last day / night in Buenos Aires..!!

2006-07-26T09:31:00.000-07:00

Soo, also this day had to come at some point – mi ultimo dia en Buenos Aires… at least for a while…

And yes, it was a bit sad to say Bye to everyone in my office on that day… The same way I had to say BYE to my other friends in Buenos Aires during the last few days….
But actually, we had a really nice day… With some VIP visitors from Silkway in the morning… Rather funny those guys, to be honest… ;)

And after a very Argentine breakfast with Facturas we ordered Empanadas for lunch…and Mate in the afternoon… aaaahhhh - Nice… J
Really did have a good time working here and gonna miss those guys in our BUE office… Until I come back… ;)

And once again I had to disconnect my computer that night and take everything back home with me… And start packing mis maletas… Hahha…en mis ultimas horas en BUE…

and then it was actually a really nice evening / night too… Claudia and Jesus came over to my place… Really just to pick-up their umbrella that I had borrowed last SUN, but also to say Bye… was nice to see them again and have a last tea in my house with them…

When they left Gaspar came over cause he wanted to go out and have dinner somewhere- at 1.00am…. very typical Argentine dinner time… Jajjaja… ;)

So we went to Bellagamba…!!! Yyyaaaiii…one more last time to one of my favorite places here..!!
And it was such a good idea of him, cause we also met Maurice and his new lady friend there….. had a really really great time - always soooo much fun with them…!! But at 3.00am I really had to go home cause I still needed to finish packing my stuff, have a shower and be ready for my taxi to Aeroparque at 5.30am…

My last salsa I Buenos Aires we danced on a street corner of Rivadavia on the way back to my apartment… :)

Aaaahhhh – what a wonderful last day / evening / night / morning ;) in this great, great city…!!

My wonderful last weekend in Argentina..

2006-07-24T23:01:00.000-07:00

Hier wenigstens mal kurz in Stichpunkten:

- Very fun night at Show-Centre Martinez on Friday

- Beautiful day on SAT... hot and lotsa sunshine... went to Reserva Ecologica in the afternoon... met some really nice Argentinos there who invited me to Mate y Torta...

- Joaco came over from Rosario in the afternoon... great to see him again and hang out with him...

- SAT night - DOLAR TRAIN at Pinar de Rocha... long, long night but great music, lotsa dancing and really good time...

- SUN: Asado (BBQ) en la casa de Jesus y Claudia por mi despedida temporal... ;)
very nice afternoon with some good friends.... and great Argentine food... jajja....

- SUN night - went out to Bellagamba and Moluco with Joaco.... all really nice too...

- Fazit: WONDERFUL weekend... not enough sleep...!!

Gonna miss Argentina mucho mucho mucho....!!

che boludo... till I come back... ;)
besos..xx

Very nice weekend in Cordoba..!!

2006-07-18T20:01:00.000-07:00

Hola amigos...

just got back to Buenos Aires this morning.... after a very nice weekend in Cordaba... well, FRI night I still spent in BsAs with Joaco (friend from Rosario) who came over to the capital with his Mum for 2 days... really good to see them again.... we had a dinner in a nice Italian restaurant, then dropped off his Mum at their hotel and went to a "semi-negro" party at La Clac... that bar / cafe not too far from my house where they have this really great sangria... ;)

was lots of fun there...!!! Argentina classics, pop and rock... hadn´t danced to music like this for AAAAGGGGEESS.... but it was totally fun, fun, fun..!!

had to go home about 4.00am to pack my stuff and have a shower cause at 5.15am my taxi already picked me up from my house to go to the airport and catch my flight to Cordoba...

my nice colleague Patricio had organized a little 3-day FAM trip there for me.... and it was all a lot of fun, but also a very packed and busy weekend...

left BsAs Aeroparque airport on SAT morning at 7.30am, got into CORDOBA around 9.00am....straight to my hotel....breakfast there.... then I was totally lucky and caught the last 10mins of one of my all-time favorite movies when I came back upstairs to my room... :)

looked around Cordoba on my own for a while and checked out the area around my hotel before I had a city-tour organized for 3.00pm....very interesting, nice city and a really good guide....

back to my hotel around 7.00pm.... sauna didn´t really work... :( too cold.... and internet only very slow..... pero bueno...
went out dancing at COMEDREJA later..... and had a really good time there....!!

SUN morning I had to get up early again for a full-day excursion to some Jesuit missions around Cordoba....
long day... nice weather... beautiful country-side... but 3 Jesuit missiong are definitely enough for one day... ;)

got back around 7.00pm again.... very tired after a long day and already 2 nights with hardly any sleep.... and only enough energy left for the sauna - which worked much better that night...!! and was actually hot enough to sweat a bit this time.... ;)
then I watched another really good movie (The Terminal) until I fell asleep.... ;)

On Monday I did a little trip / excursion on my own.... (but with advice from Carlos, mi guia del dia antes) to La Quebrada de Rio Ceballos y La Cascada de los Hornillos.... very sunny day out there in the little Sierras of Cordoba.... and really beautiful with its lakes, rivers, hills, horses running around free..... aaahh - I loved it there.... finally some time en la naturaleza and the country-side again... :)

but well, back in BsAs now, and it was nice to come back here too.... felt like coming home again... :) like when I came back from Uruguay and Rosario....

now I only have 1 week left here.... a bit sad.... and I´m certainly gonna miss Argentina as well... besos... y hasta la proxima....xxx

Typical.... tipico....typisch....!! ;)

2006-07-11T00:13:00.000-07:00

el World-Cup ya se termino.... Italy is champion, beating France in the final..... and Germany celebrated their third place after a win over Portugal last SAT.... nice to see the German team like this..... to see that they know how to lose, but they also know how to win.... :)
and to celebrate a 3rd place... and realize that being 3rd in the WORLD is actually quite something..!!

hhhmm, guess things are gonna go back to a bit more normal now.... in Germany as well as everywhere around the world.... ;) until everyone is gonna go football-crazy again with "2010 in SouthAfrica"... ;)

yes, sure - it would have been pretty amazing to be in Germany during this past month, but it was very alright to experience the World-Cup in Argentina as well.... ;)

and here we go.... once again... the same old story... as always and everywhere in the places where I have lived for a while....

now that I DO actually really like it in Buenos Aires, when I've got used to my life here, met some very nice people , having a good time, can see enough positive things in this city and living here and do really enjoy it - then of course I only have 2 weeks left here before I'm about to move on again.... aaahh - typical.... todo el tiempo el mismo.... pero bueno....

at least I will leave from here with nice memories.... and it also makes me remember sth. that my Mum used to tell me many, many times when I was much younger....

"Man soll aufhoeren, wenn es am schoensten ist...!" meaning that you should finish with something when it is at its best.... that way you always keep it in good memory.... (of course - Ausnahmen bestaetigen die Regel.... ;) meaning: there are always exceptions of the rule.... ;)

but yes - I will leave from Buenos Aires with a lot of nice memories.... not ONLY nice ones... but definitely much more positive than negative ones.... :)

and another good thing is that I have un monton de cosas buenas (lots of really nice things) to look forward to when I leave Argentina in 2 weeks.... :)

first of all a nice little weekend-trip to Cordoba next SAT - TUE.... (Thanks again Pato por estas cortesias.... :) y si - voy a recordar los Alfajores tambien... ;)

then a quick visit to the IGUASSU WATERFALLS that I've been reading about, writing about, talking about and selling to clients soooooooooooooooooooooo many times in the last few months...!! ;) Now I finally get to see them myself too... !! yyyaaaiii..... then transfer to Curitiba and the same there with the Serro do Mar train-ride....

then two more shorts stops to visit Tati in Blumenau and Luis in Sao Paulo (yes, CS
www.couchsurfing.com is working again....!! almost back to normal... and I was able to get in touch again with all my "lost friends and contacts" ...) before I finally make it to RIO....!! one of the most beautiful cities in the world.... (and here you hear Astrid, the travel agent, talking now.... hahha...)

I'm gonna be working in Rio for 3 weeks in our office right on the Copacabana.... :) aaahhhh que bien... :)

before I'm going home to Germany for a month to see my family and friends there and also for the very first time my nephew PAUL ANTON who's already gonna be 6 months old by then...!! also to attend Eva's and Joern's wedding and to spend some time with all the nice people in my home country that I haven't seen since January...!!

then back to Rio at the end of September and then I have to figure out if I want to spend some more time in Brazil... or go back to Lima or Buenos Aires for a while.... really not sure yet.... and also it's not gonna be so very easy to decide.... oh well, a ver....

besos und bis bald wieder...

xxx

Asi pasan las cosas.... :)

2006-07-04T20:41:00.000-07:00

hhmmm.... too many things happen and too little time to write about everything.... :(
aber hier wenigstens mal ein bischen kurz in Stichpunkten.... ;)

Last FRI Germany threw Argentina out of the World-Cup.... not soooo happy those Argentinos here afterwards.... obvio... no mas fiestas en el Obelisco... pero bueno.... como ya dije - asi pasan las cosas...!!

y para Alemania tambien.... Germany also lost their semi-final yesterday and are out.... sad.... pero life goes on....!! :)
Only a game of football after all.... ;) tried to explain this to Pato and Pablo last FRI as well, but for them it was a bit more serious.... oh well.... this week they're laughing and joking again... :)

then last week CS died... :( www.couchsurfing.com
very triste as well.... pero ya esta en su re-birth and it's gonna come back soon.... :)

and the really nice thing was that I actually still DID some "couch-surfing" last weekend.... even though everything that was / is going on with this site, server, upgrade and bla...

went to Rosario for the weekend to visit some friends and had a wonderful time there.... great people, nice city, perfect weather, lovely food.... y todo bien....

so, those were my last few days in a nutshell.... and if I have more time at some point in the near future I'll re-write this all in a bit more detail.... pero eso aqui al menos mejor que nada....

ya me tengo que ir.... tomorrow we're going to see a Tango Show with the guys from my office
and now I only have 3 weeks left in Argentina before I'm gonna be on my way to Rio....!!
and loads of stuff to do and organize till then....

well, take care and keep in touch.... aaahhh - and enjoy the last 2 games of the World-Cup.... ;)

besos...xx

Alemania vs. Argentina...!!

2006-06-25T20:20:00.000-07:00

eenn - ton - ces.... musste ja wohl so kommen frueher oder spaeter... ;)

Alemania vs. Argentina en el Mundial....!! and this while I'm here - of course... claro que si - NAA SUPER... !! :)

so Germany won their Achtel-Finale yesterday.... and Argentina as well...
and people here were going totally crazy...!!

Celebrating as if they had already won the whole WORLD-CUP, and not only un Octavos de Final.... la Avenida Corrientes was closed for traffic, and so was the whole area around the Obelisco and also parts of Avenida 9 Julio.... immerhin the widest Avenue in the world.... !! and then - yeah... loads of Argentina en los calles....everywhere....celebrando.... celebrating.... hhmm...

Pato and Pablo in my office already giving me loads of trash talk now.... oh well.... can only get worse till FRI.... ;)

and then they're either gonna totally hate me when Alemania beats Argentina.... or if - very unexpected and surprisingly of course ;) and most likely caused by some unknown extra-terrestrial miracle - Argentina makes it to the next round they're not gonna stop to take the p... out of me...

hhmm, so 2 really great options that I have here for next weekend... !!
pero entonces, a ver, a ver... ;)

aaahhh - and something else - completely different... that I only realised a few days ago... :)

I do actually live RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE of BUENOS AIRES here....!! Plaza Congreso is Kilometro 0 (Zero) de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires.... right across the Plaza and opposite of my house, the building is marked with 0 km - Centro de Buenos Aires....!! and all distances to other barrios o provincias are measured from here....

I do like the area where I live here anyway.... (and also did so before I found out about this additional information)... but that's actually pretty cool if you think about it.... ;)

pero entonces.... if you don't hear from my again after Friday, you already know why... ;)

cuidate.... y vamos Alemania....!!
xx

Me and my colleagues Pato, Jesi and Pablo in our office in Buenos Aires...!!

2006-06-16T20:16:00.000-07:00

Fussball und Friedhof....!!

2006-06-16T18:22:00.000-07:00

yes, I know - very strange title for this post.... but wait - U'll understand... ;)

die Fussball-WM ist nun also schon eine Woche alt.... und Deutschland hat schon 2 mal gewonnen.... und Argentinien auch.... and what a WIN yesterday...!!

We watched the game on the TV in our office here again as it was being played at 10.00am our local time here.... and the guy that I work with - Pablo y Pato - were going crazy...!! hugging and kissing the TV every Argentina scored..... and they had plenty opportunities to do that with the 6 - o win...!!

A lot of people here keep asking me what I'm doing in Argentina while the World-Cup is happening in my home country....?? hhmmm- bueno... maybe they're right in a way.... and YES - it would be pretty cool to be in Germany right now and experience everything live over there.... pero asi es ahora - and I'm here and having a nice time watching the games here too.... ;)

And why I mentioned FRIEDHOF (cemetory /cementerio) in the heading above...??
well, after almost 2 months here in Buenos Aires I went last SUN for the first time to el Cementerio de Recoleta.... the cemetory where you can also find the tomb of EVITA...!! (http://www.buenosairesteinvita.com.ar/cementerio_recoleta.htm)

not sure, why I never went inside there before to have a look, even though I had passed sooooo many times already.... but definitely - a place I recommend to visit when you come to Buenos Aires..... it's really, really beautiful.... and easily the nicest cemetory I've been to in all those places around the world that I've traveled to so far....

sure, it's a cemetory - so it does have this "un poquito triste" sentiment coming with it naturally, pero este Cementerio de Recoleta seems more like its own little town with lots of small temples, churches, houses.... little streets, caminos and alley ways... ahhh I should just go back some time to take pics so that you can see for yourself.... :)

and for sure, I will go there again during my time in Buenos Aires...!! :)

Have a nice weekend....xxx

"Prisoners" en la cruz... ;)

2006-06-06T23:24:00.000-07:00

Un fin de semana en Uruguay...

2006-06-06T22:07:00.000-07:00

From Buenos Aires only one hour across the river, el Rio de la Plata, and you're already in Uruguay... either Colonia or Montevideo... nice.... so that's what I did last weekend... little boat trip to another country.... I still had 2 free days that I needed to use so I could go for a nice long weekend from FRI till MON... :) smile...

went over to Colonia on FRI morning and spent the day there... nice little colonial town - of course... who would have guessed with that name...?? ;) hahha.... bit similar to Antigua de Guatemala, but not as colorful... also, not as busy and not that many tourists.... hhmm, it's low season in Uruguay at the moment.... getting winter here.... ;)

and also, not the whole town is colonial like in Antigua... only a small part really - La ciudad vieja, the old part of the town... but nicer than in Antigua is that Colonia is directly on the water.... well, the Rio de la Plata - or River Plate - as well... ;)
In one day you can see pretty much all the interesting things in Colonia and then I took a bus over to Montevideo in the afternoon cause I was gonna stay with some CS friends there for the weekend and was supposed to meet Laura at 7.15pm to go to the opening of her friend's photo exhibition with her....

The bus ride from Colonia to Montevideo is approx. 2 and 1/2 hours and I slept about half of it, cause still really tired from dancing a La VIRUTA the night before.... but judging by the parts that I did see it is a really pretty drive.... landscape reminded me a bit of Belize and my busrides crossing this country when I was traveling from Guatemala to Cancun... :)

got to MVD in perfect time to meet Laura for that photo exhibition.... really interesting.... the artist was a 23 year-old Bolivian guy who had been adopted by Uruguayan parents when he was 4 years old and spent pretty much all his life in Montevideo.... on a recent trip to Bolivia and Peru he tried to go back to his roots and understand a bit more about himself, the land that he came from, and also his modern city life in Montevideo that he had got used to over the years....

so his pictures were photo collages of Inca ruins in Bolivia and Peru, a lot of MACHU PICCHU of course... (!!), and pictures of modern buildings, architecture and city life in Montevideo.... really interesting ideas and combinations....

Afterwards we walked over to the Ciudad vieja de Montevideo, had some food there and then met my host Gonzalo when he was done with his University work-shop.... after I had dropped off all my stuff at his house we went back to some bars in the Old Town.... everything pretty nice so far.... and not as bad and ugly as sooooo many people had told me about Montevideo... ;)

on SAT Gonza drove all around the city with me to show me Montevideo and although it was pretty grey and a bit rainy later in the afternoon, I saw lots of stuff and most parts of Montevideo and we did have a really nice time.... walking along La Rambla (the boardwalk) in the rain... ;)
relaxing night at Gonza's place.... watching some movies.... and the poor guy didn't even mind too much having to watch Dancing movies with me.... hahha.... ;)

SUN we got up pretty early - well 10.00am for a SUN seems early to me - bought some "Facturas" por el desayuno and drove over to Laura's house (about 28km from downtown MVD) to pick up her and her friend Julieta (also from Buenos Aires) for our tour to Pan de Azucar mountain and Piriapolis.... breakfast in the car, another hour's drive over to Pan de Azucar, also about an hour to climb to the top and we had some beautiful views over Uruguay's coast between Montevideo and Punta del Este (see pics below).... since it had been raining quite a bit the day / night before, it was still pretty wet on the mountain and some parts were more like climbing a waterfall.... ;) but after my good training on the volcanoes in Guatamala last year it was not all that tough... ;)

after enjoying the views enough and also climbing the Cruz on top of the mountain we went back down to Gonza's car and drove over to Piriapolis, nice little beach town on the way to Punta del Este (Uruguay's main beach resort) ... perfect time for some Cafe con Leche and a nice sunset en la playa...
then back to MVD with a "quick" stop at Laura's house to feed all her pets and pick up her and Juli's stuff as they were gonna come over to Gonza's house as well to spend the night there.... well, Juli really only until midnight cause she was gonna take the night boat back to BsAs....
and we had enough time to watch another nice movie when we got back to his place... :)

my last day MON I spent in MVD in the morning.... really nice and warm and sunny.... very untypical for Uruguay at this time of the year as it's actually their winter... went down to the beach again until I had to take a bus back to Colonia in the early afternoon cause my boat to Buenos Aires was leaving from there at 7.00pm.... another nice bus ride through the Uruguayan country side, enough time in Colonia to spend my last Uruguayan pesos, then a quick ferry crossing over the Rio de la Plata again and I was "back home" in Buenos Aires....

was a great weekend, but it also felt nice coming back to Argentina.... like coming home..?? a little bit maybe...
Laura and Gonza kept telling me that I should come back to Uruguay when it was summer there so that I could enjoy their beaches a bit more.... hhmmmm, sounds like a nice plan... ;) entonces - in a few months again... :) xx

On Pan de Azucar Mountain near Piriapolis, Uruguay

2006-06-05T18:41:00.000-07:00

Con el caballo en la Fiesta Gaucha.... me and the Gaucho horse...

2006-05-23T21:32:00.000-07:00

FIESTA GAUCHA..!!

2006-05-22T21:22:00.000-07:00

very nice weekend here... in the land of the Gauchos... ;)

went dancing at SHOW-CENTER on FRI night and in Dollartrain, Pinar de Rocha, on SAT.... both pretty nice places with some good dancers, but unfortunately also both of them are a little bit furhter away (like an hour bus-ride en el colectivo) and outside of the capital area of Buenos Aires.... HUGE THANK YOU to Yan as well for going on that rather adventures trip to RAMOS MEJIA with me..... ;) luckily we met some very nice and helpful people pointing us in the right direction.... ;)

and after I only got home very, very early yesterday morning I just had enough time to take a shower, change my clothes and have a coffee before I left again for my tour to FIESTA GAUCHA on Estancia Cina-Cina...

It's actually one of the excursions that we very often sell as part of our Argentina tour-packages.... and it was a really nice day indeed in the countryside of San Antonio de Areco.... always great to get out of this busy city for a day, or a few more... ;) and spend some time en el campo...!! :)
and even though this FIESTA GAUCHA-Tour is pretty touristy and organized and bla, I still had a very good time.... and it's certainly a tour that I will recommend to my clients in the future... ;) !! (hahha, that's all they really wanted to achieve.... of course... ;) ) so.... MISSION COMPLETED... !! I guess.... ;)

On the estancia they had some musicians playing traditional Argentine music and also did some Folklore dancing shows.... the included lunch was a HUUUUGGEE All-you-can-eat ASADO (Argentine way of BBQ) with never-ending supplies of steaks, salchichas, carne, potatoes, bread, empanadas, ensaladas, etc. etc. etc.
the food was really, really good, and we all ate lloooooaaaddss loads loads.... :)
(and the meat still didn't finish... ;)

afterwards they did another display of some typical gaucho horse-riding game - aaahhh, don't remember the name at the moment, but it's pretty much the same as Ringstechen in Ritterspielen.... ;) - before we could finally get on the horses ourselves....!!

and that's when I actually realized how much I've been missing that....!! riding horses.... aahhh - even though it was only 20mins and around some fields of the estancia, it was still a great feeling to be on a horse again and feel it galloping underneath you.... hhmmm.... a ver, if I can find some other places here where you can rent horses and go for a longer ride.... :)
really, really wanna do that again....!!

got home in the evening and very tired after a long day and a sleepless night the night before, so decided to go not to SUDACA that Sunday, but to leave it for next WED, which is gonna be really good as THU is a National Holiday here... 25th Mayo - El dia de la Revolucion del Mayo...!!

abrazos und bis zum naechsten Mal wieder.... xxx

Salsa en Buenos Aires...!!

2006-05-19T06:52:00.000-07:00

HERE's a COPY OF THE REPORT THAT I JUST WROTE FOR www.salsa.de:

So, nun bin ich schon fast einen ganzen Monat in Buenos Aires, und hab auch schon genug Salsa locations hier gesehe, um endlich mal ein kleines update about the dancing-scene hier zu schreiben….

First thing you have to know when going out in Buenos Aires is that EVERYTHING STARTS LATE LATE LATE…..!!!

you go out to eat dinner here around 11.00pm, on weekends you normally don’t go to clubs before 12.00 midnight, und unter der Woche eigentlich auch the same… bit strange at the beginning, but you get used to it easily after a while….. well. I did at least….

The salsa-scene here in general is a lot better than in Lima….. there are a lot more dancers, and better dancers….. das einzigste, das ein bischen schade ist, ist dass die Leute hier nicht so nett sind wie in Peru…!!

Going out and dancing in Lima was always fun and all people were always very nice and friendly and super helpful. everywhere all the time… so when I first came to Buenos Aires it was a bit sad to see and experience how a lot of the Argentinos here are often pretty arrogant and cliquee…. and they don’t even deny it….!!

I spoke with some people in my office (all Argentinos) and also with some other Argentine friends here about it, and they just said - “SI, ASI ES…. Y ASI SOMOS…” hhmmmm….. and AAA - HAA…!! Interesante - bit sad, but true….

aber inzwischen hab ich auch schon einige sehr nette Argentinier hier kennengelernt, obwohl ich immer noch sagen wuerde - The nicest people that I’ve met here so far are actually Peruvian, Greek and Austrian….. hahha…..

well, but places to dance gibt es hier genug und boring wird es auf jeden Fall nicht…!! (aber das wird es mir ja eigentlich sowieso nie irgendwo….)

A very nice place for example is LA SUDACA where they have Salsa on WED and SUN….. First great thing about it is that it’s only 4 blocks from my apartment here…!! hahha….. but that definitely makes it super-easy and convenient to get there…. and get back home again as well of course…

Second plus-point is the music which has been really nice all the times I’ve been there so far….. very danceable and usually only one or two Merengues per night….

a bit sad that they haven’t discovered BACHATA here yet….. I do miss that sometimes….. but instead they have little Rock’n Roll breaks in between now and then again….. hhmmm…… auch okay….

Third nice thing about SUDACA is the people, and I have actually met my nice Peruvian friends in there…..

Then on THU you can dance at LA VIRUTA…. well, you can actually dance there every night of the week - but TANGO….. only THU is SALSA-night…. pretty okay place if you go there after 1.00am…!!

The class from 11.30pm - 12.30am is a bit boring, way way way toooooooo many people… and very Cuban… also, the music doesn’t get good until after 1.00am and sadly a lot of the dancers there tend to stick to their little groups….. hhmm….but I had a fun enough time there the 2 times I’ve been there so far, and if you go there with some friends and people to dance with it’s not a bad place…

THE PLACE TO GO ON FRI for SALSA in Buenos Aires is Show-Center Martinez…. el BOWLICHE…. a little furhter away from the capital area and great if you can get there by car….. if not colectivo (Bus) number 60 and 71 also take you straight there….!! and back….. (Colectivos here run 24 hours, but the SUBTE (underground) unfortunately only till 11.00pm, on weekends as well as during the week…. THAT should DEFINITELY be changed…. !! )

The long way to travel is definitely worth it, AND NOT ONLY because entrance is FREE there….!! Very nice wooden dance floor…. big enough and lots of space to dance….. good music and lots of dancers…!!

Aaahhh - and if you take some friends who are NOT THAT MUCH into dancing, there’s also a bowling alley in the same place where they can spend their time….

Other options for FRI (and SAT) would be LA SALSERA and AZUCAR BELGRANO…

NOTE - AZUCAR ABASTO is still closed for party nights (only open for classes) and no-one really knows exactly when it’s gonna open again for salsa nights on FRI and SAT….

I’ve been to LA SALSERA once on a SAT and twice on a FRI so far…. and it was actually the FIRST SALSA PLACE that my friend Kristin took me to on MY VERY FIRST NIGHT in Buenos Aires (a SAT)…..

not a bad place, but maybe a bit too small, and not always enough space for the amount of people there… music is okay, not bad, but nothing extra-ordinary either…. people are okay too, but it seemed a bit more of a pick-up place than SUDACA or LA VIRUTA I would say…. hhmmmm…..

but the 3 times I’ve been there I did actually have a nice time…. would go back there now and then again maybe, but certainly not EVERY weekend….

AZUCAR in Belgrano I only know on SAT so far…. but also I don’t really think that I need get to know the FRIDAYS there….

bit too commercial that place, a bit TOO MUCH reggaeton and dance music mixed in with Salsa…. hhmmm….. a nice thing about AZUCAR though is the little separate dancefloor that they have on the first floor….

so whenever u need a bit more air to breath, space to dance, wooden dance-floor, good and danceable music, you should try that little separate dance floor upstairs….

And then there’s another place in Buenos Aires that’s supposed to be really good for Salsa on SAT….. PINAR DE ROCHA….. But I’m only gonna go there tomorrow for the first time….!!

so I will report back about it in my next update here….

hugs and kisses to everyone from Buenos Aires…xxx

Dinner at Melina's house...

2006-05-16T22:18:00.000-07:00

Beautiful day in TIGRE DELTA....!!

2006-05-07T16:13:00.000-07:00

was a nice weekend here in Buenos Aires... FRI night I went to LA SALSERA with Giancarlo - a friend of my friend Carmen in Lima - and his Argentine friend Daniel that he's staying with in San Fernando..... good night and fun dancing..... and once again I saw how much nicer, more ayudable y amigable los Peruanos son que los Argentinos.... hhmm.... I guess - asi es.... and proved right otra vez.... ;)

and yesterday - Saturday - I went for the first time to a place in Buenos Aires that I really liked and that I really thought was very beautiful.... el TIGRE DELTA....!!

went there with my house-mate Maria Eugenia as she used to live there until about 2 years ago and her Dad still has this huge old colonial-style house there, that he goes to every weekend.... it's the house that Maria and her siblings grew up in and you almost feel like stepped back in time when you're in there......

really, really beautiful though... with a lot of historic furniture and decorations..... a great open fire-place... and a huge garden, lots of orange-, lemon-, grapefruit-trees.... palmtrees, banana trees, grapes, lots of verduras, arboles y todo....

aaahhh - the whole area there is sooooo much nicer and greener and more relaxed than stressful city-life in Buenos Aires....!! hhmmm.... claro....

we had a great Asado (Argentine BBQ) with Maria's Dad and grandmother and with the empleada serving the food I almost felt like in some scenes of "Das GEISTERHAUS" (La casa del espiritu by ISABEL ALLENDE)... :) nice...

then we also went for a walk along the river and to el MERCADO DE LAS FRUTAS.... lots of beautiful places there and I definitely wanna go back there again with some more time....

at least I know now that Buenos Aires DOES HAVE some NICE PARTS as well.... que bueno... :)

1st of May in Buenos Aires....!!

2006-05-01T21:19:00.000-07:00

Tag der Arbeit.... it's called DIA DEL TRABAJADOR aqui.... and it means lots of demonstrations and protests from the Partida Obrero, die Arbeiter-Partei Argentiniens, working-class party of Argentina, were taking place today....

the Casa Rosada on Plaza Mayo was fenced away and lots of police security at the presidential palace and in the streets and big Avenidas around there.... and since I live right next to Plaza Congreso (in front of Palacio del Congreso) there was a lot of stuff going on there too.... many people and groups were meeting there to march towards the presidential palace....

but no worries - I'm okay, didn't get involved in any protests or demonstrations.... and nothing dangerous going on here, no attacks on the president or other scandals...

and 1st May also meant that it was a National holiday and I didn't have to work today... :)

went out dancing on SAT and last night.... and I'm getting used to the Argentine way of going out.... every here happens late...!!
You eat dinner about 11.00pm, then you go dancing at a club around 1.00am or 2.00am.... they are open till 7.00am on the weekend.... then you have breakfast - usually Cafe con Leche y Media Lunas (mini croissants) - and at 8.00am the SUBTE (the Subway en Buenos Aires) starts working again and you can get home quickly and easily.... :)

so it was a nice long weekend.... with little sleep, and I still feel pretty tired....

went to AZUCAR in Belgrano on SAT night and LA SUDACA (which is only 3 blocks from my house....!! How convenient..!!) on SUN night.... had a good time dancing, met some very nice people, but also unfortunately quite a few very arrogant Argentines..... oh well, hay de todo....normal....

but overall it was a good weekend.... and for sure, I know I won't get bored here.... ;)

aaahhh - and it's getting colder here now..... leaves falling of the trees too.... hhhmmm, strange feeling to experience fall in MAY....!! ;)
wenn es eigentlich bei uns in Europe endlich so langsam Sommer wird.... ;)

well, ya me voy a descansar y dormir por un rato..... besos y hasta pronto.....xx

First impressions of Buenos Aires....!!

2006-04-24T18:25:00.000-07:00

ssoooo - after I've been here for a week now I should really write some stuff about Buenos Aires....!!

I had heard soooooo many great things about this city before I came here that maybe I had set my expectations a bit too high... hhmm....
with Lima it was exactly the other way round... !!

first of all - I don't really feel like I am in South America here.... it feels more like a mix of Barcelona, New Jersey, maybe a bit of Paris too... and yes - they do have RED LONDON mailboxes and public telephones here.... :) funny...

and true - it is a nice city and has a lot of beautiful places, things to see and things to do.... I've already been to many of the major touristy places and attractions here - San Telmo Antiques fair, Puerto Madero, Plaza de Mayo with Evita's balcony, Avenida 9 de Julio, el Obelisco, Plaza Constitucion, La Boca, Avenida FLORIDA, Recoleta y Palermo, Plaza Francia, Plaza Alemania, Plaza San Martin, Parque 3 de Febrero (VERY, VERY nice park.... like Central Park or Hyde Park, but with palmtrees), el Hipodromo, etc. etc.

and since last WED I'm staying in an apartment next to Plaza y Palacio del Congreso.... pretty nice there too.... and close to many places that I need to go to regularly, i.e. my office here, La SUDACA (one of the good salsa places here), Avenida 9 Julio, 2 SUBTE stations (that's the Subway network here - SUBTE for Subterraneo).

The first few nights I stayed with some local couch-surfers and their friends and met some really nice people.... Thanks muchas to Kristin, Martin, Gaby and Ezequiel for making my first weekend in Buenos Aires so much fun...!!
and now I'm living with an Argentine girl called Maria Eugenia.... she seems very nice nice too, but neither one of us is at home very much so we haven't spent that much time together yet....

and yes - I found some places to dance salsa here too (of course) and met some nice dancers here as well... ;) the salsa scene here is actually a lot more developed and better than in Peru...
the people in my office here are really nice and funny too and it's fun working and spending time with them.....even though Ney just left us to return back to Rio... :(

but still - at the moment I still miss all my friends in Lima a lot.... !! I also miss my life there, living so close to the beach, the nice relaxed atmosphere in Miraflores and then little things, like the Vivanda supermarket for example and my favorite Lucuma Yogurt Bebible....

oh well.... I'm sure I'll settle into my life here in Buenos Aires as well and I'll be fine here in a few days / weeks, but this city is big and busy.... loads of traffic.... loads of people rushing around.... and that's all a bit tiring for me at the moment.....even after all the time that I've spent in huge cities like London and New York.... hhmmm, a ver....

I think it's also mainly that people here are not as friendly, open, amable y ayudable as in Lima.... pero, I'm doing okay.... and will try to write again soon and put some pics on here too...
besos from Argentina... :)

Adios LIMA..... Hello BUENOS AIRES....!!!

2006-04-14T15:30:00.000-07:00

aaahhh - and now my 3 months in LIMA are already over.... in 8 hours I'll be on a plane to BUENOS AIRES.... and somehow I feel a little bit sad.... cause I had a really, really great time here in Peru - much nicer than I ever expected..... and it's just sad to have to say Bye and leave some good friends here behind... oh well....

but I have heard sooooo many great things about Buenos Aires from loads of people already that I'm actually looking forward to my next 3 months there as well.... :)

and I can always come back to Lima at some point.... :)

anyway - apart from a few disasters and catastrophies last Monday - i.e. my flooded apartment, a burned finger, my landlord who disappeared to Cusco and was unreachable until today, and the non-functioning keyboard in my office that no-one knew how to fix for a day - my last week here in LIMA was really great and I had a number of very, very nice Goodbye-Parties.... !!

last Sunday, 9th April, were the elections for the next Peruvian president and the "LEY SECA" (the "Dry Law", "Trockenes Gesetz") verbietet Ausschank von Alkohol in oeffentlichen Lokalitaeten 48 hours before the elections..... so FRI and SAT night pretty much all bars / clubs here were closed, or at the least very, very quiet as people could not drink there.....

but FRI night we had a little social and birthday party for Jose and Monica en la casa de mi gran amigo Veto Oneto.... one of the many, many great parties and good times we've spent at his place....!!!

Muchisimas gracias otra vez, Veto, for all your hospitality, your friendship and the good times we spent here together.... :)

on Saturday I went to LA PUNTA en el Callao con Pedro..... we'd been planning to go there for quite a while but never really found time to do it..... pero now, al final, we made it eventually...!!
and it was really worth it - very nice part of Lima too..... and even though it was dark already by the time we got there we saw some of the beautiful houses and walked along the beach promenade there.... ahhh - and we had some great Peruvian food - Anticuchos y Picarones.... yeah - muy rica la comida Peruana.... de verdad... !!

on the way back we stopped at Juan's house to visit his sister for her baby-shower, but unfortunately we were a little bit late for that already.... :(
oh well - thanks for the cake and peach-cocktail anyway.... ;)

SUN was actually the best of all my Goodbye-Parties (Fiesta de la despedida de Astrid)...!! I met Veto and Carmen in Miraflores and we went to one of Veto's friends houses in my neighbourhood here for some Tea and Toast.... yeah, I know - seems very British, no....?? ;)

Really interesting guy though.... he runs the Peruvian version of the AAA, ADAC, AA or whatever you call it in your country.... the Automobile Association.... and it was really interesting to talk to him and hear about the story how he got into this business and how he set it up here..... spent a nice time with him and his family and saw parts of the elections on TV before we finally went to MARKANO....!!!

aaahh - I'm gonna miss this place...!!! and my last SUN there was so so so so good.... all my Salsa-friends from Lima were there to say Bye to me..... and for one more last dance.... :(
had a super-great time there....!! music, was great as well - as usual.... and the owner of the place also gave me a CD of the MARKANO orchesta as un recuerdo de los buenos tiempos que pasamos por alla.....!!! :)
and I just wanted to say - Gracias to Veto, Carmen, Cesar, Viviana, Salserin, Luis Cachanga, Chupete, Raul, JoseLuis, Manolo, Carlos B., Karen, Joel, Luis, Jose de Washington DC, Edison, Andrea, Anaya, Marcello, Cesar (con el pelon), La China, Angela, Carlos C., Carmen, Jackie, Fernando, Juan and everyone else whose name I don't remember right now..... Thanks so much for being there and making it such a fun night...!!!
and thanks also to Miguel and Yanet, Flor and Rolando, Walter y Ruth, Jonatan, Martin, Miguel and Daniel.... thanks for calling me.... and sorry you couldn't be there that night....

I hope I'll be back some time soon....!!! :)

then on MON another little Goodbye from LOS BOTES..... TUE con mis amigos Nestor, Omar and Melroy en el SON DE CUBA....

WED - my Goodbye-social en la casa de Veto.... where else.... ;) too bad that this meant I couldn't go to Huacho con Pamela, JoseLuis, Arturo and their friends..... would have really liked to go there too.....pero asi pasan las cosas..... and you can't always have everything.... (I already learned that...) hhmmm....

and last night - mi ultima noche en Lima - pasamos bastante bien aqui en Miraflores y despues en La Calle 8 with some old and some new friends.... ;)

sssoo - and now I should really start packing the rest of my stuff here to make sure that I'm ready to go to the airport in a few hours....

besos y abrazos from Lima.... I hope I'll get a chance to come back here soon....!!
xxx

Bailando con JoseLuis, en Brena, Lima....

2006-04-12T22:44:00.000-07:00

What a great Last but One weekend in Lima...!!!

2006-04-04T17:57:00.000-07:00

hhmmm yeah.... so I don't have much time left here in Lima.... 10 days in TOTAL...!! and time flying by....as always....

but... my last but one weekend here was really, really great....!! and I need to take at least 15mins to write something about it on my blog.... after all this silence here....

WED - Oscar's birthday party in Salamanca.... not much dancing there, but his Mum had cooked some great Peruvian food and really spoiled us... :)

THU - Magaly's birthday party en LA CALLE 8 with lots of friends.... and Salsa... ;)

FRI night - went dancing with JoseLuis at SON Y CUERO en San Isidro.... very nice place, great wooden dance floor (yes, for everyone who hasn't heard / read this from me before - we don't have VERY MANY of those here in Lima... ;) ), musica bastante bien, company very nice..... :)

then we went over to one of his neighours house in Brena later for her baby-shower and also met his cousin there.... more salsa, more dancing, more nice people.... very much fun...!!

SAT por la manana - un pocito mas Salsa (what else...?? ;) stupid question...hahha...), teaching some of his friends / neighbours / students.... despues fuimos a la playa de Costa Verde aqui en Miraflores.... nos pelamos un pocito ;) - not as sunny anymore as it used to be here the last few weeks.... autumn is coming to Lima.... but still very nice and relaxing afternoon on the beach.... :)

SAT night I went to SON Y CUERO otra vez with loads of other friends.... La orchestra de VETO BILLENA was playing there.... very good music.... lots of dancing till 4.30am..... aaahhh - I'm gonna miss this place and all those nice people here.....!!!

SUN.... sleep, sleep, sleep till Nona's phone call woke me up at 12.00noon.... but nice reason to get up.... :) lunch and shopping afterwards....

later, around 5.30pm, I met Carmen, Veto and Pedro at the TANGO EN EL MALECON.... yes, yes - I need to get some basic Tango steps down before I moce to Buenos Aires... ;)
very nice there too....

then the traditional SUN coffee and toast at CAFE HAITI aqui en Miraflores.... :)
despues we went over to my apartment to pick up some stuff, then to Veto's house..... watched some videos there before driving over to MARKANO...!! :)

yyaaaiii - still one of my favorites places to dance here in LIMA....!!! had a really great time there dancing with Chupete y Edison y otros amigos... and luckily this place will be open next weekend as well, and not closed like most places here por las elecciones del Peru... :(

so at least one good location where I can have one of my Goodbye-parties....!! :)

yesterday I had the day-off (from working SAT 2 weeks ago) y entonces mas tiempo to go to LOS BOTES mas temprano.... very fun there too dancing with Cesar, Edison y el Salserin....

bueno... entonces, 10 dias mas aqui.... not much time unfortunately.... but I'll try to write again before I leave Peru... :)

besos y abrazos,
xxxx

en SON Y CUERO last weekend...!!

2006-04-02T15:08:00.000-07:00

Una semana con Jimmy Anton in Lima...!!

2006-03-18T18:30:00.000-08:00

Aaaahhhh - dieser Bericht ist schon wieder eine Woche ueberfaellig, und ich wollte ihn auch schon laengste geschrieben haten.... aber immer kam irgend etwas anderes dazwischen.... always too busy here with other stuff....

But anyway - better late than never.... ;) Entonces - The best surprise of my time here in Peru so far happened 2 weeks ago when some of my friends here told me that Jimmy Anton was coming to Lima for 9 days...!! How cool...

For everyone who doesn't know who he is and has never heard of "Jimmy Anton's socials" before - well, I forgive all Non-Salsa-people who don't know of him..;) - he's a very well-known dancer / instructor / choreoprapher based in NYC (see also www.jimmyanton.com) and his social every 1st, 3rd (and 5th) Sunday of each month are famous, famous, famous - not only in NYC...!!

I've actually been to his socials a few times when I was living in NYC for a summer - un verano en Nueva York.... ;) (siii - como es la cancion) - but I never knew that he was from Peru originally...!! (he's been in the States for 20 years now...) But - what a great surprise...!!

So that time that he spent here in Lima form 4th - 13th March was great, great, great and always something going on.... A few times we just went over to his house here in Brena (un barrio de Lima) to hang out there and dance a little bit, then he was teaching some work-shops at Cesar's and Carlos Begazzo's academies as well...

But best of all really was the social dancing and all the parties and concerts that we went to with him during that week... at Markano, Sabor Peruano, Zipango, Timbalero, RITS en La Marina.... and then also all the birthday parties during this week.... just didn't seem to stop... ;)
Congratulations otra vez to Walter, Seiko, Cesar y Rolando...!!

Entonces - was a great time, very busy with dancing and going out.... und deshalb nicht so viel Zeit zum Schreiben und fuer blog updates....

Aaahhh - and before I forget - apart from Jimmy Anton there was also another Peruano who now lives in my home city of WIESBADEN visiting his family and friends here in Lima during that same week.... yeah, yeah - this small, small world... ;)
Nestor, was great to meet you here...!! and funny that we had to travel all the way to Lima to meet at TIMBALERO, but I'm sure I'll see you again in Wiesbaden or Frankfurt sometime later this year....;)

hhmmmm....and now I only ahve 4 weeks left here before I'm moving to Buenos Aires....

saludos y abrazos from Peru.... y hasta entonces...
xxxx

In Arequipa con Christian, Claudia and some of her friends...

2006-02-23T17:46:00.000-08:00

My weekend in Arequipa....

2006-02-23T16:13:00.000-08:00

….was really nice….. had a great time there with Christian (friend from Guatemala who came to visit me last week), Claudia and some of her friends….

The bus journey from Lima to get there was impressive….. through the mountains, through the desert and along the coast…. That part can definitely keep up with highway Nr. 1 in California…..really, really pretty….

Claudia was a great host and it was a lot of fun hanging out with her and her friends on SUN night….. SUN afternoon Christian and I walked all around the downtown area of AREQUIPA and saw pretty much all of that amazing white city – the cathedral, the monastery of Santa Catalina, lots of churches and other beautiful “white” buildings and architecture….. all made of Sillar – a lava-stone that is made from the lava of the volcanoes surrounding Arequipa….

On Monday, two of Christian’s webmaster-friends who he was organizing some conferences with in Arequipa during the following days, gave us another great sight-seeing tour through the “Campinas” of Arequipa, to a historic Molina, some miradores with beautiful views, la casa del fundador and some small villages surrounding Arequipa…. Very interesting and impressive as well, with some perfect tour-guides…. Thanks so much again Raul and Julio…!! :)

A few days without dancing…. No salsa in Arequipa on SUN night….. was missing that a bit, but still had a great time…. I just think that Lima feels more like home to me…. Of course, after all the time I spent here already…. So it was nice to come back here too, see my friends here again….. and hear / dance some Salsa…. :)

Arequipa - The white city... La ciudad blanca...

2006-02-21T15:48:00.000-08:00

LARCO MAR... really nice part of MIRAFLORES... (just a bit touristy)

2006-02-18T19:37:00.000-08:00

been a while again....

2006-02-17T16:58:00.000-08:00

Yes, yes…. Mucho tiempo otra vez that I haven’t written anything…. Lo siento mucho….. but been living my life here in Lima….having a really good time…. It’s still very hot and sunny aqui en Peru at the moment….around 28 – 30 C every day….nice…!!

Last Saturday, I went to an Open-Air classical concert in a park on the Malecon here with my friend Michael….very nice…. and on Sunday, Ana – nice girl from couch-surfing, Pedro y Veto (salsa-friends) and I went to another outdoor Tango event…..loads of people…!! Didn’t think it was that popular here…. Almost like the Tango events in NYC during the summer….
And I also learned the basic steps with some videos and practice at Veto’s house later….

THU Night (last week) it was Lisbet’s birthday party at Calle 8, another Latin / Salsa club…. Salsa, dancing, cake, many nice people…. Good night… :)

Friday night dancing at Timbalero con Cesar, Luis, Raul, Carlos, Veto. Juan….. and many, many other nice people… :)

SAT – (after the concert on the Malecon) Homenaje por Hector Lavoe aqui en el PIZZOTON en Miraflores…. Went there with Martin, Daniel and some of their musician friends…. Really good music, but not many dancers… :( Cesar was gonna come there too, but couldn’t make it in the end…. too bad… :(
But later Pedro, Veto and I went to a very nice Café here in Miraflores and it was still a good night…:)

SUN (after the Tango) - fuimos a bailar en MARKANO en San Martin de Porres…. Very basic little place, but good music and great fun dancing with Cesar y Chupete….:)

MON nights are really some of the best here I think…. After LOS BOTES (where Cesar teaches a bit On2) we normally go over to Veto’s house and hang out there, dance more, watch videos, talk…. Really nice…. I met a great group of people here – called the “SALSAMIGOS” – super-sweet, all of them…. And really makes Lima a lot of fun for me… :)

TUE – Valentine’s Day….went out with Sandro and come of his friends in LARCO MAR….

On WED - Christian, a couch-surfing friend from Guatemala, came to Lima and has been staying with me the last 2 nights….. WED we just had dinner with some of his computer programming friends and then went to SON DE CUBA…. Mainly cause it’s nice and close to my house…. And you can dance a little bit there too… ;)

Last night he was busy with some other computer event / conference and I went to AMERICAN LATIN CLUB with Francis, Veto and Manolo….. nice place and the FIRST WOODDEN DANCEFLOOR I discovered in LIMA so far…. J wwwooooowww…!!!! unfortunately no dancers there, but we can change that for next THU... ;)

Still had a really nice time there and saved some energy for TIMBALERO tonight…. ;)

Tomorrow night, Christian and I are gonna go to AREQUIPA - the white city in the South of Peru, direction to Lake TITICACA - and visit Claudia, another girl from couch-surfing there…. It’s a 14-hour bus ride to get there, but we’re taking a night-bus and I have MON off, so I only need to be back in Lima on TUE morning….. gonna miss all my dancing friends here in Lima a bit, but it’s also gonna be nice to see a bit more of Peru…..

So, that was a rough run-through of my last 2 weeks here…. Sorry, it’s a bit short and not very detailed, but at least it gives you a little idea of what I have been up to recently….
And I’ll write more when I’m back from AREQUIPA…!!

Big hug and lotsa love from LIMA…
xxxx

the lighthouse of MIRAFLORES...!! pretty... :)

2006-02-11T19:35:00.000-08:00

las playas de MIRAFLORES....

2006-02-09T19:27:00.000-08:00

Last weekend in Lima...

2006-02-02T18:16:00.000-08:00

So, I know I’ve should have written this post here at least a few days ago and always been meaning to, but then time and my job and life here in Lima caught me and I just never got round to do it….

But what I actually wanted to say was that I had a really, really nice weekend here a few days ago…. A friend came over on SAT morning and cleaned almost my whole apartment for me….. very nice and sweet….. then another afternoon on the beach here and at night, after a few hours in SON DE CUBA (the small local Cuban club, very close to my house) I went to another, much bigger club called KIMBARA with Ricardo and yaaaii, yaaiii, yaaaiii…. met some people there who dance Salsa a bit more the way that I’m used to dance and that I enjoy…. Who know what a cross-body lead and a triple spin (at least..!!;) is….. and I had a really, really nice time dancing there….. so – planning to go again this weekend…. J J

Then on Sunday, Martin – the Lima correspondent of www.salsapower.com who I had been emailing with a bit during the last few weeks had invited me to a party in SABOR PERUANO, a nice Peruvian restaurant also very close to my house…. In the famous “Calle de Pizzas”… ;)

Met him and some of his friends there, all very nice and friendly, good music, interesting videos, great Peruvian BBQ and also a bit of dancing….. really nice afternoon….
Then later that night we went to another party with live music in SURQUILLO, a barrio right next to MIRAFLORES…. Was very fun too and met a few more dancers there…. J

Sooooo – Lima, is not tthhhaaaatttt bad after all, and I think I can have a nice enough time here for the next 2 and 1/2 months and get to dance at least once or twice a week properly….J big smile….

Other than that I had a free pass for a gym very close to my office this week and been going there a few times, and one more last time tonight…..
and yesterday I met Aden here, CS-friend from Australia who also visited me in Germany last June, and went out with him, cause it was his last night in Lima before he’s off on a 3-week “Amazon-banana-boat-cruise” and totally worried about getting bored there…. Don’t worry senor, gonna be all good…. And you have Recife to look forward to…. J

Yeah, so that was my exciting week so far….and the next weekend is almost here…. I’m settling in here fine and as above, starting to like Lima, better and better…..

Settling into my life in Miraflores, Lima...!!

2006-01-25T19:38:00.000-08:00

so, I've been here in Peru for a week and a day now and starting to settle into my life here okay.... my job is very busy, but fun.... I'm learning a lot of new stuff and seem to be doing okay - from what my bosses in Rio keep telling me... ;)

My apartment is very close to Miraflores Central Park, about 10 - 15 mins walk from the Malecon and playas, also 10 - 15 mins walk from my office here and very close to "Calle de las Pizzas" - a little pedestrian street with lotsa bars, cafes, restaurants, discotecas..... really nice....

it's not really the most modern apartment, but it's big big big.... I've got a big living and dining room, one bedroom where I sleep, another bedroom with 2 more beds (in case I get visitors.. ;) ) , a big terrace mit Schaukelstuhl, kitchen and bathroom.... overall pretty good, and I start to feel a bit more at home here than in my first few days....

met some nice people as well and everyone in my office is very nice and helpful too.... only sad thing is that Salsa is not really that great here ..... but weather and playas are.... :)
well, you can't have everything, I guess.... and overall I'm doing good here in Miraflore....

big hug to everyone und bis bald wieder...xxxx

Great day in downtown LIMA.... and mucho fun and good times en el radio PLANICIE... ;)

2006-01-21T21:47:00.000-08:00

so after my chaos night in MIRAFLORES anoche, I got a new replacement key for my apartment from my landlord this morning.... nice breakfast in a Peruvian restaurant and then I met Carolina`s friend Ricardo at 11.00am to go to downtown LIMA with him....

he had offered to show me some places and gave me a really great sight-seeing tour of downtown Lima and some surrounding districts..... my own private tour guide... and he´s more like a walking and talking history-book and tour guide combined.... ;) great...!! and also took me to some places that "normal tourists" probably never get to see.... nice nice nice - and really interesting...

and almost 30 C here - I even got a tiny little bit sun-burned.... but nothing bad....
die russische Kaeltefront ist zum Gleuck ganz weit weg von mir... ;)
xxx

LIMA is actually a great city.... lotsa beautiful historic and impressive architecture.... I liked especially La Plaza Mayor, la catedral, el Palacio Nacional.... all really nice....

after that we went to his house on the outskirts of LIMA and cooked some really nice traditional Peruvian food..... then I had to relax a bit and take a little nap, cause I was still super tired after my almost sleepless last night....

but right now I´m actually writing this blog entry from Ricardo´s radio station here in Villa Huanta, LIMA (www.radioplanicie.com.pe)
he has a 2 or 3 hours salsa-show here every night and invited me to come along and assist him a bit.... lotsa really nice music and I´ve even been talking a bit "on air" before... was fun..... casi todo en Espanol... :)

also sent some greetings to my family en Alemania and all my great friends all over the world....
you could have heard here:

www.alsolnet.com/stream/radioplanicie

safe the link cause maybe I´ll be talking on here again some time during the next few weeks.... and become a radio star in Peru.... hahha... ;)

A great weekend for everyone..... with greetings from sunny LIMA....

I´m in LIMA....!!

2006-01-21T04:03:00.000-08:00

and I´m really sorry that my first message from here will be very short....but I´m just having a pretty chaotic night....

I arrived here very, very late MON night and spent the last few days trying to learn everything that I need t know for my new job here.... also tried to find a nice apartment and after 2 nights in a nice hotel here I moved into this apartment which is pretty okay and really big, but not too modern and not all that fantastic.....

oh well, I think I´m gonna be ok there for a few months, or if not I´ll just try to find sth. else and move again....
tonight...well, last night - FRI, 20th JAN - (right now it´s already 4.00am here) was the first night that I went out dancing to a little club called SON DE CUBA..... not very far from my house..... nice live band, but dancing-wise not soooo great (and as the name already tells you - all estilo Cubano.....) hhhmmmmm.....

danced a bit with a guy from Spain (well, Peruvian - but now living and Spain and here on vacation), got back to the table where I had left my stuff after 2 songs or so and hhmmm.....my jacket wasn´t there anymore..... great great great..... didn´t have any money in there, but the keys to my apartment....na super...!! und jetzt...??

went back to my place with the Spanish guy to ask my landlord for a copy of the key....of course he was sleeping - or not there.....who knows....

so we went to another place / bar / club called MIDWAY in LA MARINA (ca. 15mins from MIRAFLORES)..... pretty similar to SON DE CUBA..... nice live band, but no dancers.....

got back to my place at 3.00am and tried to wake up my landlord otra vez, but of course without success again.... :( hhmmm..... great night....

so ahora estoy aqui, en un hostal en MIRAFLORES not to far from my apartment..... gonna sleep here for a few hours and then try my luck again tomorrow morning - actually this morning - to get a replacement key from my landlord..... with more luck I hope....

so yeah - I know, when you read this, you´re probably all gonna be super-worried about me and I´m sorry that I´m writing not only nice stuff in here at the moment....

yes, I have to admit, my first night dancing in PERU was not as much fun as I had thought..... oh well.....que puedo hacer..... asi es la vida.....
irgendwie wird´s schon gehen und hoffentlich kann ich euch das naechste Mal more nice things erzaehlen..... I hope I can send you some better and nicer news from my time here in Peru soon....

till then.... hhmmm..... hugs and kisses from LIMA.... :)

Hola South America - HERE I COME...!!!

2006-01-12T15:36:00.000-08:00

so now everything is happening soooo much faster than I thought...!!!

next MON, 16th JAN, I'll be flying to LIMA...!!! ONLY 3 MORE DAYS.... :)

will be there for 3 months, then 3 months in Buenos Aires, then 3 months in RIO...

aaahh - my SOUTH AMERICAN adventure is about to start... can't wait...!!

sure, a bit sad to leave Germany after the great time I had here during the last 6 weeks.... but also really looking forward to living in South America for a while and experience that continent.....

aaahh - and of course it's gonna be fantastic to have some warm weather and sunshine again... ;)

well - many things to do and to organize during my last few hours here.... but it's gonna be all good.... :)
more soon..xx

X-mas 2005 in Germany...!! with my brother and cousins... ;)

2005-12-26T20:22:00.000-08:00

Back home in Germany....!!

2005-12-15T09:30:00.000-08:00

I've been back in Wiesbaden, Germany, for nearly 2 weeks now and here's a little recap about my trip the last few months.... as per Wiesbadener Kurier from TUE, 13th DEC 2005.

but sorry, it's in German... ;)

"Wenn ich es nicht tue, werde ich es bereuen"

Salsa in Puerto Rico, Sprachkurs in Antigua: Astrid Schnabel ist ein Jahr lang als Weltenbummlerin unterwegs

Astrid Schnabel berichtet von den ersten Etappen ihrer großen Reise.RMB/Kubenka

Vom 13.12.2005
WIESBADEN
Heute London, morgen Mexiko City, übermorgen Seattle - Astrid Schnabel führt nicht etwa ein stressiges Jobleben, die 29-Jährige hat sich vielmehr eigens ein Jahr Auszeit genommen, um durch die Welt zu reisen.

Von Julia Hommel

"Wenn ich es jetzt nicht tue, werde ich es nie machen. Und das würde ich eines Tages bereuen", sagte sich Astrid Schnabel im vergangenen Frühjahr - und fasste den Entschluss, eine kleine Weltreise zu wagen. Der Job als Betreuerin eines Londoner Basketballteams, wo die Wiesbadenerin seit fünf Jahren lebt, war schnell gekündigt, und auch das erste Ziel der großen Reise stand fest: Wiesbaden. "Ich habe zwei Wochen lang meine Familie und Freunde besucht, es war mal wieder Zeit", schmunzelt die 29-Jährige. Doch Anfang Juli bestieg sie dann tatsächlich den Flieger nach Übersee, um in den folgenden zwei Wochen Seattle, San Francisco und Vancouver kennen zu lernen "Wahnsinn! Speziell Vancouver hat mich beeindruckt, weil es eine so natürliche Stadt ist, die direkt am Meer liegt."

Doch ein einziger Tag am Swimming Pool musste zur Erholung genügen, denn gleich am nächsten Morgen ging es nach Puerto Rico, wo ein internationaler Salsa-Kongress statt fand.
Diese Gelegenheit konnte sich die begeisterte Tänzerin ("Ich verliere mich selbst in der Musik") nicht nehmen lassen, doch nach nur viertägigem Aufenthalt stand die Weiterreise nach Guatemala an.
"Ich hatte viel Gutes über die dortigen Sprachschulen gehört. Also habe ich mich zu einem dreiwöchigen Sprachkurs in Antigua angemeldet." Aus den veranschlagten drei Wochen wurden dann allerdings drei Monate, in denen Astrid Schnabel als Deutschlehrerin arbeitete und in einem Café jobbte. "Die dortigen Verhältnisse sind einfach, aber die Leute unheimlich lieb", so das Fazit.

Die meisten zumindest - so berichtet die Wiesbadenerin, dass die Statistik zu den Todesopfern der vergangenen 24 Stunden fester Bestandteil der Tageszeitung ist. Mordfälle gehören zum dortigen Alltagsgeschehen, nicht umsonst "stehen vor jedem Hotel, jeder Bank, jedem McDonald´s die Männer mit Maschinengewehren", erzählt Astrid Schnabel. "Klar, manchmal hatte ich schon Angst. Aber ich war sehr vorsichtig und es ist alles gut gegangen."

Nächste Station war das mexikanische Cancun, wo die Weltenbummlerin Maya-Ruinen in Chichen Itza und Tulum besichtigte. Den größten Eindruck machten auf sie jedoch die tiefen Wasserlöcher der Landschaft: "Da haben die Mayas nicht nur Gold, sondern auch menschliche Opfer hinein geworfen, um den Gott des Wassers günstig zu stimmen."

Drei Tage, bevor Hurrikan "Wilma" die Strände von Cancun zerstörte, war Astrid Schnabel im Oktober zurück ins guatemalische Antigua gereist. Dort erfuhr sie in den Fernsehnachrichten von der Spur der Verwüstung, die der Hurrikan gezogen hatte. "Ich konnte es gar nicht glauben: die Strände, wo ich mich gesonnt hatte, die Straßen, auf denen ich Rad gefahren bin - alles war auf einmal kaputt." Und das nur wenige Tage nach ihrer Abreise. "Ich war immer mit sehr viel Glück unterwegs", sinniert sie. Ihre Mutter machte sich dennoch Sorgen, weshalb sie ihr mehrmals die Woche E-Mails aus diversen Internet-Cafés sandte.

Noch bis Ende November unterrichtete Astrid Schnabel Sprachschüler in Antigua, dann führte der Weg nach Mexiko City. Und dort endete die Glückssträhne, denn die Globetrotterin ging einem Ganoven auf dem Leim, der sie um 800 Dollar betrog. Als sie ihn bei der Polizei anzeigte, wurde er zwar tatsächlich einen Tag lang auf dem Revier festgehalten, doch das war es dann auch schon: "Kurz darauf ist er verschwunden, wahrscheinlich hat er die Polizei bestochen, das ist dort nichts Ungewöhnliches."

Die Deutsche Botschaft konnte ihr bei der Fahndung nach dem Trickbetrüger ebenso wenig helfen wie das Konsulat in Los Angeles, wohin sie als Nächstes flog, bevor es schließlich zu New Yorker Freunden zwecks Shopping, Tanzen und Eislaufen im Bryant Park ("die Eisbahn dort ist genauso groß wie die hier am Warmen Damm") ging. Von dort aus flog Astrid Schnabel vergangene Woche zurück nach Wiesbaden, wo sie die Weihnachtszeit traditionell mit ihrer Familie verbringt.

Fürs kommende Jahr stehen Besuche in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Panama und Honduras auf der Reiseroute, doch die nächsten Wochen verbringt Astrid Schnabel entgegen der ursprünglichen Planung in Deutschland: "Anfang Februar werde ich zum ersten Mal Tante. Das lasse ich mir nicht entgehen!"

Carolina y yo @ NY / NJ Salsa Congress 2005

2005-12-01T16:43:00.000-08:00

I love NYC...!!!

2005-11-28T15:17:00.000-08:00

this city is just the best...!!! aaahhh - I love it here.... having a really great time aqui con Carolina and salsa congress in Brooklyn over the weekend was really good too...

oohhh - and it even got much warmer here during the last 2 days than it was when I arrived last week.... nice nice nice.....!!!

but only 3 more days before I fly back to Germany.... :) and :( mixed emotions ahora....

from the sunny West Coast to the freezing cold east....

2005-11-26T05:53:00.000-08:00

after 3 days in sunny L.A. I drove up to SAN FRAN on TUE and spent 2 more days there with Jay and also met some oher CS friends - Casey, Dani, Matthew and Heather - who were so sweet to come and pick me up from the bus station when I arrived....
aaahhh nice....

I still love SAN FRAN..... great great city.....had another really nice day there, went to the same beach near Jay's house that we went to in July as well.... pretty much exactly 4 months ago....soooooo long.... but yet so short....!!
and also 2 more very fun nights dancing at Glasskat and Rocapulco.... aahhh great - really been missing salsa after 2 weeks without dancing....

and then on THU afternoon I was on a plane again (yeah, THU seems to be my airport and flying day at the moment...;)

off the the East....NEW YORK CITY... !!! the last stop on my trip before flying back to Germany.....
yyaaaiiiiii..... was really looking forward to go back to this amazing city again and especially to see Carolina and some other friends here again....!!

all great here and we're having a really really nice time.... bbuuuuuttt - it's also VERY VERY COLD HERE....!!!! like 0 degree C.... hhhhmmm, maybe a good preparation for Germany..... ;)

and this weekend it's also the NY / NJ Salsa Congress here..... we actually just got back from there.... really really good night..... lots of great dancers, very good music - and all super fun.....

so even this cold can be standable in a city like NYC....!!!
and now I have another 5 days here before I'm gonna take my next plane.... back to Alemania.... not long anymore - und Deutschland hat mich wieder.... at least for a while.... ;)

good night for now.... xx

Smiling again in sunny LALAland.... :)

2005-11-21T20:22:00.000-08:00

hhmmmm yes - Mexico City was partly very bad and not only a nice experience.... but I can't be upset y triste and in a bad mood because of that forever....

and I guess sunny California really helped to cheer me up again a bit....!!! :)

Spent 2 days in Fullerton, Orange County, with Jess and her family.... super-super-sweet people, I got stuffed with great Chinese foor by her lovely Grandfather and it was just nice to relax in that little town for 2 days....

then Marko and Brian picked me up from there on SAT and I moved to his "Couchsurfing-paradise" in North Hills, LA..... Celine was already staying here as well, and it was just great, great, great to see some old friends again.... same as when Nathalie picked me up from the airport last THU and drove me to Union Station.... thanks so much again for that darling.... !! really meant a lot to me that someone nice was waiting for me at the airport when I arrived from Mexico....

Marko's lovely Guatemalan family, party in Bel Air, a great day on Venice and Santa Monica beach - with a beautiful sunset over the ocean and dolphins jumping up and down so close to us as if we were in Seaworld or MarineLand..... dancing on la playa to live percussion and drums last night - AND ABOVE ALL, great company and lotsa nice people around me.... all that helped to cheer me up and make me feel a lot better... !!

and today I was walking through downtown L.A. in the sunhine - Broadway, Staples Center, Biltmore Hotel, "historic" district, Wilshire Boulevard, MacArthur Park - and I was smiling again..... :)

buena onda.... mala onda....

2005-11-18T11:19:00.000-08:00

so yeah - Mexico City is a great and amazing city with lots of things to see and to do and lots of beautiful areas....

BBBUUUUTTTT.... I also learned how corrupt that country and its system is and had some very bad experiences there.... got totally scammed by a stupid f****d up American bastard, lost lots of money, caught him again, had him locked up for a day and a night and after spending mucho tiempo with the Mexican policia learned that they are actually the worst ones themselves...... aaaahhhh - corrupt, corrupt, corrupt..... and soooooooooooooooooo many lies..... I hate it....!!!!

and it's all just really sad cause my friends there are great and super-sweet and really did everything for me ....!! but I still left from their city with a lot of bad memories.... the only ones from my trip so far....

oh well, am in sunny California, Orange County, at the moment.... will spend a few days here, then in LA, San Francisco, San Jose and then another week in NYC....

so, a few more nice things to come before I fly back to Germany....

Here is in a nutshell....

2005-11-16T20:32:00.000-08:00

what happened to me in Mexico City during the last few days.....

and the German Consulate seems to be just as helpful as the Mexican Police in this case.... not so great really.... pero, asi you learn..... I guess....

HERE IS THEIR ANSWER TO MY MESSAGE BELOW:

Sehr geehrte Frau Schnabel,

Leider kann dieses Konsulat nichts für Sie unternehmen. Zum Einen ist die Straftat in einem Drittland (Mexiko) erfolgt und weiterhin sind wir keine Strafverfolgungsbehörde.

Ich kann sehr wohl Ihren Ärger verstehen - und Sie haben auch das Richtige unternommen, indem Sie die mexikanische Polizei befasst haben.

Die Einschaltung eines Rechtsanwaltes stellt sich wegen des doch "geringen" Verlustbetrages wohl auch nicht dar.

Etwas für's Leben gelernt ? Sorry, dass wir keine bessere Antwort für Sie haben.

mit besten Grüßen,

Thomas Scherer
Vice Consul
German Consulate General
Los Angeles
www.losangeles.diplo.de
Thomas.Scherer@Diplo.de

Sent: Monday, November 21, 2005 12:36 AM
Subject: I got scammed in Mexico City last week. PLEASE HELP....!!

Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,

Ich hab gestern nachmittag schon kurz mit einem ihrer Mitarbeiter am Telefon gesprochen und wollte ihm meinen Fall erklaeren. Aber er bat mich morgen wieder anzurufen und nach Herrn Thomas Scherer zu fragen, um ihm die ganzen Geschehnisse zu schildern.

Hier also schon mal Kurz:

Ich war letzte Woche in Mexico City und wurde am vergangenen Montag, 14th NOV 2005, von einem Amerikanischen con-artist aus Detroit "ge-scammed".
Er stahl $ 800.00 von mir.

Waehrend des Verbrechens nannte er mir einen falschen Namen und falsche Kontakt-Informationen, aber sein korreker Name is MICHAEL ALAN REDER. Er ist auch DETROIT, USA, und 47 Jahre alt.

Er ist seit dem 19th September 2005 in Mexico und hat ein Touristen-Visum fuer 180 Tage.

When I saw him again - by total coincidence - the following day, TUE, 15th NOV 2005, I had him arrested by the Mexican police, they already knew him from previous crimes that he had commited in the same manner and detained him for one night and one day.

I filed 2 police reports explaining the whole situation, but since it was his word against mine - AND MOST OF ALL BECAUSE THE MEXICAN POLICE IS VERY CORRUPT - he was free again the next day and I never saw my money again.

I hope that you can work together with the FBI or your Mexican co-operating partners and stop him from doing what he's doing :

Scamming tourists in Mexico City out of their money by telling them lots and lots of lies !!!

Please let me know if and how you can proceed this case, if you need more information from me, and how I can receive my money back.

I am currently in California, will be spending next week in New York (25th NOV - 1st DEC) before I fly back to Germany on 1st DEC. Email is the best way to contact me.

Many thanks for your attention and help and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Mit freundlichen Gruessen,
Astrid Schnabel

Mexico City.....WWoooooowwww....!!!

2005-11-14T17:47:00.000-08:00

The bus-ride to here from SAN CRISTOBAL over night was an adventure - but great - and I would do it again any time....

and now D.F. - MEXICO CITY - impressive.... been a very long time that I`ve been in a city as huge as this.... well, actually it`s the biggest city I`ve ever been to at all so far....!!

But ever since I left London in June I haven`t been to a Multi-Million Metropole like this.... and it`s great here....!!

so much to do, so much to see, so many people, so much culture, so much history, so many beautiful buildings..... aaahhh - amazing....!!

some of the streets actually remind me a bit of Bangkok - lotsa little tiendas and foodstalls all over and people are selling just everything en las calles...!! and the climate here reminds me a lot of Texas when I was living there in November 6 years ago.... damn - really that long ago already....!!! but yeah - still very nice and hot and sunny here....

just weird to see all the X-Mas decorations in the shops and still walk around outside in a short summer dress and sunglasses..... strange feeling...!! ;)

Apart from all that I get totally spoiled by Luis and his family here.... they`re all so so so sweet.... yesterday we went to see the pyramides of TEOTIHUACAN.... really great....

and today I just went to the historic centre, Zocalo, Palacio de Bellas Artes, Palacio Nacional, Biblioteca de Mexico, muchos mercados y artesanias, and, and, and.... I loved it....!!

and for a city as big as this everything is pretty well organized too.... and for the first time for quite a while I`ve been to a STARBUCK`s and ZARA again today.... ;) nice...

very very different from ANTIGUA - but nice distractions.... :)

back in Mexico.... once again....

2005-11-11T17:07:00.000-08:00

So I finally had to leave Antigua after 3 great months there.... very strange feeling..... after a very good last evening / night in Cafe Flor, CAFECITO and Cafe NO SE with Seb, I had 2 hours left at home to pack my bags and then took a shuttle from there at 4.00am to la capital, from there at 5.30am to LA MESILLA on the Mexican border..... very beautiful busride..... about 8 hours, but I really enjoyed it..... just nice to sit there, watch the landscape outside fly by, little villages and towns, mountains, rivers, clouds, beautiful Guatemalan countryside..... aaahhhh - I´m sooo gonna miss it.....

we also drove past the Panajachel area and you could still see a lot of the damage that hurricane STAN had done there...... but the roads are pretty much all usable again, even though in some parts there´s still only one lane available and we had to wait for like 15 minutes cause traffic can only go into one direction....

then the adventure of crossing the Mexican border, 2 more short - well 1 and 1/2 hour - bus-rides in COLLECTIVOS (mini-buses) and I arrived in SAN CRISTOBAL around 5.45pm....

went to the POSADA MEXICO that Suzie had recommend to me - and here I am...!!! :)

After my last 3 nights in Antigua with hardly any sleep I was super-super-tired when I got here last night and just walked around SAN CRISTOBAL for an hour or so, had a shower and went to bed really early..... like 10.00pm..... aaahhhh - nice....

It´s all fine and okay here nad SAN CRISTOBAL is a pretty nice little place, but I also think that at the moment I just compare it too much with Antigua..... or I´m just still thinking too much of Antigua.... and, of course, no place that you see for 2 days can mean the same to you as one where you lived for 3 months....!!! claro....

but it´s nice enough to spend 2 days here - apparently there´s also a Latin / Salsa place about 2 blocks from our Posada..... entonces, vamos a ver..... and tomorrow evening I´m leaving for Mexico City.....
more soon.....

Oh god.... I`m gonna miss this place....!!!

2005-11-09T15:55:00.000-08:00

12 hours left in ANTIGUA... and it feels so strange to think about leaving this place tomorrow moring at 4.00am...!!!

walking all those streets here one more last time.... everything was too nice here.... gonna miss it and everybody and my life here loads loads loads.... :(

3 days left in Guatemala....

2005-11-07T10:21:00.000-08:00

...and soooo many things still to do.... I know I won`t have enough time for everything, but gonna try to fit in as much as possible....

A little bit sad to leave Antigua...?? Claro... after 3 months here it kinda does feel like another home..... lotsa nice people, great times here.... buenas, buenas memorias....

but the good thing is that I still have a lot more nice things to look forward to for my next 3 weeks of travelling - San Cristobal de las casas, Mexico City, maybe a short stop in San Diego, L.A., SAN FRAN y San Jose otra vez and then una semana mas con Carolina en Nueva York / New Jersey con mucha salsa.... yyaaaiii.... :)

So all that makes it a lot easier to say Goodbye to Antigua and Guatemala and Central America - for a while at least.... xxx

but the views from above the clouds were soooo totally worth it....!!!

2005-11-01T15:21:00.000-08:00

Climbing up ACATENANGO..... was really tough....

2005-11-01T15:01:00.000-08:00

This country is soooooo beautiful....!!!

2005-10-31T18:03:00.000-08:00

I had to think this again and again when we were climbing up volcano ACATENANGO yesterday - Juan Carlos, Maria, Ersilio y yo..... pretty tough climb, but super-beautiful and totally worth it... (see my pics)

and even on SAT afternoon when I was just driving from Antigua to the capital I had to think the same - yes, Guatemala is still a very poor 3rd world country, but also very very beautiful at the same time....

and when I leave here in 10 days, it´s definitely gonna be with a lot more great memories than bad ones....!!!

and yes I know, I haven´t made it to many of those other countries and places that I had planned to visit and see on this trip.... but do I regret having stayed in Guatemala for 3 months...??
POR NADA - DEFINITELY NOT...!!

It was really great to spend all this time here, get to know this country and its people and culture.... and yes, I met some really nice people here and spent some great times with them... muchas buenas memorias....

and I will still see the rest of Central America (and South America) next year, and maybe even come back here to visit.... xxxx

and HAPPY HALLOWEEN for tonight by the way....!!! :)

have a good one.... ;)

pictures of beautiful GUATEMALA.....volcano ACATENANGO and views...

2005-10-30T17:00:00.000-08:00

Back in Antigua....and safe here.... (far enough away from hurricane WILMA...)

2005-10-21T17:57:00.000-07:00

So I had another few really nice days in Mexico with Antonio, his friends, Monika, and some other nice people I met there..... lotsa sunshine and beachtime in CANCUN, Playa del Carmen and Isla Mujeres - yeah, I know, hard to believe when you see the news about hurricane WILMA there now....
How super-lucky I am on my trip all the time was really proved once again...!!!

I left CANCUN on Sunday night very late to travel back to Antigua de Guatemala..... nightbus from CANCUN to Chetumal, another bus from there to FLORES.... yaaaaiiii - back in Guatemala !!
Met this English girl Rosa on my bus to FLORES, she had lived in Antigua from NOV last year till March and was on her way back there too....
funny - she had actually been Jose's housemate and of course also knew a lot of the same people there that I used to hang out with..... yeah - small world...!!

So when we got back to FLORES we decided to take a flight frmo there back to GUATE City at 5pm to safe some time and another night (8 hours) on a bus or a stay-over in FLORES.... the flight with TIKAL Jets was quick - 30mins - reasonably priced - $ 65 - and actually pretty good..... Sebastian was so sweet to come and pick us up from the airport and we were back in Antigua around 7.30pm..... yyaaiiii - kinda felt like coming back home.... !!

I'm staying at the same place again, even have my old room again (luckily the guy who was staying there for 2 weeks left exactly the day before i got back...!! :)
and yes - all is great here again...!!

Beautiful sunshine and pretty hot here at the moment.....great to see everyone again.... dancing in SIN VENTURA on TUE and LA CLAVE last night was great..... aaahhhh - I really missed Salsa and dancing while I was in CANCUN..... and my students here are happy too that they're gonna get another German lesson again tomorrow morning....

yesterday it was also Revolution Day here and a National holiday..... but it was nothing like Independence Day a month ago....

6 weeks left of my trip now.... let's see what's still gonna happen.... I hope you're all safe and happy and healthy..... wherever you are.... como yo.... hasta pronto....xxx

I went to see the Mayan pyramides and ruins in CHITCHEN ITZA..... totally impressive...!!

2005-10-12T19:44:00.000-07:00

mas ruinas de CHITCHEN ITZA....

2005-10-11T20:06:00.000-07:00

y columnas tambien.... everything so wwwwoooowwww...!!!

2005-10-11T19:06:00.000-07:00

Iguanas and ruins in Tulum.... :)

2005-10-09T23:36:00.000-07:00

Beautiful places in Mexico....!!

2005-10-09T22:29:00.000-07:00

so, as per my last post - on FRI we went to TULUM.... didn´t see all of it cause we got there a bit late (they close at 5.00pm and don´t let people in after 4.30pm anymore) .... but still was really impressive and beautiful to see the ruins on la playa there....

then we went to ARRECIFE and I ended up with as many Mosquito bites as never ever ever before in my whole life...!! Not even after MONTERRICO I had that many...!! the beaches and area there are really, really beautiful as well.... but don´t think I wanna go back there very soon - and get bitten again....!!

then we went to PLAYA DEL CARMEN for some really nice Thai food - yeah, almost as good as CAFE FLOR... ;) - and walked along 5th Avenue, the beach y la muelle for a while.... looks all really nice there too..... even though I only saw it by night....

and today I went to ISLA MUJERES.... very beautiful small island about 30mins boatride off the coast from CANCUN..... great beaches there...!!! much nicer than las playas in the main Zona Hotelera in CANCUN..... beautiful clear water as well..... and cute little villages....
I guess I´ll go back there for another visit some time this week.....

but first I gotta go and see CHITCHEN ITZA on TUE and the ruins there....

and the weather here is still great and hot and sunny.... and I´m still safe here and we´ve not been hit by any more hurricanes....!! and I still hope the caminos from here to GUATE are all fine too and haven´t been totally destroyed.... but they have another week to clear it all up for me.... ;)

hasta pronto again....

sunset on ISLA MUJERES....

2005-10-08T19:15:00.000-07:00

The ruins of Tulum..... on the beautiful beach there....

2005-10-08T18:57:00.000-07:00

Beach-hut and playa en Arecife....

2005-10-07T23:08:00.000-07:00

CANCUN is soooooooo much nicer in the sunshine...!!

2005-10-06T19:51:00.000-07:00

so yes, on my first 2 days here in CANCUN - TUE and WED - it was very wet and grey and rainy.....not soooo nice.... and not really what you expect from CANCUN.... but it´s hurricane season at the moment and I guess rain is much better than having hurricanes here.... ;)

and I could use those 2 rainy days to just relax a bit after my monster-bus-journey from Antigua..... catch up on some Internet stuff and chat with some friends..... go swimming on la playa in the rain - yeah, that was fun too.... ;) spend some time driving around Cancun..... and just talking with Toño´s Mum.... and all in Spanish !!! sssiii, muy bien.... :)

and everybody who had heard or read about the storms and floods and disasters in Central America (Guate, Mexico, El Salvador, etc. etc.) and was worried about me - just to let you know - I´m fine and safe here and all is okay in CANCUN....
and if some of the bridges that need to be crossed to get from MEXICO back to GUATE are no longer, then I might have to get stuck here for a few more weeks as well.... ;)

but yeah, today it was beautiful and hot and sunny here and a perfect day for la playa....!!! super-nice white sand and beautiful crystal clear blue-green water....
siiiiiiiiii - eso es el mar del Caribe for you...!! :)

but on the beach I actually also saw some of the damage and torn down hotels that the last hurricane had left behind a few months ago.... and Toño also told me that the beach used to be about 10 metres wider before that happened.... wow - a bit tough to imagine...!!

hhhmmmm..... so last night we also went dancing here at MAMBO CAFE.... really nice place and reminded me a lot of the COPA in NYC.... good music as well..... and finally dancing on a wooden floor again.... yyaaiii.... :)

y mañana Toño has a day off y vamos a ir a TULUM and PLAYA DEL CARMEN.... yaaaiii tambien....

with lotsa love from Cancun.... y hasta pronto....xxx

I AM IN MEXICO....!!! finally....

2005-10-04T21:22:00.000-07:00

2 great months and 2 days in Guatemala....!! Much longer than I had planned, but I had such a wonderful time in Antigua that it wasn´t very hard to stay that long..... and even now it was hard to say Goodbye to some super-great friends and some wonderful people..... and I know I´ll be back there soon.... :)

too bad that ANETA was getting stuck in that place right now, when I finally had to leave for a while.... bad timing.... wish it could have happened a week before.... oh well....

so, after 2 more fun nights dancing in SIN VENTURA on FRI and SAT - hey Seb, really great all the stuff that you learned in the last 2 weeks.... ;) - and a very nice and relaxing Sunday - just a bit too wet and rainy - I left on SUN night with a the night bus to the capital and from there to FLORES..... got there at 4.00am on MON morning after a very sleepless night cause they were playing super-loud music on the bus pretty much the whole time of the journey....aaahhh...annoying.... but at least the driver didn´t fall asleep that way..... and was just speeding over totally wet and curvy roads.... how fun.... ;)

so I was really, really tired when I got to FLORES and didn´t feel like getting into a taxi on my own to look for a hotel and stuff, so I decided to go straight from there to CANCUN..... the ruins and TIKAL are still gonna be there on my way back from MEXICO if I wanna see them....

from Flores it took another 8 hours to CHETUMAL.....but a really nice bus ride on an almost empty bus with lotsa space to myaelf..... and I got to see Belice City and other parts of that country as well..... looked really nice.... and maybe I should stop there too on my way back...

then from Chetumal another 5 and 1/2 hours to CANCUN, and I finally arrived at the ADO station here at 10.30pm last night.... still super-tired.... but finally in the place where I was supposed to be over a month ago....!! :)

Toño´s Mum was so sweet to come and pick me up from the bus station cause he had to work the whole night at the hotel.... luckily they don´t live very far from the centre of Cancun and the bus terminal..... and I even had enough energy and some time to read my emails - yes, finally a 24 hours I-Net connection at "my house" (for a while) again - take a shower and then just fall into my bed..... aahhh....I slept so well.... :)

then today was a bit rainy and grey here unfortunately..... but very good to relax.....went to a really nice French place with Toño for lunch.....then we just drove around CANCUN for a while before he had to go back to work....
and then later I just walked around a bit on my own from their house to PLAZA de las AMERICAS...!! super-big and very American shopping mall here....

wow - even though it was soooo rainy and cloudy here today, it wad still really hot and humid and I think I´m gonna need another shower pretty soon....

big hug from Mexico..... more news will come soon....
xxxx

one day without my watch..... or - there really are some nice and honest people in Guatemala..... smile... ;)

2005-10-01T17:30:00.000-07:00

so I lost /left my watch last night in BAGEL BARN cause I had taken it off while I was doing some stuff / emailing on Seb´s notebook and just put it to the side cause it was uncomfortable to type with it....

lotsa rain here in Antigua last night and we had a little powercut in the whole city.... so we left the place in the total dark and pouring rain and I only realised that I didn´t have my watch anymore when we had already been at Adrian´s place for 45 minutes or so..... Seb was so sweet to drive me back there over the flooded roads that left quite a few cars stranded..... real adventure..... cause we didn´t have the 4 x 4 Jeep that night....

pero no luck.... no watch.... the lady there had no idea.... and after all the malas cosas that had already happened in the last 24 horas that didn´t even surprise me very much....
oh well, no mas POP Swatch para mi.... :(

but then I decided to check with them again after my German lessons this morning and on the way to buy my ticket to Mexico..... and guess what...??
THEY HAD REALLY FOUND IT LATER LAST NIGHT AND KEPT IT FOR ME....!!! unbelievable...!! I was so happy...!! really thought I would never see that watch again and would have to check the time on my alarm clock for the rest of my trip....

but yeah, there really are some very nice and honest people around in Guatemala.... aaaahhh - I love this place - BAGEL BARN - even more now...!!!
And not only for its wireless internet connection.... ;)

and by the way Seb, muchas gracias again for letting me "go crazy" on your computer there once more.... I´ll pay your coffee anytime for that service.... ;)

Images of Antigua.... Calle Arco by day and night..... and Parque Central....

2005-10-01T16:36:00.000-07:00

Another weekend en la playa.... :)

2005-09-27T17:01:00.000-07:00

So Aneta came to Antigua last WED night and after she had locked herself out of her room Seb and I gave her a little sight-seeing tour of this beautiful city and then ended up in CAFE NO SE..... very fun evening and they had great Chocolate Chip Cookies there.... :)

then on THU Mariah, another CS friend, came to Antigua as well and she also moved into Victor´s place..... good for him that I´m getting him all those people here... should really ask him for a comission some time..... ;)

we went to Toreros that night and Aneta really enjoyed the Salsa and dancing there.... I did too .... :) (even though Selvin and I only got 2nd place in that little competition there) was a good evening with a fun After-Party at Adrian´s (Seb´s cousin) house.....just too bad the pool was soooo cold.....but Robert cooked some great pasta for us.....always good to know a chef... ;)

after hardly any sleep that night / morning we left Antigua on FRI midday to drive to MOTERRICO otra vez.... Aneta, Mariah, Seb, his cousins Adrian and Roberto y yo..... yaiiii.....back to la playa..... finally.... been missing the beach and pool a bit....
just too bad that the weather wasn´t so great this time..... a lot of rain.... :(
oh well, was still really nice there.....
swimming in the rain is fun too....!! and I got to drive Sebastian´s 4 x 4 Jeep over the dirtroads to parque / playa Hawaii where he had to work on this Seaturtle and research project.... and then back to Antigua on SUN as well.... really cool car to drive and it was actually lotsa fun..... and my first time driving in Guatemala and since I left Seattle in July.... yeah, I can still do it....!! :)

nice dinner in Rainbow Cafe on SUN night when we got back to Antigua and then CASBAH afterwards..... not mucho Salsa, but it was bastante bien.... and Aneta had a good time there too.....
CAFE FLOR ayer y hoy and then I have a few more days to enjoy Antigua before I´ll be on my way to CANCUN on SUNDAY....!!

For real...?? SSSIIIII...!!! Ahora si.....seguramente...!!! till I come back here.... ;)
xxxxxx hasta luego...

Puerto de San Jose..... y Volcano del Fuego....

2005-09-23T20:46:00.000-07:00

Guatemala´s Independence Day... or - the half-time of my travels....

2005-09-20T17:27:00.000-07:00

So, the Guatemalan Independence Day last THU, 15th SEPT. marked the half-time of my 5 months trip.... 2 and 1/2 months ago I left Germany - and 2 and 1/2 more to go till I get back.... WOW - time is still flying by....as always...

and there are soooooooooooooooo many things I still wanna do, so many places I still wanna go to and see..... but at the same time I`m also still having a great time in Guatemala and really enjoying my life here in Antigua at the moment....

Also, this week - actually tonight - Aneta is supposed to come to Guate and meet me here in Antigua..... so we´ll probably stay here together for another few days, then go to Flores and Tikal before I finally, finally, finally make it to Mexico.... yeah yeah, I know - I´ve been saying that soooooo many times before..... But I am gonna get there....!! DEFINITIVAMENTE..!!

Anyway, Independence Day last week was lotsa fun....muchas fiestas, musica, dancing, steelband parades and competitions (desfiles), speeches y banderas de Guatemala como decoraciones everywhere..... super-nice...!!

went dancing in the capital on WED night at PAPARAZZI and LA CLAVE con Victor and some Dutch girls...was really good, at least at LA CLAVE and I also met some of my Salsa friends from Guate city there....
and then on THU fiestas y desfiles en Antigua.... y mas Salsa @ Toreros por la noche.... :)

On FRI is was Miguel´s Birthday.... one of my favorite dancers here in ANtigua and he had a really good Afterparty at his house / dance-studio after SIN VENTURA.... finally an Afterparty with some good music and dancing.... and not only drinking.....

then on SUN it was Marta Julia`s birthday.... yeah, all those birthdays en Septiembre.... well, it really was on Monday (yesterday) - same day as Camilla and Chenai - so HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you chicas as well...!!!
But she (Marta) had invited me to a birthday lunch with her family on SUN.....was really nice to meet all her siblings, kids and grandchildren....supre-lovely people, lotsa great Guatemalan food and drinks and a cake that was even bigger than my birthday cake...!! great afternoon....

Afterwards I played basketball with Rene, a friend from El Salvador, for a while and then went to CASBAH por la noche.....
good music until about 11.30pm, then a bit too much electronica and dance.... but still bastante bien....

yesterday I worked in CAFE FLOR and was hanging out with Seb, Alejandro y Alejandra and some other people at CAFE NO SE despues.... very nice and relaxing night - sin Salsa.... ; )

and another great week in Antigua went by super-quick....!!!

pics of Guatemala.... that my German student Manuel sent to me.... gracias...

2005-09-15T20:35:00.000-07:00

Ruinas del Carmen

Paisaje Jocotan, Panorama de Chiquimula

Bosque Chicabal, Laguna Guija

A bit sad....but still fun here....

2005-09-12T17:26:00.000-07:00

Another week in Antigua.... was all great until SAT morning when Sonja had to leave to go back to Germany.... :( not nice.... we had soooooooo much fun here together over the last 6 weeks - damn, I´ve really been here that long already..!!
we always went out together and did lotsa other fun stuff..... so it was really sad and even cost some tears when she had to leave on SAT....

MON we still had a really nice evening in RAINBOW CAFE....the place with the best Moccha in Antigua..... TUE - otra noche muy alegre en SIN VENTURA..... WED just hanging out after the 0 - 0 GUATEMALA - USA football game....
THU we had dinner and went dancing at LA CLAVE in the capital....super fun...!!

FRI - we had a Goodbye cake for Sonja with Carlos and Selvin and everyone else at their salsa academy.... and then one more last Salsa night for her in SIN VENTURA.... we ended up at a very fun after-party in CAFESITO until the policia got there at about 2.30am to finish it.... hhmmm.....once again..... those after-parties..... ;)

SAT morning after I had one more last breakfast with Sonja at Marta´s house I had a lesson with my 2 German students from the capital from 9.00 - 11.00am.... they´re doing really well and learning and improving mucho.....really fun to work with them....

then I went up to CERRO de la CRUZ once again with Greg - nice guy from Boston who came to eat in CAFE FLOR the night before.... he works in a hospital in San Juan de Sac., but was in Antigua for the weekend.... then we walked around Antigua for a bit and had a nice lunch in CAFE FERNANDO..... yeah Sonja, I finally made it there..... nice place by the way....

was working in CAFE FLOR during the evening and ended up in SIN VENTURA afterwards with Ines, Jose, Fernando, Hugo, Carolina, Carlos, Selvin, Alvaro and lotsa other nice people....

on SUN we never really made it to the beach, but were just relaxing and hanging out in Antigua.... was fun too.... lotsa decorations and banderas are being put up for the Independence Day here on THU already....

went to JARDIN BAVARIA - yes, a German beergarden / restaurant here in Antigua !! - for lunch..... then I looked at some photo exhibitions in the Spanish Embassy and Cultural Centre here and later met Ines and her baby and Hilda later in Parque Central..... really nice weather and pretty hot all day long....

later I took a little nap from 7.30 till almost 10.00pm when Sabine and Stefanie came over to my house to pick me up for KASBAH.... Ojala (Thank God) they woke me up...!!! Otherwise I would have missed a really fun night with good music and many nice people there....

Sonja y yo en ANTIGUA

2005-09-10T17:21:00.000-07:00

My birthday weekend in Guatemala....

2005-09-05T18:18:00.000-07:00

was super- great and fun...!!! with lots of nice people here.... parties, dancing, etc. etc.

had a very nice Italian dinner with Jose - my boss at CAFE FLOR here - on FRI night....then went dancing with Sonja, Alberto and some other friends at SIN VENTURA afterwards....really good night.....

on SAT - my birthday - Martha had invited me to have lunch at her house and she had even got me a little birthday-present....a really nice top.....how sweet....

Sonja had bought a huge caramel cake for my birthday that said FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS ASTRID...!! aaahhhh - she´s just the best.....really gonna miss her when she´s going back to Germany on SAT... :( we had so much fun here together.... oh well, 5 more days....

After lunch and cake we - Sonja and I - were just hanging out in Antigua in the afternoon. met lots of our Guatemalan friends and some other people and finally arranged to go to some party at EL JARDIN in ESCUINTLA (another city, about 40mins drive from Antigua, on the way from here to the beach) with Miguel, Hugo, Nina. Fernando, Susanna, Carlos, Mario, etc. etc. that night.....

the place was alright, just way to many people there and hot, hot, hot.... music was mixed, but not much space to dance anyway.... oh well....it was "una noche muy alegre" as Miguel said and we had a good time there ..... really funny though, how everyone seemed to do whatever Sonia and I wanted to do....they almost chaged their whole plan just because of us in the end.... even though they really didn´t have to.... so we got back to Antigua super-tired some time around 3.00am after a really fnu night....

on SUN I worked the lunch and dinner shift in CAFE FLOR, which was pretty fun, and I had enough time in my 3-hours break during the 2 shifts to go to the fiesta and steel band competition that was going on at the PARQUE CENTRAL here yesterday.... huge party in the streets and the park....really fun as well....

Later that night Sonia, Hugo, Carlos, Fernando, Susanna and Miriam all came to have dinner at CAFE FLOR and then we went to KASBAH after I finished..... another bar / club in ANTIGUA that I had never been to before..... but it was actually pretty good, we had a really nice time there and they even played some salsa..... and Miguel and Alberto were there too with some other friends, so I had some people to dance with as well.... :)

so yes - super-great Birthday weekend in Guatemala...!! I´m glad I spent here with some good friends and nice people and I´m just gonna celebrate again once I finally get to Cancun....!!

Also - thanks muchas to everyone for your lovely emails and birthday greetings....!!! soooooo good to know that you´re all out there thinking of me..... love you mucho....xxxxxxx

and yes - I´m still having a really nice time here in ANTIGUA..... but, as above, I know it´s not gonna be as much fun anymore when Sonja leaves on SAT to go back to Germany..... and I also know that the longer I stay here, the harder it´ll be to say Goodbye to everyone here again.... so sometime within the next 2 weeks I´ll definitely be on my way to Mexico.... and then I can always stop in GUATE and ANTIGUA again on my way back and down South to Costa Rica....

so that´s it for today.... hugs and kisses from Guatemala....xxxx

"Floating cars" and pashtes on the way to MONTERRICO...!!

2005-09-01T17:35:00.000-07:00

A perfect weekend on the beach....!!!

2005-08-29T18:17:00.000-07:00

So yeah – I’m still alive….and sorry there haven’t been any news on here for a while, but for the last week I was just a bit caught up with my daily life here in Antigua – teaching German, going out, dancing, etc. … still went to do and see some new things, i.e. some galleries and museums and some of the nice hotels with swimming pools here…. Aaahhhh…great…. But nothing really special and extra-ordinary happened, and that’s why I haven’t written very much – well, not really anything – here on my blog…. Lo siento…

But the weekend was just amazing once again and now I have lots new and interesting things to write about…. Sonja and I went to SIN VENTURA on FRI night – almost as usual by now … had a really good time there and we met 2 nicec American guys who offered us a ridee to the beach the next day….. but we had already maded plans to drive down there with 2 other friends – Francisco and Hugo – so we dedcidedd to stick with our original plan cause they were also gonna drive back to Antigua on Sunday,and just told our American friends in which hotel they could find us in Monterrico….

So we left from Antigua about 10.30am on SAT morning and poor Sonja wasn’t feeling well at all cause she had actually been to the hospitel on FRI night / SAT morning at 4am and had got an injection against her ear infection and was on Antibiotics now…. But she still wanted to go to the beach for the weekend and was just sleeping on the back seat for most of the ride…. Poor girl…… it was a super-beautiful drive frfom Antigua to the Pacfific Coast – about 2 hours through amazing Guatemalan country-side – felt like we were in a different world….

The coolest thing was the little canal that we had to cross with our car to get from Puerto San Juse to Monterrico….. about 40m wide eand since there are no bridges to cross the water, all cards and other vehicles are just being loaded on little lanchas (Floesse) and then get shipped over to the other side….. it’s the coolest things ever..!!! I had never seen anything like that before…. There are about 6 ot 7 lanchas crossing the canal back and forth all day long – some of them are only big enough for 1 or 2 cars, others can carry up to 8….

From the other side of the canal to the beach it’s about another 30 – 40 minutes…. We stopped along the war to take pics of some of the many sponge plantations and the pashtes – raw sponges – that are drying alongsided the road…. Then we met this really sweet local lady who invited is to visit her house and her fish-farm, and even Huge and Francisco pointed out that the local people in this area are a lot nicer that anywhere else in Guatemala…..

Our hotel was a very basic but nice enough place right by the beach…. Victor had booked a room for Sonja and me and he was staying there with his family and some other friends as well this weekend….
We spent the afternoon by the beach – black volcano sand and amazing waves – and by the pool of our hotel….. just poor Sonja couldn’t enjoy the water because of her ears… aaahhh – we gotta go back some time when she’s fully fit again…. It´s so nice there and actually reminded me a bit of Vieques, but even smaller and more laid-back beach community…. SAT night we went to this beach bar – EL ANIMAL – just a few metres from our hotel and our American friends had actually found us as well and came with us….very cool place, not very huuge but enough space for a dance floor, the music was nice enough and they even played some Salsa and Cha-cha as well….. good thing that Miguel – one of the Salsa teachers from Antigua – was with us, so the dancing was actually really fuun…. And that bar – EL ANIMAL – stayed open much longer than any other places I´ve been to in Guatemala so far….. it was about 2.30am by the time we left frfom there to go to an After-Party at another hotel a few hundred metres further down the beach…. Was fun there too and much more comfortable hanging out in the pool there than sleeping on our hard hotel beds….. oh yeah – the weather in Monterrico is actually super-hot and huumid, not as mild and sometimes cold at night as in Antigua, so it was no problem to go swimming at 4am…..

When I got back to our hotel on SUN morning, Sonja still wasn´t feeling too good and after I tried for an hours to get some sleep on my hard bed – just stone and a thin mattress - but was very unsuccessful with that, , I went to buy some water and bread and bananas for her…. Funny how many people were up at 7.30am on a SUNmorning already and drinking beer in the streets….. different life there….

When I got back I met Victor´s uncle and sisters in the restaurant across the street from our hotel and they invited me to eat with them….was a great SUN brunch with steak, platanos, pancakes and fruits…..nice….

Sonja was feeling a little bit better later on too and came to the pool with us to get some sunshine and a bit of a tan at least…. Then we went to visit a little turtle and Iguana farm and spent the rest of the day with Victor, Miguel and Katalina en la playa and by the pool before we left from Monterrico about 5.00pm to head back to Antigua….

The same amazing scenery on the way back again, until it started to rain super-hard when we were about 1 hour from Antigua…. But with super-nice music and lotsa great memories of a fantastic weekend it didn´t really matter so much…. We got back about 7.30pm, and I just had some food and a shower and then went to bed at 10pm – super-tired after a night without sleep before….. what a perfect weekend…!!!

So now I´m back in Antigua to teach Eunice – my German student from Belize - for another week…. We have another Goodbye-Party for Hermance, JP and Katalina tonight (they´re all leaving tomorrow)…. Then I gotta figure out what to do with the other job that I got offered here in CAFÉ FLOR, where and how to celebrate my birthday and also when to leave for Mexico next week…. So if you don´t hear / read from me for another few days – please don´t worry – it´s all good here and I´ll write more news again as soon as they happen…. Promise…. xxxx

a super-nice and relaxing weekend in Antigua....

2005-08-21T18:07:00.000-07:00

so this weekend I just stayed in Antigua, no trips, not travels and stuff.... but it was all super-nice and relaxing and just what I needed...

my first German lesson yesterday morning went great.... was loads of fun, I really enjoyed it and looking forward to my next student tomorrow morning.... I´m really happy with how everything worked out here with this job and my new accommodation.... all great...!!!

moved some of my stuff over to my new place yesterday and the rest today... all really nice there and I´ve pretty much arranged everything in my new room already....

yesterday it was raining a lot and I just watched 2 movies with some people in my house in the afternoon.... FRI and SAT night I went to SIN VENTURA with Sonja and some other friends.... really good both times - even though the music was a bit mixed....

today Sonja and I went to the mercado and some other places in Antigua to show Caroline, the new girl from Quebec who just moved into Marta´s house yesterday, around a bit.... was a really nice afternoon as well.... and it didn´t even rain that much....

big hug und bis bald wieder mit mehr news... xx

and now I have a job here.... or - how many things can happen in one day....

2005-08-19T10:35:00.000-07:00

yeah - so many things happened here in the last 24hours and changed my travel plans a bit.... crazy....but all good.... and funny how those things work out some time.....maybe I was just meant to be in Antigua for a bit longer.... ;)

so WED night there was a big football (soccer) game here.... GUATEMALA vs. PANAMA - one of the qualifying games for the World Cup in Germany next year....
Alex and I wantched it in the house of his host family cause they´re much more into sport than Marta Julia - she didn´t even know that the game was on until I told her about it.... ;) and the son and nephew of Alex´family came over as well to watch it, so it was lotsa fun...!! And - Gracias a dios - GUATE won a pretty exciting and partly ugly game with lotsa fights and cards with a last second goal in the 94th minute...!!! 2 : 1 !!! AMAZING...!! and a step closer to Germany for them....

A few people were celebrating in the streets here afterwards, but it must have been much better in the capital where the game took place... then we wanted to go for some coffee and Ice cream afterwards, but all cafes were closed already (22.20pm) , so we ended up in LA SALSA with Nachos and coke.... was fine too...

and yesterday morning I walked past Carlos Salsa Academy to say HI and was saying sth. to one of his students in German and funny enough the GUATE LINDA Language Center next door was looking for a German teacher and must have over-heard me and to cut a long story short - I have a job here for next week now...!!!
Gonna start with my first 2 students tomorrow morning from 9.00 -11.00am - 2 students from the capital who want German conversation practice - and then I have another student everyday next week from 8.00 - 12.30

so that was never really part of my plan to work on this trip, but it just came up and I have another week until I have to be in Cancun, well - plan and promised to be in Cancun, and I think it´s a great opportunity for a new experience.... of course, the money is almost nothing and I won´t get rich with this, but it´s gonna pay for a week accommodation and food here easily.... and compared to all those other people here who actually pay money to do some voluntary work in Guatemala or Central America it´s a pretty good deal I think....

I just won´t be staying with Marta Julia´s family next week - cause u can only stay in the families of the school when you are actually studying Spanish there - but I´m gonna move to a friend´s hostal just across the street.....really nice place too.... :)

last night it was also Alex´ last night here - by now he should already be in Costa Rica - and his super-nice host family had invited me to their house for his Goodbye-Dinner... really swet people.... and while we were having dinner they had the TV on in the background and were watching parts of the World Youth Day in Cologne and the arrival of the pope their and his speech..... nice....and it was funny somehow to here the pope and some german commentary on TV here in GUATE.... small world... ;)

later we went dancing at TOREROS with Sonia, Yash, another Alex and Victor... not as busy as the week before, but fun enough and met a nice dancer from Japan there....
but it was also raining a lot all day yesterday - yes, unfortunately it seems like the canicual is almost over now... too bad... and it was still raining when we left from TOREROS.... but somehow we all managed to fit into Victor´s car and he was so seet to give us a ride back home....
then Sonia and I ended up talking for ages about things and stuff y cosas.... and since were still up at 3.00am we went over to Alex´house to say Bye before he took his taxi to this airport....

yep, not much sleep last night and a un pocito cansada ahora.... tonight is also Hermance´s Goodbye Dinner and then I gotta prepare my first German lesson for tomorrow morning.... ;)

to everybody who reads this - have a great weekend und bis bald....xxxxx

why is it always the same...

2005-08-17T10:37:00.000-07:00

and u always meet some really nice people just before you are about to leave from a place again...?? just not fair...

had a great time in SIN VENTURA last night.... Carlos and some of his friends from the capital came to Antigua and it was lotsa fun dancing with them.... and met some other really nice local people who only just got back from Switzerland 4 days ago....

oh well - the good thing is that my travel plans are more or less flexible and I can always come back or stay longer...

San Pedro and Lago Atitlan

2005-08-16T10:33:00.000-07:00

Trip to Lago Atitlan, Panajachel and San Pedro

2005-08-15T18:16:00.000-07:00

Saturday night was another really fun Salsa night at LA CLAVE in the capital.... Lucy and I met lotsa Mexicans there, nice guys and some were even fun to dance to with and they might come to Antigua tomorrow again for some more salsa at SIN VENTURA.... :)

ooohh - and I also met another guy in LA CLAVE again who was also in the bar that I went to with Juan Carlos on FRI.....funny...this small world....

and then yesterday, after a nice breakfast with pancakes, we - Juan Carlos, Maria, their kids and I - drove to LAGO ATITLAN (pics above) .... very beautiful lake about 2 hours from GUATE city.... we drove through a few other departments of Guatemala and beautiful countryside till we arrived in the main village PANAJACHEL.... pretty busy and touristy, so we just left the car in a car park there and took a little Lancha (small boat) across the lake to another village, SAN PEDRO.... much smaller and quieter, but with a lot of churches - catholic ones, but also quite a few of the many sects in Guatemala as Juan Carlos explained to me....

but the bouncy ride in the lancha was well worth it and we had a really nice lunch there, walked around the village for a bit, before we headed back to Panajachel with almost the last lancha of the day - there are no more lake crossings after 5.00pm each day cause the clouds are coming down to low over the lake, it gets really foggy and windy and to dangerous to cross it by boat.....

our drive back through the mountain and to Antigua also took much longer than in the morning, cause it was really foggy and rainy up there too, and getting dark as well.... but we got back safely, and Juan Carlos dropped me off at my house in Antigua before they went back to their place in the city....

I was pretty tired after all the travelling, dancing, volcano climbing, but talked for a while with Marta Julia, Hermance and Jean Paul, a new guy from DC (well, France originally) who had just arrived at our house in the afternoon.... he had just got back from a year studying in Beirut and is now here for 2 weeks to study Spanish before he goes back to school in DC for his last term.... really nice and interesting guy to talk to....

what a great day, what an amazing weekend...!!

Lava on Volcano PACAYA...

2005-08-13T18:31:00.000-07:00

another amazing weekend couch-surfing in the capital.... Juan Carlos picked me up from my house in Antigua last night after my Spanish class.... he had another CS friend, Susanne from Austria, with him who had also been studying Spanish in Antigua for a few weeks as well..... so we all went back to his place in GUATE and had lots of pizza there with his family and Susanne´s friends Regina y Ricardo who came to pick her up and take here to the Pacific Coast the next day....

after Ricardo, Regina and Susanne had left, we went for a little walk around his neighborhood - yeah, walking around Guatemala city at night - in Zona 10, and we were really safe there too..... nice area as well and we even found a little bar called SABOR LATINO where I could show Juan Carlos some Salsa and Merengue steps....

this morning we had a great breakfast with Maria, his wife, and their kids Jorge and Amanda, and then left to drive to volcano Pacaya, about 30km from Guatemala city.... it was a pretty steep and tough 2 hours climb to the top of the volcano, but soooooo worth it (even though we got a little bit wet on the way back down)....

but as you can see on the pics here the lava rivers that we saw up there were just totally amazing.... we were about 50metres away from it, but could still feel the heat from the running lava and smell the sulfur in the air.... wwooowww !!!! I had never seen anything like that before and it was just great great great.... really felt like we were on another planet.... out of this world....

we also stopped by LAGO AMATITLAN on the way back to his house....nice lake pretty close to GUATE city...

so tonight I´m gonna meet Lucy and Byron again for some more salsa dancing than last SAT night... ;) and tomorrow we´re gonna drive to Lago Atitlan.... what a great weekend...!!

Volcano PACAYA, Guatemala

2005-08-13T17:58:00.000-07:00

mas fotos de la capital....

2005-08-12T23:27:00.000-07:00

Palacio Nacional..... y la cupula de la catredala metropolitna....

at Juan Carlos place in GUATE city...

2005-08-12T22:02:00.000-07:00

couch-surfing in Guatemala city with Juan Carlos, Maria, Susanna, Regina and Ricardo....

what a fun night...!!

The Motorcycle Diaries

2005-08-11T11:39:00.000-07:00

yep - I finally made it last night and watched THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES in a small Cine-Bistro here in Antigua... en español with English subtitles.... and I actually understood some of the Spanish as well....not all, cause a lot is with a strong Argentinian accent....
but totally amazing movie.... I really really loved it....
and everyone out there who hasn´t seen it - GO AND WATCH IT...!!!
It´s just sooooooo good and I would watch it again anytime.... and gonna read the book as well..... that guy, Che Guevara, was really an amazing person....