time of my life

this 16-week trip has been a great adventure and I've had a wonderful time with lots of interesting experiences, awesome landscapes and amazing people. I am absolutely happy that I made this decision and just went for it!

but honestly, right now I am also very glad to be back home and enjoy some time in good old Bavaria for a couple of weeks, spending time with my family and friends in the gorgeous springtime!

because I know that this will be just a brief interlude as the next adventure (a joint one this time!) is already waiting....

libre in Cuba

the last stop of my trip was Cuba. I arrived in Havana and spent some days exploring the beautiful old city while trying to get a grip for this special country, that's so different from the rest and which I found very difficult to understand.

going on to Trinidad for some more colonial highlights and green mountains I was still struggling with the ideology and the reality, but found the people everywhere to be very hospitable and happy enough.

for some more beach days and a bit of party-time I decided to go to Varadero, stayed in the retro Internacional Hotel and got my final tan on the dream-white beach with turquoise water, enjoying life and thanking heaven for all the incredible opportunities and this trip in particular, before I eventually flew back to Europe.

living la vida local

after 2 days in Cahuita on the Carribbean coast it felt like I've lived here for years.
people are friendly and interested to get to know you, so each night you end up with new friends as you sip your sun-downer in the evening breeze.


every day Jenny and I ride our bicycles along the coastal road back and forth to the town centre, smiling and waving to the locals, hang out on the porch in our hammocks and enjoy the company of our various neighbours, ranging from the super-chilled sloth on the mango tree to a little rodent and birds stealing sweet fruits from the banana bunch.

orchid superstars

in Monteverde I visited the local orchid garden and was impressed by the great variety of orchids collected from the cloudforest area nearby.

generally, the orchids here were a lot smaller than the ones I had seen before but their scents were incredible....

imagine beautiful tiny flowers smelling of vanilla, mint, pepper, lemon and much more!

who wants to go to the seaside

during semana santa I got to spend a few days on the beach!

the lago nicaragua is a huge lake with a volcanic island in the middle, where life is quiet and seems to be uneventful, making it a perfect get-away.

the scenery is very beautiful and I enjoyed a couple of relaxed days in great company before I went to the pacific ocean for more intakes of sunshine, sand, surf and salty water....

Volcano Close-Up

Finally I got a volcano. A real one. And really close.

Walking over black lava rubble up the volcano to get close to the glowing red, super-hot lava was pretty exciting! Especially because we kept hearing some explosions behind the mountains of black lava stone.



And then we saw the lava stream, flowing fast downhill, making the air whir with heat.



The closer we got the more we could feel the heat and with the wind coming from the opposite direction we also caught a fair amount of sulfur vapor before we left the hot ground and made our way back to safer areas...



Thanks to Kaddi, Victor and Leah for taking me!

NYC love

What an amazing city! New York is everything I expected and even more...

absolutely fabulous weather, blue sky and sunshine over Manhattan - what more do you want for your first trip to the big apple coinciding with a special birthday?

I was thrilled to see my favorite person again after more than two months and excited to meet up with very good friends who travelled all the way from Germany to celebrate with me!

there is sooo much to do and see in NY, so the days were packed with activities: a stroll in sunny Central Park, watching the St. Patrick's Day Parade on 5th Avenue, a boat trip to Staten Island, a visit to the Met, a walk over Williamsburg Bridge, a very special concert in Carnegie Hall, and lots of other fun things...

of course, time was too short... so I definitely have to come back to spend more hours inhaling the energy and exploring all the different parts of the most interesting city!



more pics to come soon

Lima Lights

the easiest way to discover a new city is by bus. during dark, it is even more exciting!



I got to see the magical aqua park with all its fountains and a great light show







then the bus went on to the historic centre with all the beautifully lit-up buildings and lots and lots of balconies....





the lights really gave the city a very special, pretty touch and I absolutely loved it!

surviving Santiago

the earthquake hit in the early hours of the morning and shook everyone out of bed by its force

luckily, the building was very solid and so no big damage was done but of course everyone was shocked and scared and only slowly realised what had just happened

I am really thankful for getting out of this without a scratch, but my thoughts are with those who were not as lucky as we were...

red red wine

In Mendoza, we set out with a bike through vinyards and olive tree plantations to get a taste of the local produce.

Stopping every now and then along the road we visited a couple of wineries, got a tour with explanations about how the wine is produced and - of course - lots of samples of the locally produced wines.



For lunch we had a picknick in the middle of vines full of grapes (harvesting starts next week!) and shared sandwiches as well as a bottle of Malbec.



The Malbec grape, that was imported from France and adapted extremely well to the desertic conditions in the area around Mendoza, immediately became my favorite.



After several stops, including a very nice terrace restaurant with a great view over the vinyards, we concluded the day with some sweet chocolates and then returned to a good night's rest in the city.

Vulkanalarm

arriving in Pucon late at night I only got a glimpse of something glowing red in the air in the distance - apparently the top of the volcano

the next morning everything was covered in clouds and rain....like a moody diva the volcano kept hiding from us for the next 2 days behind her white and grey veil!




only when we boarded the bus to leave Pucon the volcano finally showed us a little bit of the snow-covered summit and the white slopes in the evening sun...



(sorry for the poor quality but that's the best shot I was able to get with my camera from the bus)

lost in time

Chiloé's island of Mechuque seems to be part of a different timezone.
It feels like travelling back at least a 100 years and if it wasn't for the TV antennas on the roofs of the shingled houses and some random kid with an electric guitar on his way to I-don't-know-where, you wouldn't know it's the 21st century.

For a short afternoon we enjoyed the laid-back atmosphere and took in the slow pace of life, wandering around the tiny town before the boat took us back to the bigger island of Chiloé, on first sight similarly last-century-like but reality hits quickly once you´re back on the busy streets of Castro.