Freitag, 16. Dezember 2016

Touch of home and a new advanced diver - Taganga

After hot and busy Cartagena we decided to enjoy our days together with Silja in Taganga, Santa Marta. After a 4 hour bus ride and another 45 minutes bus ride we arrived at the coastal fishing town Taganga. What we didn't know was that our hostel was up a steep hill and we had to walk up there with our big bags. However, after arrival the hard work was definitively worth it, what an incredible view over the ocean!! Just arrived we heard our language spoken and were surprised by Mamsi a Swiss women married to Javi a Columbian guy. Together with their lovely kids they are having the most beautiful hostel in Taganga, Casa Horizonte. We had a wonderful time with them and hope to see them again one day, maybe in Switzerland. Definitively worth a visit! Beside of the amazing hostel Taganga is a small fishing village with many diving centers. Since it is so cheap to dive here it's very popular to do the diving courses here. And so did Nadia, finally a proud owner of the Advanced Diving Certificate! 
 
 
  

Samstag, 22. Oktober 2016

COLOMBIA

¡Hola!
Well, we finally made it! - Cartagena
After we said goodbye to the cats, the lovely house and to Cessie, we took a similar small plane from Tortola to start the wierdest and most uneconomic flight journey ever. Why was it so strange you may ask? The flight in the small machine, from Tortola to Puerto Rico, was again very cool and adventurous. Yes Puerto Rico again! For those of you who looked up on the map where Tortola lies, this may already sound wierd. Why would you fly in the wrong direction??? We asked ourselves the same question. And this was only the beginning. Because from Puerto Rico we had to take another flight to Curaçao. Never heard of it? We neither!  No information desks and no flight information at all didn't make it easier to find our next flight tooooo you guess it.... not Cartagena. After we witnessed some strange situations at the airport we were more than happy to leave this strange people and happily found our flight to Aruba. Yes Aruba, the nice Dutch colonie in the Caribbean. That place looked nice, but no time for us to chill since we had to deal with the check-in desk, because they didn't want to let us fly into Colombia without showing a flight to leave Colombia again. How would we anyway, if we wanna travel to Ecuador by bus! Silly rules, of which we knew actually, but never had problems. However, after some friendly words and charming behavior ;-) we were good to go! Cartagena we are coming! What?! Still not Cartagena?! Would have been too easy, because Aruba is reeeeally close to Cartagena. So the fourth flight of the day would bring us to Bogotá. After a short but chilly stay in Colombias cold capital we could finally board our fifth and last flight to Cartagena, without any problems at the immigration desk. ;-)
On our flight to Cartagena, so back towards Aruba, we were just happy to soon end this uneconomic nightmare. The arrival nice and strange at the same time. Nice because it was warm again, strange because it was 00.00, and our first trip to Colombia. A lot of people told us and will tell you, that you have to take care when you are travelling in Colombia because it's dangerous. So we didn't really know what to expect. Today we know, it's like most of the time, people are just scared of some stories and with just some common sense and you'll travel as safe as in every other country. We were just happy to arrive at a really really small hostel, we could hardly move inside the room, and could finally get some sleep after another 17 hour travel marathon.
And of course a relaxing hot shower! Or not???
As we shall find out a bit later, there are no hot showers at the Caribean coast of Colombia. What most of the time actually isn't a big thing because it's hot anyway, but in some places it can get a bit chilly at night, or it still is in the morning. So prepare for some refreshing moments if you ever think about visiting the area.
By the next morning we changed the hotel and started to discover Cartagena. It's a lively city with a beautiful old town, and great clima if you like hot and sticky like we. :-) The rest of Cartagena isn't that charming. Also recommendable is the Barrio called Getsemani where all the backpackers stay and a lot of cool bars are located.
All in all did we like Cartagena and stayed there for quite a while and made some friends there. ¡Hola amigos!
Speaking of "well, we finally made it". In this chapter, the title has a double signification, because we finally made it to see our friend Silja again in Cartagena!!!!! :-) She and her friend started their travels just about a month after us and we didn't meet since then. She flew in from Los Angeles while her boyfriend kept doing the Route 66 to follow a month later. How cool to meet again!!!!

Dienstag, 13. September 2016

TORTOLA, BVI

GOOD AFTERNOON

Home sweet home - Tortola

Due to Nadia's friend Denise we had the opportunity to live in her house on Tortola. We knew this island in the Caribbean must be paradise, but when we arrived there we were just speechless! The most beautiful house we have ever seen with an incredible view, and everywhere on the island you find dream beaches with white sand and crystal clear turquoise water. A dream was coming true!!

All the six weeks we were staying there we enjoyed the paradise completely. We cooked a lot, enjoyed the house, went snorkeling in different places or were just laying at a beautiful white beach. 

Luckily, we had visitors for two weeks Nadia's parents Esther & Toni and their neighbour Lilian found their way to Tortola. We had an amazing time together and we enjoyed the company very much. It was so nice spending time together after so many days/weeks/months without seeing each other. We miss you!!

Thanks Denise and Peter for this opportunity it was a BLAST and we will never forget this time. We own you a lot!! Hopefully, see you soon!! :-) Of course we also want to thank Cessie for her company and help with everything in Tortola! It was so nice meeting you! Take care!!

GOODBYE TORTOLA! 










Mittwoch, 7. September 2016

PUERTO RICO

¡Hola!

¡Qué rico! - Puerto Rico

We flew from Honduras to Puerto Rico, because this was the cheapest way to get to Tortola, BVI. So we had to stay at least three nights in Puerto Rico to explore a bit. And we had a great time! Although it was raining the first two days, we still enjoyed every minute.

Due to our limited time we couldn't do too much, but what we did we really liked. First we went to Old San Juan, a very cute and cool part of San Juan. With the colorful houses, beautiful buildings and a lot of cute shops, restaurants and bars, Old San Juan has a lot of charm. After all the shitty food in Honduras, we finally had an amazing meal in a very nice local restaurant. Of course we also visited the castle of San Cristóbal and did a city tour with the free buses. At night the place got busy and many locals came out to have a fiesta.

The other day we rent a car and went to the "Yunque" rainforest. A nice rainforest for different walks and swimming possibilities. The best of them was the national stone slide a bit outside of the park. It looked like it would hurt a lot, but it surprisingly didn't! :-)

We also visited some beaches and the tourist area "Condado" where we were staying.

All in all a fantastic trip with too less time and it's definitively worth to go back!!

¡Adios Puerto Rico! Hasta la proxima!

Old San Juan
Old San Juan
Old San Juan
Old San Juan
Castillo San Cristóbal
Castillo San Cristóbal
Castillo San Cristóbal
Castillo San Cristóbal





Yunque rainforest
Yunque rainforest on a Sunday ;-)

Yunque rainforest
Yunque rainforest



A beach close to Yunque don't remember the name :-)
A beach close to Yunque don't remember the name :-)

Condado beach