TRAVELING ECUADOR'S SIERRA III– Riobamba

5. March 2012, Day 3

After a good breakfast with coffee, juice, eggs and cheese sandwich (the typical continental breakfast here) we were looking for an agency that has bike trips at Chimborazo. With 6,268 m, Chimborazo is Ecuador highest mountain and an inactive (at least for the moment) volcano. We found a company that was mentioned in lonely planet for good bike trips. To get to their little office you had to get to the third floor of a shop selling all kinds of fabric and clothes. The bikes were stored at the roof. A very unusual place for an office but quite interesting. After a bit of information we signed up for a downhill ride the next day.
The afternoon was spend shopping and at the cinema.

TRAVELING ECUADOR'S SIERRA II – Ambato to Riobamba

4. March 2012, Day 2

Ambato does not have much to offer for tourists. We got breakfast at the local market before taking a taxi to the botanical garden a little outside town. It was nice to walk around and there were two Quintas, former country homes of famous Ecuadorian families. It was interesting to walk through the houses and you could get an idea about the life of rich Ecuadorians about one hundred years ago.
After picking up our bags at the hotel, we went to the bus terminal to get the bus to Riobamba. Luckily it was only a little more than an hour on the bus. After getting there we had lunch at KFC (always something special since you can found it only in a few cities) before going to the hotel. The hotel was near the train station but unfortunately there was no train leaving from Riobamba. We both didn't feel very well and spent the rest of the day hanging out at the hostel.

TRAVELING ECUADOR'S SIERRA I - Canoa to Ambato

3. March 2012, Day 1

Living at the beach is nice and relaxing but since I didn't have any project to work on, we decided to go traveling for a few days and explore more of Ecuador.
We left Canoa by bus at 4.30 in the morning. After only two hours of sleep and a few too many beers the night before, the first hours on the bus where spend sleeping. Basically all day was spend on buses or in bus stations. The first bus only was a short half hour ride to Bahia where we just made the bus to Portoviejo. There we didn't have to wait and immediately got on the bus to Quevedo. After long and hot five hours we finally arrived. At the terminal we bought the tickets for the next bus and had lunch. The bus was scheduled to leave 12.30 and we got to the platform at 12.32. Well, unfortunately that was too late, even in South America. The bus left on time. Or even earlier. The office of that bus company was closed and we had to buy tickets from another company. Luckily the tickets aren't too expensive here and the bus left less than 30 minutes later. After about an hour the bus stopped. There was construction going on at a bridge and the police didn't allow buses to pass. So we had to wait for an hour before we could go on. It was hot but luckily we could leave the bus and walk around and watch the construction. As the bus was climbing up the mountains (we had to get over an almost 4000 m pass) it got rainy, foggy and colder. Much colder. As we got near the pass we got above the clouds and the views were amazing. Finally, after another six hours on the bus we got to Ambato.

LIFE AT THE BEACH

January - February 2011

Eventually I might write more about life at the beach in Ecuador. About Christmas, carnival, trying to surf, renewing my visa, food, parties, the rainy season, day-to-day life,...
But for now I'll skip writing about the first two months of this year and the next posts will be about two weeks of traveling in Ecuador. Otherwise, I'll never catch up with this blog.

BACK IN CANOA

October 2011 - December 2011

After a week in New York and a long flight I arrived in Guayaquil on the first of October. The only problem was that my backpack did not arrive. Carlos waited for my at the airport (and he had to wait a long time since I had to deal with the missing bag first). We stayed in Guayaquil for three days waiting for my bag but than gave up and took the bus to Canoa. Luckily I had a few clothes in my other bag. It was very nice to be back in Canoa. Walks at the beach, talks, nothing special, just enjoying the relaxed life at the beach.

Within one week in Canoa we moved to a nice apartment. Not directly at the beach but on a little hill with great view of the whole village and the ocean. Second best spot for watching the sunset (only topped by watching it at the beach).
After only a few days in Canoa I got to work on the first project for my old company. Although it wasn't easy to get back to engineering after not working at all for such a long time it felt nice doing something useful and it was even fun working.
The relaxed life was only interrupted by frequent calls to the airport to inquire about my backpack. But always the same - we don't know where your backpack is. Finally, after almost three weeks, I got an email from my friends in New York. There was a postcard from the airline that they had found my backpack. Only a few more calls, few more days waiting and a seven hour bus ride to Guayaquil and I had my backpack back. YEAH. I've rarely been that happy to carry a 50 pound bag around.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

26. September - 30. September 2011

After a great time with my family in Germany and traveling in Europe and Egypt it was finally time to go back to Ecuador. But not without a stopover in New York. Being back in NYC felt great. It felt like being back home and I just enjoyed walking through the streets. Of course it was great to meet friends and colleagues.
THANKS to everyone who spent some time with me, invited me for a beer, lunch or dinner.
Biggest THANKS goes to Nannette and Janos for letting me stay at your place.

A FEW MORE DAYS IN GERMANY

16. September - 26. September 201

After a great time in Egypt, I got back to Germany just in time to celebrate my sisters birthday. We had a nice weekend celebrating with family and friends. The rest of the week was spend seeing family and friends and organizing.

CAIRO – Part III

12. September – 16. September 2011  

Back in Cairo we went to visit the stepped pyramids in Saqqara south of Cairo. Quite interesting and sooo old.

The last days in Cairo were spend with more sightseeing, backgammon and souvenir shopping.
THANKS Ayman, Heidi, Lamice and Anas for a great time. It's always good to see you guys! 
    

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NILE CRUISE

8. September - 11. September 2011

Since I spent three weeks in Egypt, I decided that I had to go south to see the great Egyptian temples. I opted for a four-day, full-board, cruise on the Nile with frequent stops to visit the temples First, I took an overnight train from Cairo south to Luxor. I bought a first class ticket and expected the car to be full of tourists. Well, that wasn't the case. I was the only foreigner and the car was neither clean nor comfortable. Anyways, I slept quite well until the morning. I didn't know where to get out and couldn't read the station signs either. Luckily there was somebody who spoke a little English and told me when to get off.
I was picked up at the train station by someone from the agency that I booked with and by taxi we went to the cruise ship. A three story boat with bar and pool at the roof. It seemed like I was the only person younger than 60 years. There were a few younger people but mostly there were older German couples. After relaxing a while on board, I met the guide for the first excursion to the Luxor and Karnar Temple. Very impressive. Huge columns and colorful paintings - and all this thousands of years old.
The next morning was spend visiting the "Valley of the Kings” - with many tombs of pharaohs. Most of them are long tunnels underground with a burial chamber at the end. In some tombs it is till possible to see the colorful wall paintings. In other tombs there is not much too see.
From there we went further down the river with stops at more temples. It was very impressive but after three days, all looked quite the same. Huge columns, colorful paintings, huge statues.
Check out my pictures at picasa - or just use the slideshow below.
At the end of this trip, I went to visit Abu Simbel. It's difficult to explain but the sight of these huge statues is amazing. And the chambers as well. It's also interesting because, the temple was moved from it's original position to the hill higher up when lake Nasser was build between 1960 and 1970.
From Aswan I took the train back to Cairo for a few more days with my friends and more sightseeing.

CAIRO – Part II

4. September – 7. September 2011

After we got back from the North Coast it was time for some real sightseeing.
With Heidi and Anas, I went to the Egyptian museum. There is sooo much to see there. Unfortunately it doesn't feel like a museum at all. It's more like walking through a warehouse stuffed with lots of very old, dusty things without much information. We paid a guide to show us around but he wasn't very good either.
We also went to the Pyramids in Giza. Impressive! So big and so old. I have no idea how they managed to build these. We hired a camel and a horse and went on a little tour around the pyramids with them. It was interesting to ride on a camel and we had a great day.
We also went to several mosques and walked around town. I also set out on my own one day to walk around Cairo. It was interesting to walk the busy streets and narrow lanes with market stalls. I was greeted many times by friendly people in English.

RELAXING AT EGYPT'S NORTH COAST

31. August - 3. September 2011

Together with two other families and there kids we went to the north coast for a few days. We stayed in a house that could have been very pretty if the owner would have taken better care. It was a little run down but still had a great terrace and a nice garden. Our days there were very relaxed. We spent the morning in the swimming pool, the afternoon relaxing at the terrace and swimming in the sea.

The sea had beautiful blue water but unfortunately there was a lot of garbage. As everywhere in Egypt. It's very sad to see how little Egyptians care about their country and nature. Garbage is just everywhere you look and especially Cairo is extremely dirty. In South America I sometimes thought it's quite dirty there but compared to Egypt that was nothing. Especially coming from Germany.

We went swimming anyways and had fun.
Nights were spent on the terrace again with playing backgammon, drinking tea and political discussions and stories about Egypt.

 

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CAIRO – Part I

27. August - 30. August 2011

After a great time in Europe it was time to discover a different continent. For three weeks I ­was visiting my good friends Heidi and Ayman with there kids Lamice and Anas. A very long time ago (15 years ago to be exact) I was living with Ayman in a student house in Hamburg. Since then we've been friends. 

My trip to Cairo didn't start very good. I got a cold the day before the trip. After a four hour train ride I arrived at the airport to find out that my flight was delayed almost two hours and I arrived in Cairo quite late at night. Ayman picked my up at the airport. At their house, Heidi and the kids where already waiting for me. We stayed up until 3 am talking and had dinner before going to bed. When I went to bed I could already feel that my stomach was a little upset. I spent the night with regular trips to the bathroom. Not the best way to arrive at a friends' house. My first day in Cairo, I didn't see anything from the city but spent all day inside. Sleeping, hanging around, talking and playing with Lamice and Anas. Since it were the last days of Ramadan – the month of fasting, meaning that it's not allowed to eat between sunrise and sunset, we stayed up until three or four in the morning, had dinner (or breakfast) before going to bed and slept late. Therefore the time until sunrise was fairly short. Originally, my plan was to try fasting as well but since I wasn't feeling that well the first days, I skipped that. So, the kids and me had a little snack in the afternoon. 

On my second day in Cairo I finally set out to explore town. My friends are living in Maadi, a fairly wealthy neighborhood, and in the afternoon I was checking out the area. At night, Ayman, Heidi and me went out to Cairos old town. We walked through small streets with many small stores selling souvenirs and other stuff. The buildings were quite old and there were lots of people - mainly locals - walking around. We drank tea at a nice old cafe in a very narrow street. The atmosphere was very nice and I liked walking around. Back in Maadi, I went to a cafe with Ayman to play Backgammon. But there was a soccer game going on and the cafe was packed with people – men. I think, besides me, there was only one other woman and it was kind of strange to be there, surrounded by 100 men. Especially in a culture were women are not commonly seen in situations like this.

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MERRY CHRISTMAS

I WISH EVERYONE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS, FROHE WEIHNACHTEN, FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!

GERMANY AGAIN

18. August – 26. August 2011

From Vienna I took the bus to Dresden to visit my friend Ruediger. Last time we met was for the hiking trip in Patagonia and we had a lot to talk about everything that happened in between. My sister, her friend and our family dogs Funny and Joshy came to Dresden as well for a day. We went for a nice walk in the hills of the Saechsische Schweiz, a national park near Dresden. We had a beer in a small kneipe (kind of a beer). Very “Ossi” style with extremely unfriendly personal but good German beer.

From there it was time to go back to Lissa, to spend some more time with my family. At the weekend was my cousins wedding. The wedding party was very nice and it was great to see all my cousins, aunts and uncles. And we also had fun taking lots of pictures.

Anja + Oliver – I wuensche euch beiden ein glueckliches und erfuelltes Leben zusammen.

I spent the next view days relaxing, walking the dog, organizing my stuff and the next trip to Egypt.

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ROADTRIP V - AUSTRIA

13. August – 17. August 2011

Our actual plan for the day was to go to Slovakia but thanks to the navigation system we ended up at Paula's campground in Austria. On the way out of Budapest we weren't really decided where to go and so we followed the navigation system to the closest campground with pool. And that was in Austria.

The campground was quite nice and the owner Helmut very friendly. We relaxed, tried balancing on the slack-line and had some drinks and an entertaining evening with some guys from Bavaria. On the second day we did a little side trip to Bratislava, Slovakia's capital city. But since the night before was rather long we all didn't really feel like sightseeing. There are a lot of places in Bratislava that remind you of it's communist past with ugly buildings and streets. But there is also a very pretty historical center. We had delicious lunch there, wrote some postcards and walk around before driving back to Austria. On the way back we stopped at an outlet center = three happy girls shopping. Anyways, we only had one hour before the stores closed and didn't buy much. Later that day, we enjoyed the sun at the Neusiedler See and at night went to a local Volksfest, but couldn't stand it longer than an hour (bad music, drunk old people, ...)

The next morning we drove to Vienna. Beautiful city. Very clean, friendly people and beautiful old buildings and palaces. We enjoyed the city, walked around all day – sightseeing and relaxing.

After a day in Wien it was time to say good bye to Christiane and Karina. While I could stay a few more days relaxing and enjoying Vienna, Christiane and Karina had to go back to Munich to work.

ROAD-TRIP IV – HUNGARY

10. August – 12. August 2011

Our first stop in Hungary was at lake Balaton. 30 years ago this lake was a popular vacation destination for people from eastern Germany. I'd been there myself a long time ago, after finishing school, with some friends . This time we rented an apartment in a family house for one night. The apartment hadn't been renovated for a very long time and the furniture was rather old as well. For us “Ossis” it felt like travelling back in time and for Karina, from the south of Germany, it seemed like a museum. The lake itself wasn't very beautiful. The town wasn't nice either. Lot's of Germany tourists on a cheap trip to Hungary. We spent our evening at McDonald’s to use the free internet. ;-) From lake Balaton it was only a one hour drive to Hungary's capital city Budapest. After arriving in the morning, we walked through the beautiful old town and had lunch. The design at the place where we had lunch was somewhat different but artsy – and as it turned out we had lunch at Budapest's most popular gay bar.

In the afternoon we went on a sightseeing tour with “free city tours”. The guides were very knowledgeable and friendly. We learned a lot about Budapest and Hungary, visited a few of the main sights and had a good time.

Unexpectedly there was a huge music festival in Budapest, the Sziget festival, while we were there. So, we decided to check it out the next day. And it was great. Good music, lot's of different music types on many stages, interesting entertainment and many people. We had an awesome time and I enjoyed it a lot. Listen to good live music is always great.

Our plan was to spend the next morning in one of Budapest's many thermal baths but unfortunately many other people had the same idea. We didn't feel like waiting for hours to get inside and left Budapest. After a little side-trip to a small town near the Slovakian border we spontaneously decided to go to Austria next.

ROAD-TRIP III – CROATIA

04. August – 09. August 2011

Our first impression of Croatia wasn't very good. There were narrow, rocky beaches and German advertisement (ich sage nur: “LIDL lohnt sich. Auch im Urlaub”) along the road. And many German and Dutch vacationers. The first two days were not the best ones of this trip. No nice beaches and way too many people. We almost turned around and left Croatia, but - luckily - decided otherwise. We hung out at a crowded campground with an acceptable beach for two days and relaxed before going further south. And it paid off that we did give the Dalmatian coast a chance and drove all the way to Dubrovnik. A beautiful old town directly at the crystal blue Adriatic sea. We walked around town along narrow cobblestone and marble streets; between very old buildings with thick walls and on the city wall that goes all around the town with amazing views. But the best thing was a tiny bay just a short walk from the city center with extremely blue and clear water that we had almost to ourselves. We went for a swim and enjoyed the sun in between sightseeing tours in town.
Before leaving Dubrovnik we drove up to a lookout point above the city. The road was extremely narrow and dangerous but the view over the city with it's old buildings and city wall, the blue water and the islands, was beautiful.

From Dubrovnik it was a long over night drive to Zagreb, Croatia's capital. We spent a day there, walking around the center and up a little hill with an old castle before leaving for Hungary.

ROAD TRIP II - SLOVENIA

1. August - 3. August 2011

POST BY CHRISTIANE
 After our one-day visit in Venice we decided to stay two - three days in Slovenia. Since no one of us has ever been there we did not know what we should expect from this part of Former Yugoslavia. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north. And although Slovenia is a very small country it is touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean.

We entered Slovenia by driving a fabulous scenic route through the Julian Alps. Our first destination was the camp ground at Lake Bled. This place is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the Julian Alps and we were blown away by the beauty of this impressive landscape, too. The lake is situated in a picturesque environment, surrounded by mountains and forests. A medieval castle stands above the lake on the north shore. Kind of Disney like – but real!

We decided to stay at this beautiful place for two days, doing nothing but enjoying life and nature, hanging around and relaxing. We had buffalo mozzarella with tomate and olives and red wine on the beach, rented a small rowing boat and surrounded the biggest Slovenian Island by boat (Slovenia only has one island ;-) ). We did a hike in a canyon with a crystal clear river towards the Vintgar Gorge and waterfall and enjoyed the local cuisine (porcini mushroom, Cream cheese strudel and world-famous „Bledsky Kremschnitty“). We spent the evenings on the little strand bar, improving our slack line skills and hanging around in beach lounge chairs.

After two days in Bled we headed over to the Capital City, Ljubljana. Arriving there, we checked in at the hostel (actually a university housing…), than visited the old town and tested the Slovenian ice-cream. Its raving beauty shows Lubljana at night: many bars, a cozy summer night, drinking pivo (beer) and watching young people on the streets.

We completed our stay in Slovenia by visiting UNESCO World Heritage listed Škocjan Caves, which are one of the largest known underground canyons in the world. It includes the largest discovered underground chamber in Europe and one of the largest in the world. To walk through this natural monument was really impressive and exciting.

ROAD-TRIP I - ITALY

29. July – 31. July 2011

My sister Christiane, her friend Karina and me left Munich Friday night for a 16-day road-trip through Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Austria and a short stop in Slovakia.

The start was a little rough. Traffic in Munich was chaotic and we had to chance the rented car before leaving the city later than planned. Luckily, everything worked out great from there. Unexpectedly, the Autobahn was empty and driving was easygoing. We decided that our first stop would be Italy's lake Garda where we arrived and set up our tent at 11pm. After a bottle of wine at the lake it was time to sleep. The next morning we drove directly to Verona. Spontaneously we decided to spent the night there and watch the opera Aida in the famous Arena, an roman amphitheater, built almost 2000 years ago. Verona is a very beautiful historical city with lots of old houses with nice balconies.

The afternoon was spend walking around town, visiting Romeo's and Juliette's balconies and eating our first ice cream of this trip. After refreshing in the hostel we were ready for the opera. The old building and the stage setting were very beautiful. The opera was good but since we didn't understand anything we left after three of four sets.

The next morning we were on our way to Venice. We parked outside the city and took the ferry to the center. The city is beautiful and different than other cities. But still, I didn't like it very much. There are just way too many tourists to enjoy it. After walking around for a few hours, we left to continue our road-trip and leave towards Slovenia.

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UPDATE

I know, it's a very long time since the last post. Meanwhile, I've been enjoying the beach and relaxed life in Canoa, Ecuador. Between walks at the beach, weekend partying, working, a little travelling and reading, I spent some time working on the blog. And in case anyone still wants to read what I did three months ago, posts are coming.
Thanks for still reading my blog. And even bigger thanks to everyone how left comments.