Tuesday 29 April 2008

Ay Caramba!

Hiya folks,

Wazzuup?? We've been movin' a lot again the last few days. A ten hour busride brought us from crazy Ciudad de Mexico to Villahermosa, where we split up. Nick choose to go to San Cristobal de Las Casas, I opted for Palenque. Since then I've seen a whole bunch of deep-into-the jungle-burried-lost-but-not-forgotten Maya cities. Crazy beautiful stuff! Sunday I went to tiny Belize with Toko, Finnish dude. On the upside, I've got some nice Belize stamps in my passport now. Downside is my Belize City bed turned out to be filled with bed bugs, pure horror!! A fifteen hour scratching journey took me from Belize to Antigua, Guatemala.

Nick just chilled out in the Zappatista town of San Cristobal and then took a twelve hour busride to Antigua, where he wisely continued his chillin' and awaited my arrival.



So far, we've traveled one month. Time for some staggering statistics:

RARITIES ENCOUNTERED

quetzal bird
shooting star
FBI in action
woman with beard

TRANSPORTATION
motorcycle rides: 1 hour
boat trips: 2 hours
metro rides: 3 hours
taxi rides: 3 hours
bicycle rides: 4 hours
train rides: 11 hours
flights: 13 hours
busrides: 93 hours
walking: didn't count

FINANCIAL ISSUES
money spent: $1800 each
items lost: Nick: sunglasses; Sebastian: sweater, sunscreen, cellphone
lucky shots: car rental company forgot to charge $300, Nick won $5 on a Vegas bus for knowin' the capital of Tasmania, Sebastiaan intercepted fraude at the Guatemala-Belize border: $3

<-- Sebastian´s Bedbugg Rash

Wednesday 23 April 2008

Scarlett and Ruines

3 days ago, a nightbus took us from Sayulita over Guadelajara to Mexico City. And a city it is. With well over 20 million inhabitants it is concidered to be the biggest on planet earth. Taken into account the massive amount of cars and its 2km altitude, it's hard to breathe. Especially with all those breathtaking women (we ran into Scarlett Johansson!) and staggering Aztec pyramids.

We would also like to extend a little thank you to Lieven (Liebherr) for joining us on the first 3,5 weeks of our trip. We surely hope you had fun! (we know we had)


Friday 18 April 2008

Sayulita, Señorita



Holaaa señores y señoritas,

After an 11 hour ride on El Chepe and three 5 hour busrides, we finally arrived in paradise. The little town of Sayulita is about 2500 km south of the US-Mexican border. La vida es superbien aqui.

A day in paradise goes like this:

- 9 am: jam and toast for breakfast
- 9.30: beach running and swimming
- 11: chillin' in the hostel
- 12.30: going to the grocery nextdoor and cook
- 2 pm: siesta
- 4: surf, sex and rock n' roll
- 1 am: hit the sack, drunk and satisfied

Scheduled to leave today, we deliberately missed our bus. Next one's going Sunday. Brilliant!

See u in Mexico City (perhaps)







Tuesday 8 April 2008

Passaportas por favor

Hi all,



After waking up in our shady motel in Las Cruches this morning, we drove our Sebring (for one last time) across the Texan border to the Mexican bordertown of El Paso. Our initial plan was to already cross the border and spend the night in Ciudad Juarez, but many people advised us not to do that since drug cartels have recently gone a bit mad over there and killed a lot of cops.




So we just crossed the border to get our Mexican tourist visa for tomorrow. And what a strange experience it was. Crossing the border by foot was very alienating. Once more, let the pictures speak for themselves...
















Tomorrow we're getting on the bus to Chihuahua, Mexico, to fetch a train to the Pacific. Finally!
PS: Enjoy the weather in Belgica.

Monday 7 April 2008

Desert Cowboys in a Sebring



The past four days we drove our Chrysler Sebring Convertible through the states of Nevada, Arizona, Utah and New Mexico. Let the pictures speak for themselves.








Coyote Ugly

COYOTE UGLY



Friday 4 April 2008

What happens in Vegas...

Hiya folks,

yesterday evening the greyhound bus took us to the Nevada desert. To glittery Las Vegas to be precise. This is truly the most crazy, decadent and exhausting city on the face of the earth. Lights never stop flashing, limousines keep on passing by every 5 seconds and everybody here wants a piece of you (or of your money, to be precise).

We did a bit of gambling (because that's what they do in Vegas) and a lot of staring at the exuberantly decorated casino interiors.

Now we're getting ready because in an hour we'll be picked up by a Hummer-Limousine (with free champagne inside) to escort us to the Coyote Ugly club. Yes, that club.





PS: For those wondering; yes Bas' backpack has been recovered!


Tuesday 1 April 2008

Everybody goes to Hollywood

Hello boys and girls,

Yesterday evening we arrived at LAX airport. Our airport shuttle drove us through Inglewood at dusk (the Hiphop-fans among you may know this shady suburb of Los Angeles). LA is the US's 2nd city, with over 18 million inhabitants (of which 2 million illegal aliens) and it shows! The city really never ever sleeps.

We started with a bit of a delay as Sebastian's bagg got left behind at Heathrow airport, but it has been located and sent over to LAX. So it should be with us in under 24 hours.

Today we took the time to make a walk across the infamous "Walk of Fame" with over 2500 stars (which cost around $ 25.000 each) and a climb up the Hollywood Hill, followed by a stopover at... Mc Donalds, of course!