Dominican Republic - Caribe

Hallo,
this is probably our last entry for this journey!
Strange somehow. Time has gone by so fast!!!

We have spent the last days on the beaches of the domincan republic with: diving, sunbathing, Cuba libres, Bachata, mosquitos, sun, rain, sleeping, palm trees, papayas, mangos & ananas, fishes (seen as well as eaten :-) ), hot temperature, white sand beaches, a lot of other tourists ;-), clear aquamarine water etc... it was very good and relaxing. We have uploaded some PICTURES for you!
After these days of doing "nearly nothing" we found ourselves fit for another 6 months of ardous traveling through still unknown countries :-) but unfortunately work calls .... :-(
At the moment we spend our last days (gulp :-( ) in Santo Domingo and will probably (if no wonder happens) find ourselves in the airplane back home on the 25th of July. We will arrive on the 26th at 18:00 in Vienna....

The only thing which cheers us up is, that we will see you all again soon! :-)
Hear you! Thank you for your continous interest! Keep on viewing the blog after our return for the summary :-)!
Renate & Mirko

Panama

Hallo, we spent the last five days in Panama.
We visited Panama City, the Panama Canal and did daytrips inland to El Valle, one to the island Taboga with white sand beaches and to the north coast to the city "Portobelo", Colon and the locks of the canal towards the atlantic ocean.

Panama city is very impressive as there are on the one hand a lot of luxurious and modern skyscrapers and beautifully renovated colonial buildings and on the other hand old and dirty colonial and wood/brick buildings either abandoned or homes to poor people.
The countryside is beautiful and green..which we are not used to any more as in the last few months we have been more or less only to deserts and in high altitude, where there is no green vegetation at all. Therefore it was a pleasure for our eyes. The houses in the countryside are nice and well kept, most of them have a green lawn around and a lot of coloured flowers in front.
The island Taboga is a one hour trip by boat from Panama City and is a small, peaceful, green island where we spent the afternoon sunbathing and swimming in the clear waters of the sea. Although the weather was not that good (a lot of dark rain clouds covering mostly of the sun) it was very hot and damp so that swimming in the sea was really a relief and we both got a thorough sunburned skin although we applied sunscreen of strengh 20 ! :-(
(...and that after 5 months of traveling ...but our belly and all other parts except our face and hands did defenitely NOT get a lot of sun during our voyage :-)

Also the visit of the Panama Canal was a "must" and vert interesting. If you want to know more as well.... click here or go to the "What you never dared to ask"-section :-)

We enjoyed the total difference to the other countries and people we have visited during the last months!

On monday we will continue to our last (Aaaahhhhh! :-( ) stop : Dominican Republic ...
How fast time goes by!
We are looking forward to seeing you all again!
Renate

Exkurs: "Why can latin aremicans not live without noise?" or "Are all the people deaf here?"

Imagine a world were you hear loud music all night through because they run music in the streets and in the neighbourhood all night long and your windows and walls are made of paper... a world were all people shout, no matter where they are and what time it is...
...where the hotel personal vacuums the floor in front of your room at 6:00 a.m.,
...where the TV runs in all restaurants, in all bars and cafes, in the buses, in waiting halls, in post and bank officies..and at all times with high volume,
...where in each taxi and bus the radio runs at highest volume level additionally to frequent horning,
...where at 7:00 a.m. the nearby schools decide to take their lessons or morning songs with a microphone so that everybody living within 500m can participate,
...where the local bands decide to play all day long marches in all the street of downtown at the same time,
...where whole downtown consists of music clubs and the word "acoustic insulation" is unheard of ...
Welcome to the world of South America and the world we have been living in for the last 6 months .... AAAAAAAhhhhhhh!!!!
So don't expect me to react if you talk to me at normal volume at home again as I sure should be half deaf by now :-)

The reason for this behaviour has not revealed itself to me till until now, although I can honestly say that we did extensive investigations on this (although most of the time involuntarily). I really wanted to understand the basics of this logic and even at times tried to imitate them...but the question remains unsolved....

Renate, who did not have had a good sleep for at least two weeks in a row....

Lima - Trujillo - Chiclayo: our last days in Peru ...

... which we spent visiting old pyramides and tombs from cultures before the Incas at Sipan, Tucuman and Chan Chan.
The tombs and the arqueological pieces they found within the tombs were rather interesting but from the "pyramides" remained not much more than "mountains of mud", as they had been constructed by mud and sand which has more than less deteriorated because of rain.
Therefore the visit of these "remainders" of the past were a bit disapointing.
-> pictures

Tomorrow we will continue to Panama City to visit the panama canal. Unfortunately the weather forecast predicts for Panama: thunderstorms and rain! :-(
Let's see ! :-)

Hear you! ... only 17 days left ...... Renate & Mirko

P.S.: What´s for dinner in Peru?

Cusco & Machu Picchu

After we flew in directly from Arequpia (What a comfort: 35min of flight instead of 11 hours bus drive ... Yes, we are getting old :-) ) we continued our journet first to Ollentaytambo, where we stayed one night, and then yesterday we took the first possible train to "Machu Picchu"! As we were there rather early and spent one night in the village nearby we were able to spend the whole day till sunset within the site of "Machu Picchu". This was especially nice, as we were able to climb the nearby "Wayna Picchu" towering over Machu Picchu, where we had a good view, and most of the tour-groups left at about 3 p.m. to catch the afternoon train back to Cusco, and the site was a little bit more quiet after that and we could watch the sun set over "Machu Picchu" at about 5 pm.

What was nearly more incredible and phantastic than the Inca walls from Machu Picchu, was the HORRENDOUS PRICE we had to pay for this "adventure"! The train fare, the entry and the transportation are incredible and rediculous expensive, as well as food and accomodation nearby. An official ripp-off...quasi ! ;-)

But it was impressive nontheless, and I guess one has to do it when traveling Peru...
You can have the pictures for free now ... isn`t that a service ;-) !?

Kisses! Renate & Mirko

Arequipa & Colca Canyon

Before we took off towards Cusco, we spent a few days in Arequipa and in the so called "Canyon Country" nearby. It is called like that as there are a few very deep canyons cutting into the landscape, one of them the "Colca Canyon" which is at his deepest 3190m deep, which makes it the second deepest Canyon of the world (deepest: "Canyon de Cotahuasi" nearby, with 3191m depth (...but difficult to reach and visit)). We did some hiking there, but although the landscape was striking, we expected something more (or different?) from the "worlds second deepest canyon" and decided that all the publicity and advertisment here in Arequipa is a bit overexaggerated).

But the hiking was good nevertheless and we spent very good days there!

Arequipa still ranks as Renates favorite city in Peru (decided at her last visit here years ago) and Mirko agreed. We both think that the architeture as well as the athmosphere were very good and one can easily spend some time hanging or wandering around, drinking coffee or fruit juice at a terasse at the main "plaza de armas" and feel himself very comfortable! :-)

Are you curious now :-) ? Here are the photos!

Kisses and regards from both of us to all of you!

Renate & Mirko