Hi everybody,
The same as at my last post. It´s again a long time ago that I left a message on my blog. Anyhow, with this message I want to inform you that everything is still fine and of course to tell you more about what I did last months. My stay in Nicaragua was weird and worthy. The first days were a bit calm because I was recovering from a sinus-infection who I increased during diving. I stayed in Leon, one of the many colonial villages in Central America. I hung around and saw the main spots of the town. After that I stayed for a week in San Juan del Sur where I took my first surf classes. I started with a conceit of one of world’s best surf dudes but you can expect that I felt really disappointed at the end of the day. Anyhow it was a nice experience and I spend the rest of the week on the beach and a board. One of the best hostels I had was by the way at my first night over there. During my checkin one of the reception assigned me to one of the beds in a dorm. After dropping some stuff on the bed I went with some guys for dinner and drink. After getting home and starting my sleep somebody woke me up in the middle of he night to tell me to leave the bed because the bed was hers. Expectable is it not wise to wake me up what ended up in a visit of the security guard at my bed. He asked me friendly to move to the bed beneath it what was full of clothes and books. As tired as I was I threw al that stuff from the bed and continued my sleep till a couple of hours later I got waken up again with the friendly request to leave that other bed. A mistake at the reception caused a horrible night who I continued in a hammock. Finally I got loads of excuses, my money back and a free breakfast. After leaving this beautiful surfing town I was planning to go to Isla Ometepe, and islands what exists in a lake in the centre of Nicaragua and exists out of two volcanos. The trip took a bit longer as expected cause I had a two hours stop at a police station. On of the nice local people felt attracted two take my wallet what includes the big amount of less than $10, student card and my driver’s license. Hopefully he’ll buy some beautiful clothes or a nice beer with the money. As also written in my last message, it’s better to see the pictures… It’s just beautiful. The other days in Nicaragua I spend in Grenada, a colonial town with a nice nightlife, and good spots around. I did daytrips to a volcano and a crater lake to hang out. The first of my part stay in Costa Rica was in Puerto Viejo, a Caribean hippie town. Same as the town itself the hostel was really laidback and most of people are just hanging around and spending there the days with swimming, drinking and eating a bit. The biggest shock I had was the first week of May while entering Panama City. In a big contrast with all other capitals this city exist over a huge skyline, harbour full of yacht’s and shopping malls. A day hanging out in that part of the city did me reminding to my stay in the US a couple of years ago. My other days I spend in the old town and with a visit to the Panama Canal. The last part of Panama I spend on Bocas del Toro, an group of islands in front of Panaman Caribean coast. As it already sais, islands in the Caribean sea. The morning was to wake up with a coffee, the daytime to drink some rum and coke on the beach and the nighttime for party and dinner! After almost two weeks where the only things next two that I’ve done were watching soccer I moved back into Costa Rica. Today I moved out of Montezuma, a town at the pacific side of the country famous for surfing and chilling. Most of the days I spend on the beach and I did also a visit to one of the dirtiest waterfalls ever full of brown water. On my way from Bocas I had to do a stopover for a night in San Jose where I saw Ajax – Twente. As expectable all the Costa Ricans supported Twente cause of their striker Bryan Ruiz. A view in a couple of newspapers showed that he´s unbelievable populair over there. They are writing with full pride over the influence of him on Twente. Anyhow, the lose of Twente didn´t influenced the mood of the locals so I was able to move safely to my next spot.
Now, I’ll stay my last days in Monteverde, a town in the mountains of Costa Rica to discover more of the nature and wildlife over here. On Tuesday I’ll return to San Jose because my flight for part two of the trip starts on Wednesday, California!

Hi everybody!
It’s too long ago that I’ve been written on my blog. As you can expect, everything is ok in here. A couple of days ago I arrived in Nicaragua after a 10 day stay in Utila, Honduras. In my last blog I wrote that I was planning to go to Guatemala. My first week I spend in the jungle where I did a hike with 12 others. During the hike we visited a lot of maya ruins who weren’t unreachable without a hike of +- 60km to get there(there are exceptions!). During those week I slept in tents and there wasn’t any electricty and showers available. Can you imagine how it smells after 7 days walking with 12 dirty hikers? However, after 3 days hiking on top of one of the ruins we got company from Mel Gibson, who just arrived by helicopter and drove around the forest in a caddy. After a short photosession he left and we continued our hike.
After those hike we came back in Flores where I stayed for a couple of days before I headed to Semuc Champey, one of the highlights of Guatemala. In those rainforest is a small river with different waterfalls who partly going into a cave. See the pictures!
Next to that I visited the colonial town Antigua and lago Atitlan, where I did a volcana climb up to 3000m. After a 2,5h walk the view was amazing. Unfortunatelly, it was a bit cloudy it wasn’t possible to take pictures to show you how the overal look was.
After that I went by the northern part of Guatemala, where I did a beautifull river trip over the Rio Dulce to Honduras. I stayed there for 10 days and did my PADI advanced diving course over there. Next to that, there was every night a party so as you can expect, it was an exhausting and worthly stay over there!

Hola amigos,
It’s already a couple of weeks ago that I wrote on my blog. At the moment I stay in Tulum in the south of Mexico. Last weeks I visited Mexico city, where I had a sightseeing by one of Oscars classmates. I’ve seen the most famous parts but also some suburbs. As most of the big cities in the world is there a big contrast visible in the habbitants. Rich people in the most expensive cars and poor kids who are selling the most absurdly trash in the subway. Also is the metro in Mexico City is a circus stage. People smashes their elbows in small pieces of glass a walks bleeding to the next car.

Outside the city I’ve been to the piramids of Teotihuacan. After a climb of 65metres in a couple of minutes I realised my affraidness of heights. The way down took me more than four times double. However, the climb was it definitely worth! The sight over there was undescribable. The pictures of it will be online soon!
My last day in Mexico I spend in the Aztec soccer stadium for a match in the Copa Libertadores(the Champions League of South America). The stadium where the worldcup finals of ’70 and ’86 where held and famous from the hands-goal and solo of Maradona was just half full. 50.000 of the available 100.000 seats were sold. However, the atmosphere in and around the stadium were crazy. Thousands of people around the stadium eating taco’s, dealing merchandising and tickets. Next to that was the match good. The team from Mexico beated Nacional from Uruguay with 2-0.

The day after I went to Merida. From there I did a trip with some other travelers to a local beach nearby. Nowadays this beach should be famous cause of the worst restaurant ever. In a restaurant with +- 40 tables were 15 waiters who weren’t able to manage it. After 45 min we had to ask for our lunch where us were told to wait for some minutes. 5 minutes later just two of us three got their lunch. By calling the manager he made his apologizes and asked us if he could give us a drink. Finally, after finishing the lunch and asking for the bill the three drinks were written on the bill. Calling the manager ended up in an angry manager who denied he said it was for free but gave it finally for free.

Next to this adventure I visited one of the seven world miracles, Chichen Itza. I don’t know who decided that, but it was totally crap. Busses full of tourist, tourguides waiving with umbrellas and a too high entrance fee made that day to the disaster of my journey for so mar.
Better was the PADI open water course what I passed last sunday. 5 dives and 1 exam were enough to get my certification to dive everywhere in the world!

For so for enough what I’ve done. Next in schedule: some more days at the beach in Playa del Carmen and than Guatemala!

Where should I start writing my first story about? Let’s begin with my final presentation, the day before I was leaving. As expected I passed but the important thing was my grade. After my presentation about online shopping in 2011 and an assessment about my thesis they told me that I passed with a 7 (Dutch grades are from 1 till 10, where 6 is the minimum pass).
They day after I left home to the airport and without any delay my plane departed. After 12 horrible hours in plane and 2 more hours in bus I’ve been picked up by Oscar, a guy who I knew from my exchange in Finland last year. He took me with some friends to a local bar for some drinks and the first impressions of Mexico.
I’ll tell you more about the things I’ve done the last week. First days I’ve been in Toluca, the place where Oscar lives. After that I visited Jilotepech, the place where his parents lives, Guanajuato and at the moment I’m in Queretaro. Except the nice party in Toluca I had just a walk around the city to see the important places in the city and his university. In Jilotepech I’ve stayed at his parents place, where I’ve been introduced to the delicoious Mexican menu. All the possible eatable parts of animals are part of the menu. Sheepbrains, cowthongue and sheepcheecks are my favorites! After that I’ve been taken to a party where I met many friends of Oscar, just a couple of them spoke English so it was hard to talk with the others! They ones who I’ve spoken with were really nice and open minded people. The most of them are staying in the weekend in that city and during the week all around Mexico to study. I received just a couple of invitations to visit them in their own place. After arriving in Queretaro yesterday I went just to a bar with one of them. To tell you more about the cities I guess it’s more worth to see the pictures. As I wrote before, just a few of the residents of Mexico are speaking English so it’s still hard to communicate. Especially when I need something like a bus ticket. Yesterday, after arriving on the bus terminal in Queretaro I was looking for a bus to the city center. After asking in my best Spannish to a bus driver if he’ll stops close to my hostel he answered with a doubtfull-Si. After a sightseeing of the whole city area and seeing some places twice I arrived after +/- 90 minutes next to my hostel. A taxi should have done it within 10 minutes I guess. Also noteworthly fact is the way of taking a bus. Next to the possibility to go to a bus terminal is to get dropped on the right lane of the highway and wait till a bus is passing. Waving to a passing bus will stop them.

The plans for next days are visting a match in the South American Champions League between a Mexican team and a club from Uruguay , visiting Mexico city and moving more southern for a nice beach!

Hi everybody,
As most of you know, I am almost graduated. This will officially happen on the 2nd of February.
After this I will go traveling for five months in Central America and the USA before I’ll star my Msc. in Communication Studies in Enschede, Holland. This blog is all about my travel so I have to tell you more about that. On the 3rd of February I will take my plane to Mexico City where I will arrive the same day.
I will stay there approximately 1,5 week before I’ll travel in 3,5 months to Costa Rica. On my way to go there I am going to visit Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras to learn surfing, scuba diving and discover the countries by my Lonely Planet. The last 1,5 month of my trip I will move around in the USA to visit The Big Apple and California.
I’ll keep you updated.
Greet,
Frans

PS: I’ll write most of my posts in English because of a couple of foreign friends who may be interested.