we travelled 104.000 km in 840 hrs. thereof we spent 108 hrs on 31 flights for 77.100 km.

we swam with dolphins and eagle rays, watched whales, pinguines & seals and rode elephants, camels, bicycles and motorbikes.

we don’t recommend to use round-the-world tickets.

we enjoyed argentinean steaks and love indian curries. we miss beerlao, indian chai and our daily dosis of fresh exotic fruits.

we drove 7.600 km in 140 hrs and have been chauffeured for 19.400 km in 590 hrs.

we challenged -5 to 5.500 meter in altitude.

we learned about many different cultures and body & spoken languages. we were teached to be patient & modest and learned lots about ourselves.

the tibetan buddism is inspiring but the way tibet is treated is frustrating.

we used rivers as bathrooms and didn’t care about power breakdowns.

the indian culture is overwhelming and asians and kiwis are the friendliest people we’ve ever met.

we slept in 132 different beds, trains, aircrafts, buses or other locations.

our luggage felt always too heavy and it actually was.

we don’t regret the experiences we gained - neither good or bad ones.

for us cook islands’ beaches, himalayan mountains and the mekong delta are outstanding places.

we’ve frozen by minus 10 and sweated by about 45 degrees celsius. we ‘enjoyed’ humidities up to 97%.

our average travel speed in air is 711 km/hr and 34 km/hr overland.

we love asia, especially tibet, laos, nepal and india.

we were scared of tropical thunderstorms, crazy rickshaw & bus drivers, one drunken rajhastani and of jumping into a canyon.

theoretically we moved 343 days with a speed of 12,5 km/hr all day long.

we love our new friends from all over the world.

and last but not least we see the world different now!

b.t.w., did we mention that we love travelling?

we took our 31st flight on this trip from cologne and here we are, back in graz. WOW! on the one hand very unreal, on the other pretty normal - same same…

we have to adjust to our home country again, not that austria changed very much in the last year - for sure not -  but we did… at least, it is very nice to meet all our lovely friends in person again! but where’s the grazer summer?

so far we haven’t been very productive, but we moved into our new temporary flat and organized some basic things you need living in a first world country again - like the last 11 month we didn’t carry any mobile phone, suddenly we need two of them!

up to now the big ‘depression’ we expected hasn’t hit us, but we will see what happens the next couple of weeks. for sure we will have to come to a decision where we wanna live and what we wanna work there, a tough one!

greetings to all travellers, christoph & julia

long trip in short words: we took a flight from bogota to madrid, spent 4 hours in the city (à la ’see  europe in ten days’) and took the next flight to germany.

our trip is almost over!

greetings from germany, christoph & julia

after the wonderful caribbean coast we ‘enjoyed’ a three hours boat ride back to the mainland. and eleven wonderful bumpy and twisting bus hours later when we arrived at the hostel our choice they had no beer! can you imagine?

medellin (1,500 meter) is the second largest city in colombia. It is located in one of the more northerly of the andes in south america. it has a population of 2.4 million. in the last quarter of the 20th century, medellín became the headquarters of the infamous ‘Pablo Escobar’, the leader of a vast criminal organization, who became the seventh richest man in the world of the drugs trade.

medellin did not make that big impression on us, so we only spend three nights there, did a little sightseeing and trip organising.

our next stop was manizales (2,150 meter) which is a city in central colombia, more exactly in the colombian coffee region. the city is the main center for the production of colombian coffee and an important hub for higher educational institutions. the topography of manizales is quite interesting, because the city is built in a mountain region with a number of ridgelines and steep slopes.

written by christoph

… continued from ‘capurgana and the caribbean lifestyle’

the darien region is a province in panama that extends into northwestern colombia. it’s the region where the so-called ‘darien gap’ is located - an area with lots of rebel action*, but also the area where the only part of the pan-american highway is missing. the pan-american highway is about 26.000 km long and runs all the way from alaska down to patagonia. except of the about 100 km in the darien gap which would connect central and south america by road. with todays technology it would be possible to built the missing part, but there are several parties who don’t want the road to be built. on the one hand are the indigenous people of that region who want to protect the environment as well as their culture. on the other hand there is north ameria, trying to avoid having more drugs as well as refugees of the civial war coming from colombia or other countries of SA. for some reasons also the colombian government is against building the missing part of the highway. and i’m sure there are more parties envolved. we’ll see what happens the next couple of years.

we hiked from capurgana to sapzurro through the jungle. a though hike regarding the heat but worth the effort. sapzurro is a even smaller town than capurgana, only a stone’s throw away from the border to panama. after we had a yummi red snapper (ohh, we saw lots of them the last few days on our plates) and some coke for refreshment, we climbed 199 stairs up and 244 down and there we were - in panama! we’ve stayed for about 1,5 hours and the only thing we’ve done was to take a bath on the beach of the tiny border town ‘la miel’, which is supposed to be the nicest beach of the region. we’ve not even spent some money in panama

after climbing back to colombia - ’smuggling’ our new dog friend over the border - we invested 12.000 pesos and went back to capurgana by boat - tired but happy!

* a short comment on the ‘colombian (civil) war’ which has existed since approximately 1964. the war still exists. the FARC, the paramilitary and the colombian army are still activ. about two years ago the mass tourism started again, after 27 years of total stagnation. travelling is now safe in wide areas of the country, due to the present of many US decorated colombian soldiers. you can find more information e.g. here: FARC and the war in colombia

written by julia and christoph

we decided to continue our ‘of-the-gringo-trail’ and moved further west from cartagena - and we did good. we took a speed boat from turbo to capurgana -  a village located in the darien region, the gateway between south- and central america.

capurgana is good for doing not much of anything. the villager have managed to keep the laid-back caribbean vibe, even though the colombian tourism is growing. by strolling through the streets of capurgana you gain a good insight in the truly caribbean way of living - work  only as much as really necessary and enjoy life as much as possible. for us it was more ‘caribbean’ than either cartagena or tolu. there are no cars in town - bicycles and horse (and mule)-drawn carriages are the only way of public transportation in town (except of that one motorbike), electricity stops during night (and sometimes doesn’t come back in the morning), internet stops at random and shops close whenever the owner decides to leave.

there are many militaries in colombia but due to the closeness of capurgana to the colombian-panamanian border and the dodgy reputation of that region there’s lots of military - to avoid drugs smuggles and fight the rebel groups (as well as to carry out their own transactions - but that’s another story). they belong to the townscape such as the coconut palm trees.

we improved our hammock swing, enjoyed our really nice accomodation with a pool in the jungle and the yummi food (nery is a brilliant cook) and explored the animal life around us. amazing! our two bat-friends visited us every day and the four different kinds of frogs did hold a concert every evening - the tree frogs can ‘frog’, holy cow. but we’ ve also seen toucans, humming birds, thousand of leaf cutter ants, an iguana, parrots, eagles, vultures, pelicans, lizards and other saurians, spiders (scary!), geckos, … and one evening we even had a pregnant tree rat in our room - cute!

… to be continued in the panamanian entry…

written by julia

finally we moved our asses again and arrived in´turbo´ today. wow, bananas all over the place!

tomorrow morning we´ll head on a boat to capurgana and after that maybe to the san blas islands in panama.

greetings, christoph & julia

we arrived in tolú over a week ago. in this small fishing town, which is popular for colombian tourists, there is not much to do.  but we really did nothing… except a day trip to a nice nearby beach (punta bolivar) and a day trip to the caribbean islands ’san bernardo’. first we wanted to stay there for a couple of nights but the start of the summer season in colombia is the reason for far overpriced accomodations…

written by christoph

2820 gram and 50 centimeter

well done elke and harald!