The OTHER journey

The story of a lifetime: A DIFFERENT JOURNEY, starring the ecotourists Andi, Ram and Steiff.
25th of July to 22nd of August. Four weeks full of action, experiences and impressions.

I will skip the first week, because my hands would tremble too much writing about it. I will give you only the picture of the most relaxing moment during the first week:

BUT finally the adventure could begin: The departure to Zacatecas marked the first partly successful intent to start the trip...

Andi on a sweet crack climb in Fresnillo, close to Zacatecas. My brother and Ramona enjoyed a few days camping close to this nice place, while I had to return to Colima in order to deal with a legal problem...


THE shot of the trip: The German "ecotourism travel group" (Andi, Raem and Steiff, from left to right) smoking a big ass genuine Chiapas tobacco at a campground close to the Mayan ruins of Palenque... relaxation the different way!

Big Blue Eyes in front of a romantic cobblestone street in the center of San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas... God, are we cute!!

No comment...

Well, that much: The amazing Misol-Ha waterfalls close to Palenque. Because of the raining season the amount of water coming down was enourmous, and in fact nobody dared to jump into the floods...

Prohibido orinar = No pissing (note of the author)


...Nobody? Wrong. A small group of fearless Germans didn't bother and braved the rapids pulling the three ecotourists with incredible force down the river...

I'm still alive

Hey guys, two month without any news from the Steiff, sorry about that!! As you know I was kind of busy with the work for school, and even more with the car I bought. I guess that was the biggest mistake ever, and apart from a shit load of money it costed me almost two entire month of my precious lifetime!!

I just came back from the trip around southern Mexico with my brother Andi and Ramona, I can tell you that trip was packed with a lifetime full of new experiences... good as well as bad ones...

We were bathing in amazingly beautiful waterfalls, demanding the car dealer for recompensation (International Business Law, bist du's), strolling through Mayan ruins, wasted, appreciating the incredible Mexican hospitality and got into an hurricane. That's only a tiny part of our adventures here, but more (including pictures) the next time.

My laptop is broken and I am stuck in Oaxaca with no money left, so I'll try to get out of here as soon as possible. I can already see myself on the street cleaning shoes or selling chewing gums... :P Well, in fact it's not that bad!

Take care guys, and be prepared for the next episode of "Steiff stuck in an Mexican soap opera"...

Housemates

My new flatmates steal my cigarettes. They eat my food. In exchange they make me feel safe... If you think safety means to have a loaded MP5 on your kitchen table and a couple of pumpguns and revolvers in the bedroom.

Who cares? They bring tons of beer every night, and we are having fun singing banda music until the early morning....

My flatmates...


My kitchen...

Panchita

Monterrey is great fun… I just spent a couple of days there, bouldering in La Huasteca, later getting wasted and bouldering skyscrapers (pictures coming soon).


The most exciting adventure, however, was meeting “Panchita”, the first car I’ve ever owned...

First of all I called in response to some offers in the newspaper. It was unbelievable to see how people interprete the shape their cars are in… after a pretty long bus ride to look at a car that was described as “in good condition, except for a little bump”, I was shocked to look at a wreck that had obviously gotten hit by a truck, far from being ready to hit the streets, and offered to an incredibly high price.

In the end I found “Panchita”, a 1991 Chrysler Shadow with automatic transmission. I immediately fell in love with her, and took her home for a bit less than a thousand Euros. After the first two kilometers the reverse gear didn’t work anymore, so I had it fixed, just to find out that now the normal gears didn’t work anymore. I hit the gas to find out when the stupid thing would shift up… a bad idea in Monterrey, with 30 speed limit and police everywhere. I got pulled over in no time, and only avoided the 750 Pesos ticket by shaking the officer’s hand after hard negotiations (with a 50 Peso note in my hand). By the way, the guy who is responsible for Monterrey’s street design must have been totally stoned, wasted, stupid, or just evil…

And don’t worry, I found out what Panchita needs to be happy: some nice words, a little tap on the glove department, gentle pressure on the gas, and she’s a nice girl. Just look at her, isn’t she a real beauty?

Space Boyz

So far the highest multi-pitch climb I did, together with my buddy Jean-Francois from Montreal. Just look at it... the view is unreal!! The summit registry was empty, though, nothing to make us a good time on top after the 6 hours ascent... Nevermind.

The project: Space Boyz. 11 pitches of awesome climbing. 5.8, 5.9, 5.9, 5.9, 5.10, 5.10d, 5.10, 5.9, 5.10, 5.9, 5.9.


The team: J.F. (aka Pancho). Steffl (aka Steiff).


The goal: Space Boyz summit.


The victims: Two Red Chilies died on the way.

Gritters

Mexico is one of the countries with the greatest biodiversity on earth. This becomes quite obvious especially during the nights... Huge amounts of flying things, cockroaches, flying bugs, mosquitos, other flying stuff, rhinozerus bugs, spiders and ugly toads gather around the light and eat one another... it's really fun! Buen provecho...
One of the tings I didn't know is that Tarantulas are totally harmless and cute!! The other night we saw one crossing the street on our way down to the village. It is a weird feeling to have that huge hairy and leggy thing crawling up your arms and face... However, it would never bite you as long as you don't mess around with it!
We also saw a coral snake, this time a real one!! Black, red, yellow, I had to think of the German flag :) Schlaaaand!!

Plutonia

Plutonia is a sweet Bouldering cave only 20 minutes walk from my house... You could actually go down and explore it. It is at least 50 meters deep and supposedly there is a huge cave deep inside the mountain, but without headlamp and rope that's not a good idea ;)



Look at the new hairstyle! So far only two...