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...

Will the wolf survive?

Stäff before...


and on top of his first multipitch climb, "Will the wolf survive" in "Los Lobos Canyon". 4 pitches, 5.8, 5.9, 5.9, 5.10, sitting on razorblade ridge, 50 cm broad. Sweet!!


Preparing to rappel...


Note the helmet... Safety first!!

The gate troll

The gate troll has never been seen outside his rolling home. He is lying on his bed all day long, collecting money from trespassers through a little window next to his pillow, and closing the gate afterwards with a rope connected to his bed. Modern technology is nothing new for him either: There is a mirror, impeding any intent of sneaking around the trolls home, without him having to move a finger... The area around the trolls trailor smells like urin, so we assume he doesn't even get up to do his business... what a life!

We found another dangerous species on the rocks... While I was giving a belay, Alexa, a girl from New York, almost put her hand on a king snake that was taking a sun bath on a small ledge. It attacked, fell down right next to me and tried to escape... I took the picture while it slid into its hideout. Everybody here told us it was a coral snake, the most dangerous species here in Mexico, and we should have killed it, haha!! Later we found out that it wasn't, we would have been really lucky to find a coral snake, because they are quite shy...


This encounter on the mini super wall was the most frightening one, after loads of geckos and millipedes, a squirrel, and the nasty 15 cm long centipede next to a bolt on jungle wall.

Diet

My daily portion of vitamins...

I already told you that I'm going to live healthy, but this is just too much! Where is my Schweinsbroan mid Knedl, Weisswiaschd and Weissbier? Please, if you've got any leftovers, send them to Homero's Ranch, Hidalgo, Nuevo León!! I'm desperate!! My body mass index is dropping, I need a pig!!

Thesis

I hate MS Word... I just hate it!! How did you guys manage to format your thesis, I was trying to create the table of contents for ages, the different fonts and all that shit, man, it sucks!! Congratulations to all who managed that!! Yes, right, I finally started to work on my thesis, only the format so far, but I hope I can get it on soon... ;)

Climbing is awesome, I'm happy that I didn't step on any of those nice animals yet, like rock rattlesnakes, scorpions, tarantulas, the hundred leg thing... not very nice to get bitten or stung by any of them!

All right, I'm off to the Tuesday market now, as I said, loads of veggi food, cada frijolito un sonido, jejeje! Greez to everybody!

El Potrero Chico

When I got on the bus to Monterrey I realized that this would be the first trip that I do all alone… poor Steiff!! Colima, London, South Africa… I always had someone to travel or stay with. Here goes the adventure! After 16 hours on the bus I arrived at the town of Hidalgo, half an hour north of Monterrey. The guy behind the ticket desk had probably had sex that morning, because he was happy to give me the 50 percent student discount without possessing a national ID, which saved me 20 Euros! (do the maths yourself…)


Hidalgo is a tiny shithole with less than nothing to do. Market days are Tuesday and Friday, you can get nice fruits and vegetables there, rice and beans… all a man’s heart is beating for… There are also some fancy restaurants, but not a single bar or club… But, who would like to go out in town when having these fuckin’ huge limestone walls with approx. 600 routes and an incredible view just in their face, anyways? It’s actually really nice to hang out with the others after coming back from climbing, relax and have some beers…


The Potrero Chico is a climber’s paradise, just a 30 minute walk from the center of Hidalgo. There are some ranches and hostels with campgrounds and stuff, a shop, café and restaurant. In winter everything is packed with climbers, right now there are only a couple of people and some shops already shut down until season starts again in October. This lowers the prices dramatically, but it’s still not cheap. I pay around seven Euros per night for a room with shared kitchen, but I’m the only one in there anyway…


Most of the people here are from the States, Canada or Mexico City, so I already start to talk a weird mix of different Spanish and English accents... During the three days here I was always able to find somebody to do some easy climbing with me, although most of the guys are very experienced. I love the mentality of the climbers here, and their easy and simple lifestyle. They are totally open minded, friendly and happy to share anything. All they need is a rock, something to sleep on and beans... I learn a lot about life here, and the art to reläx... Let’s see how things go on…

I went climbing with Carlos, Cecile and Marta this morning, but at noon the sun came out and fucked us, there was just no way to go on at that wall. So we decided to drive to the city, get some chicken and green stuff, beer and wood and did an awesome barbecue just next to a pool with ice cold mountain spring water... Sweet!!

Semana Santa in Manzanillo

During Semana Santa I stayed in Manzanillo, and obviously half Mexico had the same idea... The beaches were packed and in the end the sea turned green because of all the kids taking a tinkle... Very nice!!

The days we were hanging out on the beach or just slept...




...and the nights partying in the city...


...at a private party of a friend of some guys I met on the beach, and later on to the crowded main boulevard... (4th/5th of April)

This nice evining I spent drinking and playing music on the street, until some other random guys picked us up to go on partying at their place. I took a bus back home at 1 pm the next day... As I always say, Mexicans are very amicable people!

Sillon 67 and Mexican wedding

This Wednesday (28th of March) we've been to Bara libre at the infamous club "Sillon 67", everybody who's been to Colima knows it :P 100 Pesos entry for free drinks until midnight.



Con mis preciosas Jocelyn y Paola...


Santi, Alex and some Canadian exchange students...

The day after we went to the Don Comalon in Comala, a place where you buy your drinks and get the botanas for free, with Marriachi music and all those things... (29th of March)



Then it was time for my first Mexican wedding... there are actually some differences, especially in the church, and the kind of music they play at the party. But obviously, they also celebrate loud and with loads of drinks... (31st of March)

... llegando a México

In México, Distrito Federal, everything worked out perfectly well: I managed to get a six months tourist visa and catch the last bus to Colima, where I spent an exchange semester two years ago. After a total of 37 hours of traveling, I finally arrived at the Colonia Villa San Sebastian, Colima, on Saturday 7 am local time, where I encountered my friends trashed from a Hawaiian party that ended two hours earlier… I felt immediately at home again.

First of all I enjoyed some Mexican food...


Una orden de sabores con agua de Jamaica en Tacos Orientales... the best in town!

By accident I passed the fire station where one guy showed me around their car park. The fire trucks there would be highlights in any German Fire museum… impressive!


Then it was time to start celebrating...


Paola, Wendy, Alex and Krystel at Susi's and Alex' goodbye party (Saturday, 24th of March)... Hope you get quickly over the culture shock back home!


Wendy in front of an amazing sunrise at a rave close to the vulcano in Colima... 18 Caguamas and 1 bottle of Tequila later!


At the beach of Mananillo, together with Wendy and Krystel (Sunday, 25th of March)... the water was lukewarm, but still too cold for the Mexicans ;)


Brenda, me, Angel and parts of David at Aidas birthday party (Monday, 26th of March).