some things i saw in the last week...

police

in general there is a lot of police around. especially on the roads they are present, often checking cars. but so far i did not see any crime. here in yucatan you dont feel that you are in a country in which in the last 5 years about 35.000 people were killed in the drug war. but for sure this problem is mostely in the north, close to the us border. where i am right now its very tranquil; and also in the streets people are not really offering drugs (compared to some other countries). the only thing bad i saw so far was a huge police presence on the beach one evening. a small boy was missing since a few hours - a very common crime in mexico, kidnapping. lots of these children are brought to the us for prostitution...
but now some more happy images!!

last weekend i visited a nature reserve

with the boat we went to a cenote in the water

 it was quite amazing, a place where sweetwater just comes from the ground into the ocean. feels a bit like a whirlpool to swim there (but is not relly attractive on pictures!)



mangrove forest

  the bigger trees are (were) mangrove as well. a huge hurricane a few years ago brought so much salt water to this area (next to, but not in the ocean), that all mangroves died. the green leaves are the fresh mangroves


picture into a cenote



cenotes can be like this as well

me swimming in the cenote

on the beach

dead tree...again



pinc colour because of very high salt concentration. the white things are salt




salt again



on the beach - very windy

salt production again
the poeple just put salt water in there and wait until the water disappears

sun set

a cementary

in the night

still colourfull!

....und immer wieder denke ich an die zeit in innsbruck!! war eine gute zeit mit euch, danke!

yesterday (good friday - karfreitag) in front of the cathedral in merida

the procession that followed

typical streetfood, like a crepe with cheese

the procession comes back to...

...and then into...

...the cathedral again

punk dog!!

today, just after sunrise

last week i went to an organisation (a reha place for drug addicts, but they also have a bakery, play football etc.) because i thought i have enough time, and could help them a littel bit - kind of internship. as i entered i was nicely welcomed...and the people asked me about my drug problem (coca? meth?). my spanish is not that good, but still soon they figured out that i dont want to be treated, but would like to work. but that was not possible... its difficult here (as well as everywhere else i guess) to find something to work. but it would be interesting, and really good for learning the language!

now you have a little update about my life again...hope you are all doing well, have a nice easter time (here they dont have chocolate eggs...what a pitty!),

i changed some thing in thte blog...should be easier possible now to leave a comment...at least i hope so! so feel free...


hasta luego sevi

MEXICO

i left bangkok on the 29th of march at one in the morning...flew a few hours to south korea, had to wait a few hours there, and then had a 12 hours flight to LA - just to arrive 10 hours later the same day!! (but i was traveling almost 24 hours...!)
i stayed 2 days in LA, and liked it more then i thought! sionce its so close to mexico (and loads of hispanics live there) many, if not most of the signs are in spanish and english...and in the streets i heared more spanish then english - seriously!! i did some sightseeing, venice beach, berly hills, "the strip", down town..it was nice! see your self...

fast food restaurants EVERYWHERE



...medicine...



LA; LA, vwni8cw beach....people love the place where they live

haha...the strip!

down town

rastaman

some shops with 2 languages...!!

and i met a few people in the (cheap) place where i stayed who had lost their homes during the crisis...and now life in places like this, if they have money. and i met a guy playing pool...and later he showed me that his arms were full of scars...some riots in prison, "people tried to stab me, feel what am sayin?!" riots blacks against hispanics, hispanics against whites, whits agains...everybody... sounded really not like a place to be! and he told me that america is just built on crime...he said he has frineds in the army, and that in afghanistan the biggest job is to get the drugs (and kill the owners), then send them to the US, bring them on the market...and catch the people. a day in prison costs the state 137 USD...quite a cheap way to controll all of the "troublemakers"...that was his story...dont know...but i think that in all rumors is a part of reality.

on the 31st i flew to mexico, to cancun, yucatan. its in the caribian, close to cuba...and its really, really beautiful! white beaches, palms,,,wow!! i stayed some time on these beaches, but in the first days i didnt have a camera...no battery. but still you can see how beautiful it was!

breakfast

flying mexicans

beach

maya pyramids

view out of myn room

the caribian

again

in the streets

big leave

cenotes are water holes, sometimes open to see, sometimes deep in the ground. they are fresh water, and are connected to each other...same fish are everywhere!! they were very important in the maya culture....and are still loved, mostely to cool down! and they are incredibily beautiful!

cenote....with air roots (like all open cenotes!)

una cenote...water at the bottom...then up!

cenote again

also i saw some pyramids from the mayas...it was the culture in mexico before some people from spain got there...really impressive, and you can still imagine how it was in that time! it was great to see

ek balam

again

una mexicana...

...y un turisto

chilling in the pyramids

underground cenote

chichen itza

heads there

more heads

pyramides again

now i am staying in merida, take spanish classes every day and really hope to be able soon to have a bit more conversations then i can have right now. i am also curious to see more of mexico, but people told me that i definately should not go more north than mexico city, becaues its just too dangerous...drug war close to the US boarder, and they also like to kidnap tourists...and yes, i still look a bit different then the locals - so it did not change since asia (should probably travel in sweden...jonas, you got a room for me?!). i am also thinking about doing an internship somewhere here...its nice to stay in the same place for some time if you travel...and it would help as well to speak better spanish before travelling more...i will see!
some images from merida...

cathedral in merida

homesick...!!!

small village again

different advertisment than at home

wow...

small crocodile

so im doing well...hope the same for you!! hasta luego, sevi

ps: philip, danke fuer deine kommentare! freut mich was zu hoeren...und dass dir da blog gfallt! was machtn da fabs jetzt wennst a nimma in ibk bist...?!
flo, war mir auch eine ehre!! take care, und schau dasst ned in deutschland stecken bleibst wennst auf die hochzeit gehst!! gibt vielk zu sehn in da welt (das gilt fuer euch alle!!!)