Travel Archives - Page 3 of 6

Qatar World Cup 2022, #2: Culture and Friends

We like Qatar so far. It seems like that: they gave money to some people and said: “take that money and make us a nice place”.

It is Wednesday the 7th of December. Our first stop was the national museum of Doha, which was an architectural piece of art. See this photo I found on the internet:

and here are some photos taken by Morad:

The content of the museum was not really impressive. Some artifacts from here and there, and some information about the history of Qatar. I didn’t have a lot of interest and didn’t feel I learned much more. It was just nice moving between the halls and observing different modern technologies employed to present the basic contents. I imagined, if Egypt would have such a budget and determination to present things nicely…

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After the visit we werde picked up by Assem. An old friend from Egypt that moved here more than a decade ago. He is a pharmacist, and we sat beside each other in Grade one when we were 7 years old. Last time we met was 5 years ago in Germany. He drove us to “Katara”, a cultural village that was also made to impress. A lot of beautiful architecture, art installations, luxury shops side by side with old traditional workshops where craftsmen worked with their hands and hammers to carve wood or create artifacts from local materials. Fishermen drying salted fish and women selling their home-cooked food in stalls. The place was buzzing with locals and fewer tourists. Such nice energy and vibes close to the seaside. We sat there and discussed different cultural topics about Qatar and living there. Assem works in the biggest hospital here and gave us insights about the health care system.
Here are some photos by Morad from Katara:

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After Katara, Assem took us to Lusail, a new city built in the last 10 years to be part of this World Cup preparation. So, they built a gorgeous stadium, a shopping boulevard, and plenty of residential units. I don’t know what Qatar plans to do with all of this new infrastructure. I feel it can simply accommodate plenty of new residents and businesses.
At the end of the boulevard on the seaside stood 4 impressive, gigantic metal-looking towers. They cornered a plaza with stairs and hanging above it was a big shark model in the sky. On this boulevard, there was a festival with many people, many big speakers with loud music, and a program of shows and events. Street performers were around the clock and at the end, there was an impressive drone-light show in the sky above the sea combined with beautifully matching music employing fire and smoke. Unfortunately, the locals and residents didn’t seem to appreciate the festival with music and shows as I anticipated. I was dancing almost alone on the street. There was a good DJ on the stage. I felt, “what a waste”. Again, it was an example of how you can build great “things” with money, but you can simply put culture inside the society that fast.

After being impressed the whole day with all these experiences, we retreated to Papa Jones for a very non-italian pizza. We were joined later by an old friend of mine called Hassan. Hassan was originally from Sudan, but we met in elementary school in Saudi Arabia looooong time ago. The last time we saw each other was 26 years ago, and we found each other again thanks to Facebook! We had a lot of catching up and summarizing how we spent the years growing up and still staying the same. It was such a nice late evening meeting. I need to mention that Hassan joined us at 00:30 after midnight. Some shops were open and Papa Jones was full. After many more conversations about life in Qatar and about the situation of workers that built the stadiums, we went home and agreed to meet again and do more things on the following days.

At the end of the day, Morad and I agreed, this is a very liveable place.

Qatar World Cup 2022, #1: First Impressions

A few weeks before the World Cup in Qatar starts, I started hearing voices calling to boycott the world cup because of “many reasons”. When I started to talk to people, I found many of them forming strong opinions against Qatar and FIFA. We navigated these opinions in different conversations. I mainly wanted to understand how such a moral decision is formed since I had Zero moral conflicts knowing that I am traveling to Qatar to watch the World Cup. This essay, however, is not about morality but rather an account of my experiences on this trip, which has already introduced me to interesting encounters even in the first few hours. Regarding morality, I would probably write a dedicated opinion at the end of the trip.

The trip started with a lovely farewell from a lovely lady at Zürich airport. The first flight was to Istanbul, where I met my brother, Morad, who flew from Hamburg. We took the next flight together to Doha. The flight was packed with football fans, many of them were supporters of Morocco. My seat was between two Moroccan passengers, and we spent 4 hours talking. They are flying to Doha without having tickets for the match, but are full of emotions since Morocco made it to the round of 16. During the flight, fans started chanting, standing in the aisle, and cheering for morocco. The whole plane started clapping and singing. Even Spain supporters (the team that will face Morocco) joined the singing, and the atmosphere was already festive.

We landed in Doha. The customs and luggage-claim were extremely smooth and efficient. People who worked in the airport were of many different nationalities. I think only the customs officer was Qatari. Nevertheless, everyone welcomed us with smiling eyes. I asked Morad, why is everyone here so friendly and happy? Morad couldn’t answer, since he lives in Germany 😀

We drove to the fan village and checked-in in our container room. It had two single beds, a bathroom, a fridge, an air conditioner, and a water boiler. It is surely overpriced, but we were happy to be able to attend this event for the first time. Here is a video showing the fan village where we are staying. It is also full of food trucks that are open almost 24/7. We slept to get ready for the first day, Tuesday the 6th of December.

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We woke up without much rest, went for a coffee, and decided to have one stop before heading to the stadium. We took the metro to “Souq Waqif” which translates to “standing market”. It is a traditional market with plenty of restaurants and traditional shops. On the way from the metro station, we passed by a modern quarter with many fancy modern buildings and businesses. The streets were full of art installations and things related to the world cup to interact with visitors. It was packed with supporters from all countries wearing different flags, hats etc. Music is everywhere and people are having random conversations with each other on the streets. A real festival. We strolled and explored the souq and kept being impressed by how modern, organized and lively this place was. We visited an art center where many artists were busy creating new pieces. Here are some photos taken by Morad.

Before going to Qatar, some German friends were complaining that the whole competition was organized in one city. I didn’t actually understand where was the problem back then. Well, here in Souq Waqif, I realized that this was a beautiful thing. We saw supporters from almost all the countries with their flags and tricots roaming around the city, a truly global festival. When the next versions of the world cup will be distributed in many cities, you will see in each city fans mainly from a couple of countries. Like this German tourist says about his experience in Doha:

https://youtube.com/shorts/kgwIz_jrY9w

We had traditional Qatari food for lunch and shared the table with a random Kuwaiti visitor who seemed not to be poor at all, as well as two guys from Columbia and Peru. Nice conversations and tips and tricks for where to visit when we are not world-cupping. The Kuwaiti rich guy offered to pay for our lunch, but we paid and thanked him. It was time to head to the stadium to watch the game. Morocco vs. Spain.

We took the metro to the stadium. From the moment you leave the stadium, the road is prepared and studded with helpers that tell you where to go. They are from different nationalities, men and women, and in general, all are smiling and joking. A great atmosphere. The ticket was installed on an App that detected our location and activated the ticket. We entered smoothly and enjoyed the perimeter of the beautiful stadium. Many stages with live music, food stalls, and places to take photos. Always with an abundance of helpers. Probably redundancy.

In the end, we were in the stadium to attend our first live world cup game. Big emotions and a nice coincidence that an Arab team was playing. The game itself was entertaining, except for the very loud Moroccan fans that started whistling every single time the Spaniards possessed the ball. This was tiring by the end of the game. I will spare you the football details. But Morocco won. A primer in football history that an Arab team makes it to the quarter-finals. Great emotions that were later dimmed by Switzerland losing to Portugal 6-1. We watched that second game in a hall of a hotel since we needed some quiet peace. At the end of the day, we went back to the fan village and lodged in our container, hoping to be shipped to dreamland preparing for tomorrow.

Love-hate affair with Egyptair

I flew today with my mom from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to Cairo on Egyptair. The trip turned out to be eventful. Pretty much like everything that happens in Egypt, I was reminded.
When I mounted the airplane, I found the crew very polite and friendly. During the flight, I found them going the extra mile to help the passengers to an extent that surprised me. I also wondered how they are not pissed off by the actions of some passengers that defy logic and basic social conventions.

During the flight, I saw a passenger addressing a crew member with urgency. I understood that there is a medical emergency since I remember seeing this passenger with her mother and her mother didn’t look very well. However, I stayed in my seat and waited. The Chief of the cabin crew moved steadily and hastily prepared an oxygen cylinder to go to the back where the “patient” was sitting. A flight attendant went back and forth to the patient and to the front of the airplane, and they asked for doctors on board. Besides me, there was a general practitioner. We went to the lady and examined her “shortness of breath” assisted by the cabin crew. We asked for the medical equipment that they have and were provided with a stethoscope, an electric blood pressure measuring device and a non-functioning device to (not)measure blood sugar. No pulse oximeter, which is the first thing I needed in this case. We examined the lady with what we had, and we were relatively assured since she was alert and aware. Later we discovered that she is a retired doctor herself. We landed shortly and provided a short written report to the crew and thanked them for their professionalism. In my heart, I praised Egyptair. Well, the meal was also not bad 😀

However!

With so many old and sick passengers onboard (there were at least 10 passengers in wheelchair boarding the plane), we found only 3 wheelchairs waiting to pick up the passengers. Then it took a loooong time for them to organize more wheelchairs, they gave up and just drove us from the airplane to the terminal. Still, no wheelchairs there. We waited a bit, then the customs-officer asked to stamp our passports and was kind enough to personally ask a worker there to get us a wheelchair. Meanwhile, I picked up our luggage (including our own shipped wheelchair). Still, no one showed up. So, I had to push the wheelchair with one hand and the luggage with the other hand. I was fuming and started stopping anyone who looked like working in the airport in any rank. No one seemed to be able to help. Until I found the responsible guy at the exit door. Kind of too late.

I contemplated. So much time was lost because of a simple protocol that I witnessed in numerous other airlines/airports. 7 wheelchairs in = 7 wheelchairs out. Simple information that is spelled by the cabin crew once they open the door or even before they land. It is all noted in the system anyway. But in Egypt, nobody seems to care.

So, I guess my conclusion is, the people are nice. But there is no system. No efficiency and no protocol. I am sending this post to Egyptair. Maybe it changes something. Oh.. and please Egyptair get a pulse oximeter.

Kenya 2022 | Day 10: back to Nairobi ❤️ 🇰🇪

I headed to my last breakfast in this hotel. There I observed the other guests: two Italian families with adults and a few mixed couples. This is a frequent scene in Diani, mostly older white people 👴🏻 coupled with younger black ones 👩🏿 . Somehow, when I see a single white man somewhere in the city, I think that he might be a fugitive. In general, Diani is a good place to disappear if you are internationally wanted by the Interpol.

I checked out and headed to the supermarket 🛒 to get come aloe vera to heal my burnt 🔥 skin. Unfortunately, there is no cream for the wounds of the heart 💔. Maybe only cream brûlée 😂😂😂.

Since the coffee in the hotel was the usual bad (horse piss 🐎 as my brother says, or aqua sporca as Andrea says), I decided to go for a decent cappuccino ☕️. However, Café Apero apologized to me because they had no electricity ⚡️ at the moment. I don’t remember having experienced this before, but I was also not surprised.

The zebra is eating fire and the lion is surprised

I took a small plane from Ukunda airport to Nairobi. This might be the second-smallest airport 🛫 I have been to, after that in one of the Galápagos Islands 🇪🇨 🏝️. We landed gracefully in the smaller Airport in Nairobi. I spontaneously visited some offices to inquire about some new adventure I am planning. Then headed to “Nairoby street kitchen” which I chose just because of the name! When I entered, I was welcomed by a modern and smart-looking young lady that explained the concept. It was a big hanger with many well-designed stalls, trucks, or vibe-full cafés. I was somehow euphoric by the modern design and the creativity. I love to see this in Africa 🌍 . There were also paintings displayed there for sale by local artists 🎨 . I wished I were a bit richer at that moment. I went to some stall and ordered tasty chicken wings 🐔 , as well as cassava roots (called Mhogo). I also found a huge bar on the rooftop with a big screen 🎦.

The African cup of nations ⚽ started two days ago. I have squeezed a couple of games in my not-at-all busy schedule, but today Egypt 🇪🇬 plays against Nigeria 🇳🇬 . I thought it would be cool to watch it with some Egyptians, so I tried to call the embassy in Nairobi. However, all the phone ☎️ numbers were out of service! This also didn’t surprise me! I decided to watch it in the rooftop bar. In that game, Egypt lost and I was sad/grumpy. The team’s performance was miserable. Maybe it is better I didn’t watch in a group after all.

P.S.: using emojis in this post was inspired by Cäcilia. I will probably not do it again 😀

Kenya 2022 | Days 6 and 7: Diani’s Animals and Meeting Theo

My trip to Diani, a little beach town on the southern coast of Kenya, was a one-hour Matatu ride. This ride was studded with observations that are followed by a usual question: why? Why is this cow here? Why is this guy collecting dirty draining water in a bucket? I saw so many wonders that I don’t know how to document here. Seeing Africa or India or countries with some significant amount of Chaos is something that can’t be replaced by stories.

I headed to the backpacker’s lodge called “Stilts”, which is located in the forest. As soon as I entered, I started seeing black-and-white colobus monkeys everywhere. They looked elegant and were around the whole place. I have initially booked a tent (see photo below) as a new experience for me. I have camped in my youth several times in the desert. Camping in a forest is novel to me. Jenny at the reception welcomed me and in the process asked me if I was “sure about the tent”? They also have tree houses. They showed me both options. While I was making the tour, I heard snakes. “Bakari, are these snakes?”, “yes, but they are the green ones, they are not dangerous”. Given the circumstances, I opted for a treehouse. Back to the reception where Jenny said “you don’t look like a tent person”. This is true. Not in a forest where all these animals can play tag with me. Well, I also discovered later, that the green snake is called the “eastern green mamba” and has a rapid-acting venom.

I would have slept there (Photo from booking.com)
but I slept here (Photo from booking.com)
because I was afraid of this guy (photo: wikipedia)
Colobus Monkey in the forest (photo from internet)
I took this photo

I spent the afternoon at the beach, mainly reading and interacting with the locals. I got twice the same comment that they were happy I was talking to them like a friend since many white guys completely ignore them. To be honest, I also understand the white guys. If you are asked 10 times in 100 meters if you want to buy coconut or souvenirs, you would also not be nice all the time. However, I spent around one-hour bargaining with Frank on the price of a coconut. Frank knew I wouldn’t buy it, I knew I wouldn’t. But I got the feeling that people here appreciate good fun.

At 7 pm daily, the Stilts backpackers feed bushbabies (Galago). What are these? They are some weird nocturnal animals, that have super-cute big eyes. They come every day at 7 pm for their usual meal, which are some bananas offered by the hostel and its guests. This was one of the cutest things I saw in a few years. However, we came to know that they pee on their hands. I am happy I didn’t touch them!

The night continued with me getting in touch with Hasani and Keisha, which I met in Nairobi. They told me about some beach party in the Soul Breeze Resort. I arrived earlier than them and was approached by Luciana, I think she was a prostitute. She asked to sit with me, gave me a couple of compliments and asked where I was staying. I said, “in a treehouse”. Do you want to show it to me later? I said “no”. After she was leading the conversation like a green mamba, I interrupted her stating that I was uncomfortable with this conversation and that she had to leave my table. I was soon rescued by Hasani and Keisha.

There we had dinner and bounced on the tunes of Afrobeats and came to meet more and more friends. After the party, we moved to another hostel for an extended party, where Hasani and I were literally the last men standing at 3:30 am. I think Afrobeats is included in my DNA.

During this night, I had the pleasure to encounter Theo, a Kenyan psychiatry resident on holiday, showing Diani to his visiting Nephew. Once Theo knew about me being a neurologist, we had a looooong conversation about the human brain and what makes us human. This was Theo’s specific question, actually. This very interesting conversation extended to free will, consciousness, and divinity. As Theo says: “choose a delusion and stick to it”. Theo told me about the difficulties of the healthcare system in Kenya. There are in total around 4000 doctors in the country, which is 1 doctor per 10,000 people! Just for comparison, Switzerland has 40 doctors per 10,000 people. We exchanged contacts, and hopefully, we will meet again in Nairobi before I leave Kenya.

The next day I left the Stilts backpackers to a 5-stars resort :D, I know I combine contradictions in my traveling as I do in life in general. But for me, everything makes sense. I spent Saturday as another beach day. Probably the highlight was playing a beach football game with some local tribesmen mixed with a few tourists. We agreed to meet again tomorrow.

Kenya 2022 | Day 4: AfroBeats

One very important thing that Africa represents for me is dancing. Therefore, I was determined to add a dance lesson to my experiences. Yesterday, I googled and contacted a music and dance school called “Kamata”. They kindly agreed to arrange a private Afro-Dance lesson for me today. So, after a good breakfast in ArtCaffe (the coffee there is just great), I headed to Kamata school. There was Kevin, my dance instructor waiting for me. We walked together to a nearby gym where we kicked off our dancing lesson. Kevin decided we are going to practice a choreography based on a Nigerian song called Dancina.

Artcaffe

We started right away, and I felt all the endorphins shooting in my arteries. At times, I felt out of shape and inflexible compared to Kevin, who is a professional dancer. I should not be too hard on myself! Move after move, I managed to learn something that I could practice back home. It was great fun. I will definitely add this activity to any travel I plan in the future. I leave you with the end result. Like everyone, I feel a bit embarrassed about the video. Sometimes out of rhythm, sometimes forgot the steps. But who cares, right 😀 ?

and here is a video from Kevin’s dance crew

After the lesson, I headed to Pallet café where I met Eva, a Kenyan girl who lives and works as a consultant in a famous company in Munich. Currently, she is on holiday visiting her family. We had a nice conversation about Nairobi and Kenya, as well as the contrasts between Kenya and Europe. Eva thinks that one day, she will go back to Kenya. I also mentioned to her my experience in the Kibera slums. She, too, thinks that despite the bad living conditions, the people there are happy and satisfied.
The Pallet café hires only deaf waiters. So, to order your food or drinks, you need to point at items in the menu or use sign language. I remembered a KFC branch in Cairo employing the same concept.

Enough Nairobi for now. I haven’t done almost any of the top To-Do’s for tourists but I have experienced something for now. I decided to go to Mombasa, either a 1.5 flight or a 5 hours train ride. I knew I wouldn’t manage it on time to the train station, so I went to the airport and booked the flight in the Uber. Only 37 swiss francs. I found it funny that the airline is called 540. That’s right, just a number. What is nicer is that the flight is scheduled at 5:40 pm :D. However, the flight was delayed. Since there were no announcements in the airport, I went to inquire at the gate and found the pilot chilling in a chair. He told me that we are waiting for the plane to arrive. I asked about the estimated time. He said, “Don’t worry man, I am heeeere! relax, Hakuna Matata!” I thought that is the kind of pilot I want.

Interestingly, there was no life-jacket on board. Instead, in case of emergency, one should use the seat cushion, hug it and jump in the water. I found the safety information card funnily showing a smiling black woman hugging a seat cushion. This probably represents the laid back African mentality. “Emergency landing? No Problem. Hakuna Matata”.

I landed in Mombasa and took a taxi to a nice beach hotel where I will spend two days enjoying a relative luxury. But, you never know how life events unfold!

Kenya 2022 | Day 1: What am I doing here?

Here I go.. Here I wander..
Looking for a moment, and a missing answer..
Will we ever fill the void?.. Is it time to surrender?

I booked my flight to Nairobi 4 days ago. Planing does not make sense in these times of uncertainty. I needed to travel.. I needed to travel far.

Don’t get me wrong. I love my life. I love where I am living, and I enjoy what I am doing. I have been blessed by being constantly exposed to sensible souls, brilliant minds and remarkable personalities. However, we frequent travelers are cursed. We crave for the new. I crave.. I crave for a change.
New destinations bring new destinies. New changes that, if you allow, could alter your being. Well, it often happens also when you are not willing to allow it. I didn’t really choose Kenya. It just happened. A combination of a reasonable ticket price, reasonable COVID restrictions for travelers, and the ease with which I could enter the country.

But what am I doing here? I don’t know. I just wanted to expose myself to the universe again and see what comes my way. I have always been fascinated by the concept of “initiative”. Someone starts something. It needs momentum and energy. It requires courage and readiness to fail. Whether it is planning an event, approaching a charming person on the street or just taking a new step. Introducing energy into a system usually generates some beautiful Turbulence: life.
Serendipity, a beautiful word that sounds like gentle, soft kisses.

This quote is also from “The Forty Rules of Love”

In this trip, I am hoping to encounter and challenge some of my fears. I am hoping to think extensively over the views of extended African sands. I am hoping to clean my heart from the entitlement and greed that creeps over it from luxurious privileged high standard living.
My companion on this trip is a re-read; “The Forty Rules of Love” by Elif Shafak. I read this book a decade ago, and it has changed many of my perceptions in life.

I landed early on the 2nd of January. Everything was smooth given my online Visa, COVID19-Vaccination certificate, and negative PCR test, I uber-ed my way to the Airbnb room which was in a quiet fancy neighborhood full of residential compounds surrounded by walls and having security guards on the gates. Sheila received me, showed me the tiny room, as well as the gym and swimming pool that belong to the building. Being in Africa, you come back to the reality that in most of the world things are not perfect. This is not the case in Switzerland, where perfection is constantly aimed at. Here the water tap is leaking unless you use higher power. If you don’t look at the street while walking, you are sure to fall.

I had a light itching that I attributed to my self-diagnosed dust allergy. So I thought I pass by the pharmacy and get myself antihistamines. While checking out I found out that the price is around 2500 shillings, equaling around 20 euros. I thought, how can the regular citizen afford such medicine.. What about antibiotics? You probably need to sell your kidney.. Wait.. What do you do if you need to treat your kidney?

I slept a few hours, went to a relatively fancy restaurant for dinner, and then headed to watch Liverpool game in a mall. People here are nice and friendly. They also speak decent english in general. In my first day, I have a good feeling about this country and its people.

AdhaMexiCovid 08: Mexican Paradise

Do you believe in paradise??

On Monday we went to Akumal, a beach near Tulum where you can snorkel and see turtles. Not far from the shore you can swim with the turtles in their natural habitat. Please don’t step on the sea weed because this is what they eat. I was partly struggling with catching up with our small group consisting of Marika, an older American couple and our snorkeling guide, Daniel. Marika was all the time checking on me to see if I drowned already! We moved from one spot to another sneaking to see turtles, sea eels, corals and colourful fish. I spent half the time trying to breath through this snorkling tube and the other half taking it off and catching air on the surface. I was, nevertheless, very happy with what I managed to see.

During this trip, I have collected a list of favorite Spanish words that sound nice to me. One of them is “chaleco” which means “life jacket”. Maybe not because it sounded nice but rather because of the number of possibilities it allowed me to expediences as a bad swimmer. My most favorite word from this trip is “cubreboca” which is the face mask that we are wearing now because of this shit virus. There is a nice musicality to this word. In Spanish, you can make things smaller by adding “ito” for masculine or “ita” for feminine at the end. For example, doctor becomes doctorito and means “little doctor”, sounds cute. I saw a grill bar called ” infiernito” which translates to “little hell”. I found the translation rhymes even better: ” little hell, BBQ and grill”.

This will be my wallpaper! Animal beach.

With two towels, not the traditional mexican clothes!

Marika excited about tasting tres leches. Kind of a habit since our trip to ecuador.

Tuesday started somehow cloudy and rainy, so we opted for visiting the Grand Cenote near Tulum. A very beautiful Cenote where many turtles are living. Here as well you can swim with the turtles and watch them in different sizes eating and chilling. I counted around 15 turtles chilling on the stones or tree leaves just above the water surface. This Cenote consisted of two parts connected by a cave that you can swim. But that swimming path passes under a lot bats. This part crept me out and I swam this path only once.

Swimming in this Cenote while watching the turtles made me forget life worries. They made me think of Paradise. A place where you are immersed in beautiful nature without worries. I this is not the big motivation I am currently a believer but at that moment i found the concept appealing.
In the afternoon we visited Tulum’s paradise beach. Sand, clear water, sun, palm trees and everyone having a good time. I decided, a regular visit to the seaside is mandatory to maintain my mental health.

On Wednesday we explored playa del Carmen. We didn’t stay there long though as we felt it was more prepared for American tourists. We had a quick meal and headed to Cancun and from there we took the ferry to Isla mujeres, which translates to island of women. A name given by the Spanish colonials upon arriving when they saw a lot of images of women. The images belonged to Ixchel, a goddess of childbirth and medicine in the Mayan culture. We had very little beach time before the sunset then we walked through the market Street with many restaurants. We had such a fine dinner at a good price. I am definitely going to miss the food in Mexico.

These three days of leisure have rejuvenated me. I felt ready to be back to real life after all these experiences but I didn’t actually want to! Well, we still have around 3 days more!

AdhaMexiCovid 07: The Mystery of Cenote and The Healing Curanderos

Sunday 21.02.2021

I went all in. I had a beef sandwich from a street-food stall and followed it with a coconut-juice where the seller used a bucket to get my portion from another container. I trusted the higenic standards in Mexico.

I rented a car and met Marika in Valladolid in a small restaurant in a small unspectacular neighborhood. Still, a lot of tourists passed by. We discussed about what to do. Marika has discovered some Mayan archeological site near Merida and was not excited about seeing more of the same. Chichen itza is the largest site in Mexico but I couldn’t convince her to go there. It was also too hot to be outdoor in that hour of the day. We decided instead to go to a nearby cenote. Wait, what is a cenote? I didn’t know what it was, Marika has visited one yesterday and she then explained to me that it is like a cave under the ground with water in it where you can swim. So we went and it was one of the highlights of my travels so far!
We paid around 120 pesos to access two Cenotes. The first was called Samula. With some wooden stairs you go through a hole into the underground as if you are going into a mine. The basic infrastructure includes also the mining spot lights. It was a big cave with crystal clear water and one opening in the top where magical sun rays sneaked into the cenote. It was surreal. Thankfully forced to wear a life jacket, I could compensate for my in-prpgress swimming skills. The place was mainly full of locals and families and only a few tourists. We took a few photos but I also leave you with a YouTube video:

We also visited the other nearby cenote which was dark and kind of creepy. Since these cenotes had been there for thousands of years, I was sure there were dead bodies underneath. If we were to dive deep enough, we would have probably collected some material for the anatomy lessons!! I actually guess not. Maybe the government has sent divers at some point to sanitize the bottom of the cenote.
The Yucatan peninsula, which is where we are now in Mexico, is full of these cenotes. It is thought that they are thousands connected by a network of underground rivers. It is still a mysterying how they were formed. One theory is that a meteorite hit the earth millions of years ago and created a big explosion and changed the geography of this place, and created cenotes. I chose the following two short videos as well.

We then wanted to go to Tulum, a paradise beach 2 hours from Cancun. But on the way back there is a small archeological site in Coba that we thought we could spontaneously see. As we arrived there and we parked the car in the empty parking meadow, another traveler told us that the site was closed and that he also missed the opening time. We chatted a bit and then decided to go altogether for dinner.
Our fellow traveler, M. from Croatia is travelling around Mexico then will go on his yearly trip to Peru where he studies in a jungle with the Masters of healing, shamans, using the “sacred” ayahuasca plant. He is an alternative medicine therapist in Croatia and believes the the plant has cognition. He says they believe that with the plant you have access to the knowledge of the universe and that through drinking the ayahuasca infusion, you somehow get connected to the plant and also get this access. This is supposedly a process that takes years and they have masters. In the therapy ceremonies, both the “patient” and the healer drink the infusion, then the therapist would be able to see the bad organs. They would even see to the vessel precision. No need to tell your story or your problem. They would simply see it. M. seemed to deeply believe in this. He says he knows many people who got cured after such treatment. We listened attentively to him in what seemed to be a lecture. He didn’t seem to want to know anything about us and focused in passionately conveying his ideas about the metaphysical world of ayahuasca.

We have no idea what cognition is. We have theories, but how we think what we think and our very subjective experience that defines who we are is far from being scientifically understood. Psychedelic drugs alter our perception of the world. Whether they pseudorandomly generate patterns of experiencs or grant us some access to usually-not-accessible inputs, we can not tell. I stay between my skeptical attitude of metaphysics and my personal experiences along with the experiences of some friends that are hard to explain with a sole scientific approach. Besides, who doesn’t like a bit of mystery?

M. told us we have to visit Chichen itza.

We bid our new friend farewell and drove to Tulum. A destination of breathtakingly beautiful beaches and good vibes. We booked our accommodation because it was supposed to be full of travelers, probably with many stories as exciting as that of our friend M. It was indeed full of travelers but mostly around 20 years old with many tattoos and half naked. I might be a bit judgemental here but they didn’t seem to be our kind of folks. We drove to a street food stall where Alejandro and his two assistants prepared us wonderful Tacos. The neighbouring stall with Goumi prepared us a wonderful quesadilla.

AdhaMexiCovid 06: The Magnificent Cañon del Sumidero

Saturday 20.02.2021
No rain today, so it is the Cañon tour day. The bus collected the guests from different hotel and we had a bit more than an hour ride. The group was an interesting mix. I spent the way talking to Jenny from Switzerland, Agnieszka from Poland and Harold from Sweden. We arrived to a small port where we took a small motor boat with a guide and we set in the river in the canyon for around two hours.It was a magnificent natural formation of two mountain chains separated by a river. You feel hugged but also very small and vulnerable. We are small and insignificant. Oscar our guide stopped in different sides to show us crocodiles, monkeys and stone formations. With strong wind against our faces and somehow cloudy sky, I was immersed in imprining the view in my memory. Since I also have trust issues with my memory, I took a couple of photos.

Here is also a video from Youtube of a drone-video of the Canyon

Canyon de Sumidero

I thought about all these years I have not seen such a wonder. First, I didn’t know where such things exist. I also didn’t know how expensive it is to get there. This is why I would like to share with you a simple plan to experience this. First you need a flight to Mexico. Either to Mexico City or to Cancun. From Europe the flights are very cheap currently. For between 300 and 400 Euros. Then take another flight to Tuxtla. Could be around 40 euros. Then get a couple of nights in a hotel or a hostel. You can easily manage with 10 to 20 Euros per night. The tour itself including the transportation, the boat and the guide would cost around 15 euros. When your eyes are happy, satisfy your taste buds with delicious tacos for between 2 – 4 euros. I think such a trip combined with all the things you can experience in this great country is something for the bucket list.

***

After the tour I detached from the group and took a taxi to the airport to fly to Cancun. In Cancun, I spend some time having action with taxi drivers that tried to rip me off. I was pretty pissed off when I went to my very cheap hotel. The hotel was so basic that they didn’t even have a lift. The poor room service lady had to push the cleaning cart on a very long ramp between the floors. I was glad that I didn’t have to do this.
I went to bed early that night. The next day, Sunday, I will reunite with Marika who has discovered Merida on her own and will meet me tomorrow.