The Silver Cities

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Mexico trip part 3!























Charm of the Colonial style

Moving to the south form Chihuahua made me realize how diverse Mexico really is. Next stop were the silver cities of Zacatecas and Guanajuato. I was still traveling with my companion Nicole, so we decided to travel in a bit more adventurous way. We hitchhiked practically the whole way form Chihuahua to Guanojuato. It was a new experience for her and I was a bit rusty my self, I haven't done it as often since I finished studying in Croatia (a paradise for hitchhikers).....but we were fine, we had just good and great experiences.





















Cathedral is UNESCO heritage site

Zacatecas looked the way I imagined Mexico cities when I was arriving here. We stayed at Hostal Villa Colonial and it was one of the best experiences I have ever had with hostels so far, I warmly recommend it to every one.





















The view from the hostel room :)
















After lazy morning coffes on the rooftop garden of our Villa we strolled down to the near by Cathedral. Our self (un)organized tour of the city included also a visit to Mina El Eden with an interesting tour (in Spanish) trough the silver mine that brought the wealth to this city.















You can just feel British humor bursting out of this picture















Teleferico (aerial cable car) took us across the
rooftops of Zacatecas

After two days we felt like it we've seen enough and moved on the next city, which I found to be one of the highlights of my trip.

How ever interesting Zacatecas was, Guanajuato made me fall in love with it. After just two days I felt like I was smitten by its narrow streets ,parks, markets, night life, and colonial charm. I started thinking about coming back here after my trip to Oaxaca and Chiapas and spending the rest of my time in Mexico learning Spanish at one of many local language schools. This plan changed but still remains as a possibility for my next visit to Mexico ;)





















Narrow streets of Guanajuato


Sadly, Nicolas and my paths parted in Guanajuato. She wanted to explore Guanajuato and the surroundings some more before her flight back to England and I was moving down to the south to Distrito Federal, called DF (de-efe) by mexicans, and to the rest of us known as Mexico City, the biggest city in the world!















The only way to travel Mexico!!!

From the Sea to the Desert

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Mexican trip second part!!!
















This picture is there just to remind me of the
peace of haven I found on my travels.....

Although La Paz was indeed a very nice place, with beautiful beaches, great hosts, nice night life....what can I say....it was all perfect, but the road was calling me.
I spent my last days visiting the beaches, and I was invited to go wake boarding with Noah ( a couch surfer from San Fran, currently living in La Paz) and his friends. We took the speed boat to the bay in front of La Paz and had heaps of fun trying to do all those nice looking things people do when being dragged by a boat with a surf board attached to their legs :)




























Wake boarding right of the coast of Baja California.
Here I watched one of the most beautiful sundowns
that can be found in Mexico (La Paz)


It was all fun...but I have a long way ahead of me, so on Thursday early in the morning I was on the ferry that was headed across Cortez sea.



Street taco stands, the place where people go for food hunting and gathering (Los Mochis)


I arrived in Los Mochis only to spend the night before catching the Copper Train in the nearby city of El Fuerte. This is one of the most beautiful train rides in the world. It takes you from the coast, into the mountains through Copper Canyon that is as big as 5 Grand Canyons and than further to the Chiuhauha desert, the biggest one in North America.




























Breath taking views of the canyon form the train





















In the rain with random french travelers
that flowed me on my Urique ride! (Bauchivo)


I stopped in Bauchivo where I was greeted by my first Mexican rain while waiting for a three hour jiggering ride to the deepest of canyons, the Urique Canyon. Urique is a God forgotten place in the middle of nowhere . The only thing that makes this place interesting is the ride here.
















The bus (that looks like an american school bus from the 80's with 4WD) takes you from an initial 1600 m to 2200m and then descends to a final altitude of 550m. The views are incredible, all that spiced with a (unreasonable) fear of the bus rolling over from the unpaved road, and cows running in front of the bus, and locals (completely uninterested in the show) with whom you share the ride that are scowling at the constant clicking of the (three) tourist cameras on the bus.




























The sun was not in a favorable position
for taking photos, but you get the idea :)

We returned to Bauchivo next morning and cached the train that would take us to Creel, My end station on Copper train. On the train I meet a cool English girl Nicola with whom I’ve been traveling since.
We spent two days in Creel in an inexpensive hostel called Margaritas (80 pesos for a dorm with diner and breakfast). I took the lonely walk to the nearby lake the next day . The last day there we tried to reach the waterfall , but the chain on the rented bike seamed to be having it’s last breath so we headed back after just an hour of nice landscapes….never did make it to that water fall…..















Exploring Chihuahua! :)

Next stop was Chihuahua, the capital of the Mexican state with the same name where we surfed a couch at Koko’s place. We spent the next days in Chihuahua guided by our great host. We met his friends at a Mexican birthday party (where nobody dances) and learned about his city, walking the colourful streets on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
I am now in Zacatecas, a silver city 800km south of Chihuahua. A long way to go in one day. Pictures and stories about it next time.

Warming up in Mexico!

Jel se sjecate onog crtica o dva zabca iz meksika
... kak su se ono zvali.... toro i.....????

So, I'm munching away my "totops" with "frijoles negros" (korn chips with black beans dip) in La Paz at the top of peninsula of Baja California, and the friendly ventilator is cooling the room to make it possible for me to write this lines.
I crossed the border and had to ask my self why did I go trough all that hustle with my mex visa when there was NO ONE to check my passport! The only uniformed people on the border were taxi divers at the end of the check point waiting to rip of american tourists.

The bus station was conveniently placed just 2 min walking from the border. I boarded a bus to Encenada and from there a overnight bus took me to to Guererro Negoro. I woke up one station to late and trough a funny turn of events...... got a ride form a crazy :) Italian guy who is trying to get to Argentina with his crazy painted car that has a horse head attached to his hood.
















Going to Argentina from Alaska? Need a ride?

I must have a lucky stare there somewhere because it was such a coincidence and so much fun to spend next couple of days with him. He was also on the way to the south so I jumped in to that crazy car. Just a couple of km down the road we took a right turn and ended up jolting for two hours on a rough road that was taking us to see the petrographics in San Francisco de la Sierre.
It was obvious that we would not get to La Paz that day so we stoped at Santa Rosalia, a small industrial town with black unsightly beaches, and spend the night in a very inexpensive hotel. At this point I was starting to get use to the new currency and the low prices in Mexico.
Next day we started early and made a couple of stops on the beautiful beaches along the see of Cortez.


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La Paz is the biggest city of Baja California, and it's lazy atmosphere is getting to me. Surrounded by the most beautiful beaches in the world and the geographical position that is basically, far form every thing makes this place a very laid back one. It makes you want to have sleep-in mornings, long morning cafes, go snorkeling and have a nap in the afternoon on one of those white sand, green sea beaches before heading out to the town for some margaritas in the evening.















....I was looking for : white sand, green see.
Chek!
Chek!

The nearest plans are still uncertain, but soon I will be heading to Los Mochis on the other side of Cortez sea and form there take a train trough the Copper canyon. Soem thig I'm very much looking forward to!















This is La Paz when it rains, people told me that
it's a standard thing to have roads flooded after
the rain...we are in the hurricane season!
I didn't even know they had hurricane season here!
I feel so american writing this.............

Good buy Gringos! Hola amigos!

Hello I arrived to San Diego, I'm at the train station (free internet yesss) waitng for my Blue line train that will take me to the border just of Tijuana. I will get on the last stop and walk out of this world and enter another kind of adventure.
I will try to get out of Tijuana as soon as posible, I dont intend to stay there for a night, not my type of fun...I will may be take an over night bus that will take me south to some where in the middle of Baja California, depending how fast the buses are. I havent made any plans so far on my trip and it turend out allright so I'll just stick to that maetode and see where it get's me!
I have seen just a small part of California, but I'm happy and content with the amount and the quality of my travels so far. I have experienced the San Francisco, LA, the desert in Joshua tree, and the Long beach life as much it is possible for one travel to do. I believe I have seen all those cities and things trough my and trough the eyes of my hosts, my wonderful host from Couch Surfing wich made this trip more intense, special and unfogetable.
I am endlessly graitfull to them!
You will hear form me very soon from the other side!
Yo viajo por Mejico!!

L.A. and the Joshua tree NP

My journey continues slowly but steadily towards the south. I'm writing you from southern sunny (not like San Francisco) Californian coast from a little place called Huntington beach, where I'm being hosted by a very cute couch surfer girl that is also, ah so topically for south Cali a surfer.
But first comes first......how did Ivan get a chance to go surfing for the first time in his life?!?!

After missing on my earth quake experience by a meter of hours, I arrived to L.A. to be hosted by a wonderful CS family. I stayed at Dianes place in Baldwin hills, a part of L.A. we europeans could call..... interesting. A topical (low higher income) type of a neighborhood by american standards (or "d h"). You get a feeling you dont need to go any where, because every thing is so convenient, so the human laziness kicks in. On the other hand, with out a car it's very hard to get any where in this huge city, so a lot of people don't actually go any where out side the invisible borders . Some would say the system builted it that way to keep the people in side those fenceless projects. That is from a European guy stranded in this big country, that I don't really understand, so I could be wrong but I know something smells rotten in Denmark......
Back to my travels......since Diane belongs to those people that are always full of energy I used that (and the fact that she has a ford van......a.k.a. "the boat") and trough CS organized a trip to

Joshua tree national park!

My first all american breakfast. Diane made

krapes (best ever!!!!!, bacon and egs for me. That is her in the

midle between Mercedes and Michael.

The party consisted of (all couch surfers) Diane (US), Tina (US). Joanna (NL), Derik (US) and me form little ole Croatia. We headed out to a one day trip in the morning. The road took us to our firs stop, the visitor center...

Joanna, Diane, me :), Tina, Derik......

You know that organisaton "Hug a tree",

I thik they are gona love this one.

two short hikes, including a cave style lunch in between...

By the end of the day we needed a good refreshment and cheap food (mex restaurant 5$) to give us the strength we needed for that last touch that rounded up what turned up to be a prefect day........Star Gazing in the Desert!!!!

Mexican restaurant before Star Gazing.

Next day I picked up my mex visa and did a short version of Walk of Fame on Hollywood blv. with Michael, the son of Diane. No other way to do it but to be guided by a local.....so much fun!!

Michael, the local on the streets of Hollywood.

Ivan, such a turist.

Mama ova je za tebe...Clark Gable.

One of the CS-ers on the Joshua trip, Tina, also a surfer (not the couch one, the wave one) lives in Huntigton beach, a nice town south from L.A.

Funny enough, exactly the thing that I was hopping to experience next.....one thing lead to another and I'm in now in south California paradise, the surf mecca, the sunny beach and all of the in a company of Tina, the surf girl!

Dave and Busters...the American way of fun!















Yes!!!! yes I did surf......this is me after getting out
of the water....riding the wave.......it wasnt a big
cahuana but a tree footer will do for a newbe...
(that's me using surf slang) lol!
I love it cant wait to go back tomorrow, I loved it!!!
dont mind the redness of my chest...I'll wear a suit
tomorrow :)
















I'm geting all americanised, this is called batting cage!

Tomorrow or on Monday I will probably be headed to Chiuhauha and that is where the exotic part of this trip starts!
that's all form me for now, you all take care!
P.S. I just got back form bowling. it might not mean much to my european friends but my american friends will know how good I was when I say that I got the turkey!!!