Costa Rica
San José is as ugly as everyone says. But that’s where my journey started. Stepping out of the airport I felt so lost and insecure by all the men screaming `TAXI´ in your face. I can tell that this wasn’t the nicest start in a new adventure. Walking around not being able to communicate a word in Spanish I was happy to have had an offline map and a hot German model by my side who got the full attention on the street. After looking at some lonely planet routes I decided to head north to have some jungle experiences before going to the coast. I had only two weeks anyways before my volunteering at this eco-community started.
So there I was sitting the first time in one of those shabby buses. Next to me a really good looking English boy. With him I travelled the next two weeks actually, through this magical and stunning country. We really had a good time, a perfect combo between alone time and shared moments together. We visited La Fortuna and saw the first perfectly shaped Volcano, took a swim under a 60 Meter high waterfall and climbed up to a crater lake.
After that, we went to Monteverde where I jumped down 40 meters with a Tarzan swing at a zip line tour. There were so many moments at that point of my journey where life offered me to go out of my comfort zone and I was so willing to face a lot of new challenges. We had pretty amazing sunsets overlooking the hills of Costa Rica too. Highly recommended if you want to have an authentic village experience in a foggy cloud forest. It was there where I also met a fantastic human being – Luis – who encouraged me to follow my dreams and be strong enough to fight for them. Due to him I started making jewellery. He also encouraged me to change my name which I always wanted to do but never did. Until that day. Thats why I love traveling so much – because you can have life changing experiences on a daily basis! So yeah, hey you guys, I’m Witta! Soon 21 years old, dropped out of university after a year of studying economics and fully passionate to become a better human being every day.
Anyways, after Monteverde we went to the half island Nicoya. We spent some days in Tamarindo but that place is way too touristic for me and prettier beaches are waiting down the coast so why would you ever spend more than two days in the gringo town?! Sámara – halleluja – is THE place to be. It’s a remote fisherman town, quiet but still partyish. The waves are perfect to learn surfing (that’s what I did and daaaamn the girl balanced it out lol). I spent a week there and enjoyed every single minute cause everything is just really gorgeous. Than I moved to the community PachaMama and experienced seven weeks with beautiful people, howler monkeys and vegan food in an amazing jungle. This time was so intense, I learned loads and grew a lot. That’s why I don’t wanna write more about it cause it’s a long text by itself. Let’s say that: my inner journey was immensely pushed forward.
Since Costa Rica is so expensive – and believe me it really really is – I decided to go to Nicaragua right after my time in the jungle was over.
Nicaragua
After seeing San Juan del Sur for two days, I found myself enjoying the magical island of Ometepe pretty quickly. The vibe there is hard to describe. It’s an extremely laid back island, with only one big road, two volcanos and loads of cool people. For me, this island has an energy which no words can describe. Maybe the two volcanos, one active (fire) and the other one inactive (water on top) facing each other on this small island is the reason why you feel like in another universe. It felt healing just being in this energy. The situation in Nicaragua is really bad since April 2018 so the tourism decreased enormously. Even this small island, on the biggest fresh water lake in Central America btw, felt the political instability. Now it’s getting better but when I arrived there, I was the only guest at a BnB – which is really creepy when you start having dinner with the security man.
Anyways, I walked into this absolute awesome permaculture farm ‚Zopilote‘ two days before Christmas and stayed for two months. There I met so many amazing people, saw fire shows two times a week at pizza night, ran a hippie shop in an old American school bus, met my soulmate, got really sick, got actually some new tattoos too (from Saru – go follow her on IG she’s simply AMAZING!), went to my first cacao ceremony and ended up falling in love with a London boy with whom I started traveling afterwards. I had the best time OF MY LIFE. The only reason why I left was because every other volunteer left so it was kind of obvious for me to do the same. What is a beautiful place without its people? I cried hard saying goodbye to all the stunning souls I met there.
But at the same time I couldn’t wait to have some ‚vacation‘ in Manuel Antonio / Costa Rica (highly recommended!) for a few days with my new travel buddy. Back in Nicaragua we stayed in Granada and Leon for a while, enjoyed the colonial parts of the city, went on a lava tour on top volcano Masaya and enjoyed the cheap supermarket prices since we were traumatised by Costa Rica. Actually, we mastered fries with Guacamole. Just that you know. From Leon we shared a taxi to go to a beach party in Las Peñitas, which signifies ‚Small Rocks‘ and that shows pretty well how rocky the whole way was until we got there. If I’m honest: I’m not a big fan of Nicaragua. It’s not like the country isn’t beautiful or I haven’t made friends with some Nicos. It’s more the general vibe I got. I don’t feel any of their love to nature, to touristic sights or to any activity offered in this country. It’s like they do a volcano tour to earn money and not to show us travellers proudly their country with its amazing nature. But that’s maybe a side effect of the politics as well. Back in Leon we took a shuttle to El Salvador.
El Salvador
Picturesque hills, volcanos and lovely small towns flew along the bus windows. I fell in love with the country as soon as I saw it. Even so there’s a surfer town further south, we chose to stay in El Tunco for a while. This town is small but has its own unique vibe. I met really cool street artists there, tried to stand on a surfboard once again (waves are definitely not ideal for beginners) and got addicted to those milkshakes from the restaurant street. Since my friend got sick and we’d decided to stay at one place for a while anyway, a week passed by before we moved on. It´s so important to listen to your inner voice telling you when to get in a routine and when to move onwards. During this time I really settled in myself again and used yoga classes and alone time to release tension and inner conflicts. On a day trip with a scooter we discovered the other, smaller and less known beaches further up north the pacific coast. Still untouched and quiet, those towns are really nice to hang out if you’re looking for the perfect wave to surf and an empty beach to chill at.
In the huge and modern capital San Salvador a few days after – which is so different to San José big letters on that – we ran into this lovely Brazilian guy Irlan who convinced us to go to Honduras.
Honduras
Apparently Honduras is extremely dangerous to travel, with the highest street murder rates in the world, but we had the best time there I’m telling you! It’s not like we’ve seen the whole country, we just went to a few places along the Atlantic coast, but it was so worth it hallelujah! First few days we were hanging out at a Garifuna village called Triunfo de la Cruz. If I’m honest, we thought we´re able to catch some Rastafarian vibes and smoke good shit but ended up smoking the worst ganja ever and only got bitten by loads of mosquitos. The only two really good things out of Triunfo de la Cruz: Baleadas (Google it) every day and an address for some later adventure… our next stop Utila isn’t worth visiting at all, but it’s the gateway to the Bay islands of Honduras. It was my fist time at the Caribbean side of Central America guys but when I saw the prices to get a lift to one of those islands I was highly shocked. No way I would pay that much just to hang out at another beach for a few days.
So there we were hanging around in an ugly dangerous town in Honduras. Luckily we met Jo (bless you brother) who went out dancing with us and introduced us to Honduras famous Gifiti which is this kinda stuff you only drink with loads of group pressure lol (100% not tho, made out of roots). The other day while walking through the streets this crazy German guy in his Tuktuk gave us a free tour through the city and recommended a German couple with an eco lodge in the jungle just behind the city. So that’s where we went next and it became one of my very favourite memories of the whole trip!
Let’s have an imaginary safari through the jungle: starting with driving from the river bed the twist and turns up hill, seeing waterfalls rushing down the mountains and ending up in a jungle full of humidity and wildlife. The whole valley was unbelievable picturesque with a clear, blue water river in the middle. Highly recommended. I recharged my energy so fast by just being in this natural environment. This corner of Honduras is not really well known by Backpackers but that’s authentic jungle guys, so please drag your lazy asses from the islands up the river and find yourself again in this wonderful natural environment.
After this beautiful jungle experience we were able to message Bety, the lady we got the contact from earlier to visit Cayos Cochinos, a small island group next to the big touristic ones. And daaaamn those islands were sick af. No words can ever describe how Caribbean this was but there’re plenty of photos online of those tourists who are visiting the islands on a daily basis. Do you remember this kind of picture you draw as a child with a half circle on the bottom, a single palm tree on top and a happy sun in the corner? That’s exactly what I’ve seen there. Crazy right? So yeah, the island is as big as your potential living room, with a few families living on it (which feels wrong to write since they all behaved like one big fam) and a bunch of fishing boats delivering lunch and dinner from the sea directly on your plate. We spent a night there and it was the first time (hopefully not the last) I’ve ever slept in a bed placed on sand, maybe two meters above sea level. Water? Turquoise, all shades of blue and white. Sky? Bluer. Sunset? Pretty neat. La Gente? Fiesta.
Guatemala
A few days later I was looking out of a bus window, completely in awe about this huge, modern and bright capital laying before me between all the surrounding mountains. Guatemala City is the biggest city in Central America and gave me a bit of a home-feeling just because some parts are really westernised. Wouldn’t skip it though since there are quite a few things to visit. It got pretty tiring for me to get stared at in all the small villages and towns we visited before, I felt literally exhausted being the foreigner or the white chic – maybe that’s why.
Antigua on the other hand, is a whole new level. My friend was talking about this place the entire trip and I couldn’t wait to see it. It´ s like another world. Every hostel there, every hotel or restaurant and even the stores and shops are so fancy and fashionable that you think you’re in a different country. The houses are colourful and go back to the colonial times. Since I couldn’t go on the famous Acatenango Volcano Hike ( everyone is telling me it´s the best part of their entire trip so I definitely missed out on something right there) cause I twisted my knee, I went to Playa El Paredon on my own.
But guuuuys, this playa is bombastic! I loved everything about my stay there. The alone-time was badly needed. Travelling with someone for over a month who you´re getting to know while being on the road together is sometimes exhausting and therefore we both appreciated the time apart. El Paredon is a remote town at the pacific ocean with amazing waves to surf and a really clean, long and empty beach to chill at. I stayed at the Cocori Lodge which I enjoyed a lot since I had a beautiful dorm to sleep in, yoga classes in the afternoon and good conversations at sunset. I connected deeply with myself again by just walking on the playa, writing in my journal and running into mother ocean. Decide consciously sometimes to connect with yourself again, it makes everything in your life way more aligned! Exercises on a physical level can help you to get rid of blockades on a mental level. Thats at least something I realised at this point of my journey. The funny thing is that 50 meters next to where I stayed, there´s this party hostel where everyone is just going wild. So I´m sure other people would tell you a whole different story about this beach than I did.
After meeting up with my friend in Antigua again, we took one of those colourful chicken buses to go to THE lake. Lake Atitlán is a place in Central America as well that everyone you meet is in love with. The stories about it sounded so magical and promising. And yeah, it is magical and promising indeed. Still, you come with expectations to a place and of course they never gonna live up to the fantasy stories in your head. What you can be sure of is that the energy there is extremely healing. My only explanation for that is once again the location and the influences of all natural forces. Lake Atitlan is a crater lake between three volcanos and high up in the mountains. Around the lake you can find hundreds of big, beautiful houses which definitely don’t belong to the locals, just saying. There are loads of towns, many of them have a `san´ in their name which shows that the christians back than must have found it there healing as well.
San Marcos and San Pedro are the towns worth visiting. The famous (fake-) hippie town San Marcos had exactly the vibes I was looking for. Vegan restaurants, health stores and all kinds of healing centres make it to an alternative place in the whole of Central America. We got to the last Sun Dance Festival in the season which was just awesome you guys! Psytrans music with an amazing view over the lake, a cacao ceremony and my first Tarot reading (happens in Eagels Nest, go check it out). If I´m honest, I was really looking hard for an opportunity to get some clarity and healing. Despite all my prayers, the universe didn’t give me a single glimpse of an opportunity. The reason why I was going to discover later on. Anyways, something pushed me to move forward. I left my friend, with whom I travelled with over a month, at the lake after a week of relaxing there. No kambo, no sound healing therapy, no body cleanse.
A really frustrated and sad version of myself started to travel alone again in big, big Guatemala. Next destination: Semuc Champey. Jeeees, the journey to this place far away in the highlands of Guate was something else. But I´m glad I went there. Cause its another paradise. I actually thought about the expression `paradise-hopping´ for a while. Pretty neat, this expression. So anyways, Semuc Champey is this natural pool thingy where a river decides to go underground for a while and water pools got built on top of it; the water is crystal-clear and deeply turquoise. The landscapes on the way there were MIND BLOWING. Picturesque hills, green jungle and small valleys with a river and a few houses. Heaven. After being in this area for a while I made my way up to Tikal.
The first time I saw Maya ruins. I must say its extremely interesting and fascinating! But just the beginning of a whole mayan world which I´ ll save for a next travel where I just discover the mayan empire. Thats one thing I really like about Guate, that the ancient culture is still super present in day to day life with their traditional cloth they wear and all the different dialect they speak, just to name a few impressions. Tikal has loads of mayan temples and a whole city structure deep in the jungle. The tour through the area was informative and funny but still you can´t understand a culture and their spiritual believes by just looking at ruins. And the mayas had so much knowledge guys. They were so connected with the divine, with nature and the universe. I wonder how it´d be to meditate on one of those temples? I never tried.
With one of those touristic shuttles, which are so not for a real backpackers cause you got from one hostel delivered to another and don´t have the whole travel experience in between (lets just leave it like that I could write worse stuff here), I drove through Belize to my final destination:
Mexico
Half a year on the road guys, I felt super tired travelling. I just wanted to stay at a place, relax, enjoy the sea and the sun and get brown before catching my flight back to Europe. First stop in Mexico: Bacalar. Its a little town by a lagoon with the most bluest water I´ve ever seen. Extremely beautiful and this immense beauty helped to kinda relax a bit and slow down my travel urge. I was lucky to meet amazing people there with whom I went on a boat trip around the lake. Definitely one of the my highlights on this trip!
Since it was quite expensive there I went to the next spot up the coast of the Yucatan half island. Tulum is similar to San Marcos, a place for alternative people but has a local vibe too. You have this one big road with all the shops, bars and restaurants and thats what everyone is basically interested in. Super touristic. With a bike you can have a 20 minutes ride to the beach where you can see other Mayan ruins and loads of seaweed. You know how shocked I was? I left Guatemala to have a nice, cheaper option to chill by a Caribbean beach and found a coast line full of fuckin sea weed. At that point I was like ´yap this whole plan for your last month of travel was one big fail`. Desperately I was looking for a volunteer job at one of the thousands hostels in Tulum but couldn’t find one (lucky me in a later perspective). So yeah, there I was no clue where to go and what to do. Its really easy to go around in Mexico with those Collectivo buses so I just took one to the next famous beach town Playa del Carmen.
Everyone talked bad about this place but as soon as I stepped out of the bus and walked towards my hostel I kinda started to fall in love with this super modern, touristic and expensive piece of Mexican land. The hostel I choose to stay in over the weekend was the hostel I got my volunteer job. Its called ´Hostels on the Road` and its owner is an amazing man who not only helped me out but answered some questions I carried in my soul for a long time. He was a medium too like Luis who I met at the beginning of my journey and made the end of my trip a perfect experience. Finally I got the opportunity to get in a routine and do nothing but relax and enjoy the last weeks of Mexico.
How my routine looked like: Wake up, go to a yoga class, have breakfast, enjoy the sun at the beach (and forget about the smelly sea weed) and than go to work in the afternoon. I met wonderful souls there. My volunteer team was fun and the guests as well. With David my funny mate from Australia, who loved us as much as we loved him and stayed over a week at our hostel, I went to a festival called ´Art with Me´ in Tulum (highly recommended). Jees, it was WICKED! Not only experienced we all kinds of art and enjoyed the day at the beach but also went to the concert of my favourite artist. The whole day was really beautiful but if I´d have to name the highlight I´d say as awesome as the concert was so was the beach party before that, where you just felt so connected with everyone. All people there were pure love vibration, we danced in one big circle, cheered for the same thing. Hard to describe in words.
Anyways, the weeks in Playa del Carmen went in a flash and soon I saw myself saying goodbye to my friends cause I had one last stop before my flight…
My soul sister Bini had her flight from Cancun too, exactly one day after mine (coincidence? Lol, hell no, universe is genius). I met her at the beginning of my trip in PachaMama and I was blessed enough to meet her again in the very end. We spent three magical, healing and reflecting days on Isla de Mujeres. With her I see the magic in life with every step I take, in every corner I look. I had forgotten how beautiful it is to be around her and why I called her `soul sister´ at the first place. But as soon as I saw her again, it all came back. Moreover, I realised so much more, for example why I didn’t find a healing opportunity at lake Atitlan. Universe brought us two together and you guys, when we are together there is so much clarity and healing happening – wow! I reflected a lot of my journey, recharged my energy for all the difficulties I was facing flying back to Europe and was three days just full of gratitude.
Gratitude is actually the state in which I wanna end my Central America story telling. All the experiences I was allowed to make add up to sheer gratitude inside of me. My heart is wide open, my mind calm. Even so I had a long outer journey, I must say that it is the inner journey of mine which makes it to an unforgettable part of my life.