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Egypt

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After my horrendous first trip to Africa when I went to Morocco, the worst country I've visited so far, I wasn't looking forward to travel to Egypt anymore. This was the first time I had no enthusiasm for going travelling and when we got there I could see the same poverty as in Morocco. Even though it was 04.00 in the morning and hard to see that much when going through the outskirts of the capital Cairo to go to Giza where the pyramids are located in the Sahara Desert. My friend Andreas and I would be staying at a hotel right in front of one of the seven wonders of the world but it was so dark when we got there and we were so tired, that all I could see was a top of one of the pyramids in the distance before we entered the hotel and got a room with a view of a wall in front of our window. The receptionist said there had been a crazy man staying in the room that was supposed to be ours so they needed to renovate it before we would be able to stay there, so we would have to stay
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Morocco

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 Hello Africa! Tell me how you're doin'? My friend Karl-Henrik and I arrived in Marrakech in Morocco at night after a long day of flying with a stopover in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. It was my first time in Africa and the last continent to discover if you don't count Antarctica. We were welcomed by chaos in the traffic where a guy casually ate a sandwich at the same time as he almost crashed his motorcycle with no helmet on his head. He then drove against red light, parked in the middle of the junction and then started to drive against the traffic. It turned out he wasn't suicidal, it's just how they do it here. When we arrived at the riad a guy quickly took my bag out of the truck and headed into an sketchy alleyway and I wasn't sure if he just stole my bag or worked for the riad. It turned out to be the latter one. We realized they have great photoshop skills in Morocco because the riad turned out to look nothing like the pictures. The linens were stained a
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Location: Marocko
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Panama

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I went out on the balcony of the cruise ship that would take my friend Andreas and I to the city of Colón in Panama. It's where the Panama Canal begins on the Atlantic Ocean side of it. Our plan was to change the cruise ship for a smaller boat and travel through the canal all the way to the Pacific Ocean, and end at the port of the capital Panama City.  I could see a lot of big vessels with containers heading from and to the small opening of the canal and it felt like rush hour for boats.  I wasn't that into going on the canal because it seemed more like something you should do, rather than something you will actually enjoy. But now that I was this close I started to change my mind. We jumped on a bus that would take us halfway through the small country, so we would be able to go through all the locks on the other half in the canal before it was time to be back at the ship again. Colourful houses greeted us in the cruise port, but as soon as we boarded the b
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Location: Panama
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Mexico

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Some countries have a lot of character and Mexico is definitely one of those. My friend Andreas and I were welcomed by a fake tourist town on the Costa Maya when we arrived by a cruise ship, but I don't mean that in a bad way. Some fake cities are awesome and some just have a hollow vibe, but I immediately loved this place when I saw it walking in on the long pier from the ship. It's like all of cliché Mexico condensed down into one small tourist place, and when you only got 1 day to spare in what may be the world's most dangerous country, it's perfect. We were greeted by people who looked like they performed a Day of the Dead ritual, a colourful mural, tequila bars, a mariachi band, taco restaurants and on and on. I was so intrigued to go into the small city, but we were gonna go by bus for an hour to visit the Maya temple called Chacchoben. First we saw a fake temple leaving the fake town, and I'm always one of those that sit and stare out the windo
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Location: Mexiko
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Jamaica

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The DJ in the cruise port of Ocho Rios welcomed my friend Andreas and I with Bob Marley songs, while overseeing one of the greenest islands from our balcony. I was eager to get off the boat to go to the nearby Mystic Mountain. Right outside of the port I haggled with taxi drivers, who tried to charge a too high price and told me to walk when I said I would pay half. When I started to walk he came back to me and said "OK the price is fine!". I asked if I could pay by card but I couldn't so he would drive me in to town, which was like 3 minutes away, so I could withdraw money, but that would cost me extra of course. They just tried to get every penny of me they could and I'm so bored with that. For me it's better if you act nice and then you can get a tip instead, instead of trying to take 40 dollars for a 5 minute ride. It turned out the trip to withdraw the money was almost longer than the ride to Mystic Mountain, so we should have just walked there. Especially
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Location: Jamaica
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Honduras

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Honduras is considered one of the most dangerous countries in the world, so my friend Amanda and I went to the safer island of Roatán outside of the mainland. We went there by cruise ship to have a VIP treatment at a private island called Little French Key, just off the coast of Roatán. We would swim with pigs, snorkel at the second largest barrier reef in the world called Mesoamerican, ride horses in the sea, get a massage on the beach, have a private area for ourselves and even a private butler and so on. We had really invested in this day to be the best ever! After a short ride with a minivan from Mahogany Bay to the French Cay, we got on the boat that would take us to the private island in just a couple of minutes. I hadn't been that impressed of the country along the way and now that I saw the island, it didn't live up to my high expectations. It looked alright, but not like the paradise I had seen in the pictures.  When we got ashore on Little French Key we were
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Location: Honduras
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Costa Rica

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My friend Andreas and I arrived at the port with a cruise ship at the second largest city in Costa Rica, Limón. With nothing much to see in the small city, which even the tour guide on the bus adressed, which is uncommon since they always want to hype their country, we headed out to the rainforest and the rescue center for sloths. I couldn't see any traffic lights on the roads and the guide told us they didn't need any, because the drivers would use eye contact when meeting traffic. Fair enough I thought and hoped to survive this. Since sloths are my spirit animal, I also just want to eat, sleep and be left alone, it was finally time to encounter them when we arrived. We were supposed to see the sloths, the infant sloths and then meet the superstar sloth named Buttercup, who had been with the sanctuary since 1992. Instead we got to see sloths in cages, more sloths in cages and then got the sad news that Buttercup had just passed away a couple of months ago. 
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Location: Costa Rica
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