Hola Froggie -

I will finally get to see your Darwinian ancestors - I actually did manage to get super-expensive tickets to fly out to the Galapagos islands tomorrow! My little whirlwind tour of Quito is coming to an end tonight; I went to the Center of the World obelisk at the equator for the obligatory tourist fotos yesterday and rode along the highest stretch of the Panamericana to see the Cotopaxi volcano today. And guess what... I am back here at Papaya.net and I am going out for dinner tonight with the smiling beauty from two days ago and her best friend. Welcome to Ecuador!

Heya Junior -
Hola from Quito in Ecuador, where 9300 feet is your daily base altitude while inside the valley of the city. I got here rather late this Saturday night, so I went straight for the night life in the capital's Mariscal Sucre zone around the corner from the place where I stay. Kind of scary to see numerous private security guards with full body armor and armed to the teeth with their beefy dogs in front of every bar and club here but, as I've been told, they are there for good reason. Strange how my effect on people is different from culture to culture - while in Colombia women couldn't care less about me being yet another gringo visiting their country; now that I've been in Ecuador for the past 4 hours it seems like I got them melting left and right with just a smile. I had the first phone number and date for tonight before even leaving the airport, I left the hostel together with two hotties from Guayaquil, and now in the Papaya.net cafe I have this stunner of a beauty queen smile straight at me while I'm typing this. Life is good, sometimes! Well, trying to think clearly - the plan is to ride atop (!) a train tomorrow morning to the Cotopaxi volcano, and then on Monday to snatch another one of those spread-your-legs-across-the-equator pictures. Hopefully, I'll also be able to get tickets for a flight to the Galapagos islands. Gotta check for real Kermits there! Taataaaa...

Heya KJ -
Doing business in Medellin today! Just kidding, of course... greetings from the former epicenter of all things cocaine, which today presents itself as a beautifully situated modern city surrounded by mountains - this already captures the essence of its problem nowadays, terrible smog. Other than that, I could actually like it here for a few days but I'm on the fast track back to Santa Fe de Bogota, a 9-hour bus ride away tomorrow. Later gator!

Hello Froggie...
I finally am Romancing The Stone, can you believe it?!? Greetings from Cartagena de Indias, where I fell into the honey pot of the City's maddest days of the year - the election of Miss Colombia. Holy cow, I feel more like a wolf locked up in a sheep corral here... the Colombianas are a feast for the eyes anywhere, any time, but put them into hot and humid Cartagena and they dress decidedly eye-popping, leaving nothing to the imagination. "Sin tetas no hay paradiso." (I didn't make this up; I read that on a girl's t-shirt written across her impressive assets.) Luckily, I managed to buy a replacement camera after Miss Digital Elph III had kicked the bucket two days ago, so I am back in business documenting everything for the next iteration of my globetrotting web site. The gigantic medieval walls constructed around the old center are quite impressive; I even managed to climb atop the largest fortress ever built by Spaniards in their former colonies. It's a bit more touristy here than in the rest of Colombia but the stunning colonial architecture alone is worth the trip, not to mention the fun night life. A couple more days here, then I will be off to Medellin to check out the core of the white powder business.
Tataaa...

Heya Kermit -
Well, there's good news and bad news, as almost always. The good news first: I am having fun, fun, fun!!! The bad news is that the Murphy Cam Law has hit me full force... my beloved little digital camera, one of only three items of nostalgia that have made it with me through all my travels around the world since the beginning of The Big One (the other two are my Amex and my Tissot), finally died on me at 13:03 local time on November 6, 2005. Rest in Peace! Looks like the CCD sensor got somehow fried after attempting to take picture number 23,875. I can still look at the first few pics I took on this trip but any new pictures I take look rather not-so-funny. The Murphy's Law part of the story is, of course, that this had to happen after leaving the cheap shopping haven that is the US of A, not to mention the fact that it had to happen the afternoon before a major public holiday here in Colombia, meaning I will have to wait yet another day until I can go shopping in Cartagena tomorrow. Oh well! However, I did get to indulge in two of my favorite travel activities yesterday: I took the funicular and cablecar up and down the Montserrat monastery mountain, and I obviously had to get on top of the Torre Colpatria to enjoy its spectacular panoramic views over downtown Bogota. Oh, and I suppose I should mention that it was the final day of the regular football (note to Americans: "soccer") season here, so a bunch of us went to see the Leones Rojos de Santa Fe de Bogota beat Real Cartagena at the electric El Campin stadium to make it to the playoffs - what a party!
Hasta pronto froggie.

Hola Junior -

It's been 13 months in the making... and finally I'm on the road again - greetings from Bogota, Colombia! This is what it's all about: Crazy zoo at the airport, hair-raising taxi ride to downtown, and cool people at the hotel. I'm just enjoying some R+R tonite before venturing out tomorrow morning to explore the city. It's a big holiday here on Monday (Dia de las Almas), so tomorrow, on Sunday, truckloads of people will climb Montserrat or take the cableway or funicular to the cathedral on the mountain top. I will have a look and then descent upon the city... the famous Museo del Oro is first on the list. Monday afternoon I'll be off to the north coast - my beloved Cartagena of Romancing The Stone fame. Woohoooo!!! Happy again, Matthias.

Yowza Junior - Wake Up! ;-) It's been a year since we last had a talk but Black Is Back... Hello again, dear frog. The obvious reason for my return is H3 - The Next Big One, my next globetrotting adventure set to get under way November 4, 2005. Gotta scratch that itch - time to travel again to far away places, not to mention to get away from all this cold and rainy madness in the winter of northern California. So, here we go again - probably not seven times around the world again but definitely close to two spins around this globe. I will post the latest plans at www.matthiasworldwide.com but most of the fun stuff (maps, pictures, stories) won't be there until after my return in March 2006. See you around!
- Matthias.

Hola KJ - back in Madrid! What a busy week did I have... returned from Crete to Germany and enjoyed mama's cooking for a few days before spending a fun night with my high school gang - class reunion after 16 years. Quite a surprise to hear the life stories of some of them, and funny to note that most girls were quickly turning into big breeders while most guys are still clinging to the life in the fast lane. Another great train ride followed aboard a tilt-technology ICE-T through many Germain mountain areas to Munich, where I obviously had few other reasons for being than the Oktoberfest. A quick side trip to Salzburg in Austria, and then it was again off to Madrid to put the icing on top of my round-the-world cake. For all of you in the know - I did get my new passport and I also managed to finally get my new US visas today... woohoo! Sunday it's back to California for my next round of dishwasher-to-millionaire attempts.

Once again, Kalimera - this time from the island of Crete. After my last post I did manage to get to Istanbul in Turkey, which is quite an amazing place for religious architecture, intercontinental river cruises, and fake designer goods on 1,000s of bazaars throughout the city. As I am not too impressed by all things churches and mosques etc. I took the overnight bus two days later to get via Izmir to Bodrum, only to catch a ferry to the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Yeah!!! My favorite past-time.. island-hopping in the land of Homer & Co. This year, I started on Kos, where I visited the ancient Asklipieion of Hippocrates, first hospital in the world and birthplace of modern medicine. Some beach time, then on to Rhodes to wander around this amazing old town of cobblestone alleys and medieval fortresses. I also made it to the touristy Akropolis of Lindos and the southern beaches of Gennadi, where I could finally escape the relentless crowds. A ferry at ungodly morning hours took me to Karpathos, half-way towards Crete. Climbing around the old village of Olymbos is nothing short of spectacular, with its isolated people and their strange customs providing the real traveling experience away from the beaten paths. Another beach-only day at Amoopi before I hopped on the next ferry to Sitia, Crete's easternmost port. More beachtime at the famous palm tree forest of Vai in the far east, then a day in Agios Nikolaos. I arrived at Iraklio today, main city of the island, and after all that island solitude this is quite the civilization shock here, with thousands of stupid tourists causing prices to be more than twice as high as in the rest of the Aegaean Sea. Nevertheless, I did venture to the Palace of Knossos and must say that, after having seen the likes of Pompeji and Herculaneum in Italy, I was quite disappointed. Anyway, more beach time tomorrow and on Monday it's back to Germany for a few days!

Kalimera Froggie - puh, the Olympics are over! I guess you knew that but here's the really good news: I am on the road again!!! I finally managed to escape computer slavery (talk about tuning a web site!) and armchair sports (thanks to EuroSport), so I made my way via Budapest (by plane) to Bucarest (nice couchette overnight train, the old style). Romania's capital is an impressive mix of huge tree-lined avenues and Ceaucescu-era monstrous communist buildings, none more overwhelming than the Palace of the People, the second-largest building in the world. A sweet first-class IC ride to Constanta and a bus ride later I found myself on the coast of the Black Sea in Neptun-Olimp, one of the old communist-era beach resorts with lots of concrete and not a lot of people these days. I chose the land border crossing to Bulgaria via Vama Veche, which forced me to hike for 6 kilometers (with backpack!) to the next village of Durankulak, before there was bus service to Golden Sands available. Boy, did I enjoy the beach time even more! Countless hotels hidden in a forest along the hills of the long beach, with endless bars and club options day and night. The nearby city of Varna was quite pretty, with many shady boulevards and a large center with mostly pedestrian-only streets. Now I am north of Burgas on Bulgaria's Sunshine Coast in the medieval town of Nessebar. Very touristy but rightfully so - basically an open-air museum of a small town perched on a rocky cliff island just offshore. On the way to Istanbul now, here I will arrive by overnight train (I love those!) on Sunday morning. More planning info on http://www.matthiasworldwide.com