I painted these sketches on my this year’s five month trip through Central America. The first country I visited was Mexico. As one of the most impressing differences between Mexico and the uncomfortable beginnig-of-march-germany I recently left, I experienced the vivid squares, where you can sit outside, till the late evening, watching children play and elderly people chat with one other. Later on the trip, in the middle of April, I spent some weeks in a Guatemalan family, where I learned some Spanish I badly needed. It was very recreative, to have a home again for some time, on the opposite side of the planet. Back on the road I went to Antigua, a colonial town, where you can visit enormous ruined abbeys. I spent a whole day there, searching for a post office, to send the handicrafts home that I had bought in Guatemala. In the beginning of may I reached the Guatemalan east coast. I spent a few rainy days in a hostel called „the roundhouse“, playing „risk“ with the hostel owners and other travellers, and discovered a highly enjoyable book with childrens poems of Shel Silverstein. In Leon, Nicaragua, I spent more time, than I wanted: While my girlfriend was sick, I had plenty of time to draw the hostel we lived in. In the end we were both happy to leave this place, heading south to Granada, from where we took the ferry to the amazing Isla de Ometepe. The only place I slept, that had a swimming pool, was the hostel „cranky crok“ in Costa Rica, from where I visited the Manuel Antonio national park. Unfortunately it was not possible to enjoy it the whole day, because we witnessed the first tropical storms of the rainy season, sitting dry on the roof terrace, and drinking coffee. Around the time of arriving in Panama I began to feel more competent as a traveller. I was calmer, but also less impressed of the beautiful nature and the foreign culture, than in the roaring beginning of the trip. At least I cured this beginning travelling-tiredness with a breathtaking and challenging sailing trip to Columbia – the last country on the list. In the cool highlands of Columbia’s coffee region I celebrated my birthday, and finally took the bus to Bogotá, from where I returned to Germany, to enjoy the last days of summer back home.
