Johannes Leistner

In less than 24 hours I will be boarding a plane to Mexico City. Me and my girlfriend are going to do a three weeks backpacking tour through Mexico and of course we are already excited about it!

The trip will lead us from the vibrant capital Mexico City south to Oaxaca which is characterized by its rich colonial architecture. From there we will take another bus to San Cristóbal de las Casa, a beautiful city which lays 2.100 meter above the sea level. Next stop Palenque, well know for its Mayan temples or ruins better to say. Then we will make our way north east to the Yucatán peninsula.
Still not sure if we gonna stop in Campeche and Mérida before we will reach our final destination: the more or less laid-back Playa del Carmen. This will be our base camp for the last five days while we will be exploring the surroundings (diving, caving, a bit of beach-life, jungle, more Mayan ruins…)
It is planned to take a domestic flight from Cancún back to Mexico City and from there back to Frankfurt an the 18th of April.

I think this sounds like a pretty good plan and we both are very sure that Mexico is an extraordinary country to visit! Are you waiting for the “but” now? Yes, there is a small “but” or a small question-mark so to say. It is the safety question. During the planning process we spoke to many guys who have been there and read many articles. In terms of the safety aspect, the result of this inquiry is not satisfying as it is very ambiguous…
For example I heard one shouldn’t take the metro from the airport to the city as there are gangs specialized in robbing tourists in there, but if you want to take a taxi instead, watch out for the official taxis with registered drivers. Yesterday we heard the story that a guy has been robbed twice inside so called “official taxis”. This story is representative for all other stuff we heard…

Now I am really excited what kind of experiences we are going to make there. Starting off with too many stories is not always a good thing - but we don’t worry too much anyway. I am aware of potentially “losing” all valuables, such as my expensive camera equipment which is covered by insurance. As long as “they” will let me keep my compact flash cards I am happy - because I really wanna show you some nice photos afterwards…

¡hasta luego!

My last trip to Copenhagen did coincident with the COP15 summit which added much more interest to my visit.
I was able to be part of the main demonstration on Saturday, meet interesting people from all over the world which especially arrived for that conference and additionally the city was loaded with activities, actions and sculptures from various artists and organisations.

I especially liked the manifold art events of the SevenMeters initiative and had the chance to take photos of two activities near the Bella Center, the meeting place of the summit.
The photo on the left pictures the “Wandering Refugees”, three 10 meters high sculptures with copper faces and long African women’s costumes in shrill colors. They are put up on the savannah-like areas to remind us of female refugees in Sudan.
The other photo shows “Refugees in Water”, a group of sculptures in human size that are placed in the water ditches under the metro. They shall remind us of the rising water levels and the with it connected streams of refugees, which will be expected.

Unfortunately I missed the “Survival of the Fattest” sculpture which was located near “The little Mermaid”. It was meant as a symbol of the rich world’s self-complacent righteousness and displayed a fat woman (Justitia) with a pair of scales in her hand. She sits on the back of starved African man (i.e. the third world), while pretending to do what is best for him.

The aim of these initiatives is to put focus on the consequences of global warming through various art installations, which will highlight the climate change from different angles. Learn more about the SevenMeters initiative: www.sevenmeters.net

This summer vacation I spent in Norway again, together with my two flat mates Chin and Gerrit. Chin had joined our flat recently. He grew up in Asia and for him it was the first time to spend a “nature holiday” in Scandinavia. I was very curious how he would like the landscape there and would cope with the lack of people…
You might find it normal, picking berries and mushrooms while you are outside in nature, but for a big city kid from Kuala Lumpur (population of 7.2 million) it is a totally new experience! Chin got excited about all this free food to be found everywhere in Norway’s nature - but most of all he was amazed by the fact that you even can even drink water straight from rivers and streams!
So after all he did pretty well there and liked the place. But I have to admit that it hasn’t been a true “nature holiday”, since we had internet access. I am sure that compensated a lot for Chin.

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