Key West is such a vacation place. Everywhere hotels, holiday apartments and pensions. Lots of people everywhere… At the beach I met that funny parrot hippie lady. She was chilling with her three parrots which I was able to hold for a photo. The parrots loved me since they thought I was one of their kind because of my green shirt…
After a few days in Miami mostly fixing my laptop and external hard disc problems we went to Key West. It is the most southern tip of Florida and the US. It has been a long drive yesterday and we arrived today early in the morning. It was crazy almost every hotel is booked out. Key West seems to be a hot spot in the states and I have to admit – I love this place. It has so many lovely restored historical houses and nice little shops and galleries. Hemingway had lived here for years with his second wife (her uncle bought them a house over here) and he had breed Six-toed cats which descendants you can still see relaxing at the house. I love the Audubon gallery where I got an original print as a gift. Audubon was probably the most famous bird drawer in the late 18th / early 19th century. I got even a book of him at home since the drawings / prints are so amazing. Basically they are as good as photographs since they had no cameras back then. Jon and I had met two crazy guys from around Boston and we went to a cruise around the keys in the evening.
candian phamcy Key West
Sunset Cruise
I am back in the US. Used my last free flight I had won last year. It was hard to leave Central America. It is so amazing over there and I simply love it. Luckily I arrived yesterday in Miami which is at least not as cold as the rest of the States right now. I am going to meet my friend Jon. Have not seen him for over 1 1/2 years so it is kind of exiting. He had organized this nice hotel directly at the Miami beach. Yesterday I just crashed in the bed so exhausted I was. Today I waited for Jon and then we had a pretty relaxed day just chilling and having good food.
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Just some chilling in Puerto Jiminez. My friends left today and before that we just checked out the beach for a quick cool down and swim.
Is it possible to live after being in such an amazing place? I guess. But Isla Parida is probably one of the most beautiful islands… Just a few impressions before leaving around 7am. So far this was one of the best weekends of this trip!
As Daniel had said yesterday we were picked up in the morning. Unfortunately my alarm went off but he was very kind and waited. I did not know what to expect but I had the feeling it would be wonderful, maybe like my so far favorite island Nananu in Fiji. From the mainland it took about 30-40min by boat to reach Isla Parida. The weather was great and the sun shining. The water glinted. I was so exited! And then there was the private island. Beautiful! Marvelous. Like a jewel in the ocean. From the side we arrived at to the other side Daniel used a golf cart as transportation vehicle. That was so fun! Especially cruising along the over 1km beach…
After inspecting the wonderful property I got to see the first time in my life pygmy marmoset. These are probably the tiniest monkeys of the world around the same seize of a tarsier maybe. They had three – two males and one female. And they had even a story: They all including another male belonged to a private zoo in Panama what needed to close. So the owner was looking for a place for the four. Finally they found one and all four pygmy marmoset were divided in two each between two new owners. Isla Parida got two males. And the female with another male came to somebody else… But the female behaved strange. People said every morning she was looking out for someone or something calling… Nobody understood what was going on. After six months her companion the other male died of a scorpion sting and the new owner suggest to reunited the remaining female with the two other males of Isla Parida who she already knew from times back in the zoo. And can you imagine what happened? As soon as the female met the two others she got exited and so happy. And it became obvious why she was looking for someone everyday – she had missed her choses partner! He was one of the two males of Isla Parida. When the four had been divided people did that just randomly without thinking that even a tiny monkey could have chosen a partner for life! So a big happy end for the pygmy marmoset couple!
Then I saw the macaws. The owner of the private island own over 20 macaws and lots of other parrots. They breed them and goal is to release the to Panama native macaws on the island. At the moment of my visit there were already a few couples flying around wild. Michelle a lady from the states takes care of them and brought her own parrots as well. It was an amazing experience to see these magnificent and intelligent birds that close. So wonderful. And each of them has their own personalities, habits, likes and dislikes.
Furthermore the owner had Panama deer, two females and one male. There were so tame that I could go close and pet them. I felt like in paradise sine I love animals so much. Close to the deer was the monkey tree! On that tree live five female spider monkeys. As soon as I entered the place one of them got very excited. Her name was Bella. She loved the attention and the cuddles. She was one very communicative monkey and all time she did a sound what was similar to the twitter of a bird. Another monkey was Lucy. She was curious and shy at the same time. Even while looking at her photos you realize the two different personalities of the monkeys. The other monkeys stayed on the tree. Outside the monkey tree was a kind of angry whitefaced capuchin. He was supposed to be caught and brought of the island because he was alone and aggressive. Supposedly he had killed a few tamarind monkeys. But he is just a very smart monkey and since he was escaped a trap he is now difficult to catch.
And if you think that is enough of overstimulation for one day – you are wrong!
With Daniel and his family I visited later the other side of the island or maybe just another island? I am not sure. Anyway at that place his mum and dad lived. It was beautiful! The mum had few wild caymans as pets who she fed everyday. Wow! What an experience! I had never seen that before but it was real! The place was wonderful as well and I really don’t know what was the best on that day. I have seen so many miracles… If there is a paradise it will look like Parida!
I am very thankful that I had met Daniel and for his great invitation to Parida. It was really one of the best things I ever have experienced traveling. For everything I had witnessed today one day was not enough….
Isla Parida
Pygmy marmoset
Panama deer albuterol inhaler
Spider monkeys
Whitefaced capuchin
The other side and feeding the caymans
Around the little island of Boca Brava are lots of other islands. New friends I had met in the guesthouse I stayed had organized a boat driver for today who brought us everywhere we wanted. I saw Dolphins and pristine empty white sand beaches. Just a wonderful relaxing sunny day.
I did not feel good today so my plan to explore the area in and around Santa Catalina failed. Still I got some pretty amazing shots from a golden sunset at the beach of Santa Catalina. Enjoy!
Yesterday I left Panama City in direction of Santa Catalina a little dreamy surfer beach town. It is so tiny that it has no ATM machines and you have to bring enough cash. Famous became Santa Catalina for hosting once the Surf World Championship. Every person in that little town had thought that this will bring lots of business and so they had invested in building more accommodation or buying more food to serve the expected thousands and thousands of guests. But the weather at the championship became bad and rainy and so very few visitors arrived to watch their surf stars. That brought many of the villagers financial problems since they had invested. Meanwhile the place recovers and starts to come back slowly. I stayed at Rollo’s Guesthouse in a two bedroom what I shared with a girl from Serbia which did not talk to me the first days… So today I went diving because the dive shops over here brag that they see the whale shark everyday. Funny when I went I didn’t see it… Also the owner of the dive shop was very grumpy and unfriendly and I ask myself how he ever could make business… He had a creditcard reader and when he had cash you could get it and he would book it plus 10% interest from your credit card. And since there is no ATM it was the only way to get cash over there… Still very unfriendly. The dives itself where not that amazing – I saw few sharks and a big school of rays. Lunch break was at Isla Coiba which is a national park.
Isla Coiba
Santa Catalina
My last day in Galapagos. These three weeks went by like nothing. I still can’t believe that I actually am on Galapagos. My childhood dream fulfilled. I’ve seen and enjoyed the enchanted islands. I dearly hope it will be possible to protect them and save this unique special spot of the world. I hope it will be possible to educate people to respect all living creatures and see them like our brothers. I hope that the guides of Galapagos will be more careful selected so that these arrogant kind of guides stay out. They just spoil the trips of the travelers.
On my last day I went with my Argentinian friends to Tortuga bay. I guess I didn’t mentioned before but if you wonder why there were so many Argentinians on Galapagos – LAN Airlines had a super cheap promotion. Only $300 there and back from Argentina inclusive tax!!! Back to Tortuga bay. Its definitely worth a visit even though you have to walk for about 40min from Puerto Ayora until you reach the beach. It is beautiful but I didn’t go into the water because it was still chilly.
In the evening I went to say Good-Bye to Santiago the tortoise and then I bought the most beautiful art to remind me on my trip of a lifetime to Galapagos. It’s unique and handmade out of potato starch and whatever else.
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