Along with the Festival of San Juan comes another weird tradition. Just as the one with the bull penises, this one is said to have come from Spain. I went there with our cap driver Donaldo and at first it looks like a regular old fair. But then I saw the horses, a guy with a weird metal glove, and a duck dangling high in the air, hanging from his feet with a shaven neck looking utterly confused.

Long story short: It’s a game on horses and it’s all about the ducks. The guys - and girls - gallop on the path underneath the duck and try to rip its head off!!! Most of them bare handed - I only saw one guy with metal glove. I don’t know how the duck feels about that and I don’t know how long it takes till they are succesfull and the poor fucker is finally dead. I did not stay for the spectacular. Just snapped a few pictures of horses and ducks and then got the fuck outtta there…

The whole scene reminded me of the phrase that Marty and I keeep for the worst occasions: “Fuck a fucking duck!”

Peace!

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Our driver Donaldo took us to San Juan. We had heard there was a church festival taking place and we wanted to check it out since we had heard the weirdest rumors about what was going on - something involving penises…

When we got there, everybody was stil inside the church, so we went to a shop were they are selling ceramics and we were allowed into the back and check out the process of making the pottery. Very interesting and I just loved the intricita patterns and bought 3 beautiful bowls - all of which I then broke in Costa Rica….

We then walked the village and found people playing at a tiny “ring-the-bell” game. Thomas and I played and I won a little cruzifix while Thomas won a pretty hairclip!

People were at ease with being photographed. Some even demanded that their picture be taken. Otheres did not appear to be so keen and needed persuasion from their girlfriends - maybe it was the teeth?

Finally the church doors opened and the procession came out. They carried a couple of statues down the street and were lead by a bunch of guys with swords and a guy in a horselike costume.

Now I’ll fill you in: As I was told, it is a Spanish tradition - weird people these Spaniards - guys (and girls, but I didn’t see any) go at each other with sword-like thingies, that are actually dried bull penises. They really beat the shit out of each other and the bull penises leave marks and sometimes even scars. The horse-guy is there to go inbetween them and split them up if it gets too vicious. Holding up your arms and giving up also should stop your opponent.

That doesn’t always work though. I saw one guy hitting another with such fury, I wondered what that dude had done to him. He sent horse-man and a couple of other people flying, who had tried to split them up. They had to practically peel him of the other guy…

The guy in black is supposedly the best bull fighter in town and treated with much respect - still being challenged at every other street corner though. And don’t think you can just grab any old bull, chop off his penis and join in the play - nooooo! You need to apply for it and then the bull penins maker will handle the process and it has to be brought to the church to receive a blessing and all sorts of things. Crazy shit going on in Nicaragua!

HIT ME BABY ONE MORE TIME!!!

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When I got to Nicaragua, I spent a couple of days in Leon and Granada. Both beautiful towns, but I was tired of towns and hostels. So I went to a nice little hotel called “Crater’s Edge” at Laguna de Apollo, a crater lake. It was absolutely peaceful there. I went swimming all day long. The people were friendly and the food was excellent.

One night, Donaldo, the cab driver who works for the hotel, took us up to the volcano “Volcan Masaya.” Great trip! You get to see the smoking crater of an active vulcano and a wonderful view,  you get to hike some caves and see lotsa bats shooting out of one of them - sorry, have no good photos of that! Then, at the end of the trip, when it’s dark, you get to see the glowing lava at the bottom of the crater.

It’s a great trip, you should definitely hit up Donaldo when you get there. He does other tours as well, but that’s another story…

Peace!
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Ich bin heute etwas quengelig. Sitze seit 3 Tagen im Pizza Hut in Tegucigalpa und arbeite vor mich hin. Ich habe einen aufgeblähten Bauch, seit einer Woche Durchfall und mir tränen die Augen von der AC. Eigentlich wollte ich nochmal tauchen gehen, aber die Zeit läuft mir davon. Ich habe nur noch 5 Wochen und habe noch so viele Länder vor mir. Vielleicht muss ich Panama einfach ausfallen lassen und dann nächstes Mal in Panama anfangen. Mal sehen.

Die Leute ziehen sich hier schon zum Frühstück die Belege rein das es die wahre Pracht ist. Ich habe gerade ein etwa 4-jähriges Mädchen dabei beobachtet, wie es 5 Minuten gebraucht hat um ihren total übergewichtigen kleinen Körper auf die Sitzbank zu manövrieren. Grausam!

Hier gibt’s ne Salatbar und daher bestellen sich alle die Combo mit Salatteller. Echt besser als Fersehen, den Leuten zuzukucken, wie sie kleine Mengen Gemüse und Unmengen von gekochten Eiern, Kartoffelsalat und Nudelsalat gekonnt auf ihre Teller türmen wie kleine Pyramiden - das ist echter Sportsgeist!

Wow, 4 Wochen kein Eintrag! Na da habe ich dann wohl mal Urlaub gemacht

Naja, zumindest auf Caye Caulker. Danach war ich 2 Wochen in San Salvador, wo ich viel gearbeitet habe und außerdem viel Zeit auf dem Klo verbracht habe.

Jetzt bin ich in Tegucigalpa Honduras und werde versuchen euch upzudaten und meine Fotos hochzuladen. Habe heute den ersten Teil meines Belize Artikels auf www.redbullbcone.com gepostet, solltet ihr mal lesen.

Peace

Nika

The first international Hip Hop Festival in Honduras was da bomb!!! During the day the festival was taking place in the National Library of Tegucigalpa. People were just jamming and throwing down. And after a while, Milo and Manyu gave workshops. They gave 2 different workshops at the same time in the same room! That was the first time I saw something like that – surprisingly – it worked!!!

There was a graffiti presentation going on in the hall and then the MC shows started. Lots of different talent was displayed – guys, girls, kids, and a crew that mixed their Garifuna heritage into the Hip Hop – a GUY!!! shaking his booty for once – I was happy!!!

At night, when I got to Bar La Caramba, the guys were on TV again – this time it was a big TV station, not like the little place that we went to the night before, where the guys actually managed to wreck the scenery as you could see in one of the pictures.

At La Caramba, there were B-Boy Shows, more MCs, and two really good Beatboxers! One of them was Tiux-Machine http://www.myspace.com/tiuxmachine Quite a show! And TV was also there again. I had the feeling Coco, the promoter of the event, is pretty organized when it comes to media presentation, which is very important! I didn’t see anything else in Honduras apart from Tegucigalpa, where after the event, I stayed for a couple of days to work in the Pizza Hut…

There is a lot of gang crime in Honduras as well. Tegucigalpa lies on one side of the river Choluteca. On the other side of the river you find the city Comayaguela, where according to my taxi driver every family has at least one member in the Mara Salvatrucha.

In 2002 in the city of Tegucigalpa in the Honduras, MS-13 members boarded a public bus and immediately executed 28 people including 7 small children. They left a message written on the front of the bus taunting government officials.

I liked Tegucigalpa as a city, would have loved to explore it more, but hey, a girl’s gotta work! But I know that Honduras is a beautiful country, I went to Roatan and Utila, two of their Carribean islands a couple of years earlier to scuba dive! Wonderful dive grounds and really cheap. I will definitely be back to check out more of this wonderful country and I really hope they get that stuff with their president sorted out soon. Well, I will ask the guys in Honduras what they think about that situation and keep you updated!!!

Peace!
Nika

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On June 12, I went to the first international Hip Hop festival in Honduras! I went to the bus station in San Salvador where I was supposed to meet with a whole bunch of guys from El Salvador who’d also go to the festival. They have all these flyers up all over Central America educating you about the swine flu and teaching you how to cough – into your hand or into your shoulder – that’s right – not into your neighbours face…

At the station I met DJ Flako from Guatemala. We started to talk cuz we had the same sticker on our luggage – from ZOAD in Guatemala. Flako used to live in Cologne and speaks perfect German, a language that I hardly ever got to speak on this trip.

When we arrived in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, the guys started to cover each others shirts and the local bus station in tags. From the bus station we were ferried to a radio station right away, were the guys did some promotion for the event.

Right after that, we drove to a TV station where we had lots of fun fooling around. We had quiet a bit of time, as the presidents car had just gotten attacked and they needed to cover that first. Yes, the same president that got thrown out of the country a couple of days later. And yes, as you can see in one of the photos, they actually dragged me in front of the cameras – as it was life, I couldn’t really bitch about and refuse…
So hey, I actually was on TV in Honduras!!!

Peace
NN
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On June 6th, there was a concert in a club/restaurant called La Luna, which was in walking distance to my hostel. I went there with Milo aka Lil’ Boy and old-skool B-Boy Gideon. Milo introduced me to the manager of the Club, Kike Huezo and told me that Kike had been the first one to organize a B-Boy battle in San Salvador.

Lots of talented rappers on that stage! I was impressed! It is such a small country, but has a really lively Hip Hop scene with great artists. Unfortunately El Salvador does not have a single female MC though!! That has to change girls!!!

That day there was a big soccer game between Mexico and El Salvador. One of the Mexican sports reporters had said “El Salvador no existe!” – “El Salvador does not exist!”

A cry went throughout the nation! The press in El Salvador was going mad. Street vendors sold face masks in the Salvadorian colours – mocking the Mexicans and their swine flu—and guess what—El Salvador kicked ass! The pupusas did beat the tacos! So lots of flags all over town and also at the concert. Congrats guys!

After the show was over, the B-Boys threw down on stage and even Kike got up there to show some popping and locking!

Peace!
Nawtee Neek

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San Salvador is bombed! And I don’t mean only tags and throwups, I am talking pieces everywhere—and not just legal ones. There is a strong writer scene going and there definitely is a lot of talent out there in this tiny country! I didn’t take many pictures cuz I mostly saw them flying by from a bus or cab, but hell ya, that shit is bombed!

And it’s not for lack of threats either! Because of the gang problem and all the gang graffiti, they really tightened the graffiti laws. You can actually go to jail for 5 years when caught bombing! Most cops realize though that these kids should not be in jail for 5 years—especially not with the gang members—so what they do instead of taking them in is teaching them a lesson—being caught for graffiti in San Salvador, chances are the cops will give you a nice beating or cover you in spray paint from head to toe, face, hair and everything. Rough manners, but I guess everything is better than being in a Salvadorian jail! If you wanna know what it looks like inside, check out Ross Kemp’s “Gangs in El Salvador.” Not the place you’d wanna be!

The day after the dance battle a graffiti battle was being held in the skate park Parque Balboa. Because of being really really hungover, I got there late. It was actually already over and the guys from Guatemala were throwing T-Shirts into the crowd – damn, I didn’t get one – shoulda been on time! Since the jam was over, I hopped onto a pickup truck with a bunch of writers and went back into town. Part of the crew was DJ Freddie B from Guatemala, who had been a very successful DJ in LA and now moved back to his home country. He was supposed to DJ at an event this evening, but the event got cancelled – don’t ask me why…

We went to eat and then to a shop called “Brooklyn Bridge” because the writers from Guatemala wanted to go shopping there. Boy did they have nice stuff – I bought tons of bling – 4 necklaces to be exact. Well, hadn’t really bought anything before, so gave myself the ok! The shop is in the Metro Centro – it’s a huge mall, ask for it if you’ll ever be in San Salvador!

After the compulsive shopping spree, we went to Oscar’s house for a private party. To lessen Freddie B’s frustration, the guys set up the players and Freddie was rockin’ da house and boy did he ever DO rock the house – a small one, but nevertheless, we all enjoyed it very much. And hey thanks guys, I got some really nice black book scetches! Check out the one I got from Hobbes!

I had a great night with everybody and hope I will be back soon!

Shortly there will be an article about El Salvador on www.redbullbcone.com!
Check it out!

Peace!
Nika

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I know you don’t hear much from me anymore. That’s because I am getting to the end of my journey and am a little stressed out with travelling

Will try to update you about where I’ve been asap, but it will be very short info.

OK, here we go:
El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America and the most densely populated one. I reached the capital San Salvador on May 28 and the capitol is pretty much all I saw cuz apart from checking out the Hip Hop scene, I spent 5 days at my computer to get some work done and 5 days in the bathroom cuz I got some stomach bug which later turned out to be a parasite…
And then I had to leave because I did not want to miss Honduras’ first international Hip Hop festival – but that’s another story…

Wow, San Salvador! I was welcomed so warmly there! When I got to my hotel, I contacted Milo aka Lil B-Boy, who I had been in contact with since Guatemala. Milo does a lot for the scene. He organizes events, networks with other countries, gets gigs abroad for the Salvadorian B-Boys and in his workshops he not only teaches breaking, but also talks about the history of the culture—he really sticks to the “each one teach one” mentality of Hip Hop. Milo also has the one and only Hip Hop website of the country, www.expresionurbanasv.es.tl which he made entirely by himself. Respect! So like an hour after I arrived at the hotel Milo and Manyu showed up and welcomed me to their city.

On Saturday they picked me up to go to a battle at ROQUE DALTON TEATHER. Great event!  Check out the flyer! I love how here in the Americas they spell the English words the way they would be spelled if they were Spanish!

They hold these events monthly, so the B-Boys and B-Girls have something to practice for. They had a one-on-one B-Girl battle, won by the youngest chica, B-Girl Jasmin. She is on fire!

The crew battle was won by… forgot the name, will ask Milo. The event had a great vibe, I had a lot of fun and got really – I mean really! – drunk at the afterparty!

Peace out to El Salvador!
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