Entries tagged internet

A Digital Nomads Guide for Caye Caulker, Belize

Posted on 27. März 2018 Comments

Caye Caulker is a small limestone coral island off the coast of Belize in the Caribbean Sea measuring about 5 miles (8.0 km) (north to south) by less than 1 mile (1.6 km) (east to west).

— https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caye_Caulker

NomadList doesn’t really give it a good rating but in my opinion that’s not quite fair. What attracted me was that it’s smaller than San Pedro with a laid back hippie vibe and good scuba diving spots.

How to get there

  1. Fly, mostly from Belize City
  2. WaterTaxi from Chetumal, MX (with immigration in San Pedro for ~1h), daily at either 3 or 3.30pm + the usual Mexican delay, ~50 USD
  3. WaterTaxi from Belize City/Airport

How to get around

When you arrive (on the eastern side) you can quite literally see the water on the western side of the island. My point is: Caye Caulker is super small! You can easily walk everywhere, rent a bike or, if need be, a golf cart. Not even the police has cars but drive golf carts and motorbikes. I saw about 3 real cars in total and a few construction trucks, but not in the center.

Where to stay

For 30-50€/night you will get a decent apartment/hotel room on AirBnB/booking.com with WiFi and AC.

For 17€ (35 BZD) you will get a bunk bed in a 2 bed „room“ (called „sleep box“) in La Cubana that resembles one of the box hotels found in Japan or Abu Dhabi Airport. But if you spent the majority of the time outside anyway, what more do you need. Otherwise, for the same money, you mostly get big rooms with 8-10+ people and possibly no AC. Here, at least the AC runs from 8pm to 8am. If that (and warm showers) doesn’t interest you, Yuma Hostel directly at the pier seems relaxed (not a party hostel) and has 2 lovely dogs. Further north is the famous Drifted Coconut Hostel.

CoWorking Spaces

Nope! There are no CoWorking spaces or not even DN Hotspot Cafés (that I saw) on Caye Caulker. You have to work wherever you find a nice spot. I can recommend Ice and Beans on the ocean side for your cliché working-on-the-beach-instagram-photo but more importantly: really good coffee! Other than that try the restaurant underneath La Cubana as they have WiFi and power plugs.

Ice and Beans Cafe Caye Caulker

Tropical Paradise Hotel at the (literal) end of the road (how fitting, the cemetery is next door) also has power plugs and decent WiFi, not to mention a good barkeeper/selection of alcohol and drinks on the menu for after-hours.

Across the road from La Cubana is the internet café Caye Board which offers WiFi at 30BZD/4h. I know it seems old school but the place has air conditioning, is relatively calm compared to cafés/restaurants:

http://www.speedtest.net/result/7176882409

You might have problems with your laptop and the high humidity (80%+). My MacBook Pro Keyboard stopped working for a whole morning. Try to blow it out with a Scuba tank (since I couldn’t find anybody with a pressurised air can) to make sure theres no sand/dust in it. And then try working from an air conditioned room because AC does not only make it colder but also dry. If the computer still turns on, try to install software that turns on the internal fan to sort of dry it out. Also read 5 Ways to Protect Your Laptop in the Tropics by Too Many Adapters.

Cost/Money

The Belizian Dollar (BZD) is directly tied to the US Dollar with 2:1, meaning 2 BZD = 1 USD. You can use USD as a method of payment and will sometimes even get change back in USD. While certainly not as cheap as the neighboring countries it’s not an expensive country per se. Caye Caulker is small though and everything comes by plane or ship so expect a surcharge. It’s quite touristy so that adds another few dollars to everything you buy.

Diving

There are 6(?) dive shops on the island and a few tour operators that re-sell those dives:

Only 3 (or 4?) of those go to the famous Blue Hole which is a few hours on a bumpy speed boat away. Only BDS offers tech/cave diving. They all have some sort of bad reputation and reviews on the web, reaching from reckless boat driving where people got injured to cowboy attitudes by Divemasters, faulty equipment, no oxygen on board despite the obvious risk of DCS with the Blue Hole being ~120m/400ft deep, to even harassment of women and an instructor dying in the Blue Hole. Surely the safest option is to bring your own equipment, some experience and a good buddy. There have been dive centers that had to close down only to reopen a little later with the same staff (Belize  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ) That said, there are plenty of people happily diving with those companies and nothing bad happens. Safest bet is not to pay for multiple days in advance as most of them don’t seem to give you your money back (German) if you don’t end up going (weather, illness etc). Alternatively, snorkeling can be just as pretty 🙂

Please refuse to dive with faulty equipment, no matter what the owner/instructor/divemaster says! On return to the island (all dives are boat dives), report them to PADI or SDI/TDI and if necessary to the police. If you have a medical emergency or signs of decompression sickness go immediately go the doctor and call DAN/your insurance. The next hyperbaric chamber is on San Pedro. You can do very little against unfair business policies or unfriendly staff but don’t let them endanger your life or the lives of others on the boat!

Laundry

For ~10BZD in Calle de Sol (the one going west from the pier) on the left/south side 2 very friendly ladies will wash your clothes. I guess it depends on the amount but I don’t own many things and washed pretty much everything I had minus shorts + T-Shirt I was wearing.

WiFi

Most restaurants and cafés have WiFi of various speeds and reliability. Get mobile internet as backup since sometimes the internet is just gone for a few minutes and the latency for VoIP calls is better on mobile.

Mobile Internet

BTL is virtually the only provider for GSM based phones (CDMA as used in US/NZ/AUS supported by Smart!). The BTL shop is a little difficult to find since the official address on the website is „backstreet“. Which isn’t exactly wrong but even Google Maps can’t find it. Also the GPS coordinates found on infomarket.bz are wrong, however you will find a said laundry on the opposite site of that road. Your safest bet is to walk towards the big cell towers and ask around. Or take a screenshot of Google Maps:

These are the correct GPS coordinates: 

17°44’35.7″N 88°01’32.0″W

Google Maps shows this at the the corner of Avenida Mangle and Calle de Sol (again, the street straight from the pier all the way down). It’s a white and purple building. OpenStreetMap (e.g. with maps.me) shows this as Belize Telecom Limited:

BTL office for SIM Cards on Caye Caulker (c) OpenStreetMap

To register you need ~15minutes, an ID and ~20 BZD for the SIM card + whatever you want to charge. For 1GB, expect ~30BZD although they seem to have more or less permanent monthly specials which double the amount of data. For 30 BZD I got 4.8GB (March 2018). Although they advertise 4G/LTE I could never get more then HSDPA/3G. Fun fact: on the wall in the BTL building there is a poster with the goal of reaching 25MBit/s Download in 2020. South Korean homing pidgeons might have been faster in the 90s but that’s ok for an island who’s motto is „Go Slow“.

Nice to know

  • The first thing I heard, even before „Taxi?“, was „Marijuana?“. You can indeed smell it on every other street corner although it is not legal at all, no matter what the locals say. A big sign on the police station also confirms that. Many seemingly relaxed and hippie vibe hostels do not tolerate drugs at all and the laws are pretty strict.
  • Belize is an ex-colony of the UK and – as the only country in Central America – the main language is English. The accent is similar to those in the British (ex-) territories in the Caribbean and easy to understand. Most people understand Spanish too and the locals speak Creole, a mixture of languages.
  • If you’re easily sunburned use plenty of sunscreen as with the white sand, you can apparently get a sunburn just from the reflection while standing in the shade. Even if that’d be a myth, the sun can be pretty strong and due to the wind you might not notice the burn fast enough.

 

Any additions? Contact me! 🙂

Casinospiele im Internet – warum sie so beliebt sind

Posted on 22. Juli 2014

Das Internet hat in den letzten zwei Jahrzehnten einen beeindruckenden Siegeszug durch die Wohnzimmer und Büros der Menschen weltweit gehalten. War es erst nur ein Netz, in dem große Behörden und später Unternehmen gearbeitet haben, ist es inzwischen eine der meistgenutzten Art der Freizeitgestaltung geworden. Und das vor allem, wegen dem so vielfältigen Angebot, dass es zu bieten hat. Teil dieses Angebotes sind schon seit einigen Jahren Casino Spiele im Internet, wie sie bei onlinecasinospiele.com.de zu sehen sind. Doch, warum erfreuen diese Online Casino Spiele  sich so einer Beliebtheit in Deutschland? Hier ein paar Hintergründe zur Szene der Online-Casinos und den Gründen für die Vorliebe der Deutschen für diese Form des Glücksspiels.

Das Online-Casino als Alternative – weil es hochwertig ist und einfach Spaß macht

Die Zeit, in der Anwendungen im Internet schleppend langsam liefen und von der Grafik her deutlich zu wünschen übrig ließen, ist inzwischen lange vorbei. Der Stand der Technik gibt es her, dass Online-Casinos nicht nur optisch bestechen, sondern auch von der Geschwindigkeit der Datenübertragung her ein absolutes Spielvergnügen bieten. Die Grafik die dabei zum Teil auf die Bildschirme der PC´s, Notebooks, Tablets oder Handys der Nutzer gezaubert wird, ist je nach technischem Stand des Casinos zwischen gut und sehr gut anzusiedeln.

Das Online-Casino ist immer, da wo du bist

Online-Casinos sind anders als klassische Casinos an festen Standorten letztlich stadortunabhängig. Der Spieler kann im Spielcasino online spielen, wo immer er möchte. Das bringt den großen Vorteil mit sich, dass man abends vor dem ins Bett gehen oder morgens zwischen Aufstehen und Arbeitsbeginn noch mal ein Spielchen absolvieren kann. Vielleicht auch in der Mittagspause auf dem Tablet eine willkommene Abwechslung? Wo auch immer du dich gerade aufhältst, dein Online-Casino ist immer bei dir, sobald du ein internetfähiges Gerät zur Hand hast. Selbst mit Öffnungszeiten von 0:00 Uhr – 23:00 Uhr können herkömmliche Casinos da eher nicht mithalten.

Das Online-Casino bietet eine Menge Extras, die es im reellen Casino nicht gibt

Viele Anbieter machen den Kunden den Einstieg mit Einstiegsbonusangeboten für die ersten Spiele einfacher. So kann der Spieler erste Erfahrungen sammeln, ohne dass es ihn reales Geld kostet, und kann dann selbst entscheiden, ob er weiterspielen möchte, sollte er das Startkapital verspielt haben. Außerdem gibt es bei den verschiedenen Anbietern zwischendurch immer mal wieder Bonusaktionen, mit denen man das Spielgeldkonto ein Stück weit erhöhen kann. Entsprechende Angebote kennen herkömmliche Casinos natürlich nicht. Hier zählt jeder Cent, sodass jeder verspielte Euro letztlich ein echter Euro ist – und der kann schon mal wehtun.

Die Gewinnchancen im Online-Casino stehen besser

Ob man es glaubt oder nicht, die Gewinnchancen in einem Online-Casino sind um ein Vielfaches besser, als in einem normalen Casino. Das liegt natürlich auch daran, dass die Kundenzahl eines Online-Casinos oftmals so groß ist, dass selbst bei einer größeren Gewinnchance für den Spieler am Ende für den Betreiber noch immer ein Reingewinn steht. Ausschüttungsquoten jenseits von 98 Prozent sind im Internet keine Seltenheit.

Die Gründe sind vielfältig, lassen sich aber im Endeffekt einfach zusammenfassen. Das Online-Casino ist der bequemere Spielort, es steht dem Spieler zu jeder Zeit zur Verfügung und letztlich ist die Geldsumme, die man hier wirklich verliert, oftmals kleiner, als wenn man in einem Casino irgendwo in Hamburg oder auf dem Land spielen würde.

 

Full disclosure: Dieser Beitrag wurde in Zusammenarbeit mit einem externen Partner erstellt.

How I pay podcast producers and other online artists and don’t spend any extra money on it

Posted on 5. Januar 2013 Comments

//update: This doesn’t work anymore. Quote from the website: „aFlattr is currently unavailable. Due to the termination of the operating agreement from Amazon aFlattr is not operating right now and the future is not yet clear.“

 

1. I listen to a lot of podcasts and would like to thank them by throwing them a coin in their hat but don’t really have money left to spend.

2. I also buy something at Amazon nearly every month, be it for university or private, for work or friends(-> I get the money back)

Most of the (German) podcasts have a rel:payment-tag in their feeds and use it for the Swedish micopayment system flattr. This enables me to just press a button in my podcatcher.

The website and Firefox plugin aFlattr generates affiliate links for the stuff I buy on amazon and sends the money to my flattr account. That way I give away some money by buying stuff 🙂