Dinner with locals and National Park Vicente Pèrez Rosales

Hitchhiking out of Santiago was not easy! The cars were to fast and therefore nobody stopped. I was walking and walking along the highway trying to catch a ride, while burning up in the sun. From 11am to 6pm and still no luck.
I reached a gasstation where I decided that I would go on for one more hour. If nobody would pick me up, I would take a bus to not waste any more time. The first car driving out of the gas station stopped and picked me up. It was a man who offered to drive me to Rancagua which is only some 50km outside Santiago. I thought that I might as well get a bit further. He introduced himself as Cristian. After talking for a bit, he asked me if I ate lunch or dinner, to which I had to admit that I only ate a piece of bread and a banana. He then invited me to his house to eat lunch/dinner. I didn´t find any reason to say no to this offer!
I arrived to the house where I was met by his wife Jessica, his 21 year old daughter Sole and his 15 year old son Brandoun. They were all a bit surprised to see me, but extremly friendly! Very relaxed in the livingroom, we talked and talked. They asked many questions and I told them about my travel and about Denmark which they loved! We had great Churrascos (typical burger in Chile) for dinner and afterwards we enjoyed a coffee. They gave me a towel to shower, clean socks (I ran out of clean socks) and a shirt to remember them. I took a shower and afterwards they drove me to the busstation. They did offer me to stay the night, but I wanted to arrive in the morning to Valdivia and decided to take the bus. My earphones were broken, but Brandoun was fast to find some old earphones that I could have! They asked me to come back and visit them in a weekend so we could go to their other house which had a pool!
An amazing family that made it worth the wait on the highway. Thanks Cristian, Jessica, Sole and Brandoun!

After visiting Valdivia, I continued to Puerto Varas. I had to check in to a hostel since I didn´t have any luck with couchsurfing. The following morning after my arrival, I decided to hitchhike to the national park Vicente Pèrez Rosales. A few rides took me to the entrance of the park where I had a coffee, some cashew nuts and then entered the park. Normally when I go on tours/hikes on my own, I am badly prepared. I never bring enough or any food and I always run out of water way to early. This time I was prepared! Food and water for all day - turned out not to be necessary though.

I entered the park and walked to the waterfall first. Amazing! The waterfall leading into the river which had an incredible turquoise color. The scene with mountains, trees and a volcano in the background - I was stunned by the view.

Besides me, there was only two more people. Two young men from Chile, who were fast to come up to me and talk. Maure and Felipe, both in the early/mid twenties. Friends through many years who were now backpacking and camping through Chile for a few weeks. They were very friendly and after talking for 10-15 minutes, we decided to walk through the rest of the park together. When we got out of the park, we took a small break before going towards the lake 6km further up the road. I had some food in my bag, but they insisted to buy me an empanada since they were very different from place to place. We then started walking along the highway, next to the river and the forest. If a car passed, we put out a thumb and hoped for the best.

It didn`t take too long before a big red car stopped for us. A father with his two sons in the mid twenties. They drove us to the lake where they were going to camp for the day. It was the same water as we had just seen at the waterfall, with the amazing color and the beautiful scenery.
















We walked along the water for a while, away from all the tourists and ended up going into the water. It took a while to get under, but once we were in, it was amazing! I just didn´t want to get out again. Well that was until the father from the car passed us and yelled "when you finish swiming, you should come over and have some tea and food with us".
We dried up and went to their camp. Great chilean music, mate (tea) and a delicious chilean soup. We stayed for around an hour and talked. Interesting and very talcative family.

I hitchhiked back to Puerto Varas and went back to my hostel. Here I met Mike and Yushao from the states, a girl from Norway and a girl from Holland, I had met them all the night before. I told them about my day, how I didn´t need my food and had gotten everything for free. Just as I mention it, they invite me to eat dinner with them, since they had made way to much food. It was once again great food and there was plenty. The night ended in the hostel garden where Yushao and Mike, who both work as park rangers, lit a fire and we talked for a couple of hours in the cold plastic chairs, but with the heat from the fire.

Couchsurfing in Chile - What is couchsurfing?

After visiting Antofagasta, I continued further south. Hitchhiking and couchsurfing through La Serena, Valle del Elqui (a place you must visit when going to Chile), Viña del Mar, Valparaiso and finally Santiago.

I guess most people know what hitchhiking is. What about couchsurfing? I will try to explain what couchsurfing is, since I think it is a great community and a great way to travel!

I experienced that people have different ideas of what couchsurfing is. Some people use couchsurfing just to have free hospitality when traveling, some to get to know other cultures, practice languages and/or make friends from all around the globe and some even use it for dating, which I find odd though.

So here´s how it works. You make a profile with a description of yourself, your interests, the places you have traveled or want to go and the languages you speak. From here you can start to host people in your house or surf in someones house. You will see if you speak the same languages, have any common interests and if you think you would get along.
I joined couchsurfing in the summer of 2012 when I went hitchhiking in Europe. I thought it would be a great way to make my cheap journey even cheaper. I had heard about couchsurfing, but actually didn´t really know much about it. I thought it was all about living for free in different countries around the world. I very fast realized that there was much more to it.
My first host took me around her city, showed me some of her favorite places and we exchanged cultures. Yes! That is what it is about. Exchange cultures. We talked about our countries, travel experiences and also just about music, movies etc.

Couchsurfing to me is a way of getting to know different cultures and getting the best out of your visit in a city with a local to guide you. You always have a friend wherever you go. Sometimes it might just last for a few days and sometimes they will invite you to stay for longer if you want and are able to do so. I´ve had many different experiences, but no bad ones. Some people just opens their house to you, but don´t have any time to share with you. Others might take a day off work to hang out with you, show you town, meet up with their friends, do something typical for their culture etc.
After every couchsurfing experiences, you leave a reference for future hosts or surfers to read about your impression of this person and to mention if he/she was a good host/surfer.

Even if you stay in a hostel, you can use couchsurfing. There will often be events where you will meet other travelers or locals, go drink a beer, go to the beach, sightseeing or whatever you want. If there is no event, you make one yourself and hope someone will join you.
I could write a lot more about couchsurfing in general, but now I will get to one of my couchsurfing experiences here in Chile.

So I had written a few people in Santiago and one of them, Polo on 24, was able to host me. When I arrived to town I was met by Polo, his parents and his younger sister. Besides getting to know each other, they also took me through town in their car. They pointed out all the important buildings and sights along the way and explained me what they were. A lot better than a sightseeing bus!
We arrived to their house and I was surprised - it was huge! The house had 8 bedrooms and a pool in the garden. I had been used to sleeping on couches in living-rooms, but not anymore. Even though that this is not the importance of couchsurfing, it was not a bad surprise :)
I was introduced to Fausta, the housemaid from Peru and to his two other brothers, a younger and an older brother. After a delicious dinner, I finally got to shave my long beard! I had started to look like a bum.

When trying to hitchhike out of La Serena towards Viña del Mar, I walked along the cars that was waiting for a green light. I had my backpack on and my thumb sticking out. To me it was clear that I was trying to get a ride, but several people started digging into their pockets looking for some change to give me. When I told them that I was trying to get a ride, they were surprised and tried to get rid of me.

Anyway, I shaved and we went out. It was Saturday and Polo had just finished one of his last and most important exams for his engineering studies. A guy from his class had a small house with a huge garden in some suburb and he threw a party. We bought some pisco, which is what everybody drinks in Chile, picked up some of his friends and drove to the party. A great night, talking to different people all night and drinking pisco. Pretty much like a danish private party. People started of by talking and drinking. Then when everybody was drunk, people started dancing and suddenly doing a limbo competition. A party as I know it :)

The following day, Polo took me around the center of Santiago. Even though it was Sunday and everything was closed, I still really enjoyed it. He told me about the different places we went and after a good walk we found some food. A nice cafe was open and he said I had to try some typical food from Chile. So I got a pastel de choclo, he got a Salmon a lo pobre and we shared it over local beer. In the afternoon we went to the park with some of his friends and hung out for a few hours.

In the park with Polo, waiting for his friends to arrive

Monday was Polo`s birthday. He had some family and friends coming over in the evening and I was invited to join the table. Delicious food and great company. All of his friends were so open and easy to talk to. One of them had been to the famous Roskilde festival in Denmark and it was interesting to hear about his experiences. Wednesday morning I left Santiago.

The friends at the birthday party

The grill at the birthday

Singing for Polo

I had a great time in Santiago. Local guiding, meeting a lot of Polo`s friends and being a part of his every day life. The great thing was, that he didn´t really change his plans because of me, he just included me in them. I couldn´t imagine a better way to visit Santiago!
During my time in Santiago, I had some interesting talks about various subjects with both the family and also Fausta (who was practically also a part of the family). I told them about Denmark, the people, the culture, the climate, the welfare etc.

I will very shortly describe one of my other couchsurfing experiences. It was in Antofagasta where I was couchsurfing on Katia`s couch. She convinced me to stay until the weekend so she could throw me a party where I could meet her friends and try some typical Chilean stuff. The plan was to leave Friday morning, but her idea was much better.
Friday she invited over her closest friends, prepared piscola (pisco with cola), wine with melon (whitewine that you pour into a melon, drinking it with a straw and eating it with a spoon afterwards), sopaipillas with delicious salsa and choripan (both typical Chilean foods). During the night she even demonstrated the national dance of Chile named Cueca.
The following day, we went to her friends house who was a dj. We were 5 people dancing and drinking in the living-room at 1pm to live dj music on huge stereos. Afterwards we brought food, drinks and speakers to the beach, where we camped all day. Besides that we usually had some of her friends over or went out to meet someone or eat at the local marked.

 

The cueca!

 

Choripan, Vino con melon and Sopaipillas

Food at the market.

These are the kind of experiences I would not get in a hostel. I took part of every day life with people all over Chile with different social and educational backgrounds. All very interesting. I like staying in hostels as well, meeting people from all over the world and share stories. Everybody has a unique and interesting story in my opinion. But when traveling through South America, I don´t want to just look at the locals, I want to meet them. Couchsurfing is a great and easy way to do this!

Just an ordinary day - Hitchhiking in Chile

So I decided that I wanted to try hitchhiking my way through Chile. Mom, when you read this, don´t freak out! I am still alive and it is common to hitchhike here in Chile :)

From Arica to Iquique it was very easy. I waited 15 minutes and got picked up by a truck that took me all the way to Iquique - perfect!

I´d say that every day is a new adventure and I want to tell about everything I experience. Even though I write much, I know it is not possible and neither interesting. Here comes just another day from my travels.

I woke up at 7:00am after 4 hours of sleep. The plan was to go from Iquique to Antofagasta today, a journey that is a bit more than 400km and takes around 7 hours. I took a bus from the house to the highway where I decided to get some breakfast - 2 sopaipillas and a coffee. Now I was ready!

The location was perfect. Just outside the city, entering the highway where there was construction work. This meant that there was only one track and the cars had to take turns driving north and south which made all cars stop anyway. The problem was that I was not the only one there. More and more people kept coming and at some point we were around 15 people in the same spot trying to catch a ride south. It was a mix of locals and backpackers.

At first it was quite hard since all cars stopped, but no one really pulled over. I then found out that I should just walk to the cars and ask the drivers directly. Some of them were being bitches, some were only going a few km further to a beach and some to the airport - I didn´t find any who went further. I started at 9:04 and now it was 11:25. I decided to take the next ride possible away from this spot. I met a nice guy and his dad who where going to the airport and they drove me there. It was right next to the highway and I was the only hitchhiker.

The sun was shining and it was hot carrying around all my stuff. I started walking along the highway with my thumb sticking out, while trying to cover my thermos for my medicine to stay cold. I got picked up after 53 minutes and the guy drove me another 15km - everything helps. I was just outside a small village where there was a place for cars to pull over.
Here I met three young chilenian guys who I also saw in Iquique at the highway. We talked for a bit until they all three squeezed inside a truck. I didn´t have any luck in this spot and I decided to walk along the highway to keep myself busy while waiting. After 1 hour and 22 minutes, three construction workers picked me up on their way to eat lunch. We talked about the women in Chile compared the other countries in South America and I told them about how many beautiful girls we have in Denmark. They offered me some kind of chilenian pastry and coca cola. I thanked no to the coca cola, but the chilenian pastry was not bad. Some kind of dry bisquet with a mix of syrup and something else. It was around 12:45 and I was starting to feel hungry again.

After a great conversation, they dropped me off in front of a restaurant along the highway where I met the three chilenian guys again. Within 2 minutes I got a ride though. To a tiny little village along the beach 25 minutes from the restaurant.

Now comes the good part. Once again I walked along the highway. Exhausted, worried about my medicine and hungry since I had been up at 7:00am and only ate 2 sopaipillas for breakfast and a small pastry for lunch. The time was now 15:43. I only walked for a minute until a truck honked it´s horn at the driver pointed straight ahead. I saw him pull over 50 meters further ahead and I started running. A young guy comes out of the truck smiling and asking me where I´m off to. Turns out that he and the driver, who was a man in his 50´s, were also going to Antofagasta and I could join. I looked inside and saw that one of the chilenian guys was sitting on the front seat and I was wondering where the two others were. The young guy then took of the lock of the container and opened it. I looked inside and what I saw was a mattress with the two other chilenian guys on it and their backpacks, nothing more. I threw in my backpack, jumped in as he closed and locked the container behind me and the container turned dark. The only reason why I could still glimpse the two boys, was because of a small hole in the container where the sun was shining through. Inside the truck it was cooler and my medicine could stay cold.

Inside the truck

We started talking and having a good laugh. After 45 minutes the truck stopped and we had to get out because of a control. We waited for the truck on the other side of the control and to our surprise the truckdriver and his friend brought us a role of those pastries, that I described earlier, each and a 2 liter soda to share. Man, how great! All six of us standing in the sun, talking, laughing, enjoying our food and soda.

We got back into the container and drove for another hour until we reach a small village where we stopped for another control and extra time for us to see and walk through the village. It was beautiful! A beautiful beach, nice houses and a lot of skaters flying around the skate park that we passed.
15 minutes more in the truck and driver stopped to show us a rock. It is a huge rock shaped like an elephant! Not only did this guy buy us food, but he also wanted us to see what was worth seeing along the way!

Our truck

The elephant rock

The truck stopped two times more. First for picking up two young chilenian guys and then to pick up another chilenian guy. We were now 6 people in the container, talking, getting to know each other in complete darkness and smoking weed. This was so amazing! I finished reading Jack Kerouac - On the road, in the end of December. I felt like I was in the story! Everything was so surealistic, but amazing.

Two of the guys leaving a bit before Antofagasta

After a while we all lied down and fell a sleep. When we woke up we had arrived to the outskirts of the city. From here I said goodbye to everyone, thanked for everything and then took a bus to the city. I found a public phone, called my couchsurfing host and got directions on where to go.
On the way to the bus I passed plaza Colon. Two dogs were lying in the grass and the second I pass them, they run out and start biting my leg. I was surprised! Carrying my backpack, my shoulderbag, a big bottle of water and my thermos and suddenly two dogs were attacking me. I tried to escape, but their grip just made me fall out in the middle of the road. The dogs were around me and I was scared! They were barking and trying to bite me. I started to scream, kick and punch as much as I could and fortunately it worked! I kicked one of the dogs and they took off.
I was lying there, in the middle of the street. Pants broken, shoulderbag broken, scratches on my knee and elbow. The locals just looked, maybe they didn´t know what to do or maybe they were just cold. For whatever reason, I was on my own and not a single person asked me if I was alright.

My pants after "playing" with the dogs

Well. I continued towards the bus, swearing and cursing. Got on the right one and asked the driver to tell me when we were in the cross of Avenida Isabel and Rendic. He forgot.
I went way to far north while my couchsurfing host was waiting for me (it was around 22:30 and I already woke him up by calling him). I got off the bus and caught another one in the other direction.

I finally arrived to the house! I was welcomed by Christian and his mom. They gave me a towel so I could shower, while the mom was preparing food. After the shower I got a delicious soup and spent the rest of the evening talking with Christian and his dad. An amazing family and they made me forget about the bad welcoming from the dogs :)

This is just another day of traveling. Everyday is unique and I can´t believe how lucky I am with the people that I meet!

Day 100 and valentines day

Day 100.
Manuel from the carnaval had adviced me to go to a certain streetfood place to eat breakfast. I was quite tired of pancakes, so I decided to go. Here you could buy very cheap papa relleno, arros relleno and tucumanos. It all tasted great! When you buy something, you get a plate and you can take as much salad as you want to - 4 different types of delicious salad. The seller also adviced me on what salsas to put on what.

The rest of the day was pretty calm until the evening. Pretty girl had invited me for a dinner with her friends. They are a group of friends and they take turns hosting a dinner. So I met up with her and two bolivian women and we went to the appartment. A part of La Paz that I hadn´t seen and a great appartment with a brazilian couple living in it. The man was working in something with computers and the woman was a photo journalist. They could work from anywhere in the world and for this reason they were nomads. They would go back to brazil for the woman (Elaine) to give birth and then they would move for a while to New York.

The evening was great! I felt like i already knew all of them. The brazilians made the best lasagne I have had in years and we had some redwine and talked for hours, switching between english and spanish. It was a unique and great evening - especially nice to get away from all the travelers and the hostel bar for a bit.

Valentines day.
So today was my last day in La Paz and I wanted to say goodbye to pretty girl. At the carnaval in Oruro I met pretty girl. Pretty girl lives in La Paz for around half a year to teach children with special needs and to enjoy life.
The plan was just to get some nice food and maybe go to the cinema. We didn´t really think much about valentines day since neither one of us thinks the concept is a good idea. I picked her up and we found a restaurant on the internet that sounded good. We got there, but it wasn´t open yet. We were hungry, but we sucked it up and got a few cocktails around to corner while we were waiting.
Suddenly it was 7pm and the restaurant was open. When we entered the restaurant we both started laughing. The lights were dimmed, there was flowers everywhere and on every table and last but not least romantic and relaxed music all night. Pretty girl was dressed up while I was wearing my pants back to front like Kriss Kross and I was in a long sleeved black shirt with holes in it. It was hilarious!
Most of the things on the menucard I had never heard of. I never really understood why people go out to eat in very fancy restaurants. You pay a lot of money and you almost don´t get any food. Fortunately pretty girl knew a bit more about it and decided that we should get a beef carpaccio for appetizer. We continued to look at the menucard and decided that today was not the day to think of money. So we got a bottle of wine and a caprese salad as well.

Before we got the appetizers, we got some very small fresh baked breads - the best bread I have eaten in South America! Then we got the appetizers. The beef carpaccio was amazing and the caprese salad was with goat cheese, arugala, tomato and an amazing pesto!

Caprese salad and beef carpaccio

After the appetizers I already understood why people go out to eat like this!
So now we needed the main course. Pretty girl knew most of the food and got a sausage gnocchi while I just saw that there was something with bacon and went for it. Pasta and bacon in Arrabbiata sauce. MAN! I never knew that pasta with bacon could taste that good! Also gnocchi (whatever it might be) is amazing!

The main course

We couldn´t finish the main course, but still we decided to get a dessert! A brownie to share with an iceberg of icecream (that was what it said, but it was just a scoop..). Tasted great and freshly made as well!
So we got the bill. I think the entire meal with the wine costed less than just a main course on a fancy danish restaurant.
It was a weird, hilarious and great experience. The food was amazing, the music was great and we had good conversations all night.

After the restaurant we went for another drink in a bar. This bar was crazy. The toilet looked like you were entering a huge freezer (the door was crazy) and the toilet itself looked like your ass would freeze of when sitting on it! The decoration in the bar was with a lot of trumpets hanging from the seiling and the drinks was great! I got a long island ice tea and every sip of it was like taking a shot. On the way out of the bar we took a short dance with the attention of almost every person in the bar - all smiling :)

I never celebrated valentines day and I don´t really get the concept. But if every valentines day is like this, I should start celebrating it.

The Oruro carnaval 2013

I will try to describe the first two days a bit shorter since the main events are saturday and sunday.

The carnaval of Oruro is a tradition that streches back more than 2000 years! Today it is one of the biggest carnavals in the world and many people travel from all over the world to watch this amazing event. A german orchestra actually travelled all the way from Germany just to compeed in the parade this year.

Thursday February 7

- I arrived in Oruro in the afternoon and found my way to the school where I was staying. I met Juan Carlos and Gabi who made it all possible. Both very nice and happy people which was a great beginning! Before they found out which classroom I was staying in, I had to wait. This was a great possibility to talk to Rose and Eline from Holland who was sitting outside on a bench eating lunch. We decided to go explore Oruro together.

As soon as we arrived to the market where there was a parade passing, kids started spraying us in the face with some kind of foam. It is prohibited to play with water during the carnaval, therefore all kids run around with this foam spray (some still use water though). White in the head we continued exploring. We first went to the market and afterwards we watched the small parade for a bit. There was a llama walking in it! 

In the evening Juan Carlos had arranged a dinner for us. It was a great way to get to know people and start of carnaval with a few beers. We had to wait for 2,5 hour for the food which was some salad, rice, pasta and lentils. It tasted good though since we were all starving :)

Back at the school I spent half an hour talking to Manuel from France who I had great fun with during the carnaval.

Manuel and I

Friday February 8

- I slept really bad this evening. The school was quite cold since some of the windows to the classroom was broken, my mattress was thin and my blanket was very small. The blanket couldn´t really cover me and it couldn´t close for the cold air. Anyway, it was carnaval and all I needed was a coffee and the good atmosphere of the city. During the day we walked around a bit and then we had a few beers at the school and I played a basketball game. Me, Andreas and Manuel vs Tim, Matt and Alban - great fun! It was nice to finally do some sports again. It was hard in the altitude though and my bloodsugar was flying up. Fortunately we had a break where I realised this and I just took two units of NovoRapid and didn´t notice it anymore.

Juan Carlos had arranged for a band to come to the school and play for us. The music was great and at some point everybody was dancing in a huge circle! While they were playing, one guy from the band came and handed out free coca leaves for everyone. Afterwards we went to the plaza and partied. There was music and a lot of people. I even met squirrel fuck and another guy that I celebrated Australia day with in Sucre. It was a great night and all the dancing and a few beers helped me to sleep better this night.

Coca leaves from the band

The band

Saturday February 9

- Today was the day longest day with a huge parade! I woke up at 7:30 and went for breakfast with Manuel and then we found our way to our seats in the parade. The parade was absolutely amazing! All kinds of costumes and all kind of people were in it. There was indigenous costumes, animals, the spaniards etc. Even better, I was watching it with all my new friends from Couchsurfing which just gave it an even better atmosphere!

I went out to go to the bathroom. When I exited the bathroom I saw six kids with waterguns and foamsprays looking up on me. We looked at each other for five seconds and they looked at my one small bottle of foam. After exactly five seconds, the chase begun. The kids started to chase me up the street - two more kids who I had a small fight with earlier spotted me and started to chase me as well. Fortunately I had longer legs than them and they couldn´t enter at the actual parade. I got away with my pride burried in the ground ;)

The day was amazing. All day I had foam fights, great food which was not even overpriced (the same prices as before the carnaval) and I talked to a bunch of locals. I met several groups of locals around our seats who invited me for beer or hot coffee with Casa Real. It was great fun talking to them and practicing my spanish!
I met Dana from the states who was actually going to dance in the parade at 9pm. That turned up to be quiet a bit later. Most people went to bed, but after a run around I went back to the seats and mingled with some new people. At 2am Dana finally passed our seats as the last group. At this point I started following the end of the parade, dancing on the side and running around like a crazy person until we got to the plaza where it ended. I lost track of Dana and started to meet locals once again. Getting coca leaves and beer. At 4am I randomly meet James, Camille and Alban from couchsurfing. We partied until 7:30 in the morning!

Sunday February 10

- After 24 hours of partying and only 1,5 hours of sleeping, I went back to the parade. A nice lady in front of me turns around and hands me a choclo and a big peace of cheese! Everybody told me I looked dead, apparently this is why she gave it to me ;) Today was a bit like yesterday, just going to bed at 4:30am instead of 7:30.
The Carnaval was all in all a crazy experience! Saturday must have been one of the best days of my trip and one of the biggest experiences of my life!

About Bolivia, La Paz and Cholita wrestling

So now I'm on my own again, at least for a little while. I miss the group I travelled with, but it is also nice to be "on my own". I get to write in my journal which I haven't done for way to long, I get to upload some fotos to dropbox so I have space on my camera and I have to do a lot of other practical stuff. Apparently someone copied my creditcard and used it in the US. They stole 550$. Hopefully my bank will cover this. This is the only thing I've had stolen so far though.
On the 5th of February somebody tried to steal out of my shoulderbag twice during the day. Fortunately I busted them both times. Even if they succeeded, they wouldn't get anything of value since all is in my pockets under my fleece.

Well, what else did I do in La Paz besides practical stuff?

I've been walking around quite a lot which is nice, the city is very beautiful. One day I came across a soccergame in the middle of the plaza in front of the basilica and the market. It was the shoeshiners who were playing. La Paz has a lot of shoeshiners! They are all over the city and in all ages. I've seen kids around 10 years old and also old men. Anyway, many of them were taking a break to play soccer or to cheer at those who did.
I stayed and watched for one hour. Great entertainment. Some of them were quiet good and some pretty lazy. They made the goals out of their workboxes and of course they didn't have a judge, which suprisingly enough worked out quite well. Sometimes I enjoyed the great soccer and sometimes I laughed about them falling in weird and very tired ways (everyone laughed, also themselves). At some point one of them leaned over to pick up the ball and another guy kicked him in the ass so he fell, it looked exactly like in a cartoon! :)

On sunday the 3rd I went to watch the famous Cholita wrestling in El Alto. I booked a tour and got picked up by a bus that first took us to a great viewpoint where we could see all of La Paz and afterwards took us to the fight. At first it was men fighting. First match was the ninja vs some big guy. There was some pretty crazy tricks and some really bad acting - it was a nice fight. Afterwards Batman was on against somebody and then finally the first cholita went on, fighting against Spiderman. It was very entertaining and also very obvious that no one got hurt. Their acting was really bad, but some of the tricks were pretty cool. The cholita even threw Spiderman over her head twice!
There was only one fight between two cholitas, which was enough. The acting was extremly bad and the fighting worse. It was good entertainment though, extremly hilarious.
After the event the bus took me back to the hostel where I met Brandon from USA, who had been on the same tour. We went together to the skybar at the hostel with one of his friend, bought the bbq, had our free beer and watched the Superbowl final! The second american football game I have ever watched and it was a great and very tense game!

I also met Rob again on the 4th of february. While I was traveling with the girls, he spent some time in La Paz and went to a festival in Copacabana. We chilled a bit in the bar on the 4th. On the 5th I came back to the hostel in the evening. I meet Rob, two german girls and a danish guy and they invite me to the cinema with them to watch Django - Amazing movie!


Now I found out where to spend carneval. I wanted to go to Oruro, but it was to expensive, since all hostel prices are 250 bolivianos or more and all the cheap ones got booked months in advance. Through couchsurfing I was invited to stay at a school near the center of Oruro. Many couchsurfers will be staying there and it is only gonna cost 50 bolivianos pr. night! I can´t wait to get there!


A bit about La Paz and Bolivia:

La Paz is quite a nice city to just walk around in. It is beautiful and there is many nice markets. You can eat lunch at a market near my hostel for just 7 bolivianos (1$) and you will be more than full! Afterwards you can go get a coffee for just 2,5 boliviano. You also get salteñas on the street for 2,5 boliviano and I only need two to fill me up.
Unfortunately the city have a lot of kids begging on the street. Walking up to you and throwing their open hand right into your stomach or towards your face to get money. Also there is very young girls standing with a small radio and dancing for hours to earn money. That is not the nicest thing to see.. I did read though that most of the beggars actually earn more money than some of the people who actually work, so this is a bit of a comfort.

Bolivia itself is an interesting country. So far I have experienced many bolivians to be quite rude. Also many of them don´t seem to have interest in earning money. They just ignore you or responds rudely to your question. In Copacabana they even left their shop open even though they were not there. We waited for 5 minutes and tried to yell for someone, but nobody came. We could´ve just walked in and taken whatever we wanted, but of course we didn´t.
In Uyuni we met some Bolivians and they told us that people were more friendly and open in cities like Santa Cruz, Potosi and Uyuni while more rude in f.x. La Paz. This is also what we experienced. When we came to Potosi, everybody were really helpfull, friendly and very polite!
Bolivia is a great country though, it is cheap and have a lot to offer!

Salt flat in Uyuni and the goodbye in La Paz + Diabetes in Bolivia

We went from Potosi to Uyuni and had a nice and relaxed day. The date was the 30th of January and on the 31st we would do a 1day tour to the salt flat. After the tour Daniela would have to go towards Argentina while Naomi, Mietta and I would return to La Paz. The evening of the 30th we had a nice dinner out and played our last rounds of cardgames - it was a good last evening together as the four of us.
On the 31st in the morning we went to the tour company and was picked up by a jeep. First we were driven to the train cemetery. A really nice spot that looks like the scene of a western movie. We chilled around here, sitting on one of the trains and enjoying the sun. Then we were driven to a small touristic market which was a bit boring. The market was in a small village where some of the houses were made of salt! Quite impressive. Then finally we went to the salt flat. Salar de Uyuni is the worlds largest salt flat and it is as impressive as everyone told me it would be!
It is rainy season in Bolivia and for this reason there was water on the salt. We drove in the jeep over the water, watching the amazing reflections of the mountains and clouds into the water. It was impossible to tell how far away the mountains were and where the line was between clouds and the ground. The sun was shining and everything looked amazing, it is impossible to describe. We had great fun trying to take some of the typical tourist pictures and after a few hours and a lunch, we were headed back to Uyuni. On the way back we stopped by a lake filled with flamengoes and heaps of sheeps running around.

We had a great dinner in Uyuni and Mietta had somehow managed to find the original kinder surprise! The actual chocolate egg with the small yellow egg inside with a toy. She bought one for each of us. I was quite excited since I had complained to her about how you could only buy the weird kinder surprise which is not an chocolate egg in South America :)
We said goodbye to Daniela and got on the bus to La Paz.

We arrived around midday and went to the post office and supermarket. Naomi and Mietta had a flight the following morning to Brazil and we agreed to have a nice evening at the hostel together. In the supermarket we bought nachos, salsa, cheddar cheese, ingredients for guacamole, marshmellows and chocolate. We walked around town a bit and then went back to play uno at hostel.
We had nachos and guacamole for dinner and hot chocolate with marshmellows for desert! Then we went to get our free beer in the hostel bar and talked for a few hours before going to bed.

The following morning we said goodbye and they left for the airport. Traveling with a group of people for two weeks have been amazing! We all got along really well, had a lot of fun and got to explore Bolivia. It was nice to get to know some people and not just have the typical traveler conversation over and over again. We cooked food together, played cards, drinking games and had nice coffee/tea breaks. It was an amazing two weeks and I will thank Rob, Mietta, Daniela and Naomi for that! :)


My bloodsugar started to go up when I arrived in Bolivia. I thought my Levemir wasn´t working, it might have been to old. But then I remembered the high altitude and tried to go from 11units of levemir to 14units instead. This helped! My bloodsugar was back to normal in between my meals and over night. Most of the touristic cities in Bolivia is at a quite high altitude, which you have to be aware of with diabetes.
The last day in the supermarket, I found Hershey´s chocolates with different flavours, all sugarfree!
Unfortunately it was quite expensive and I decided not to buy it. Later that day I found a bag of Hershey´s sugarfree chocolates with caramel in my bag. Turned out that Mietta had bought a pack for me :) They are great! In New York I found socks for diabetics (not handy for me, but good to know though ;) ) and in Bolivia I found chocolate for diabetics - not bad.
Now I will spend some time in La Paz to relax and try to figure out where to spend carnival.