December 23rd - My birthday

When I came to Padre Cocha, I found out that the two other volunteers at Pilpintuwasi would both leave around December 20. Before I came, I was hoping to meet other volunteers to spend my birthday and christmas with, but no.
I talked to Kathrin and she would be going to a lodge from the 23rd-25th where one of her friends worked. She asked if I wanted to join, but I thought that I would like to spend my birthday in town. I thought this meant that I had to spent my birthday alone.

The thought was actually ok. I didn´t really mind. I thought I would treat myself nice and just enjoy a quiet and relaxed day - have a good cup of coffee, a good meal and read my book. This actually sounded like a perfect birthday for me.

I was checked in to a hostel since the 22nd of December. I started the day by taking my first shower with running water since 3 weeks and trimming my beard for the first time on the trip. Then I checked my facebook around 10am after eating breakfast at the hostel and talking to Liz - a peruvian girl from Lima who had a short vacation in Iquitos. To my surprise, Antonio had sent me a message. Antonio is a mototaxi driver, who sometimes does guidetours. He had been in Pilpintuwasi with touristgroups twice and I talked with him both times. We got along very well and he liked to practice english. We exchanged contact information and agreed to meet up one day in Iquitos.
He wrote me, asking if I was in Iquitos. He wanted to celebrate me if I was. We went to meet at "Karma cafe" where we had a beer and garlic bread with guacamole - delicious. We talked about many different things. We both find it interesting to talk about beliefs and how the mind works. We talked about ayahuasca, religion, placebo effects and much more. I also taught him how to play backgammon, which he immediately loved. I felt so good! It was my birthday and I celebrated with a new great friend of mine, beer, guacamole,  backgammon and good music like Jack Johnson. I felt very comfortable and almost at home. Suddenly Antonio pulled out a book from his bag and handed it to me saying "happy birthday my friend". I was so suprised and overwhelmed with joy! The book was "The manual to the warrior of light" by Paulo Coelho. I red the Alchymist and thought it was a great book and I wanted to read more from Paulo Coelho. Toni told me what the book was about and it was perfect for some of the topics we had just discussed. I don´t know how he did it, but this book seemed perfect for me!

After a few hours we said goodbye and I went for some food. I found a restaurant where I ordered a pizza with green and black olives, red peppers, chorizo, parmesan, chili and oregano. This was the best pizza I have had in many years! Then I had half a jar of Cocona juice to drink with it. I couldn´t finish it and asked for a doggybag. I went outside, found a homeless woman and wished her a merry christmas with a piece of pizza, some juice and a few soles. Following I went for a walk and ended at the lobby in the hostel.

Liz came home after a daytrip to the jungle. We talked for a while, I got a birthday hug when she found out it was my birthday and a bit later she asked me if I wanted to join her for dinner. A guy from the hostelstaff suggested a good local place to go. It was a great evening and we had a lot to talk about. When we came home, we sat in the lobby with some of the staff and had a beer. At around 11pm Carlos (hostel staff), Liz, Agustin (a guy from Argentina who stayed in the hostel) and I went to a outdoor party that Carlos knew about. It was going on several evenings every week and was pretty much a local thing. It was great!
There was a big open tent where hundreds of people where standing looking to the stage or dancing. There was live music and girls dancing on stage. The music was great and the athmosphere even better! I couldn´t stand still for a second. We had a few beers, danced and after a few hours we returned to the hostel.

A birthday above all expectations and one I will never forget.

Christmas service in a church in Iquitos and more.

Sofia left Pilpintuwasi last sunday and Joscha had his last day tuesday. I am now the only volunteer left, which is sad, but also nice. I have a lot to do, so time flies. Gudrun (the owner) have been in town most days last week and therefore I had to do all the english guidetours.

This means that I get to talk to a lot of other travellers which is great - I love it! Many tourists come with a guide. I usually also talk to the guides which is very nice for practicing my spanish. Some of them speaks english which is also nice, since Gudrun is the only other person speaking english and she haven´t been around much last week.

All volunteers who stay with Humberto and his family get´s a little present from the family. The daughter, Lesi, made a bracelet and a necklace for me which was really nice :)

Wednesday evening I went to town to meet Joscha and Kathrin. We had agreed to meet up and say goodbye to Joscha who would leave thursday. First we went to Kathrins appartment to leave my bag and have a beer and then we went for dinner.
The restaurant was more or less cheap and I didn´t expect it to be anything memorable - just a cheap and simple dinner. We shared a can of camucamu juice and I ordered some cooked vegetables (carrots, green beans and broccoli) and a steak with potatoes. It was amazing! The juice was great, the vegetables was more than great and the steak was huge and extremely delicious! Maybe it had something to do with me eating spaghetti for dinner 4 days in a row, but it was also a good restaurant. We then went for another beer and afterwards to a bar that was known for it´s afrodisiac drinks with different kinds of plants in them. It was interesting. The night was with great food and great company. We slept at Kathrin appartment since her roomates wasn´t in town. We had a room with a doublebed each. I slept like a baby!

Coming back to Padre Cocha after spending a night in Iquitos, makes me appreciate how quiet it is in Padre Cocha. It is amazing to be in the hammock and enjoy the silence. Even when the tv and music goes on, the rest is more or less quiet.

I asked Gudrun to be off work the 23rd and 25th of December and then I went to town after work on the 22nd. I met up with Kathrin and we went to a church where her colleague´s band would play.

We arrived to the church, everybody was standing up in front of their plastic chair and the band was playing religious music but in rock edition - it sounded great. After the concert, everybody sat down. Then the pastor came and asked everybody to stand up and hug the person in front of them, next to them etc. and wish them a merry christmas. I had Kathrin to my right, a young boy (around 15 years old) to my left and in front of me was a young woman in her mid-twenties and a man in his forties. We all did as the pastor had asked us to. It felt great and made me smile a lot. Then the pastor asked us to do it again. This time he asked us not to hug the person as a stranger, but as a friend who deserved our love - even a better feeling. After some preaching from a few different people, which I didn´t understand a lot of unfortunately - more music came on. The lyrics was projected on the wall for everyone to sing along. We sang "Silent Night" in spanish - "Noche de paz" followed by a rock edition of both a spanish and english song with these lyrics:

Feliz navidad x2 

Feliz navidad, próspero año y felicidad.
I wanna wish you a merry christmas x2
I wanna wish you a merry christmas from the bottom of my heart.

We sang this over and over again and the atmosphere was great - filled with joy. Then everybody got a small number on a piece of paper and a danceshow went on. Around 10 young and smiling girls went to the front an perfomed for 5 minutes - smiling and laughing all the way through. Not an impressive show, but I liked their energy.
Next two people appeared in the front and started drawing numbers out of a plastic bag - apparently we were in a lottery. People won different things such as a big paneton or a basket filled with sweets. Then everyone in the church got a semi-hot chocolate and a small sandwich while we were watching a theatre performance by some guys around my age. A religious play about something with a bad guy beating up people and Jesus coming to save them. The rest of the service was just the lottery with another danceshow and another theatre play in between. At last the pastor came to talk and wish everybody a merry christmas. When it was over, the pastor came to Kathrin and I - even though there were many people and we were in the back, he had noticed us. He came to thank us for being there and we talked for a bit.

This experience was amazing. I have only been to a danish church once as far as I remember. I didn´t find it very interesting. This evening was all about love and sharing. I know one of the preachers (or what you prefer to call them) talked about jealousy - Kathrin told me. then there was all the hugging, sharing food and drinks, the lottery, the music, the danceshows and theatre performances. It was a very interesting and lovely service. The atmosphere was great and filled with joy - I smiled my way through the evening. A night I won´t forget.

Working in Pilpintuwasi

First I would like to say thanks to all the people who is reading my blog, I really appreciate it. Some people, from close friends to people I haven't talked to in years, have sent me messages saying that they have been reading my blog and enjoyed it. Some are waiting for more while some are wishing me good luck with the rest of my journey. This makes me so happy :)

And now to what you were expecting to read about.
Working in Pilpintuwasi is great! I wanted to find a place to volunteer, where they didn't ask me for money just to touch and work with a monkey, but a place where they actually wanted and needed my help for the animals.

Daily tasks:
We are breeding mealworms for some of our monkeys and every morning we try to find the biggest ones to feed the monkeys. We also make monkey cookies for most of our animals, monkey toys for our english monkeys and our capuchin monkeys and try to catch grasshoppers for several of our monkey species.
Twice a day we need to go to the butterfly cage and look for butterfly eggs and move them to the hatchery. We do three observations each day of our Uakari monkeys that lives free on the property in order to learn more about them. In the end of the day we go fishing for our ocelot and our coatis. During the day we also get tourists and we give them tours.
When we have extra time, we go visit some of the animals to give them some company. Sometimes we also help the other workers with their tasks if needed. I helped Josè a few times. This guy is maybe 1,5m tall and his strength is incredible. We had to carry sandbags from one place to another. I could carry one and even though I used my back to support, it was really heavy! This little peruvian carried two! It doesn't sound very impressing, but it was.

I really feel that we are doing something for these animals. We work more for the animals than with them. I love doing the tours and teach people about the different animals and tell them about how some people eat them, hunt them, sell them, keep them as pets etc. I was very suprised by several things that I heard and so is the tourists. I also get to talk to a lot of travellers and we exchange stories and advices. Now I have many ideas about where to go.

I am suprised of how many tourists are in this area to go to a lodge and drink ayahuasca. It should be a drink for the soul. To me it sounds weird. It was originally used in indigenous tribes for religious rituals. Now many tourists come to try it. Most people I have met claims that after trying ayahuasca, they found themselves. They connected with themselves, their body, their mind and even the stars. Some says that they were reborn.
I don't know much about this plant and I haven't tried it. Therefore I can't really say much about it. I just think it is weird that so many people want this "drug" to help them with different problems. It seems to help though, if it is just placebo or if it actually has something to do with the plant, I can't tell.

A few stories from Pilpintuwasi
I was sitting outside on a bench while suddenly one of our uakari monkeys came running towards me. It was really fast and I was a bit scared it would attack me (it was one of my first days at Pilpintuwasi). When she reached me, she jumped onto my lap and started playing - pretty cute. It is not uncommon that our uakari kids will come to play on me when I sit down. Two times, one of them have crawled under my t-shirt which we both had fun with.
The uakaris also come to groom me. They jump onto my shoulder and start searching my hair for bugs or lick my arm and fingers as if they were removing bugs.

When I go to visit our saki monkeys I usually take a seat on the chair in their cage. As soon as I sit down, Manuel (one of the two saki monkeys) crawl up my leg and lays down in my lap, folded like a baby. He wont move until I leave.

I am happy that I decided to come here and volunteer and I feel that when I leave this area, I am ready to go to explore and travel a lot :)

Insulin in the heat

First I will say that I was relieved to find out that the malaria medication doesn't affect my blood sugar level anymore. Only the first day it was a bit higher because my body needed to adapt to the medicin, but since then I haven't had the problem.

Keeping my insulin cold is not very easy since we only have 3 hours of electricity a day and the freezer usually is not very cold. I keep it in my thermos and hope it helps. In case the insulin won't work when I need it, I know where I can get more in both Lima and Cusco where I will go in the beginning of January.

After a few days I was suprised to see that I needed less and less insulin. In Quito I saw the opposite happen. I needed more and more insulin, the longer I stayed there. In Quito I took around 3-5 units of NovoRapid for my bigger meals. Now I take none. I only take the long term insulin and I don't use any NovoRapid for my meals. Last monday I ate a big portion of pasta followed by three big scoops of ice cream. I was sure that I needed a lot of insulin. I measured my blood sugar level a several times with half an hour in between and every time it was perfectly fine without taking any insulin. The food here is a lot of rice and pasta and therefore a lot of carbs. I can't really believe that my body is back to not needing insulin for a while.

When I was in New York I started to take some insulin after the honeymoon phase, even thought I almost didn't eat carbs. Back in Denmark I needed a bit more and ate a bit more carbs and now, with a bad diet - loads of carbs and sweet fruits, I suddenly don't need any. It might be the heat and altitude, and maybe also the stressfactor. I don't worry about anything and I don't have to rush anywhere.
This is great and easy. I only measure my blood sugar level about 3 times a day most days. The only bad thing is that I will have to travel with all of my test strips and my cannulas - I was hoping to "get rid" of many while spending a month here in Padre Cocha. But I am definetely just happy that it is so easy right now. 

More about the life and the people in Padre Cocha

Every now and then I will hear a song that I know in Padre Cocha, for example Gangnam Style. Last week I  heard a song that I knew for sure! But it was in spanish and it took me a while to figure out from where I knew it. It turned out to be Elvis - Hound dog, just in spanish, which I found to be pretty funny. We don't have a tv or a stereo in our house, but we really don't need it. Usually every family will turn up the volume as loud as possible to show off. This means that there is always plenty of music to listen to at once and sometimes movies in spanish.

Sometime when it rains, it just goes nuts! But we like it. It is around 35 celsius/95 fahrenheit every day. The rain cools us down and makes the air colder which is great. Saturday Sofia and I went for a walk. We passed the last house and followed a path into the wild. It was beautiful. It was green everywhere we looked and it was quiet. After a long walk we reached a fence and on the other side of the fence we could see a house far away and two bulls running around playing. I couldn't believe there was actually people living there, in the middle of nowhere! We found a pineapple growing on a plant, which didn´t even reach above my knees. Both of us thought they would grow on trees, but no :)

We talked about living in Padre Cocha and I think an interesting point was that, since we don't have internet, we've stopped worrying about what everyone else is doing and started to just think about what we are doing and what we want to do. No facebook statutes to read, no news and so on - only this once a week. 

I started reading a book last week - On the road by Jack Kerouac. It is a great book and great to read when you travel. It is about a guy's adventures while traveling and hitchhiking across USA. I got it from my aunt just before I left Denmark. It makes me miss being in USA, but then I begin to miss Denmark - home, even more. It is nice though, I love to go to my room 30-60 minutes before lights go out and just read.

My day usually looks like this: I wake up at 6:00-6:30, make a hot cup of tea and write in my travel journal. If I have time, I will start reading my book. Then I cook breakfast, oatmeal or eggs. Work is from 8:30-16:00 and after work I spend most evenings talking in the hammock with the other volunteers or the family we live with. The past few days, Joscha and I have been drinking coffee, eating cookies, playing cards and talking for hours. This makes me feel at home :)

The people here are great and also very interesting. Many believe that the pink dolphins from the amazon river will turn into men at night. It is always handsome and charming men who will try to seduce the women in town. Sometimes if a woman is pregnant and they don't know why - the dolphins can get the blame. Irene believes that she once met one of these men.

Humberto also told us about how many people (including himself) believe that owls can reveal if someone is pregnant. He says it is not unusual if a family has daughters, that they will get an owl. If the owl sings all of the afternoon, it means that someone in the house is pregnant. This way, the daughters can't hide it from their parents. 

Even though it is great when I finally go to town and have the time to make updates, check emails and etc. I really enjoy my time here and find it very relaxing to be away from computers and so on. 

Living in Padre Cocha

I am now living in a small village called Padre Cocha. From the port in Iquitos it takes around 20 minutes in a boat to get there. I live in the house of one of the workers at Pilpintuwasi - the animal rescue center that I volunteer at. Our house is one of the few that has two floors. We have some hammocks outside which is very nice and each of us (3 volunteers) have our own room upstairs. Then there is a room with a dining table, the kitchen and the bathroom.

We don´t have running water. Every second day, the water is turned on and the family fills three barrels with water. Then we have a small tub in the bathroom. When we want to flush the toilet, we fill the tub with water and pour the water into the toilet. When we shower we also use the tub and the same when we brush our teeth.

The family consists of Humberto, Irene and their 10 year old daughter Lessie. They are all very nice and they are great to practise spanish with. The two other volunteers is Joscha from Germany and Sofia from Greece. We all get along very well and it is great to have some other people who speaks english around me. I really can´t imagine being here without them.

Padre cocha is a small village with just around 2000 people living there. You would think it should be quiet, but no. There is mototaxis driving all day and roosters that wakes you up at 6 am. Luckily you usualy go to bed early and therefore also wake up early, I will explain soon. The village is filled with dogs, cats, chickens, roosters and the house in front of our house has a pig. The people here are very friendly. When you are passing someone on the street, they will say hi - even if you are looking on the ground or maybe at the house in the opposite direction of where they are :)

You can´t buy many groceries here, but it is enough to get by. Many houses has a small shop where they sell some candy, sodas and water and maybe rice. A few has a bit more to choose from. People eat whatever is easy to get, since they don´t import much. There is many different fruits that I have never seen before - most of them taste great!  There is also many houses that cooks and sell dinner for 3 soles.

We only have electricity between 6:30 and 9:30 in the evening. It gets pretty dark before the light goes on and it is not uncommon that the electricity will be delayed. Every now and then we might loose power for half an hour. When the power goes on, you can hear people watching movies (titanic and grease is not uncommon) and you hear music playing. I was very suprised when someone put on Gangnam Style! We are in a village with no computers and no internet connection and still they listen to Gangnam Style. When the electricity stops at 9:30, everything is pretty dark and there is not much to do, therefore we usually go to bed around this time.

When someone gets sick in Padre Cocha, all of the village helps raising money to help this person to get to Iquitos and afford the hospital. You pay a few soles each and then you know that if you get sick one day, someone will help you as well. I think this is a great thing. 

There is a hostel in the village that is open to public on saturdays and sundays. Joscha and I went there this saturday and played table soccer, pool and drank a beer, it was so much fun! In our house there is not much to do, but we still have fun. I spend most of the evenings talking with Joscha. Besides that I also talk to Humberto and Irene or play with the kids from the neighbourhood which is great :) Joscha and I went back to the hostel sunday evening where we were met by the owner who knows us a bit. He offered us some cognac with coca cola. He was a bit drunk and went to bed early, but we spend the rest of the evening talking to his girlfriend and drinking cognac - which by the way was free! :)

We work from tuesday to sunday at Pilpintuwasi. Monday is our day of and we go to Iquitos. Today I went to a big marked which was very interesting and a bit nasty. There is cheap pharmacys, but I don´t really trust then, then there is many stand with shoes and clothes and many with vegetables or dead chicken on the table. The ground is filled with trash and old food and people are sleeping on the tables - it is a interesting marked.

Later on Joscha and I met up with Kathrin, a german girl who works in Iquitos. We had lunch at a cafe with three of her friends which was very cozy and afterwards Kathrin, Joscha and I went for some icecream. 

I wanted to put more details and also write about the work I do, but I need to get on the last boat back to Padre Cocha and therefore I don´t have time for it. I will write about that next monday.

48 hours in Lima + Malaria medicin and Insulin

When my mom was young, she went to a kibbutz in Israel. Here she met a family who were living on the kibbutz. My mom spent much time with this family while she stayed at the kibbutz. One day, after around 30 years of not staying in touch, the kibbutz family managed to find my mom through the internet. This family moved from Israel to Peru 15 years ago. Since I was going to Peru, they would love to meet me and I would love to meet them. I had been in contact with their youngest daugther Maya and we agreed to meet up friday when I arrived to Lima.

After checking in to the hostel, I told Maya that I had arrived and she suggested to come and pick me up in the evening and go out for a drink. She took me to a very nice bar in a cozy little street and we tried 3 different peruvian beer :) We talked for hours! Later her ex-husband joined us - Patrick from Denmark. We had a lot of interesting subjects to talk about and I had the best evening I could imagine for my first night in Lima.

Saturday Maya picked me up with her 2 year old son Damian and her mom Esther. They took me to a nice neighbourhood called Barranco where they knew a organic cafe. We got some breakfast and coffee. I got eggs with ham and cheese and fresh baked bread which was very similar to the danish ryebread! It was a great cafe and a great company to be there with. Afterwards we went to a park. Every saturday there is many activities in this small park. There were adults doing tai chi and yoga, there were a group of men playing instruments and singing for family´s and the kids could try to play along and dance. Then there was also a big area with all kinds of different toys for kids, you could pay 10 soles and then play all day. The sun was shining and everybody were happy in this park. Maya´s dad/Esther´s husband joined us and so did Patrick. Outside the park, there was a big organic marked where we got some nice food. Maya drove me back to the hostal and I went for a walk. In the evening she took me out to the Magic Water Circuit - a big park with many different and unique fountains. We walked around Damian, Patrick, Maya and I and enjoyed the beautiful park and ate some popcorn :) 

Sunday I went for breakfast with Esther and Maya. We sat on a cafe with a great view over the sea and had a great big breakfast with coffee, tea and juice :) On sunday one of the main streets in Lima is closed in order for people to do sports and mainly bike - just like in Quito. Maya and I went to rent some bikes and I had my first bikeride in South America :) I went back to the hostel, packed my stuff and went to the airport to catch my flight to Iquitos.

I could not imagine a better way to spend my 48 hours in Lima! I feel that my luck on this trip is never ending. Maya and her family is lovely people who I can´t wait to meet again when I will return to Lima! They made me feel at home in Lima in just two days. It was also nice to speak some danish for a few days with Patrick :)

Keeping my insulin cold on the way to Iquitos was not a problem. The thermos was cold after being two days in the refridgerator and there was a bar at the hostel that provided me with a lot of icecubes for the thermos. My flight was two hours delayed, but the trip was short and it didn´t take long for me to find a cheap motortaxi to a nice and cheap hostel.

I began taking my malaria medication yesterday. I haven´t been feeling bad at all, but my blood sugar level is a lot higher than normally and I therefore need more insulin. I wonder if this will be all the time while i´m on the medicin or just in the beginning - time will tell.

In Iquitos everybody is driving a motorcycle or motortaxi. Now I will find a motortaxi and a boat to take me to a village 30 minutes from Iquitos. They don´t have wifi in the village and I will be there for a month to volunteer. Since it is close to town, I might come and use the internet a few times, but I am not sure yet. I am going to this place http://pilpintuwasivolunteers.blogspot.com/ and I can´t wait!

From Quito to Lima

I had done some research before I left Quito and a direct bus would be around 90 dollars. I thought I would try to plan my own trip instead, both to make it cheaper, but also to get to cross the border by foot. I took a bus for 10$ from Quito to Huaquillas which is the city at the border to Peru. I left Quito in the evening and reached Huaquillas in the morning. I´ve heard stories about people being hustled once they get out of the bus by people charging crazy amounts to help you get to Aguas Verde, the first city in Peru which is only 5min on foot from where the bus stops. I also been told only to change money official places, since the people on the streets will give you fake money and you can end up in jail for this reason.

I tried to find a place to change money. This was not easy. The bank didn´t do it and I coulnd´t find a place that did. I asked a policeman who walked me to a house that looked closed. He knocked on the dark toned window and a small hole opened in the glass where I should put in my money. Nothing was written on this window so you had no chance of knowing that you could change money there. Anyway, I got a good price and were now ready to cross the border. I met a guy who could take me to Tumbes for a reasonable price. He started of by saying 30 soles, but I got him down to 20. He had a really old and rusty car, but it worked :) Once we were driving, we found out that I didn´t check out Ecuador. Don´t forget this! Either I would have to turn around, walk back and get the stamp, just to find another cab and then check in to Peru or I would have to take a detour with Sebastian (my "cab" driver) to a place where you could do both. I took the detour which made the trip 20 soles more expensive... Remember to get your stamp out of Ecuador before entering Peru! I thought this was necessary to cross the border, but no. You can just walk into Peru without showing passport to anyone.

I arrived to the terminal in Tumbes. A very small and chaotic terminal. The main door was closed and you could only access through the big gate where the busses where driving out and all sellers and passengers were standing. I must´ve looked a bit confused, because I was confused! Many people told me to go to another terminal to get to Lima, there would be more busses and cheaper companies (in exchange for the quality). This sounded right since the terminal looked small and I knew that there would be cheap companies somewhere. Someone waved me over to a small motortaxi and told me the other terminal was close and they would take me there. They said it was free. Of course I should have known that nothing is free. There were two guys, one driving and one sitting in the back talking to me. He seemed like a very nice guy. But on the way to the other terminal, he suddenly mentions that it will cost me 60 soles and it turns out this terminal is 30 minutes away. This sucked! I knew from the start that something was wrong, but when you are a bit confused, tired after sleeping on a bus, sweating in the sun and carrying all of your stuff - you might not think very clear. I was wondering why no one told me that I should have stayed at the terminal since it turned out to be where most companies where driving from. Not one seller told me to buy a ticket to his/her bus. This might also be one of the reasons that I got on the motortaxi.

Anyway, I came to the other terminal which was in a small fishing village. There was just one bus company, but it had both a bus for 50 soles and one for 100 soles. I chose the one for a 100 soles since it would be a lot more comfortable (it was a 22hour ride) and it would get there a few hours earlier. Once I bought the ticket, I had to wait for 2,5 hour before the bus came. I went to the beach and looked at all the big birds flying around. A fisherman passed me and said something - he told me the name of the bird. He was an old short peruvian man who was walking to the market with his catch. We talked in spanish for 10 minutes and then I went to sit on the beach for around an hour. Afterwards I went to a restaurant and got some food. On the way to the restaurant I passed a house. It was made of wood and it was just one big room with kitchen, livingroom and everything. The door was open and I could see kids on the couch, a woman walking around and a rooster also walking around..
At the restaurant, the radio was on. The song "Land down under" by Men at Work came on. This song always makes me happy and reminds me of my childhood for some reason. Suddenly I was really happy, even though I just got hustled for 60 soles.

I thought about it. In total my trip from Quito to Lima had costed me the same as it would if I had just taken a direct bus. It could have been cheaper, but at least it was not more expensive than the easy solution. This way I learned about being hustled, I got to try crossing the border and getting by on my own and I got to spend a few hours in a wonderful little village by the sea :)
I am now more aware about when people try to fool me. I am also more aware of not looking confused. While I was hitchhiking in Europe, looking confused was the best, everyone would come and help you with directions, give you a ride etc. In South America most people will take advantage of  you if you look confused. Straight back, chin up and you should be fine :)

The bus came and it was much more comfortable than I had imagined. Great soft seats and lots of space. They called it bed seats. I sat next to Joseph. A catholic preast from Venezuela, going to Lima for a week. Really nice guy who liked to talk :)

When I arrived in the terminal in Lima, I was met by a taxi driver from the bus company. He offered me a fair price to get to Miraflores, the area where my hostel was located. I didn´t book a room, but I found it on the internet and thought I would stay there. I was talking with the cab driver and suddenly he said that earlier this day, he drove to girls from Germany to that hostel and they said it was full. He wanted to drive me to another hostel near it. He claimed it had the same owner and it was a really good hostel. I was very determined and after telling him several times that I wanted to go to the hostel that I first mentioned, he drove me there. The hostel had plenty of space. YES! I avoided being tricked :)

Insulin:

The night before I left Quito, I filled my thermos with water and placed it in the fridge. Just before I left I put the insulin in and hoped it would keep cold. After around 15 hours of traveling, I reached the small fishing village where I had to wait for 2,5 hour for the bus. I then tried to find a cafe that could give me some icecubes, but without luck. I returned to the terminal (the terminal was actually just a desk where I could buy a ticket, besides that, the guy also had a small shop with snacks and beverages and he had an internetcafe - all in the same place). I asked if I could keep my thermos in the freezer with the icecreams while I was waiting for the bus. That was no problem and he even looked out for my backpack so I could walk around town without carrying it :) My thermos got a lot colder and the bus was a bit cold which was perfect. As soon  as I reached a hostal in Lima I put the insulin in the refridgerator and I think it was cold all the way from Quito to Lima. Buy a good thermos and use icecubes.

Pictures from Quito

Don´t go to the capital, it´s too international and boring - or?

First a small story from yesterday. I was walking home around 7pm when I hear someone yelling my name. It was Mark. Mark is a guy who I met this friday at the housewarming. He is from USA and travelled in South America 6 years ago. Now he moved to Ecuador to work. We talked a lot at the housewarming and he was one of the guys who I walked with for half an hour after the party to find cab.
Mark was going to a bar with a friend and they asked if I wanted to join. We talked over a beer and then we walked to an irish bar. Here I met Stefanie who I was at the basilica with this saturday. I had a great evening, meeting people from Austria, Germany, Ecuador, UK, Spain and USA. We talked and had a few drinks. It was quiz night at the bar and we entered. Even though we didn't know the answer to most questions, we had fun. Great way to spend your evening when you were just planning to go home.

Now to the actual post:
Sometimes when I travel, I realize how globalized the world is. Many larger cities around the world can seem quite similar to each other, depending on how you travel. Quito is the capital of Ecuador, a popular tourist destination and I am living in the middle of "gringolandia/mariscal" which is the touristic part of Quito filled with international foods, bars, hostels and internet cafes. Despite all of this, I still think Quito is a very interesting city which definitely shows you some Ecuadorian culture.

Every time I have been in the "El Ejido" park, I have seen between 40-60 locals standing around one guy. I am not sure what he is saying, but he is kind of a comedian/storyteller. Sometimes it seems that he is talking about more serious subjects, while other times he is running around, acting, telling a long story and everybody is laughing while a few is dragged into the circle to play a role. I loved how he was able to gather so many locals every day. I believe that most people in Denmark would be too busy getting home after work and doing nothing, instead of taking their time to enjoy this. This happens more places around the city. Another popular place was at plaza del teatro where there were even more people gathered every day.

You will also see grown men lying in the grass or standing on street corners playing cards for money. 

On the streets you see kids walking around trying to sell candy. It is not teenagers, but kids! Some kids in the age of 6-7 years walking alone selling candy all day or polishing shoes. All around town you see men, women and kids trying to sell different stuff. The craziest "job" I have seen so far, is a man who stands on the street every day with a weighing scale. He earns 15 cents for every time someone wants to know their weight, which don´t seem to be very often.

The busses here are incredibly cheap (25 cents for a ride, no matter how far it is, unless you change bus) and you will never be hungry or thirsty on a bus! Most busses drive with the front door open and people just jump onto the bus while it´s driving. There will be sellers coming in and out of the bus all the time, selling beverages and foods/snacks.

Lunch is the main meal of the day. You will find set lunches for different prices, but i´ve heard that the cheapest ones often are the best. You can get a great soup usually followed by the main plate with rice, chicken/beef/fish, vegetables and a juice to drink. All of this for just 1,75$!

I think Quito is a great city to visit and 2-3 days wont be enough! I have been here for almost 3,5 week and I could stay much longer. I have plans though and therefore I will take a bus tonight to the border between Ecuador and Peru, from where I will try to find a bus to Lima. I will spend two days in Lima before flying to Iquitos. Iquitos is the largest city in the world that can not be reached by road. From the I will have travel half an hour by car and boat to get to Padre Cocha where I will live for one month and volunteer.

People are nice - housewarming, basilica, concert, El Panecillo & thanksgiving

This weekend I was not sure what to do. My last weekend in Ecuador and there is still so many places to see. I might return to Ecuador and I decided to spend this weekend staying in Quito and exploring. In school we went to a great museum - my teacher, another teacher, her student and I. After school I tried to find a shop that sold batteries for my camera. I entered an internet cafe which sold some electronics and the lady working there told me to go upstairs and ask if they had the batteri. Upstairs two men were sitting behind each their computer. I asked one of them and he told me they didn´t sell the batteri. Then he asked me to sit down and we ended up talking for 10minutes about many different things. In the end he looked through a lot of papers and found a shop for me that sold the batteri and he drew me a map on how to get there :)

In the evening I went to "la ronda" which is a long street with a lot of restaurants and entertainment in the weekends. I found a cafe called "buen gusto de Joel" and I decided that I had to go in and try their speciality which was a "grande" empanada. I was expecting a empanada a bit bigger than normal, that´s not what I got. I got a empanada that was huge! Impossible to finish it all. Afterwards I walked around and saw some different entertainers on the street. I returned tired to the house around 10pm. Here I was met by Bianca, Louisa (two of the american girls that lives in the appartment) and their ecuadorian friend. They were going to a housewarming and invited me.

The housewarming was great! Both a lot of gringos and a lot of ecuadorians and argentinians. I got some contacts in case I would return to Ecuador. One of them was offering me to come work at his organic farm and stay for free for some time, this I have to do if I return! I socialized and danced all night. At some point the stereo was shut of and then people started playing instruments instead. A guy on the drumset in the livingroom, two guitars and another kind of drum, while I was breaking a bit :) Around 3:30 we were 10 people left, drinking argentinian herb tea in the kitchen, talking and listening to music.
The housewarming was in a very quiet and beautiful neighbourhood, which was great - but it also meant that I had to walk with two other guys for at least half an hour uphill to find a cab (we tried calling on several numbers, but no one answered). It was a nice walk though and we had a good conversation.

Saturday I met up with Stefanie (one of the girls I met at the bar my first weekend) and her friend. We went to the basilica - a huge Roman Catholic church in the center of Quito. We climbed all the towers in the church and had some great views. Afterwards Stefanie´s friend went home, but we continued and went a bit north to an outdoor event hosted by the french alliance in Quito. The event was called "antes de que se acabe el mundo" which means "before the world ends". It had a market, different food stands and a big scene with bands playing from 5-10pm. We went for some food and returned to enjoy a great concert!

Sunday I decided to go to the big statue "Virgen de Quito" which is located on the top of the hill El Panecillo. Some different tourists/travelers have told me that walking to the statue is very dangerous, even during daytime. I have been told about many scams and dangers in Quito and I thought that they were exaggerating. I took the trollebus to the historical center of Quito and started walking up. When I crossed the last big street and came to all the small streets and stairs, I met some local people who told me that it was not safe to walk up. The minimum that could happen was that I would get robbed. They adviced me to go back down and take a cab - and so I did. My cab driver was so nice! Sergio Acosta, a man trying to find the city in Ecuador where he want to live for the rest of his days. Quito was just temporary to earn some money. When we reached the top he asked me to stay in the cab for a second. He went to the trunk, got a pack of chewinggum and gave me two pieces, one for now and one for later. What a nice guy :) Talk to your cab drivers, it makes the trip a lot nicer!
The statue was even more beautiful when I got closer to it and the view over the city was amazing! I layed in the grass, enjoyed the fresh air and the view over the south of Quito. I took a bus back down which was a lot cheaper!

Bianca and Louisa is in Quito to become certified english teachers. They are studying with 8 other americans. This sunday they had invited them over to celebrate thanksgiving and I was invited to join as well :) After visiting the statue, I returned just before the guests arrived. Everybody brought a homecooked dish and we spend most of the afternoon and evening talking and drinking beer. If this is how every thanksgiving is, I should start celebrating it :)

The great trip to Baños

This weekend 16th-18th of November I was planning to go to Baños. Well, I was actually planning to go to Otavalo, but something made me change my mind just an hour before departure. I packed a small bag and got on the trollebus south against the big bus terminal Quitumbe. Getting there is easy but far! Just take a trollebus from a 10 de Agosto headed south and get as far as you can, then you will reach Quitumbe - you might have to change the bus one time. From Quitumbe I got a busticket, 3,5$ and I was ready to go.
The bus was more or less comfortable and I got a window seat to enjoy the view since it was only 4pm and there was still at least 3 hours of sun left.

The buses here always takes longer than planned since they do a million stops! They stop random places on the street and pick up more people. They never close the front door and the ticketguy (there is a busdriver and a ticketman) screams out "Baños, Baños" hoping for someone to run after the bus. Besides picking people up, street sellers also get on the bus all the time trying to sell fruits, dinners, beverages and so on. You will never be hungry or thirsty in a bus in Ecuador :) One guy came onto the bus and started talking about three different chocolates he was selling and described each of them. He claimed that one was without sugar for diabetics. Then he handed out one of each chocolate to everyone. Here I read on all the chocolates and of course sugar was the main ingredient in all three ;) He then started talking about his family and prices of the chocolates and in the end he tried to get money from people or the chocolates back. Funny little scenario.

After about about 45minutes a girl came on the bus and sat next to me. I could see the sun was bothering her, so I pulled the curtain. From then on we started talking. 17 year old Adriana. She lived in Quito during weekdays when she studied to be a dentist, and on weekends she went home to her parents, her 12 year old sister and her beloved dog. We talked for an hour in spanish until she had to get off. It made the trip a lot faster and I got to practice my spanish.

When I reached Baños after 4,5 hour (it was supposed to take 3,5) I found an internet cafe where I looked up a good hostel. I went directly to the hostel, checked in to a dorm room and then went out to see the town. The town is beautiful, but very touristed! Most of the food was pizza, sharwarma and other international foods. The rest of the buildings where internet cafes, hostels, adventure companies and very touristic shops with clothes and bags. An old south american guy with a younger (maybe around 40) woman stopped me on the street asking me where I was from. The guy knew a few words in danish and he spoke english. We talked for around 20minutes about everything and nothing, it was very entertaining :)

After saying goodbye, I went on a food hunt, trying to find Ecuadorian food. I found a nice place with great food. Though I could only eat half before I started feeling weird.

- Earlier that day I had been feeling a bit weird and on the bus I had been switching between sweating and freezing. I was thinking that I might have got the flu.

I went back to the hostel where I met James in the dorm room. He was a young solo traveler from Australia. We talked for a bit before he went out and I went to bed. I did not sleep much that night! I kept waking up, sometimes because of noise, but sometimes just out of the blue. It was the longest night ever! This was also the case for my 3 roomates though. Two of the roomates got out of bed pretty easily and left the hostel early.  James and I couldn't get out of bed. I tried several times, but it took me hours to get out and I was feeling even worse this morning. James was feeling worse than me though. He had nausea and had to go to the bathroom every other minute.. We decided to go get some breakfast on the roof, before they closed down the kitchen. Up there the view was beautiful. On one side you had a great view of the town and on the other side you had a big waterfall. We got some breakfast and tea and went back down to the room. James told me he was taking a bus to the center of Quito at 2pm. There was only one bus a day that went to the center of Quito, the rest stopped at Quitumbe terminal - I didn't know about this before he told me.
I decided to join him on the bus since I figured it wouldn't be much fun to be sick for another day in a hostel and then go home sunday to reach my classes monday. If I went today I also got to talk to James in the bus to make time fly.

James went to the pharmacy to get something for his stomach and he returned with two kinder eggs\suprises - one for each to make us happy :) He also provided me with a few Ibuprofen in case I was gonna feel worse. We went on the bus together, talking and sleeping all the way to Quito. The bus stopped at Quitumbe and everyone else got off. One girl told us it was the last stop. When everybody had left the bus, I asked the driver how we would get to the center and he said we should should stay in the bus. That's what we did and the busdriver stopped just 2 blocks from my appartment and not very far from James hostel. All of saturday and sunday I was just sleeping, going to the bathroom and sleeping some more..

Being sick with diabetes is a bit of a challenge. I had to take much more insulin than I usualy do and I had to take insulin several times without eating. What doesn´t make it easier is that you have to eat white pasta, rice, white bread etc. when you have an upset stomach. After this diet and a lot of insulin, I was finally feeling better wednesday and in the evening I decided to go to Juan Valdez cafe and drink something without caffeine. I chose a hot chocolate with whipped cream - that was the best hot chocolate I have ever had! (It might have something to do with the fact that I didn´t drink one for more than a year and last time I drank one, it was powder cocoa and hot water) I have never enjoyed a hot chocolate that much! Unfortunately I forgot about the consequences of eating/drinking dairy products while having stomach problems. That hot chocolate made sure I woke up a lot of times to run to the bathroom during the night, great!

Well thursday I was feeling a lot better though and now I feel that I am back to normal and i´m able to eat normal food. I even ate indian food yesterday. Good timing since it will allow me to enjoy my weekend :)

I will upload some pictures soon. Have a nice weekend :)

Diabetes on Rucu Pichincha - No excuses

Since I arrived in Quito, I have had a hard time telling when my blood sugar level was to high or low. Most of the time it has been fine, but those few times where it haven't, I have not felt it as fast as I would normally do. Maybe it is the altitude?

Anyway, I was going to hike Rucu Pichincha. If you read the other post about this topic, you will know I was not very well prepared. In the morning I ate a big bowl of oatmeal to get some energy for the day. For this I took just two units of NovoRapid because my blood sugar level was 4,2 mmol\l when I woke up. After about an 1,5 hour I reached the top of the Teleferiqo, around 1000metres\3300ft higher than where I came from. Here my blood sugar level was down to 2,5mmol\l. I should be feeling really dizzy, but all I felt was a faster heartbeat which I though had something to do with my blood sugar level. I took two grape glucose tablets to get the bloodsugar up.

After around an hour of walking, my blood sugar level was 4,1 mmol\l. Usualy my blood sugar level will get higher if I haven't been taking NovoRapid the past 2,5+ hours and I do something physically hard. It was around 2,5 hour ago since I took the NovoRapid, so I thought that if I continued walking, it would probably stay or go a bit higher. I was wrong. After 45minutes a was down to 3,5mmol\l. I took a break and ate a good handfull of white crackers. One hour later it was up to 5mmol\l. Again one hour later, when we reached the top, I measured my blood sugar level - 8,0 mmol\l. Now it was starting to go up if I did something physical. I therefore thought that i'd better take some insulin before going down. I have heard that the higher up you get, the more insulin you need. I was in an altitude of 4700m\15500ft. I thought i'd better take too little, than too much. I took 2 units of NovoRapid once again. I drank a few sip's of Gatorade (a beverage with a lot of sugar) and I ate a snackbar. Something with fiber and chocolate, 22g carbs and 8g sugars.
My bloodsugar was a bit high, the altitude was high and I both drank and ate some sugar and I only took 2 units NovoRapid. But later (I don't remember the time) I was down to 3,7mmol\l and had to eat some grape glucose tablets since that was all I had. From then on my blood sugar level was no problem.

I can recommend bringing some more food so you don't have to eat pure sugar - even though I highly recommend also bringing some grape glucose tablets or something similar to get your blood sugar level up fast, it might be necessary on such a hard hike. Fruits like apples and oranges or other foods that is not just fast carbs would be ideal when doing something physical for hours.

Never use the excuse "I have diabetes" unless it is to avoid drinking a liter of coca cola. You can do anything that anyone else can :)

Mitad del Mundo - The middle of the world & more

Today (Sunday, November 11) I woke up after just a few hours sleep and decided to go to Mitad del Mundo. A small touristic area which claims to be on the Equator. By doing a little research, you will find out that the small "city" is not located on the Equator. The calculations are wrong. It is only a 2 dollar entrance and it is fun to see the place. It has a lot of overpriced food, touristic souvenirs and some people who dresses up and does some dance. There is also an insectarium and a few other things to see. All in all not a very impressive place, but it is just 65cents to get there and 2 dollars entrance. If you want to go the Ethnographic Museum, it will cost you 3 dollars extra. I found this to be the most (and only) interesting part of Mitad del Mundo with a great but small museum inside and a nice view from the top.

Just a 5 minute walk from Mitad del Mundo, you can find another museum called Intiñan solar museum. Before I went to Mitad del Mundo, I read about this place. This should be the place where the actual Equator line is! Calculated with some army GPS that is more precise and something something :) I did believe this while I was there, but then I found out that some different groups of geography nerds have brought their own GPS and proved that it is again a wrong calculation. They also come with a good point - why would the army help calculating the Equator for a private tourist buisness.
Anyway, this museum is so much more interesting! The entrance was 4$ and then you get a guided grouptour. It's an outdoor museum and the area itself looks a lot better (and less touristic) than Mitad del Mundo for my taste.
They tell you about animals of the jungle, how the indigenous people used to shrunk the heads of their rivals and wear them on a necklace and much more. They used to build big cabins where a family could live in each corner. The cabin would have two openings and be lowest in the middle. Then when it was raining, the water would go to the middle of the cabin and the two doors would make sure that the water could get out of the cabin, without the family being affected by it. You also get to do some entertaining things like trying to make an egg balance on a nail. Don't go to Mitad del Mundo without paying this museum a visit as well :)

During the weekdays here I spend time in school, exploring town and making homework. As mentioned, I live in an appartment with 6 other people, so there is always something to do or someone to practice your spanish with :)
Claudio and Hannah from the appartment invited me out for coffee to practice my spanish and show me a nice cafe. They following night the cooked me dinner :) They always let me borrow their computer so I don´t have to pay for one at the internet cafe.
I usualy eat dinner at the same time as Robert and we have some nice spanish conversations in the kitchen. Yesterday he even cooked me food - chickenbreast topped with bacon, vegetables and homemade fries. I kind of felt at home :) I get invited to many different events by my flatmates such as a soccer game and thanksgiving dinner. I haven´t been able to go though, but the invitations are great to get!

Today I´ve been out for lunch with a guy from couchsurfing. We had a great indian lunch - his treat. He is half ecuadorian and half american. It was nice to have a long decent conversation in english :) We also talked about each others travels, and i got a few ideas on where to go from him. Now it is time for homework.

- If you are travelling alone and staying in a city for more than a week, you should try to rent a room. At hostels people will usually only stay for a few days and party all day every day ;) I've started to feel at home and really get along with all the people in the appartment.

Rucu Pichincha & afterparty!

Saturday morning I decided to go to Rucu Pichincha - a vulcano next to Quito with an altitude between 4700-4800metres (around 15500ft). Lauren wanted to ride with the Teleferiqo so she joined me (the Teleferiqo is a lift that takes you from around 3100metres to 3900metres up and you take this to get to the vulcano). We went on a bus (my first busride in Quito, just 25cents) and changed to a small shuttle bus for free. We got of at the vulcano parc and from here we took the Teleferiqo. It is a beautiful view from inside the Teleferiqo and even better when you get out on the top.
I said goodbye to Lauren who didn´t want to do the hike and I started walking. It is a very beautiful hike, but also hard. I came to a spot where i wanted a picture, so I asked the two young ecuadorians (25-30years) who were eating lunch, if one of them could take my picture. They were really nice! I then decided that it was time for a break. I sat next to them and we started talking (they knew english! :) ). Cilia and Fernando, two friends who had known each other since they were 10 years old. We did the rest of the hike together. Sometimes it got really hard, but we supported each other which helped a lot! It got more and more cold the further up we got. I didn´t know anything about hiking and didn´t plan the trip at all. I only brought my sneakers, a warm fleece and regular pants. Luckily Cilia had an extra hat that I could borrow to keep my head and ears warm. :)

After 3 hours we reached the top! There was almost no view because of the fog and clouds, but at this point we were so happy that we reached the top that we didn´t care. We had a lot of great views on the hike. Being on the top was just amazing and really quiet! We took some photos and stayed up there for a while. On the way down we met two young guys who were going up, they were the only two people we saw on the way back. We must´ve gone up a bit late.

On the way down it began to hail. Shortly after, this changed to rain. At first it was alright, but it got worse and worse. What i am about to write will sound awfull, but actually, even though we suffered, it was a great experience!
Our shoes and pants were soaked! My fleece as well - they had jackets. We were freezing our asses of. We had to walk slow to make sure we wouldn´t slip and fall into the mud. This was not only a physical challenge, but also a mental challenge. It was a long trip, but in the end we reached the Teleferiqo. Here Cilia and Fernando changed clothes (again, I was not well prepared) and I just took off my fleece and tried to heat up. There is a building at the Teleferiqo with a cafe and a shop, unfortunately it was not very hot in there.

We decided to get some tea/hot chocolate and food. When I got my tea, I was about to faint. I thought it was my blood sugar level that was low, so I tried really hard to measure my blood sugar. It took a while, but I suceeded. To my suprise, there was nothing wrong with my bloodsugar. I then remembered that I only ate a portion of oatmeal for breakfast at 9am and had a cup of tea. Then on the hike I had been drinking 0,5liter of water since it was not possible to get water after the Teleferiqo. Besides oatmeal, I only ate a snackbar and a few crackers. My guess was that my body was going out of "survival mode" and i was about to dehydrate. Cilia gave me some water and shortly after I was feeling a lot better - still very cold and wet though!

Fernando had a car at the end of the Teleferiqo and offered to drive me home! First we dropped of Cilia and then I got dropped of right in front of the door to my appartment.

I would´ve never made it all the way to the top of Rucu Pichincha or found my way down (it was quite confusing, not just a regular path to follow) without the company and support from Fernando and Cilia! I can recommend going to Pichincha, but you might wanna bring more water and food than I did, maybe also some gloves, a hat and waterproof clothes. ;)



When I came home, I walked straight into my room, changed to thermal clothes and layed down in my bed! A few hours later, Robert came and invited me into the kitchen where he was hanging out with some friends and cooking dinner. I was a bit suprised when I came into the kitchen. There was around 10-15 people, 2 bolivians, 3 americans (the girls who lives in the appartment) and the rest were ecuadorians. There was a lot of beer and even more meat!

- Besides working in a bar, Robert also works for the president. Most of the guests this night was his colleagues. One of them was pretty wealthy. He had bought a lot of beer and even more quality roast beef!

All night I talked to different people (they were all very good at making me practice my spanish - and they all gave me compliments for how fast I was learning :) ). Two of the men cooked roast beef all night and kept serving them to us and at the same time, they were making sure that our glasses were never empty!
Every now and then when a good song came on, everyone started dancing and I learned how to dance as an ecuadorian :b

At some point I asked what the time was (I wanted to do a daytrip the following morning and I was a bit tired) and I got this answer "Why? It doesn´t matter what time it is. What matters is what you´re doing and if you´re having fun". It only took me a second to realize that he was right and so I continued dancing, socializing, drinking ecuadorian beer and quality tequila for hours.

I will try to make a small post about how my diabetes reacted on my trip to Pichincha asap. Remember that comments and questions are more than welcome :)

Getting there, studying and socializing

My trip went great. On the first long flight from Amsterdam to Atlanta I sat next to Christian. Christian was a very talkative retired biologist who was headed home to New Mexico after a trip to Turkey and north of Iraq. He was on the trip because of his love for photography. Interesting guy who made the flight a bit faster - the movies also helped a bit ;)
On the next flight I sat next to Sofie from Wisconsin. We talked for hours about many different subjects. After three hours we found out that she knew the owner of the appartment, that I was going to live in - so weird!
Anyway, I came to Quito airport, got my backpack and got hustled by a cab driver. I had to pay 10$ to get to the appartment. I knew this was almost double the normal price, but I was too tired and didn´t bother to bargain or to find another one of the official cabs. I got a nice welcoming from Robert (the owner of the appartment) and Lauren (My friends friend who got me the appartment and lives in it as well).

The appartment is on the 6th floor in the mariscal area (touristic area) and we have a beautiful view over the northern part of the city. When someone showers, the light dims in all of the appartment :)

A few days after i moved in, two american girls moved in. We are now 7 people living here. Robert (the owner), Lauren (the girl from USA who got me the room), Louisa and Bianca (the american girls), Hannah and Claudio (a couple. He is from Colombia and she´s from France) and I. The 4 rooms are divided between us guests and Robert now sleeps on a mattress in the livingroom.

My room is a perfect size and it contains everything I need - a chair, a bed and a bedside table with drawers :)

I am studying spanish from 8:30-12:30 monday-friday. I have private classes, a great teacher and the school is walking distance from where I live. Every day there is a break with free coffee, tea and some cookies. The people working at the school are all very nice and helps me practicing my spanish. Some days it is a bit hard to stay focused. It is 4 hours of a foreign language. It takes a lot of energy to focused for that long (it is 1 on 1 classes, so you can´t just daydream like in highschool ;) ). Sometimes my diabetes also makes me a bit tired, but luckily I have both my insulin and the cookies from the school which makes it easy to control my blood sugar level.


After school this friday, I went home and made tea. Robert came into my room and told me that he was working on a bar tonight and i should go. In the evening i was invited to warm up with Robert and his ecuadorian friends in the livingroom.
We were 7 people drinking Ecuadorian beer and talking. It was really nice even though I didn´t understand most of what they talked about ;) When they left, Robert and I went to the bar.

At first he tried to introduce me to different people, but it was a bit hard since i didn´t have much spanish and everyone was there with a friend. After a while of just sitting by the bar and looking on people dancing, I spotted two girls - a blonde and a brunette. They did not look very local.
I very often think "Hey, you got nothing to lose, give it a shot!" but it is very rare that i actually act on this thought. This time I did!
I went down to their table and asked if they spoke english, luckily they did. The blonde was Cecilie. Cecilie is from Sweden and have been in Quito for a month, studying spanish and volunteering. She had one week left before she was going to the Galapagos islands to volunteer. The brunette was Stephanie from Washington. She was studying abroad for one year in Quito. Later on some of Stephanie´s friends joined us and we all talked and danced while Robert was providing me with free drinks throughout the night. Not a bad first night out :)

Today i met up with one of the girls in the city for a cup of coffee and a good talk. I will update again soon about hiking "Rucu Pichincha", being at a private party with Ecuadorians and visiting Mitad del Mundo which is where the Equator line is.

Diabetes preparations

Before you travel, your diabetes needs to be stable, otherwise you won't get insured. You also need a travel document from your doctor/hospital which allows you to carry your insulin onto the plane.

Then of course you need to figure out how much insulin, teststrips etc. that you are going to need. In my case i decided not to bring as much insulin as recommended (double of what you are going to need) since i am going to be in a village for one month where there will only be electricity 3 hours a day and some days there might not be any at all. This might mean that my insulin won´t be cold enough and therefore ruined.
I  had to figure out where/if i could get more of my insulin along the way. Novo Nordisk makes all of my insulin and luckily my aunt works in a department of Novo Nordisk here in Denmark. She tried to figure out if i could get the insulin in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador or Colombia and i myself tried to call customer service. The answer was "unfortunately you can´t get it anywhere in these countries". We had a hard time believing this and therefore i continued searching. I called the danish diabetes center who said i should contact either the local departments of Novo Nordisk or the diabetes association in the given countries. I wrote an email to a department in Chile and Colombia which was the closest i could find to my destinations. After just a few days a got an email saying that i could get my insulin several places in Ecuador, Peru and Colombia and when i knew what cities i was going to be in, they would help me find the addresses of the pharmacies that sold my insulin. Mission accomplished!

When you travel by air, you need to keep your insulin at the right temperature. If it goes in the luggage it will get to cold and ruined. You need to carry it onto the plane, but to make sure that it won´t get too hot. I looked for different small and practical cooling bags. This was not as smart and cheap as i thought it would be. Instead a bought a thermos that could contain all 10 of my insulin flexpens.
Fill it with water and put it in the fridge the night before you leave. When you leave, put in the insulin and just ask for icecubes when on the plane. I got more ice in the thermos both on a cafe in one of the airports and in two of the planes. This was very easy, handy and cheap. Best of all it kept my insulin at the right degree through 24 hours of travels.

It might also be a good idea to get an extra blood glucose meter in case the one you have brakes or gets stolen. For me this was quite a challenge since my supplier did not sell my meter anymore. They only had the new edition of my meter. Unfortunately it uses different teststrips and i had already got teststrips for half a year to my other meter. I then went directly to the manufacturer who luckily had a few of the old meters left and were willing to give me one for free :) I came to their office and picked it up and the man i talked to said that also the teststrips should be carried onto the plane to make sure that they wouldn´t brake.

Remember that if you change time zones, you have to change the time of when you take your long acting insulin.

My last advice is to look up what kind of food is common to eat at your destination. In Ecuador where i am at the moment, they serve rice and juice with most dishes. You might need more insulin in your destination than at home if your diet changes.

Feel free to ask any questions or leave comments :)

Preparations

I started planning my trip while i was still in NYC. I knew that for the first month i wanted to learn spanish and the second month i was going to do some volunteer work in a village in Peru (you had to let them know in advance since they only took 4 volunteers at a time). Usually i never plan this much, but learning spanish and volunteering was something that i really wanted to do. After volunteering i will have three months to travel and the only thing i know so far is that i'm going to machu picchu.

I knew i would be in Quito almost for a month, so i began requesting places to stay on Couchsurfing and also looking for hostels. It turned out that my friend who i rented a room from in NYC, had a friend who moved to Quito, Ecuador. I then send her an email and she gave me the details on how to get to her apartment when i arrived in Quito. I could rent a room here which was probably the cheapest accommodation i could find. Until two days before my departure, i had absolutely no idea where to stay for the first night or how to get out of the airport safe at night.

For some reason i had ordered a flight that left Copenhagen at 6am and i would arrive in Quito at 11pm. I don't remember why i did this..
Pretty dumb that i had to wake up in the middle of the night and then come to Quito almost at midnight all alone. Maybe i was tired when i ordered the ticket, maybe i was too excited about finally getting the tickets so i wasn't aware of it or maybe it was just the cheapest ticket.

So i figured out where to start. Then i googled for a while trying to find a good spanish school. Tripadvisor.co.uk is your best friend here! There is a lot of reviews on different spanish schools. I also used Tripadvisor to choose a company for the Machu Picchu trek.
Now that i found a spanish school and a place to stay i tried to plan how to get to the village where i signed up for volunteering. It turns out that i had to fly into Iquitos in northern Peru to get there. Going from Quito to Iquitos and out of Iquitos again can be very expensive. I was just about to order some tickets when i decided to try a return flight from Lima-Iquitos instead of Quito-Iquitos-Lima. This turned out to be almost half price! Only thing i had to do was to take a bus from Quito to Lima an then fly. The bus is cheap and you also get a good view! If you think twice you will have a lot of money to save.

Then it was time to think about what to bring, how long to be in Malaria areas, the size of the backpack and so on. I wont go into details here, but if you have questions, please leave a comment if it is for this post and otherwise leave a comments or question in the guestbook.

Advice:

If you want to volunteer in South America, try to look on http://volunteersouthamerica.net/

Start by pressing "read more" and read it! afterwards you will know what to do. It is a great site with a lot of different volunteer options where they don't rip you off. Otherwise there is sites like http://helpx.net/

http://workaway.info/

http://www.wwoof.org

If you travel alone, couchsurfing is a great way to meet people. It is a community where you get to meet people from all over the world and stay on their couches. Even if you have a hostel, you can still meet up with some local people who might take you out for a cup of coffee, their favorite restaurant etc.

Diabetes:

I have to board my flight soon and therefore i don't have time to write more. I will make a post soon where i will let you know what preparations i had to do for my diabetes.

Am i ready?

Well. I have packed everything, got all the medication i need etc. I should be ready, but right now it seems very surrealistic and weird that i am going to a country where i know no one and don't really speak the language. I didn't really have the time to sit down and imagine what will happen when i'm there. Well, now i'm in the airport waiting for my first flight out of three. I guess i will have enough time to préparez myself for this travel.

The brief and boring introduction

Hey all!

I created this blog for friends, family, strangers and myself. Hopefully you will be able to follow my travels in South America. I am a 19 year old male from Copenhagen, Denmark. Since i finished high school i have been working for a year and then i dedicated this year for traveling. My plan was to go to NYC from August and the following 2-3 months and then go to South America.

In June 2012 i got Diabetes type 1. I still wanted to travel, but i could not get the insurance to go to NYC in August, i had to wait until my Diabetes was stable. Then i found out that i could get insured in Europe. So i went of with a friend for a hitchhiking trip for 45 days (end of July-beggining of September). When i came home i was finally able to get my insurance and go to New York for 40 days. Next adventure will be traveling in South America.

I feel a bit silly making a blog and a lot like a hipster, lol, but i thought this was the easiest way to let people know that i am still alive and i am (hopefully) having a good time. I will be writing about my experiences along the way and a bit about my diabetes. I will try to update the blog, but it is not a promise :)

Next update will probably be a bit more interesting :)