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.
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.
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