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.