Just an ordinary day - Hitchhiking in Chile

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Inside the truck

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

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

Our truck

The elephant rock

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

Two of the guys leaving a bit before Antofagasta

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

My pants after "playing" with the dogs

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

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

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

Day 100 and valentines day

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

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

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

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

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

Caprese salad and beef carpaccio

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

The main course

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

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

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

The Oruro carnaval 2013

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

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

Thursday February 7

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

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

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

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

Manuel and I

Friday February 8

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

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

Coca leaves from the band

The band

Saturday February 9

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

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

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

Sunday February 10

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

About Bolivia, La Paz and Cholita wrestling

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

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

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

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

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


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


A bit about La Paz and Bolivia:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

Australia day in Sucre and the mines in Potosi

Since I was traveling with two australians (Mietta and Naomi) we had to celebrate Australia day. I never heard of this day before, but they said it was just about hanging out with your friends, drinking some beers and having a good time, so I was in for it. We went to the supermarket to buy some groceries so we could have a good time cooking some nice food and drinking wine. On the way back from the supermarket we passed some australians and Mietta chooses to say "happy australia day mate". They were excited! They told us they were gonna throw a bbq at the hostel and have some beers, we were welcome to join in. We gave one of the guys some money and he bought beers and meat for us.

In the evening they fired up the grill and we started to get to know each other over some nice australian music. More and more people joined during the evening and we had delicious food. As a desert we had lamingtons. Lamington is a sponge cake that you dip in chocolate icing and roll in coconut - thumbs up for Australia on this one. We also played heaps of drinking games.

In one of the games, everybody needs a fuckname. You start the game of by yelling "hands in the middle, down with the shizzle and fuck" and then you start making a melodi with knocking the table twice and clapping your hands twice. First person mentions their own name, says "what the fuck, how about a" and sends it on to someone else. I taught everybody the game and it was a great success. Half of the people that evening I only know by their fuckname like "sensuel fuck", "aussie fuck" and "squirrel fuck". After way to many beers of playing this game, we decided to catch the happy hour at a bar near the hostel.

The happy hour was 2 cocktails with plenty of alcohol for 15bolivianos (around 2$). Here we continued playing drinking games, this time ring of fire where you place a lot of cards around a bottle and every cards has a function that makes someone drink. If you break the circle of cards you have to finish your drink. Four cocktails later we thought it would be a great idea to find a karaoke bar. That is how the night ended, beer and karaoke until we were about to faint.
When I come back to Denmark, I will definetely start celebrating Australia day!

Besides an awesome Australia day in Sucre, we also walked around the city. It is a really beautiful and calm city and the market might have been the best I visited so far. It was very clean, the food was fresh and delicious and the people were nice. You got to try cheeses, fruits etc. before you bought it.
We bought some fresh bread, cheese, tomatoes and salsa on our last day and had a lovely picnic in the park before we left for Potosi.

We found a great cheap hostel in Potosi called The Koala Den. There is two of them right next to each other, where the one of them is cheaper. It was a very cozy place with a great breakfast included! The best hostel breakfast so far. We booked a tour to the mines through the hostel which was just as cheap as anywhere else and we got a great guide!
I went in a group with Mietta and an elder couple from France. First we got our clothes, headlamp and boots for the mines and then we went to the miners market. It is optional, but common, to buy gifts for there miners here. We bought some dynamite, water and juice for the miners and went back into the bus towards the mines. On the way up, the bus stopped and we got to have a great view and take pictures of Potosi from above.

We entered the mine with our guide. He was young and loved to joke which was great. He called our group "the sexy llama fuckers". There is heaps of different mines and levels inside the mountain and the tunnels are usually very small. Most of the time you need to walk with bended legs and back. Sometimes you need to squeeze yourself up against the wall when the miners come running with a wagon filled with rocks and hopefully for them silver. The wagons are too heavy for them to stop if it goes just a bit downhill, so if you see a light coming towards you quite fast, you better go up against the wall.

We walked through the tunnels and into a small place with different statues. One of them of "El Tio" - The devil of the mine. You have to offer a sacrifice to him and we could see that many people put a cigarette in his mouth and threw some coca leaves in front of him. I believe this is for luck and protection.
We then moved further into the mine and down two levels. Our guide told us that on this level people worked with machines, but on the level below, they only had a hammers and nails, dynamite and shovels. We decided to go down there. It is incredible how they work! There was one guy with a big nail and a hammer trying to make a big enough hole in the mountain to place some dynamite. It would probably take around and hour if not more to finish this hole. Not only that, but it was also getting really hot down there, and he had to work for 8 hours.
Our guide pointed out to us, that they were all very happy that tourist came to visit the mines. He put it like this "You buy an expensive flight ticket from your country, you travel around, stay in hostels and eat out most of the time. You paid 100bolivianos to go on this trip and still you bring presents for the miners!".

It was a very interesting experience and I don´t think you can understand the life of a miner unless you decide to visit a mine yourself. Even after that it can be hard. They start working in their teens and in most cases they die around 20-25 years later. This means that most of them wont turn 50. It is different from mine to mine how much they have and how well equipped they are, but it is usually not well enough.

La Paz: Free beer, Alasitas, Death Road & Diabetes

When we came to La Paz on the 23rd of January, we checked in at adventure brew hostel. Included in the 49 bolivianos pr. night you get pancake breakfast and a free localy brewed draft beer every night. We arrived in the evening and went for our free beer and decided to sleep early.

The next day we went to book our trip on the Death Road. The tour agent told us that today was a special day. It was the day of abundance (Alasitas). Many bolivians go to the market and buy stuff in miniature such as houses, cars and money. Then they go to get it blessed and hopefully the miniature will help you get what you want one day. This is what we did. We bought some money and different stuff and went to an old lady with a small fire in front of her. She took my money and placed them in a plastic bag that she gave back to me. Then she made a lot of smoke and made my hands and money fload over it while she yelled stuff out to bless me. She threw in different kinds of flowers in the bag, threw salt over me and stuffed some kind of alcohol in my mouth with her finger. We all went through this amazing blessing and recevied fake dollar bills from locals since that is considered to also bring you luck in the future. A very special day, just once a year at 12:00pm. That was pretty good timing :)
In the evening all five of us went to the cinema to watch the Hobbit. Huge room but only about 10 other people than us in there, since the movie was in english.

We woke up early on the 25th to do the Death Road. The Death Road is considered to be the world most dangerous road and probably for this reason it became a big tourist attraction to do a biketrip on the road. First we went to the tour company to get our breakfast and equipment. Then we were driven up to around 4700 meters altitude where we got instructions and our bikes. The first part of the trip is around 20km on a normal road down the mountain. This is the part were you need to go as fast as you can! I've never biked that fast in my life.
After this you go to the Death Road for about 40km and down to the altitude of 1200 meters. At first it is a bit difficult. Your hands are shaking a lot because you have to hold on to the handlebars and the brakes. This starts to hurt after a while. The road is a rush though. It is great fun and amazing views. You have a lot of stops to wait for everyone and enjoy the views which was great. We even drove under a few small waterfalls. At the end of the trip we had a beer and a great lunch buffet. You need to bring insect repellent since there is tons of nasty mosquitoes or something similar that bites you. These bites are small but itches a lot!
We had to rush back to town since we had a bus to catch. We were off to Sucre at 8:00pm and the trip back to town would take around 3-3,5 hour, which meant we would miss our bus. Fortunately our tipsy driver and drunken guide insured us that they could make it in two hours and so they did. On the mountain road in extreme fogs, they rushed back to town and left us 2 minutes from our hostel. We got our stuff and made it to the bus, which turned out to be 20 minutes late anyway.

My bloodsugar on the Death Road was easy to control. I brought a snack in my pocket just in case, but it wasn't necessary. You barely use any energy on the trip, since it is just down hill and you don't actually need to bike. You just need to hold on to your bike and that's all. Remember that you go from 4700 meters to just 1200 meters, where you will have your lunch. The big difference in altitude probably means you need a bit less insulin for the lunch.

Pisaq ruins for free & Isla del Sol

The sacred valley consists of many villages and inca ruins. I decided to go to Pisaq since a few people recommended me to go there and see the ruins. When I was about to start the hike to the top, I got stopped and told that I have to pay around 100 soles to enter. This will give me access to several of the inca ruins around the sacred valley. Since I´ve already been on the inca trail and seen plenty, I didn´t want to pay that much. I returned back to the village disappointed. I walked around the marked, went to some small shops and a nice and cozy cafe where I got a great lemon and ginger tea! Every one of the locals that I talked to told me to go to the ruin before 8am in the morning, then nobody would be there to check my ticket.
I decided to return to Cusco and chill out with some of my new friends. I drank a beer with Rob and got introduced to Mietta, Naomi and Daniella. I thought I was going to bed early, but since it was quiz night and they were great company, I stayed up for way to many beers. I woke up at 5:00am the following morning after not enough sleep. I walked across town to catch a collectivo to Pisaq, arrived at 6:30 and begun hiking!
It was beautiful, quiet and hard. I was a bit tired and didn´t eat any breakfast. Fortunately I brought a huge avocado and some bread. When I had hiked long enough to have a good view over Pisaq, I decided to stop and eat my breakfast. The hike was surprisingly amazing! Filled with beautiful and big inca ruins, terraces and great views! Best of all, I only saw 4 other tourists up there on all of the hike for around 4 hours.
I returned to Cusco in the evening for another night of drinking games and hanging out in the hostel bar.

The following day I caught a bus to Copacabana with Rob, Naomi, Mietta, Cecilie and Daniella. Copacabana is the place to eat trout! For just 20 bolivianos (3$) you get to sit by the beach and eat a full delicious trout with rice and fries. Later that night we cooked food and drank wine. Cecilie had to go back to Cusco while the 5 of us continued to the northern part of Isla del Sol.
Isla del Sol is filled with tourists, but still it doesn´t feel that touristic. The village was nice and quiet, filled with all kinds of animals walking around and with the most amazing views of snowy mountains and the incredible lake Titicaca! We spent the first day just hanging out, walking around and playing "super mega ninja destruction" that Naomi taught us - great game! :)

Next morning we decided to do a small hike to the inca temple and a picnic. After breakfast we bought some food and panrelleno (something like a big empanada). First we crossed a small field with sheeps, beautiful lambs and donkeys. Then we walked across the mountain hill, not very steep and with great view of the rest of the hills. The view over the lake looked like a moviescene. I imagined it being like "The Truman Show". The clouds looked like someone just painted them and it looked like you would bump into a wall if you went to far on the lake. Just as Truman does in the movie.

Just before reaching the temple, we decided to have our picnic. We threw out two blankets, got out some crackers, bananas and panrelleno and enjoyed the view. Two small local girls came to us. The one of them very insisting pointing at our panrelleno. We gave them some crackers instead. Even after getting the crackers, she kept pointing to our bananas and panrelleno which was quite rude. After a while, she found out that she was not gonna get any more and then she left. The other girl "Pamela" was really sweet. She asked us many questions and she ended up doing a drawing of the five of us that she gave to us. Afterwards we taught her how to play super mega ninja destruction and she loved it :)

We then went to see the ruin of the inca temple. Quite nice, but not overwhelming after being in Cusco. Definetely nice though and still a great view. We walked down to the lake and sat on a small bridge with our feet in the cold water - Rob even went for a swim! We chilled out for a few hours on top of the ruin, enjoying the amazing view and kind of waiting for the sun to go down. But around six we were to hungry and it got colder, so we went back down and found a place to eat dinner. Turned out to be a great idea. When we entered the restaurant it started storming and raining a lot! After dinner we decided just to chill out at the restaurant, drink tea and coffee and play cards.

The next day we were headed for La Paz, but not without getting one last trout by the beach first!