BENJIcampoverde

The trekking to Machu Pichu took me to Aguas calientes (a obligatory stop for everybody). I arrived on the 18th at arround 17:45 at the train station, where the new guide was expecting us. Leo showed us our accommodation, this last night we stayed at a hostel not in tents. We had 30 minutes to take the first shower in 3 days and meet the rest of the group for diner. After diner I walked around town, which is not big, and saw the surroundings. This little town atmosphere, feeling and lookings can be compare to Baños or Montañita in Ecuador, Mancora in Peru, Yangshuo in China, Koh-Tao in Thailand. Around 10pm and 2 Pisco Sours later went to my room - a big and exhausting day was expecting ... read more

This is just a short comment about taking buses taking in City-bus in Lima and South America is something I wanted to write about. It’s no rocket science, but specially for Europeans and North Americans can be part of a new experience – and some South Americans who never took a bus, can think of some already. Besides the driver, there are no self service machines but another person who is in charge of the customer service: charges for the ride, scream out destination and stops so people knows bus directions and takes care of general order in the bus. As a stranger/foreigner you get in the bus and tell this second person where you are going. She (usually a woman) would tell you upon which station/stop to get off and in which direction you should ... read more

On Tuesday the 18th I packed my back (light) and took a bus to Cuenca. Cuenca is a beautiful colonial city and it is a Unesco World Heritage with 417.000 habitants and is 2.530 m. above the sea level. The bus ride took around 5 hours, the bus was fortunately comfortable and even though I wanted to appreciate the landscape, especially going up the mountains from the Andes, I fall asleep. On the road you can see the different location you are. The closest you get to the mountains the climate is different, even the air you breath smells different. The plants are also different: after about 45 minutes ride, huge banana plantation can be seen among others like rice. After arriving in the evening in Cuenca I checked in a Hostel called el Cafecito, it ... read more

It has been more than 7 years since I left Ecuador to go to Germany. I have visited a few times, but this one, after 2 and half years is planned differently. After backpacking in other countries sometimes alone or where I didn’t even speak the language I would like to travel backpacking in Ecuador. I’m not sure how easy or hard it is going to be for two reasons: first, Guayaquil is my city, my hometown, so people I know, family, food I like, places I know and haven’t seen in a long time are here making sometimes difficult to leave the city considering I’m just visiting for a “short” time. Secondly, I believe we (South American people) suffer from some sort of fear or paranoia and are therefore scared of traveling in our ... read more

Después de un mes en Barcelona, se acerca el feriado del primero de mayo... Con Simonee, Scheny y Alfredo decidimos planear un road trip de Barcelona hasta Almería bordeando las costas del Mediterraneo de Espana. Decidimos alquilar un carro, cuestion no tan facil por cuestion de reconocimiento de licencias en Europa y por falta de disponibilidad de carros con caja de cambio automatica. A raiz de esto, seria yo el unico chofer. El viaje duraria 4 días, del 30 de abril al domingo 3 de mayo. Ida: Saliendo de Barcelona, iriamos hasta Almería, nuestro destino mas alejado de Barcelona, para poco a poco ir subiendo hacia la capital catalana. De esta manera, el regreso no seria tan pesado con la caravana de autos y distancia. Despues de unas 4 horas monotomas de carretera aburrida decidimos entrar ... read more