Here I am again

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Hi everyone,

Well it´s been a long time since I wrote something for you, but I will make that up to you,

I have spend 4 weeks in Ecuador which includes the Galapagos Islands.
After Galapagos I started in Quito to move on with the rest of my journey. I didn´t like Quito that much. There is a lot of trafic and smog that comes along with the trafic. ( I am sorry if I am hurting anyone now)
After that we went to Otavalo. I didn´t do much here, but some excursions and had a great massage. We went back to Quito for one day and then went to the amazone.
The amazone was beautifull!! I had a great lodge and the nature is great! We went to amazoonico which is a place where they take care of animals which had been mistreated. There were monkey´s, parrots, turtles. All kind of animals. We also had a night walk troughthe jungle and the first thing we saw was a tarantula. brrrrrrrrrrrrr.....

After the jungle we went to baños. I had a great time there. We went by disco bus (terrible, but good for the laughing mussels) to a viewpoint were we could see the vulcano which was still very activ. Well didn´t see a vulcano with lava coming out, but had a great time.
Also went to the hotwaterbaths which are heated by the vulcanos.

After baños we went to Riobamaba which sounds more swinging then it realy is. We went to a locals market and we saw ginnypigs being sold for consumption and pigs (dead already) that were just missing the apple in there mouths. Cows being sold and donkeys. Very impressing to see all of that.

After Riobamba we went to Cuenca where I could let everybody see how could my salsa lessons worked out for me hihi. Great time overthere.

Then on to Vilcabamba. This was the last stop before Peru and here we could rest a little. The weather was great, the lodge was great and the alcohol was great.

So we said goodbey to Ecuador and welcomed Peru. We came in on the north side of Peru. This is just dessert. After seeing the Andes for 4 weeks it´s strange if you don´t see any mountains anymore, but a lot of sand and especially garbage.
The funny thing we saw were the little mototaxi´s. They look like the tuk tuks as they are in Asia and I promissed myself that I would go in one.
Piura was the first stop. Nice little village, but crappy accomodation.
Only been there for one night and then went on to Chiclayo.
This was a nice city during the day, but at night I wouldn´t want to walk alone. If you want to buy something in a shop you will have to do that through the bars. This is how they secured themselfs. This, by the way, was throughout Peru.

From Chiclayo we went to Chuanaco (something like that) Which was a little coast place. Again a very nice accomodation. but not so much to do at night.

Then we went to Lima. Lima was an interesting city. We went to the old part of the city where we saw the swap of the guards of the presidential house. Very impressive and it took so long!!!!
We went so see a market, but couldn´t find it....instead we saw bingo!!! So we went in and played bingo with the locals... so much funnnnn!!!

On to Pisco which was a very nice village, but we were warned to not walk alone overthere. We had a tour to the little galapagos island and I tryed out the sandbuggy which crosses though the dessert and makes the scarriest actions. This was great!!!! Also went sandboarding.....went down a hill which was 150m high flat on my tummy.....maybe not high if you read it like this, but believe me if you are lying there it is very high!!!

I flew over the nasca lines. No one knows how these lines, in the shape of animals, came here. I like flying in this little cesna plain, but I have to say that I expected more of the lines itself.

Then we had the last stop before we crossed the border to Chili.....Arequipa. Very friendly city although we also were warned not to walk alone overhere. I visited an orfanage. (hope I spell that right). I saw these 2 boys and I really wanted to take care of them. We spoiled them with a footbal, funny little dolls, pens and something to write in. Feels good to make them a little less sad.

I said last stop, but I forgot that we went to Colca Canyon. Here we watched Kondors. Big birds....that big that if they fly they can be 3,5 m wide.

Back to arequipa for one night and then on to Chili. We didn´t stay long in Chili....only for a few days, but you notice the difference with Peru and Ecuador. It´s a little more wealthy and the people are taller here....hihihi. Also there were more people who spoke more then just one language which was nice for a change. I do try to speak spanish and understand a lot, but I notice that I still miss a great deal of words that I need pretty much to explain something.

From Chili we went to Bolivia.
We started with a 3 day trip through the dessert and the saltlake. My god!!! This was so great. When I stould there on the saltlake I felt so good!! There I was standing on this big lake. This really was a dream coming thrue!
I would have liked to stay longer. For instance in the hotel which was made of salt.

Well shit happens....we had to go further. Our next stop was Uyuni where we ran into a copple which we had met on the Galapagos islands. This was great too!!!

The next day we went to Potosi where a woman from our group got robbed. She had her daypack on one sholder and someone threw something on her and then another guy was willing to help her. This is the old trick to rob someone and we have been warned so many times for this. She had everything in her bag....her pasport, money, creditcard, 2 camera´s..... everyting.
The next day we went to the mines. I really wanted to see this, but from the minute I walked in I pannicked and when the dynamite was going of 2 levels above us I just lost it. My god this was so scarry!!!

From Potosi we went to Sucre. This was the first city were I felt kind of save.....untill..... a rell broke loose....students whit mase (stuff you get in your eyes and starts to irritate and then you breathe it in which gives you a sour throthe) Cops everywhere and also fires. Pretty scarry Bolivia.

Now I am in La Paz. This city is also something. It´s like the whole city is one market. Everywhere you go there is a market. The whichmarket is the one I like most. Where in the world can you buy dead animals and foetus lamas to make spells? Well here you can!!! During the day I don´t mind walking alone, but at night.....no!!

I know that I made a lot of mistakes in my writing. I hope you can forgive me and hope even more that you stille understand what I mean....hihihi

If you want to see some pictures you can visit another page of mine which is http//:denise1974.waarbenjij.nu

I hope you like my adventures and I am sorry that I didn´t write sooner, but as you can tell I have little time to spare behind the computer.

Denise

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