My Mum is a first class backpacker

My Mum and me met in Lima on Valentines day. We never travelled together "just the two of us" before. Without any plans and with just a lonely planet book we started our adventure. After a day in Lima and a day at the beach we decided to go on a interesting tour through the Andes, the highlands of Peru all the way down to the Machu Picchu Ruins. The lonely planet book wrote that it wasn´t a trip for the faint hearted. Well that was the truth. Especially in February when it is rainy season and there are many landslides and road gets very muddy. It could get really tough! It was great that my mother was up to this trip, less touristy and more adventurous (just the way I like it).

We started with a luxury bus for the first 9 hours and passed snowy mountains at an altitude above 5000 m, lakes in emerald green colors, grazing lamas and deep abysses until we reached the village of Huancayo. It was a beautiful trip. We found a hotel and after two days we took a bustrip of 9 hours to Ayacucho. Here they told us that the luxury buses were too big to pass the track. The bus we took was old, the seats were uncomfortable, with only locals and one English couple. We had to stop three times because other buses or trucks were stuck in the mud or slided half of the road, hanging in the abysses. With a big delay, after a 12 hours the axis of the bus broke in two. We were lucky this happened on a big road were we could get out of the bus. The driver told us that there wasn´t another bus who could replace it. The poor Peruvian people waited until there was a replacement ,but we decided not to wait for this in the dark. It was amazing that after this long bus ride my mother was still laughing and after an hour we found transport to the next village and another minibus took us for one hour to Ayacucho. We were so happy to arrive at a hotel late in the evening and to find a decent meal in this lovely village.

After a day rest we had to take another old bus, without much faith, this time a 23 hour bus ride to Cuzco. We didn´t feel much for it after our last experience, but we were a little in a hurry and we had to make the whole bustrip in once. This bus was even older, with terrible seats and a broken radio that could only play the Andean Music very loud. After a 10 hours trip we had to change buses in Andahuaylas. Of course there was a big delay, and it was already dark when the bus stopped, because there was a big landslide just an hour before we reached this village. We had to stay the night over in the bus, without a meal. Sleeping in those old chairs. We stayed the night in this bus and the next day they cleaned the road as soon as there was daylight and we could continue our trip. When we changed buses we were holding our hearts for the next problem on the way. Luckily this bus (also uncomfortable) reached Cuzco and with our English friends, who were complaining much more then my mother about the 36 hour trip we found a hotel and were very tired but happy to be there. Cuzco was great. Normally it´s very touristy because it´s near the Machu Picchu, but during February there are less tourist.

We booked a train ticket from Ollantaytambo to Aquas Calientes, because there is no other transport in February to reach the Machu Picchu. We stayed the night in Ollantaytambo to take the first train at 6 o clock to the Machu Pichhu. It rained heavily the night before in Cuzco and the river was growing. We were sitting in the train, but it wasn´t clear if the train would go this days. What a bad luck... After four hours they canceled all trains for the day. I supposed to go walking along the rail track. We asked the people of the railway if it was possible and they told us it was dangerous, because of the danger of landslides and the growing river. When my mother saw a group of 6 Chileans walk up the rail track, we decided to follow them. It was hard walking on the big stones (its like walking in the sand all the time). After an one and a half an hour walk we found out that we had to take a bus until km 82. So we walked one and a half hour for nothing..... We took a minibus and from there it was 30 km more and it was already noon. It was amazing but my mum was such a big sport and we headed on in this crazy adventure. leaving the Chileans far behind us, to move on as fast a possible. But is was heavy... The last hour we walked in the pitch black night over the rail. At half nine we reached Aquas Calientes the village before the Machu Picchu. We stayed in the first hotel we could find, very dirty and cheap but without any energy to look further.

The next day we were rewarded somuch with an almost empty Machu Picchu, because no tourist arrived the day before with the train. In high season there are 2500 tourist a day and we reached the side with for the most 50 tourists. Yahoo!. It was beautiful. It was dificult to walk more with our sore feet.

Even though my mother had a big suitcase in stead of a backpack, I must say she is as flexible as a b

In three days to Peru

It´s already a week ago, but I had an awesome boat ride between Leticia (Colombia) and Iquitos (Peru). There are two ferries to Iquitos. The fast one that arrives in 8 hours, with a good seat and costs 75 dollars or the slow one that takes two days and three nights and costs 30 dollars all inclusive. Of course I took the slow one, because it´s an amazing tour on the Amazon river, with pink dolphins, beautiful sunsets, lot´s of birds and small villages on the side.
They told me the food was very bad and the toilets very dirty, but I had a great boat with two transvestites, who did some good but simple cooking and they cleaned the boat all the time. The water they use for taking a shower and the toilets is from the river, that works super. The boat is loaded with Peruvians and Colombians and some tourist (2 Russians and a French guy) all sleeping in hammocks, like a hundred each deck. I slept on the second deck, which was more open, with a view on the river...and slept like a baby after my seven day course of sleeping in a hammock in the jungle.
I brought my chaquiras (beads), to make some bracelets. The whole time during the boat trip there were at least three man and some kids looking at me working on a loom (weefgetouw). Asking me how much they cost. When I told them they were not for sale, some of them stayed and begged me to make one for them. Two persons told me their name, to make one for them with their name, another girl wanted to exchange her bracelet from Ecuador for mine and a the girl in the next hammock asked me ten time "please make this one a present for me". It was impossible to please them all, so I didn´t give or sell one.
Instead on the second day I gave one girl who was at my side for hours some beads and thread and in no time there were 6 other girls making necklaces and bracelets of the beads. When a little brother of a girl wanted to join in, he was prohibited by the girl "boys don´t make beads". So I gave him some beads and thread, which he brought to his mother to make him a necklace. After 3 hours of non stop workshop, they used all my thread and almost all my beads, but I was a bag of bananas, a peanut bar, popcorn, lots of smiles of the kids and their mum´s richer. It was a great way to pass time on a boat.

One big women with one tooth left in her mouth and a big smile, selling peanuts on the boat was sitting next to me, watching me work and asking me a ton of questions. Where I lived, if I had kids, how Amsterdam looked like, if I had a husband, how old I was.... When I told her 37, she said "then you are from ´73 like me" and she made a bigger smile hit me a few time on my ass and told me that she looked like an "abuela" (grandmother) in comparison to me. Hit me again and said it was because I didn´t had so many kids and gave me some peanuts,leaving the boat with a big smile

Amazing people

Well it was definitely not an ordinary jungle tour. Sunday at 6.30am Adélaïde and I were at the bar were we should meet with Arno our Indian, but he wasn´t there! The owner of the bar knew where he lived and went looking for him. At 7.10am he showed up still drunk of the night before. It was impossible to have a normal conversation with him. The bus arrived 5 minutes later and he assured us that we could trust him and that he wasn´t that drunk at all, uhum.... After a small bus ride our 25 km jungle tour started.
We followed Arno who sometimes was visible, but most of the times was walking more then a 100 meter in front of us. For several hours we didn´t see him at all, but there was a small path to follow and it wasn´t to difficult to find the way. He was having an incredible speed. After 6 hours we found out why... he was using the mambé (coca leave powder) to help him over his hangover. It was a gift for the shaman!!! We were very angry at him and like you do with little kids we took away the mambé from his bag. But we didn´t say much because without Arno in the jungle the tour wold be even more crazy.

It was rainy season and the we walked with rubber boots and rain ponchos in the jungle. Sometimes we had to cross a small river or the path was flooded. At the end the water lever was that high that the river Calderon flooded into the jungle. For one kilometer we walked with the water until our knees and the last part until our chest. We had to cross a little river, but couldn´t see where to walk with all the water. Luckily at that time Arno wasn´t drunk anymore and he helped us find the tree that crossed the river. We followed him with our backpacks above our heads just like in the movies, hi hi.
After 7 hours we arrived in Calderon, which is a village of 5 houses. We took a rest at a friends place, emptying our boots with water. The owner told us that Miguel and Adriana lived 8 kilometers deeper into the jungle. Unbelievable!! Arno never told us this. This guy lent lent us a canoe or better said a hollow tree, with a big hole of 30 cm on the side. But with a canoe it was much easier to follow the river until the house of Miguel. We entered the boat and the water was slipping in through the hole. Adélaïde was sitting in the middle of the boat, after our trip in the jungle and the knowledge of a broken canoe a little bit in panic that the boat would sink. I was in the back and Arno in the front peddling and holding the little boat stable, which was one hell of a work. After 2 minutes I saw the canoe fill up with water and told them that we were going to sink. Arno told us to calm down and thought we both were in panic. I told them another time that we should go to the side to empty the boat and the third time when I made a little more noise, Arno looked back and started guiding the boat very fast to a side, because the boat was more then half full with water. On the side we emptied the boat and gave Adélaïde the task to empty the boat all the time with the little bucket which was aboard. In this way it worked great and we made a tour of 50 minutes upstream the river Calderon in the beautiful nature. Great!

Just before the dark we arrived at the finca of Miguel and Adriana. They have a house which is no more then a wooden platform on poles of 6 by 4 meters with a leave roof and no walls at all. Containing 2 hammocks, a little closet for some books and papers and in the middle a mattress with a mosquito net. Twenty meters from the house on the waterside there was a smaller roof on poles which was the outside kitchen with a table and some wooden blocks to sit and a big fire in the middle of the kitchen to cook. It was amazing those two very friendly persons, Miguel of 60 years old and Adriana 32 and pregnant, living far away in the jungle without any neighbours, without money (useless in the jungle) any without civilization (like electricity, a water tap or shower, chickens, bread shops, phones..) We were very welcome and gave them there presents (or what was left of it after the abuse of the mambé by Arno).

For four days we lived their life, slept in our hammocks, looked at the monkeys who visited their house, went fishing, drinking the water from the brook on the side of the house (I never tasted water that good), helping make juice of the asaï fruits and eat their jungle fruits like chantaduro.
Miguel lived for a long time in Putumayo with the indigenous people over there. He learned how to make yagé (ayahuasca) from the shamans over there. He wasn´t a shaman himself we found out, but just used the yagé for his own use and when people wanted to join they were always welcome. It was a great experience, because together with Miguel we prepared a whole day our medicine. The next night we took the yagé with our friends from the canoe. I must say that I liked the yagé in the finca near Bogotá much more then the yagé of Miguel, but the experience with making the yagé together made it all good. Even though the songs of Miguel during the ceremony at night sounded all the same and it took hours before he stopped and I could have quiet thoughts.

Arno happened to be a great guy when he was not drunk. After our little conversation the day after our trip, he became great company and on our way back we walked together all the time. The days we stayed with Adriana and Miguel it didn´t rain. It was amazing but on the way back home the water did´t even came up to our ankles. That how fast it can change in the jungle...
Half way our trip I was thirsty and looked for some water in a brook when a saw a big sting ray (rog). I called for Arno and he was the happiest Indian ever. He killed the stingray with his manchetti (knife) connected to a big branch, because rays are dangerous and can kill you with their toxic tail. It was a 6 kilo big fish which we cleaned and carried with us home. This night we had a great dinner party with 10 persons eating the delicious flesh of the stingray.

Finally in the jungle!

Since three days I´m in the jungle in Leticia where Brazil and Peru meet with Colombia. It is part of the "Amazonas", the biggest jungle in the world. It´s a two hour flight from Bogotá, and the only way to get there is by plane. I´m staying at a lodging 11 km from the town in the jungle. There are only the owner and some Spanish guys who live and work on the property. It´s beautiful over there with hummingbirds, parrots, tarantula´s, butterflies and lots of plants and trees.... and mosquitoes. This evening at 2 am I was deep asleep, when the owner of the place was jelling at my door: "Binkie do you wanna see monkeys???" I rushed into my shoes to follow him. With a flashlight we searched in the trees "micos nocturnos" or in English "night monkeys". Listening to the raindrops that fall from the branches when they move, to locate them. They weren´t bothered by the flashlight and it was easy to follow them jumping from tree to tree...cool!

Tomorrow I´ll leave for a five day trip deep into the jungle. I asked around for a good shaman near Leticia and they told me of "taita Miguel" who lives in Calderon. It is a little community deep in the jungle 9 hours (25 km) from Leticia. The owner of the lodging helped me find an Indian who can bring me there. Adélaïde a French girl I met in Leticia, hearded my plan and wanted to join me. Great! Today we bought for 5 days food, cigars, "mambe" (coca leaves in powder which the Indians use a lot here), coffee and sugar as gifts for the shaman. It´s rainy season so I will be difficult to cross the river and the mountains in the jungle, but it will be an interesting walk.

Have you ever....

Have you ever bought an umbrella with the same amount of rain inside the umbrella as outside? They sell them over here for only 5000 pesos!

"Blancos Y Negros"

All the world knows the carnivals of Brazil, Rio de Janeiro. One that is just as big and fun in another way is the carnival "Blancos y Negros" in Pasto. It is less sexy then Brazil, but they have a fantastic, colorful and huge procession of wagons and lots of foam fights. It´s a whole week with great costumes, traditional dances, fun fights with black powder or white foam and the last day is the carnival of the guinea pig.

I was travelling with Seth, (it´s great travelling with him, he has the same travel preferences and we are "the two gringos talking in Spanish"). When we arrived late in the afternoon in Pasto, we were afraid we couldn´t find a hotel. But we were lucky and the first hotel had only one room left. It was a little noisy at the street side, but they had warm water and TV. It was the day of the "negros" and there was a big party on the main square. This day is in respect of the black people and people walk around with black paint (wash able) and foam. Everybody is playing the game, but two white tourist are very nice to paint. So we were the victims. It was good to see that the surveying police were bigger victims and everybody was spraying them with foam, that you couldn´t see their faces. But everybody old and young accepts this game, great to see that there are no real fights. After some hours of dancing and foam fighting we were exhausted and went to our hotel covered with all colors of paint, foam and powder. The hotel was build above a discotheque and in the evening they put the boxes outside just under our window. We were so happy to find a hotel that we didn't look at the building below the hotel. After a lukewarm shower we had to enjoy the music.

Quito is super on New Years Eve

I went to Quito to spent my New years Eve over there . The Ecuadorians say this is the place to be in Ecuador, and they were right! They have a ton of costumes during new years eve and I thought: "Why not I´m going to do them all". I met up with a bunch of couch surfing and we spent the night together (with my smurf).

Here is the list of costumes:

• At midnight put on fire a big paper doll from paper maché or old cloths stuffed with newspaper to burn all the bad things of the last year and to start clean with a new year. I bought a smurf.


• To put a little (or large) note in the doll with all the things you regret or have done wrong the last year. When you burn it, it won´t happen to you again in the next year. jump over the doll when it is burning, brings luck in the new year.


• Wearing yellow underwear, don´t know why but it brings good luck.


• Eating 12 grapes at midnight.


• Getting dressed with costumes and masks.


• Walking around in the Avenida Amazonas, where all the people go. They make huge political characters (dolls) who move, with political messages. There is live music and performances.


• Drink canalazo a hot drink from fruits with alcohol, brrrr


• They have "oliebollen" without raisins, but at least oliebollen!!!!


• Dance until the next day....I didn´t make it....getting old....