Something completely different

After having shared a lot of happy stories and adventures, I'd like to take the opportunity to enlighten for your information also the darker side of this continent. Some horrible facts:
- the same night (08-12-05) I arrived at the airport of Lima, a female Japanese tourist was murdered for money on the parkingplace where probably my taxi was waiting for me as well.
- a French lady (francoise) was robbed of her camera, all her money and more valuables, while they were holding a knife to her throat in Colombia, the Peruvian guide (Frank) in Lima was robbed of all his belongings in Bolivia, an Australian guy that a talked to on the beach was robbed of all his precious fotos, passport and everything else in Bolivia, today I heard that the Austrian couple (work in the same orphanage as I do) were robbed of everything as well in a bus coming from the market in Otavalo (Ecuador). I left out the million people that I don't know..................
- while I was in Cusco, three girls were raped in or around the discotheques that I frequented almost every night for the last three weeks. I even know the guy by face how commited one of these rapes (saw his face in the newspaper).
- a German guy was murdered in a cab in Cusco near the orphanage were I worked.
-every day the televison shows busaccidents and I'm not making this up, every time when I read it in the newspaper or see it on the tele, it happened in or around the town I just came from or that I am going to.....
- Sunday last, when I was visiting with my family from Ambato, (I live with them now for the coming 5 weeks) the town of Puyo, on the way back we got this telephone call that the cousin (daughter of the sister of the mam) had died in this horrible car accident in Quito. She was only 20 years old.

So people, considering the fact that I have been travelling nearly 2.800 km in the last few weeks and for my time in Cusco, I'm still safe and doing quite well. Don't let all this news keep you from travelling to this magnificient part of the world, neither did I tell you this to scare you or be more worried about me. Just know that my eyes are open at all times. I apalogize for the 10 days you didn't hear anything, I understand it might have troubled you a bit but queens don't just dissapear you know. Be sure I know what I'm doing. I know the dangers and loosing my camera was not one of them. You can't be more alert than I've been this whole trip. Furthermore I don't think my time has come yet. I still have so many things to do and the world hasn't had enough of me yet...By saying this, I don't mean any disrespect to all who suffered by loosing someone or something, or for any other reason in the story mentioned above. My thoughts and deepest sympathy are with you for your loss and your suffering.
Thank you all, to my readers, for watching me and for your support, for your lovely comments, for your warmth that I carry with me....I feel that it helpes me to keep safe on on this extravagent journey....with a lot of love from your friend Miriam

Last part of travelling in the time machine

Where were we? In Trujillo by the beach. I remember this beautiful sunset while I was eating my ceviche (this is a beautiful seafood dish, raw! with lemon). Again I was accompanied by this Peruvian guy, that I didn't know :-) Very funny, they just come to sit at your table. I make sure that they know I'm not for the taken and then I don't mind their company. Like this, I learned a lot about the country, customs and their ways, their needs, sense of humor..everything. I know they probably want more if possible but I've always gained their respect and I had the funniest conversations. I a bustrip a few days ago, my neighbour told me that I was the first foreigner he ever talked to in his life! Imagine that..Well, I left Trujillo in the evening to take the night bus to Tumbes. From 21.30 - 06.00 in the morning. What a horror...All these sleepnoises + the busdriver decided that I had slept enough around 03.30 and turned the radio full blast..When I asked him if he could turn it down a bit he started to shout and scream, so the whole bus woke up...really, I decided better leave him in his misery and try to see the fun of it, which I did. When I arrived in Tumbes, this youngster (later on known as Leonardo) came up to me and told me that I had to be really careful in this busterminal because of the robberies. He was with his mother (Yolanda) and aunt (Maria de Pilar) and her son (Eric). They were from Quito, Ecuador and they invited me to drive with them to Quito instead of taking busses. So at 06.00 'o clock in the morning we went to the car that was parked just on the other side of the border in Ecuador. In the little town where we changed countries they sold just about anything. Somewhere in the middle of a shop was the border between Peru and Ecuador. In one half, you pay with Per.NeuvoSoles and in the other half you pay with hard cash, American Dollars that is..The temperature here was at this time in the morning already 35 degrees. We washed a bit by the car, like we knew eachother a long time. Brushing teeth together, standing almost in your underware...It felt after half an hour as if I been travelling with them for ages. Strange isnt'it. I had a lot of these encounters here. During the first minutes feeling so at ease that you don't have to work hard to make it work. Mostly it takes some work to make it work but here, I just had to be me...good enough. I really changed during this trip. I'm very relaxed, very cool about everything. They have this beautiful word for "cool" here. Chevere...and I heared it a lot lately, so I'm very "chevere". I don't try to make everybody happy anymore. They already are (okay or happy that is) and they seem to like it when I'm around. Makes me happy and smilish :-) It has probably always been like this, just had to come to South-America to discover how to be "chevere" to me!! Okay, back to the trip.....no sense in getting too arrogant and emotional, right..So we were with 5 in the car and we crossed the whole of Ecuador. I drove as well for a while in this beautiful part of the world. Then we missed a big road and found ourselves in this mountainenvironment (really not so chevere for me). It was getting dark and misty and high and cold and rainy and scarey....I drove on sense and feeling cause I didn't see anything anymore. After 4 hours, finally Quito was in sight..They asked me to stay with them untill I had to leave for Ambato. So I did.....Isn't that nice. Just like that. Without knowing me, fully trusting me. Next day I drove the ladies to all sort of appointments in Quito. Imagine that, Miriam in this big capital, driving around like a professional. It went really smooth, they laughed their heads of because of my driving style (most of you know what style that is), and my shouting at the other cars. It was like I've been living there for years...funny and cheerful day that was. In the night the showed me the Historic centre, which is amazing. 7 Corners with churches and a Basilic in the prettiest colours you've ever seen. Next day I had to leave for Ambato, so cheerio again. Maria del Pilar, the sister really cried a lot when I left and than of course, so did I. So many goodbyes, so many hearts feeling something.....So far for Quito...but the witch will return to this lovely family.

Choices - travelstories or children suffering?

At this moment this page contains more stories of my traveladventures than my experiences in the orphanage in Cusco. This may seem a bit weird or of, because the main goal was to help the streetchildren and the orphans. I could have written endless stories of how I changed dipers of the youngest orphans, how I fed the baby and sang him to sleep. I could have dragged you through the motions of my playingactivities with the niños. Of me swinging with David. Or how Mathilde fel from the toboggan (glijbaan), consoling her, or eating oranges on the swingmill with the lot. I decided not to...I wouldn't come out the same as how it was for me. But to assure you, I have been with these children for more than a month and the moments with them were more precious than I can let you understand just by typing black letters on a white screen. This is not because you won't understand but because I don't know how to express these profound emotions from deep within. Maybe I just don't want to because they are mine and for this moment solely mine...
Today I started to work in Ambato in the orphanage. I'm on a break now, but I go back in the afternoon. I will tell you about this project later on, in a day or 2. Will finish the travelling stories first and I want to orientate. So, bare with me...

Travelling through time and comprehension

Lima, Trujillo, Tumbes - FRONTERA ECUADOR - Quito.
Ladies and gents, the girl is back. I'm in Quito now, but I'll start from where I've been leaving you alone and that was in Lima. Lima is something that you don't really like at first but I guess it grows on ye. Just like a friend said. I found a backpackers hostal in Miraflores (which is by far the most touristic place in Lima), but you really don't want to wonder of on your own at night in a town called Lima...A girl from Israel, a guide from Peru (Huaraz) Frank and a guy from the States, Marco, were there. All together we went out that evening in Lima, full of live. At 02.00 hours no more music, no more live so we decided to go back to the hostal to drink some more in the lobby. It's a very easy, cool place to be, this hostal. Unfortunately, the supermarket didn't sell anymore beer (from 23.00-06.00) so we just drank weird booze from the fridge in the hostal. I ended up having this real profound conversation with Marco untill 04.30 in the morning (check out this wonderful page: http://bubbler.wordpress.com ) and then I did internet till 06.00. Time is of no importance so it seems. Next day I decided to relax one day in Lima before travelling more up north. Woke up 10.00 am, 4 hours of sleep, but it's frightening how good I feel. Walked by the beach, went to a commercial center that quite famous, icecream, coffee, sand, sun = fun. The temperature is like 30 here which is really nice. Miraflores is by the beach, but high up so you look down on the beach which is different and I like it a lot. I talked, while eating my icecream, with a Peruvian lady (she must have been around 80) who tried to convert me to some religion right there on that bench :-) I promised her that if I would find the time I would visit her church. Don't hate me for this, sometimes people feel better with white lies...When I went back to the hostal I realized I forgot where it was and I didn't have the name of the street, just the name of the hostal. Thankfully a passenger on a bycicle had all the time in the world to help me....That's something that amazes me still, untill now. Everywhere I've been and go, I haven't been able to be alone for that long. There was always somebody to help or to talk, to guide, to advice. Thank you for that. Well, with his help I found my hostal en we ate some fresh fruit. Later that evening (he had a car as well, very wel equipped in the transport area for Peruvians) he took me out to show me some more of Lima, which was very friendly. Next day, bus to Trujillo, said bye, bye again to my friends in the hostal and off I was again. In the bus I met two ladies (mum and daughter) from Costa Rica and we talked the whole trip. The mum was ever so nice and very warm, tender. I can hear and see a difference now between people from South and Middle America, so we talked about that. Later we went to the same hotel and this was a really good hotel for the first time. . Thank god that I didn't like Trujillo that much in the night. My book says about Trujillo that it has the most beautiful Plaza de Armas of Peru, which is absolute bullocks. There's nothing to do in Trujillo, after 22.00 = dead. So I slept early and like a queen. Next day went to visit something by the beach. Can't remember the name but it's a small fishersvillage. There are some beautiful ruines as well, but I knew that ruines again would ruine me....You can only take that much stones, can't you? I know, I'm bit of a culture barbare but hey, they really look the same and I've seen a lot of them....
So I went to this beachplace, which was really relaxing, talked with Peruvians, with an Australian guy, and hey, I saw a couple again that I saw in the orphanage in Cay-Cai, like a million years ago....I had the same experience in Arequipa, I saw this French lady (Francoise) again, that I met in Cusco....That's one the big mysteries of South America I guess. Meant to be? Coincidence? Who knows, but it's making you shiver and happy in the same time...I'me leaving you with this for now (I could say, to make you overthink this mysterie a bit, but really I have to go to the loo....). There's much more to follow soon....Ah, bought a camera, so hopefully fotos again soon....See ye

Leaving Cusco, entering Puno, lago Titicaca, Arequipa, Ica, Paracas, islas Bullestrias --Lima

Sunday and Monday last I came back from visiting islands in the lake of Titicaca (this is the highest situated lake in the world). It's % Peruvian and 40% Bolivian. I decided not to go to Bolivia because this is just 1 day and it's just another town totally the other way that I have to go. So I have go come back some day to visit Bolivia and see it more than just 1 day. I arrived in Puno (a town by the Titicaca lake) the day before yesterday. I left Cusco 3.00 hours last saturday. I said goodbye to friends and to the children in the orphanage. I was horrible. The "mamita" cried, I cried, the children didn't understand but gathered in the small room to kiss me goodbye. Completely confused I went to pack my bag and Sandra and I decided to have a good farewell breakfast the next day. In the night we "celebrated" my going with some friends in various bars. It was a sweet farewell but one friend decided to go with me for a while on my travel which was very good news for me. The next day more crying when I had to say goodbye to Sandra. I left with my a Peruvian friend for Puno. We arrived in good shape arount 20.00 o'clock. Like al backpackers we found a hostal and went to check out the town. Next day we went to visit the islands on the lake Titicaca, which is so beautiful. We were in this small boat with other tourists from various countries. We slept on an island on the lake, an island with no lights in the evening, hardly electricity, very pure and simple. In the night we had to dress like the locals and we went dancing with the island people and Ricardo (my friend) turned out te be a very good dancer of these typical dances, so he taught me how to be an Indigena ;-) The people who live there are Indigenas and they speake a different language. Next day we visited ruines and other islands, the sun was shining and it was really lovely on the lake. Completely new to me. So worth visiting. Very quite and different from the other sings I've seen. Then we were of to Arequipa (the white city) which was also very nice. We spent 2 days here and visited as much as possible. The folowwing day Ricardo had to go back to Cusco and I had to move on to Ica-Paracas. With pain in my heart again we said goodbye at the bus terminal and we went our own way. I know, backpackers, this is the way to do it, but for me it's really hard. I had to travel for 12 hours on a bus, again on very small roads and this time completely alone. Apart from the bus leaving without me once (I had to go to the toilet) and me running behind the bus in this small village with all the townpeople shouting to the busdriver, everything went well. The countryside was once again beyond comprehension at certain points. I saw dessert, and dessert and mountainsites again, all in the same voyage. Arrived in Inca at 22.00 hours, tired, broken, a bit sad on my own, but I decided to go out alone. Found a very cheap hostal on the Plaza and had fun in the evening. Slept around 4.30 and had to leave for this small oasis (Huacachina) the next morning. As I'm used to not sleap to much I felt horribly good the next day. The trip was weird, but probably because oasises are weird, aren't they. In the middle of nowhere you encounter this wonderful green place that shows up behind very high dunes. After this I took another bus (collectivo, small local smelly bus) and arrived in Pisco. From there to Paracas, a small fishersvillage. Visited islands in the Pacific the next day, again a pleasure like . I'm like in this dream constantly, seeing incredible sights, experiencing unimagenary things. These islands provide housing for thousands of birds, seals and sealions. What a magnificient day again, in a speedboat, dolphins around us......please tell me that I'm not dreaming....And there was much more, I went to a national park as well but it's getting to much to explain. I will continue another day and I will make this blog more fun to read, because right now it's like a sommation of facts. I have to do it like this, because during traveling it's almost impossible to keep up with the experiences of every day, as I'm in the bus most of the time. Or doing incredible fun things. I'm in Lima now and had 1 day of rest so I could write a bit. Hope it's still informative and fun to read. I will make it nicer though....Just bare with me untill I'm in Ecuador. Bye for now, and I'll be back in a couple of days, but then from Ecuador......Be safe in the meanime. Love ye...

7, 8 and 9th day, Machu Picchu

Second day...I slept beautifully, thank God. I shared a room with Sandra but I had no trouble sleeping at all. We woke up at 05.00 o' clock in the morning (yes, I know, It was me that had to wake up that early.) You can see on the pictures how that lookes...We had breakfast and then we started walking with our backpacks through bushes and we had to climb for about 2,5 hours. This was quite heavy, but since I slept really good I hardly felt tired and I enjoyed the climb. At the top we ate fresh fruit and thank God, Juliano had dental floss..he probably read my blog some days ago :-) It's really rare and exeptionnal to experience things like this funny little place up in the mountains with some animals, this beautiful little girl with the fresh fruit and natural toilets. I cherish these moments because it is not every day that you go through live in this manner. After this we kept on walking and walking. This day we have been walking for about 8 hours, we been in the back of a truck (which was really scary, because he was really driving on the egde of very high curves in the mountains), we ate in litt le villages, we saw again amazing nature scenes and I was just out of it, of joy. This changed a bit, later that day when we arrived to a road which was so high and small attached to the mountains (this was not in the bush anymore), with a horrific steep abyss that I lost my breath for a moment. My body started to tremble allover and they had to hold my from collapsing on the spot. Vertigo all the way. After sniffing some alcohol I slowly continued this way for 2 hours. I can't really explain how high it was (believe me when I say high, it's high). The guide held my hand almost all the way (thank you Hugo..) and I overcame my fear at the end. I was really proud of myself and later that evening we all drank to overcoming fears...the drinking went on for some hours and we didn't go to bed untill 02.30 I guess. It was in a little village Santa Teresa, and at one point in the night all the lights of the town went on the blink (uitvallen). We were with three other Peruvian guys that we encountered during the first and the second day. They kept ordering beer and we drank Pisco sour (the national alcoholic beverage of Peru), and with no lights, just some candles it was really special again...I knew the next morning wouldn't become me, nor the others for that matter, because we all got a bit drunk..
07.00 hours third day. Oh, surprisingly no headache, but really tired from the night before, we pulled ourselves together to get trough the next day...wich was not so easy. First we passes some bridges (not too solid), and with the river heavily flowing underneath I firmly decided not to be scared and waggled over the bridge with newfound courage :-) Then we arrived at this river that we had to cross by cable...Yes, I loved it, sitting in this small box, people pulling on the rope to get you to the other side. Adventure all the way. Later we kept on walking by the river and it was a lovely day again. We also bathed (the day before), in hot naturale medicinale waters, we walked on edges, we saw parrots, and so much more, I can't describe it all. In the evening we arrived in this completely touristic village just Agua Calientes which is the stop before Machu Picchu. Here also we couldn't not leave the booze alone, but we didn't stay up that late because....next day: Machu Picchu..
This experience I can't describe. We left the next morning around 6.30 hours in heavy rain. We had to climb a very beautiful road for 1.45 hours. You can't do this without stopping every 10 minutes, due to various reasons. You loose youre breathe while climbing at this altitude, and secondly, the scenery is so surreal that you have to pinch yourself when you look around. You walk totally abandoned (well just us three) in the clouds and you see the mountains through the clouds, which is so very mysterious and magical that it's like you're in one of Shakespeare plays, a dramatic scenery mixed with your emotions in a very moist atmosphere. When we arrived at the end, which is the beginning of Machu Picchy, there is this very touristic place, totally misplaced after this quiet and lonely trip up. Here we went in the magic surroundings of M.P. Slowly the sun came out, with still these enormous clouds ambrazing the mountains, A little later I was witness to the clouds slowly making their way to another world, while I was in this ancient other world. I couldn't believe what I saw, neither can I write it down. So I leave you with your own imagination to picture this. It was and is by far the heaviest and most impressive experience I ever had, naturewise. Photos will be provided soon.

Today by the way, is my last day in Cusco, tomorrow I'm leaving for Puno, and islands in the lake of Titicaca and to Copacabana a town in Bolivia. Yes, my adventures haven't ended yet. I think they've just begun. Bit sad I am, leaving a lot of friends behinde...well, enough said about this.Hope you still enjoy reading my blog. See ye...

Waaaaauwhhhhhhh - day 1- biking (6 enero)

Well, I'm back in town. I don't know how to describe what I've seen. I wanted to write a little bit every day about the trip, because eventhough we were almost in the middle of nowhere there was always this little place with internet. It's quite interesting that they in every street at least 4 little offices with computers and they are always full. Nobody owns a computer here...But I decided not to write because I wanted these 4 days to be as clean from westernity (this is a new word) as could be. It was absolutely amazing. I haven't seen anything like this in my life. The first day on the mountainbike was spectacular in every sense. I never been on a mountainbike before so I had no idea if I could do it. First we went with the bus (08.00 in the morning) to a little village at 4350 m altitud (Cusco is 3330). There we took the mountainbike and cyceled through a landscape that was more or less junglish. Can you imagine me at 4350 m high going down the mountainroads full with curves and stones to approximatively 2500 m with a unimaginable speed. This all alone for 5 hours long. I was with a guide (Hugo) and a Brazilian man (Juliano), (Sandra took the bus, doesn't like bikes) but I was faster all the time. I'm always quite agressive while sporting. I've seen sites high up there standing on the edge and looking down, my eyes following the road that's curving down. It was breathtaking. I never imagened the beauty of it. It was surreal. I didn't even believe it was me there on that road, in that moment with all that beauty. Sometimes we cycled together for a while and then I drove of again. It rained, there was sun, we cycled through rivers, we past by little villages and children waved when we passed by. I felt overwhelmed by all this beauty and didn't know how to filter it in my mind. So I just inhaled it all. I didn't know where we were, what time it was, day, date. Free of charge. The guys were fabulous with me. I had a flat tire and they fixed everything and were very galant. After the four days we became real friends, because you share something very special. You eat together, brush your teeth together. They see you without your make-up, in you underware. For me that really good as an experience. We went out together after the trip. Juliano became like a brother to me. I'm invited to his wedding in Brazil when he gets married. Tomorrow I will tell you more about the rest of the trip, this was just day 1. After 5 hours of biking (and stopping every now and than to check plants and ruïnes on the way) we ended up in this little village of Santa Maria. Here it was like 39 degrees Celcius. Totally change of temperture. We slept in a family house without warm water and the village was without asfalt roads, hardly any lights in the night. I think you know these kinds of villages. TL-light in the small restaurants, rice and chicken and a bottle of Cuscena (beer), that I really started to like, especially the dark kind. Only local peole, lots of dogs barking in the night. We went to sleep like babies, with acking bikingbodies but feeling fullfilled as never before. More tomorrow....

Machu Picchu

Tomorrow morning I'm going to M.P. with Sandra. 4 days of nature and sports. We're not taking the ancient and very touristic route, but a new and alternative route. First day is on a mountainbike descending the mountains. 2nd day climbing for 8 hours....wow, 3rd (waking up at 05.00 hours in the morning) day also climbing for like 6 hours, 4th day also waking up at 5 to watch the sunset over Machu Picchu. I think it's going to be an unforgetable experience and therefore I don't need a camera. Always look on the bright side of life. Much better. Well people wish me luck because it's going te be a enormous strain on the body and we'll suffer like fools. But, hey, it's not for nothing...In 5 days you will know if I survived. I already lost 4 kilo here, I think after Machy Picchu even Twiggy can't compete :-) If you don't know who Twiggy was, look up the 60ies in the United Kingdom. Bye for now.

Forgotten details

I forgot to mention that I moved last Friday from the family house to the centre of Cusco. My family was going to travel to Arequipa for a short holliday (a town south in Peru), so I couldn't stay with them anymore. It's nice to experience both sides, living with a family and living on your own in a hostal. I have much more freedom now, but I don't know if this is a good thing :-) And as Sandra also left her little house in the orphanage to stay with me in a cheap hostal we have been going out a lot...We still work there, it's just that our eyes are smaller each day...But as I'm leaving soon we feel the need to enjoy all the time we have left in Cusco together. We really get along very well. We laugh a lot. It makes me forget the loss of my camera. It's not the camera, it's the 300 photos I lost. Well, such is life...
Today in the orphanage I really felt close to the children. It doesn't really matter if I come or if I don't, but they seem really happy to see me each day and that's good enough. It scares me a bit because I'm leaving soon and I hate saying goodbye. Most of you know I'm "quite" sensitive in this area, and I hope saying goodbye and leaving Cusco won't be too hard. When you travel alone you meet so many interesting and different people and it's really hard knowing that you won't see, most of them ever again. It keeps me awake at night..
Well, before I get to sentimental....to be continued. I think we will go out again tonight to forget this sorrow. I don't know yet what I'm going to do for the photos. I don't feel like buying a very expensive camera again, but I do want to make nice photo's to put on this weblog. We'll see.