The first 3 weeks in La Serena

Well, to begin where I left off, the first week (mon9-fri13), I attended as many classes as possible of the ones that I had chosen in advance. Especially one of them was just a waste of time, though. It was bacisally 1 ½ hour of soliloquy by the professor, who, by the way, speaks really fast with a lot of “slang”/chilean spanish words that I don’t understand...:-S So by the end of the week, I hadn’t gotten a lot closer to a final descicion about the courses. On Monday the 9th, most of the other people who live at my “hospedaje” moved in. But no one ever really cooks in the kitchen (they often eat at the canteen at uni), and since we all have separate rooms with tv, there’s not much going on there, to be honest.. Also the owners have told us that we can’t have parties..:( A bit disappointing. But I’ve met some nice people at uni and the days pass by so fast!
The first week ended with a get-together with the exchange-students. We went to the 2 australian girls’ house, and afterwards we went off to Coquimbo (the neighbour-city, apparently THE place to go out) to go to a reggae/hip hop-concert. But that turned out to be a disappointment – the crowd wasn’t even dancing.. But I had good company, so it turned out to be a fun evening anywayJ
On Sunday, the 15th, I went on a day-trip with Lasse, Melanie and Beck (two exchange students) to Isla Damas (Dame Island, or something like that). We tool off from La Serena at 8:15 on a tourbus with 8 other “tourists”. After driving north along the coast for 2 ½ hours through landscaping that is predominated by desert, we arrived to the small village Punta de Choros. There, they have a small museum about the Reserva Nacional Pinguino de Humboldt. The cold Humboldt current passes by Chile from the south and cools down the warm winds from the Pacific, and that is actually the reason why there are no tornadoes on this side of South America (I apologize for my lacking knowledge about weather conditions, but I think that is how it works). We went on a small boat for 12 people and sailed out towards the Isla Choros (where you find the Reserva). At first we didn’t really see any animals (apart from the birds, that is), but then suddenly we saw what we came for; the dolfins!! They showed up in groups, and at some point there were probably around 15 dolfins in different groups! It was great fun to see how playful and curious they are; they got up really close to the boat, and (from a distance) we also saw some dolfins jumping up from the water! At the Isla Choros we also saw sea lions and small Humboldt penguins – they are soo cuteJ! After that, we sailed to the Isla Damas and got off the boat for 1 hour. The reason why it’s called Isla Damas is that when you see it from a distance, the rocks on the hill look like an old woman’s face in profile. It’s not a big island – around 0.6km2 (60,3 Ha), but it still has camping spots (without running water, though). We only saw 2 tents, though, and really – there’s not a lot to do. We went for a walk around the island and went up to the lighthouse. It had a beautiful view, so we shot some pics, and at 14 o’clock we went back to the mainland for a big lunch – fresh fish, uhm! When we got back around 18 o’clock, we were all tired – probably from the fresh air:-)

On Monday the 16th, the professor from uni had arranged a lunch for us in the big canteen, and all of us (the exchange students) go together with him, his two assistants (one of them had helped Lasse and me by showing us the different campus’on our first week here) some other students and another proffesor. I think it was meant to be a “welcome to La Serena/let’s get to know each other”-lunch, but since we had all met each other it was just an ordinary, nice lunch.
On Tuesday, nothing exciting happened, but it was St. Paddy's day (not a big thing in Chile), so Lasse and I went out for a beer with Tahlia and Lyndall, the two auzzies. On our way there, Lasse was stalked (he has a stalker/fan!) by a homeless guy who was tamping the pavement and then he laughed at Lasse. It's so strange - we've seen him a couple of times now, and he always laughs - I don't know if he finds tall, blond guys funny, but dude, YOU're the freaky one..!
On Wednesday, I finally bought a bike! I had spent the whole time since we got here looking for a second hand bike, and finally got one! I paied 40.000 chilean pesos for it (400 DKR), and the guy who sold it to me said that he will buy it back from me when I go home to DK, so that’s good! It’s a mountainbike, and I have never had a mountainbike, so I have to get used to it, haha. I have already had one crash, but it was Lasse’s fault (;-)!) and nothing really happened to me.
In the evening we went to see "Cuentos que no son cuento" - in Spanish! So Lasse, Beck (also from australia) and I got to practice even more Spanish. Behind us sat the cutest little 6-year-old boy, so you couldn't help but laugh when ever he laughed:-)
Thursday.. well.. the weather was great for once, so I enjoyed a bit of sun in my garden:-)
Friday we went to a big party to celebrate that uni has started. The first week of April is called SemanaPapayo (Papayo Week), so this friday (the 20th) was pre-papayo-party at one of the campus. There was an 2000 pesos entrance fee, and when you got in, everybody was dancing there was a DJ and well - everybody was happy:-) We all (the exchange students) had gotten together at my place before going to the big party (that's how I found out that the owners are NOT fond of parties where I live..), and we all danced the night away untill it closed already at 4 in the morning!! :-)
Well, I wanted to go surfing on saturday anyway, so after getting about 3-4 hours sleep, I was up again getting ready to head the beach at 11 o'clock! I thought that the uni-surfing classes were starting that saturday, but it turned out they didn't... But I asked around near the surfing school, and some guys from the school who were going surfing anyway gave me a 10-15 min. lesson, and then I was off surfing on my own with the other guys! It was so cool!!!:-D The weather wasn't too good for surfing, they said, but what do I know?! I have never surfed before, and I don't think it would have made a big difference for me what the waves were like.. Either way I swallowed around 37 litres of (very) salty water, and probaby only stayed with my feet on the board for 20 seconds out of the 1 hour and 45 mins. I surfed - but it was amazing!!!:-D Love it! Now, I´m sooo surfing the coast of La Serena!

Tomorrow, I have to finally decide the courses that I'm gonna do. Our professor from DK told us that we only have to pass 3 exams and not 4, so that's great!! So I'm gonna to 4 courses, and I think I have finally settled on 4 - maybe... I don't know... Still deciding..

Anyway, this Friday (the 27th), Lasse, Beck, Melanie and I are going on a semi-spontaneous trip to the south of Chile; to Patagonia, and also "The end of the World" in Argentina; Ushuaia:-) We will be gone for about 2 weeks (we're back on the 12th of april), and I will tell you all about it when I get back (HOPEFULLY by then my portable computer has gone through customs in Santiago, grrr:-(!!).

Cachay? Small (fun) facts about La Serena

If there’s an “abre fácil”, is there also an “abre difícil”...?

Transportation: In La Serena (and probably the rest of Chile, too) there’s a funny concept that I have never seen before: Colectivos. Basically it’s taxi-cars that drive a certain route (like a bus), and then you share it like a taxi, only it’s cheaper than the “real” taxis. They have colectivo-stops, but you can get on and off basically where ever on their route. There’s just the thing that you have to know the route, ‘cus the signs on top of the colectivos only tell you the final destination. And there are no maps of the colectivo-routes.. There are SO many colectivos in the streets, and even though La Serena is actually not that big a town, everybody goes by colectivo – not bike. (Except for me;-) )
They also have “normal” small buses – they just work like in any other place, I guess.

When you stop at a traffick light/a junction, you’ll almost always see young boys or young guys doing tricks in front of the waiting cars (expecting money for it, of course): juggling with cones, doing a mime-show – whatever. It’s fun to look at and they are actually quite good, some of them. But I still haven’t gotten used to that way of “begging”, and in a way it’s getting a bit annoying. If you don’t give them anything, you feel bad, but then again: you didn’t ask for the show...

The past few Wednesdays we have been to the cinema – Wednesday is the cheap day (2200 chilean pesos, which is around 22DKR/2,8 EUR/3,8 USD), and it is in deed cheap, compared to the Danish prices (you’d pay around 9000 chilean pesos to go see a movie in Denmark !) We’ve seen “El niño con el pijama de rayas” (The boy in the striped pyjamas) and “Cuentos que no son cuento” (Bedtime Stories) – both very good and also very different types of movies!

Eating habits. The main meal here is lunch, and lunch break at uni is between 13-14:30. Almost everybody have lunch at uni (you can get a wide variety of food at the canteen), and we often get the big lunch: veggie-salad, bread, a main course, dessert and juice for only 1650 chilean pesos (16,50 DKR!). To many people (/students), that’s the hot meal of the day. In the afternoon (around 17-18 o’clock) you get “once”, which is tea or coffee and some toasted bread with whatever you like – often something sweet. Dinner is not such a big thing, and they have it around 21 o’clock, I would say.

These first couple of weeks, you shouln’t be surprised if you see a young guy/girl or a group of them walking down the street with no shoes, ripped clothes, funny looking haircuts, covered in paint, with a stench of rotten eggs and fish begging for money. It’s the “mechones” – the freshmen, “sutterne”, whatever you call them: the poor young guys and girls who have just started their first year at uni. They have a ritual where each campus/educacion cut their clothes, pour paint all over thm and somehow make them smell worse than a landfill – it’s disgusting!! Then they have to do different – I assume – humiliating things, like e.g. walking the streets begging for money, and they also have to kiss a pig’s head!! YES, a dead one!!:-S Luckily we didn’t have to go through that!

First week in La Serena

We arrived to La Serena on the 3rd of March around 19 o'clock. Very excited to see our new home for the next 5 months, our first experience at our German hostel was that they had no electricity due to a car accident - that we actually passed by on our way from the bus station to the hostel. A bus had hit a car that had hit a street light. Then that had fallen to the ground and hit the electric cords going down - they were torn, and the whole neighbourhood was cut off... So our first dinner in La Serena was with only candle light (kind of like in the jungle....).
The next day, we got up early to go and see the professor (Castillo) who is in charge of everything regarding the exchange students. We had a good, long talk with him, and then his assistant, Rodrigo, took us for a trip around the town. He showed us the different faculties where we are going to study and also took us to different houses, looking for a place to stay. Right now, all of the students are arriving to La Serena, and everybody wants the best place for no money, so I felt a bit stressed out. You never know when to say when, but after a long day with Rodrigo, he dropped us off near the library. From there on, we could keep looking for acommodation our selves. It was a bit difficul, though, since we had no car and no working phone.. By coincidence, we passed a place that said "acommodation" and went to ask, but they were full. They told us to go some blocks down the street, and there I found what is now my home for the next 5 months.
It's a great place. A family of 5 (mom, dad and 3 small kids) have a small "hostal" with 9 rooms and a shared (big) kitchen in the back yard. The room is actually rather big, around 20m2, and I have my own bathroom, cable TV and internet. They seem to be very nice people, and I am sure that I will be very happy to stay there.
Later that same afternoon, we found a place for Lasse as well, so already on our first day, we had the acommodation problem solved.
Thursday, we went to see Castillo again to get some more things straight, and also went to see the decans of the different faculties (we are going to be at 3 different, doing different courses). After that, we moved our stuff into our new homes. It was, to be honest, a bit strange to leave Lasse now that we had been travelling together for almost 1 1/2, but we live only a 10 min. walk away from each other, so it is bearable:-)
Friday, well... We spent it standing in line, waiting and waiting and waiting... We had to go to the International Police in La Serena to get registered, and after that to the Civil Register to apply for a RUN-number (identity-number). But as usual, there is always something wrong with the paperwork that you got from the other office, so you have to go back to get new ones.. And then do a copy of that, and then stand in line again.. Just to be told that you're in the wrong line, so you have to stand in line AGAIN... You really need to be patient and just accept the fact that it is going to take a loong time.
We got the paperwork done and just had a day of getting to know the city and buying stuff for our places.
Saturday evening we had arranged to meet with the other exchange students. There are around 3 German girls, 3 Australian girls, 1 Japanese girl and 1 Mexican guy. But the japanese girl and the mexican guy aren't studying at the uni - it's a bit weird. Anyway, we met up with the German and Australian girls for dinner, and after that we went out near the beach in La Serena. It was great fun, and they seem like very nice girls!

Monday, today, was our first day of school! Lasse and I had the same class to begin with, at 8am!!! It was Communication's Theory (Teoría de la Comunicación), and even though it was a bit tough to get up that early and realize that the vacation is over, I was glad to get started. This week is a sort of "shopping-week" for us; we can attend the classes that we want to, and then by next week we have to finally decide which classes we want to attend. We need to pass at least 4 exams to get enough points for uni back in DK, so I might do 4 or 5 courses.
This week is also a bit confusing, because they are not doing all of the courses that are on the time schedules - but you don't realize until 1/2 after the class was supposed to begin; then somebody tells you that "oh, it doesn't begin until Thursday"... Well, again, I guess you just have to accept that that's the way things are here, and be patient:-)

That's all folks! Now, my blog should finally be updated, and I'll try to keep it that way from now on:-)

Iguazù Falls, 26th February -1st of March

After a very tiring 23-hour busride from Rio to Foz do Iguazú in Brazil, we were more than ready to get to our hotel and relax for a bit. But when we went to a taxi driver and showed him the little information we had gotten from our travel agency, he looked at us and said "That's in Argentina"..! So we were not even in the wrong town, but also the wrong country!! BUT, luckily it was only a 40 min. drive, and the taxi driver helped us cross the border.

We arrived to Puerto de Iguazù - in Argentina, that is! So for dinner we had - of course - a steak and red wine - yummy!!

Well, here are some facts about Iguazú: It is higher than Niagara Falls and wider than Victoria Falls - beat that! You can see the Iguazù Falls from Argentina and Brazil, and the Argentinean side is definitely the most exciting side! You get a lot closer to the falls - you can even sail almost into one of them!:-D Iguazú is old native language and means "Big Water".

Anyway, on Friday, the 27th, we left our hotel at 10am to go see the Brazilean side. The guide left us to do the 2 hour walk along the river. It was.. well.. beautiful but not very exciting.. On the path, we saw a racoon - apparently there are a lot of racoons in the area who have gotten used to the tourists feeding them (even though it is forbidden! Bad tourists!), so they prefer burgers for their "natural food", and are actually getting too fat, the guide told us..

After seeing the water falls, we went to a Bird Park where we saw all kinds of different birds, parrots, butterflies and humming birds - even anacondas, too!:-S You could get quite close to the birds, and it was a bit weird to be walking along with birds that you normally only see on TV.

In the evening, we went out and had an "asada" - basically that´s a barbecue, so we had a looot of meat. Again... After that, we went to a small café called Tango Bar, where they played "live play back music", but it was really good. And an older seemingly Argentinean/caucasian couple were dancing tango; the man was teaching the woman how to dance the tango. It was very sweet and very cosy:-)

On Saturday, the 28th, we went to see the Argentinean side of Iguazú. First, we went to the big waterfall that is called Devil's Throat. The mists that came up from the depths felt like rain, and we were soaked!

After that, we went back the "catwalk" to get to some small boats that would take us on a calm boat ride on the river - on a safe distance (250 m.) from the falls. We didn`t see a lot of animals, but it was nice anyway:-) We did see a spider, though, that has golden spider webs - I have never seen that before!

Then we saw some other waterfalls - there are seriously a lot of waterfalls, in all shapes and sizes! We had lunch, and after that, Lasse and I were going on a speed boat that would take us VERY close to 2 of the waterfalls!! After a 25 min.s long guided truckride through the jungle - where we saw more, actually a LOT of, "golden web spiders", a small deer, a yellow and black woodpecker and one of the biggest butterflies of that area (about the size of a regular size hand) - we arrived to the "harbour". We stripped down to our swin suits (our guide had warned us that we would be absolutely soaked, so we came prepared), got our life jackets on, and got great seats on the boat (up front)! We went up the river to some smaller waterfalls (heading towards the Devils Throat, but it is too big to reach) where we got a taste of the powers of the water - it is amazing to be that close to the falls. You realize that even the small waterfalls are very dangerous if you are not there under controlled circumstances. After the smaller waterfalls, we went to a bigger one, and got up really close, twice!!:-D It was soo much fun, just like being at a wild Water World:-D

You see the water fall in the back ground? It doesn't look like much, but it was CRAZY!:-D That's where we went!

After that, we went to see even more waterfalls (!) up close, but from landside. At one of them, you could see a rainbow from the mists - it was stunning!

The next day, Sunday, Lasse and I had planned to be very international and have breakfast in Argentina, lunch in Paraguay and dinner in Brazil (we were leaving to catch our plane in Sao Paulo). So after breakfast, we went to catch a bus to Paraguay (only about an hour away). Since it was Sunday, almost everything was closed and there weren't too many buses either.. BUT, we got on a bus and met a Dutch guy and some American girls who were doing the same thing as us - we were stamp hunting:-). We didn`t know where to get off in the city in Paraguay, so we went on to the bus station. But we soon realized that NOTHING was going on that day - it was almost like a ghost city - so we just wanted to catch a bus straight back to the border to get our entrance and leaving-stamps. BUT, Lasse and I also had a mission to have lunch in Paraguay, so first we went food-hunting, and finally found some empanadas. So we had lunch in Paraguay! Then we went back to the border to catch a bus back to Argentina, but because it was Sunday, nobody knew how long we had to wait..... After 15 min., a nice cab driver told us that if we crossed the bridge and went to Brazil, there would be more buses. To we did that (a 20 min. walk), but when we got to the Brazilean side, it started to rain. Heavy rain! And we couldn't find the bus station with the directions that the cabdriver had given us. And since it was Sunday and NOBODY was in the streets, we got kind of lost... In the end, we realized that the bus station was too far away, and ended up catching a cab back to Puerto de Iguazú in Argentina.. So much for our Hollywood-imagination about a fab lunch in Paraguay...:-S

The Iguazú-trip was our last stop on our trip before going to La Serena. It had been great to be able to travel so much, and even though we wanted to travel more and not have to go to uni, it also felt good knowing that we would soon get our own homes and not have to live in a backpack.

Rio de Janeiro and Carnival!! The 18th-25th of February

To start with, I can tell you that Rio de Janeiro means January River, because the Portugese that arrived to Brasil mistakenly thought that it was a river (look at a map, it is not a river), and because they arrived in January.

I also noticed that when you flush, the water turns left - against the clock - is that the same back in Denmark, or does it turn right..?

Sadly, we immediately discovered that Brasil, and especially Rio during carnival, is much more expensive than Peru.. We payed a crazy over-prize to stay at the hostal, but I guess you just have do accept that if you want to experience the carnival. We stayed in a 9-bed storing room - there were no air condition and no windoes, just a fan... Which was on all the time!

We spent our first day relaxing around the hostal and went to check out the Copacabana beach - it is beautiful! A big city-beach, yes, but it still has white sand and OK clean water:)

The Copacabana beach when it is very crowded!

Thursday, Lasse and I went on a guided trip around Rio and we saw the Christ, the Maracana Stadium and the pyramid-shaped cathedral (it has that shape to copy the Mayan pyramids). The Christ figure is probably the most well-known symbol of Rio (well, that or the carnival), and it is definitely a must-see! It is around 30-40 meters high, and the view from the hill is beautiful! To get to the Christ, we went through one of the most famous favelas of Rio, Santa Teresa. A favela is a very poor neighbourhood, and there are many of these in Rio. Generally, they say that if you are not from the favela, you should stay away from them. There is a lot of crime and drug dealing, and the "favela citizens" protect themselves and each other from the police, and basically any stranger could be the police..

Christ the Redeemer

Friday, Lasse and I were very efficient. We left the hostal early to go and buy a new camera for Lasse (he forgot the other one on the back seat of a taxi in Lima.....), to get bus tickets for Iguazú for the 25th and to get our tickets for the big carnival parade at the Sambodromo on monday the 23rd. It was indeed an experience to go for a ride with the public transport - the busdrivers are insane! We were back at the hostal in time to catch the metro at 14:30 with the others from the hostal to the Boat Party that we were going to. The weather was great, and we had paied for open bar and food for 5 hours:-)! We set off with everybody in their swinsuit, sunshine, great music and caipirinhas - could it be any better?! We sailed across the bay and stopped near a small island for a coulpe of hours, where we could swim and jump into the water from the top of the boat:-)! The water was warm, the beer was cold and we met some nice people - it was great!:-) Going back, we saw the sunset over Rio and could also see the Christ. When we got back to the hostal, we continued the party in the hostal bar and talked till the break of dawn.

Saturday, well.. We were tired from the night before, but in the afternoon we went to the beach with some of the other people that we had met at the hostal. We went back to get ready for a bloco (a bloco is a sort of party in the street. You have a small parade where everybody follows a car with music, and then the parade usually ends up at a plaza somewhere where people party on, or it just dissolves. There had been blocos all through the month of February, and there were SO many every day, so you could just choose one and go. It was like the carnival in Aalborg - just several days and with better weather:-)!) in Ipanema, another prt of the city, but ended up partying at the hostal instead. We talked to more new people (we were around 100 people staying at a hostal that normally has around 40 guests, so you were ALWAYS sourrounded by people, and was bound to meet some nice people), and a group of around 8 of us walked to Ipanema for a bloco that was supposed to be there. We missed it, and just hung around the beach talking for a while before going back to bed.

Sunday, Lasse and went to a bloco with 4 other people, whom we had met at the hostal the day before. It started around 11am, so we got up early and went to party. It was so much fun! We missed the parade, but went to the plaza and a band was getting ready for a concert. It was just one big party, everybody was happy, and you couldn't help but dancing to the music. When we got back to the hostal in the afternoon, we just relaxed and went to bed early.

Monday we got up for another bloco with Anna and David, who were also with us the day before.

The music that was playing reminded me of a bad karaokee; the men who sang sounded fairly drunk, and were not good singers... But it was great fun!:-) In the afternoon, we went to the beach (along with 10.000 other people who had the same idea!), and in the evening, Lasse and I went for the BIG carnival parade at the Sambodromo, for which we had payed around 200 USD each!

The parade had 6 different samba schools on Sunday. Like in e.g. soccer, they have a competition to be the best school, and there are different leagues. On Sunday and Monday, you could see the schools from the best league. Each school has around 8 platforms, and they all have to have some kind of theme that - if they are good - is connected to the other 7 platforms. Each school has their own percussion-band with around 200 people, and Lasse and I estimated that there must be around 2000 people participating in each school's parade! The rules are that each school has 82-84 minutes for the parade to get through the Sambodromo, which is - I would say - around 2-300 meters long.

It was very impressing to see the different platforms, with moving devices - and what must be modern slaves.. You would see around 8-10 men pushing these big platforms with whatever devices they had AND a group of dancing people on them. Samba is a very fascinating dance, and it is fun to see that everybody dance; men, women, children and old people.

The parade began on time at 21 o'clock, and didn't stop until 6:30 in the morning! I had to sit and almost sleep at a point in the middle of the night, but we were there to see the last school! The 5th school, Mangueira, was the most popular, and had the 2nd place last year. It was fun to see how people put on t-shirts with their logo - just like a soccer-team - and we had flags and everything. Some people are really into this!

We were back at the hostal around 7 in the morning, and went straight to bed.

Tuesday, the 24th, we went to visit my old friend Tobias from school, who was working at a hostal in Rio. I hadn't seen him in a looong time, and it was nice to catch up and talk about old days:-) To get there, Lasse and I got a bit lost, though, and ended up walking through the favela Santa Teresa...But we survived, so it's not THAT dangerous:-) For dinner, Lasse and I decided to go out, because it was our last night. When we got back to the hostal, we just hung out with some of the other guys and talked all night.

On Friday, we got up early to get things packed and go to the Rodoviária (bus station) to catch our bus to the waterfalls of Iguazú.

It was a lot of fun to see the carnival of Rio, and if I get the chance, I will definitely go again! It was a bit confusing at the beginning, but once you get to know the deal with the blocos, and get to know the different parts of the city, it's just great!

Late updates - The Jungle

It´s been a while, but now I´m ready with more udpates!

The last thing I told you about, was our trip to Machu Picchu. A funny and very surprising thing happened that afternoon on the train (or was it a bus, Gav..?) on our way from Aguas Calientes back to Ollantaytambo. After we had our very delicious sandwiches, traditional music began playing on the speakers, and suddenly a man was dancing down the aisle. He was wearing a white mask (like the ones I told you about; those who are a joke of the Spanish conquistadors) and traditional clothing and had a lama-doll that he was dancing with.. It was VERY strange..!

<--LOOK!!

After that, the steward and stewardess transformed into super models, and did a fashion show with different alpaca-woll clothing that we could buy... Also VERY strange!

When we got to Ollantaytambo, we went on our GAP-minibus, and on our way back to Cusco, we stopped at a local brewery to taste the local cornbeer and play a peruvian beer-game. The beer tastes like... well.. corn.. The corn/strawberry-beer was good, a bit strawberry daiquiri-like, but not so sweet.

Lasse shows us how to play the beer-game. You have to get your gold-coins into the frog's mouth - it is VERY difficult!

That night, we all went out for our last dinner together. It felt a bit strange that not everybody were going to the jungle.
On the 10th, we had a "day off" in Cusco, but Lasse and I couldn´t get enough of wild experiences, so we went river rafting on a river 1 1/2 hours away from Cusco. I have never tried river rafting before, but fortunately, it had rained just a couple of days before, so the river was high (otherwise, it would have been lower and more calm)! After some safety-instructions, we got into the 6-pers. boat, and apparently went rafting for 2 hours - it felt like 20 min.s! It was SO much fun! We passed some level 3 and 3,5, but also 4 and 4+, the instructor said! (I have no clue what that means, but maybe some of you guys do? I only know that I liked the 4+ the most:-D)

We were on a boat with 4 israeli guys, who had tried a bit of river rafting before, but we were all almost beginners. So the syncronic rowing didn´t go too well, but it was still fun! And you couldn´t see anything anyway when the waves were high:-)

THE JUNGLE

On the 11th, we went to the jungle!! After 1 1/2 hours on the plane, we (Dan, Lisa, Gav, Lasse and I) landed in Puerto Maldonado in the region of Madre de Dios (in case you want to look it up on a map). After that and a short busride, we went on a small boat and sailed up the river for 3 hours. They gave us lunch, which was some sort of rice dish and the plate was a leaf, so we could throw it in the river when we had finished.

Around 3:30 pm, we arrived to the lodge and had a short breafing about the facilities. Basically, the rooms were very "eau naturale", that is, there were no windows, ceiling or doors. Just nearly see-through walls and 1/2 a wall to one side, so we had the trees almost INSIDE the room. We had curtains for doors and bats in the very high ceiling.

Around 4 pm, we went on our first guided tour in the jungle. It was VERY hot and VERY humid (around 80-100%!!), so we were all sweating a lot all the time (seriously, ALL the time! Even when we didn´t move at all..). We saw bullet ants (gigantic ants that are very dangerous. They are black, 2-3 cm.s long and if they bite you, you will get very sick with a fever) and the most exciting thing was seeing (and hearing!) red howling monkeys (paa dansk: broeleaber)! There was apparently 2 groups, and they started "fighting" = howling! It basically sounds like a very loud and very long burp! And we were just underneath them! That was impressing! They kept going for a long time (I would say around 15-20 minutes), so we went on. But we could hear them far away!

We also saw wild turkeys on our way to a 38 meters high watch tower. We went up there and had a great view of the jungle from higher than the trees! In the horisont we saw the sun setting and big clouds. You could see an area with rain, then sun, and then again heavy rain. It was beatiful!

When we got back to the lodge, Gav, Lasse and I relaxed in the hammocks with a cold beer before dinner - great! When I went to have a shower at around 21:30 pm all of the oil lamps were out, so our only light was 2 candles and the flash lights that Gav had lend to us. When I went to the bathroom, I first heard a flickering noise and was a bit scared - you never know if it´s just a bug or a bigger animal.. It was nothing, but when I came out of the (COLD - we only had cold water, but that was actually nice in the hot jungle) shower and was getting ready for bed, I turned around and on the curtain "door" I saw a BIG, black spider..!:-S I am, to be honest, not fond of spiders, and especially not the big ones that have hair between their front teeth!!! I panicked and jumped to the toilet as I screamed for Lasse to come and help me. He calmly said "yeah yeah, relax, what's going on?", but when he saw it, he said that HE was not grabbing that! So I prepared to spend the night at the bathroom, ´cus I was NOT touching that spider either, and it was just not moving! Which, come to think of it, would have been worse... Because the you wouldn't know where it went, and you couldn't see anything in the dark... Well, Gav, who was staying in the room next door heard us and came over to the rescue (luckily, he loves spiders). He took it, so I could finally leave the toilet and go to bed - only to find a cricket INSIDE the mosquitonet...! I didn´t sleep well that night - I don't mind watching animals and bugs, but I DON'T like sharing room and bed with them...!

(It was bigger in real life than it looks in the picture - I promise you!!)

The next day (thursday the 12th) we were up at 4 am for breakfast, and around 5:15am we ent on a short boat ride to get to a lake (Cocha Tres Chimbadas, which means "3 jumps", apparently because the locals say that you can cross the lake with 3 jumps when the waters are low). There, we saw many different birds, a family of 5 otters and we fished for piranhas (paa dansk: piratfisk)! We had beef as baid, and they are some cheeky little bastards - they are very fast, and they got a LOT of meat from us. I only caught 1, but it got away before I got it on the boat..:-(

(I had to borrow that one for the picture....)
The otter family

After that, we went on a trip to see birds. ON our way to the bird-watching spot, we saw different little monkeys - we saw cappuchino monkeys and (I think) squirrel monkeys. They were curious, and it was funny to see how we watched them, but they indeed also watched us. When we reached the bird-watching spot, we saw 2 red/yellow and green (or blue, I don't remember) macaws (en slags papegoeje). But we had to be completely quiet, or they would be scared and leave. After a while, somebody must have made a sound, because we saw around 10 macaws flying away across the river - that was beautiful!
We also had to lift a tree off of Gav's foot......... ;-)
After that, we went back for lunch (which was delicious! All of the meals at the lodge were very delicious!) and after that we relaxed for a coulpe of hours with a game of cards. We also played domino with a nice peruvian around 8-year old boy who was on vacation, and was bored.

At 3:30 pm we went to see a medicinal garden. The shaman wasn't there, so we got a guided tour by his assistant and our 3 guides. There were so many different plants, with different purposes. One of them was good against cancer and kidney problems, and actually, a German company took the patent for the genetic composure and is now selling nature medicin. The garden was also a sort of "hospital" for the locals who don't have money to go to a "real" doctor. We tried different things: we squeezed a moist leaf and got a red/purple colour out of it. We chewed a small stick that made your mouth and tounge numb (good if you are going to the dentist!) and smelled some leaves that could be used to seduce someone. After the tour around the garden, we tasted some of the "elixirs" that they make: a sort of natural "Red Bull" for energy, the one against cancer and a natural "Viagra".

After dinner that night we went for a guided "night trip" around the jungle, to see it with no light. We didn't see a lot of animals, to be honest, but when we turned off the flash lights and stood still to listen, the sounds were overwhemling, and you realize that the majority of the animals are active during the night.

It was very exciting to see the jungle! It is definitely an experience to have seen animals in their natural habitat, and to see how the symbiosis of the jungle works. You also realize that it is very fragile, and it's a good thing that some people look after the nature.