#oh that was titou | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

takemetotheoceaaan · 8 years ago

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this could be paradise

Yesterday (11.03.2017) I came back to Quito after having spent the most amazing 3 weeks of traveling through Ecuador and Peru. I am so in love with South America, everything is just beautiful around here.

I started my trip in Baños, which was directly way too crazy up in the sky at the casa del arbol, doing canyoning and learning to salsa with the funniest people! Was great to have some Heide (crazy Laura), her boyfriend from Galapagos and a bunch of guys from Südtirol around me for the first days of experiencing this new world with my really bad spanish word pool. Oh and I met Brenda, an argentina chick who was meant to be my travel buddy for the next couple of days. (Great Hostal Backpackers)

Down to Cuenca, we met a magician called Juan who left us speechless performing lots of crazy as card tricks I would love to know more about. He invited us for some beers at the restaurant of his parents before the pre-carneval session began. Please, google “Carneval - Ecuador”; what you are about to see is just hillarious and even though I was a tough victim, I am really happy about the timing of my travels. Generally what I have learned is that you have to trust the timing of your life and also that everything that happens is meant to happen. I guess this is the main attitude for a happy ever life. (Couchsurfing at Ecuador´s most famous magician Juan Estrella)

New Adventure began in Vilcabamba, the so called hippie-town of Ecuador. Most of the People who come here once will stay forever since it is such a chill place. Especially for retirees from the US. I actually stayed there in a kinda jungle lodge with some Americans I met on a hike in Cajas National Park one day before in Cuenca. Plus a French guy who was making amazing food all the time and who was going to be my travel buddy for the following two weeks! Oh, and Viktor from Bonn who was like a Bendix doppelgänger and who had the most entertaining horrornight stories to tell haha. The real carneval fiesta was just about to start now, so we needed to buy heaps of foam and water to defend ourselves; the streets and all the life over those days is simply loco. It is like war but instead of blood everybody is wet and white. Kind of like Holi Festival but completely different. And the kids are your worst enemies since they are the most agressive ones. (Rumi Wilco Ecolodge)

Way too spontanously, Titu (Frensh Guy) and I decided too go to PERUUUUU for like 5 days. This was another huge adventure, I can tell you. A stupid but funny decicion I definitely don´t regret - it just ensured me about the fact that one day in not too far future I really need to come back to South America to discover all the beauty the rest of the continent all the way over the Atlantic Ocean has to offer. So, the bus ride we thought was about 2-3 hours turned out to last nearly a whole day- we spent 17 hours in buses and tuctucs, crossing the worst paths and borders, together with the funniest ever Estonian couple! When arriving in Peru, it felt like finally reaching South America since the infrastructure was way worse than in Ecuador, much more like I expected it to be all around. And although Peru is just right below Ecuador, turned out naturewise it already has to offer a completely different view.

Chachapoyas was our first destination in Peru. Its preinca-ruins in Kuelap were amazing, I still can´t imagine that mankind was able to build something like that up so high. Or was it simply magic? I really can´t tell. At night time we decided to cook for pretty much the whole hostel. The following day, we really wanted to go to the second highest waterfalls of South America, but because the Frenchie and I misplanned nearly everything (not in a bad way), we ended up visiting an incredible canyon, the so-called Canon del Soncha. While staring into the width, we found ourselves in the middle of a photo shooting of two Peruan guys who were taking professional photos and who ended up spending the rest of the day with us. After we took hundreds of photos next to the steep hillside, we went for super yummy veggie food, a really fancy beer bar and shortly after, we had to jump on another bus, next stop: COAST! (Aventura Backpackers Lodge)

After hours and hours and hours non-sleeping but also not-awake we finally arrived in Mancora which was supposed to be the party beach of Peru! This was actually the first time ever in South America I left the Sierra (Mountains) and reached ground 0 again (after wandering around in a height of 2000-3000 meters, which can actually be exhausting!). Even though everyone told me, I couldn´t believe that such a heat is possible after we´ve been freezing all the days before. At the beach, we decided to go camping - without tent, sleeping bag, air bed, nada! At first, I was kinda afraid that some snakes, spiders or malaria mosquitos would straight come in our beaten-up tent with like a hundred wholes, but turned out that everything was okay and we were not going to die. This camp side right next to the beach was just the perfect place to relax a bit for the next two days. Our neighbours had the weirdest accents: only Argentinos and Chilenos all around! Which really wasn´t that easy for me since I was still totally new and my spanish skills muy bajos, but they were definitely fun! Later, we found some other chicks from Spain we got along with really well and ended up having one, two, three drinks together (I hate aguardiente) while playing card games (champiñones!) and later dancing salsa at the beach which actually is worthy to be known as a party beach! (Camping de Tito)

All of a sudden, our 5 days in Peru were over and it was time to cross the border again. Our way back might was a bit more confortable, but still it was really shitty, especially because we paid way more than we should have. And also, the wanna-be taxi drivers didn´t have any idea about were to check-out and in again and I can definitely tell you: the time we spent during transportation was really horrible but is not at all worthy to talk about it anymore. All the rest of the trip totally makes up for it anyway.

In the middle of the night, we were having some CHIFA (worst chinese noodles, once and never again, at least for me; Titou could have had it every single day) at the terrestre of Guayaquil before taking a taxi to a hostel of a friend of Titous´. Another thing I learned while travelling: connections are everything. Luckily, that is not a big deal for me and I already can´t wait for all the people I met to come to Quito to see each other again and exchange all the stories everyone has to tell. It is common around Ecuador that Guayaquil might be the biggest, but not really the most beautiful town around. For one day though, I think it is definitely worth a visit. At least if you know such a nice local hostel owner and guide who just takes a day off to show you the best places, including parcs with iguanas and turtles and amazing view points. Even the fact that I lived to see as much rain as never before in my life, only made the day better. It was hot and rainy and we were wet all over and the rain just wouldn´t stop all day long, but my god never have I felt that alive before. Back in the hostel, we got offered some special prices for the home-made vegan burgers and I had to try Michelada (which is salty beer, kinda mexicana style but truth be told I figured that was literally the first beer ever I couldn´t finish because the taste was so damn strange). This night, una gatita mala ha acompañado nosotros, y en verdad ella estaba locísima. (Hostal Funky Monkey)

Still travelling with my French Buddy, we finally decided to move forward into different directions. But because all the plans were changing once again, Titou and I found ourselves going back to the coast again - together! This time, Montañita was calling. Pretty much what Mancora is for Peru, Montañita should be for Ecuador. But since I am addicted to the ocean, I could´t be anything but happy to arrive at this touristic surfers´ paradise. We arrived in the rain but it didn´t matter. After I while of wandering around, we found a little crazy veggie place at the beach for lunch and stayed there for a few hours since I met a very inspirational man (half Portuguese, half African) who was travelling since 20 years and he kinda made me wanna do the same thing. In the hostel, we met the Spanish girls we got to know in Mancora and a few other fellows from Peru. One of the girls (Judiiit) was having birthday the next day, so after watching a stunning sunset at the beach we went out for cocktails and party with a bunch of Latinos. Definitely another way too crazy night. Judit´s birthday was chuchacky/beach/cat/tattoo/foood day all at the same time. It was great. (Habitaciones Don Flavio, no recomendable)

In the evening though, I decided to move up north a little to spend my last days of travelling in Puerto Lopez. Once I arrived there, Titou was already cooking for us and we got to know chevere chicas from France and Germany as well as the first turkish guy I´ve seen here so far. The next day, we hiked around in Los Frailes National Park until we reached incredible lonely beaches we had completely for ourselves. That day, not many people went out there and the few who did would have straight gone to the main beach which isn´t even the nicest one. When back in Puerto Lopez, I tried my first ever Ceviche (not with fish oviously, but I finally found a veggie option) which I, to be honest, couldn´t stand at all, even though it is the dish of the coast. Later on, some hostal compañeros and I decided to go to the beach for another unbelievably beautiful sunset (never seen the sky as red before, kinda felt like I was in Africa) before having our own little hostel party drinking some more aguardiente, playing pooooool (champiñones, otra vez!) and listening to really great french electronic music (Polo&Pan!, gracias a Marie&Lyla). As it was getting late, a bunch of us decided to go for a night swim in the ocean. The water was nice and warm but everybody was scared to death when once in a while someone apparently saw a shark and freaked out completely. This was actually supposed to be my last night before heading back to Quito. My very last day started with a Yoga Session at the beach (thanks, Debbie!), went on with an amble to the market for some delicious fruit and agua de coco and ended with a horrible “goodbye“ to those lovely people I just met two days earlier. (Hostal Sol Inn)

While the others were continuing their travels, Debbie and I took a night bus to Quito (she was on her way to Baños where all my adventures started 3 weeks earlier; so en verdad, I was kinda jealous) and how it has to be after a trip like that, after having fallen into my bed terribly tired and sleeping for hours I found myself totally sick for the next few days.

I am so greatful for all the experience I made, places I´ve seen and people I met! Also, those 3 first weeks of travelling helped me tons to improve my really brackish Spanish so I´m sorry for asking the same word over and over again until I finally could remember it. Well, I´m pretty sure it was, at the same time, the reason for hundreds of laughs and funny misunderstandings!

For now, my travels are over (disregarding the weekends!) and my internship is about to start. I don´t know what the next 5 months will have in petto for me, but I´m looking forward to take the chances life offers and wherever I go from here, I promise it won´t be boring!

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