Hello everyone!
So...here I am in Chile and I love it! It is soo different from Peru and soo similar to Europe!! But first things first....I have a whole month of updating to do..

Traveling with the family
The first 3 weeks of may have been crazy hectic, traveling with the family, trying to see half of Peru within 3 weeks. Fortunately all went well and other than a camera we (my mom´s husband) forgot in a taxi, we havent lost anything. The last 10 days I have been in the jungle with Guillermo. Here is the month of may in a nutshell..do take a look at the pics and movies (updated a few more) as it helps imagining what these seemingly meaningless city-names looked like!

My last days in Huanchaco I spent with my brother who arrived a week before my mom and her husband. It was quite nice to show them where I had lived for the past 3 months and what kept me busy there. After our time in Huanchaco we took a flight to Cuzco where we spent 3 days instead of 5 due to a series of delayed and missed flights. In Cuzco we met up with Guillermo (remember, the guy I lived with my first 3 months in Arequipa) who was our tourguide. We definitely had to get used to the height, as we got out of breath after climbing a couple of stairs, and my mom even felt nauseated. We visited the Sacred Valley, a beautiful valley with inca ruins and Machu Pichu, the famous lost city of the Inca`s.

We didn`t really have much time there as we had to runrunrun take a bus to Puno and Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world to be on schedule! We spent half a day on a boat going to the different Uros islands where we caught a beautiful sunset on the way back... After Puno we took a bus to Arequipa where we finally had some time to rest..

My brother took a flight from Arequipa to Lima and the 4 of us (my mom, her husband, Guillermo and I) continued to go up north to Ica and Nazca. Ica is the place where the big earthquake took place about a year ago, they are still renovating the city up untill today. It was a bit sad, because pretty much only the poor got hit because of their unstable houses..

In Ica we stayed in a little oasis nearby, Huacachina. This little town surrounds a lake that used to have holy waters, but is now contaminated by all the hotels and tourists that have come to develop over the years. The town is really cute and amazing because it is surrounded by great dunes where you can go sandboarding! Although it sounds all exciting, it is actually harder and slower than you think! (see movie).

In Nazca we took a 30 min flight over the Nazca lines, lines that make up several figures such as a monkey, an astronaut, a condor, etc. These mysterious figures have been drawn in the dry desert, are huge in size and can only be seen from the air. They have been present for over 2000 years, surviving rain, wind, storms, etc. There are several theories how and by whom the lines (figures) have been created, but no one really knows how and why they were created.

Well, after Ica and Nazca, we pretty much had one more day left which we took to travel to Lima. From there my mom and her husband left to go to Holland and the plan was for me to go travel into the jungle for 10 days. The plan changed a little as my good friend Guillermo here decided to join me.

Iquitos, the jungle
This little adventure started with a flight from Lima to Tarapoto, from there a collectivo (shared taxi) for a 2.5 hr ride through the mountains, only to arrive at Yurimaguas, a little port-town right by the river on which we took a boat into Iquitos, the largest city in the Peruvian rainforest. The boat took us 2 days down the river and 4 days back upstream, only to spend 2 days in Iquitos. The boattrip was very nice and quite uncomfortable at the same time..the tranquility of just having nature around you and watching the sun set on the river was quite an experience, but we slept in hammocks (on the way there at least, on the way back we knew better!) bit did survive all the insects that joined us at night on the semi open boat. We really didn´t want to go back by boat, had rather stayed in Iquitos a few days longer, but we didn´t have any choice as we had our flight back from Tarapoto to Lima.

In Iquitos we visited a sort of ¨open zoo¨, as animals typically found in the jungle were captured there, but were domesticated and therefore all cages were opened for us to take a closer look. We saw snakes, crocodiles, monkeys, turtles and lots of to me unknown animals that looked like big rats. There were a few monkeys that would just jump on your shoulder or grab someting out of your pocket and then run! Quite cute and funny, until it actually happens to you!

Well, so far the jungle...I am sure there were other things that I wanted to share at the time, but it seems so far away now because of the extreme change...not only in climate (the hot and humid amazone in contrast to the cold, dry weather here) but mostly in the people and surroundings..

Chile
I arrived in Santiago a week ago where I stayed with a very nice girl from Panama..I am trying to couchsurf my way through South America, and so far so good! Although I was sick most of my time in Santiago, I did get a good impression of what the city is like. On monday I was in good enough state to watch Holland beat Italy in a Dutch cafe with a Dutch friend I know from my days in San Diego. I did not expect I would like it so much here..actually, I didn´t know much what to expect, other than that Chile would be a more developed country...and THAT it certainly is. I guess the things in Peru that were SO uncommon to me in the beginning, had slowly become common to me that now, that I am back to a ¨civilized world¨ (yes, how politically incorrect), I am greatly appreciating all these things that were perfectly normal for me when i was still living in a ¨civilized world¨!

• It already started at the airport...the floor has carpet! Now I don´t know if this necessarily means that it is better, or more developed, but I realized then that in the past 7 months I had not seen any carpet anywhere in whole Peru! In Peruvian houses they use tiles, wood, or stones or in the worse case mud and stones...now don´t go thinking that I went crazy because I was so surprised to see carpet after this many months..here are some other things that caught my attention..

• When I got into the city, the first thing that just stood out was that the city, the streets, the people, seemed so much more tranquil and peaceful....there was no blowing the horn, no spitting, no people shouting (that they were selling trashbags)..yes, people go about their business, you hear cars and buses (no combi´s!) driving by, but they actually stop for you when you cross the street on a zebrapath (I have gotten used to not crossing the street if I see a car coming) without cutting you off or blowing their horn a few times to let you know that if you don´t hurry up, you´ll be ran over.
• A lot reminds me of Barcelona with its large sidewalks, and its ¨barrios¨ or neighborhoods with lots of cozy restaurants and cafe`s where they serve baguette with salmon or camambert.. and NO red plastic coca cola chairs!
  
• I feel safer, more comfortable, less paranoid here..people don´t constantly (have not yet) tell me to be careful, lock the door in the taxi, or better, don´t take a taxi at all. There are no security guards that were seen on almost every corner and in front of every bank. When I ask them if it is safe, they say you have to be careful like in any other big city, but during the day it generally is safe anywhere...but when walking alone at night...there are less safe areas -pointing at a direction- overthere, there live a lot of Bolivian and Peruvian immigrants!
• Lots of young people take on a gothic style in their clothes, accesoires and haircuts! Everyone seems superfriendly and eager to help, without asking why I, as a woman, am traveling alone and where my husband is! People seem more educated here....when I tell them I am from Holland, they don´t ask me why I have these small eyes (with the handgesture), but they say...¨ahh, Amsterdam!¨
• Oh one last thing, but certainly not unimportant...hot water for all! There is hot water here and it comes out with force and regularity! My last 3 months I had not had a hot-hot shower (warmish is a better term) as some hotels simply didnt have (or need for that matter) hot showers...here, as it is so much colder...a hot shower is definitely one of the highlights of my day!
• A bit of a downside is that there is not much room for negotiating (and I was getting so comfortable with it!), pirate dvd´s and cd´s are not anywhere to be found, but dvd-rentalshops are in business!
  

I left Santiago yesterday, on a 11-hour busride down south to a little cute village named Pucón..it is surrounded by beautiful nature and lots of lakes and volcanos...I have about 2 days to explore a bit here..before heading further down to Puerto Montt and then to Argentina!

Stay tuned...! Hasta la proxima..