South America

Bolivares, Soles, Pesos, Real

Or: South America

If you knew my original traveling plan you might start wondering reading this headline. Latin America was never on my list and know I will spend 2 months on this is beautiful continent.

How that happened? I don’t really know, but I am glad it did.

I asked my friend Oswaldo, whom I met back in the US where we became more than friends...basically siblings, if I could come visit him in Caracas for a couple of days. His response was: „Zoe do you even know about the political situation in this country right now?“ . I did, kind of...but not really. I didn’t know any exact details or how miserable the county really was.

I decided to head to Caracas, Venezuela anyways, because why not. I am a tourist, nothing is going to happen to me and I would have my brother with me there. One day after I got an „ok“ from Ozzy I boarded the plane (guess who got stranded in LA again for 12 hours? Yes it’s this lucky girl) and I made it from Bora to Caracas in 3 days. NEW RECORD. I landed around 5 in the morning and the city was still dark and asleep. Oswaldo and Oswaldo (his Dad) picked me up, blasting Reggaton through the cars speakers and I loved it.

5 minutes into the car ride I got scared a little. Someone threw a rock at our car while we were on the highway. No one was hurt, no windows broke, nothing really hapened, but that was when I realized, that this country was completely different from my hometown.

We got to the apartment about an hour later and they made me feel at home from the first minute on. They really meant the saying: „Mi casa es su casa“.

I ended up staying in Caracas for 2 weeks and I fell in love with the city and of course Ozzys lovely family. Most of the days I accompanied Oswaldo to University where I sat in physics and math. You know, my total favorites.... Even though I would have never gone to classes like this, I enjoyed those days, because I got to meet Oswaldos friends, listen to teachers that look like Albert Einstein, and on top of all I learned Spanish. You can call me a native now.

Well I did not only see the Uni, I ate at great restaurants, tried all the local food, went to a party, played volleyball, saw a lot of the beautiful city, learned abouth the language, culture and politics, went to the beach and played more volleyball and got to spend time with Ozzy and his family and met so many inspiring people. A lot of really smart college students, that hope to be able to work in Germany at some point, because Venezuela can’t offer them the future they strive for. I know they can achieve anything.

I miss and love you! Gracias por todo

Favelas are always my favorite

Stunning view over Caracas

I had a great time and I will say Caracas is a beautiful city that I will most definitely come back to.

The only negative experience I had was when I tried to leave the country for Peru. The security treated me like I was worth nothing...they searched me and my bags twice, because apparently I looked suspicous to them. Complete humiliation happened shortly afterwards...I was surrounded by 4 male officers, who made me play my Ukulele. This might sound funny to you, but I felt like I was part of a really bad movie. I had no choice so I played a song for them while they were staring and laughing at me. GREAT EXPERIENCE!! Well after they were done with their little games I could finally cross the boarder.

After two long days of traveling I finally made it to Cusco, Peru without any exciting things happening. Everything worked out fine, which was so nice for once. I flew into Cusco at 5 a.m and was greeted by 10 Taxi drivers, yelling out different prices betweeen 8 and 30 soles (2$-10$). Thanks to my friend and host Alice I knew about the taxi drivers’ little games and how much would be a fair price to get to the Hostel.

After a 20 minute drive through the really busy and chaotic cusco, the driver pulled over and showed me the hostels entrance, where Alice was already waiting for me. We caught up really quickly and went to bed for a couple hours of sleep.

The same day but later in the afternoon Alice and Abe (both volunteers for 3 months in cusco) showed me around the beautiful town and took me out for dinner. We went to bed again early because I booked a tour the next day.

I only got to spend 6 days in the city but I saw everything I wanted.

-Machu Picchu (3 Day Inca Jungle Tour: Ziplining, Rafting, Hiking, 2000 steps)

-Rainbow Mountain (Getting up at 3 a.m, hike for 2 hours, Altitude of 5000m)

-Sunset over Cusco (20min)

-Pittoresque city (markets, churches, places)

I am so glad I ended up visiting Peru and I never could have done it without your help Alice. Thank you for everything (I still owe you 60 soles btw...).

I almost died jumping 4 times to get a picture (breathing was not easy)

My first wonder of the world

I had a really hard time leaving the country...not only because this has been my favorite stop so far, but because I had troubles at the airport again, who would have thought so... I might write a book about my time spent at Airports, would you be interested?

So here is the deal. I left my hostel 3 hours early as always (and yes I know it’s totally unnessessary to get there that early, but let me tell you, great things have happened to me only because I got there so early). 5 minutes into my conversation with the cab driver I realized I forgot my jewelery at the hostel, which keeps me safe on my travels and I made him turn around, because I still had so much time. Everything worked out super great, he waited in front of my hostel for me and only charged me 3 pesos more. When we got to the airport and I tried to check my bag the lady told me to step back and wait 2 hours for the next flight, because the earlier one was overbooked by 10. Having experience with those messages, I did for once not overreact immediately, I sat down and waited.

An hour into waiting a whole airplane load of people came back from the boarding area, because their flight was cancelled. I should have just gone home after this message, but I still had hope. The airline tried to fit as many people into the hotel and on later flights, but it took time...hours passed, people got angry, others got sick (like really sick, there was a lady throwing up) and some got mad (throwing around backpacks and screaming was involved) I enjoyed watching, until I realized I will probably not fly out of cusco tonight either and I don’t get any vouchers, free taxis or a nice hotel room. But then the counter lady told me to take my bag and go trough security and I might get a seat on the last flight for today, which was only 3 hours late. So I head up to the Gate, praying and knocking on wood quite literally and I got lucky. I got a seat on the last plane that would fly out of this city and bring me one step closer to seing my best friend again which was awaiting me in Buenos Aires.

It would have been so nice, if the story ended here, but after 10 minutes listening to music, sitting in the comfortable airplane seat, they announced that the plane just broke and we have to get out. The next flight would leave the next morning.

That’s when I started crying.

The rest of the night is kinda blurry, I got into a cab, texted my Dad to book a flight for the next day, drove back to the hostel and went straight to bed.

The next day I woke up early in the morning and went back to the airport and tried to leave again, with a different airline, because I lost trust. And can you even imagine?? I got onto the second plane and made it to Lima after 24 hours of waiting. It was 11 a.m and I missed all my connceting flights so I had to wait until 10 p.m so I looked for a comfy spot on the airport ground and sat around. I have to mention at this point, that I really like the Lima Airport. It has nice little stores, there is a food court, and Latam has a Staff Travel Office (Really fancy! You are treated like a person for once and they really try and help you).  And they worked their magic again and got me a seat on the last plane. I was never that thankful in my life before.

I MADE IT TO BUENOS AIRES at 5a.m (Wow it must look like I love traveling at rediculous times). I checked how to get to my destination beforehand this time and I got on a bus that took me directly to the Hostel. And I was reunited with my best friend again. Everything felt so much easier all of a sudden. We had breakfast and immediately started Sightseeing, because we only had a couple days here. We visited the city, museums, went partying, and walked around quite a lot to find traditional argentinian food. Guess what we ended up having for dinner at 10p.m after searching a restaurant for 3 hours? You’re right: PIZZA. I fell in love with the city. Buenos Aires is most definitely a place where I could live for a while. It has beautiful Universities, so maybe I end up studying here...

But after 4 days we had to leave for Iguazu. The Iguazu Waterfalls were on my bucketlist for a really long time and I finally made it there. After one hour of trying to find the cheapest way to get there (Argentina takes pride in there great Busses, so there is 150 different options), we finally found a good offer. Olivia and I were going from one office to another asking: „Para Iguazu? Quanto es?“, which is probably not even close to a correct spanish sentence, but at least we tried. And it worked. We found a bus for 50 dollars to Iguazu with 2 meals included and front row.

We took the bus around 7 and did not leave the vehicle for 19 hours. I had so much fun... But it was definitely worth it, considering standing under one of the greatest and impressive waterfalls.

We only spent one day in Iguazu to hike up to the waterfalls. It took us around 4 hours and a whole of 11km of walking. The same night we went out for mexican dinner and a couple of drinks (NO MUM, WE WERE NOT DRUNK!!! I PROMISE) and we dicided to book a flight to Rio de Janeiro for the next morning.

And we were off to Brasil.

After telling friends and family about our Rio plans the same night, we went to sleep to get some rest before our flight in the morning. We woke up to discomforting WhatsApp messages, telling us how dangerous the city was, we were headed to, and got kinda (actually really) scared...

Text messages saying: „Do you know about Rios high crime rate?“, „You have to read those articles about the 2 Germans who were killed“ etc. And I think we started to regret the decision just a little. But we got on the planes anyways and made it safe to the Rio Airport.

There we quickly exchanged some money and got on a bus to Copacabana, holding on to our bags tightly checking for our phones and wallets at least every 10 minutes.

Not knowing the city, we asked about 5 people when we would have to get off the bus and the busdriver advised us kindly and let us get off really close to our hostel. By the way, travelling South America, I realized bus drivers are most of the time really helpful. (Not mentioning that one time the bus driver lied to us about his destinations and drove us through favelas to the other side of Rio...)

We made our way to the hostel in the middle of the night trying to find our way in the dark. Scared of every moving thing. And when we entered the hostel we felt safe immediately. The two receptionist were really kind and over our 9 day stay we became friends with the 2 lovely ladies.

Well I am not going to explain every single detail about Rio now, because this article is already quite long, but the city is a lot to handle.

I am so glad I did not go on my own and I am happy I am back in Buenos Aires now. Never in my life have so many things occured to me in such a short amount of time. I did feel safer there though after a couple of days, but there was always this continuing tenseness.

But I am happy, that I saw the city, the famous Copacabana, the Corcovado (my second wonder oft he world), the Sugar loaf, Santa Theresa, Favelas, etc. We saw everything and we have a lot of stories to tell (HOOK ME UP IF YOU WANT TO HEAR SOME).

The great view from sugar loaf mountain

My second wonder of the world

Thank you for everything Lolo

Now I am back in Buenos Aires and I feel so relieved to be back in a city I feel safe in and I know a little better. I am working here fort the next month and come back to Germany for Christmas and NewYears, before I leave for Cambodia.

Thank you so much to everyone who helped me through the hard times during my travels and always listen to my stories. I love and miss all of you tons! Meet me in MUC soon.

xoxo