Skylab

Traveling the world with it’s music

I Own My Own Time

Mar 10

Posted by Skylab in Peru | No Comments

I´ve been behind as usual with blogging. Internet has been limited and with no laptop, it makes it a mission to get things done online. I do have a lot to say and likely will back date a bunch of posts on what I´ve done lately.

I´m coming home! I´ve booked my flight home for April 8th out of Lima. Why? First of all it´s still cold at home so I wan´t to get back when its warmer. And well Lima is the cheapest city to leave from between Quito or Bogota. Another thing is I´ve totally ran out of money. Since I´m out of money and I still got a month left, I need to be super frugal. What I´ll be doing then is staying in one place for awhile instead of always traveling. Traveling between cities costs more then staying in the same city. I wanted to learn another skill in my travels as well. Can´t really surf on the east cost of the states so I decided to pick up surfing. I love the water so it makes sense. I´m in Moncora, Peru for this. The very north part of Peru. I´m only about an hour away from Ecuador. Still not sure how long I´m staying but I want to get this whole surfing thing down pretty well.

Mancora is chilled out. Staying in Loki Hostel at the moment. Not a whole lot to do besides enjoy the beach life of surf, swim, and drink. I don´t mind it at all. This is what I´m looking to do anyway. Just hang out before I need to get home and do a bit of working. I´ve taken my first surfing lesson yesterday. Not too bad really. I got up on the board on my first wave and rode nearly the entire way. Balancing is easy for me. I find the hardest part is actually getting to the wave in the first place. Having to center myself on the board and swim all the way is pretty tiring. The waves here are quite strong and knock you down and confuse you quick. The instructor seemed pissed I could center myself on the board correctly. Well I think I´m  getting the hang of it and now that I got the basics down, I´m going to just rent the board itself and go out on my own this time.

Met a pretty cool Argentinian guy from Corboda. Been hanging out with him the past few days. Brings me back to my time in Argentina. He´s been trying to get me to come with him to Ecuador but I´m pretty determined on staying for surfing. Plus I have no money.Hopefully meet up with him again on my next visit to Argentina.

My next biggest news is I´m going back to China. I simply fell in love with that country. I have yet to book all the arrangements but I´m made up my mind on going for sure. This time for a different purpose though. I´ll be teaching english for 5 months starting in August. It´s an intern program with i-to-i and will be receiving my TEFL degree I´ve been aiming for awhile now. The plan is to work for a few months before going to get some money together. I don´t really have many bills or anything to pay for so it´ll be easy.

It´s 10am, sweating like crazy, sunburned, and ready to hit the waves. Been on for an hour with my 15-minute limit most hostels jokingly give you with someone stalking waiting to use the computer. I´ll back date and make more posts soon.

Can´t wait to see my family and friends back at home!

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Hola Peru

Feb 25

Posted by Skylab in Peru | 1 Comment

The ride from Copacabana, Bolivia to Cusco, Peru felt like a dream. From Copacabana we had to take a small mini van to the border which took like 10 minutes. Thankfully Peru is letting Americans in for free at least for now. We then took another bigger bus which dropped us off in Puno, Peru 3 hours later. We had to rush to the next bus as it was just leaving. Running around in an unknown bus terminal is never fun. Grabbed a few quick bites to eat on the way with whatever I can get. The next bus at least was much larger though this ride was 10 hours long.  Tried to sleep most of the way.

We arrive about 5am and take the first taxi over to the hostel The Point. Hostel is pretty nice. Slept for a few hours and got ready to explore a new country and a new city. There´s a huge different in scenery compared to Peru. At least in Cusco, thing´s seem to be much more organized. Traffic lights that cars actually follow is new to me. People actually waiting to cross the street is another one. Could be mostly tourist but people seem to be dressed a bit more modern as well. So far I´m approached much more often and asking for help isn´t so much of an issue to locals. The town itself is beautiful. Plaza areas with water fountains, green atmosphere, candle lit restaurants, and a sense of more calmness in the area. I´m liking this.

For lunch we´ve wandered pretty far to find something cheap and local. We end up in a place with no foreigners at all. Small with about six tables. I tried asking what they were serving but had no idea what this little girl was saying. Teresa asks if we can see the Menu and the little girl asks if we want two, we respond yes. Teresa didn´t realize what she actually ordered was the Menu of the day. The place was only serving a certain meal for the whole day which they call the menu. I was use to calling it that in Argentina. We had a surprise meal of a huge bowl of soup, chicken milenesa, rice, potatoes, and veggies. They had another spice similar to what Bolivia had in the middle of the table but this time it was green. Delicious food. We could hardly finish our food. The grand total of 6 Soles for two people which equals $2USD. NICE!

For most of our night we met a nice Australian girl and Texan guy. We all ended up sitting in a corner talking for hours just about random subjects.

I´m quite low on cash so I´ve been looking into working at a hostel at a beach before going home in Peru. I´ll keep this updated on where this goes.

As for my Italian Citizenship update. I´ll have to finish the paperwork when I get home. Shouldn´t be too long from now till I get home. Almost 10 months on the road now. Doesn´t really feel that long. I always get the ¨WOW¨when I tell someone it´s been 10 months. It doesn´t seem all that crazy though for some reason. It´s been an interesting journey and I know I´ve missed plenty of exciting days on this blog to write about but it´s simply impossible to always keep with what I do everyday. It´s all become so natural to do the things I do everyday traveling.

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Ring of Fire

Feb 20

Posted by Skylab in Bolivia | 1 Comment

Its about lunch time and Teresa and I decided to go out for a wander for food. I had remembered this group of American guys told us about a good Indian food place so we pull out the map and found the place.

Inside the restaurant smelled delicious and its Indian flavored theme was very elegantly styled. It´s titled ¨British Indian Curry¨at the door. The table is candle lit and the service started phenomenally well. Most meals are priced 30 to 40 Bolivian. Reading the menu I see one curry that really sticks out called Vindaloo. The long description provided warnings for this meal. With over 35 chili peppers and a serving to feed a family, it was a big food challenge. The prize is a free tshirt and pride of finishing one of the worlds most dangerous Vindaloo’s.

Knowing how spicey its going to be, I decided to get it with a milkshake and a bowl of rice to make the curry more edible. The bowl is a little smaller then my palm and as deep as my pinky finger. With a mixer of rice, I go for my first bite. Flavor kicks in first and its quite good. Next the spice hits and surely its burning my mouth. Luckily I had the milkshake which made things much easier for me. A few bites in and my face feels a tingling sensation. My heart starts racing and I feel like I’m speeding. I could possibly run a marathon though it would be a painful run. Legs are jumping up and down. The spice gets worse for awhile and I’m already done with my milkshake and rice so I ordered a second of both. I start to get use to the spicey and now moved onto new problems, I’m full. I have about 25% left to go and I’m feeling sick. The tables around me all think I’m crazy and its already been an hour since we got there. I had to take a break and walk in circles to relax. Stomach is killing me and my body is telling me no more. I continue to take bites but every 10 minutes this time. Not sure how much more i can take of this. Every bite gets harder and harder to swallow. Cant recall ever feeling like this over a meal. The last 10% of my meal is left and I’m feeling closer to vomit then ever but somehow continue to push myself. I now have a total of 4 bites left. I must have been looking at the last bites for a good 30 minutes. It seemed impossible and I nearly gave up. I had to step outside for air every now and then. After about 2 hours with this meal, I had finally taken my last bite and I declared victory. I could hardly walk at this point and I´m fully expecting many restroom visits. Took a few videos and victory pictures. Im pretty sure i cant eat for the rest of the day. Stomach continues to hurt for the entire day and night. Well at least I got a free tshirt saying what I´ve done.

Conquering it all lately…

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I won quiz night!

Feb 18

Posted by Skylab in Bolivia | No Comments

Slept nearly the entire day. A much needed sleep after yesterday’s Death Road bike ride. The only reason I’m writing today’s blog entry is to make record of my SECOND hostel quiz night winning. A very good achievement. Three Swedish guys, Teresa, and I. The prize was a one liter bottle of rum. It made for a damn good night at the hostel.

Very high

Feb 15

Posted by Skylab in Bolivia | No Comments

Woke up with up of the worst hangovers i’ve had in god knows how long. It got worse though, I started to feel pain in my legs. It was like a uncontrollable nervousness with a feeling of pressure. I put the pieces together and figured out that its the high altitude i’m in. I had what’s called DVT. Head was hurting and i felt dizzy. Drinking alcohol last night caused further dehydration which didn’t help. Since i’ve gotten to Oruro its been difficult to breathe when i do heavy movements like going up simple stairs. Now though its difficult to even talk for longer then 5 min. Teresa helped me out and did a lot of the packing while I rested. This altitude is serious. To add, my stomach is acting up which makes it difficult to eat at all. I ate shitty street food that seemed like the hamburger wasn’t fully cooked. Plus its not like Oruro has much of selection of food. Its always been the chicken, rice, and fries combo at least once a day. Its just everywhere and mega cheap for 10 Bolivian.

Today we get to La Paz. Getting a bus ticket to La Paz was somewhat of a pain but in Bolivia its normal. The line was long and there were many lines to different agency’s. Crowded with everything pushing and shoving. Some would try to cut the line but the Bolivians would start shouting “fila!” to let them know to get on the line. Most places was fully booked but thankfully i picked an agency that wasn’t and after an hour waiting on line, the next bus leaves in an hour. Perfect. 3 hour bus ride to La Paz from Oruro for 30 Bolivian each.

The bus wasn’t all that bad but my legs were still killing me. La Paz is even higher in altitude and i felt it as we went up. When we got to La Paz, we took the first taxi to our hostel. Were staying on Loki and from our first impression, its pretty nice. One of the nicest i’ve stayed in for awhile now.

As a side note – i found out that wordpress (the app i use to update my blog) has a iPhone app as well. So ive been writing on my iphone and publish my blog when i get wifi. My plug adapter blew in Buenos Aires on my last day so my laptop is done until i find one. Thankfully Teresa has her laptop. I like not being on the computer much so i can enjoy travel but i do love updating art of backpacking and nightlife vibe.

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