The Eyes of the World

One day you will wake up and find out that you are the eyes of the world!

Name:
Location: Haslev, Denmark

Saturday, January 28, 2006

In The Gringo Capital

I will try to write a short message on this crappy keyboard in the Gringo Capital of them all, Cusco. I had a great time in Lima, mostly trying out the cosy family atmosphere that I have been without for a longtime, just chilling.... Then I went to Arequipa in the south, for the first time in a CAMA bus...wonderful!!! I met Mette and her friend Sara there, and we relaxed, talked about old days and sharing travel experiences....all this in our own house that we got!!
We are in Cusco right now, a city where you will see more blond people than natives, a city where every second house is a hostel or souvernier shop.... However, the town is beautiful, and especially the settings...green, high mountains all around. Machu Picchu, Puno, Copacabana, La Paz, Santiago, Valpariso, Mendoza, and Buenos Aires is waiting for me...so, gotta go!

Monday, January 23, 2006

A short update from Lima

I arrived in Lima 4 hours before I expected....And that is in South America! The reason was that the drivers was totally crazy, damn he drove fast! And non-stop from Trujillo to Lima! Peru seems a lot more dry and desertlike compare to Ecuador; but I have only seen the coast until now!
I am staying with Fiorellas family, and they know more than well how it is to have UWC guest. Let me mention some of them: Ragnhild, Erik, Tessa, Isabell, Andres, Hans, Frederik etc., and soon they will have Mette staying as well.
I spent the first day with chilling around in downtown with the father, but instead of churches, we ended up discussing everything from Satre to Bukowski.....all in spanglish :-S...Then we said goodbye to Fiorella who was going back to Macalister... Yesterday, I was playing, fusball, football and basketball with the father and the sons...
When i took the bus back from down town witht the father on the first day, we saw a person who got kicked and then stabbed many times with a knife, in the middle of the street. In the beginning I really wanted to see this "Hollywood like action", but afterwards I felt sick.....Everyone was looking in the bus, some with horror, other with pleasure....what a world!
Apart from this, Lima is nice...but also a lot of smog here!
Goodbye from 30 C....
Mads

Friday, January 20, 2006

On the borderline...

I found a buscompany which is going to Lima...so, now I just have to kill 3 hours before I can enter the "college flashback", 24 hours drive in a tiny little bus, far from built to people above 1.60m.... My drive from Quito to Tumbes was crazy, first of all, we couldnt get out of the city because of the 2 "manifestationes"(demostrations) that we met, again, young frustrated youth, who just throw with rocks and makes fire in the streets because they want to be a part of a "reality game".... When I saw the news, I felt like watching Lord of the Flies, all these young people are just rebels...and damn annoying when you want to travel!!
The bus was even worse than the one I travelled with from Venezuela to Quito, smaller, more people, and the speakers were broken, however, they still played loud salsa music - and showing a DVD at the same time....Suddenly a midget enters the bus and starts talking like a great president (even though you can see that he is shitting himself), he then hands out some candy to everyone, talks a bit more, and then suddenly he wants money for the candy. Everyone in the bus is laughing....and pays him...I guess the felt sorry for him.
Peru is a lot more dry than what I saw in Ecuador, and a lot more stressing until now...

Thursday, January 19, 2006

I was in the bus today...

I was in the bus today, driving through busy Quito, luckily without demonstrations in the morning, as usual, but I saw something else. I saw two girls, not older than nine or ten, with the typical Andes faces. One of them was wearing the traditional clothes and the hat, the other one just in a white t-shirt and jeans. They were standing in the middle of one of the most hectic streets in Quito, selling candy to cars. They were lucky when I saw them through the dirty bus window; they had just gotten a customer. Both of them run over to the car, one of them hand the driver the candy, the other are ready to take the money. I can see from the distance that they are getting a note, most likely a one dollar note; they try to give the change back, but at the same moment the traffic lights turns green. The sounds of the horns are everywhere, and the girls tries as fast a possible to give the change back – but in their eagerness, the drop some of the small coins on the road. They totally forget about all the cars passing by them with high speed, they are only focusing on saving the few money that they dropped; all this they do with a smile on. Like two girls playing on the playground in Denmark. These girls are not on a playground, they are working – on a highway in Quito.

It is peak time, which means that no-one has time to wait, and everyone “wants” to go to their offices and shops. The police are in the streets trying to direct the traffic, with small whistle they pretend to have power; but they are blowing for deaf ears. At the same moment I see a young teenager in a blue dirt overall, doing his work. He is a shoe polisher, which means that he lies on his knees and polish the busy businessmen’s shoes, while they are reading the newspaper – and they work for 30 American cent pr. person.

In the bus a man is standing and talking in a microphone, he is nicely dressed in brown shoes, blue pants and a maroon shirt. He is trying to sell what he got in his big plastic bag next to him; incense and a holder for the sticks – one dollar. He is lucky today, two people buys from him, the first one wants strawberry smell, and the other one can’t decide, but ends up with cinnamon.

I get off the bus and enter the building, which belongs to “Panamericana Internationales”, I go into the “international section”, which is a little dirty room in the bag, thinking that the busses might look the same. I am met by a man with the typical “I am trying to be a serious businessman” outfit. Unclean brown shoes (he couldn’t afford the 30 cents.), too long black pants, an over washed jacket and with shirt, and the obligatory ugly 6-striped colorful tie. I tell him that I need a ticket to Lima today, and that I already know how much it costs etc. nevertheless, he spends the next ten minutes, “trying” to sell me the ticket that I have already decided for 2 days ago. Por favor sir, just give me the ticket.

Finally I get my ticket, and I can take the bus “home” again.

a bit more pics...

QUITO!!
FOOD!!
HORSE!!
MITAD DEL MUNDO!


On the top of the world!
Horseriding outside Barquisimeto
The beach on Antigua...they have 365 of them!














Girls in Venezuela Caracas!!!

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

I was just sitting and reading the first enteries that I had in my blog, it was actually quite interesting to read the plans that I had at the college for this year...
I am affraid to get stucked here in Quito, so I think I will buy a direct ticket to Lima very soon, evne though I had plan to see a bit of the northern Peru, but I would have to do that another day. I talked with Kamila today, she is in Chile....maybe I should go and visit her. I just have to be home before the 14th of March, becuase that is the deadline for the university applications.

I still dunno what to study, I really want to study photojournalism, but my sister told me that it is impossible to get a job afterwards, so I will most likely try to study journalism and history, but in Denmark....

I just find this "poem" in my blog...:

“If he had been looking to both sides
Before he crossed the road
If he hadn’t cross the road
If he had made the line more clear
If he had just looked at the road
Just dreamt about the way to walk
If he had just decided not to live
Then he probably won’t be dead”

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

There is smoke over Quito:

I remember when I came in with the bus to Quito; suddenly it was just there, like a flower that just bloomed up in the middle of the asphalt. I especially saw the thick layer of clouds which covered the city; however, it was not only clouds, I later realized.
I had been met by protests and demonstrations already at the border, and it happened one more time, some days ago. The family and me drives in the city, when we suddenly have to stop, because some young rebels are burning wood and tires on the road. The family didn’t seem as surprised at me, to see police and the military everywhere is a part of everyday Life here. The most interesting part is that no-one knows (or cares) about Ecuador in Denmark. We hear about it neighboring countries, Peru, Bolivia and Columbia, but Ecuador has managed to stay very anomalous behind the high Andes Mountains. It is mostly the young students demonstrating; about the bus prices, international companies etc., it is like the old “south American rebel” like Che is still in most of them.

Another reason for the “clouds” over Quito, is the huge amounts of cars that one sees here. The small narrow streets and the few parking spaces make the mess even more chaotic. The old city in Quito is defiantly not build to cars – and especially not that many! They are everywhere, and they create a carpet of pollution in the end of the day.
The reason for all the cars (which is a new phenomenon), is because of the economical crisis that the country has had. When Ecuador went from the Sucre to dollars in 2000, many people lost the money that they had in the banks. Therefore, no one trusts the banks anymore, and keep the money at home. Nevertheless, they can’t keep all the money at home, so they invest them in cars, not one, or two, but three. A car is the safest place to have your money here. Furthermore, the cars are getting cheaper and cheaper, and the companies make it easier to buy a car, additionally the gasoline is extremely cheap here, but not at all as cheap as in Venezuela, were water was more expensive!
The economical problems has also made it more difficult to get a job here, therefore it is very common to meet taxi drivers with master degrees; and many people immigrate to Spain or Canada, so they can send money home to their families (people who knows south Americans, knows that the family means more than everything else).

As I wrote earlier, the security is difficult for me to get used to. You will see an armed man in front of every shop; when I mention my observations to David and Maria Sol, they were very surprised, even more when I told them about the city bikes that we have in my town. It was very complicated for them to understand why no one stole the bikes.
Another aspect of Latin America which is very different for me, are the malls. In Ecuador and Venezuela the malls were for the cool and the rich people, a place where they could hang around, eat, socialize or just been seen. In Denmark, the malls are more for the good cheap offers; it is not really a place where you enjoy going, but it will be cheap there.

Yesterday I went with Pablo’s grandparents to Mitad del Mundo, the place where the 0-line is – the equator. The grandparents only speaks Spanish, but I had a great day with them. I have been on the Artic Circle, the 0 longitudes, and now also the 0 latitude.
A way for me to check if I really had cross the equator was to flush the toilet when we were in the north, and then again when we were back home in the house. I saw that the “currents” were different, depending if I were north or south of the equator. Hurray for e-systems!

Talking about the IB, I went to The American School today, Pablo’s former school, and I did a UWC presentation there. Not many people showed up (they are busy doing their exams!), but the people who showed up were very interested, and we had a good talk. It would be soooo awesome if I could be the one, who got the next Ecuadorian to RCN.

I realized yesterday that I have to apply for university before 15th of March, or else I have to wait one more year, so the plan is that I will go home around the 10th of March. Then I would find a job (I hope I can get one on the ferries going between Denmark and Norway), so I can earn some money and rent a room somewhere.

My next destination is Lima; however, I don’t want to spend the 70 dollars that it cost with a bus directly from Quito to Lima, so the family has helped me a lot trying to find some busses which will take me there, in one way or another. I am everyday surprised by the hospitality that I meet in the families I have visited until now, they don’t even know me, and still they do so much for me. Thanks to Pedro and Pablo.

I went up, and she went down - left an empty space

I ran, she walked
I took the shortcuts, she took the unpaved roads
I said goodbye, before I said hello
She said; see you soon.

I traveled with my shadow,
She traveled with the world.
I read about the places,
That she saw.

I have dreams and goals,
That she lives out.
Will I ever be, like her?
Will she ever be like me?

Sunday, January 15, 2006

So much to see, so little time

Too much is going on in my Life these days; I am not even sure that I have time to reflect over the things which I have seen the last three days. That also means that you only will get a summary of my experiences.

Friday: I went alone into the Old City of Quito. It is the most cultural part with churches and museums on every corner. I realized pretty fast three things: The amount of policemen, the amount of cars and pollution, and the big difference between Caracas and Quito. Ecuador’s capital seems more “traditional”, Caracas was very mixed when I came to food and the people there, in Quito you see Indians on every street, and you see less MacDonald’s and more maize. I am going to write some of what I saw now, but I think that Pablo will be the only one who will know what it is: Plaza de la Indenpendicia, the Cathedral, Hotel Majestic, El Sagrario, the Centro Cultural Metropolitano, Museo de Cera, La Compania, Plaza de San Francisco and of course, San Francisco, La Merced, and Santa Domingo. After my long walk up and down the small streets; in an altitude that I am not used to, I decided to take a taxi to the new city.
The new city is mostly malls and hotels, but it also has really nice parks. I decided to visit Museo Nacional del Banco Central del Ecuador – which was a great place!
I then met with Pablos parents and siblings, and we took a tour around the city by night. The view from Virgen de Quito was spectacular and reminded me of the view of Damascus by night.

Saturday: I cannot remember all the different kind of foods that I got on this “road trip”, I just remember that we ate traditional Ecuadorian food from the morning until the night – and we ate a lot of it. The whole family and I went to Otavalo, were there is the largest and most colorful craft markets in South America – it was a beautiful place, apart from all the gringos that I saw there. All looking the same, a local hat, an old “I backpacked in Thailand t-shirt” (with a money belt under), a North Face fleece jacket, brown or sand colored pants (with big pockets, and a “smart” zipper so you can make them into shorts), and then of course the hiking boots and the big backpack. All backpackers look the same, all over the world. The most interesting thing is that WE(!) all think we are special….
Anyway, we then drove to Lago de San Pablo, and later on to Cotacachi to eat a great feast, we drove 20 more kilometers to get our desert, in Ibarra. It was one of the best ice-cream that I have ever tasted in my Life, that I got in Heladeria Rosalia Suarez.

Sunday: We have spent the time on first a birthday at Monica´s parents place (Pablos grandparents), then we went on some museums, before we went to the other grandparents for lunch. I want to write a lot more, but I am too tired now. Goodnight.

A little thing I wrote:

I often enjoy my travels vicariously

I am a gregarious type, but I travel only with my shadow

I don’t want to act obsequious when I meet other people, but I often feel I do

It could maybe be because I am a maudlin person

I think that my travels is a sublimate, but for what, I do not know

I am a wanton, not an ascetic

- But maybe I will effete?



Sometimes I want to people to ostracize me, other times I want to people to listen

Maybe this is my faith; nevertheless, I am not a fatalist.

I still think that most people are egoist; still I experienced altruism on my way.

I have met people who were jingoist, others who where stoic – but they are all the same.

I have met cynics who believed in misogamy and misanthropy

I have met lenient people who believed in monogamy and philanthropy



On Cape Verde I met a woman who was a coquette

And a man who was the circe

But I also met amazons and the Adonis

I was on a ship with a pedant, and an esthete

And I was the sycophant


I am a tyro when it comes to traveling

Although, I hope I will end up as a virtuoso

As long as I don’t end up as an philatelist or numismatist!

In Norway I was known as a dipsomaniac

Now I am just a monomaniac when it comes to traveling

I get nostalgic when I think about the past

And maybe my travels and thoughts will make me end in a state of lethargy


Is weltschmerz a natural part of maturing?

It is not that I am filled with ennui,

But still….

I am far from satiated with traveling


I am an embryologist when it comes to see the world

And I am studying anthropology everyday.

I liked the girl that I met, even though she was loquacious

She was a suave talker

Even though I am the opinionated man

She was the erudite girl that I was looking for

But I felt for the fact, that she accepted that I am a puerile man



It was an imbroglio situation

Maybe even a peccadillo

She was a panacea for me

But it ended up as a fiasco

She told me that I was an introvert

I knew she was an extrovert

She said that she was an ambivert
I was diffident the day after

She was effervescent

Am I a quixotic?


I animadverted that I was pusillanimous

I was animalcule and I had to animated

I felt as an inanimate, even though I had acted as an animal


I was de trop

Alone, so I could not feel the esprit de crops

Love was double-entendre for me

It was not par excellence

I should have been on the qui vive

It was en rapport; never more

A potpourri of feelings and thoughts

It was a coup de grace

It was faux pas


This was a monograph of a part of my travel

It turned into a monologue

I don’t hope that it was too monotone

But I will stop before it gets monotonous

Friday, January 13, 2006

From Barquisimeto to Quito

I was leaving a country that I had almost fallen in Love in. Venezuela was the first smell of South America I had. I had experienced the bad side of Caracas, and I had taken the cable car to the top of the mountain surrounding Caracas. I had seen the whole city, and I had felt the Life there – even though Chavez is in power.
I had been to the countryside, off the beaten track. I had been living with a family, ate the local food, seen the beautiful girls, taken showers under a waterfall, been dancing and tipsy with 10 other young people from the town of Barquisimeto. I had felt the hospitality of the people, and the look at the girls when they saw a tall blond man. I had experienced the strong catholic connections, that whole of South America has. The word had been spread to me, in English and in Spanish. All this, in such a short time – and now I was going to leave it. I was going on a busride from a little tiny village outside Barquisimeto, through the notorious Columbia to my next destination; Ecuador and Quito.
The bus I was going with was not much different from a bus, which I would be taking if I wanted to go to Copenhagen, or to the college in Norway. I must admit that I got a bit scared about the thought of driving for 48 hours in that bus, not speaking Spanish, being 40 centimeters taller than most South Americans, and therefore the seats were also 40 cm. too small for me.
I was sitting and enjoying my “Manitobe”, some Venezuela candy, when suddenly the bus stops. It is only 22.00, and I know that we shouldn’t stop before the Columbian border. It is the police; it is one of these policecontrols that I got to experienced so many times on my tour. One of the policemen goes in and look around, “aha, a gringo” he thinks. He asks me in Spanish to get out of the bus. First he body searches me, and then he asks for my passport. I felt that he was just like the lady I met in Antigua, who just wanted money. I showed him my copy of my passport, but he didn’t seem fully satisfied. He asks me some questions, from where I only understood two of them. Was I carrying any alcohol? No, of course not… Did I have a vaccination card? Yes, of course… He got a bit disappointed when I showed him my yellow vaccination card; with all kinds of strange names in (I got so many things in my body before the Sahara that I almost felt like a heroin addict). He doesn’t understand a word of English or French, so he just looks on every page, pretending that he knows what it said. Finally, he let me go. He continue asking me questions, but it seems that I little word fight was won by me, with the great answer to every of his questions. Habler Usted Engles?.... The bus driver smiles, clap me on the shoulder when I enter the bus, he knows that I for a moment was a bit scared. It was also here that I learned that a smile is the best way to communicate between two people, who doesn’t share a common language.

I was so tired when we arrived at a highway restaurant at 01.00, still in Venezuela. I was standing there in my trance, eating my little sandwich and looking at a 7-8 years old boy who is washing our bus, it seems like he wants to do his best, and he uses all the energy that small kids have, he is working hard, I am seeing the world…He takes the sweat off his forehead, I eat my sandwich…a cockroach climbs over my shoe, trying to get some of the small pieces of food that I drop. I am thinking that this is too loca, half of the passengers in the bus looks like drug dealers. We go into the buss again, and drive towards the border.
At 02.00 one of the two passengers in front of me screams up, I understand that he wants the light to be turned on in the bus, but why? I realized it when I look at the passenger right in front of me; he is shaking all over the body. It looks like the attacks that people with diabetes sometimes gets, but no one does anything. I am trying to hold his head, so he doesn’t smash it into the floor. The passenger next to me tells me that he has epilexia. At 04.00 we cross the border to Columbia. In my bible (my guidebook), it says that I shouldn’t be in Cucuta too long, so I am glad when we finally sit in the bus again.
I woke up to a wonderful sight, Columbia seems a lot more green and fertile than the northern of Venezuela. The mountains here are also bigger, much bigger. I was driving in the Andes; luckily I couldn’t feel any altitude sickness, even though I was driving high. The mountains I had seen in Norway was small traffic bumps compare to what I saw now, Norway suddenly seemed so little in my head. The areas we drove by seemed very poor, but people were smiling everywhere. Money is for sure not happiness. I think that the poverty I saw in Columbia, was the reason why I didn’t feel particularly sad when I discovered that my new camera was broken. This camera had been with me to the Middle East, Greenland, the Sahara, across the Atlantic – and now it gave up. Saltwater, sand and ice was what it could take, but not altitude. I know that I wouldn’t be able to take picture of the things I saw as well, because I need a camera which could catch an atmosphere, a smell, and a sound. I saw all these people without the “western necessities”, so why did I need a camera, when I had my two eyes?
The Andes Mountains are big, and steep. The roads were small, and the bus driver drove fast. Everyone was speaking Spanish to me in the bus, we were only five hours from Bogotá, and I was backpacking – I was living.
I had seen that two girls onboard were very nervous every time the police stopped us, and one of them was hiding on the toilet all the time. I had seen so many movies, that I immediately realized that they were carrying drugs. However, I started to talk with them, and realized that one of the girls had just forgotten her passport; and they were actually really nice girls. They gave me food, and offered to change my dollars to pesos, and they even gave me a better exchange rate than the once I read about in my guidebook, I tried to pay them, but they didn’t want money. One of the girls just wanted to practice her English.
We got stopped one more time by the police, this time the Columbian, they took everyone out and searched the bus. The policemen were heavily armed, and not much older than me. Small kids, trying to be strong. After 30 min. without any results, one of the policemen came in and said a lot in Spanish. I only understood that we should be grateful that the Columbian police are protecting us against FARC and other evils. The whole bus ended the speech with a loud: GRACIAS! – like amen in the church.
I only saw Columbia’s capital in the night, and it the dark it looked like every other big city in the world, I was everywhere, and nowhere. In the night, we are all strangers, even to ourselves. Everything is covered in this blurred blanket, and I never really felt anything in Bogotá.
I closed my eyes, ate one more of the chocolate cookies that Pedros mom had bought me, the taste, the smell, and the feeling of eating them reminded me of the many times that I have been driving through Denmark with my friend, Martin, with cookies in our mouth and Shu-bi-dua in our ears, towards a new destination. Foods always dig up my deepest memories, traveling as well. I remember my childhood a lot more when I travel; I guess my childhood was one long travel of new experiences. As Seneca said, let no one else conquer you, than your soul.
It was in Cali, 24 hours away from Ecuador that I realized that the bus was going to be delayed, much delayed. I guess, I have to get use to the infrastructure in the country, and the police…
Columbia was a dinosaur land for me, green and fertile, and every corner had a new surprise – and there were many corners, up and down the mountains. Sometimes I felt that I was in Greenland again, I could sense how the ice had created these mountains, I could see the same as I saw in Greenland, how strong nature was. I also saw churches everywhere, just like Cape Verde. I think it is a bit sad, that the Spanish conquistadors managed to make such a strong influence on the native population. Religion is culture, and I feel that the Incas lost a lot of the cultures, when they were forced to be Christians.
It was five hours away from the border that I met three English speaking people. The first one who came and talked with me was a man from Mexico, studying agriculture in Brazil, had a Columbian girlfriend and had been studying in the USA for eight years. The second one was a lot quieter. He was from Columbia and was going to Peru to see Machu Picchu, because he was studying history at the university in Bogotá. The last one was a girl, she was going to Peru as well to be together with other Hare Krishna followers like herself. I learned a lot from these three people, I learned about politics, culture, and music in south America. I discussed “One hundred Years of Solitude”, Borges, Pablo Neruda, Sin Documentos, and everything else that I knew from South America. I even taught two of them about the mate from Argentina and Uruguay. We were waiting for 5 hours at the border before it opened, I got to taste the Columbia coffee, and I got to taste the South American mentality. It seems like the talk a lot more with each other. They talk a more with strangers, a lot more than Danes. I think it is because of the shared language that they have, and the long distance they have to travel. They also have the same culture of revolutions and coups, and it seems like politics is the favorite topic of conversation.
I met another Dane at the border to Ecuador; she was studying social-anthropology in Norway, and had now been backpacking from Brazil to Columbia. She was one of these people who wouldn’t like to be called a tourist, but preferred “traveler”. I could feel that she was really disappointed to meet another Dane at this time, at this place. Sorry lady, you are not the only one.
The trip through Ecuador was long, especially because of the police who wanted all the luggage out, and started to cut with knives in some of it. We also had to wait for 2 hours in a little town, because of a protest. Burning tires and cars in a protest seemed like everyday life, for most of the people in the bus.
It was a strange feeling to arrive to Quito after 74 hours of driving, the city is not built on the top of the mountain, or in a valley, no, it is built everywhere on the mountains around it. It was almost fully covered in clouds when I arrived, which I later realized was pollution. To see the town was a special feeling, you drive and drive and drive, and then suddenly it is there. In the middle of nowhere is the capital of Ecuador.

My first sight with the stereotypes from the guidebooks happened three hours outside Quito. I didn’t believe that “they” existed in real life, but then suddenly; on page 371 in my book, at 16.07, I looked out of the window and then I saw her. Right next to a three meter high stature of a superman look-alike with a hammer, just like Soviet art, there she was, little, old, with a destroyed bag, and the classic black round hat, and of course the poncho. She was carrying food, and did not look at me. I only saw her for two seconds before the bus turned around a corner; but I could feel it now. WELCOME TO SOUTH AMERICA!

Monday, January 09, 2006

A ToK lesson


I dont think that any of you can remember Mette and my ToK presentation (BECAUSE EVERYONE WAS ASLEEP), anway, we talked about understanding cultures, and especially understanding a cultures humour... 1 week ago I would not be able to understand this picture...Now I do....what does it mean?....

what is worth the most?

I just finished my breakfast, consisting of 6 pancakes....:-)
I went to Barquisimeto Art Museum yesterday, and it was an interesting experiences. As I wrote early, every single thing here is well proteced by guards with guns, fences, alarms, locks etc. Everything, except the Art Museum. In Denmark (sorry for using the line), art museums are a lot more protected than a private car; in Venezuela is the other way around. It is actually quite logic, art doesnt really have a value - only for the eye. A car is a lot more usefull, and therefore also have a value. Is art useful at all? Does it give food on the table? Actually, I dont think that any Venezuelan care so much about the art they have (even though it was some of the best quality art I have seen), because the museum was toally empty.
I also went to the "Country Club" yesterday, it is basically a place where the rich people can relax, play tennis, go bowling and swimming...Just a new part of Venezuela that I have seen now. It is interesting to come from a country with a 85% middle class, and then to a country like this - however, I know that most of the world is like this. Small middle-class, many poor and few rich.
I was also at the place where Pedro Pablo used to do his homework and study, it is a little place owned by Opus Dei (dunno how many of you, have read the Da vinci Code!), and it was a very relaxed place. Before we enter, Henrique told me: "I know that you dont like this, but you have to go down on your knees when we enter the chapel" (the reason why he said this was that I mention to him some days ago that I was semi-atheist :-),....)... It annoys me a bit that some people think, that I should have a problem respecting other religions. I dont really have a problem with going down on my knees in front of Jesus on a cross, or walk without shoes in a mosque, or dont turn around in a holy temple.... It is simply respect, and that is not difficult, whenever it is for another man, or a religion.
My time in Venezuela is almost up, or I dont know yet, because I am not sure that I can get a bus to Quito yet. I am happy that I got to taste a little bit of this country, and especially that I could stay with a family. I think I have learned more from this experiences, than what I would have learned from backpacking around for 2 weeks.

Sunday, January 08, 2006

Saturday, sunset and siesta...

We woke up at 09:30 the day after the party....damn, that was early, but we had to go horse riding and hiking, so I was ready.
I got (again) a big Venezuelan breakfast table, and I could feel it was going to be a good day. Henrique father drove us out to the farm, which is 1 1/2 hour outside Barquisimeto, the landscape was fantastic, mountains, open areas and sometimes extremely green. First we went to the waterfall, we had to walk down a little stream for 20 min. in some "rainforest" look-alike area before we could take a shower under the waterfall...wonderful!
Then we went back to find a horse for me, so I could be Clint Eastwood in the sunset. We rode around the farm, and I felt for a moment that this was true travelling. Stay with a local family, go to the countryside, and ride horses in the sunset....Life is beautiful.
I will leave for Quito tomorrow, I will drive through Columbia which will take me aruond 2 days. I feel quite safe about Columbia, but I dont want to stay there for longer, as long as my spanish is what it is.... I am planning to meet with Mette and her friend very soon...so everything seems to work out quite well until now.
I will add some pictures to my blog next week!
CIAO!

Hardcore backpacking :-)

I dont know if I am fit for backpacking. The day before yesterday we drove around in the car for quite a while (we had to find some people who wanted to party)...and I got really sad when I sad these people standing on the street at 03.00 to sell small pathetic flowers, yes, they have a job...but what a job....I know that I sound like a spoiled dane, but I cant help getting sad when I see people who has to do work which is below the respect of every single human being. These people on the streets in Barquisimeto really sucks up to every car which is passing by, and everyone is ignoring them...I know that I will see a lot more poverty on my way, but I just dont like it.
I spent my friday with late breakfast, of course only Venezuelan food (it has become the rule in the house that I shall only eat the local traditional food, which I am really enjoying)...then I played Domino with Tomas (Pedros brother), the family mention that Domino is a very special thing from Venezuela, I didnt want to tell them that I played Domino, every single day when I was in the Sahara....
Pedro has been arranging my whole stay in Venezuela with his friends and family over email, so Henrique (Pedros good friend) picked me up at the house to take me on a guided tour around the city. The best thing about Barquisimeto is that it is off the beaten track, which means that it is really quite and cosy...and NO TOURIST...but we got to see the 3-4 most "famous" places here, before we left for the zoo. The zoo mostly consisted of half dead, old, sad looking animals, even the lion was no king anymore. He was just sitting there all alone without any girls.... I actually felt most of the time that I was in the zoo, I mean, I WAS INSIDE the zoo...EVERYONE there was looking at me, like i was some kind of rare species... Henriquie told me that the they are not at all used to see blue eyed, tall, blond guys here...Some people even stopped up just to look at me...strange. Nevertheless, I have learned to enjoy it now. There is a reason why Venezuela almost always win Miss Universe, the girls here are really pretty. A bit like the girls on Trinidad, they have the mix of the best from every place in the world. The look like a mix between, Europeans, Africans, Asians and of course South Americans...I hav even seen a bit of greenlandic in some of them :-)...some real UWC girls...(they only have one little problem, and that is the amount of make-up that they use!
It is strange for me to come to a country where every single house look like Alcatraz, and there are policemen in front of every house as well. You need 2-3 keys to enter the house, and the same to enter your car. It must be impossible to be a thief here, dui to all the fences, and Henrique got a bit shocked when I told hium that I could leave the house without locking it, in Denmark.

We had a reunion party in the evening, but it started a bit later, because of me. They had invited all Pedros all classmate, we had the beeer and the vodka ready, however, they forgot that they were only boys in the class - and now they had a tourist, so they had to get some cute, hote latina girls. We found four girls, but they were not sure if the wanted to come. Henrique told me to get out of the car, and when the saw me, they were ready to go ( I am glad that I have learned a bit of spanish, so I knew what Hermoso, Lindo, Dulce, Maravilloso, means when they talk about me :-)...) The party was great, alcohol, some people speaking english, and dancing lessons for me...they all found it very funny that I cant dance salsa, so two cute girls spent the nigth teaching me how to dance.....NICE! We partied until 07.00 o'clock in the morning, and it was great to dance and talk...espeically to hear all the bad stories about Pedro Pablo from his good friends :-)

Thursday, January 05, 2006

Barquisimeto

I just arrived after a 6 hours long busride from Caracas to barquisimeto. I left at 07:00 this morning, but it was a totally mess to get on the metro during peak time with all my luggage. I met a really wierd Japanese guy on the bus, he was 31 and volunteering in Venezuela for the next 2 years. He didnt speak any spanish, and was just sent here because he had finished his studies; anyway, he was a nice guy and bought me nice lunch.
It was easy to see Pedros parents; especially his father looks very much like him, and both of them very EXTREMELY nice and open! They drove me to their house, the dad speaking english (almost fluent) and the mom speaking spanish (I HAVE TO LEARN THAT LANGUAGE!!). The house was a palace after my two months on the boat. Suddenly I had a bed!!! A SHOWER!!! and Susana (Pedros mom) did my laundry! I couldnt have ended up at a better place. The best part was the food that she cooked, it was fantastic, and I got to taste traditional Venezuelan food.... (not to forget the 100 tv channels and internet access)... Tomorrow, Henrique, Pedros friend, will show me around the town, and we will also go to the zoo... I must admit that this is not the hardcare backpacker Life, but I really enjoy to travel with UWC. I feel that I see a culture MUCH better when I stay with a family.

I just stole this one from Margrets blog....damn, we are all nerds!

Comment your name and...
1. I´ll tell you something random about you.
2. I´ll tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.
3. I´ll tell you what taste reminds me of you.
4. I´ll tell you my first clear memory of you.
5. I´ll tell you what animal you remind me of.
6. I´ll ask you a question I´ve wanted to ask you for a long time.
7. If you read this, you must put this on your blog....!

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

I am on my way to Barquisimeto...

I am on my way to Barquisimeto, the town of Pedro Pablo’s parents. I guess I will be staying there for 5-6 days, before I travel towards Quito. My time in Caracas has been really strange; I have seen the real backpacker life with a 25 years old guy from New York, and an old British dude. It is interesting to find out how difficult it is to get off the beaten track. I saw a bit more of down-town Caracas today, and then I went on the cable cars all the way up to the top of a mountain, which is surrounding the city.
I am still really tired from my overnight sleep that I had in Port of Spain airport, but I guess that is a part of my trip. To sleep in airports, eat little and not get enough sleep. I have met so many cool people on my trip, and I hope I will meet even more.
South America, be ware!
Btw, I expected it to be a lot more difficult to travel around here alone, but I can only recommend it. Right now, I actually prefer to travel alone….but let's see in one month's time.

Another thing before I go out and eat….If anyone in South America wants a little visit from a Dane, then just write me!
Hasta Luego!

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Trinidad and Caracas

I have so many stories to tell.....But I dont have words for what I have seen and experienced until now....I had so many small problems, and even more small happy times in the three airports I have seen the last two days...
I am sitting on an internet cafe in Caracas downtown right now, next to a british guy whom I met in a overbooked hotel, so we found one together.....it is amazing! He is old and have been travelling with a backpack most of his life, he is only going home when he needs money....
I guess I will stay in Caracas for 2 days, before I go to Pedro Pablo's parents, 6 hours north from here...then I will stay there for 5-6 days, until I know my furhter plans...
Everyone is speaking spanish to me, but I dont understand a shit....The taxi driver was talking about Venezuelan girls (who are quite cute) all the time, and it was first when I used 30% of my total spanish, and said: "Mamasitas", that he clapped me on the shoulder, and said, gracias amigo!!!
I have a lot to do these days, and I am really looking forward to sleep in a proper bed, even though it is filled with bedbugs and cockroaches....but I only paid 7 dollars for it...
Ciao!! y hasta luego!
ps....the britist guy that I am chilling with thought I was from ENGLAND!!!!! WTF