Christian's Travel Blog

Hostels are islands in a new world where young travelers discover mostly with some pride their passport nationality - "Where are you from?" .. "Germany" .. "Dann können wir ja Deutsch sprechen .." - and onwards, gather around the breakfast table to share their basically similar travel experiences and facebook pics of 'must-do' hotspots along mainstream adventure tour routes - "oh yes, and we had such a great sunset" ... Also a lonely wolf can't escape to lift the secret of his whereabout, as it is the entrance ticket to sometimes useful information on a trip without much effort in detailed route planning: "Well, I have an Austrian passport" .. "Dann können wir ja Deutsch sprechen .." Anyhow, half the way down the Amazonas I politely won't kill conversations around a breakfast table serving hot coffee and fresh tropical fruits but simply focus on getting my fair share of the juicy pinapples, mangos and

I'm not worried about time, nor my time shedule for this clockwise trip around south america, but still more than a week short of halftime I find myself already preparing for next weeks flight into Iquitos - my gateway to the Amazon. Looking back it means I spent lazy weeks during the 'cold' festive season with friends in brasil, crossed Argentine down south on the 'R40' deep into Patagonia, moved all the way up by ferryboat and nightbuses through Chile, only to find myself on the way out of Peru. Yet I know, long days on diverse cargo and transportation boats on the endless carving stream through deep rainforrest - till the other side of the continent - soon will become my daily concern.   Sounds like I am rushing like tourists on their annual vacation? Not at all, opposit, and right now I had alredy third time lunch at a small local restaurant in Cusco - on following days, of course, for a menu price less than a medium coffee at nearby Starbucks located str