VOLUNTEER PROJECT; PROTECTING SEA TURTLES IN PULAU BANYAK (INDONESIA)

ANOTHER TRIP AROUND THE WORLD (?)

It's true, again I left Holland for a long trip to the unknown. I am not gonna write some bullshit story about every day. I will try to keep the story as short as possible :-)

Friday, the 6th of January; The start of a long journey and a hard goodbye

A few days of in Holland this year. Celebrated most of my holidays with Renske. So Friday afternoon she had to drop me off at the airport after having eaten those Dutch food specialities. Schiphol Airport...it was like expected...quite hard to say goodbye to a person who became so special in just a few months. Renske, you already know that I will miss you a lot...we just have to be patient for a few months or wait for some idiot to contact one of those TV-shows :-)

Just 1 minute in time to catch the flight. In the afternoon we discussed dirty old men in planes touching young good looking girls. Well I experienced in this flight a woman at end 40's who wasn't that attractive, flirting with me and trying to get closer and closer. When she found out that I didn't react on any of her attempts, she drunk a lot of red wine for some new attempts. 17:00 London Gatwick, finally. Like always they have to make issues here. Yeah I definately put loads of drugs in my nose spray! Pff... Waiting for 5 hours to catch my 2nd flight. I can't here that annoying English 'Oh really?' accent anymore :-) Flying with AIrAsia means being ripped off with you luggage. I'm quite sure their scale was not correct, but strangely they counted 2kg exceeded luggage. With almost everyone. So I had to pay 50 euro's extra to take my stuff. Luckily they didn't see my small backpack which had exceeded at least 6 kg. The distraction trick still works :-)

The 12 hour flight to KL was better. Next to a funny Ozzie from Perth who told me some of the wild stories of the European Tiki-bus. The Taiwanese chick in the middle tried to get into the conversation, but failed.

Last week made me sooo tired :-) ... so it was easy to fall asleep in a plane that is not made for tall people with Dutch shoulders. More than 1 hour delay, so it was pretty close to get my connection in KL. Just smile to those Asian Security guys and they will say it's ok to skip the line. A nice Ozzie family helped me out by inviting me on their table and buying me a few drinks. After not drinking for 20 hours!

3rd flight to Medan. 45 minutes. Rega, John and Cath were already waiting for me. No motorbike pickup, but a good car to explore the city by night. Well explore...I've just seen a spicy Indian restaurant, an ATM and a hotel. Did I missed something? Sleeping? No Bintang?...Never mind :-)

Hotel Cherry (Medan, Indonesia, Sumatra) Included. Twin, hot shower.

Sunday, the 8th of January; Long long drive, wind it up!

Good Morning sleepy staff and security!!! No matter how much noise you made, they just didn't wake up...6 AM is early. An 8 hour drive with a boring driver who can't speak more English than just 'little little' very little English. But I have a good view of Sumatra now. Cath was enthouiastic with her tracvel sickness pills. I can imagine why! Winding roads? We didn't count, but thousands of curves over the large volcano. Lake Toba (one of the world largest crater lakes) was covered in clouds. The first Indonesian food stop didn't look that nice, so better off just ordering some Mie Goreng.

Arrived in Singkil, we had to wait for a few more hours for Adi and his speedboat...uhm... It was something flaoting and it had an engine with the power of 40 little pony's :-) Just a few more hours on the ocean in the waves to get to the last island on our way with some sort of civilisation; Pulau Balai. An island that was hit hard during the 2004 tsunami and the 2005 earthquake. Trying to stay awake.

Homestay Putris. Included. Double. Food included.

15.000 Food & Drinks

5.000 Water

Monday, the 9th of January; A special Full Moon

Adi and Eja told us to be early. We forced our homestay to make early breakfast. Hungry? Pretty much, after trowing everything out last night. Yeah, just 1 day in Indonesia and I already got food poison. It was the start of a journey with many kinds of sickness... So we were there, but those sleepy buggers were nowhere to be found...yeah, in bed! When we finally left with a 1 hour delay, we had to wait another hour because they forget to arrange a bottle of gas last night. So off we went. A few hours in the white raft with an engine. Sunny so take you clothes off. Not a good idea when you haven't seen sun that close for a while. The wind made it refreshing. Later on you will notice that even I can get sunburned and have a little sunstroke. Having that nice dark color is painfull, so stop being jealous everyone!

Crossing many small and big virgin islands, it really looks like paradise and it really feels like travelling to the end of the world. Arriving at our destination; Pulau Bangkaru. Jumped off, put the group of Russians in the boat with all their luggage and there we are...Paradise. The basecamp was covered in the dense jungle, only a little red-white Indonesian flag was a sign of human life. The basecamp is a small wooden building with a few rooms with bunk beds, a smelly kitchen and something that they call a shower/toilet in one. Surrounded by Papaya trees (the only fruit you can eat on the island) and my all time favorite: chili pepper trees whooh! I scored some men-points with eating them all the time.

At 8 PM the night patrol starts. It's nothing more than collecting data of the sea turtles that come to the beach at night and trying to lay their eggs. It's Full Moon and the atmosphere is special tonight. The light of the moon, huge bats flying around all the time, the sounds of the jungle, the massive waves that clash on the beach, the high pointy rocks sticking out of the sea, lizards crawling around, huge weird insects, crocodiles and snakes along the walking track and more. January is the month of the Leatherback, the biggest sea turtle in the world that crosses thousands of miles across the continents every year. They live deeper than any other turtle and always come back to the same place where they were bourne. Of course we were lucky enough to spot one at our first night. 1.45 meters long and with those characterisic long front flippers and spots. It was amazing to be there next to her while checking the eggs. All of a sudden we see baby turtles crawling out under her...huh?! This Leatherback was laying her eggs on a nest of a Green Turtle that was starting to come out. So we helped the baby turtles a little bit. The night was followed by loads of big Green Turtles laying their eggs. It was quite busy tonight. The 20 minute walk back through the jungle was worth some concentration. And what happened when we got back? Nothing! No little Full Moon party. Just a bit of Milo and cookies and getting into a deep sleep...Zzz

Tuesday, the 10th of January; feeling hot hot hot!

Morning patrol!!! But first pancakes. With coconut and colored 'Hagelslag'. Tasty, but we seem to get this every day. Just like the fact that we eat those small packs of noodles every day and if we are lucky some fish.

Morning patrol is basicly writing down some data of turtle tracks and nests that were made after we left the night patrol. You don't see any turles coming to the beach by day light. If you are lucky you see some of the weaker baby turtles getting to the sea.. But they will be eaten by crabs, sea eagles and lizards with day light. The other thing that we do with morning patrol? Collecting all the rubbish on the beach: plastic, cans, bottles, dozens of flip flops, toys, ropes, glass, needles etc. And all in the burning heat of the sun. And it will get even hotter. Way over 40 degrees Celcius is the average temperature when the sun is up. January is the last month of the raining season, but if it rains it's mostly during the night. Oh, be carefull if you leave your backpack at the beginning of the beach. I wanted to pick it up when we went back and it moved! Although it was closed, there was a long tail sticking out...Monitor Lizard...expert in digging up turtle eggs, but also in opening backpacks.

The days that followed...

We live with just 9 people on a remote island far away from the modern world. 3 funny staff members who's English is even more rubbish than the rubbish we collect on the beaches everyday day. Then there is an English couple Cat and Jonny and the 2 non-stop smoking Canadian sisters Teagan and Leanne. Personally, besides a few short conversations, there isn't much socialising going on. With 3 groups of people that are so close with eachother, it's quite hard not to feel lonely. You can talk to the crabs, lizards and mouse deers maybe, but the only reaction will be that they will run away with your food. And that's the other thing. Running out of food. With only a bit of noodles and rice and eggs, the menu is not that energetic. That's what you will feel after a couple of days. Getting exhausted of the lack of food with some vitamins. Also, we're running out of water. And nobody seems to have a clue when the next delivery is coming.

Since day 1 on the island I'm attacked by all the insects. Especially the ones on the beach. Nobody get's really bitten here, maybe a small mosquito bite. But me? I'm not talking about a few or a few hundred bites...but thousands! All over my body. The itching part is making you crazy, but some of the bites burn like hell. And the feeling doesn't become less after a couple of days. No real medicines or something, so you just have to deal with it. On Thursday it became damn serious. High body temperatures follewed by shivering (even though it was +40 degrees outside). I'm starting to feel seriously bad. No energy sometimes. Being liked is fun, but not liked by everything. So everyone that thinks that I'm enjoying a wonderfull life in paradise...might be wrong. It's a challange to go on like this. I'm already thinking about ending the trip sooner than anyone expected. I've seen so many things all over the world already. I've met so many interesting people. Actually it's the first time in my life that I'm missing things from home. Escpecially some good friends and ofcourse a special person in Amsterdam. Not being helped by the Dutch meomories on this island: pancakes and hagelslag every morning and the magnet from Amsterdam in our kitchen. If you live a life like this, you have to enjoy it, but even how hard I try...the complications at this moment don't make it that enjoyable... I'm just a week away from 'home' and it feels like ages...

After all this sadness you should almost forget the good moments. The funny and naughty Indonesian staff members Eja, Uzar and Irwan. The weird radio conversations with the fishermen, the jammin' every afternoon with the guitars and drums, laughs with the episodes of Inbetweeners, Jonny trying all methods to catch a fish but never succeeds, Cat showing up in a naughty turtle t-shirt (baby turtles crawling out of to big eggs just a the exact same place as her boobs), the endless cheating with card games like Uno, Geneva and Low on the Hole, the unsucceeded attempts of Uzar and Eja to flirt with Teagan, Eja running around in his tight underwear most of the time and heaps of more things.

The 4th night patrol was magic. It was pitch black, but with a bright sky you could see all stars. Not that special, but together with all the fire flies it became more magic. A lot of turtles tonight, the beach was washed away for most of the places. And in the water there was some sort of bacteria that lightened up in the dark, so millions of little lights in the sand and floating in the water. And as a bonus there was the biggest Leatherback you could ever see here. 1,79 meters long laying around 140 eggs. This creature weighs around 600 kilogram. Because of the bad spot, we had to remove all the eggs and replace them somewhere else. The eggs feel quite different than you expect, a bit soft. After following this huge dinosaur (it's the only warm blooded reptile in the world) back into the ocean, it was time to get back to HQ after a long night.

What do you also learn here? Eating things you think you would never like. Fresh dried Octopus in a tasty spicy coconut garlic onion curry. Absolutely magnificent! And I thought I was allergic to all sort of shells and prawns...NOT. The crayfish that was fried, was delecious. How do you catch 3 full buckets easily? Just walk into the deep jungle, put some netts in de river and put some sort of poisopn in the river. The crayfish will try to get out of the water, so you can easily grab them. So quite nice, still we are running out of everything after 8 days. Using all sorts of chlorids, just to have drinkwater that we can 'trust'.

We start to realise that there is a big problem at the island; the lizards. The population is getting big and they have no enemies on the island. They are digging up most of the turtle eggs and eat them. We have to find a way to solve this. Because every night we see many turtles laying eggs and after 8 days I've only seen 1 small nest of baby turtles coming out. And every day you will find a lot of egg shells and deep lizard holes. They are trying to stop egg poaching by humans, but the problem is something else right now.

Monday, the 16th of January; week 2 of surviving on a remote island

They socialising is getting better and better. Although Cat and Jonny are leaving the end of this week. But I'm happy that more single travelling people come to the island soon.

I'm starting to learn a bit more in protecting myself. If I don't want to be as sick as in the 1st week I should wear some long trousers, diving boots and longsleeves. Not that fun if you know me...I'm already sweating when it is freezing outside. So I smell pretty bad up here, but I don't have to impress someone anyway :-) I will do a bit of research about what is attacking me besides the mosquitos. The thing that worries me a bit is that the old bite (from 2006 Australia) lightens up yellow exact the same spot and big size. The tropical virus that made me end up in the hospital and tried to kill me, let's just think it is something else :-)

We missed a few patrols because of the heavy storms last few days. But if you do a night patrol there is always something special. Not only laughing when Uzar falls asleep at the beach and being scared the shit out of him when a big crab runs over his face, but also incredibly amazing moments. Like wiping the sand of the turtles shield and while doing this the shield gives light at the places where you touch it. It looks really alien!

And about running out of food and water? Well Uzar and Jonny finally catched some fish again with the speargun. We are triyng all sorts of fish that we can catch because we need some proteines. I'm still thinking about trying to eat a lizard. Fishing can be seriously dangerous. Because the only spots where you can find a few are betweeen the coral and those parts here are in shallow water and the swirls are just smashing you agains the corals and rocks. You must be a bit creative as we don't have an oven an stuff like that. There is a big satelite dish in the garden with aluminium parts that reflect the sun, we use this as a solar cooker. If you put it in the right position with the sun and you hang a bowl in the middle, you can actually make a cake!

It's getting a bit more fun over here. Lot's of jokes with the staff members. I'm winning every card game, even if I never played them before...so it seems that I'm getting smarter. Or if the rest lost some brain cells in the sun? And Uzar is just very naughty with all this special movies on his phone. Now I realise what he does with a mobile phone on an island without connection. But everrybody is learning new things about nature here...LOL. I managed to become just as brown as the Indonesians in a week, I can't wait for the next border crossing with my special look (allthough the Kiwis are quite dark, I don't think I will have to m any problems there). About the looks...being bored seems to have a good infuence in doing exsercises, losing a lot of weight over here.

Sending messages in a bottle doesn't really work. Sorry Renske, but there was no way of communicating this month. The bottles washed up at the same beach the next day.

Tuesday, the 17th of January, dangerous nature forces

Well, new volunteer arrived today and also fresh water and food. Jonny went in for a swim and after losing a card game I decided to join him. The waves today are absolutely sick. At some point I heard Jonny screaming that the current sucked him further away and he couldn't get out of it anymore. Without a lot of thinking and informing anybody, I decided to get to him and give him a big piece of foam that floats. Just tp give him a bit of a rest. Maybe not the best idea, because now the incredibly strong swirls and current also caught me. We were sucked away further and further and the beach was looking smaller every seond. We were both exhausted and there was no way to get closer to the beach again, no matter how hard you swim. No energy to swim that strong anymore and being smashed under water a few times by the huge waves. For some moments I actually thought this could be over and out...The waves kept smashing us under water and we were filled with sea water. And nobody that knew what was happening to us. I was smashed against the coral. At this point I decided to dive under and reach the bottom. And once you reach the bottom, you can try to walk on the bottom, closer to the beach. Quite hard to hold you breath if you are exhausted and are filled with sea water already. But eventually it worked! Jonny still had problems. The floating foam helped him to catch some breath and get some new energy. Getiing him away from the coral and explaining him to reach the bottom... After some struggeling, coffing and stuff, we survided. But it scared the shit out of me. Nature can be fuckin' dangerous. Another experience on my list of accidents with water. Not to be proud of...it was a close one.

And what happened more in week 2? Not much to be honest. Oh, to complete the whole bug mania here I was just 'lucky' after changing beds. Why? Bed Bugs!

And who thinks that I enjoy wonderful snorkling every day here? Well, once a week I go in. Learned that here you have to take travel sickness pills first, because the waves make you sick. But it's cool to do some spear fishing with Uzar. Witness the fights with the Octopuss under water is awesome. Eja never goes in, the bugger can't swim!

We found a good way to catch fish. Using Hermite Crabs as bait, fishing in the crocodile river and catch shitloads of tasty Catfish. Not too bad.

Life on the Robinson Cruseo island surprised me. The whole project surprised me. Totally not what I expected. At that moment not that professional in my opinion. Not seing loads of baby turtles getting into the ocean. No sunbathing on the beaches, because everything likes to bite (horse flies, sand flies and more of that stuff). The sun and the heat are just a bit to strong for being a bit active over here. The lack of food makes you sleepy and feeling out of energy. But most of all, it's the lonelyness that makes you crazy up here. It's an experience, although I must say I learned more about what I want in my life then what I learned about sea turtles.

Monday, the 23rd of January; week 3 to realise if helping here is usefull

Not many bites anymore, but strange painful ones. Whatever, the insect repellent seems to attract even more stings than my own sweety sweat.

Swiss Danielle arrived on the island and another Swiss (tourist) comes all of a sudden; Heiko. Heiko reminds me of Arnorld Schwarzenegger with his Swiss German accent...I'LL BE BACK he actually said!All persons have different reasons for their visit, but they are all interested in the turtles.

With all these changes, I'm becoming a loser in card games. So I decided that it is a waste of time to play cards all the time while you live in a sort of paradise. We still have no idea what's going on in the rest of the world.

Time for new activities. Deep Jungle Trekking with the big knive with Uzar. Spotting snakes around us, climbing in enormous ancient trees. But also rock climbing near turtle beach. Uzar doens't seem to realise that I'm a bit taller and heavier than him, so a few rocks broke off... And lessons in how to cook noodles with just a few packs of instant noodles, garbage and sea water. A great way of killing time. Our cook Irwan left us for a 10 day holiday, so hands on in the kitchen.

Further more we fix things, and play exhausting games like badminton. Eja is cheating again, how can you play if someone has a big hole in his shorts and his nuts are hanging out?! They are getting more thouchy by the day. And I'm getting a bit worried. Since the beginning my new nickname here is Bin Handsome (not Bin Laden). And Eja I don't know...in Europe and US they would say the items on his mobile is kiddie porn, but locals think different here; everything that you can see on the internet is legal in their eyes. Well, the staff have just been on the island too long I guess, they like to behave like crazy little kids. Naughty blindfold games, some limbo games (I'm surprised I got that far with my length), stretching all muscles with picking up small items from the ground with your mouth...aaaw painful the next morning. But it is good fun here, between all the naps.

Every morning you see squirrels jumping in palm trees. Steeling our Papayas. Well have fun with it, they taste like puke! Yeah, some fruits just taste a bit different over here. Although the rare bananas are damn tasty. I tried to trick the lizards by putting shit loads of chile peppers in the fish, they don't seem to care.

Wednesday, the 25th of January; What are we doing on this island?!

Today I've asked myself what is the use of being here. We already heard some stories just before we arrived on the island. Some political things going on in the Banyak region. But today we meet 2 locals in the Jungle, carrying an empty bag and a big hook. Strange? I already knew enough. These are egg poachers. Eja didn't want to say a thing. On Basecamp Beach there was a third person waiting in a boat. Leanne, Teagan and another staff menber followed them and recorded some movies. The actuall evidence? Locals stealing maybe a dozen of turtle nests (around 1.000 eggs, worth around 4.500.000 Rp in SIngkil on the market). And they have permission of the Chief in Haloban to do this. This is a corrupt system. The staff is too scared to do something, because of the reprocautions maybe. And are we allowed to do something? The staff tells us not to do, because these guys carry a big knife. Uhm sorry, we have huge jungle swords, spear, spearguns and more...that's not a strong argument guys. But in a corrupt system like this, you don't want to be involved. And also not protecting against the lizards worries me. My personal conclusion? Our help on the island seems to be useless at the moment. But the movie is copied several times and the right people are informed.

The last night was an unecpected surprise! After not seeing baby turles or tracks for weeks, Uzar discovered a few weak baby turtles during night patrol. They were taken by smaller crabs. Unbelievable if you feel how strong the baby turtles are. We saved all 5 of them and followed them into the sea. Finally something that shows we are protecting endangered species. A very good feeling after crossing the beach with extremely high tide and a bit of moonshine.

And this week we didn't eat a lot of fish. Where was all the fish that I catched with a broken fishing rod?! Was is fed to all the lizards like Rocky, Broken Rocky (big lizard with cut of tale), Little Rocky etc. Or was it the staff? MAYBE, MAYBE NOT....

At least they stopped cheating the card games, after we spotted their tricks every time

Friday, the 27th of January; goodbye Bangkaru

I decided to leave a few days earlier. Change of plans, being sure with the weather conditions on the ocean etc. Danielle is going to be sooo lonely with Uzar and Eja for 2 weeks on this island. So team Canada and Belanda stept in the boat with Adi, for a 2 hour trip to Pulau Balai. Perfect weather. And awesome to surf with a small speedboat on incredible high waves. The waves just clash into the forest of Haloban.

On our way we cross many tropical (deserted) islands. We stop at Pulau Thailana for a refreshing snorkle. Well, also here you see the results of Tsunami, earthquake, coral bombings and the rising of water temperatures. It's only the dark basic hard coral that is left, not many (big) fish. After so many years, the area still didn't recover. Thailana is a nice paradise island, stroll around in 20 minutes, meet a few tourists that stay there and have a chat. Again no Bintang. Just when the sun drops into the ocean we arrive at 'beautiful' Balai. After running out of petrol 1 km before the island. Balai is still 1 big garbage belt. None of the locals seems to be aware of the impact in the environment and nodbody seems to care. During our nightwalks people are staring at us like if we were from Mars. Oops, strickly Muslim here...so no showing knees or elbows. Loads of cosy bars, but no alcohol. But, the owner of guesthouse Putri was a bit of entertainment. Just like all the other weird locals here. Discussions with locals that say it's good to steal and eat turtle eggs, because it's good money...damn, there is still so much work to do here...

Saturday morning there is a big storm. It stopped raining and Tagsis took us (without Heiko) with a small orange speedboat onto the bumpy ocean, heading to Singkil. Stunning to see how long the flying fish actually fly next to you. At some point Heiko overtook us with a faster speedboat. Ofcourse we were all in for some compition. But is was a lost challenge, to heavy loaded. We got a nice surpise anyway just before we entered the ugliest harbour in the world, Singkil. A group of dolphins surrounded us and jumped out of the water. It all went smoothly so far. The private taxi was there, we overtook Heiko again who was enjoying a slow Bemo ride :-) But it took us 9,5 hours in insane Indonesian traffic to reach the hotel in Medan.

Just a few things that I still remeber from Sumatra? If you have a big car, you just squeeze yourself in and push other people of the road. In the night you drive without light of you cruise around in a fucking flashy driving Chistmas tree. Green traffic lights are more dangerous than red. Everybody looks the same. They still have to invent rubbish bins here. Sitting in a food stall is not that enjoyable while little kids climb around naked in everything. They really need proper dentists here. They don't know the difference between Ms and Mr. You can burn everything. I still don't know how you can eat instant noodles every freakin' day. Waiting is normal, even if it's 3 hours. Bring Rp, because ATM's are rare outside Medan. Petrol prices always stay the same: 4.500 Rp at Pertamina / 6.000 on the road... exactly the same as 1,5 year ago. Pollution, what is that?! They all have Honda motorbike, satelite dish, big TV and 2 mobiles in a huge house, but they don't have money for a simple table and a couch?! Everyone is laying on the floor. A matress is not a single pice of carboard on wooden planks. And I can go on for ages :-)

After having some chicken and french fries with Magmut, Rega, Cat, Jonny and team Canada it's time for some serious planning and a confused stomach.

For the moment, this was a short update. Pics will follow ASAP.

VOLUNTEER PROJECT; SEAL RESEARCH & REHABILITATION CENTRE 'LENIE 'T HART'

NEXT EPISODE OF THE ADVENTURES AROUND THE WORLD, NOT FAR FROM 'HOME'

Thursday the 21st of July; Goodbye desk, computer screens and the Office job

The last day at my regular office job. Just a few hours, but not a real goodbye. I will be back for the real last few months of help. A few hours left to empty my temporary house, buying a camera and starting a 3 hour boring traintrip to the wonderful studentcity Groningen, at the other side of my home country. A warm welcome there with my old friend Nynke, good to see friends after many years.

Friday the 22nd of July; arrival in nowhereland at the Seal Rehabilitation and Rescue Center

After a long night I headed on to Pieterburen. A culture shock! Nothing here, just a few old houses, cows and wind mills. Even the public transport; a small bus and the only possibillity to pay is the good old 'strippenkaart'. Everybody knows eachother. It was fun, everywhere people are nice and friendly, good jokes and I wasn't even there. I arrived, my new homebase for a while; the SRRC. A voluntary project; working with seals. There was a so called campus, which is nothing more than a porto cabin for the mostly international volunteers. It's good that I brought my Spanish phrasebooks cause half the group is Spanish. After a short introduction I dropped my stuff outside the campus in my accomodation...we call it 'The Shed'. It's nothing more than a small wooden gardenhouse on a camp ground. Checkin' out Pieterburen wasn't necessary...they don't even have a small shop! A few beers at the local pub, meeting people from my hometown Rotterdam and sleeping before 12 is a bit of a change. But after one of the best Quinten Tarantino movies (Planet Terror) there is nothing to complain. Damn, that movie is hilariously sick!

Saturday the 23rd of July; start of the weekend? Nope, hard working!

06:30 wake-up! A short night in a full shed with Maria, Marcel, Richard and the German Sheppard Luca who helped us waking up :-) SInce my arrival it's pooring down, windy and the is lots of rain. A nice day to start outside in 'Kleine Badjes' feeding seals, cleaning pools, crawling through seal poo. They look so cute. 207 baby Common Seals, 5 adult Common Seals and 1 adult Grey Seal...this place is overloaded with seals! Thinking you have a break? Oh no, the newbies get extra tasks :-) Preparing fish, crushing frozen fish, making fish porridge, doing the dishes, cleaning outside. There are a lot of protocols, one of them is changing clothes, gloves, facemasks, hairnets, boots at every different pool/area. I said once before that I should never wear CROCS, well I'm wearing a bleu pair now. Not used to it and definately not on slippery surfaces. My ass is black now and my old body is feeling the pain hahaaa. In the afternoon we had to catch 5 big seals for returning them into the wild. Quite easy, with basketsand putting them into wooden boxes. They weight between 45 en 55 kg. A big crowd is watching and some adoptants can make some pictures of their seal. Better think how to get out of a deep empty pool before you get in :-) It was a bit hilarious, me hanging and stumbling on the edge of the pool just like a seal...and a crowd behind the glass is watching it and making pictures. More feedings and cleaning during the day, with other volunteers. All the time you work in a couple. Although I had some problems with the funnyItalian/English accent of Tafsit. Everyday all the volunteers eat together in the campus, mostly it's something with coush coush or rice. I will loose some weight here. No more cake and candies at the office job ;-) But the Dutchies know me here. Eating some delicious ice creams at one of the 3 restaurants here. And they still think they are doing forced feedings, but with rum & coke this time. Our mini paper umbrella's didn't really help agains the non-stop rain outside.

Sunday the 24th of July; it's a beautiful day, the sun is shining...NOT!

Early shifts all week. Same tasks today. I like the job, even though the weather conditions for working outside and not the best. I'm meeting new people every day, it's wonderful to see how dedicated everyone is with working with seals. Everyday is party day for the seals...not only pool party, but also poo party. Yep, they like to roll around in their own shit, making us happy rolling with them in our overalls. And because they don't want to get bored, they try to throw their fresh shit against the walls and ceiling. Funny creatures and quite a challange. Many of the volunteers are leaving, so there was a sort of goodbye party. I fell asleep in the shed, but waking up late in the evening wasn't a reason not to have a few drinks with everyone. And leaving the group of volunteers means YOU'LL GET WET ON YOUR LOST DAY! And they did. Well, after a chill night with everyone it was time for a few hours of sleep...

Monday the 25th of July; the big movement

Wow, first time there is nobody in the campus for breakfast! I can imagine after last night. The faces in the morning were a bit sleepy. Today was the day of moving a lot of seals to different pools. Changing groups, puttings micro chips in some seals, weight them. And it still didn't stop raining. Well, changing clothes many times a day means that sometimes there is not enough. Lucky me there were no overalls and sweaters anymore, so just were a scrub t-shirt outside. It wasn't cold, just wet. It's so cute to see how a bunch of seals welcome a new baby seal in their group/pool. And you can see with weighting how fast they grow in just 2 days. Good night seals, I will walk back with my bare feet in the mud and through the darkness to my lovely little wooden cabin. Good night.

Tuesday the 26th of July; weekend in coming!

Last day of work before the weekend. Well weekend, but then during the week. Lot's of the same stuff; feeding, cleaning. It goes faster and faster, I know my way around the area now. Answering visitors questions. But were is Lenie?! I've seen her once, just passing by with some special visitors and that's it. Well, 5 o'clock the job is done. Surprisingly enough there is a very good meal today. But I'm off to Groningen to meet my travelbuddy from Laos; Roland. Locals are so relaxed here, they even let you in the bus for free. Finally the sun, some good fun, pizza's, large German beers on De Grote Markt. And damn I love this city! Alive every day of the week, crowded bars all night long. Yep, time to do some Couch Surfing tonight.

Wednesday the 27th of July; more Couch Surfing!

Unfortunately other people have to work during the week. Roland offered me his kitchen for the morning, thanks buddy ;-) Always nice to have some friends around if you are new somewhere. After catching up some sleep I enjoyed the summer in the North. Perfect, after 5 days of showers it was summer like it has to be. So another afternoon and evening on the terraces of Groningen. Good food, nice drinks. Nynke and Scott were my friends for today. The sun, the pumping tunes...we wanna party! Tonight I'm Couch Surfing at Nynke's place. Snacks, bottles of wine, a balcony to chill out...life is beautiful Grunn!

Thursday the 28th of July; back to base

Sleep in, healthy brunch. Nynke had some appointments, so I could arrange some important stuff and learn something more about the protocols at the SRRC. Yeah, I'm busy with my job even when I'm off duty. Another amazing summer day. It's a pitty to say goodbye again, such a good time. Maybe I stay and live here ... Back at the SRRC base, everyone is going out tonight, guess where? Groningen!!! I'm not going, they will be back around 7 AM, when I have to start my shift...not a good idea for me I guess :-)

Friday the 29th of July, start of week 2; the new breed and living in a girl campus

I could bore everyone with useless stories about every day, but no. The sort work is almost the same every day, only in different areas. And the seal puppy population in the SRRC is still growing; 216! I'm getting used to all of them, of course I have some favorite seals. It's fun to feed them by myself now. But always be careful when you're sitting in the middle of them, they like to bite in asses :-) We have a special seal guest this week, a bit lost, he should float around on a iceberg near Greenland. The Ringseal is a cute funny fatboy, but suspicious. He will attack out of nowhere and can jump pretty high. One of the puppies in Engelse Hoek didn't really like his unit and escaped. Just hopping around the tent in the morning. The summer is coming, but it also means giving the seals a sweat shower in some of the Leger units. 30+ degrees inside. Time for some bucket showers! The late shifts in the kitchen are hilarious, not only water fights, also fish fights and stuff. LET'S GET DIRTY!

This week we have a whole bunch of new volunteers, all nice people. I moved in into the campus. Not realising that I was living in a house full of girls (12) for a long time. But after a week the girls finally got what the wanted; a Brasilian guy :-) I'm good friends with one of the the feeders now, that means good breakfast every day. Thanks Carolien ;-)

And what about the weekends? Weekend for me is every Wednesday and Thursday. So no more festivals for a long time. It's sad, but I don't earn any money, so I can't spend any. This weekend I spend mostly in Groningen again. Good summer. Eating, drinking, making new friends, drinking more. The hot days are for walking around the villages here, getting one of the bikes from campus, stopped by some sheep, being amazed by a huge field of hemp!!! Times flies by... already 2 weeks, it just feels like 2 days...

Weedk 3 to 6; the worst summer with the cutest things ever

Well, again I can tell something about every single day, but I won't. To much and maybe to boring to tell . But what a fantastic time here.And theDutch summer is the worst ever. We had the dryest month ever in the beginning and the coldest and wettest summer since 1906...I think before they didn't even measured it. Although that part is shit, the experiences here are amazing. Working really hard and long without earning any money. It's a strange feeling to be back on the Office job again in a few weeks. But I have to save some cash again for the next step in this never ending adventure; the sequel of the trip around the world!

And about the big boss here. Many people think she already retired and is earning a lot of money. She's not. Lenie 't Hart is still walking around most days and she is still the director. She's earning a normal wage like most people. And one of my first meetings with her was one to remember... One day I walked into the girls changing room and shower (I know, life isn't that bad here LOL). And this funny screaming little woman starts to yell at me and kicked me out. 'Uhm hello Lenie? Where am I supposed to take a shower if the seales are in every fucking corner of this place? The sick seals are even in the men's shower and changing room!' So after this we were friends :-) Welcome to the SRRC!

Of course a lot of other funny things happen. One of the last fase pools is 'Golfbad'. Working at this pool can be a laugh. Not only the edge of the plateau, also cleaning the windows in front of the visitors can give you just that extra bit of attention. Falling into the pool is very easy. Also the feeding here is an experience because it's the only place without nets against the Seaguls. During daylight these annoying birds like to steel the fish out of the water. If you're not that ugly, they will also try to steel from you. They attack seals and steel the fish out of their mouth. Most Seaguls swallow a fish straight away, some of them try to fly away with it. And those ones are just stupid. Stupid enough to fly against the long steel of the fish net, fall on the ground and drop the fish on a visitor's head. Other Seaguls just loose the fish and drop it on a baby in a pram. Just hilarious. There is a trick to keep them busy; just give them a bunch of frozen fish, it will take some time.

Working with some feeders here can be even more hilarious. Tafsit for example. Nobody can understand here English with this strange Italian pronounciation. Sometimes she mixes even 3 languages. But that's not the most rememberable about her... The stupid actions WOW. Falling constantly, tripping over a hose with loads of stuff in her hands, giving you dozens of unexpected showers because she can't even hold a garden hose and the best of all; We received new round pools with a small plateau on one side. There were 3 heavy seals relaxing together on the small plateau. But Taf was not thinking about what would happen if she also steps onto the plateau... Use your imagination... It happened just 2 meters in front of the visitors. The pool was out of balance and rolled over to the visitors side. All the seals and screaming Tafsit were on top of each other. Everyone was okay, but I couldn't stop laughing.

And seals, do they get bored here? Believe it or not, they can even escape out of seperate Quarantaine rooms, pass 5 heavy doors, meet eachother in the visistor's centre and hump around together having fun. Leaving a lot of poo and just enjoy life...RESPECT TO THE SEAL PUPS!

It's a come and go of volunteers. In my 7 weeks here I have seen a lot. Even people that stay for just a few days or a week. But we need more. The amount of seals is crazy this year. At some point we had more than 240 seals in the house! Normally there should be around 90 this period of the year. Everyday it's a challange to manage all the 3, 4 or 5 feedings. So this means that you don't have to expect that you finish your shift in time. Working 2 hours longer every day is normal. Even if you have your day(s) off, try to escape the campus! The people will find you for some tasks.

What kind of tasks? Well imagine a hot summer day (Yeah even in this horrible summer). Around 30 degrees outside. A small wooden building for necropsies. A large freezer room with bins full of dead seals and seal body parts. Then try to think what happens if that freezer room is not working since the last 3 weeks. Luckily I watch a lot of horror movies and I was used to dirty smells already. Some people had to clean the whole building. The smell was absolutely disgusting. Maggots all over the place. Millions crawling on the floor, in the cupboards, on the walls, on the doors, on the ceiling. And opening the freezer room...AWESOME!!!! So this is how dead smells in real. Another funny task; taking the rotting seals and body parts out of the bins. Take them out of the plastic bags. Everything was flaoting in black fluid. Blood and dead body fluids. NICE! Michael and me were the 'gravediggers'. Using gas masks and stuff. Even a step into your boots...woohoo, filled with maggots too! What a perfect summer day.

Because of the huge amount of sick seals, there was also a huge amount of dead seals. One week around 10 seals found their way to the necropsy room. A strange unknown virus. One of the things you have to do here is joining necropsies. Guess what, also on my day off. 3 seals took around 4 hours. Cutting the seals open, taking samples, taking pictures, making a report, cleaning the whole place again. Our first corpse was one filled with lung worms. It started in the heart. And from there we found them everywhere. Still alive, even the seal was dead for 2 days. Now it's easy to imagine how bad the seal feels when they have lung worms. And very strange that a Common Seal puppy has this already in the beginning of August.

Free time, filled with making large nets in frame to get the seals out of the pools, show around people and new volunteers, cleaning the campus (impossible). And what about sports and the gym? We don't have a gym in this village. So just do your run every week, take a bike for a long ride (but be aware you are always cycling against the wind in this part of Holland) and not to forget; unloading the frozen fish from the truck. Every package weighs 25 kg. You just have to find some strong people (mostly visitors) to make a train of people and bring them to the freezer room. Sometimes you are lucky when your standing in the truck sweating and half naked and they bring only good looking girls to help you during a nice summer day. It makes the job a lot easier :-)

One of the things that I wanted to do here in this part of the country is 'Wadlopen'. It means walking in the mud during low tide. You can do it with walking tours every day. Sometimes you can even walk between the islands in the North Sea. I signed up with Carolien. 9.45 AM time to start. It was 'Keiweek', that's the introduction week for the 1st year students in Groningen. So that means a lot of hangover students (mostly girls) that have to join the mudwalking. Wicked! Just buy a pair of fake high Allstarts somewhere for 5 - 10 euro's and start. The cheapest tour is around 11 euro's and takes about 3 hours. We did the tour behind the second dike near Pieterburen / Westernieland. First you walk through the green fields, cows, sheep and mud. Followed by the first deep steps in the mud. You will find a lot of eatable veggies on the track and play with shells (Kokkels), see birdlife, fight with huge crabs, play with worms, throw Carolien in the water and mud sometimes, laugh about other people that get stuck in the mud. The sky looked dark, the heavy rainfall could start any minute. It just started at the mainland and not on 'De Wadden'. If you do this and you are dirty even in you hair...why don't you take a swim in the sea? So I did. Not many people joined and some even thought that they saw a seal swimming...Uhm it was my face...not a seal! Further on the track there were some sand banks where you could actually spot the real seals. Sometimes they came a bit closer for a swim. What a day!

Waking up with again some sun (why am I complaining about this summer???). And someone tells me that there is a seal release on my day off. Perfect, I will join. But same as last time, no more free space in the cars. Fuck off, not again. I joined the guy of the pharmacy and we went the 'De Dollard' near the 'Eemshaven' at the German border. An 1 hour drive from Pieterburen. 6 seals to release and no adoptants. So that means the volunteers had to open the boxes, just like the commercial from 'It's a beautiful day'. It was low tide, but this time a bit to low. We couldn't see the water in the distance. There was only a small stream of water coming out of the dike. The seals liked it. They humped out of the wooden box, took a slide from the mud slide they found. And bumped onto eachother. They played in the small stream for an hour before we left. With high tide they will find the other seals in the wild. They have to get used to this freedom and catching fish that is swiming away from them. What a beautiful day, good day for the seals.

I can get used to this place, although my old body can't handle all the strange positions every day including the weight lifting with frozen fish and heavy seals. When the seals arrive they weigh around 8-10 kg, when they leave around 40 kg or more. A surprise,I even found a special farm girl here whaha. Yeah, it's not only the love for the seals here at the SRRC, also the workers and volunteers love each other. Many couples at the creche. I'm gonna miss those people and I wil definately come back. There is not much to do in this place and sometimes it's hard when you can't be with you old friends. I missed a long festival season, but most festivals were mudpools anyway. The 'biggest' event here was the weekend fair in Eenrum. Just as I expected, too small, heaps of farmers, bad (Dutch) music and the fair only had bumping cars (where we spend hours), a giant wheel and 1 other attraction. Not my thing. Some people can not get used to this place. It's nice to see cute seals, but they can also be very sick and die. They can be very difficult to handle, but alsoextremely funny. You can have loads of fun here, but sometimes feel a bit lonely. Some people can't handle it. We had a German girl with a really nice oldtimer. Just driving the old Opel Rekord with red leather seats to the dike, watch a stunning sunset with a couple of beers and ciders and just enjoy the life. Vera was playing her guitar and people had to sing the songs. Surprisingly enough she was gone after 3 days...

It's my last week now. Waiting for my showerday. But since I'm here people not only receive showers when it's their last day. If people are going on holiday or when it's their birthday...they will get wet! Carolien also knows. I even put her in a seal basket and we put the hose on her. Yeah her birthday. Can anyone tell me next time when I buy 180 baloons that you have to use a baloon pump?! These anoying baloons were so hard to blow up with your own breath. It took me more then 2 hours on my day off to load the whole room with baloons! Let's see what happens on my last day... I think some people want to give me a pay back for what a did to others :-) Ice water, fish, a fire hose, a big brush in the face while sitting in a bucket with water...

Tuesday the 6th of September; my last working day

After a night with Carolien that was working on my nerves, damn that chick can be anoying on a funny way :-) Last early shift. The last 2 days were great. Worked in all the places, carried many fat seals, fed a lot of them. Good to see that they grow fast and don't die that easy anymore. Yesterday some people even named me a chef cook. Damn, I cooked a massive dinner (3 huge oven veggie pies, apples with cinnamon and sugar, beans with pesto...yummie!). Thanks to Ozzie Mark for all the pastry experience. I am impressed about the fact I can finally cook for 25 people in a short time.

And I was expecting a lot of showers on Tuesday...only 1 !?!?! They could do better. So no real showers and in those 2 months I haven't been bitten by a seal WHOOP WHOOP!

I will stay for another few days before I go back to Rotterdam. Just to have some more information about fundraising and running a place like this. One of my dreams.

Let's see if we survive tonight at the SRRC, there is a huge storm at the moment...

C U all somewhere!

... NEWSFLASH ... Surprises the extra last days!

I didn't leave the 7th of September. Nope, I learned more of Fundraising from Danielle and more about Research from Nynke. Had another interesting chat with Leslie. Just can;t leave.

On my supposed to be last morning a was sleeping when Hans walked into the room at 7AM. Richard and Matt were still in bed and din't want to get up. They had enough of seals all of a sudden. Guys in love? So they just said 'No we not gonna work now, we are planning to leave'. LEAVE NOW, Hans was pissed :-) I felt bad, sleeping and doing nothing, while the feeders are missing at least 3 people this shift. So wanna become Hero of the Day? Yeah, why not :-)

The day after was a great surpise. New director Simone arranged that I could join a very exclusive seal release with 'Ministerie van Rijkswaterstaat'. A release of 6 seals with no adoptants. Just a Government boat, a cool stuff with the 4 year old girl Lieke. She wants to become an elephant when she is older and she is even steering the ship! On of the other crew members is from the famous Dutch program 'Boer zoekt vrouw'. What a trip, the Waddensea is a huge National Park. I didn't know that this part of Holland was so nice. And the birdlife and the seals everywhere...no words. Crossing a few islands and sand banks, we found a good spot to release them. Just taking the small dingy and bring the wooden boxes to the small sand bank. Time to open the boxes and the clouds gave us a big treat: HEAPS OF WATER! The seals enjoyed, although my seal was on the wrong side of the box. Dummie, get out and swim into the sea! They enjoyed the freedom. Their natural habitat, this is why we do this. Saving more than 450 seals already this year. The total population in the Waddensea is around 6.000 seals. This day was unforgettable. Nynke left Barbara, Lijsje and me with that old army truck and nobody knows ho to get back to Pieterburen! Great :-)

Staying days longer. I still have to thick one more thing off my 'to-do' list...an epic last party night in Groningen... Bea, Aleisha, Nofar, Isabelle, Vicky and me. A small group, but damn, what an eventful night :-) Arriving at Groningen with a huge thunderstorm and rain. Suddenly we hear loud party music on the street. 2 small party tents and a lot of funny dancing people with umbrella's. A clothing shop was haveing a private party, but nobody stopped us joining them. Nofar collected some bottles of sparkling rose, red wine and Beerenburg for free. What a start! And not to forget the dancing with the girl with the squeegy HAHAHAAAA. The walk to Grote Markt uhm...we ended up in a washing machine in the middle of the road. Nofar told me later that I tried to put her in the washing machine. Sorry for being a bit violent ;-) I wasn't that clear anymore, so I just pulled the washing machine like I was taking a dog out. The first bar; more drinks?!?!? How did we get the bottles inside??!?! It seems that I stopped drinking Tequila becauise it was so disgusting...from that point I lost my colleagues for the rest of the night, I had some weird experiences along the night in Groningen and ended up at my friends place at 5 AM in the morning. Thanks Nynke, for letting me crash on your couch again. I just told some people a few days ago, when it's Full Moon, always something crazy happens. Guess what it was last night?...

Sunday afternoon, I really had to leave. Start working at the Office again tomorrow. Goodbye everyone. I will probably see you all next weekend or somewhere on this planet!

Many thanks to this wonderful team: Alba, Alex, Aleisha, Bea, Benne, Cristina, David, Mark, Marc, Manon, Lisa, Liselotte, Louke, Lijsje, Marcel, Hans, Iris, Karin, Simone, Leslie, Hanneke, Andre, Isabelle, Iva, Vera, Melanie, Marlies, Fernando, Richard, Matt, Victoria, Stuart, Myrian, Carolien, Maria, Meindert, Marga, Martha, Nataly, Michael, John, Tafsit, Celine, Guillermo, Anna, Janneke, Laura D, Laura O, Lucia, Allessandra, Ivanna, Cecilia, Beate, Nynke, Danielle, Martijn...and all the other ones I forgot

VIVA LA FRANCE! VIN VIN VIN... OH AND A BIT OF SUISSE

Wednesday the 29th of December; delayed ...but in Paris.

It took some time and patience to get here, with a delay of half a day I was there; Paris! My couch surf address was waiting for me. It's hard to get lost in the metro system here. So first some meetings with the other flat mates and why do I only meet teachers all the time?! A lonely discovery of Paris followed. Damn this city is impressive. The biggest and most historical so far. The annoying thing is the thousands of tourists everywhere. This time of year the lines are long, at least 2 - 3 hours of waiting before you could get into things like Eifel Tower or Grand Palace. Funny chasings by the police that try to follow the African tower sellers...they sell a lot of crap here. And the snow of last weeks made the Seine flood, a romantic walk along the river?? Haha, if you like to get wet :-) It was a long day, little bit boring on your own, maybe better when you know some French language. Finally after months I hear Dutch again, a few students that I meet on the street in front of their house. Unfortunately Dutch are not that social that they invite you for a bottle of wine after knowing you for maybe 2 minutes. So after a stroll on the overcrowded Champs ELyses (Christmas Madness and way too many tourists) it was time for the bottles of wine in the flat with my hosts. And it was a night! First everyone was laughing at me when I was eating, I didn't see that they gave me Penis-Pasta...very funny girls. Of course our favorite card game from New Zealand and finishing 5 bottles with 3 people, some other stuff and French delicatessen. All the wine glasses were broken at the end, maybe that says enough... I told them that I don't like IKEA and guess what? Finally I have to sleep on a real couch and the manufacturer? IKEA!!! I slept well, don't worry.

Thursday the 30th of December; the long city walks and local bar life of Paris.

My hosts wanted to show me a few things today; Montmartre, again ridiculous how many tourists. And their famous red light district and Moulin Rouge. I was not impressed if you know Amsterdam. Maybe better to visit this area during the night. I love the area though, small streets, cozy cafe's, old French folks, cheese shops and boulangeries. A meal at Les 2 Moulins (the restaurant from the movie 'Amelie'); it's a famous place, that doesn't mean good... My hosts had to work again and I tried to see as much as possible; everything along the seine, University, Pompidou, Hotel de Ville, Notre Dame, Patheon, Luxemburg Area etc... Another long walk in Paris, all of a sudden I was in front of the flat already. No cheap food this time, Sushi to order. It were not the best cooks my hosts, still thinking that they could use me as their slave...this is not NZ anymore ;-) Although I can't remember what kind of slave actions I have done. It was local bar night, 5 minutes of walking and there are loads of bars, loaded and open every day of the week. Beers are expensive and the music? It's like taking foreigners to 'De Skihut' in The Netherlands maybe. The girls gave me a few missions today, the last one I didn't want to finish and they were a little bit disappointed. And of course they thought I was gay :-)

Friday the 31st of December; My first NYE without fireworks, but with some funny French.

TGV to Lyon, better train system than Germany though. Adrien was also there, almost the whole team reunited. It took 2 hours before Sebastien joined us to make the team complete. A trip/tour/race through Lyon, pedestrians were not safe on the streets today. A tasty tartare for lunch, some beers. And almost everything seems to be 'free' in Lyon, even the Zoo. The park is funny, to see really old women jogging with their small dogs...the French way. The weather was not that good (no snow, but misty). We visited and terrorized the flat of Seb's best friend. A good start of a crazy night. Ready to leave and go to a small village between Lyon and St. Etienne. A villa for a big private party. Around 20 French and besides Adrien and Seb there was only 1 that could speak English. A massive dinner with lots of French dishes. Followed by loads of wine, punch and Champagne. No fireworks and no countdown?! Different but fun though. Although it was hard to miss my other friends sometimes, hard to communicate and hard to understand all the French songs they did the whole night. Some people were just hilarious...(Hen Ry) Cochet for example; way to old and drunk for this party. Finding him completely wasted on the toilet. Didier, another dirty old bastrd LOL (crazy stuff when you're 52!). A long long night, almost nobody knew each other, some issues who sleeps with who...uhm where. No couch 2night, sharing an Aerobed with Seb. BONNE ANNEE! Adrien, thanks for the pics during the emergency pit-stop! :D

Saturday the 1st of January; A special start of the year! This will set the tone...

2 hours of sleep on the floor and the madness started again. All the survivors had another big meal/brunch in the villa. French cheese, baguettes and Jus d'Orange or Champagne. The sisters started a concert in the living room with 2 violins and an accordion. How French can it get? Adrien, Seb and Didier went to some other friends of Seb in the ski area of La Clusaz. SNOW! And even better, the huge authentic chalet of Elody! This chalet was sick, worth around 3 million euro's, many stylish rooms, big bath in your room, pumping sound system in the house, DJ, finally some good party music, unlimited wine/Champagne, more French that speak English whohooo, nice warm and cozy place. The party started quite good. And what a location, just at the bottom of 2 big slopes! A private family chalet, so no way that you could rent this place. Definitely, the friends here were still in the party mood of NYE. Some dinner? Uhm, some chicken and 2 huge rib-eye steaks ready to go to into the fireplace. Never seen such a fantastic meal cooked in the chimney. The rest was authentic French pasta with cheese and more delicious stuff. Santé, chin-chin! After dinner a crazy house party went on and on. Dancing outside on the veranda, waving to the big truck that prepares the pistes, offering them some beer in exchange for some disco lights of the truck. Deep in the night some of us went out in La Clusaz, happy I didn't go, because it was not as good as in the chalet. I stumbled through the amazing warm high carpet into my wooden apple...sweet dreams...

Sunday the 2nd of January; Sunday sessions of La Clusaz...the party never stops!

Around noon the pumping tunes of Compagnie Creole banged on the wooden walls. Time to wake up, no hangover. French lunch (baguettes, cheese and heaps of Champagne). A stroll through La Clusaz. Learning how to ski by watching the debutants through the window. Yeah, actually the windows in this chalet are like 2 huge wide screen TV screens. OMG, Didier the old dirty bastard had some more stunts ready to be recorded :-) The plan was to leave today. Was yeah... After the saucisses and the mobile vineyard of Didier plans changed; we stay another night! The French taught me a new card game UNO. New Year starts different, normally I'm the loser. Today I kicked everyone's ass BIGTIME! A part of the group left, we went out for dinner at another restaurant in the snowy mountains around La Clusaz. After some funny Picard-jokes about the frozen balls the atmosphere changed a little bit. David was not that happy, like the crew of the restaurant. LOL, some French are too grumpy, where is their sense of humor?! It was fun that it was all about balls again :-) Another party night? I stopped, need some sleep zzzZ...

Monday the 3rd of January; A break in the madness.

Wake up slowly, everything went slowly today. Goodbye La CLusaz, bye bye Seb. Never expected to have such a good time here, the crazy crew was reunited for a while and it was epic. Of course we ended up in one the most exclusive places owned by one of Seb's old friends; the daughter of the most famous chef in France. Huge hot chocolate (also the most expensive one I ever saw on a menu) and some gratuit cake and bread. Ow I looked like a famous Argentinan person this time; Gauchos. It was more the owner that was flirting with me. Hm, the French seem to like me LOL. Adrien and I had some time to kill in Annecy before we could take our train. The mall didn't want to take our bags in the lockers because of the terrorist alarm, WTF?! We look a bit different maybe, but not like terrorists. In Thonon I met part of Adrien's family and later the rest in Allinger. A place close to beautiful Lac Leman (Better known as the lake of Geneva). We picked up Kate and Kathelyn, 2 Ozzies that also stayed at Edit's house (Adrien's Grandma). The Grandma was flattered when I told her 'Je voudrais dormir avec toi' Not the best translation for 'I appreciate I can sleep here'. She is so funny and always in for a laugh. A warm welcome in the family with of course...I don't have to tell it anymore.

Tuesday the 4th of January; Cruising the vineyards and cities of Suisse.

A misty view at the chateaux on top of the hill, no lake view today. It was a day full of cruising in the car with Adrien and the Ozzies. Beautiful mysterious mountain scenery, especially after crossing the Swiss border. Crossing Evian, heading to Lausanne. It looked like Machu Picchu sometimes with the vineyard terraces, so pretty. Lausanne was a cool town where we had lunch. Adrien was getting excited because some special accents and signs. Let's hit the road to Geneva. Everything is so posh here; all the exclusive and expensive brands that you can imagine. Luxury cars everywhere. A sky-high fountain, swans following you for a piece of baguette, Pacman is still alive here, beautiful historic buildings, a free bath, slippery streets, big chess-pieces, Christmas atmosphere and many Russians. Oh yeah, this is why Adrien is so excited, he loves Russian girls. We had to make a lot of jokes about this. A long drive back to the family. A great day in Suisse. Everyone seems to be tired. After trying all the ski-gear for the next day it was bedtime?! Inception kept me awake, although Adrien was couch surfing instead of watching the movie.

Wednesday the 5th of January; Skiing Morzine, fan-fuckin-tastic!

Black Eyed Peas 'Dirty Bitch!' Whohooooo Grandma was dancing around the table. Everybody grab his baguette 'Dirty bitch!' Hilarious woman, 72 years old and just crazy, so nice. Feeding 15 cats around us, it's like a cat zoo here. Time to grab our skis and boots and get to Morzine/Les Gets. A huge ski area and perfect weather. First good action of the day, helping a small crying girl that was lost, it was good to speak Dutch again. For the first time it was a wonderful sunny hot day in France. The snow was perfect. I never tried skiing before but why did nobody told me before that it is so much easier than snowboarding. The whole day if felt 6 times, half of the time out of the lift :-) I'm not professional yet, but I can avoid some trees. After all the Glog au Rhum I was exhausted and not capable of standing up straight anymore. So I became a danger and had to leave the piste, enjoying the oldies at the bar. The view from the cabins was great, seeing many people fall and crash into each other on the steep piste below us. The day was not over yet, grandma pushed me on the chair and gave me some disgusting glass of Suze and chips. Later a big family meal; cheese fondue. OMG how nice, the family is fantastic. Everyone was there, Isabelle, Patric, Edit, all the sitters and brothers, uncles and aunts, the Ozzies. But I think they try to kill me with all that food and alcohol. I'm becoming a character here, they have so much fun making jokes about me. I don't care, I like the attention guys ;-) Thanks for crowning me as a King.

Thursday the 6th of January; Chamonix, Glacier de Mer, Mont Blanc BRRRRRilliant!

The 'Dirty Bitch'-tune set the tone for the day again. Another day cruising through the mountains. Destination Chamonix; the big English town at the bottom of the Mont Blanc mountain range. Too cloudy for a ride to the Mt Blanc, so a slow train to the Mer de Glace. A huge Glacier, moving 1cm every hour. We went inside this glacier, big caves. Cooooool and some spectacular views when the sun tried hard to come through. It started snowing, no more views today. In Chamonix it was all about shopping French stuff. And of course; Take me to the candy shop! No 50 Cent clip, but some bodies in candy lingerie. Further in town a lot of sausicces and wine. Trying to eat cheap in this huge touristy town is a challenge but not impossible. Poco Loco was a really small cozy place with some tasty panini burgers and Vin du Chaud. We were pretty slow today so no other towns today. The night at the family became epic again; Patrick let everyone try all the home brew stuff. Shot after shot made the Ozzies pretty tipsy and the mum make funny faces. But guys, stop giving me all this food!!! Vin the garbage bin hahahahaaa, very funny Adrien. Everybody only remembers that Latino-Dutch guy that was always hungry.

Friday the 7th of January; Apres Ski in Chamonix, Russian Christmas.

The Ozzies left today. We stopped many times for drinks at family and friends of Adrien. Everyone offers you more and more drinks. Guys I have to go out tonight, we start way to early :-) In Chamonix we stayed at another couch surfing address, an old classmate of Adrien; Nicolai. Well not a couch, there was a big bed hanging on cables (a sleep swing) and what do I smell? The studied gardening, but these were special plants in the room :-) More people joined us for a long night out. Starting in Chambre Neuf, a Swedish Apres Ski Bar. And a long pub crawl followed that night. It was the end of Russian Christmas, we tried to find some Russian prostitutes for Adrien LOL. It was a funny night, started even before Apres Ski. Good hosts here, see you guys next time!

Saturday the 8th of January; Partytime in Lausanne

Adriens friend offered half-price tickets for going on the Mont Blanc. Well, he did first. But when he showed up after hours the message was NO. So we waited half the day for nothing. So let's take a ride to Lausanne. It was a very picturesque scenery through the mountains. Not a bad alternative and it cost? Nothing. Another couch surfing address, this time one of the persons I met during my travels. In the middle of the city, good healthy food, some wine, some snacks. Perfect you might think. Lausanne is a good party place and you need a wallet that is filled with loads of Swiss Francs; around 16 euro's for 3 beers?! 20 euro's to get into a random discotheque?! WTF welcome in Europe. They had some nice Kingsize bars, homebrew bars and more cool places to hang out. Damn it feels hot, it feels like summer. Last week your balls froze off in Lausanne, tonight you can walk in a T-shirt on the streets...13 degrees in midwinter in Suisse. Was is the heat or the alcohol that made my couch surfing host annoying? :-) This person was getting aggressive, started to hit, bit, pushing it way too far. After several warning it was enough...I left everyone. Uhm, no mobile, no keys, no place to go. Not the smartest thing huh Vince. I discovered nightlife in Lausanne on my own, full of dickheads on the streets. But everything better than with Miss Loca Loca Loca. Hours later I arrived at the address, the other ones were back home, I choose the couch instead of the bedroom. But it was a night full of surprises Adrien :P

Sunday the 9th of January; boring wet rainy day, a great French family dinner.

The morning seemed like nothing happened last night, maybe it was just a funny nightmare :-) After some breakfast we left Lausanne for a long ride to Thonon. Nothing to do today, it is the shittiest weather in a long time. Just when you think the day is useless there it is; a nice French family dinner. Rackletts melted French cheese and meat. With Adriens aunt, uncle, sister and some new faces; some cousins. A great evening with again loads of Champagne and wine. I'm started to love this country, big diners, nice people and Champagne.

Monday the 10th of January; Crossing the edges of my health conditions.

Since Lausanne I'm having a strong fever. Of course I don't wanna disappoint Patrick and Adrien so I join them to the Morzine Alpine area for some hiking in the snow with the special snow shoes; rackets. Till a certain height all the snow melted because of the crazy high temperatures. But high in the mountains there was a lot of fresh snow. Trying to reach the col just in time. Clear sky for just a short time today. Doing this with a strong fever is not a good idea. Breathing problems, bad offing, muscle pain everywhere, knees that gave up, shoes 2 sizes too small. Just 20 minutes before the top I had to give up. The first time in my life that I couldn't finish a hike on a mountain. We were the only ones out there and some wild animals running away from the many avalanches. Yes, it was getting a bit more dangerous. The next day 4 people died here because of the avalanches. Patrick and Adrien had so much fun seeing me struggle today. The bastards offered me more wine, even when we hiked. No for me it was time to rest, stop drinking alcohol, eat fruit and more sleep.

Tuesday the 11th of January; Sickness stopped the adventure :-(

After 12 hours of sleep I still don't feel better. To be honest I become sicker and sicker. The weather is not helping. No good things to do. Just dancing with grandma on the house beats in the kitchen, drinking tea and watch movies with the heater on. It's different, I would prefer to do some skiing today...

Wednesday the 12tth of January; It's over, done, 15 months of craziness...

Waking up with a weird feeling, flying back to hometown Roffa. Sad? Yes. But I won't stop living the dream life and having crazy adventures.

GERMANY & CZECH; CHRISTMAS RITUALS, COUCH SURFING AND MORE FOOD AND SNOW

GERMANY; CHRISTMAS, COUCHSURFING AND MORE FOOD AND SNOW

After 2 weeks in and around Munich it was enough for a while. The snow disappeared last week although in Holland they warned people not to go to Munich because of heavy winter/snow conditions.

Thursday the 23rd of December; The long way to the village people with 2 confused navigators

My last steps in Munich and trying to book my next tickets and destinations online. Munchen, Paris, Lyon is the final plan. Many people told me that I could always come if I was in their country, but most of them? Nope...it's Europe. They are too busy, stressed or having the happy life of a relationship :-) So only a few of my really good friends and travel partners offered me a couch/bed, respect! And after 15 months of booking busses and trains of maximum 20 Euro's (for distances up to 24 hours/3 days) I realized I was in Europe. Damn, Christmas and New Year is not the best period to travel. Forget about the planes, overpriced. Some bad bus connections. And going back to The Netherlands was impossible with the many train connections, everything was sold out. So nighttrain to Paris, expensive but no better options. Luckily today Michaela, Angelika and I drive with a packed car to the North to the wonderful village of Dieterskirchen. Yep, a stay with their families for Christmas. After a long ride in the dark and having discussions about left or right (they still don't know what these 2 words mean) we were welcomed by, of course what else, wine! Hans, Bernadette, Matthias and Melanie thanks! I had to put the balls in the tree. The German tradition is to do it on the night before Christmas Eve (also putting the tree in the house that day).

Friday the 24th of December; Visiting Czech Republic and Christmas Eve the German village way

Last night I stayed at Michaela's family. Finally abed that didn't fall apart LOL And I got what I asked for, a white Christmas. So much snow, beautiful. Fill your stomach with cookies, I still don't understand how people can each so many snacks every day. Mich and I jumped in the car to Czech Republic. I was expecting to go to Prague, but unfortunately the weather conditions were not good enough for reaching it in time. So Pilsen was the first stop, one of the bigger cities in Czech. Well, I haven't seen many places as depressive and dark as this one. A dirty city with sad looking buildings, everybody on the street looks sad and grumpy. The snow is black instead of white here because of all the dirt and pollution. Our first experience in the city? Walking along some police lines and a crashed car. Reason? Someone jumped of the roof on the car to kill himself...Welcome to Czech! Maybe the historic city center is just as exciting? Well the Christmas Market is a laugh, there isn't any. A group of grumpy people gathered in front of the church to listen to a sort of local rock band, they looked even more sad than the square itself. It's not like Munich, they don't use salt or clean the streets from slippery snow. So you fall on your as all the time. Bring ice skates and try not to fall in the horse shit. Yeah, they also walk with horses on the street. Christmas feeling? No way! Trying to find it anywhere in the city. Almost everything closed, no restaurant or bar open, except god old McDonalds. Walked into a vintanage for some wine tasting, but it seems that you are only allowed to do that if you speak Czech. So let's go back to Germany, Czech is not the right time to visit, summer is a better idea for Prague.

I had to surrender myself to the local German Christmas Eve of the family life in a small village. That means visit the church. Mwaaaah, after a long day it was hard not to fall asleep with all those slow holy Christmas carols :-) But after the whole ceremony you're not going home. Outside you gather with the whole village, everyone wants to know you, you drink heaps of Gluhwein in the snow and of course you have snowball fights. The Christmas meals at the house; white sour sausages with sauerkraut. I thought it was an appetizer. Nope, it was the main course. Christmas presents for all the girls (4 sisters) and the family. The presents had to be used the same night, so we played one of the games and one of the girls got a sheesha (water pipe). Because I'm from Holland they expected that I was a professional of using these things whahhaaaa. Well, not that professional, it didn't work. When Martin came it was clear...nobody tells you that you have to put loads of Glycerin on the tobacco to make it work. It took hours and some disappointed faces to make it work. So a long night of playing games and losing, a long night of hot stuff and sheesha. Santa was again nice this year.

Saturday the 24th of December; Musical mayhem :-)

Eating, eating, eating...all they do during the day. I tried so many Bavarian foods, I'm exploding. 'Yeah Vince, we go to the church again!' They were laughing so I thought it was a joke. No, same same but different. Different town actually. It's was freezing. So you need exercise...let's take a slee and walk on the hills for some sliding. Deep snow, hardly possible. We tried hard, making yourself dizzy and cold with rolling down the hills to make a flat track. Those Germans think that is the easy way? Many attempts, none of them really successful. It was more fighting in the snow, eating snow and getting tired. Today another village, Nittenau. First some more drinking at Elke's place, making the cat crazy with a Christmas present; an electronic police car with a remote control. And after all the young folks (and some old) went to a concert. Sold out so it should be good? Uhm it was the concert of the local Orchestra...but it seems that everyone in Bavaria seems to play an instrument. They were having fun, because I enjoyed the first part of the concert with my eyes closed. The second part was way more interesting with the half rock versions of Michael Jackson and everything. But it was not over yet with damaging my ears... The girls took me to their favorite local 'club'. Rast in Rotz whahahahaa, a farmer's discotheque! Great... you have to experience their life Vince, enjoy. It wasn't that bad, the schnitzel baguette were tasty, the local beer mixed with coke and kirsch was acceptable (OMG, they love to mix everything with coke in Bavaria), the dice game was easy for a drinking game. Only the drunk kids and the music, not exactly my thing. Surprisingly enough we left at 4 in the morning. And finally some good music; the pumping beats of Diechkind in the car; JIPPIE JIPPIE YEAH!

Sunday the 25th of December; Getting exhausted and the first injuries.

1-2 hours of sleep, perfect start of the day. What is better than to enjoy a big hot bath together and watch out over the incredible snowy landscape and having the champagne next to you (Unfortunately the bottle was a present and we were not allowed to open it).The family of Mich think I look so skinny and said goodbye with giving me bags full of cookies, marzipan and chocolate. It were wonderful days here with these people. I was very happy with my personal translator, because Bavarian is hard to understand. Up to Windmais, my next couch surf address. Again not really a couch, it was more like a hotelroom (including floor heating, stereo system etc.). Another warm welcome and time for some activities; langlaufing whohooo. Angelika and I have never done this before, no instructions and it took us some time before we had all the stuff on our feet. Going uphill was a funny experience, sliding backwards many times. But we managed to reach the top of the hills. Going down was way more fun than expected, I'm still surprised that I didn't break my legs or hit some trees. Or hitting some cars when we ended up on the road, it was hard to stop when we were sliding down between the driving cars whahaaaa. After hours of intensive sports I was exhausted. Telling the family my travel adventures and eat the most delicious steak you can imagine. I want sleep!

Monday the 26th of December; Another random day at work? Hahahaaaa, still enjoying the good life!

6:30 alarm clock! Shit, not enough sleep. Neunburg and on the way to Czech again. Why? Snowboarding in Arberland with Angelika, Melanie and Matthias. They gave me board, boots and some warm(?) clothes. Having these sorts of friends is enjoying the good life. Finally some bigger ski area to practice, several lifts and much snow. Practicing the lift goofy footed was fun, and a fun way to meet people going together and hugging them. Many attempts to learn to board, many times hitting the snow with my ass! And many breaks. Because of the alcoholic behavior of Michaela in Munich (we didn't drink, just for 1 day), I was the party starter now. Goodbye hot chocolate and hello Gluhwein and Jagatee. My teacher (Angelika) was exhausted and falling asleep all the time...she only talked when I didn't want her to talk...SHUT UP! I'm trying to concentrate! :D A long long day. Instead of getting an injury with snowboarding, I got an injury with the gate of the ski lift, pole turned down too early and crashed into my knee. It was over, an injured foot and knee, last try? Well, we felt out of the lift. A sign that we should stop after a full day at the piste. Nobody touch my hair! It was white and literary frozen. Melanie and Matthias were good hosts; they gave me delicious meals (pasta, salmon, spicy sauces, hot apples, ice-cream and don't forget Caipirinia's). And what do I see there in the garage? A massive quadbike! This will be so much fun in the snow. But dark outside and me not capable of keeping my eyes open? Not the right moment for Jackass-stunts. Next time I will terrorize the village ;-) Their sister Kathi joined and it was again gametime, still surprised that there are card games I don't know (Rumi). My aim is always not to win, but not to loose. Angi, thanks for being the worst :D And 23:00, maybe time for some sleep, of course not... First some healing and getting bandage around my injuries. I look like coming out of a hospital after a crazy accident.

Tuesday the 27th of December: Recover, relax, snowbar and the rumors in the villages.

Boom boom boom! Wake up Vince, it's getting late. Eat another German breakfast. Hmm, the painkillers don't work that good, my ass hurts bad! A sunny day and a walk outside. Lunch is already waiting; pork curry with rice and more wine. Damn, I can't fit my new jeans anymore. And what do I hear, it seems that I'm famous in the area. In several villages they are talking about the handsome guy that walked around in a suit with Christmas Eve. They thought I had asked someone to marry me LOL. But more people know me; of course they saw the foreigner with his stunt on the langlauf skis. Rumors, rumors...everyone talk about me here. A drive to Murnstersee, a couple of lakes in the neighborhood, good for some movement and a good walk in tiefschnee. A goodbye drink and why not? The neighbors build u gigantic snowman and snowbar and placed a Christmas tree filled with Schnaps in the front garden. It was time for some shots with the locals. And more local stuff; wurst salat and definitely my last bottle of wine guys...stuffed! The trains during winter are delayed, but I didn't miss my connection to Paris. Again meeting up with complete strangers at the train station for buying a Bavaria-ticket together; 3 hours in a train for 5 euro's in Germany, great deal. It was a week not to forget soon, very nice people and enough reasons to come back. The train trip ended up in card games and beers with the Munich students. I need more sleep :-)

The CNL (City Night Line) trip from Munchen to Paris? What a laugh! Tell more in the story of France...? No. Just ended up in the wrong German city (Mannheim) at 3.30 in the night, no busses, no trains anymore to Paris, hundreds of people in minus 10 to minus 20 degrees, aggressive families trowing with suitcases and little kids (really!). As you can expect it escalated. When 2 drunken Mannheim Germans put some 'oil on the fire' it was enough, had to hit and jump on one of the drunken guys, called the police and it took a while before they came. Some people decided to take a taxi from Mannheim to Paris, are they fucking crazy?! 1,5 hours before the first busses came, not enough busses of course. But I managed to squeeze in. A long trip to Saarbrucken, Metz and finally Paris. Half a day later after driving many hours in mist and snow. Again fights, this time between angry passengers and the bus driver whahhaaaa! VIELEN DANK DB BAHN, Deutsche Bullscheisse :D

GERMANY; FIRST WEEKS IN SNOWY EUROPE

What a hilarious come back in Europe (you can read the story of being arrested at the end of my Peru-story). So I had to 'escape' my home country. The 2nd flight that day? Munich! Oh no, I landed in Amsterdam and no way that I am going to stay.

At the cold white Munich airport my special friend Michaela (that I met on Fiji) was waiting. Welcome to Germany, no jacket, everything covered in snow...I LOVE IT! The 1st 2 weeks were unforgettable; a nice warm welcome by the Germans.

Winter means loads of snow, means loads of Gluwein/Schneemannen/Feuerzangenbowle/Krimhilds-trunk/Bier...heisse scheisse! My couch was exchanged for an IKEA-bed. After 2 weeks of falling on the floor I'm not sure about that Swedish quality stuff anymore. But my new tempory home was next to Teresienweise. Normally the place2be for Oktoberfest, but now the location of Tollwood Winter Festival. And that means drinking a lot of hot stuff to stay warm. Because temperatures of minus -16?! The funny Germans seem to have stolen more form us Dutchies than just bicycles :-) Rookworst, Spekulaas en een verdwaalde oliebol are just some of the examples. But they don't know what a Frikandel is...they call it a Frikadel and it tastes like a meatbal. But daily visits at this festival and you will gain some weight after all the sausages and Marzipan.

Michaela introduced me to her friends and I spend most of my time with girls in Munich. Can't help it that all the guys are working during the day :-) Marco was one of the only guys, and I have to be careful with what I say about my drug smuggle arrest hahahaa, he's working for the police. What did I do during the day? Sleeping...a lot! German winter makes you tired and I could finally rest after 14 months of intense activities. But after a few days of putting pictures on Facebook to make you jealous, it was time for some action. Some sightseeing in Munich, just random walk through the city and in a few days I've seen all the main attractions. And shit, that language...I thought my German was ok aber das Bavarian? Scheisse. I was happy to hear some crappy English during my walks on Marienplatz. Tourists and backpackers! Joining small tour groups and it's easy to join in and say 'Sorry. I'm back, just had to go to the toilet'. And then you can join the other with some free Gluwein LOL. And the candy stuff on the Cristkindlmarkt is delicious. It was snowing more and more, people are langlaufing instead of walking. I was bored sometimes so hided myself behind some bushes and attacked random grumpy Germans with snowballs. After all these childish actions Michaela had to experience her daily snow fight as well. You hardly can see the difference with her white color and the snow :D Other days I just did long walks along the river, eating snowy strawberries in Englischer Garten and runned. Ofcourse, freezing or not, you need to keep the condition level high. Running around Teresienweise is accepted, running through the shopping mall and Stachus is a little bit weird for those Germans. I was so focused on running that I didn't see a big pallet of Red Bulls coming from the left...I hit the pallet with full speed, fell on the ground, stood up and looked where I was...whahaaa, in the door opening of a big sex shop with a few Red Bull cans around me. No this was not a sign that I need energy and XXX.

Ofcourse there was more. There were the Christmas diners. Instead of Peking Eend it was Munich Duck. Girls and preparing food, hilarious. I must say they love Prosecco, even while they are putting their arm inside a ducks' ass hahaaaa. No girls, I must say you all treated me well that week. All the food, Sect and chocolate hmmmm. I tried to understand them, but the Bavarian accent gives the German language a whole new dimension. Weekend means Schlittenfahren! Extreme activities for adult kids in Munchen. Take a small piece of plastic with a handle, some Prosecco, warm clothes and go to Olympic Park. Climb the snowy hills in the park and let yourself go! Crashing into each other and try not to hit random people on the paths. And not try to break your neck in the net! Great fun and good views over the city and the surrounding mountains.

The freezing cold was getting too much, I needed new clothes. Shopping was the other thing in Munich. I was happy with all the free shirts from Peru and my ridiculous Alpaca-hat, but you need more to stay warm here. Why didn't I buy more of those South American crap? They sell it on all the markets here for at least 5 times more. We bargained and also in Europe it was possible to get stuff cheaper. I have new jeans after 1,5 year and a jacket. And that all because of the Pole temperatures of Regensburg, a nice little student town with good restaurants and bars. Went back a couple of times. Getting the train to there from Munich was not that difficult. But weird ticketing systems here, expensive! Strangely enough you can buy a Bavaria-ticket that is valid in whole Bavaria (a whole day of unlimited travelling) for 28 Euro's. And you can use it with maximum 5 people. How do you find more people? Just ask random people on the station, great way to meet new people.

Munich was a great place to stay, my special host was even better, I still don't understand Germans and I still live the backpacker life; going out every day and sleep in a crappy bed LOL!

WHERE THE FUCK IS THIS GUY?!

PERU; MY LAST PART OF SOUTH AMERICA, EXTREME ACTIVITIES

Sunday the 28th of November; WELCOME TO PERU!

Night bus, arrival at the border. The bus was still quiet. And no problems at immigrations although some cops were looking for me in La Paz. Still it took some time at the border, the power failed, no more electricity, everything dark...WELCOME TO PERU! A stop in Puno to dump some people and changing busses. Well, this looks like a bus trip to Spain when you are 16 :-) A bus full of loud students, they were all around 18-20. The Swedish guys were in front and I ended up in the back. All the students start singing and this older dude starts playing the guitar. It sounds pretty good actually. It seems that it's a group of music students and they are all playing in a choir. They are from Argentina and I ended up in a long chat with one from Ecuador. Really funny kids. A rowdy night with no sleep :-) They were so nice to give me some food. But the system of this bus company? Many stops for I don't know why...and all of a sudden there are a bunch of people coming in with double booked tickets. The few backpackers in the bus had all double seats and I had to leave? No way, and I had a big team of Argentinean supporters with me :-) WELCOME TO PERU!

Early morning in Cusco. Cheapest hostel in town, watch your head here when your tall...WELCOME TO PERU! No feeling of being tired. So walk around town, maybe there's still a bar open? There is enough 'nightlife' on the streets. Many drunken people on the streets probably try to tell each other how much they love each other LOL ...WELCOME TO PERU! We walked into the Cathedral to see the Sunday session (not allowed for tourists, but that's after 6 AM and it's still before). So the whole they we spend in travel agencies to get a good Inca Trail deal, it's getting cheaper and cheaper by the minute. Delicious fruit shakes on the market. Watching so soccer in the pub. And brrrr...the sun is gone and what do we get back? Hail! WELCOME TO PERU! This is to get used to the winter weather already?

The night was pretty laidback, preparing our own food in our Casa. Yeah, it's not a hostel but just someone's house full of screaming kids and a big cage outside where they put the barking dogs...WELCOME TO??? PERU! Last but not least...the worst stomach problems so far this trip. Food poison # ?? (I lost count).

Monday the 29th of November; DECISIONS HAVE TO BE MADE

Finally something is happening in Cusco, shops are open. SO start looking for some good deals. But too much information, too many people hassle and follow you with shit. And no, I don't want a massage now! So we decided to do the Original Inca Trail, the one that you normally have to book in advance months before and normally costs around 400-500 USD or more. We found one for 210-250 USD and we can start the 2nd, so I have to stay in Cusco. No worries, I love ice creams for 1 Soles, we love the fruit shakes at the markets. We love cooking in our noisy Casa, we love hanging around in tourist bars and watch European soccer. Just a day to relax...but no massage :-)

Tuesday the 30th of November; HARDCORE FREE PARTYING IN CUSCO

Another random day in Cusco...that's how it started. Negotiating about tours and stuff. Daily ice creams and shit. The Fredrik's hooked up with Carl and Jessica. Playing pool and having Caiparinhas at The Point. We went out for dinner together and Anna, Jessica and an Ozzy guy joined us. Insane burgers and good food at that place. The Ice Creams were even more insane! Followed by a sheesha bar and my first Pisco Sours; DAMN TASTY! Yeah we left the place in a special mood. The Mushroom Bar, Mama Africa, Mythology and InkaTeam were literary fighting for us to get us in their club with free drinks. We all ended up with multiple drink vouchers for every club. Club hopping and getting absolutely wasted for free. I love Cusco! I think we all did this night...unforgettable.

Wednesday the 1st of December; HANGOVER RAFTING, COOOOOL

Yeah we all agreed, it was a crazy party night last night. 2 hours of sleep and a dizzy drive to the river. Getting flashbacks about last night with all that party music. Ow, no other people? Just us 3 and the guide. Well, we heard some sounds from the back of the car. There was another local dude sleeping under the luggage in the back of the car whahhaaa. He was our safety kayaker NO WAY! So pump up that raft and let's go! First part practicing, easy (not with a hangover). And after a short time it was time for rafting Class III and IV. Awesome shit, a lot better than Thailand. Damn, we had to paddle hard. Sweating while it was freezing cold. Luckily we had wetsuits. Nobody could get us fall out of the raft. The guide stopped somewhere and asked us if we wanted to do some cliff jumping. Why not? 'Uhm dude? The water is dark brownish, there are rocks everywhere, this is high...is this okay?' We let him jump first to see where to jump. You had to jump far away from the cliff. I was the only one that hit a big rock under water. It was a slippery one, so I didn't really hurt myself. The water was? very cooooooold. After 2.5 hours of rafting and getting excited it was time to flip the raft on purpose. It seemed to be a joke because I was the only one swimming in the water. Well, flip that raft and swim guys! Brrrrrrrrr...thinking about that promised hot shower. Hahahaaa, where we got out? No facilities, no hot shower. A mini side table with coffee and Coke and some rice. The lunch was okay, I still had some Dorrito's.

Team Sweden went for a sleep. I went out again (Inca Trail or not). With the Germans, the only die hards that showed up[. Thanks girls. The ice creams were delicious. A pity the night out was not as crazy as yesterday :-)

Thursday the 2nd of December; ORIGINAL INCA TRAIL DAY 1; AN EASY START AND GETTING USED TO THE GOOD? THE BAD? NO, THE UGLY

'Yeah you're going to be picked up from your hostel'. Hahahhaaaa, next time ask how they pick you up... This guy picked us up by foot, had to walk to the city to meet our other group members. 23 hikers, some of them picked up by bus. We stopped in a small town to get some snacks. Believe me, take a lot of them! And if you are doing the trail with CUSCO EXPLORER? Take a lot of water (or purifying tablets). Arriving in a long line of people getting checked in for the Inca Trail. Fredrik 1 was not that lucky....'Get a haircut dude!' :-) They had to check him many times before they believed it was really him hahahahaa. A really easy day, a few Inca sites, Llama's and donkeys. We heard only good stories from other about the Inca Trail, especially the food was amazing and nobody could finish it. We saw the same at the first lunch stop in the other tents... That's what we saw... There is something in the Lonely Planet about companies that do the Inca Trail; The good, the bad, the ugly. We got 'The Ugly'. That means, sleeping mats as thin as a newspaper, the worst food, grumpy guides, not enough drinks. So for team CUSCO EXPLORER (Remember that name if you wanna starve yourself) it became more a survival then a hike. I had a good night sleep, I was the only one. The rest of the group couldn't sleep because of all the roosters, dogs, donkeys and other creatures that trying to copy a symphonic orchestra during the night.

Friday the 3rd of December; ORIGINAL INCA TRAIL DAY 2; THE KILLING HIKE

'Coca Coca! It's 5am, time for some Coca leaves' Wonder if we get more breakfast then just 1 pancake? Forget it. Get the Toblerone out of your backpack. The hike for today, a 3000 steps high crazy climb. Just 11km today but believe me. Going down after the summit of 4200mtrs? It's killing your legs. Maybe it was because I had food poison and dizziness after last night. The Kiwi's gave me some good pills at the end of the day, thanks to Simon and Lauren I can finish the trail. It was hot today. A lot of breaks and reached the top as No. 4? Not that bad. No archeological sites today, just climbing and try to stay positive. Some of our group are really slow, 2 hours behind most of the time. Don't expect anything of the sanitary...they call it 'basic' hahahahaaaaa. It's all about the Inca Trail, forget the rest. And can that stupid unorganized retard Gloria stop waking me and the other ones up because they don't know where I am sleeping?!

Saturday the 4th of December; ORIGINAL INCA TRAIL DAY 3; THE LONGEST WALK, 16KM AND SOAKED

Again wake up around 05:00. Didn't really sleep of the rain last night. 1 crappy pancake and half a glass of juice. Half a slice f dry old bread. 'Can we get some more?' NO! If you are at the South American table the answer is 'Yes'. These guys are not going to get any tip. Today a 16km hike with 3 summits. I have a lot of energy today. Reaching the first summit (3900mtr) and the archeological sites. Clouds are coming in, starts to rain. I went out for a run to the next area Instead of 2 hours it took 35 minutes, No. 1 today. But I was soaked. Amazing archeological sites here. Dry for an hour or so, after lunch more rain and stronger. Sweden, NZ, Swiss and I went for a fast last part. Followed by the blue-plastic-covered-smurf-porters. After one of the last sites we took the 'wrong' way, getting so dirty and wet, slippery rocks and stumbling down. We found the track back and now it was time for a 2000 steps stairway down, I can better say a steep waterfall with 2000 levels. Just 4 of us went to the high amazing archeological Inca site 20 minutes from our last camp site. Stunning and worth another muddy shower.

Although the conditions were crap today, it was epic. No pain in the legs, and surprised by the amount of food we got in the restaurant. Definitely not a meal from our own cook. Some beers and yes, I paid for a hot shower, so nice after a few days. We now see that our group is far out the biggest. All the other ones are well equipped and at least half the size. We are the 'ugly'!

Our 20 porters received a goodbye ceremony from us and a greedy tip from the whole group. No not again reaggeton! Let's skip this party and go to sleep.

Sunday the 5ht of December; ORIGINAL INCA TRAIL DAY 4; 'I TOLD YOU IT WAS GOING TO BE SUNNY WHEN WE REACH MACHU PICCHU' DANK U SINTERKLAASJE ;-)

The whole night it rained, everything was soaked in my bag. Wake up at 03:30, sitting in a dirty restaurant full of strange bugs that crawl over your pancake. Good morning everyone.

Team Sweden and I went for a running marathon up to Machu Picchu to be there as the 1st. Damn we were fast, overtaking all the other ones. The guide told us that we had to go down and just sign in with the first 400 to climb Huaynapicchu. When we got there 1.5 hours before the other ones we were told we couldn't sign in without a ticket and stamp...FUCKIN GUIDE! Again he was lying to us grrrrrr. So waiting for the other ones. We already walked up and down Machu Picchu 4 times when we were finally allowed to sign in. No. 266 instead of no. 7, who cares. Just having a Cheeseburger to make my stomach happy; the most expensive burger I ever had; 28 Soles (7,5 Euro's). Followed by a long guided tour. Happy that we were early and that it's low season. This means no tourists in the beginning. And guess what? Stay positive and you will get what you want; sunshine. Only stories from people that saw MP in the clouds, we had the best scenery possible. Just walking in the sunshine in empty MP, the only other ones there? The Llama's. It's a shame I forgot my 'Kruidnootjes' in the hostel, it's Sinterklaas today.

Time to climb the high mountain next to Machu Picchu; Huaynapicchu. Just now I start to feel the pain in my legs. Huaynapicchu is the steepest climb of the whole trekking. It was rough though, but more than worth it. Not for pussies. Some parts are awesome, you can choose to crawl/push yourself through small holes to reach the top. The top was crowded, now I understand why only 400 people a day are allowed to be here. And it was also crowded with king-size flying ants. So after all those picture stunts it was time for an adventure down. How can they ever make the steps so difficult? Sideways is the best way to climb down.

What do you do when you have to catch a train at 19:24? Just go to the town where the train stops and spend the whole day in the restaurant, eating Alpaca and drinking. 'What? There is no power? Get the Pisco Sour!'. The town is way too touristy. The flooding river washed away a lot of the foundations of some houses and hotels...I'm not sure how safe it is to stay here? :-) We got our train, sleeping. The bus trip to Cusco took hours, arriving in the night in your shorts. Finally I got the idea of going to Europe, it was freezing cold BRRRR! We are not going out in these ridiculous looking outfits guys! But still, the propers on the street invited us for free drinks. We smelled so bad that the street dogs stopped eating garbage and followed us!

Monday the 6th of December; A LONG DAY OPF TRAVELLING WITH MOVIE MARATHON

Nothing exciting. Just a 16 hour bus trip with many many movies. The most fascinating was the horror movie 'Piranna'. Everybody was just laughing about all the stupid cheap things that happened. Of course I got food poison after eating the bus food. And I found out that after 14 month I finally was robbed. My best camera was stolen from the locker room in the last hostel. I can still laugh about it, they can't use it, it was broken...HAHAAHAAA

Tuesday the 7th of December; WICKED FUCKING FAST SANDBOARDING, MASTER OF THE BOARD TODAY!

Arriving early in the morning in the desert. High mountains of sand everywhere. Somewhere in the middle there is this small oasis; palm trees and a small lake of water. This is Huacachina CHILL! It's hot, it's wonderful. Jump in the lake for a refreshing dip. Well the water is not that clean, but it's nice. Did someone put something in my drink? A see huge pieces of grass moving! No...they are just floating... Maybe the 'Kruidnootjes van Bolletje' made me high. Just relax here and do nothing most of the time. And at the end of the afternoon it's time for my last extreme activity in Peru; sand buggy and boarding. Oooooh yeah! Damn, the buggying is already an experience. Feeling like a rollercoaster, making loops, crazy turns, speeding into steep cliff from massive sand dunes....let the engine roar!

And in between this craziness? 5 locations for the most wicked sand boarding you've seen! Dunes are getting extremely high. And no 'safe' sand board. No they use a narrow sort of snowboard. Going on your belly is the thing. But keep your hands and arms on the board. If you don't? You will burn all the mosquito bites of your arms :-) Just to mention, don't use your leg/feet to break, it's much more fun without losing speed. The speed, the heights, the steepness...it's mental! Stef thought she was the best and made a bet, she just was lucky with a good board in the beginning. I beat her and almost everyone else with big differences. Ending way out of sight of the others. So STef owed me some Pisco Sours, thanks from the Champion LOL. Amazing sunset over the desert though. This day was absolutely the best value for money in my 14 month trip, just 40 Soles (10 Euro's).

Wednesday the 8th of December; LUCKY LUCKY, I MADE IT

My last Peruvian breakfast, my last South American breakfast. The guys from Desert Nights looks surprised. No one ever order hot chocolate brownies with ice-cream for breakfast? It's my last day dude, let me enjoy that huge delicious plate! So an exception, normally it's only a dessert. Should we take an early bus? Nobody trusts the 4 hour time scedule to Lima. Arriving at the bus terminal in Ica, the bus leaves in 5 minutes...lucky. And yes, the bus didn't make it in the expected 4 hours, it were 6. Another movie marathon and an annoying snoring local behind us. Someone got angry and hit him hahahaaa. Chaos in Lima, traffic was crazy, water pipes broken en flooded some crossings. Am I going to make it to the airport? STef helped me out with the pushing taxi drivers. I got one dodgy taxi and this guy couldn't speak English at all. So remember the number plate and hope he's taking me to the airport. It seems that Stef told him that I was in a hurry...he was 'flying' through the streets! Empty streets and alleys...he knew how to find them. Jumping over the speed bumps, speeding, crossing red lights and trying to avoid cars. I had the feeling he was driving on 2 wheels sometimes while taking the curves. But he took me to the airport on time....thanks amigo for the wicked race through Lima :-)

Thinking about spending your last Soles on Pisco Sours and good food? No, the airport charges you 90 Soles on airport tax...

A couple of years ago I said; 'Never with KLM again!'. But I must say, I was surprised by nowadays quality of KLM. Well done! And thanks to that steward I was not hungry. Damn, asking for extra food and he brings me several meal packages. No sparkling wines or rum? Well give me some champagne then. So yeah, if you keep your mouth shut and let people around you sleep....you will get the champagne out of Business Class :-) No more movies for me, let me enjoy my sleep.

Thursday the 9th of December; A 'WARM' WELCOME HOME? MY ASS!!!

14:44 Amsterdam, Schiphol Airport... Never forget that time and location anymore. A few steps out of the plane and in the tube to the terminal. Passport control as normal? No they were looking for someone...ME! After seeing my name in my passport I was arrested. WTF?! I had to join the douaniers for some interviews. My travelscedule, routes and one-way tickets were suspicious. Making to stop over in Amsterdam in 2 months were even more suspicious. So yeah, I was a highly suspected drug smuggler HILARIOUS! Try out those sniffer dogs, I haven't had a shower for days! Good luck :-) No, I could only laugh, making jokes with these guys and making them jealous with my travel stories. Showing them some prove on my notebook (although it was not working anymore). But then they start asking me questions about what I'm doing in Germany... 'Visiting a friend'. But I couldn't really tell the exact relation with that person...'Yeah, someone I met on this trip'. Do you have a phone number? 'Nope'. How do you stay in contact? 'Uhm, Facebook?'. Where are you going to be the next days? 'I don't know'. When do you go back to Holland and start working? 'I don't know'. Fuck hell, this story is not the best one :-) So yeah, bags had to be turned inside out. I really had to go to the toilet, but asking that right now is not the best time, maybe they want to see what's coming out of my ass whwhahahahaha! No I got away, just in time to catch my flight to Germany.

Funny times with a German (Astrid) in the plane. Loads of chocolate cookies and wine. Ready for the snow in Munchen. Damn, not having a jacket in your backpack makes it fucking cold! But at least my welcome here was HOT!

BOLIVIA; THE ZOO FULL OF SURPRISES

Saturday the 20th of Novenmber; ALWAYS A NEW BEGINNING...

Back to blasting Potosi, leaving before most people woke up. Actually no idea where to go, but the Potosi bus was the only bus that left this time. A day on my own seems to be really good :-) Do my own thing, stroll down the city, having a few jokes with school kids, visit a bustling market and do some shopping, try to communicate with locals. Playing table soccer, eating weird icecreamish stuff with some locals. The hostal is surprisingly dead so a night out on my own. Huge Pique Macho, a movie, large Pacena's and it's all good. Before sleeping jsut walk in to a basement Whiskyeria, weird and dark place with those drunk kids

Sunday the 21st of November; RELAX RELAX AND RELAX, NO ROBLEMS WITH ANYONE

Ready to leavy the highest city with the strongest alcohol and bags full of Coca. Just relax, hang around some cafe's, have some snacks, talk with some friends back home and realize how fucking lucky I am. Meeting loads of people today who are going the same way up. So get the chocolate cakes! Marlies, Nadia and the Ozzies were some of the funny travellers. I take a nightbus to La Paz, again on my own. Not travelling with my personal human pillow anymore. To be honest it's fun agin to be on your own, experiencing so much more and meeting more people :-) Today I booked a 2-day trip full of adrenaline; mountainbiking Deathroad and Ziplining, can't wait till tomorow!

Monday the 22nd of November; WELCOME IN THE 'ZOO' OF LA PAZ

Okay, travelling on your own without guidebooks from someone is more exploring. The Point Partyhostel should be 5 minutes from the main busterminal... it took me 45 minutes climbing and descending with heavy backpacks to find it. So just in time for the pick-up for my adrenaline stuff. 06:30 nobody, 07:30 nobody, 08;30 nobody! The reception told me that's Bolivian time, my ass! Downhill Madness didn't even respond on the phonecalls. So get a short nap Vince and book a room. A afternoon confrontation with those Madness people; 'oh yeah we didn't pick you up because we needed 4 people'. Thanks for informing me guys... So talk to the recommended company then, everything was possible, just a shitload of money extra. What the hell, I need some action :-) And also a place where I can fix my camera, perfect, My favorite Chili Con Carne restaurant Palmeras and this city is funny...The busiest road in the city was filled with big demonstrations this morning, but taken over by zebra's and donkeys now. Hilarious! Instead of traffic lights they use human zebra's and donkeys with funny dance moves. So people can crss the road. AGin being on your own is perfect, walking in the busiest and most crappy looking food place; the owner puts you on a table with a Bolivian and you are forced to communicate in Castellano. No menu, you get the 'WAT DE POT SCHAFT' (some Dutch expression). But perfect filling meals for the 'big' bill of 9 Bolivianas. I walked around La Paz, joining 2 old Bolivians in their street performance act playing Samba, met some cool Latina's and joined more strangers for a drink. Check out the party hostel? Well not a big party at all tonight. Instead of that it was a laidback night with Ozzies. Yeah, everyone is easy here. Happy hour, cheap Cuba Libres and a night long of playing Djenga with everyone. Oh, never played this before but I found out that there are some games where I don't lose all the time :-) And if you lose? You have to give evryone a shot...many people joined in, but if the shots are just 2 Blv who cares?...

Tuesday the 23rd of November; THE WORLD FAMOUS DEATH ROAD, WE KEEP ON RIDIN'

THis morning I'm gonna be at the office and not being picked up :-) First some lunch with some other bikers, finding out that B-Side is the most expensive company to ride with...and that means a small group of just 3 people. Whohoo perfect! Guide Xavier, and fellow team members Daniella and Joachim from Austria (NOT Australia! there is a difference). Raining season, so it is alittle bit cloudy. The start point and observating the other groups and their skills...well, if some people don't kill themselves today it's a miracle! Some of them had never ride a bike before and they are going to cycle downhill the Death Road hahhaaaa. The Death Road is a downhill descend of 3500 meters in 64 km. The 1st 32kmis on asfalt, the speed can go up to 60-70km per hour, making yourself as small as possible to go even faster. But be carefull with some sharp curves, stones on the road and big holes in the asfalt. The best part is the 2nd half, a 32km long dirtroad, maximum 3 meters wide and with steep parts. Drifting down fast with your full suspencion MTB, mostly using your rear break a little bit. Guide Xavier went fast, try to follow him...You get used to the speed, looking down the 600mtr cliffs sometimes, making jumps when there are big rocks on the road. This is wicked shit! Joachim could follow, Daniella was a little bit slower ;-) We couldn't stop laughing when she did here posing stuff with her bike, seems to be heavy huh? :-P

I had some more activities planned today, ziplining the valleys of the Death Road. Anyone else in? Nope, just me. This Bolivian dude couldn't speak any English and I'm no Latino so what's so difficult about ziplining? WTF just 3 ziplines and he wants to do a tandem. I told him I didn't want him on my back. Ok, let's go...200mtr high, 85km per hour but a tandem...no opportunity for stunts...shit! The 2nd line again a tandem? Fuck off dude! The last line was finally for my own, going much faster with my Laos ziplining skills. The views are chill, but dpoing 3 ziplines in 5 minutes with a guy on your back for 200 Blv? Well, I respect Laos even more now :-)

We were the fastest group of today, before 12 we were already on our way back to La Paz (on the old Death Road). We were finished for an hour when we saw the 2nd group coming. On our way back we saw many groups having some problems with the slow peepz. Damn, a group of 16 bikers is too much! Driving back in the bus on the same road just covered in white clouds and mist, trying not to hit the other bikers...even this is fun. Back in La Paz 3 hours earlier than expected. Picking up our shirts and cd's and let's go out. Damn, they know how to choose touristy restaurants! But Joachim, that Flor de Cana old Ron is the shit! Mexican food and Ron, good combination. Some of the Ozzies joined us, ofcourse evryone had to buy the same Alpaca sweaters in different colors. A few more drinks at Oli's Travels Pub. Joachim was pretty wasted and disappeared at some point, just like my act in Sucre :-) But nobody has problems with that here. The English barman was so kind to call the hostel and check out if he had arrived. Funny bloke... Daniella and I had a long night in La Paz before evryone went to their own place. My way back home was one not to forget. Seeing crazy fights outside discothecas, beating the shit out of eachother. Walking in some private party's, loud western music coming out of houses...just walk inside to see what's happening...it was an early morning for me :-)

Wednesday the 24th of November; DUTCHIES DON'T RIP OFF OTHER DUTCHIES! GRRR...AND LOSING FROM GIRLS AFTER A HOT CONTEST

Meeting early in the morning? Everyone seems to have something going on with a hangover.So if nobody shows up I'm going to that San Pedro Prison on my own. During the week no 'tours'...yeah it's not offical, it's illegal. But I met the same chick as last week, got a number, had to call her later, got a number of a Dutch prisoner inside, contacted his contact, met onj Plaza Murillo, copy of passport and 300 Blv to get permission to get in... Feel it? YEs, it's a fuckin scam! I tried to get in myself with talking to the guards...almost, but no. The contactperson of the prisoner should pick me up at the hostel, nothing happened. I was in phone contact with the prisoner inside. So a Dutch is ripped off by another Dutch, that's bad! An uninteresting day, the city was full of political demonstrations again...gun shots? No, that is just fireworks. Got my fixed camera back, but is just worked for 5 minutes before it broke again (I found that out the next day). So join the Ozzies for some drinking and eating. Sol & Luna Bar first....YEAH! This is the Dutch place with kroketten, bitterballen, broodje bal etc! Yummie for my tummie! Next stop; the Indian. A contest; survive the world strongest and hottest Vindaloo. The competitors; Ozzie girl, English girl, Danish bloke and me. All the Ozzie guys were to scared to join?! Whimps :-) It was fuckin spicy, but that was not my problem... I had too much bitterballen before. It was the amount of food, I was stuffed. SHIT! Ozzie won, Denmark gave up fast, England was sweating and red but finished it. They got some help with other next to them and nobody had eaten the chili pepper. Well, I couldn't finish it....but at least I chewed the whole chili pepper. Losing from 2 vegetarian girls...this day is one to forget soon :-)

Today I talked with one of my special friends from Fiji after a long time. This conversation opened my eyes and realised what to do. I made my decision, another episode of this dream. It's a big surpise...maybe tell you all later :-)

Thursday the 25th of November; GET OUT OF HERE!

The Ozzies going to try in the prison. I heard their stories, sounds excactly the same as my scam. I warned them. I spoke to the Dutch prisoner again on the phone. The story? The contact is arrested and the police is looking for me and the have my passport details. Whahahaa! Well no matter if it's true or not, I'm leaving the Zoo of La Paz. Goodbye everyone, had a great time in La Paz! Bus to Copacabana, a 3.5 hour drive, talking with a nice couple that is cycling around South America. Copacabana is nice to walk around, climbing up the steep stairs of a mountain to see a sunset, uhm more a set of clouds. Loads of restaurants that want you inside. Travellers here are not the most talkative, so better leave to Peru tomorrow.

Friday the 26th of November; ISLA DEL SOL, IT'S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY...IIIIE AAAH!

Sleep in...not much to see around Copacabana. Get a half day trip to Isla del Sol? No some people didn't recommend that. So let's stay overnight. Hm, maybe I need some extra money? Well, there is an ATM, but this one is not working... Oops, the only bank in town has a Siesta. So I have 70 Bolivianos for the next 2 days whahahaa. The boat trip to the Island of the Sun is probably the slowest I've ever done. Arriving there, being attacked by greedy Cholita's who want money for their so called entrance tickets to the island. I met a few people on the boat (German Robert and Swedisch Frederick and Frederick). Robert was here before and said it was a good idea to hike from parte Sur to parte Norte. Why not, a 3 hour hike in a nice burning sun. I was not that stupid to bring all my stuff to the island. On our way hiking through the fields, donkeys, small villages and lost travellers we were constantly approached by men with colorful tickets and asking us to pay for walking there. Yep, they know how to earn a living. Some others tried to avoid them but were caught later on. This is not good when you just have a small budget :-) After a long hike we hit our last spot to get a tan, the ruinas in parte Norte. Another 45 minute hike to get to the beach town where we will stay. I expected something extremely touristy, but no. Just a village like many other in Bolivia (it looks like they just started building it). So crash in a cheap place with the most sqeeuky beds ever. No bars, no nightlive, no lights no .... oh, there is a so called restaurant. 8 Boliviano's left to spend so I could take a sandwich :-)

Saturday the 27th of November; OINK OINK ISLA DEL SOL AND PARTY TIME IN THE NIGHTBUS

Me huuuuuungry, me no money! Robert was so kind to give a few Bolivianos for another sandwich. We have some time so back to the ruinas and the beaches for a cold swim. Not me. The beaches look nice from a distance. Don't be surprised when you're chilling on your towel on a quiet beach, when all of a sudden a few pigs are nibbeling on your toes. The donkeys are also in the partymood and like to let you know in their funny language that it's their island. The ticketsellers woke up early and want to sell more tickets for walking, no way we paid for everything. But they say tickets bought with someone else are not valid because nobody cooporates whahaha, crazy bastards. So ignore them, no hablar Castellano! Actually it's getting fucking hot on this island, walking around only in shorts. Still don't understand why this new load of tourist on the island today is walking around like doing a Northpole expedition. So the boat back to Copacabana, a one hour break at parte Sur and again ticketsellers. Fuck off Cholita, we have these tickets already and we are not going to pay because mr Captain wants to have a break! More people were thinking the same and some fists were shown. The return to Copacabana was not boring, funny talks with Dutchies, seeing other couples having their travel issues (always fun to see) and mr Captain wants to throw mr illegal ticketseller overboard.

The nightbus to Peru, the Swedish guys were in front and I ended up in the back. This was definately a ride not to forget...(see the Peru story)