Time to start the blog ... :o)

Hola chicos!
Well, this is a rather empty page, so I think it is time to work on that. After travelling for two months I have finally arrived in Argentina. Right now I am in Salta and I am waiting for my flight to Buenos Aires. It have been two fantastic months. Travelling in Mexico and Costa Rica was awesome. Fantastic places and nice beaches :o) Found some time to work on my Spanish as well though it's still pretty humble. But better little knowledge than no knowledge. At least it proved to be quite useful so far ... but until I will start writing diaries in Spanish it might take a decade ...

My first stop in South America was Ecuador ... Quito. Actually Quito is an interesting place though pretty dodgy. It made me feel quite unsafe so I tried to reduce my exposure to being relieved by valuables (this includes "life"!) ;-) That meant better drink in a hostel with foreigners than go out clubbing and end up being mugged. Luckily I still had the opportunity to meet locals ;o) Quito is surrounded by mountains and offers lots of opportunity for hiking. So I spent the rather safe daylight climbing up Vulcano Pichincha (4680m).

Back in the hostel, my safe alcohol consumption zone, I met some guys from Ireland and Australia and we decided to continue to Vulcan Cotopaxi the next day. We stayed over in a hostel type mountain lodge close to the vulcano with a lovely jacuzzi. Having beer on 3500m in a jacuzzi is the best way to relax after going down the vulcano on a mountain bike :o)

After some days (we had to stay longer cause roads where closed due to the end of a national holiday ... that means roads only go into Quito ... on both sides of the road ... other traffic has to wait) we continued to Baños, a nice tourist place in Ecuador close to an active vulcano (as far as I know this area was close to being evacuated some months ago). Baños is great place for vulcano hiking, mountain biking and chilling in crowded hot springs. We did a mountain bike tour starting at the vulcano and ending down in the Amazon basin. Great fun. Pubs and clubs are also not scary in Baños so it was time to go out ... Cheers! A special local dish in Ecuador and Peru is cuy ... roasted guinea pig :o) Yummy :o) I will try to cook that when I will be back in Germany :)  Anybody has a spare guinea pig? Ask your sisters ...

After ruining my stomach in Baños it was time to go on. Our little group split and I continued to Cuenca (nice colonial town) and Guayaquil to catch my flight to Lima. Yeah, I got lazy and I dont have oceans of time ... ;o) And yes, travelling deseases suck!