As I did while traveling in Canada in 07, 08 I'm going to write blogposts from my traveling in South America. This time, I decided to start writing before I leave to South America.

What I have planned for months is almost here. My trip to South America starts in 11 days. I'm back from New York City, done parties that went on for sixteen nights in row. Now, I have to find some time besides work to finalise preparation. Looks like only "positive" news have come from South America in the last several weeks. It seems that South American countries had a pretty severe winter. Temperatures 20 to 30 C below zero were reported from Lima, Peru. My tourist guide says that the average minimal temperature in Lima is about 14 C in summer. Hundreds of people have already died of freeze. I hope it's going to get warmer because those temperatures aren't pleasant for travellers at all. Moreover, plague appeared in Peru recently. It's the lung version of plague which has 90% mortality. Several people have already died. That's not it, though. Vampires (animals similar to bats, not kinda Dracula vampires of course 🙂 attacked an indian village in Amazonian Peru and bit about 500 people. Many of them got rabies and a few of them have already died. I heard that the Czech department of foreign affairs didn't recommend going to Peru, now. But let's go to positive information.

I was really surprised how cheap South American countries were. I'm going to Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Chile, flying to Quito, Ecuador and back from La Paz, Bolivia. I booked first three nights in a recommended hostel in the centre of Quito. A single room was for $10 a night and a shared room (5 people) for $5. That's beautiful and food and transportation is cheap, too. Only Chile, as the most developed country in South America, is more expensive, almost on the same price level as in the States. But I'm not going to spend much time in Chile if any.

Unfortunately, I didn't find anyone who wanted to go to South America. Everyone's going to Las Vegas, San Francisco, Miami etc. and doesn't want to try real adventure 🙂 I hope I will find someone there to travel at least part of my journey with me. Otherwise I would get crazy. When I was wandering in England alone for three weeks, when I was 18, I started being a bit schizophrenic. Communication will be another issue. My spanish is very basic and in many areas people don't even speak Spanish. I hope a dictionary, a phrasebook, and body language will somehow work out.

Cotopaxi NP – one of the places I'm heading to