To be continued - South America

Here we go - my last post of this trip. Although, I was kind of sad leaving the Galapagos, I am full of joy here in Peru. I met two friends of mine, Kati and Madeleine, in Lima where we spent the first couple of days. Of course, we had a lot to catch up and we did while walking around the city a bit. As for me, Lima is a beautiful city with very different districts, lots of amazing Peruvian food from different areas and incredibly friendly people. Next we headed south, to Paracas. It's a place at the coast which has a lot of activities to offer. First, we did a short boat trip to the "Islas Ballestas". There we could see sea lions, thousand and thousands of birds and, finally, penguins - jumping into the sea. It was wonderful to see so many animals, breeding, feeding themselves and relaxing, in a relatively small area. On Christmas Day, we rented some (more or less functioning) mountainbikes and biked to the Paracas Natural Reserve. It's a National Park w...

The last couple of days on Santa Cruz Island were great. Good diving, Cocktails with other travellers, holiday feeling. After the first week on Galapagos, I spent 4 days on Isabela island. It is the biggest and a far more remote island. There's just a very small village, no proper roads, lots of animals and natural sites. When I arrived, I went snorkelling and it was great! A sea lion swam around us for quite a bit and came incredibly close (basically a few inches). It was so much fun, I just love sea lions - they are so cute and playful! In the afternoon I went around a bit and got to see some Flamengos. On this island are also beautiful paths and national parks to visit. So, during a morning run, I passed some turtles, Iguanas and reached a beautiful view point.   Also, I spent some time with some people I met while diving on Santa Cruz and they told me about their diving cruise / live-aboard experience in Galapagos. It sounds amazing with huge schools of sha...

As I already told you, my next stop was the Galapagos islands - so here I am. At the moment, I am on Santa Cruz, an island very well known for diving. When I arrived on Thursday, I couldn't stop feeling grateful and priviledged. I am at THE destination for divers. With 24, I managed to get here more or less by accident. I get to see one of the most natural places of the world. I reached one of my highest goals. How could I not feel overwhelmed and just so so lucky? As we (a guy from the dive shop and me) made our way across the island to reach the town Puerto Ayora, the climate changed dramatically. In the middle of the island there seems to be some phenomen, so that it is quite humid and easily five degrees less compared to the northern and southern part of the island. Especially the northern part is incredibly dry and sunny and jas complete different vegetation than the rest of this fascinating island. The first day, I only checked in for the following days and dives. So,...

The last 10 days in Rio were a bit exhausting, but I am free now! I managed to finish the Bachelor Thesis, so that I have a free mind for the next five weeks! I felt a bit sad about leaving Brazil, but I also was very excited about leaving for the next adventure. The last Thursday I spent in Rio was the Christmas Party of the institute which was the perfect occasion to say my goodbyes. It basically was a party with free food, free drinks and a DJ in the parking garage. In the beginning I thought about only showing up for half an hour as I had work to do, but it was too much fun! Should I have worked on my Thesis? Probably. Should I have skipped the very last brazilian Caipirinha? Definitely. Did I actually care? Absolutely not. I guess, I know where my priorities are. On Saturday morning I finally headed to the airport and started with my actual holiday. The first stop was Quito in Ecuador. I only spent a couple of days in the city itself and it is a nice place to visit. Th...

How is it possible that my time in Brazil is almost over? I only have ten more days in Rio - what the hell?  As it seems, there is and will never be enough time to spent at some place beautiful. The last two weeks I spent quite some time working on the Bachelor Thesis. At least I am quite confident that I'll manage to finish it next week so that I can enjoy the rest of my travels - free-minded. Working a lot didn't mean that I didn't do something fun. So, thanks to a national holiday, I already left Rio on Thursday and went to Ilha Grande which is aorund three hours west of Rio.  As there's plenty to do on the island, it was perfect that I had an extra day to spend on it. Ilha Grande is known for diving, the atlantic forest and the hidden beaches only reachable by foot. So, I started the trip with a couple of dives. It’s a beautiful spot for diving with big rock formations covered in corals and home to sea horses (first photo), turtles, many (and huge) crb...

It was the last week for Rebekka, so we enjoyed ourselves a lot this week. We went to the Lab of the Hanggliding Instructor which was very interesting. The Lab is located in the largest (public) University-Clinic in Rio. It's a bit outside of town in the north of Rio. The hospital is very old and that's also what you see. Very old constructions and just not very welcoming. We  met the team he was working with and did some experiments with virtual reality and heart rate observation which was fun and, again, very interesting. In the evening we took a Samba Class. It was so much fun! I am thinking about taking another few! Also, it was incredibly exhausting to try to keep up to the speed of the music and my muscles were quite sore the next day. In the end we also tried it with some parts of the actual Carnival Costums (you see them in the pictures) which didn't work that well. The costums weight a lot, so it is hard to find a good balance... After the class, we went to a bar...