Huaraz – Camping at 4000 meters

August 22, 2023
by Jens Hevike
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My tent is covered with a thin layer of ice. Again and again I startle from the bone-chilling cold. I need several layers of clothing to keep me reasonably warm. I wear two pairs of pants, a T-shirt, a down jacket, a rain jacket, and a pair of thick wool socks, with a sleeping bag liner over them. Nevertheless, I am far from the coziness that my sleeping bag promises me at 10 degrees.

Quilotoa – Ecuador

August 15, 2023
by Jens Hevike
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At the top, I was welcomed by a farmer and his father, who at my request allowed me to camp on their small piece of land. For the first time in my life at over 3000 m altitude. After I set up the tent, with little nephew Juti watching me the whole time, together we helped his uncle Segundo weed alfalfa for his guinea pigs. Using a knife that looks like a sickle, we cut the whole plant off at the root. He tells me that his family only speaks Quechua, the language of the indigenous people. For me, this is completely incomprehensible.

I don’t want to be a tourist any more – Guajira Desert

August 10, 2023
by Jens Hevike
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In the past, the people in the desert could survive well without outside help. But at some point came tourism, from which they live in part. They make a little turnover with the tourists, sell cold drinks and homemade bags. The bags are nice, but I have no use for them. Coal has also been found on their land, which they are hardly compensated for mining. But with the roads, the dirt and the rails they don’t need, they have to live now.

As a tourist in Colombia – Parque Tayrona

July 30, 2023
by Jens Hevike
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I would certainly not have starved, but for more than a few noodles with tomato sauce and the hammock for the night it was not enough. Fortunately, the experienced hiker found mangoes and avocados in the jungle, without which he would have had to starve for breakfast and lunch. I sat like a monkey under the trees in the riverbed and enjoyed the fruits. Somehow it is a great experience not to be able to slay all problems with money. It is new for me not to have money. Often enough you find a solution for which you don’t need money.

So (a)social

July 18, 2023
by Jens Hevike
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Yes, I am a very social person. I love being with other people and getting to know new people and their experiences. Yet, I also have an “anti-social” side where any interaction with people takes energy. Extroverts who charge in social settings like someone struck by lightning often can’t put themselves in our introverted shoes. In the past, I have sometimes been mocked for this, that I was tired again. Yet I was doing my best. Alcohol often helped me temporarily calm the introverted part of me – at least for the evening. I paid the cost later with even more tiredness.

A month in the Colombian jungle

July 10, 2023
by Jens Hevike
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The almost four weeks in the Blue Dot Hostel have given me a lot of fun and joy. I learned a lot of new things about working and living together in the Jungle. The people in the camp have sweetened my time and have grown close to my heart. Volunteering somewhere has opened up a whole new horizon of travel for me. Because everyone stays here longer, you get to know each other much better than if you just move from hostel to hostel, where it feels like you start over with small talk every day. Since you pay with your own labor here, it’s also an inexpensive way to get to know a country. Provided you have time.

What the heck am I doing here?

June 21, 2023
by Jens Hevike
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If you look at my posts on Instagram or on my blog, you might think I’m on vacation. In a way, that is certainly the case. I am in beautiful places outside of Germany. When I talked to my friend Fiona on the phone, she told me that’s not true. I’m not on vacation. If I were on vacation, I would be seeing all the sights that all the other backpackers have on their list. Sometimes I think I’m missing something. But I’m not missing anything. I went away to leave behind what I didn’t like in the past, and now I’m trying to find alternatives. I’m trying to figure out where and how I want to live in the future. I’m exploring what life concepts fit me. I’m looking for ways to finance that lifestyle. I am searching for myself and what I want.

Jericó – Colombia

June 7, 2023
by Jens Hevike
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Medellín was my first stop in Colombia. I’ve already heard a lot of good things about the city. Especially among the digital nomads it seems to be very popular. Unfortunately, my impression was not quite as positive. A lot of things seem to have changed for the worse in recent years. Especially Corona has driven many people to the streets and especially into the hands of drugs. On the way to the city center you meet a lot of people just injecting or preparing a pipe. As the guide of a free walking tour tells us, we tourists are part of the problem. On the one hand, we bring money into the city, with which more and more people can finance their lives, on the other hand, we drive up prices so high that many can no longer afford the rents.

Brazil – Paraty – São Paulo

May 18, 2023
by Jens Hevike
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I see my trip less as a vacation in which I try to see and experience as much as possible, but as a journey to myself. That’s why the people I spend time with are more important to me than the place I’m in. Sometimes that person can be myself. If I can choose it, then it is preferably a quiet place in nature. If it’s a city, then with little traffic and lots of greenery. Places where I can retreat to switch off.

Privileged with distance

May 2, 2023
by Jens Hevike
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People make a living selling bags of potato chips in the congested streets. Hordes of young men wait all day for the red light of the traffic lights to earn their living. I guess there’s not much room to escape this life, to maybe one day sit on the other side of the Uber window and with a guilty conscience keep refusing the snacks on offer.