Latest posts

Quilotoa – Ecuador

August 15, 2023

by Jens Hevike

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

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

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

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

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.