"Where did I sleep?"

Where did I sleep?" Hmmm that's actually a good and funny question. The reason why is that when people expect you to answer in hostels/hotels you are thinking about the nights, the numerous nights, you spent trying to sleep on a bus, in a tent, and (sometimes :p) in hostels.

Ok to be honest I spent most of my nights in hostels but whenever I am asked this question I can't prevent myself from thinking about this night spent in a tent, all alone, at 4000m high in the Cordillera Blanca next to Huaraz. I had rented that tent for 2 days in a shop in Caraz. It cost 4euros a day or something like that for a tent with stove to cook pasta and some food. I took the tent in my backpack, a sleeping back, and hop on a minivan with other people that were crossing the andes. They dropped me at a corner of the road and from there on it was something like 15km of walking to reach laguna 69 which is about 5000m hight. A perfect blue lagoon filled with water coming down the surrounding glaciers. Took me a few hours to reach the place but it was definitely worth the efforts. Not only the walk was amazing with waterfalls, wild nature and lamas but above all being surrounding my mountains all covered in snow and most of them above 6000m is really an amazing sight. I decided to pitch the tent there, close to the laguna so that the next day I could wake up really early and watch the sunrise over the huascaran (2nd highest mountain in all south america with about 6700m elevation). At about 3pm it started to rain, heavy rain that you think is gonna stop within a few hours. It didn't. It didn't stop until 7am the next day... Being there is the tent, alone, in the cold I could have gone crazy. Actually I didn't. I didn't even feel scare a single moment of being up there all by myself. I actually was happy to be doing it. And I had a warm sleeping bag. So I slept. Woke up, still raining? ok slept again. Still raining? Hmm, ok I will sleep again. Next day I woke up at 5. Looked at the sunrise or rather at the day coming out as with the clouds I couldn't see any sun. Yet it was still amazing being there surrounding by those Giants. Really really cool memory. After that I went down. Another 25km from laguna 69 to lagunas llanganucos and further. And then I hitchhiked and ended up in a massive toyota 4x4 that was driven by a religious women. Was really funny talking to her. Yeah it was definitely an awesome two days trip and funny night when I think about it.

Another really cool experience was to sleep in the town of Santa Maria and Santa Teresa on the way to Macchu Picchu while doing the Jungle trail. It was so far from all the touristy hostels I had seen in Cuzco and in Peru so far. Really really small towns, with just two hostels. One for our group. 4 of us and the guide. And another for this other group of tourists doing the jungle trail with us. Really chilled places, our was actually better as we even had a mini-football. You talk to the people you're doing the trip with. You have lots of time to talk with them or with your guide. After some time we even decided to go around in "town" and we found some 8 years old kids to play football with. They were so afraid at us at first, but after trying to convince them to get a ball somewhere and play with us they finally joined the party. Playing football in a tropical environment, very humid and at moderate altitude (2000+ m) is really something. And those kids, boys and girls, were so small you almost believe they went between your legs when they actually passed by you dribbling with the ball. Definitely had a hell of a time on that jungle trip. Met great people, awesome guide, very good trip following the river up to Macchu Picchu for 3 days and far from all the tourists traps.

Another great memory about places where I slept? Hmmm actually there is so many. I could talk about sleeping at my friend's place in Bogota, Colombia. who invited me to her parents house and showed me the city with her friends the next day. I could talk about how I found a place in Manizales, Colombia. Actually I really recommend this place if you go there someday as it is really clean, safe, and loaded with cool people:

Mountain House Manizales, Calle 66 # 23 B 137, calle larga de Palermo o calle de los Faroles Barrio Guayacanes,, ☎ (Cel: 300-439-7387(info@mountainhousemanizales.com),

I could also talk about the other hostels I really enjoyed in other places: from the Secret Garden in Quito, Ecuador (roof bar, fireplace, one of the best view of the old quito town, and really a lot of backpackers to share experience/travel with) to the Adventure Brew and Brew Too Hostel in La Paz, Bolivia (roof terasse, BBQ, a free beer every night, great location and there too a nice view of La Paz at night) or to the salt hostel during the Uyuni trip (salt bricks, cactus table, cactus doors and benches, in the middle of absolutely nowhere with just nature and desert around, and a beautiful place to watch the sunset from the roof of a jeep :D) there is too many places that I loved staying at.

There are also places that I really didn’t like. Either because it was cold, or dirty, or empty, or in a dodgy neighbourhood, or all this at the same time. If there is one place that I am thinking of is the hostel in Chimbote, Peru that I spent a few hours in prior to take the bus to Caraz. I really wanted to go to Caraz via el canon del Pato so I had to stop in Chimbote in order to take a very early bus the next day. Since Chimbote is The place in Peru where they make tuna cans or process whatever other fish species it REALLY stinks fish. More that you can imagine. The place was really shit. I arrived there at 11pm without any other place to go to, and woke up the next day at 4am to catch my bus. Really the kind of night that you wish to forget.

“Where did you sleep?” is all this, it reminds of all the crazy, good or bad, places I spent time in. Sleeping in a tent at 4000m, in a bus driving full speed in winding roads and most of the time overtaking other cars with little space prior to crash into the car/bus/truck coming in front, or simply in a hostel loaded with backpackers travelling in, out, and all around South America is really an experience on its own and that’s what I like so much about this question. Makes it difficult to answer in just a few words (like “I slept mostly in hostels, what do you expect?”) as it would be such a dull answer…