The Ecuadorian coast - Puerto Lopez and Isla de la Plata

The travelled route.

Red: on the way to the coast Blue: boat to Isla de la Plata Green: the way back to Ambato with a stop in Quito

This weekend we went to the coast and more specifically to the village of Puerto Lopez and the Island of Isla de la Plata.

We left from Ambato at 22:15 for Guayaguil and arrived at 04:00 and had to wait till 06:00 before the bus left for Puerto Lopez, where we arrived 11:00 in the morning - a quite exhausting trip. Puerto Lopez looked as worn and torn as the rest of Ecuador, with half made houses and dirty concrete pavements and roads. The difference from Ambato was the heat and humidity (around 28degrees) and the amount of backpackers and (retarded) hippies which flooded the dusty ocean strip. The backpackers came for the same reason as we did, to spot whales, dive and visit the “poor mans Galapagos-island” of Isla de la Plata - the hippies comes to sell shitty handmade jewelry and to feel bohemian and be “one with the natives”.

The first day we didn’t do very much. We checked in at a scabby hostel, ate some really good newly caught fish and had $3 Mojitos at the beach. Oscar and me also booked two dive sessions for the next day at 08:30 at Isla de la Plata. Sleeping was an ordeal. After 15 minutes everyone of us started scratching our skin from some sort of bites. We took all kinds of measures, me and Ralf even moved down to the floor thinking that the bugs originated from our beds. After half the night we figured out the the room was haunted by mosquitos, armed with stealth capabilities. Sleep time: around 1,5h.

The next morning we headed of to diving. It should be noted that it was 11 (eleven) years since i dived last, which makes me, to say the least, rusty. I was lucky they didn’t ask when I got in the water last, however it didn’t take the nervousness away. On the way out to the island we spotted humpback whales, and they made quite an performance just a few meters from us. We also spotted blue and red footed boobies: birds unique for the galapagos and its surroundings.

A humpback whale breaching the surface with a splash

Ok, I didn't take this picture, but this is how they look...

The boat ride to Isla de la Plata took about an hour and when arriving I was pretty sea sick. We got in to the water and the dive master gave me a 30 second recap of basic diving theory and then the descent started. I was a bit shaky in the beginning but it loosened after a while and it didn’t take long before I could start enjoying the dive and curious creatures that lurked at the reef. We saw all kinds of fish: sharks (1.5m), moray, lobster, manta ray (“extremely large pelagic tropical ray that feeds on plankton and small fishes”), and lots and lots of other reef fishes in all kinds of shapes and colors. Truly awesome. When coming up I felt really bad by some combination of sea sickness and nauseas from diving. However I was fit an hour later when we got into the water again. The second dive was even better and I can say that it won’t take another eleven years until I dive again - probably less than two weeks when we arrive in Honduras, the world Mecka for divers!

When we got back to the shore we both felt that we had done and seen what we wanted on the coast and decided to head back to Ambato that same evening even though we had planned a second visit to the island the day after. The notion, of wanting to go home, was emphasized when we met up who both suffered by nasty symptoms from the night before: Anders had nasty bite rashes on his arms and legs (which looked suspiciously much like bed-bugs bites) and Ralf’s hand was swollen from some other sort of bite. We got on a 9- hour night bus to Quito (see the green route above) where Oscar and me hung out for a while; visited the old town, had some proper western food among other things (honestly, the local food in the Ecuadorian highlands suck) before we went home to Ambato towards the evening.

In summary, a really good weekend! Fingers crossed that our room in Ambato won’t be haunted by bed bugs...

Some more pics of whales jumping here

OSCUS - Food aid event for a village hit by volcano ash raid to nearby village

An old indian lady from the village after receiving a sack of food

As I’ve mentioned before, what separates OSCUS from most other banks is it’s social responsibility and the fact that all it’s profit goes back to the members of the cooperative. One of the ways in which this responsibility is expressed is by helping out local villages that’ve been struck by natural disasters. One of my first pictures from Ambato on this blog showed the volcano, Tungurahua in the midst of eruption. I wrote that we we’re lucky because the wind carried the ashes away from where we are staying. Pillate, a village east of Ambato wasn’t as lucky - it got drowned in the ashes the volcano threw up. Among other things, this is apparently devastating for crops which suffers an immediate death. For an already poor mountain village that is dependent on farming this is a huge economic and social backlash, and that’s why OSCUS decided to do a “charity raid” to this village.

Armed with two truckloads of food sacks with basic stuff such as rise, beans, lenses, corn, tuna etc. and balloons and toys for the children we headed for the village. When we arrived the villagers was all about sweeping ashes from the street into big piles, but they soon let go of their brooms and gathered in the town center (a concrete playground). OSCUS had made it quite an event and organized games for both the adults and children of the village, invited the local orchestra to play, the local beauty queen and the far away guests from Sweden - big stuff! The villagers seemed really excited and glad - one could tell that these people wasn’t spoiled with visits from the city, especially not from one of the bigger banks. After the some playing around and dancing, the villagers was given their sacks with food in exchange for a signature - those who couldn’t write had to sign with their fingerprint.

It was an interesting and rewarding experience, especially when one of the town elders came up to Oscar and me before we left and told us that he would never forget this day.

The masks wasn't really necessary, but it made good publicity...

Probably a third of the village population gathered around for a picture before we left.

Two of the girls from marketing who organized the event along with me and Oscar.
If it wasn't for the clouds in the background one could see Tungurahua, the perpetrating volcano.

The rest of the pictures from Pillate can be seen here

I ran Maraton de Quito (2800MASL)!

Just before the start went of in central Quito

The bare thought of running the Marathon in Quito was first initiated about three weeks ago when Oscar found the event on the internet and announced he was running. I’ve been thinking about running a marathon for a long time but the timing of this one was no good since my knee has been out of function since end of April and it was more than 2 month’s since I ran last time. So I dismissed the idea of running the full marathon but contemplated the idea of being able to run the half marathon instead. We started running at evenings after work for about an hour (as I mentioned in earlier posts) and my knee felt pretty well, so I figured the half marathon should be doable. However, last week when Oscar went for a three-hour run to practise for the 42km he was about to run, I tagged a long with the intention to stop as soon as my knee told me to. But it never told me and when we got back it still didn’t hurt. So I decided to sign up for the full marathon.

I met some complications though… The marathon was yesterday, Sunday, and we did the last training run on Thursday. This training run set of some sort of reaction, making me dyspepctic (magsjuk, aldrig hört talas om ordet heller). I had stomach pains and everything I ate… came out again within seconds, literally. Saturday came and the pains was gone, but still: no matter what I ate it didn’t want to stay in my system, so I started to get a bit nervous whether I’d make the 42k’s or not. Nevertheless, Oscar and me got on a 3-hour bus ride to Quito, picked up chips and start numbers and installed ourselves in a hostel ready to wake up at 0400 hours for a pasta breakfast.

The start went off at 0530 in the morning in downtown Quito. The run started out good, I had a good pace and the temperature was pleasant around 11 degrees. After the first 10k’s I was well ahead of my scheduled time.

The stomach pains started after around 13km. After another kilometre I was in cold sweat, knowing what I had to do – I reckon dad is familiar with this feeling. I took refuge in to the park we we’re running in and when I came back on track I felt better, but not good. I knew I didn’t have much carbs or nutrition in my system and since I was looking at another 30km ahead, I crabbed half a banana and drank some Gatorade at the next pit stop. Bad idea. After about 25km I was in sever pains and cold sweat again, and the procedure had to be repeated. After this my stomach actually felt better, and I could focus totally on the pain I started getting from running. To summarize the rest of the run: it was probably the most painful thing I’ve done, both physically and mentally. Of course my legs hurt but also other weird places such as from inside my chest and the sides of my stomach.

Well that was it. Something I’m very glad I did when looking back – even though I could have done without the stomach problems. Time: around 4h 10min. This was by the way enough to reward me the title of best Swede in Maraton de Quito 2010;)

Ambato - The country side

Yesterday Oscar and me once again headed out to the countryside along with two employees of OSCUS, with the purpose of evaluating clients businesses to see whether they are worthy of acquiring more credit. The people we meet and see on these excursion are mostly very poor. Their houses are more or less falling apart, their clothes are dirty and worn (for many, it looks like they've been walking barefoot all their lives), their business are petty and ineffective and doesn't look like they can contribute with much income. However, in the midst of all this apparent poverty and lack of things that we take for granted as trivial and necessary to cary on a decent life, I have yet not seen any misery or despair. People seem happy and pretty content with their lives even though their low standard of living. I'm asking myself if this is really true, or if their daily struggle for sustaining their basic needs takes it's toll and actually decreases their living standard to the point of suffering and a life with lesser joy than people with more material benefits? The fundamental question being: what degree of material wealth must be sustained to live a "good life"? My answer: I reckon you won't know until you've tried both...




We asked these two kids for the whereabouts of the client we were looking, but they didn't know. So we drove on...





One of the clients ran a kindergarden.

At this family run business they manufactured shoes. The smell of glue was intense and after a few minutes one was really intoxicated. I wouldn't want to sit in here 10 hours a day...

Production capacity: 4 shoes per day

Two sisters inside the "shoe factory"

The rest of the album can be seen here

Baños and Quisapincha – one excursion and one shopping spree

Baños

Last Saturday we took the buss one hour south to the small city of Baños. It’s set on the hillside of the Tungurahua volcano and was last evacuated in 2008 because of volcanic activity. While there we rented mountain bikes and aimed to do a cycle tour from Baños to Puyo, a village 6.5km away. However, someone in our group – no names mentioned – lost energy 4.5hours after take-off so we aborted the tour. Instead we hitchhiked with an old truck back to Baños, quite an adventure in itself. Nevertheless the scenery on the way was definitely worth the trip. When we came back, tired and frozen, we all thought we we’re worthy of a huge feast so we treated ourselves with a local specialty called Cuy – also known as Guinea pig or Marsvin in Swedish. What can I say… It tasted a bit like chicken but chewier. And to be honest it wasn’t very much meat on it, and not very good either.

From Baños - an excursion

We stopped our bikes by this canyon where you could be traversed across in a cage

From Baños - an excursion

...driven by this guy and his old truck from the beginning of the century, supported by cement bricks...

Me Oscar and Anders enjoying beers and coffee at lodge in the mountains.

The local specialty: Cuy, aka Guinea pig

Quisapincha

Quisapincha is a small town a 20 min buss ride from Ambato. We read in our guidebook, and heard whispers all over town, about its high quality leather manufacturing. So we decided to check it out. It turned out that the whispers were totally right and also the prices were around a ¼ of what you’d pay for the same things in Sweden. We acted like children on Christmas Eve and bought bags and other leather accessories like it was no tomorrow. We even returned a few days later and had 9 laptop cases custom made from a local “leather tailor”. Still waiting for them as of now. However, since none of us really knows anything about leather, only time will tell if the quality really is as high as we think…

The rest of the photos from Baños can be seen here

What we've been up to at work and som thoughts about this and that

OSCUS is the name of the credit institute that we’re working at, the second row means something like: “Cooperative for Savings and Loans”. I intend to give a more proper introduction to OSCUS, and their business idea, in a later post. For the time being I’ll only mention that they work like most other banks except that they also give out micro-credit (small loans) to poor people who often wouldn’t be considered credit-worthy by ordinary banks.

OSCUS in Ambato holds about 90 employees and the first day we got introduced to the head of human resources who more or less asked us what we wanted to do at the office and what our expectations was. We answered that we first and foremost are here to learn about their business and what they are doing. After that the four of us split up in pairs of two and got introduced to different parts of the company everyday.

The first day, Monday, Oscar and me got in a jeep, with one of the employees, and headed out to the mountainous countryside tracking down people who were late with their monthly down-payments. The procedure was the following: We had about 25 notifications for people who we’re late with their payments, with claims reaching from 19USD to 250USD. It was either their first, second or third reminder (third being the last, if they couldn’t pay we tracked down the person who guaranteed the loan). The clients who get these microcredit’s are often very poor and most often don't have a post address, which means that they can’t receive notifications by mail. Thus, finding them is sort of detective work and demands EXCELLENT local knowledge about surroundings. An example of an “address” could be: “Ambato, village of xxx, north up the road towards the chapel, left by the mill, continue 200m and it’s the blue house on the left side of the road”. When eventually finding the client, the employee often does a bit of chitchat, asking them how everything is going, while handing over the notification. In this way OSCUS creates a local knowledge and a presence and respect with locals; giving them soft incentives to pay on time in the future.

An indian lady paying off a part of her microcredit by the side of our car.

Oscar tries to act professional in the front seat.

The next day, Tuesday, Oscar and me sat behind a desk with one of the employees, handling traditional banking errands for new and old customers (what Ralf and Anders did the first day). It was interesting getting a feel of the clients the bank was handling; why they were lending money, what they were about to use them for, what kind of previous credit rating the had, why some clients defaulted on their debts, etc. etc. Also, the lady was very concerned about us understanding both how the customers and the OSCUS reasoned in different client-errands. Even though it got a bit langweilig towards the end, we learnt tones about how OSCUS works and what types of clients they’re serving. We also got to tag along with her visiting different clients, inspecting their business. Interesting!

Wednesday and Thursday more or less repeated the first two days, with some differences. We went along with employees saying hello and chitchatting with clients in the center of Ambato and on the country side. One example of a client we visited was a family who were lending money to build a huge pool with some sort of elevating wheel so that they could process and bleach the cotton they we producing. By selling it refined on the market they could earn much more than if they sold it raw. It was awesome listening (being translated) to their ideas and thoughts about how they intended to carry it out. We also got a feel for their political and ideological views by asking a lot of questions. The views were, not unexpectedly, leaning towards socialism. (I’m just starting to get a feel for how the Ecuadorians reason when it comes to ideological issues. They are quite different from ours and to categorize them in the traditional way as socialistic, liberal conservative, left, right etc. isn’t really fair. I hope to be able to develop these thoughts in a later post. That is if I ever understand it.) Anyways, it was great and afterwards they treated us with an awesome feast of meat, different kinds of maíz, fried platanos and home made liqueur made from sugar canes. Best meal so far.

Friday afternoon, Oscar and me attended a course hosted by OSCUS (free of charge for the participants), which was to introduce poor farmers and city folks – mostly indigenous Indians – to basic business economic thinking. It was incredible to hear how the participants reasoned and how little they understood about how to handle any kind of business activity and how the market works. – even though farming is the only thing they’ve been doing their entire life. For example the lecturer tried to explain to them the foundation of supply and demand; that they all shouldn’t grow and sell potatoes, because if they did the price of potatoes will decrease and they will loose more than they earn. This was totally new information and they all looked puzzled and confused to what he was saying. Also many of them had a hard time reading and writing, and spoke poor Spanish.
At the beginning the tone in the class was calm and barely no-one spoke up. However towards the end loud and meaningless discussions about the right price of cows and different vegetables broke out when the lecturer wanted to make simple examples. I might be pessimistic but I didn’t get the feeling that the people embraced what the lecturer wanted to communicate, and it reinforced my notion of Ecuador being a laggard nation (in the sense of business activity). Nevertheless, I reckon it’s a good initiative from OSCUS, trying to increase awareness about the essentials of how to start and run a business. And I hope my notion to be proven wrong in the future when Ecuador and its farming starts utilizing its great potential and catching up with the rest of the world…

It should be noted that I, off course, didn’t understand a word of what was said at the course; the entire rendering above comes from Oscar translating. Hence, I disclaim all responsibility of politically incorrect statements – in this and in all subsequent posts.

After the last post Oscar wondered if something was wrong since it apparently was a bit grumpy and pessimistic. This was absolutely not my intention! However, while reading through this post I can’t say that my tone has improved. I’ll see if I can cheer it up henceforth. Other from that I can briefly mention that all is good. I’m having a great time, enjoying both the country and the company of the four gringos I’m living with.

We’ve been doing some excursions lately, I’ll see if I can get around writing about them as well, not just economic mumbo-jumbo that only turns me on…

I also got around uploading some pictures: Downtown Ambato and 1st week in Ambato.

Our host family and what we've been doing when not working

The view from the roof of where we live: the nearby vulcano had an eruption, luckily the winds

carried the ashes away from Ambato. Not as cool as the earthquake in Skåne, but still.

Six days in Ambato have gone by and the everyday routine has started to set in. My Spanish is probably getting better, however starting from scratch I’m still next to useless: I can’t build sentences and I can’t understand what people say –which makes communicating… hard. Luckily for me I can hide behind Oscar, who’s Spanish is really good. Since he translates the overall picture of conversations, I usually understand most of what’s going on and can communicate questions through him. But why oh why did I learn German in school… Enough complaining, our work is interesting, the family is great and we are planning a lot of weekend excursions so it's all good.

Host family

We are five people living with the host family at the moment: me, Oscar Ralf, Anders, an American girl, Lauren. Anders and Ralf are studying economics together with Oscar in Lund and it was the three of them who set up the Micro-finance project with “Skandinaviska institutet” in Sweden. All four of us work at the same place but are more or less divided in teams of two: “Raul y Andres” and “Oscar y Poll” (Poll being my knew name here since no-one can pronounce Pehr). Lauren is working with another volunteer project, helping out at a small hospital in the mountains near Ambato.

The host family, which consists of Carlos and Maria (and their three grown up children which is rarely around), are genuinely nice and are treating the all of us very good. The four of us are living at the bottom floor of their house, which consists of three bedrooms, a toilet and a living room; all of which we more or less have for ourselves. Nevertheless they do have house rules and they are very concerned about us keeping it clean and tidy in our rooms. This we have noticed since they keep rearranging our shoes, picking up and moving around our clothes, instructing us to make our beds etc. This implies that they have not let the rooms out, but we are living with them as a part of the family – which is fairplay and part of the experience.

We’re being served breakfast between 06 and 07 and dinner is served around 19. Breakfast consists of one piece of bread and butter; something that could best be described as oatmeal, mixed with milk and different kinds of fresh fruit; gruel (välling) and home made lemon leaf tea. Dinner consists of a potato soup as entrée and then a main mostly consisting of rice or potatoes along with a small peace of meat, mostly pork or chicken. I can also mention that they use a fair deal of Plátanos and Maíz (different types of bananas and corn) in their cooking, which is very traditional for Ecuador. Neither breakfast nor dinner are big meals, which fill you up for very long, and to be honest they are not any culinary explosions. However it’s nice and interesting to eat traditional food together with the family. They are very talkative and interested in what we’ve been up to, what our plans are etc – which adds to the frustration of not knowing any Spanish.

Further more they don’t do insulation in this country, and since the temperature reaches around 10 degrees at night and 20 during the days, its pretty cold inside which makes two layers a necessity when sleeping – at least for me, it don’t seem to effect the other.

Other than eating and sleeping, we have been out running a few times after work around where we live. And that’s quite an ordeal on 2550 MASL. When we came to Ecuador the others kept on complaining about the thin air and how it affected them, but I didn’t feel anything and must have thought I was immune to the thin air. Until we started running… It’s probably the most exhausting feeling I’ve ever felt and I take every word back. Its not so much the legs that weakens it’s just the lungs that can’t keep up with the rest of the body and it doesn’t matter how much you breath, you don't get enough oxygen. Further more the HUGE amount of exhaustions adds to the breathing difficulties, living around here, I reckon is equal to smoking a few cigarettes a day. And adding to that the constant fear of being attacked by loose dogs it makes running quite a challenge.

Today, Saturday, we are going to Baños and on sunday we're heading to Riobamba where we're going to ride the Nariz del Diablo train (lit. the devils nose train) among others.

I'll see if I can write how that went and also something about where we are working and what we are doing at work soon. Also I don't have a camera and none of us like taking pictures so I reckon it won't be too much of that.

A preliminary itinerary and what we've been up to this far

Oscar enjoying his 8th cup of coffee.

That's what happens when you have nothing better to do and the

marginal cost is zero.

The Itinerary

We will be staying in a host family while doing the project in Ambato, which I’m really looking forward to, I reckon it will be good way of experience the country’s culture and customs *knocking on wood, hoping that the family’s a good one*. As far as we know we will be working regular business hours five days a week, however we are hoping to be able to make as many weekend excursions as possible – not least to the Galapagos Islands, nearby active volcanoes and the Inca city of Ingapirca.

After the project is finished in end of July we’re planning to buy a flight ticket from Quito to Caracas in Venezuela from where we intend traverse our way to Bogota, in about 15 days, to catch our flight back to Sweden which leaves on August 15. Hence “Micro travels in Ecuador (and around)”.

What we've been up to

When writing this I’m sitting in a room at the Clarion Hotel in Copenhagen watching Denmark being beaten by Japan in football. Why? Because our flight, that was supposed to leave 11.15 this morning, was cancelled and we are rebooked on a flight tomorrow at 08.00. Now you might think I’m swearing and cursing over Delta Airlines Lines and their lousy service. On the contrary, I’m (almost) feeling sorry for them and the financial backlash they suffered. A quick estimate calculation of direct costs occurring the airline, only for handling passengers, is €237 500. Not peanuts for one flight… And in this calculation I have not taken into account mine and Oscar’s upgrade to business class – sweeet:).

250PAX x (€600 in direct compensation + €150 hotel costs + €200 for food, transport, admin)

Further more, both Oscar and me kept the spirit high during the whole process, which would not have been the case for me some years ago when I quickly would have transformed to a miserable grump.

While actually posting this we have arrived to Ecuador and as you can tell by the photo above the trip was smooth and comfortable – life is sweet as first class citizens. After a day and night in Quito we had a two-hour taxi ride south to Ambato (pop. 300 000) where we will be working for the next 5 weeks.

I’ll try to write about our host family and work next time.

Micro finance and Micro travels in Ecuador (and around)

The picture depicts the Bangladeshi Muhammad Yunus.

In 2006 he and the bank he founded, Grameen Bank, were

jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their work in

creating micro finance.

It’s a new year and a new excursion is coming up, however with a bit different set up and objectives than last years Iran trip. This time I’m combining work with pleasure since I will be participating in an internship at a micro finance institute in Ambato, Ecuador for five of the eight weeks I’ll be gone. Also I’m not travelling solo but with Oscar, a friend from Lund.

The intention with the blog is nevertheless the same: the primary purpose being to process things that I experience and to be able to reminisce in the future, and secondly to update friends and family. With this in mind the content will of course reflect my interests, so a part from the continuous rendering of what I’m doing and where I am, cultural and microeconomic observations will most likely dominate those of landscapes, plants and animals.

Why micro finance, why Ecuador?
I think micro lending is a great way of helping poor people since it gives both giver and receiver incentives to perform – the absence of this being one of the biggest problems of traditional aid. At the same time the money goes straight to the source, which enables and empowers the individual instead of potentially corrupt leaders. So, in theory it sounds awesome, but what I don't know is how it works in reality, if it is as good at it sounds. By experiencing it close up I’ll hopefully get a deeper perspective of how (of if) it’s actually benefitting common people.

That I’m going to Ecuador is instead of anywhere else in the world is pure coincidence. In fact I reckon I have to thank Oscar on that, since it is he who has done all the grunt work; searching for different institutes, mailing back and forth and finally setting up the deal with “Skandinaviska Institutet” who’s sending us to the Institute.

What will we be doing?
To be honest, I don’t really know. The preliminary thought is that Oscar and me are going to work at the Credit Department, actually issuing loans to customers. This means listening to and evaluating the customer's intentions, what she wants to do with the money, and gathering all the necessary facts and figures so that the finance department can make their calculations. This means working with customers both at the office and on the field where she intends to realize her project, which sounds truly awesome. However, there’s a big ‘but’ in this, and that is that I can’t speak Spanish. If you intend to evaluate someone’s business idea – potentially her life project – you better be sure that you understand her intentions so you can make a good judgement. Hence, I have low expectations on what I actually will be doing. As of now I’m putting my trust to Oscar’s Spanish skills and am hoping that I can free ride on him and make myself useful in other ways than listening.

Back in Sweden

A route less travelled. View Iran 2009 in a larger map

For people across oceans and others whom I have not yet got the chance to talk to I can mention that
I am back in Sweden again. The initial plan was to travel with train through eastern Europe and be home
around august 5. But, in Forest Gump style, I woke up one morning in Istanbul and felt that I had
enough of traveling, so I stopped. I went to an internet cafe and booked a flight ticket home.

I guess I lost some of the lust and motivation of traveling after leaving Iran. It was always my main
destination and it felt a bit like mission completed after that. The thought of rushing through Eastern
Europe, trying to get a perception of another 3 countries in 10 days wasn’t appealing at all – all of a
sudden.

I still have loads of things that I’d like to write about Iran but I’m not sure I’ll be motivated enough to
actually do it now that I'm back. In the mean time I’ve been experimenting with google maps, trying
to work out the “my maps function”. I'm not sure if it was a success but the result is the itinerary
shown above which is supposed to show the cities I’ve visited, how long I’ve stayed at different places etc.
Below there’s also a link to the last of my photos from Turkey. It's not very many and their not that
interesting, but nevertheless there. Hopefully Kiwi and others have time to send me theirs soon.

Pics from Van

Pics from Dogubayazit

Pics from Istanbul

Leaving Iran

The Coat of Arms of the Islamic republic of Iran seen through barbed wire

at the bordercrossing between Iran and Turkey.
It's also featured at the Iranian flag and is a Perso-Arabic script of the word "Allah".

It was with mixed feelings I crossed the border to Turkey. In one way it felt sad to leave the country just when I started to get a grip of it.

Before Going I knew a fair bit about the politics and history but I didn't have a good perception of the people, and their attitude towards the regime and past and current events. I cant say I know what the average Muhammed thinks about it now either but at least I've got a perception of the complexity of the situation and how the reasoning goes on both side of the coin: the way many young and educated people feel choked and trapped, and in the same time how people, especially from the countryside, thinks the regime is doing a good job enforcing Sharia laws and distributing the oil income in a top down manner.

I also just started to get an idea of the unique culture and traditions. By spending some time with locals - both young and old, urban and rural - I had the privilege to experience it close up; which was probably the best and most fascinating part of my visit. Even though I guess I just got a glimpse.

Lastly it was a remorseful crossing because I know that all the Farsi I've managed to pick up will be hopelessly gone as soon as I get back - before I can say "Kheyli Mamnun". I'm not saying that my Farsi, in any way, is good. But after being forced to consult my English-Farsi phrasebook numerous times a day for a month, I've managed to get some sort of grip of the language, and my vocabulary contains a fair few words and phrases.

In another way (refering back to the first paragraph), 28 day was enough time, especially considering how I was traveling: the number of cities I visited, the type of activities I devoted my time to etc. Thinking back, there isn't really anything I can say I didn't have time to do, or regret I didn't do (except for not visiting the holy city of Qom). I reckon to get to know the country and the culture even better you have to spend much more time there, preferably living and working to get a feel for how people act and behave in everyday life and situations. Unfortunately this is hard - and economically unwise - for western people at the moment. However I'm sure a revolution is coming, maybe not this year, or the next but you cant suppress a people forever. Say within 10 years I hope and think that the regime is overthrown, giving space for a more liberal, democratic and western friendly government.
And if it happens, be certain that there will be a huge surge in demand for goods, services and know-how from all over the world - I'm holding out for that day.

Random Observations Part III - Taárof

The older generation in Iran stil very much uses Taárof.

Ta’rof is a sort of politeness that is formalized and used all the time in everyday situations. One of the most basic ideas of the system is that you should always offer guests (and strangers) things that they might want or need, but at the same time it allows for the receiver to let the one who gives save face. The typical example is if someone offers you something you should first refuse it a few times before accepting, let it be a glass of water, a dinner or whatever. In this way, the giver can withdraw his offer if he can’t really afford it or if he doesn’t want to give it away. This is so widely used that it even happens in shops or in taxis where the shopkeeper initially refuses to take your money. However, this is of course a clear cut example of when you nevertheless should give him the money - otherwise you'll end up one surprised look on the shopkeepers eyes.

Another example is that you should always offer whoever you are with to go first through a door, as a sign of respect (which causes a small delay at every doorstep).

There are 1000 of different ways that this very intricate system of unwritten rules expresses itself and this was just two examples.

For me, who comes from a country where these kind of rules are absent, or at least not as manifested as in Iran, it felt a bit unnecesary and exaggerated at first. However the system is very typical for the hospitality and respect that is so significative to the Iranian culture and once you know about it and are used to it it isn’t as complicated and intricate as it sounds – an Iranian friend told me. And thinking about it in that way it's definitely something worth preserving. Nevertheless, young Iranians are not as strict on following these rules as the older generation; you can even have a laugh about it with most of them.
In a "Taárof point of view", Mehran and Ahlis grandmother was really interesting to meet: the way she acted and what she said to me and Kiwi during our stay at her house (traditional phrases of "well-wishings", hospitality etc.) . For example she was throwing rise on us when we left for good luck (of course I've already forgot the exact meaning and her exact word that came along with it).

It almost goes without saying that Ta'arof was the going joke among the backpackers I met in Iran. "-You go first. -No you go first. -No, please after you. -No, I insist." and so on and on.. and on.

Some about Turkey

Random dinner. From left to right: David (aussie), Pehr,

Kemal (bookstore owner) and Will (kiwi).

I guess this blog started out as a normal travel blog, to update friends and family, but the more I write the more I realize that the blog will be great for myself in the future: to remember and reminisce. Therefore I reckon my focus still will be on Iran, even though I'm now in Turkey, so that I can get as much as possible on paper while my memory is still fresh.

However, I'll mention a little what I've been doing and will do. I'm now in Antalya and have been here for two nights now. I was supposed to go to Cappadocia but I realized that I would'nt have time so I went straight here instead, and tonight I will head to Istanbul.

Antalya is beautiful but very touristic. I met an aussie at my hotel that I hung out with the first day and yesterday we went White Water Rafting together about two hours north of Antalya. Awesome river and mountainious scenery but not as thrilling as it sounds.

When we came back to the hotel we met up with another guy from the hotel and set out for dinner. On our way to town we stumbled upon one of the most interesting caracters I've ever met. The man owns a bookstore in the old city (Kaleici) where he only sells used books for travelers. Its useless to even try to describe him, lets just say he likes books and wine (there is an interview with him in the Lonely Planet Turkey, for the interested). Anyways, he was about to buy food (and wine) so we followed him to the local butcher where we got a piece of beef each and then went to his bookstore - which is also his home. We cooked the meat with safran rise, fresh bread and a tomato salad, and refurnished his bookstore to a dining room just by the street. We ate and drank till one in the morning and invited surprised people who went by. An awesome end to the day and a future great memory of Antalya.

Today me and aussie are going to spend the day at the beach and then, at 7 pm my bus leaves for Istanbul - 12hours of pleasure. In istanbul I will stay with this couchsurfer that Hossein (the guy whos couch I surfed in Tehran) recommended, at least for the two first days.

A few pictures from yesterday.

Pictures from Mount Samamos and Ramsar by the Caspian Sea

Mount Samamos

Ramsar and the Caspian Sea

Random observations Part II - Cost of things in Iran and Homo Economicus

Petrol and Flour are are subjects of subsadizatıon by the Iranıan government.

The kınd of Naan the man is holding up is called Barbari.

In Iran you get about RI10 000 for $1. Because of raging inflation this number is constantly increasing – even noticeable for me during one exchange to another – but to give a perception of how far your money will get you, below are a few examples.

• A bed in a dormitory or a very cheap double room: $5-6 (RI50 000 – 60 000) per person.
• A 10min shared taxi (the taxi picks up other people who’s going the same direction): ca $0.3
• A 7 hour bus ride with air condition, snacks and drinks: ca $6.
• A Naan freshly made from one of the many Naan shops that you’ll find on every street: $0.05-0.3 (enough for breakfast for two).
• A Chelo Kebab (one of the most common dishes) at a normal restaurant: $2-3.
• City bus : $0.05.
• 1.5 liter of coke: $0.7.
• A delicious soft ice-cream sold at every street corner: $0.3.
• A bottle of water: $0.25.
• Fast food (hamburger, falafel etc.): around $1
• An awesome solar powered Casio watch (“not fake, made in Japan”): $20.

It should be noted though, that petrol and flour are heavily subsidized by the government, making things like bread and transport ridiculously cheap – while other things are just very cheap. (1 liter of petrol is less than $0.3 for the first 300km or something during a 3 month period and then it increases slightly the more you drive.)

This makes Iran a very cheap country to travel in and you think that you’d throw Rials around you as if there were no tomorrow. But that is not really the case. It doesn’t take long before you adapt and get a feeling for what things cost and should cost. Hence if a taxi driver tries to rip you off by charging $1 when you know it shouldn’t be more than $0.5 you will give him a hard time. Likewise if you’re buying Naan and the Naan-guy takes you for a fool and ask for $0.5 instead of the $0.2 it should be you’d rather walk 100m to the next Naan shop – even though you wouldn’t stop to pick up those 30 cents from the street back home.

I guess this is how man works: you don’t want to pay more than what something is worth, the market price, even though you’re used to pay more or because you have relatively more money than the average person around you – and especially not when the shopkeeper tries to charge you a premium because you’re a tourist (even though I must admit it might have been more fair).

I reckon this trip will make me think twice before traveling to western (read expensive) countries again since you can see and do SO much more per dollar in countries like these; in the end of the day there’s really no activity that you have to pass up on because it’s too expensive. And you also don’t know for how long these havens will exist so you might as well explore them when you have the chance.

That said, when getting to Istanbul I'll adjust again and be willing to pay fıve or ten times what I got used to paying in Iran.

While writing this in my notebook, me and Kiwi were on a bus to Maku (north-west Iran, close to the Turkish border). From there we took a Savari (minibus taxi) to the border crossing and then walked 20 min across the border to Turkey. The Turkish passport control was a mess. People were pushing and shoving like crazy to get first in line and actual fights broke out. After watching the spectacle for an hour I managed to get hold of a border guard who gave us special treatment (I guess because we were western looking) and processed our passport so we could get on a minibus to Dogubayazit, the nearest border town. In Dogobayazit we met up with Catherine, a Belgian who Kiwi met in Shiraz. Except from the awesome volcano mountain Ararat (5137m) and a splendid old palace called Ishak Pasha Palace, there was not really anything to see so we took the bus to Van after seeing the sites the next day.

Kuriosa: Mt Ararat is the mountain where Noah allegedly stranded after the 40 days and 40 nights of flood. The mountain is considered holy and it was forbidden to climb it until 1950.

While putting the text on a word file the clock was 03.53 in the morning in the shabbiest hotel in Van. My bed was broken and I couldn't’t sleep so I took Kiwis computer and started writing in the very charming hotel lobby.

While actually posting I'm at an internet cafe in Van. Yesterday we strolled around town and had a beer (first ın 4 weeks) with some locals we met on the street. Afterwards we walked past a Kurdısh wedding and managed to get ourselfs invited! We were given endless amounts of cake and drinks and got to witness traditional Kurdish dancing. Awesome.

Today, the three of us have visited the 3000 year old castle 3km outside the city, been swimming in the soapy water of Lake Van and had a delicious Döner Kebab. 23.00 we leave Van with bus to go to Diyarbakir, a 7 hour bus ride east-south-east.

Mount Samamos - 3620m

In the village of Djorde just before embarking on the climb. From left to
right: Mehran, Kiwi, Pehr, Ali and their uncle.

While starting writing this I was on a weird bus ride on my way to Tabriz from Ramsar. While finishing putting last touches on the post and posting it I'm sitting in an internet cafe in Tabriz and will hurry away for dinner in just a few moments.

Monday evening (june 6) we left Ramsar for a small mountain village called Djorde where Behramand Ali's family has a summer house. Its located on 2200m and the taxi ride up there, which lasted for a good 40min, was like taken from an Indiana jones movie. The old Peykan was shaking and rustling as the driver speeded through narrow mountain roads with vertical mind boggling cliffs on one side and the green misty mountain rising on the other. Crazy.


After having dinner, a good nights sleep, breakfast and yet another lunch we started our ascent at 2pm - two hours later than planned. I got to borrow a sleeping bag and some clothes from Mehran (but no shoes, as they didn't fit me) and together with food and water for two days we had about 12kgs each on our backs.
The 7.5 hours it took to reach the hut at the summit went pretty smooth although the sometimes heavy mist made you very wet and cold, also my indoor football shoes made my feet sore after a few hours walking on the rocks.
However, we arrived at he summit just before darkness and the view from above the clouds made it well worth the climb.
Apparently someone before us had forgot to close the door to the hut and which made it partly snow filled and very dirty. Nevertheless we managed to clean out some space for sleeping and started a fire for cooking and keeping warm. We curdled close together by the fire and had dinner which consisted of Naan (traditional Iranian bread), canned Tuna and Dates - very simple but oh so good. To this we shared a bottle of homemade, and highly illegal, fruit schnapps that Mehran brought. Taking account of the setting, this meal is one of the absolute best, or at least most random, I've ever had. Thinking aobut it, having dinner at a mountain peak at 3620m by the Caspian Sea together with a Kiwi and three Iranians was not something I expected when I left Sweden over three weeks ago.

Nevertheless, all this awesomeness didn't stop the night from being horrible. I had caught a nasty cold and was freezing intencive, and only managed to get about an hour of sleep in total.

After having more Naan, nuts, dates, cucumber and tea for breakfast we started the descent on a different route than the one we came up on. I'm almost willing to say that the descent was tougher and more demanding that the climb. You constantly had to focus so that you didn't put your feet on loose rocks or on to steep gravel, because if you did you were doomed to fall - which both Kiwi and I got painfully aware of. Also, hours of walking in steep downhill made my knee's sore which made me walk the last kilometers backwards (the mountain goats looked at me and shook their heads). In total the descent took 5.5 hours (including a one hour climb to get to the right valley).

Finally back in the village we had a well deserved rest before we headed back to Mehran and Ali's Grandmother's house where we ate and soon fell a sleep.

To quickly summarize events from there: The next day Grandma made us an awesome traditional Iranian lunch (see pics). Brackets: Grandma was one of the absolute highlights of the visit to Ramsar. She is hard to describe but let me just say her constant smile, her cooking, her hospitality and bare appearance is something I'll lever forget. We, me and Kiwi, also got to experience very old and traditional Iranian culture through her (Ta'arof).

Anyways, after that we headed to the bus station for the Tabriz bus at 5.30pm. However there were complications because the bus had broke down and after some unlucky events and some waiting here and there we finally arrived to Tabriz about 15 hours later. Today we've just been walking around in Tabriz, exploring it all by chance. Randomly we hooked up with a guy who studies English and works part time as a guide who will accompany us for dinner at 9pm (in 1.5hours).

Tomorrow we head for Van in Turkey.

Pictures from Mt Samamos can be found here.
And here you can find pictures from Tehran.