15- Two months

General thoughts & random experiences after 2 months of traveling

Sun protection
So close to the Equator, you need a lot of sunscreen with a much higher factor, as you would usually need. I use factor 20 in Ireland/ Germany & sometimes 30 on hols, so I thought 30 would be enough. I was wrong, even with factor 50 & multiple applications during the day, I got sunburnt.
Take especially care on the high points (nose, forehead, shoulders....) but also on points you would usually forget, ie. your hands.
Also sunscreen is quite expensive here, you pay about 15$ for 200ml & it doesn’t last you long. Which is a quite heavy impact if you are traveling on a tight budget.
As I am usually skin-allergic to a lot of cosmetic products, I bought the ones made for babies & it worked out relatively well.

Lovely surprise
While waiting outside the guesthouse (San Jose, Costa Rica) for our shuttle to arrive, the security guide from the building next door came to us & gave us chocolates 😍.

Stop or non-stop
It’s confusing me to death: the Non-stop bus which stops every 10mins or so to pick up & drop of people in the middle of nowhere or to let people into the bus so that they can sell random stuff to the passengers, give something small of their goods to the bus driver & get a free ride for a few km.

F
Being finally not the only white person in the public bus - yeah. There seems to be a lot like a lot of  French’s in Baños (Ecuador) & in the buses on the way in & out. Even in the hostel the 8 or so other people I met there were all from France.
Haven’t heard German in about 6 weeks now. I am starting to miss the Germans - shocking!

Interesting payment system for public transportation (for gringos?)
Whatever money you are giving for public transportation, they take it & you don’t get change.
For longer journeys you usually buy a ticket in advance & they have a schedule & a fix price. Any other (shorter) public transportation seems to work differently. You just take a seat & they drive you. Later one or at the end of the journey you pay. If you give them 1US$ they take it and walk away. Same with 0.50US$ and sometimes even with 0.25US$. If you ask the fare upfront they don’t give you the info or tell you something much higher, ie. 2 US$ For a bit even 10mins journey. So best to just give them a smaller coin & if they want more, they will tell you. Which also means try to always have small coins with you. In lot if the cases they can’t even work with you when you only have a 10$ or even a 5$ note & might just leave you standing on the road. That I experienced so far in Costa Rica, Panama & Ecuador. I highly doubt that it will be any different in Peru now.