The Magic Snail was jealous, so I also colored it. 🐌☄

The Travel Bug is a painter, so I gave him some colors. Good journey, little friend! 🐞🎨🗻🗺

Shy Little Shark. One of my doodles from 2012.
I didn't really think about it, but just let my mood run wild. The doodles arose without thoroughness. I like to do that to create absurd scurrility.
I have a lot such scribbles, a few thousand. They live a miserable existence, nobody looks at them. You are the first to see them.

Magic Snail. One of my doodles from 2012.
I didn't really think about it, but just let my mood run wild. The doodles arose without thoroughness. I like to do that to create absurd scurrility.
I have a lot such scribbles, a few thousand. They live a miserable existence, nobody looks at them. You are the first to see them.

The Travel Bug. One of my doodles from 2012.
I didn't really think about it, but just let my mood run wild. The doodles arose without thoroughness. I like to do that to create absurd scurrility.
I have a lot such scribbles, a few thousand. They live a miserable existence, nobody looks at them. You are the first to see them.

I took many blurry photos during my 18 hour bus ride from Ica to Cusco. Here we drove through the Limatambo District in the Cusco Region at an altitude of around 2,600 meters. The people in the district are mainly indigenous citizens of Quechua descent.

I took many blurry photos during my 18 hour bus ride from Ica to Cusco. Here we drove through the Curahuasi District in the Apurímac Region at an altitude of around 2,700 meters. The people in the district are mainly indigenous citizens of Quechua descent.

I took many blurry photos during my 18 hour bus ride from Ica to Cusco. Here we drove through the Curahuasi District in the Apurímac Region at an altitude of around 2,700 meters. The people in the district are mainly indigenous citizens of Quechua descent.

Burning palo santo in front of a mirror.
I discovered this "holy wood" in Peru. Bursera graveolens beguiles with a sweet soothing scent and has a nice relaxing effect. It contains a lot of resin, so it burns very well. Palo santo is closely related to frankincense. Both belong to the plant group of torchwoods. The smell is quite similar.

The intensely fragrant smoke is supposed to drive away bad energies. Shamans and medicine men use it for ritual purification and healing. People use it to clean their homes of bad energy. In fact, mosquitoes and moths don't like it at all.

In Peru, no trees are cut for harvesting. The twigs and branches are collected from the ground. I don't know how this is handled in other countries.

Traditionally, coca leaves are consumed in the Andes. You get it offered on every corner in plastic bags. The original form of consumption is by chewing the leaves. Mate de Coca is something of a national drink in Peru. It's also available in small tea bags, but I always had loose leaves. There's even chocolate with coca leaves! Very often there are restaurants and bars that somehow refer to coca.

The leaves are used as a stimulant, as a dietary supplement, for ritual and medicinal purposes. They help suppress hunger, fatigue and cold and are very effective against altitude sickness as they improve oxygen uptake. Also, the coca leaves have always had a spiritual meaning.

I found it similar in effect to black tea. There are no known side effects and you won't get addicted to it. It would take about 300 grams of dry coca leaves to extract 1 gram of cocaine by chemical extraction.

And please don't misunderstand, I'm absolutely no friend of the drug cocaine. People who snort this in order to feel superior, thereby contribute to terrible atrocities such as murder and trafficking.