city of the world and went out for dinners or drinks in restaurants and bars. Although I know that women are perceived differently in Latin America and was careful about by behavior, I have not been able to avoid some errors. For instance I did not realize to what extend girls freedom in this culture is limited, despite of the fact that they go out and enjoy themselves. The fact that I am Swiss excused my behavior, but due to my appearance (dark hair) and my knowledge of the language many persons thought I was local. This made it difficult for them to excuse at first my independent behavior. The interaction I had with people in Anaconda was completely different because their lifestyle has nothing in common with ours or even with the one in Ecuadorian cities. Anaconda is a small island on the Rio Napo, in the Amazonian on which there is electricity only four hours a day and no contact with the outside world. That means that there is no phone, no television, no cars and no hot water on the island. The island belongs to Don Jorge a gentleman from the country who allows people working for him to live on his property. Hence, three families inhabit Anaconda and work at the guests huts. The Indians on the island live in huts that they build themselves and get their food from the natural surroundings. I met the ones that worked at the hotel and that spoke Spanish. Their life is about survival and it was not so easy to talk with them because my life and interests seemed so futile compared to the reality they experience every day. I became friend with Osvaldo, the cook, because I was always asking what was for dinner, which is a tangible topic. The fact remains that we could not share much about our respective lives to build a friendship and we had to focus on what was real. Indeed, Indians people are very proud and do not talk much. The night before I left, Osvaldo told me something in Quichua, which I could not understand and I asked hi...
