Marcel Jaworski (31) is a Polish-Venezuelan cinematographer, photographer and Marcelino – a professional juggler. I travelled with Marcel on the coast of Ecuador for one week and whilst at it, learned the fundamentals of his profession as a street light juggler. On top of observing his vivid and short performances on the streets, I interviewed him on what is needed for earning a living on the streets.

Just in case there are any first time hitchhikers out there at the moment… This post has been dwelling as a draft of mine for quite a while now, but as I haven’t written anything in weeks and since the theme of this month’s seikkailijattaret.fi magazine is also on the road, I decided to finally publish this simple guide on successful hitchhiking with 10 easy steps.

Since I’ve had this blog and the online magazine Seikkailijattaret.fi, I’ve been spending quite a lot of time on the internet. It’s nice, because sharing this experience gives a whole new meaning to the whole journey. However, now I feel it’s time to go offline for a while. 

He estado en este continente por 16 meses ya y durante este tiempo, he luchado a menudo con mi condición de mujer finlandesa en América latina. Hay cosas que vez tras vez me molestan sobremanera y hay otras cosas que probablemente nunca llegare a entender o aceptar, habiendo crecido en Europa del norte — la cuna de la democracia y de la igualdad de género.

As I’ve written many times before, streets and people working on the streets fascinate me. I’m not such a fan of touristic sights (although the city tour I did with my host Inico in Quito was lovely!), but rather love getting lost in a city, either interacting with locals or observing them and the way they act. This time, what caught my attention in Quito, Ecuador, were the shoe polishers at the Plaza de la Independencia.

I’ve been on this continent for 16 months now and during this time, I’ve often struggled with being a Finnish woman in Latin America. There are things that time after time annoy me big time and there are things I’ll probably never learn to understand or accept, having grown up in Northern Europe – the cradle of democracy and gender equality.

There are not many all-female bands in hardcore punk in general, and in Latin America even less. In fact, at the moment there is only one: ¡Tomar Control! These four ladies – July, Carmen, Malena and Luchita – have been playing together since 2014 and have since then released one album. I went to their band rehearsal on a Friday night to listen to them play and to interview their singer on how it all began.

People often ask me which bicycle I ride and if I like it or not. The simple answers are: Pelago Stavanger and “Hell yes!”, but after cycling for 16 months, I thought it’s high time to write a thorough review of the bicycle I have come to feel is my second skin by now. I’m still not a bicycle specialist, but this is what I see when I see my Pelago.