After the last long busride (19 hours) I've arrived in BA a bit more than a week ago. Buenos Aires is a huge change to traveling in Ecuador & Peru and the loneliness of Patagonia.
It's a lot more european than any other city I've been to in South America and with all the great food, good nightlife, cheap but pretty clothing and souvenirs it's just the right place to end my trip!
During the first couple of days we stayed with a really nice couple, Nelly & Claudio, who were the parents of friends we got to know in Santiago, while we went appartment-hunting for Nigel. We checked out a couple of places and Nigel ended up renting a nice 1-room appartment in Palermo, a really pretty and safe neighbourhood in BA. Staying in an appartment is such a nice change to crappy and dirty hostels. I love it!
There's tons of fun stuff to do in BA. So far we've been to Recoleta (probably the most pretty & expensive part of BA) and the cemetery there. It's such a weird place! There's no real graves but huge tombs. They are arranged so they build different alleys and the whole place looks more like an actual city in the center of Buenos Aires. There's Evita Peron's and the grave of many other famous Agentinians on the cemetery and it was funny to see loads of tourists standing next to the door of Evita's tomb which was covered in red roses, taking pictures.
Then there was Puerto Madero, right next to the docks with tons of nice restaurants (Sushi, yumm!) and different arts & craft markets in different areas of the city with San Telmo being my fav! Lots of antiques, ridiculously cheap!
We also went to La Boca, apparently a rather dangerous area but really beautiful with all the coloured houses, nice restaurants and tango dancers in the streets.
Speaking of dangers... the day after we got here we saw a robbery on the street out of the window of a restaurant (nice welcome present) and last night we witnessed a parked car burning on the street and lots of argentinian cops standing around not knowing what to do. It took them 10 minutes to come to the conclusion that MAYBE they should block the road since there was loads of cars & buses driving right by the burning car. They don't have the slightest plan here!!!
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Bariloche - HEAVEN for chocolate and icecream-Lovers
Spent the last 3 days in Bariloche, Argentina's honeymoon destination Nr. 1 and an awesome place to be if you like good food (especially steak), chocolate and icecream and nice landscapes.
Apart from stuffing our face with chocolate at Mamuschka's we rented bikes for a day and explored the beautyful area around Bariloche.
The only down part of the trip was the car drivers!!! They were crazy! They either must not realize how scary it is to sit on a bike and get passed by a car less than 10 centimeters next to you or they simply don't give a shit! I'm surprised we survived the day without any major injuries!
Whitewater rafting on the Futalafeu
On our last stop in Chile before crossing into Argentina again we stopped in this tiny little village named Futalafeu.
It lies next to the Futalefeu river, apparently one of the top 5 in the whole world to do whitewater rafting. We signed up for a trip but weren't sure until the day we were supposed to go if it'll work out or not since it has been raining there for the past 3 weeks and the company wasn't able to take anyone out on the river cause the water level was too high.
We were really lucky cause it stopped raining and the water level sunk to a decent level (still pretty high though)
We went out on two rafts. One with 6 people and ours with 4 (Nigel, Chiara, me and a guy from Sweden). The rafting was simply AMAZING! Probably one of the most fun things I've ever done!
You're out there in this little raft getting washed around from one huge rapid to the next one, the raft violently rocking up and down, icecold water splashing into your face, trying to paddle through the rapid as hard as you can and it all makes you feel so tiny and vulnerable. I totally lost track of time and didn't know if we've been out on the river for 30 minutes or 3 hours.
I was really tempted to stay another couple of days and do more rafting (or kayaking) but unfortunately ran out of cash and since the town didn't have an ATM machine or Credit card facilities I had to leave :(
Thinking about joining a kayaking club when I get back to Germany. It's such an awesome sport!
It lies next to the Futalefeu river, apparently one of the top 5 in the whole world to do whitewater rafting. We signed up for a trip but weren't sure until the day we were supposed to go if it'll work out or not since it has been raining there for the past 3 weeks and the company wasn't able to take anyone out on the river cause the water level was too high.
We were really lucky cause it stopped raining and the water level sunk to a decent level (still pretty high though)
We went out on two rafts. One with 6 people and ours with 4 (Nigel, Chiara, me and a guy from Sweden). The rafting was simply AMAZING! Probably one of the most fun things I've ever done!
You're out there in this little raft getting washed around from one huge rapid to the next one, the raft violently rocking up and down, icecold water splashing into your face, trying to paddle through the rapid as hard as you can and it all makes you feel so tiny and vulnerable. I totally lost track of time and didn't know if we've been out on the river for 30 minutes or 3 hours.
I was really tempted to stay another couple of days and do more rafting (or kayaking) but unfortunately ran out of cash and since the town didn't have an ATM machine or Credit card facilities I had to leave :(
Thinking about joining a kayaking club when I get back to Germany. It's such an awesome sport!
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Isolated from the rest of the world in the Patagonian Andes
It's been almost a month since my last post due to two factors: firstly it's really tough to get internet access here and secondly the fact that the longer I don't post the more I loose track of what has happened - which can make it hard to finally sit down and start writing. Anyway... "let's kill this bitch" (as we kept saying quite often for the past couple of weeks during long hours of hiking, hunger and frustration)
Both, the Chilean and the Argentinian side of the Patagonian Andes are really gorgeous!
We started out on the Chilean side with a 9-day trek in Torres del Paine Nationalpark. I think it's not exaggerated to say that we've had every possible weather condition you can get down here: drizzle, light rain, heavy rain, freaking strong wind, snow, blizzards and occasionally a bit of sunshine. This lead to hiking through swamps, 2-foot deep snow and sliding down crazyly steep mudslides (while trying not to break our necks). My boots were pretty much soaked after every day!
We spent the first 4 or 5 days hiking through the backcountry, which was pretty remote, and then after crossing the pass continuing on the "W", a part of the trek that is a lot more touristy and crowded with people doing day treks. I tried hard not clenching my teeth seeing all those people with their small, tiny daypacks that slept in the fancy huts and had awesome meals cooked for them! We used to call them "Wussies" or simply "W-Hikers".
We ended up with a pretty cool crowd of people: Chiara from Australia who drinks about 20 "cuppas" every day (she ended up being called the Tea-bitch), Dan and Clay, two hilariously funny Americans carrying around a 25 Kilo heavy FUN-BAG filled with Cigarretes, Journal, a box with freaking 20 different crayons (?!?) two bottles of Bourbon and boxes of Gato Negro (probably the cheapest wine you can get anywhere in Chile). Weight doesn't matter when you're hiking, right??? ;)
It was sad to finally split up after a couple last days together in Puerto Natales where we enjoyed an awesome meal, hot showers and real beds after all those days of camping.
Chiara and our plans were similar so we decided to stick together for a while and ended up going north and into Argentina to do another 5 days of hiking in Los Glaciares Nationalpark and finally got rewarded with some nice weather and plenty of sunshine.
We spent Christmas out there, preparing a pretty fancy meal on our camping stove followed by cake and lots of Whisky!
Back in El Chalten we had a hilariously funny night with 3 bottles of wine (split between 4 people) and a trip to the local supermarket at 2 in the morning to get some more! Not the best idea... the supermarket was closed but there were some guys doing construction work in there that happily opened the store for us to sell us two huge bottles of cheap wine.
The next day was spent hungover on a bus up north for about 15 hours!
We crossed back into Chile to hitchhike up the Carretera Austral, a really nice scenic road. Hitchhiking here can be tough but we've been lucky so far, hitching a ride in the back of a truck (sitting in the complete darkness and trying not to break any bones during the bumpy journey) It was tons of fun though!
Tomorrow we'll make our way back into Argentina, stopping in Bariloche (Argentina's chocolate-heaven) and slowly making it up to Buenos Aires where I'll catch my flight back home in less than 3 weeks!
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Completos & Arroz con leche - icecream
Over the whole robbery-confusion I totally forgot to write about our latest discovery! Completos! A sausage in a hotdog bun topped with fresh tomatos, avocado, tons of mayonaise and ketchup! It tastes awesome and costs only 500 Pesos (about $1) It's what I'll be missing on the hike in Torres del Paine NP. We'll be having rice, pasta and instant soup, all over again for about 10 days!
We've also been trying the weirdest icecream flavours at Bravissimo, the best icecram place in Santiago! My last one was "arroz con leche" (Milchreis!) Different but tasty!
Our 3-hour flight down to Punta Arenas (Patagonia) was pretty crazy, I think I've experienced the worst turbulences ever! Normally that stuff doesn't freak me out but this was quite scary. The plane kept shaking and bouncing for several minutes and a woman close to us kept shrieking "ah - aaahh - aahh!!!" They also played this really creepy music on the plane - stuff that they play in movies right before a plane crashes. Maybe not the best strategy to calm the passengers down!
After one night in Punta Arenas we took the bus to Puerta Natales, a little town that lives from tourism since it's the last town before entering the National Park. It's a lot colder down here and windy as hell! I'm really glad now I had my mum sending my warmer sleeping bag. I would have probably froze to death in my old one.
We've also been trying the weirdest icecream flavours at Bravissimo, the best icecram place in Santiago! My last one was "arroz con leche" (Milchreis!) Different but tasty!
Our 3-hour flight down to Punta Arenas (Patagonia) was pretty crazy, I think I've experienced the worst turbulences ever! Normally that stuff doesn't freak me out but this was quite scary. The plane kept shaking and bouncing for several minutes and a woman close to us kept shrieking "ah - aaahh - aahh!!!" They also played this really creepy music on the plane - stuff that they play in movies right before a plane crashes. Maybe not the best strategy to calm the passengers down!
After one night in Punta Arenas we took the bus to Puerta Natales, a little town that lives from tourism since it's the last town before entering the National Park. It's a lot colder down here and windy as hell! I'm really glad now I had my mum sending my warmer sleeping bag. I would have probably froze to death in my old one.
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Valparaiso, Chile - not the safest place to be in ;)
We got robbed yesterday while we were exploring Valparaiso, a pretty but apparently more dangerous town on the Chilean coast.
We walked around the city for a bit on a special tourist-walking-track that's supposed to be nice and scenic. We turned into a little sidestreet and walked up a hill where I stopped to take a picture with my digital camera. I was just about to put it back into my backpack when a guy runs up to me from behind, rips the camera out of my hand and takes off. Nigel started chasing after him until we realized that he had an accomplice with him who picked up two bricks and threw them at Nigel.
I was pretty freaked out at that point and just yelled to let them have the camera before somthing more serious happens.
Nigel ended up with a pretty big bleeding bruise on his arm and some scraped off skin on the other wrist.
Everything happend so quickly, it was over within about half a minute and I don't think I've realized at that point what had just happened. If I rewind the situation in my head now I wish I would have yelled at them: Arschloecher,fucking bastards, puta madre... but I was too perplex to say anything!
Afterwards we went to the next police office and all they basically did was write a report for my insurance company. The description of the two thieves wasn't really important to them. Nothing they can do about it - that's it!
Kind of disappointing but also understandable if you take into account that things like that happen all the time(one of the police guys told us that approximately 10 robbed tourists come in every day). They were really helpful afterwards though! We got a ride in the police car to the next hospital where Nigel's injuries got taken care of and then the police guys drove us back to our hostel. At first it felt kind of weird, all this special treatment, but they seemed pretty happy to get out of the office for a while since it was Nigel and me and then 3 police officers.
I don't care about the stolen camera that much since I'll probably get the money back from my insurance. The thing that really bothers me though is the whole set up! The guy was dressed all nicely, clean clothes, a camera bag over his shoulder - almost like a normal tourist. He walked up the hill in front of us, then fell back a little and sat down on some stairs next to the road (probably to check us out and to wait for the right moment).
The rock-throwing-part also upset me a lot. I imagined what it would have been like if they would have hit Nigel's head and seriously injured him? I wonder if they would have cared.
I was pissed off the whole afternoon and evening (and I still am now when I think about it). I wanted to kick or punch someone really hard and I don't know what would have happened if I would have come across those guys on the street...
Oh well, it could have ended a lot worse and I wasn't expecting to get through my 4 months in South America without anything like that happening.
I'm in fight-mode now whenever something like that happens again ;)(kidding, we actually agreed not to interfere again and just let them take off with the stuff next time)
I'm glad that we're heading down to Patagonia on Friday to go hiking and camping in the wilderness... less chance of getting robbed down there :)
I will still be able to put up pictures online even though it might take a little longer now. I still have my manual FM10 with me and I can have them put the pictures on a CD when I get the roll of film developed.
We walked around the city for a bit on a special tourist-walking-track that's supposed to be nice and scenic. We turned into a little sidestreet and walked up a hill where I stopped to take a picture with my digital camera. I was just about to put it back into my backpack when a guy runs up to me from behind, rips the camera out of my hand and takes off. Nigel started chasing after him until we realized that he had an accomplice with him who picked up two bricks and threw them at Nigel.
I was pretty freaked out at that point and just yelled to let them have the camera before somthing more serious happens.
Nigel ended up with a pretty big bleeding bruise on his arm and some scraped off skin on the other wrist.
Everything happend so quickly, it was over within about half a minute and I don't think I've realized at that point what had just happened. If I rewind the situation in my head now I wish I would have yelled at them: Arschloecher,fucking bastards, puta madre... but I was too perplex to say anything!
Afterwards we went to the next police office and all they basically did was write a report for my insurance company. The description of the two thieves wasn't really important to them. Nothing they can do about it - that's it!
Kind of disappointing but also understandable if you take into account that things like that happen all the time(one of the police guys told us that approximately 10 robbed tourists come in every day). They were really helpful afterwards though! We got a ride in the police car to the next hospital where Nigel's injuries got taken care of and then the police guys drove us back to our hostel. At first it felt kind of weird, all this special treatment, but they seemed pretty happy to get out of the office for a while since it was Nigel and me and then 3 police officers.
I don't care about the stolen camera that much since I'll probably get the money back from my insurance. The thing that really bothers me though is the whole set up! The guy was dressed all nicely, clean clothes, a camera bag over his shoulder - almost like a normal tourist. He walked up the hill in front of us, then fell back a little and sat down on some stairs next to the road (probably to check us out and to wait for the right moment).
The rock-throwing-part also upset me a lot. I imagined what it would have been like if they would have hit Nigel's head and seriously injured him? I wonder if they would have cared.
I was pissed off the whole afternoon and evening (and I still am now when I think about it). I wanted to kick or punch someone really hard and I don't know what would have happened if I would have come across those guys on the street...
Oh well, it could have ended a lot worse and I wasn't expecting to get through my 4 months in South America without anything like that happening.
I'm in fight-mode now whenever something like that happens again ;)(kidding, we actually agreed not to interfere again and just let them take off with the stuff next time)
I'm glad that we're heading down to Patagonia on Friday to go hiking and camping in the wilderness... less chance of getting robbed down there :)
I will still be able to put up pictures online even though it might take a little longer now. I still have my manual FM10 with me and I can have them put the pictures on a CD when I get the roll of film developed.
Sunday, December 03, 2006
From La Serena to Santiago
It´s been so long since I last updated - I don´t even know where to start...
We spent about 4 days in La Serena, a nice town right by the ocean that apparently gets really crowded with people from Santiago in the summer months but was still quiet when we were there.
One of the nights we went to ´Mamalluca´, an amateur observatory which was pretty spectacular. We´ve been told that Chile is one of the best places in the world to observe stars due to the almost perfect sky conditions (clear atmosphere, low humidity etc.)
Unfortunately my camera started acting all weird just when we got there, so no pictures! :( There´s something wrong with the CCD-sensor, a manufacturing defect on some Canon cameras. I found out after a couple of days that when I slam it really hard it starts working again - so that´s my new technique until I´ll get back to Germany and try getting it replaced ;)
Apart from that we went on a tour through Valle de Elqui, famous for its Pisco (typical Chilean liquor made out of grapes) and wine. We got to check out a Pisco factory and a really cute little vineyard (tasting all the different types included). The wine here is so cheap too! It´s great to be able to get a really nice bottle for only about 4€!
Eventually we decided to try and make our way down south to Santiago by hitchhiking and it wasn´t as hard as I expected it to be! After only 20 minutes of waiting we hitched a ride with a really nice guy in his truck: a bumpy 6-hour drive but really nice views of the Chilean coast! He even gave us his number and offered to give us a lift all the way down to Patagonia but we ended up buying a flight instead since it would have been another 30 hours.
We´re staying here in Santiago with the family of Nigel´s sister´s boyfriend and it´s sooooo nice to finally be in a place that has a clean bathroom after a long time of traveling and staying in crappy and disgusting hostels. It starts getting on your nerves after a while when every time you take a shower you struggle with trying not to touch the walls, shower curtain or other disgusting things in a dirty bathroom covered with other people´s hair.
Santiago is also fun cause we got in touch with some friends of friends (thanks Julie for the Eddie-hookup!) that know their way around the city and took us out on the weekend. And in general it´s just a really nice and laid back city despite it´s size.
We saw a group of people dancing in a park to drums, felt a bit like the South American Loveparade version, but was cool to watch.
We´re just planing our trip to Patagonia now and then hop on the plane to get down there in a couple of days. The 19 days of trekking are gonna be tough, especially after lazing around for such a long time... but I´m excited and really looking forward to it!
We spent about 4 days in La Serena, a nice town right by the ocean that apparently gets really crowded with people from Santiago in the summer months but was still quiet when we were there.
One of the nights we went to ´Mamalluca´, an amateur observatory which was pretty spectacular. We´ve been told that Chile is one of the best places in the world to observe stars due to the almost perfect sky conditions (clear atmosphere, low humidity etc.)
Unfortunately my camera started acting all weird just when we got there, so no pictures! :( There´s something wrong with the CCD-sensor, a manufacturing defect on some Canon cameras. I found out after a couple of days that when I slam it really hard it starts working again - so that´s my new technique until I´ll get back to Germany and try getting it replaced ;)
Apart from that we went on a tour through Valle de Elqui, famous for its Pisco (typical Chilean liquor made out of grapes) and wine. We got to check out a Pisco factory and a really cute little vineyard (tasting all the different types included). The wine here is so cheap too! It´s great to be able to get a really nice bottle for only about 4€!
Eventually we decided to try and make our way down south to Santiago by hitchhiking and it wasn´t as hard as I expected it to be! After only 20 minutes of waiting we hitched a ride with a really nice guy in his truck: a bumpy 6-hour drive but really nice views of the Chilean coast! He even gave us his number and offered to give us a lift all the way down to Patagonia but we ended up buying a flight instead since it would have been another 30 hours.
We´re staying here in Santiago with the family of Nigel´s sister´s boyfriend and it´s sooooo nice to finally be in a place that has a clean bathroom after a long time of traveling and staying in crappy and disgusting hostels. It starts getting on your nerves after a while when every time you take a shower you struggle with trying not to touch the walls, shower curtain or other disgusting things in a dirty bathroom covered with other people´s hair.
Santiago is also fun cause we got in touch with some friends of friends (thanks Julie for the Eddie-hookup!) that know their way around the city and took us out on the weekend. And in general it´s just a really nice and laid back city despite it´s size.
We saw a group of people dancing in a park to drums, felt a bit like the South American Loveparade version, but was cool to watch.
We´re just planing our trip to Patagonia now and then hop on the plane to get down there in a couple of days. The 19 days of trekking are gonna be tough, especially after lazing around for such a long time... but I´m excited and really looking forward to it!
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Into Chile
After crossing the border into Chile we took a bus down south to La Serena, a nice town about 8 hours north of Santiago. The busride down took 22 hours and was exhausting since we had to get off the bus several times for police controls (one of them at 1.00 in the morning). They make you take all your luggage off the bus and then go through your stuff searching for drugs - in our case all they found was dirty clothes and stinky socks. Must be a really unpleasant job!
Chile has been nice so far even though it is a lot more western than Ecuador and Peru and also A LOT more expensive! :(
Talking to locals can be really frustrating and makes me feel like the 4 weeks of Spanish classes were worth nothing! The people here talk sooooo fast and shorten a lot of the words. Most of the time when I listen to them I just go : "Whaaaaat???!!!???" afterwards... and they´ll repeat it again... in the same speed!!! Buhuuuu!
Chile has been nice so far even though it is a lot more western than Ecuador and Peru and also A LOT more expensive! :(
Talking to locals can be really frustrating and makes me feel like the 4 weeks of Spanish classes were worth nothing! The people here talk sooooo fast and shorten a lot of the words. Most of the time when I listen to them I just go : "Whaaaaat???!!!???" afterwards... and they´ll repeat it again... in the same speed!!! Buhuuuu!
Peruvian Hospital-Hell!!!
Have been travelling through Peru for the past couple of days with a from Diarrhea suffering Nigel. When it got to the point where he couldn´t keep anything in anymore & lost his appetite completely we decided to go to the hospital in Tacna, a bordertown close to Chile.
I don´t think anyone of you has been to a hospital like that before, the word CHAOTIC describes it perfectly!!! When I walked into the emergency room I could watch a surgery going on through an open door, the patient unconscious on the table and the doctor stitching his head back together, blood everywhere... YUM!
After struggling with explaining what Nigel´s problem was (the fact that the nurses & doctors spoke REALLY fast didn´t make the whole situation easier) we got sent from one place to the next one, had to pay for the consultation in a different part of the building, head back and hand in a stoolsample, pay for the labratory expenses (again in a different part of the building), get all the medication in the hospital farmacy and additionally stop at a farmacy outside the hospital complex cause apparently they didn´t have syringes in the hospital...!!!
After 3 hours they eventually injected some undefinable liquid into Nigel´s vein and sent us home with some antibiotics.
I´m more than glad that I haven´t been seriously sick on this trip! I have to say I don´t really trust this whole system.
I don´t think anyone of you has been to a hospital like that before, the word CHAOTIC describes it perfectly!!! When I walked into the emergency room I could watch a surgery going on through an open door, the patient unconscious on the table and the doctor stitching his head back together, blood everywhere... YUM!
After struggling with explaining what Nigel´s problem was (the fact that the nurses & doctors spoke REALLY fast didn´t make the whole situation easier) we got sent from one place to the next one, had to pay for the consultation in a different part of the building, head back and hand in a stoolsample, pay for the labratory expenses (again in a different part of the building), get all the medication in the hospital farmacy and additionally stop at a farmacy outside the hospital complex cause apparently they didn´t have syringes in the hospital...!!!
After 3 hours they eventually injected some undefinable liquid into Nigel´s vein and sent us home with some antibiotics.
I´m more than glad that I haven´t been seriously sick on this trip! I have to say I don´t really trust this whole system.
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