Flamingos pur(pur)
written by admin am 10. April 2010 | archived in Bolivien, Chile, in English, Südamerika
from Chile to Bolivia
written by admin am 5. April 2010 | archived in Bolivien, in English, Südamerika
From Santiago (350m) to San Pedro de Atacama (2.300m) from there through the desert, salt lakes and geysers, to 4.850m above sea level, chewing coca leaves and meeting amazing Bruno – a doctor of desert in his jogging-dress 
–click here to read the whole story…
Von Santiago auf 350m nach San Pedro de Atacama auf 2.300m, von da durch die Wüste an Salzseen und Geysiren vorbei auf 4.850m über n.N., Coca-Blätter-kauend trafen wir Bruno den erstaunlichen Wüstenarzt im Jogginganzug. Klick hier, um die ganze Geschichte zu lesen –> Den ganzen Beitrag lesen »
Mendoza, all about wine
written by admin am 24. März 2010 | archived in Argentinien, in English, Südamerika
In vino veritas – ”in wine [there is the] truth” …
The province around Mendoza is the most important wine region in Argentina. More than 50% of the 1.500 wine producers are located here. 
Mendoza is not far away from the Andes and the highest mountain: Mt. Acongaua, with 6.962m the highest in America and outside Asia.
Jan wanted to climb up but after Verena heard that it takes between 13 to 15 days, you really need good weather conditions, a lot of people get anoxia [altitude sickness] and about 100 people died during their hike since the last 50 years … well, Jan had to stay in Mendoza .
So we took the bus to the wineries and on the sunniest day since we left Patagonia we had some guided tours incl. tasting through all the vineyards located adjacent to Maipu, a little wine-village. In the famous vineyard of Trapiche, one of the oldest – existing since 125 years, we were told that they produce 25.000.000 liters of wine each year. 45% is drunken by the Argentineans, the rest goes to foreign countries, for example Germany. 
These south american alcoholics used to drink 92 liters wine each year pP! Now the average consume of wine is about 32 liters (and eat 75kg of meat) – well we got already that the Argentineans are a little bit crazy, but also they are really friendly. After the tasting in the 2nd winery we felt a little bit shaky but kept drinking. We met some guys from Australia/England/USA and stopped at a nice beer garden. We remembered the german saying: “beer after wine – that isn’t fine!” – but who cares?
Bike’n Hike around “Ruta 40″
written by admin am 18. März 2010 | archived in Argentinien, in English, Südamerika
Together with Janet & Michael we drove the National Route 40, 
normally called Ruta 40, which is a route in western Argentina, stretching from the south in Santa Cruz Province to Jujuy Province in the north, running parallel to the Andes and shows breathtaking views along the high mountains and lakes in the valleys. 
Long parts of the route, are unsealed and lead through sparcely populated territory, but in fact the long tour has become a well-known adventure tourism journey.
There is no longer road than Route 40 in Argentina and it is one of the largest in the world (along with the U.S. Route 66 and the Stuart Highway in Australia). The Panamericana is longer but officially not counting because of its break in Dariém Gap between Panama and Columbia. However, it was another 24 hours in a bus and slowly bus riding r e a l l y sucks!
The program in Bariloche, the Argentinean Switzerland, was “bike’n hike”. Verena was tough and struggled all the way up only sometimes pushed by Jans new invention – a bike-puller After a long day on the mountain bikes we didn’t feel like hiking on the 2nd day. So we rented a car and drove from S.C. de Bariloche to San Martin de los Andes, a beautiful village in front of a cute lake and the beginning of huge mountain ranges. We invested 40 [damned] €uro to exchange our tickets to stay one more day in a wonderful appartment with a fire place and lake view.
Torres del Paine, Chile
written by admin am 5. März 2010 | archived in Chile, in English, Südamerika
5 days of trekking. 35kg backpacks, 4 nights in a tent, 65km walking trails and 31 amazing pictures.
Pictures are online already –> “See Us!”
After a big day in El Calafate we drove to Puerto Natales in Chile. This little town is the entrance to the spectacular national park “Torres del Paine” (=“Blue Towers”). A very famous hiking track in the park is called the “W” and means a 5-day walk through different valleys with amazing landscapes and breathtaking views. 
The whole park covers 180.000 hectares and the variety of different vegetations leads to a large presence of mammals like pumas, condors, guanacos, flamingos and an enormous bird fauna.
Click here to go to Torres del Paine Nationalpark
After a long bus ride, we arrived the town at 10 p.m. Our hostel was overbooked so we had to find a new one. We ended up at another hostel with a weird owner called Omar. 
He looked like a child-eating ex-prisoner, but close to midnight we had no other chance. The next morning, surprising Omar baked fresh eggs for breakfast, helped us to plan the trip and was really friendly.
The first day started at 6:00 a.m. We drove to the park and caught the catamaran to cross the lake that we could start from the beginning of the “W”-circuit. 
This way takes 5 to 6 days, covers 80kms and is about 35 hours of walking. Verena carried 13 kilos (8 kilos more than in NZ) and Jan had 23 kilos. The backpacks were full of food, a tent, sleeping bags, mattresses, clothes, cooking facilities and lot more stuff. After the first day we realized that the information signs for time & distances were not really realistic. 
We always took more time with taking pictures and enjoying the beautiful scenery. We finally came across windy lakes and a mirador (lookout) of the Glacier Grey after we stopped for lunch. It was a stunning sight to see the Glacier in the sun. The 1st day stayed sunny all day with only a few high clouds and strong wind much better than we could have expected in Patagonia. The night in the tent was uncomfortable and full of noisy wind around us. 
The 2nd day we walked the long distance of 18km – too long for not well experienced hikers. Marco got pain in his knee and Verena had aching muscles. Therefore we decided to make a shorter walk on the 3rd day. We arrived at the camp after a 5 hour hike at 3:30 in the afternoon and had enough time to relax.
The 4th day Marco stayed at the camp to recover his knee so Verena and Jan walked alone the next long way. A light drizzle started to fall as we trekked along the mountains followed by sun, followed by rain, by sun, by rain … Verena nearly got a nervous breakdown while changing clothes all the time. We were done when we arrived the last campground before the three high towers of Torres del Paine. The next morning we were too lazy to start at 4 a.m. to see the sunrise so we went up 5 hours later but the view was still amazing. Finally we were happy to make the long track and met Marco at the bus station. Furthermore we enjoyed the shower and fresh clothes and a big “bife de chorizo” (Steak) in the evening .
Orcas – and we got them…
written by admin am 20. Februar 2010 | archived in Argentinien, in English, Südamerika
To reduce the costs of the rental car we hired, we created a handout titled “Share a ride?” and put it at the blackboard in the hostel in Puerto Madryn where we stayed. Just a few minutes later we got a call from a really nice couple from Israel. 
We made an appointment for the next day to visit the Península Valdéz again, because two of the roads were closed the day before so we could not visit Punta Norte, the favourite place of the Orcas …
We checked out the times of high tide and low tide to have the best chance for spotting the killer whales, we displaced the lunch into the car during the ride, we accelerated the speed to reach the top of the peninsula in time and f i n a l l y we saw them – it was a m a z i n g !!