Tarabucco – an unforgettable trip

This small village 1h bus ride from Sucre is popular for it’s every Sunday market and it’s festivities on the third weekend in March for Bolivias Independence Day. By chance we happened to be in Sucre on the third weekend in March and our Homestay „mum“ recommended us to take a trip to Tarabuco with a guy she knows. You can go their independently, but she told us, that it will be hard to find accommodation in Tarabucco on that weekend.

Our trip started on Saturday afternoon at 3:15 pm with me feeling quit ill (I really considered skipping the trip.) Together with Sanchia, Lucia and Sean we enter the diverging bus (Yeah well it’s Bolivia.). After we collected more people including our guide we headed off for Tarabucco. Unfortunately not for long, because after a short stop to check the conditions of a wheel we heard an explosion, saw the dust creeping into the bus before the bus stopped next to the cliff. On front wheel exploded. Yeah no reason to worry. Even though the driver couldn’t get the extra wheel loose he managed to exchange the broken one with one of the back twin tires.

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Having a flat tire on a bus ride in Bolivia is a common part of the trip, so better bring some food.

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We used the time to get to know the rest of the people in our group. I mean it was sunny and the landscape amazing.

This one lasted for more or less 200m before it broke down with a puncture so we went for the safe version and loaded our backpacks and a stack of mattresses from the bus on the road and the bus was heading back to Sucre. A new one was to come.

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No it’s not the same tire from a different angel.

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If it wouldn’t be for the hunger and the setting sun there were worse places to hang out and we seemed to be a good amusement for all Bolivians going to Tarabucco.

With a delay if three hours we arrived at the main plaza in Tarabuco. Unloaded the backpacks and mattresses that we only had to carry another 500 m down a by now dark dusty street to a small blue door. Behind the door waited what was to be our camp for the night. A moldy room that had to fit all 12 off us + 2 guides + 2 people that showed up during the night. We unrolled the 30 cm to short stained mattresses and prepared for the party to come.
First the guide let us to a rather simple restaurant were they severed us food of questionable quality. But the two chicken wings were deep fried so at least nothing was living in them. And then we headed off the the concert that was taking place in the huge sport hall. This was a weird thing in the beginning. Everybody was sitting on cold stone steps waiting for the concert to begin and stayed there even when the concert started. After an hour everybody in the group was so cold, that they wanted to head on. Our guide somehow seemed to be a bit overwhelmed by the requirements of his group since he let us to something that should be a party but was just a noisy dark room. And they actually wanted to charge us extra 10 BOV. So Tom and me decided go back to the concert and blended with the dancing locals which finally turned out to be quite fun. Funnily every single band had at least one guy playing the pan flute. Didn’t know that pan flutes are that popular in Bolivia. After the concert we just went for some more calories in form of a grilled street pizza before settling a bit uncomfortably in our room. At some point in the night also our guides returned drunken and noisy. And fell asleep were they falling. Meaning one of them next to Sanchia.

If he ever offers to be your guide, run!

If he ever offers to be your guide, run!

The next day started as the previous promised. A confused guide trying to find breakfast for twelve people, surprised  that the market is crowded on a day like this and then tried to fed us on one roll and a coffee. On the question when the ceremonial dancing starts he didn’t know the answer either, so we finally gave up on him and walked around the city in our own, finally found the dancers and the festival square with the it’s eatable tower (after the festival the mayor distributes the food between the people).

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The dancers had a little extra feature, there shows were capable of leaving you deaf behind.

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Ice creme was next to everything that can be fried to most consumed energy source on this festival. Interestingly most people didn’t drink alcohol during the dancing for Pachemama (mother earth). Only saw „gringos“ with beer cans in their hands.

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A typical scene found around the festival place, with dancers (only men), woman in their traditional clothing and a few out of place tourists.

We were supposed to leave at two so we had some backed through food before heading back to the house with the blue door. There the guide was waiting for us to take us out for lunch. We skipped that and according to the face of one of the French guys we didn’t missed out on something. So now we only had to carry our mattresses back the 20 min to the official bus station before we could drive back to Sucre without any further incidents. It was by far the worst „tour“ we ever attended.

Happy to leave?

Happy to leave?

At this point I have to say that Tarabucco and the festival of independence is really worth a visit. Alone the bus drive offering views of the open landscape of the bolivian plateau is great and with regular punctures you usually even have photo stops. The village has a big market selling whatever you can think of and the traditions of dancing to honor Mother Earth is something you rarely experience. Just book an accommodation in advance and take the public bus (Guys that took it the told us they had a puncture too, but only one.).

Sucre – aprendía español

My memories of Sucre are colored by the fact that I was feeling ill for most of the time (I will probably never find out why they always give you infusions when you go to foreign hospitals.), so I didn’t even manage to see much more than the market, our Homestay and the way to my spanish school.

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Feeling very untouristy eating at the market, but leave your fingers of the salad. They wash it in the river an not even the locals eat it without getting stomach issues.

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The chief. One of dozens and though not the healthiest it was delicious food.

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Shopping leek. We emptied the the place of it, because nobody in our homestay ever tried it before.

Our favourite place in the central market, the fruit juice stands. You get everything freshly made with our without milk and/or sugar, if you ask for it.

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Yummi and it always comes with a second helping.

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Zebras explaining how to use zebra crossing and jumping in front of moving cars, if their driver are to ignorant (of course the crossing are also equipped with traffic lights just lines on the ground would never work).

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My spanish teacher. Did a good job on me, now I only need to practise.

But as far as I can judge Sucre is quite a clean, quite and safe place. And even tough the name „Sucre“ doesn’t have anything to do with sugar the white buildings in the center somehow reminded you of icing on a cake.

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Sucre lies, like most andean cities in a valley, where the centre is the lowest point and the poorer districts crawl up the hill sides.

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The white houses of Sucre. I assume the have a decree against colored wall paint.

What really made a difference was our stay with Bertha and her little family. We spend in total two weeks in her Homestay, playing with Coco the lovable dog that hates locals but loves foreigners, cooking food with Bertha and other guest, saw Bolivian movies and playing Volleysquash also called Squallyball a mix between squash and volleyball. In the end we really had a hard time leaving.

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Coco would immediately lay down spread his legs and ask for cuddle units from you.

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One of the many dinner gatherings in Bertha’s kitchen.

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Because Bertha is a big fan of this german dish, I made my first lentils soup. A little piece from home.

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Playing squallyball is really fun, quite physical demanding and played by Tom leaves you some bruises.

 

Salar de Uyuni – tons of salt at 4000 m

Entering the minivan at 7:30 am several tiered faces that would accompany us the next three days greeted us.

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The Party companions: Pyria, Jen, Lisa, Gigi, Tom, me and of course of lovely guide and driver.

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Great guy, always in good mood, with a little knowledge of English, and a save and most important sober driver.

First stop: Police station San Pedro for the emigration stamp from Chile.
Second stop: At already 4000 m for the immigration stamp to Bolivia and finally breakfast. By that time Gigi our Italian companion was already starting to feel sick.

We were definitely not the only ones going on this triṕ.

At the border to Bolivia we realized that we were definitely not the only ones going on this trip. Citation Tom: „Must be good, when so many people go there.“

Third stop: Laguna Blanca and Verde. Their colour is determined by different salts and shows up when the wind disrupts the mirroring surface.

I think based on the color that this is Laguna Verde (I was quite confused after five lakes on one day.).

I think based on the color that this is Laguna Verde (I was quite confused after five lakes on one day.).

Fourth stop: Dieserto Dali looking like one if Dali’s pictures and thereby getting this name.
Fifth stop: Agua termales a small hot pool set in the beautiful landscape of a salt lake.

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This time I refused to get undressed, but Tom had a good time …

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… while I couldn’t stop taking pictures of this amazing colors.

Sixth stop: Geyser Sol de Mañana getting its name from the colored ground surrounding the grey mud pools.

Okay, Tom always cheats with his polarisation filter, but the colors are impressive.

Okay, Tom always cheats with his polarisation filter, but the colors are impressive.

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They don’t drive a single meter any more but make for a really good motive. Dead trains on their cemetery.

Seventh stop: Lunch finally at 3 pm.
Eighth stop: Laguna Colorada a salt lake colored like the polish flag. White from the borax salts and red from the algae growing in the flat water, sprinkled with hundreds of pink flamingos.

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I am not quit sure, whether I got the English/Spanish right, but I think the color is supposed to come from the red algae growing in the lake.

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And there were lots of them and we took dozens of pictures so you have to cope a least with the three here.

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Hmm, wonder what the green one had to eat?

In between our tight schedule we were driving through a landscape formed of sand and white, yellow and red salt. By the end of the day I had to consult our schedule to remember what we all did. We settled down for the night at 4300 m and slowly the altitude was hitting in. Gigi that didn’t felt well all day were suffering the most not even able to drink a sip of coke no talking of eating or breathing. But no one could really fall a sleep, so we spent hours listening music, watching TopGear and going to the toilet. No wonder everybody was a bit destroyed the next day.

The morning was cold and despite the rainy season beautiful. So off we went to our safari through more desert and salt.

What a beautiful morning! just took a little effort to walk the 100 m to take the picture :).

What a beautiful morning! just took a little effort to walk the 100 m to take the picture :).

First stop: funny stones washed out by time that everybody was keen to climb except the holly one.

The little mermaid in the desert.

The little mermaid in the desert.

Second stop: more stones that represent the habitat of some ancient plants looking like moos but being hard like stone.

Don't really know why the form this knobs. Maybe the wind.

Don’t really know why the form this knobs. Maybe the wind.

Third to fifth stop: salt lagunes of different size and color all coming with a bunch of flamingos.

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You just get the picture of one here.

Sixth stop: an active Vulcan, by now 60% of the Group were already to tired to get out of the Jeep to take pictures.

And then around the corner it showed up. The biggest salt lake of the world: Salar de Uyuni. The view was impressive and we only got a tiny glimpse of it. Thank to the sunny weather we were able to drive through the salt lake to our final destination: a hostel made of salt. Driving through the endlessness of salt gave us a first taste of what was to come the next day: water like illusions all over the horizon gave a feeling of riding over the sea.

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The first glimpse of the salar: not a lake, but a sea of salt.

Found new friends during our shopping break.

Found new friends during our shopping break.

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The dinning room in our salt hotel. Even the deco was mad of this corrosive material. And i found the stuff between my toes after dinner.

The next morning after a good nights sleep we entered the jeep at 5 am for our first stop sunrise at the isla de pescada home of hundreds kakti. Unfortunately we missed the sunrise but the scenery was anyway paying of for that.

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An almost sunrise over the salt sea.

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A kind of special location for a breakfast.

And than the illusions began first in the whiteness of the salt and than on the thin watery surface on some part of the salt lake. I have never seen something like that.

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Only time in my life, that I am taller and stronger than Tom :).

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Maybe we should have baptised the blog „with apple travelling the trains and busses of the world“.

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An here the whole team. Some really are skilled jumpers for pictures.

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The most popular salt hotel had be to turned into museum due to sanitation issues. Guess it{s not easy to build a sewer into salt.

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If you don’t have some obstacles …

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… you can’t determine where sky stops.

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By the way, some of the salt is indeed used form nutritional and cosmetic purposes. Here it’s build into hills to dry before harvesting.

A perfect lunch and a few old trains later we arrived in Uyuni, relaxing with beer and pizza before our bus left for Sucre.

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The dead trains close to Uyuni.

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Tom couldn’t resist climbing them.

San Pedro and it’s Tours

After a short visit of Kristin in our favourite SA city we headed off north to San Pedro the Atacama.

After a short stop in at Kristin’s in our favourite south american city we headed off north to San Pedro the Atacama.

At the time of visit 63 travel agencies, running the most popular tours, were located in the town. Some destinations can unfortunately only be reached by a tour so we had the great fun of picking some that hopefully wouldn’t at least kill us (several dangers lay in front if us: altitude sickness, boiling geysers, unpaved roads, the simple fact of being in a desert and the likeliness of a drunken driver somewhere in Bolivia). We chose based on tripadviser and a funny/creepy book to be found in the tourist office if SPDA (Sam Pedro de Atacama) collecting complains and praises of travel agencies in town.

Some questions you would want to keep in mind will talking to any 
tour operator:

Which tour company is it?
How Many thanks to Tom apeople are going to be on the tour?
Does the guide speak English?
How long does the tour last?
How much time are we going to have at the POI?
What does the tour include?
Are there extra fees to be paid?
Is water included in the tour?
What do you have to bring?
Do the driver drink alcohol?
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Roaming the main street of SPDA. You will find a few locals, many tourist, 63 tour operators and even more eateries (quite good and cheap though), many hostles and lots of sand.

It’s 4:30 in the morning. Busses of all sizes are roaming the through the streets of clay and sand. Tourist are squatting in front of every hostel desperately watching bus after bus go by until at one point one is stopping and feeding them into its belly and heads off to the mountains.

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It’s 4.30 in the morning but the streets are busy with tourist and minivans. Get the feeling everybody booked a tour for this day.

The advise from Paco against altItsitude sickness was to breath slowly and deeply and wait for your brain to tell the body what to do. And of course chewing coca leaves. It’s perfectly legal in Chile but don’t try to pass a drug test soon after.

Still in the middle of the night we arrived at the geysers at 4000m because you get the best lights for pictures is during sunrise. Not for us, fog wrapped us tightly making the the whole place kind of spooky. Our guide again told us that you have to come here early because the geysers stopp spitting water after 9 am (by the end of the day I didn’t believed half of what he was telling us but it was entertaining anyway).
Not sure whether it's fog or steam? Better keep an eye out for the boiling geysers.

Not sure whether it’s fog or steam? Better keep an eye out for the boiling geysers.

Heading down again provided some more or less worth visiting attractions. Some hot pots of dazzling blue color and boiling hot temperature, a hot pool that was rather cool and of dubious hygienic conditions, a adean village build for tourist with locals selling lama BBQ of unclear origins (we had one anyway), a 4000 year old ruins of another village looking like build yesterday (as I said I did not take everything for real by that time) and lots of beautiful scenery, vicuñas (wild lamas), flamingos, and viscachas (a relative of the chinchilla). By the time we got back to the hostel we were so exhausted that we spent the rest of the day eating and sleeping.
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Tom got me to go in there despite the freezing temperatures outside. I regretted it immediately. Cold, slimy and my skin started itching right away.

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And than finally the sun came out, unfortunately we already left the geysers behind.

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A volcano relfecting it self in a puddle of water (we found quite a lot water around here, despite the fact being in a desert).

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Vincunas, the desert lama. By now they are protected in Chile and only a few people have the licence to cut the fur and use it for handicraft for tourists, of course.

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Lama BBQ. A bit chewy, but okay. Now way right here to proof its really lama.

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But they look happy enough to not be the source for the BBQ.

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Viscachas are pretty shy, so we were pretty lucky to see one. To me it looks a bit like a mix of rabbit and guinea pig („Meerninchen“ in german).

The next morning (rather night) at 3:40 we were picked up by Jorge to do what Tom said he wanted to do. Watching the stars. Jorge explained us quite a lot about the southern sky and astronomy in general. Let us play with his telescopes and pointed out stars and planets for us (we saw Jupiter and it’s moons as well as Saturn) which was really amazing and paid of for the lack of sleep.

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It’s not that often you can catch a glimps of the milky way, but here you can nearly ervery night.

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Saturn as we saw it through the telescope. Really impressive.

You could probably spent several weeks here enjoying this incredible landscape but we just had time for one more small trip with Tom and Jeanette from Canada. The took us up to the salt flats and insulting rock formations around San Pedro including a some acclimatization time at 4600 m. Time just flew by while chatting in their car and soon our last day in San Pedro was over. After a finally a refreshing sleep of 8 h we headed of for Salar de Uyuni the next day.

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Many thanks to Tom and Jeanette for taking us to the STONES :).

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Don’t tell me, what is the first thing you are thinking of, when you see this. Oh yeah a rock by a salt lake!

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We always thought its not raining in the desert. We were kind of wrong, but luckily missed the floods that were to come a few days later to Atacama.

Mendoza – Bacchus summer residence

The first thing that you recognize when arriving in Mendoza are green trees, bushes and parks. And this after driving for hours through the sand and dry landscape of a desert. Already the Incas used water courses to redirect the river coming from the mountains which were improved and are still used today and thereby creating this oasis.
Something of the green generated by the clever water systems and we were even allowed to try it.

Something of the green generated by the clever water systems and we were even allowed to try it.

These clever water systems in combination with the christianisation by the Spanish also cause Mendozas main attraction. Wine! Numerous wine yards around Mendoza produce some excellent grapes in this region of 300 sunny days a year. A speciality being a wine called Malbec. Originally from France it disappeared in Europe (I never tried it before.) during a wine pest but just flourish in the dry conditions here. It’s of almost black color, with a good amount spicy tannins (Never drink red wine without tannins. It will just result in a headache the next day.) and a flavor a black berries.
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„Never drink wine without tannins“ was the good advice from the lady, that gave us a tasting of the to me unknown Malbec at two different occasions.

After our first night including a free wine tasting in the hostel and half a cow in a restaurant we found our selfs with a bunch of people from the hostel in bus 10/171 on the way to Maipu and it’s many wine yards. Due to some indirectness of the route it took much longer than expected and at a certain point the driver just ordered us out of the bus recommending to walk the rest (Bus 10/172 would have been the direct one but surely less scenic).
Not the best bikes, but decent cheap and including a small bottle of water (Where is the wine?).

Not the best bikes, but decent cheap and including a small bottle of water (Where is the wine?).

We grabbed some bikes from one of the renting shops and headed of to the first wine yard. Here we met the girl from our tasting the night before, now not only explaining the difference between red and white wine but also how to distinguish different wine plants, how the wine is produced and what is so special about Malbec (very sensitive to bad wheather) and she let us taste their premium wine that is only sold in Argentina and of course Germany.
You can already smell the difference on the barrel or just smell the difference of one to another barrel.

You can already smell the difference on the barrel or just smell the difference of one to another barrel.

These premium wines really were the best of the day and somebody is selling them somewhere in Germany!

These premium wines really were the best of the day and somebody is selling them somewhere in Germany!

After this we went to two more wine yards and one bodega ending up with more than a bottle each in our bloodstream.
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Spirtis (or alcohol blood level) were getting high im bodegas and vineyards.

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People working hard to bottle the wine.

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People working not that hard to unbottle them again.

Accidents can not be excluded under such circumstance but luckily not more than a big scratch resulted from the fall in the ditch. Since spirits were already high and the day still young nobody put a veto to dinner and more wine bottles, so the next day was completely devoted to recovery.
How smart. Tasting different wines from the same yard over for each other. Bt don't mess with the glasses, because the drue is indicated in the paper below.

How smart. Tasting different wines from the same yard over for each other. But don’t mess with the glasses, because the grape is indicated in the paper below.

Bariloche or the tiny Switzerland of Nazi Germans

We can’t deny it. After the Second World War many Germans flew to South America especially Argentina and in Bariloche you find many of their traces mingled into the argentine culture. Cute little „Spitzdachhäuser“, German schools teaching in Spanish, German bakeries that sell at least one kind of integral bread, breweries offering deals including the argentine version of pizza with loads of cheese, chocolate manufactures producing pralines filled with dulce de leche and even the landscape resembles some Swiss features tough the network of lakes and hills is much more impressive than anything I have seen in Europe.
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First thing is Bariloche: having a bear and pizza. Second thing in Bariloche: not feeling you are in Argentina if it weren’t for the loud argentine band in the background.

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I was so happy, when we entered this chocolate store and even got a sample for free until I bit it and my mouth filled with this caramelised milk stuff „dulce de leche“.

Here we finally got what we came for to Argentina: not the beautiful landscape or the argentine culture, no we came for steak and wine. The recommended restaurant is really popular we Israelis meaning you get huge amounts for a reasonable price but you have to show up early. We came 20 min before the place opened and squeezed in just before a group if 22 Israelis. And than came the difficult part of what to chose. Bife de lomo turned out to be 4 cm thick and tender steaks and the normal argentine portion of 500g sufficient to make our stomachs just about to burst.
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Just cut it very thick and add a bit of salt and then over on the BBQ.

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We estimated at least one cow went over this BBQ per night.

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Tom in great expectations!

To make up for the unreasonable protein intake we went for a bike tour in the National Park the next day. We rented bikes at km 18.6 (kind of an unusual address) which turned out to be good mountain bikes that came in handy on the hilly road (flat was not existent). The views on the lakes are worth every km and you can visit a lot of side tracks, so we actually 5.5 h to cover the 25 km of the circuit.

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I guess, thats why they call it the lake district.

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The most famous and probably also the most expensive Hotel of Argentina lays in this Nationalpark. And don’t tell me, that you are bot thinking of Switzerland in this moment.

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Here you also find the famous red trees also called „llao-llao“?

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The best view of the day came 3 km before the finishing line.

El Chalten – the little sister of Torres del Paine

When we finished Torres del Paine both of is were relatively done with hiking and carrying around heavy backpacks. Unfortunately everybody told us to stop by El Chalten in Argentina for some more hiking. „It’s really beautyfull.“ So we did.

Since we were also a little tired of booking ahead we arrived there not knowing were to stay. The tourist information here is very helpful and pointed out the hostels that had some free space (it weren’t many). We ended up in a cheap but a little creepy place surrounded by french (whatever it is about them and adventure holidays), the owner only spoke Spanish but was really nice tough. We spent two days hiking up the steep hills around El Chalten Cerro Torres and the dominating Frits Roy always in the corner of our eyes. The landscape here is really beautiful but not that different from Torres del Paine.
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The biggest lake in the area spans over 17 km and is a little eye catcher on top of the mountain.

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The mountain range around El Chalten and it’s wooden explanation, including „El Torre“, „Fritz Roy“ and „El Tomasz“ also known as „Cerro Knubbel“.

The famous Fritz Roy, sunning on this beautiful day in February.

The famous Fritz Roy, sunning on this beautiful day in February.

El Chalten on an early sunny morning (just reminded us that we forgot to bring the sun creme).

El Chalten itself was only founded by Argentina a few decades ago to claim the area from Chile. Only the attractive landscape around drawing the tourists here provide a livelihood, so you can guess what’s dominating the place: Hostels, restaurants, tour agencies, kiosks and panaderias selling empenadas (dough moons filled with meat, vegetables or ham and cheese).

El Chalten on an early sunny morning (just reminded us that we forgot to bring the sun creme).

El Chalten on an early sunny morning (just reminded us that we forgot to bring the sun creme).

Somehow we expected Argentina to be cheaper than Chile (at least that’s what everybody keeps claiming). It isn’t. Especially when you don’t bring Euro or USD. Argentina has an extremely high inflation and since 2011 a law prohibits the investment of money in foreign currency. Therefore everybody here wants to keep there savings in USD. You are able to change USD for a 30% higher rate than the official rate which really saves a lot of money. Luckily somebody already told us in Santiago ;).

Around los Torres

The journey from Santiago to the National Park Torres del Paine was quite a long one. Getting up 4 am to take the bus to the airport were a plane (I still think it was one that easyjet discharged.) took us to Puerto Montt and then to Punta Arenas. From there we wanted to take the shuttle bus to puerto natales, the harbor to Torres del Paine. Stupidly enough you have to pre-book this bus which we didn’t. So we ended up taking the shuttle bus to Punta Arenas. Arriving there we were told all buses to Puerto Natalas were booked for the afternoon. At least we found one taking us there at 6:30 pm and we used the time to eat the last greasy Chilean meat for the next days.

Since we planned on a 8-9 days hike on the track around the Torres (tower) of Paine (Paine is the river in the National Park) we stocked up our supplies in Santiago to cover for the calories that we are going to burn during the next days. For the complete list see below.

Essentials
392 kcal coffee
910 kcal coffee mate (coffee whitener)
Breakfast
2665 kcal Müsli
1984 kcal milk powder
2143 kcal instant oats
778 kcal oats
117 kcal cornflakes
1152 kcal almonds
748 kcal rasins
Lunch
6006 kcal Wraps
250 kcal bread
960 kcal rolls
3007 kcal Salami
3103 kcal cheese
632 kcal coca cola
750 kcal ice creme
3125 kcal peanut butter
Dinner
1800 kcal Couscous
416 kcal tuna
480 kcal avocado
372 kcal butter
1156 kcal rice with champions
1104 kcal rice chicken
1112 kcal Asia instant noodles
369 kcal pumpkin soup
343 kcal broccoli soup
2052 kcal pasta
389 kcal bolognese sauce
680 kcal red wine
Snacks
768 kcal gran cereal bars
636 kcal trailMix bars
1610 kcal snickers
545 kcal chocolate
1020 kcal muffin max bars
606 kcal cookies
869 kcal creme
620 kcal milk
This gives a total of 45669 kcal for 8 days of hiking meaning 2854 kcal per day and person. We were never hungry, but we could always have eaten more.

Day one
Started just a little hectic. We needed some more money, the last packing and finally some breakfast before we jumped on the bus at 7:30 am. The view at the bus station was awesome. From every direction little Trekkers (terrercitos in spanish) were approaching the bus station and filled up numberous busses to be shuttled to Torres del Paine including us.
I am sure the bus ride was breathtaking but I slept most of the time until the 4 step entry process:
1. Filling the form with you details and the commitment not to destroy the park
2. Pay the fee (18.000 CLP ~ 25 USD)
3. Get a stamp from the ranger
4. Watch a 3 min movie about what not to do in the park

And then you are ready to go. Most people start their trek from here. We anyway took the bus to the western end of the park and hiked the 2 h to the tiny campsite las Carretas (no free camping in the park).

The first scenic view on day one of nine. Wherever you are in the park the scenery is rarely hidden by trees.

The first scenic view on day one of nine. Wherever you are in the park the scenery is rarely hidden by trees.

Day two
Started a lot later. We wanted to get up at 7 but first made it to 8:30 am. It’s really no wonder so many people come here. To me the most beautiful thing is actually the view you have constantly. Now trees blocking the sight of the rushing glacier rivers, lakes and snow capped mountains.

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What was to become Tom’s favourite lake.

 

We arrived at the campsite of the day we found our neighbors to a little family hiking the W in 7 days. Pretty amazing considering the fact that their daughter is three years and their son four months old.

Campamento Italiano were in principle just a hundred coloured tents between even more trees.

Campamento Italiano were in principle just a hundred coloured tents between even more trees.

Day three

Meant leaving the tent behind and hiking up „Valles Frances“ not knowing what was waiting at the end. The soundtrack was composed by the several avalanches coming down the glacier right next to us. Unbelievable how small they seem and how much noise they make. Anyway you will only see them when you look for them, when the sound waves finally reach you the avalanche is already gone.

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And this is what was waiting at the end of Valle Frances. A long chain of mountain peaks. One man was enthusiastic enough to name every single one to his wife, who was more interested in her cheese sandwich.

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View of Lago Nordenkjold from Valles Frances. Wonder which norwegian had his finger in the pie of giving this lake a name.

 

Back on the campsite we hauled the heavy bags again on our backs and headed off for the next campground (this one charged us 15 USD each but at least offered hot showers :)).

Day four
Started with rain pouring down, so despite an early rise we decided to take it slow an prolonged our breakfast until it stopped half past nine (how wise ;)).
The path went along the mesmerizing blue lake until during a long left turn it went up the hill and up the hill. We reached Campamento Torres at 4 pm time enough to went up to the rock formation that gave the park it’s name. And who wouldn’t in this perfect sunshine. Alone our legs were moaning about the steep ascent, but getting around the corner and suddenly see the mountains „tower“ above a small mountain lake is paying off every step.

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Torres del Paine in the shadow of the afternoon sun.

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Despite the sun gave the strong and icy wind already a taste of what was to come the next day.

 

Day five
Started really early, and when I say really early I mean 3:30 am. We boiled water for coffee grabbed sleeping mattress, sleeping bag and the pre-prepared wraps and headed off for the towers a second time in complete darkness (I was really glad we did the track the day before because it got even trickier in the dark.).
5:15 wrapped in several layers of clothing and with a coffee in the hand we waited for the sun to rise. It should take another hour before the tower gleamed in red light. By that time the strong winds had cooled us down to freezing and we stopped taking pictures and crawled in the sleeping bags to just enjoy the view and escape the wind.

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The towers before sunrise.

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The towers after sunrise.

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Tom and Steffi after 1 h waiting for the sunrise.

Then we made us on the long descent with a hotel, little kiosk and ice creme waiting for us at the end. For the last four hours of the day we pimped us with sugary calories that fueled us for ten of the twelve kilometers before we finally hit the wall feeling that it was a long day. 1.5 peanut butter wraps later we arrived at the lovely Campamento Seron. The only real low point, there is no cooking shelter making cooking in this windy conditions a real challenge.

Day six
Meant walking through endless Daisy fields surrounded by the river Paine and chains of different colored snow capped mountains.

Thousands of daisys teem with the icy antarctic wind giving this side of the park a very idyllic face.

Thousands of daisys teem with the icy antarctic wind giving this side of the park a very idyllic face.

Our first expirence with the real Patagonian wind waited one hour behind the campsite on top of a little hill. The valley here us so windy it’s blowing the snot out of your nose. In a constant up and down through more daisys we made out way until we saw from a little cap camp Dickson in the edge if a lake having the glacier Dickson in its backyard.

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Camp Dickson showing off with it’s scenery.

 

Day seven
Was an uneventfull and short day hiking through the green woods along a rushing river that was finished off by some hours if relaxed reading in the tent and eating :).

Here we learned how all the supplies of beer, wine and chocolate reach the remote campsites, by horse  and gaucho. No further complaints about cold showers.

Here we learned how all the supplies of beer, wine and chocolate reach the remote campsites, by horse and gaucho. No further complaints about cold showers.

Day eight
Turned out to be a bit too long for us. We got up early to go over the John gardener Pass that separated us from the last bit of our trip. We were surprised how easy we proceeded and how less wind there were (supposed to be very windy!). When we arrived at the top of the pass we were hit be the enormousness of glacier grey waiting for us on the other side spreading out over dozens of kilometers.

It's huge, really huge.

It’s huge, really huge. try to make out the two people standing on the edge.

The next hours we hiked along the glacier with ever new points of view. When we arrived at the next campground it was still early so we decided to walk another six kilometers to the next one, just after six kilometres there was no campground. The last four k became very long which we only survived on an extra wrap and more snacks. Therefore the day was celebrated in the evening with wine and cookies from the shop at Campamento Grey.

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The last four kilometres were a good up and down, but we were not prepared for the climb through valleys on water pipes.

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A few years earlier a bit part of the park burned down due to a camp fire that got out of control. Since then camp fires are prohibited and fireman train more regularly. But seriously, they are not very fast hiking with their water tubes.

 

Day nine
Was going to be our last day. A leisure hike offered some views if the glacier lake (rock walls blocking it most of the time) and than around the corner there was already the small landing for the ferry bring us back to the bus station and back to beds, vegetables and endless supply of hot water.

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Looking back at glacier grey.

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Waiting for the ferry with a hot coffee and the last salami wraps.

 

It’s a truly wonderful hike, even tough it gets quite busy during high season. At least my pronunciation of ‚hola‘ was perfect after greeting hundreds of trekker.

Valpo on 45 hills

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Valparaiso or short (Valpo) is just a short 2h bus drive from Santiago and Busses go every 15 min. So we left our hiking stuff behind and traveled lightweight to this colored city by the sea side. The city is quite exceptional distributed over 45 hills that are connected by ancient elevators and rainbow colored stairs.

Going up the stairs never gets boring here.

Going up the stairs never gets boring here.

We were adviced that there are some hills that we certainly don’t want to go to, but actual we didn’t felt threatened at any point. It’s nearly impossible to walk around between the painted houses and not just be amazed by the beautiful pictures that decorate most of the walls. Street art is actual illegal in whole chile, but if the owner of the wall (and even the city itself) gives the permission it is okay to paint in them. So many street artist come here to life and paint. Unfortunately also many other people own spray cans and leave their tags (signs) on our next to the paintings. You can probably walk around in ages and discover new paintings every time (since many artist are still very young they will hopefully continue painting for many years).

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You find surely thounds of simple graffities decorating the walls (legal or illegal).

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The couple „color distinto“ and their elaborated paintings changed the view on graffities and the face of Valparaiso substantially.

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But also many other artist leave their traces over the city, working together they create pieces like this one.

Aside from that Valpo is absolutely a place to enjoy life. On our first night we attended a wine tasting organized by a guy from our hostel were we came to try many different Chilean wines and cheese and chatted with other guest from our hostel, so even the tasting was over we kept on drinking beers on the plaza in front if our hostel listening to the street music until 3 am. This also led to a very late breakfast the next day so all we managed to do was to attend the free walking tour before we ended up on the plaza again eating the Chilean version of a hotdog and drinking beer again.

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Trying chliean „Riesling“ …

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… chilean simply but very tasty cow cheese …

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… and enjoying very nice company.

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When we arrived at the Plaza Descanso in front of our hostel it just started to get to life with artisits and musicians, so we got more beer and settled for a few more hours.

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Drinking beer in chilean. You get a glass filled with some lemon juice and its rim covered in salt. Then you add the beer and spices as you like. The first sip is weird but it get continously better.

The chilean version of Hotdog comes with huge amounts of fresh tomatos and avocado topped with ketchup and mayonese.

The chilean version of Hotdog comes with huge amounts of fresh tomatos and avocado topped with ketchup and mayonese.

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The sandboards are hardly more than a painted wooden board with straps. To wax it (which you have to do every 30 m) you get an old piece of candle.

So we had two choices stop drinking beer or extend our stay. We extended the stay to five nights so we had the time to go sand boarding, taking a boat tour, learn even more about graffiti, and dance to the drum music on our favorite plaza (we stopped dancing at 2 am, unfortunately they kept playing until 8:30 am so there wasn’t much sleeping that night).

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We didn’t got a word of what the guide was telling us, but he made sure we were all well prepared for the 30 min ride.

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We also met some of the marine locals of Valpo. They didm’t even bothered to turn there heads to us.

Overall Valpo is a really fun but very exhausting place. Absolutly recommendable.

Santiago – Warzaw in Chilean

Landing in Santiago promised quite a change from NewZealand. The view from the plan revealed a yellow-brown dry landscape. And yes temperatures finally allowed to retrieve the short thoursers from the bottom of the backpacks again.

Anyway, in a very nice way many things reminded us of Warzaw. The heat, the parks, people on city bikes, the straight forward working underground train, and the funny and informative free walking tours around the city.

Carlos alias Wally guided us around the corners of Santiago, that you probably will miss on your own.

Carlos alias Wally guided us around the corners of Santiago, that you probably will miss on your own.

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Tio Willy (located in the fish market) made Tom trying his first real Mate, not this sweet Club Mate stuff he is drinking back in Germany.

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The tour led through Santiagos cemetry, which is as big as 117 soocer fields so you can easily get lost here.

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Finishing the tour with a drink is quite a nice style and after all the talk about earthquakes in Santiago a „Terremoto“ is the obvious choice. Made of Vino pipeño with pineapple ice cream the second glass makes the earth shake in deed.

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And then we headed back to Tio Willy to try some of the famous fish. I head soup made from conger eel.

 

A substantial difference in Santiago from Warzaw however were the huge number of stray dogs. They are just everywhere and some even adopt a lordling, as the one following our guide around the city. Though we never met one being aggressive towards us.

Red following the tour until we reached the Undergound train. He knows he is not allowed there.

Red following the tour until we reached the Undergound train. He knows he is not allowed there.

Christoball (the mountain with the virgin on top) was quite close to our hostel so we made it up there almost twice. On our second time the top was closed due to the fact that it was close to sunset and people get robbed there when it’s dark. But aside from all the stories you hear we felt pretty save in Santiago. When I lost a 5000 CLP note in the underground train a girl even came after me handing it back.

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The virgin on christobal can looking over Santiago.

 

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The view from christobal during sunset unfortunately reminds a little of china. The smog hanging over the city is reaching as high as the surronding mountains.