TWO CRAZY GERMANS CYCLING AROUND THE WORLD FOR A YEAR

Friday, January 27, 2006

january 23 - 27

we made a reservation til the end of the week at the three sisters hotel, because we planned to go to iguazu waterfalls at the border to brazil and the busses were full, except saturdays. the room was cozy and cheap and the three sisters were nice old ladies from salta, but they did not offer their kitchen for making our meals. eva felt sick that day and i strolled around in the pouring rain. again lluvia, lluvia, lluvia. time for reading books and learning some more spanish.



the next day weather was clearing up an we saw the sun again. we did some sightseeing and visited the museum in the cabildo, to learn something about local history. it was a little bit boring because there was just a presentation of ancient pots and pans and a little exhibition of argentine hat fashion.
in the evening a german-mexican couple (tobias and marcela) arrived at the hotel. they had rented a car for some excursions and we asked if it was possible to join them for the next trip. they agreed and we packed our stuff for a two-day-trip up north. we were glad to get the opportunity to leave the busy town for a couple of days.

we left early in the rented volkswagen gol (gol, not golf, maybe because people are so fanatic in fudbol - gooooooooooooooooooooooooool !!!!), and arrived in purmamaca, a nice pueblo with typicall adobe-architecture, and an amazing landscape around. the mountains were so colourful, we can't describe. we had lunch in a little comida (i had lama for the first and the last time, nothing special) and had coffee and postres in a nice restaurant afterwards.


we had to skip our next destination in the mountains, cos the road was flooded and the inhabitants were shaking their heads. heavy rainclouds sent us back south, were we visited humahuaca, a nice small village with an big skulpture, reminding of the fight for argentines independence.

we slept in a local hostel after some german-spanish conversation with wine, bread and cheese.


next day we headed up more than 4000m to the altiplano, were we visited a large salina. it looked like a frozen lake but was salt. even the houses were made of salt, unbelievable. we had breakfast there and made a stroll over the white surface of the salina which was very exhausting cos the air was very thin. a very breathtaking scenery and quiet, really quiet, great !!!



the way back to salta lead over the famous routa 40 through some adobe-villages and finally we arrived back at salta. tobias and marcela left for their bus to mendoza and we went out for dinner. two good days !

today is sunny, but we are a little bit lazy. we'll see what happens.

Monday, January 23, 2006

january 19 - 22

highlight of the day was the visit of the small museum of modern art, which presented interesting contemporary argentine art. after that we went to parque san martin, to avoid noise, traffic and heat. we found a nice and shady place unter a big palm and rested. in the evening we joined a summer festival, with music and comedy, what was very peaceful and entertaining though we couldn't understand a lot.

we had our last day in mendoza and didn´t visited a vinery yet !!! after another repacking of our stuff, we were heading out of town to our well known "alta vista" vinery by bike. we had had a 12 bottle-box of the malbec premium in germany from our winedealer, mr. potthoff, and we liked it a lot. good oportunity to see, were it comes from. cycling in big argentine towns is not a real pleasure, cos there is a lot of traffic and the air is polluted by the exhaustion of all the vehicals. our tiny map lead us about 20 km out to the panamericana and not to our prior destination, so we did a lot of extra kilometers until we arrived at alta vista. the gate opened but the next guided tour was full and the following tour was to late. bad luck, but we took a photo to proof we were there.we bought nice stuff for picnic in parque san martin, our favorite place in town, and were lucky, when we arrived for lunch.we had excellent gnocchis and salad. after that we had to return to the hostel, to store our bikes and our luggage. hope it is a save place !!!

at 8:30p.m our bus to salta left, only half an hour to late, but it didn´t matter on a 18 hours bus ride. as we arrived at 2:00pm in salta it was raining cats and dogs. so we decided to have lunch before searching our hostel. we had some excellent tortillas in a small restaurant close to the terminal. the rain stopped, when we finished our meal and we went to the hostel "the cottage". a recommended place in hostelworld.com. that's why we had made a reservation, hoping for a better accomodation than in mendoza.

but another disappointing place was waiting for us. though we booked a double bed-room with private bath, it was a tiny room with bunkbeds and mould, especially in the locker. the bathroom was interesting as well. flushing the toilet gave a fountain, that flooded the floor. they had to call the plumber to fix it. on the ceiling a palmsized, dried, obviously dead butterfly was hanging, who dissappeared when we entered the room after plumbering. dont want to know, what happened. weather was quite good, dry and almost sunny so we did a little excursion to mount san bernardo. we climbed the 1070 steps in high altitude (salta is 1200m above sealevel), so we were a little bit slow. at the top was a nice park with a good view over the city. the teleferico took us back to town for 4 pesos each and we were searching for another accomodation, to stay a bit longer in "la linda" salta. we made a reservation at the three sisters for two nights after examining the rooms. strolled around the city and were lazy after lunch. poor eva got a cold, maybe of the chilly night in the bus.

january 14 - 18

sunny weather with the typical patagonian chilly wind made us leaving light hearted. we said good-bye to everybody and cycled the six kilometers to the bus station. it was as the rest of bariloche very busy. we finally spotted our "via bariloche" bus and after a small discussion and some exra pesos we could convince the master of the luggage to take our bikes. it was the nicest bus so far, only three seats in a row, perfect air-condition, blankets and pillows, well it was not only going to neuquen but all the way to buenos aires, that's why. the bus terminal in neuquen was brand new and looked more like an airport... we had to spent two hours there and of cause to pay more for our bikes... but already in neuquen the heat was soring, "me aso" erk explained using his new vocabulary :-) andesmar greated us with the two top seats (just above the driver) and a nice dinner. we slept little and reached mendoza around eight the next morning.


hot, incredible how different the climate is in this huge country. (and going by bus 18 hours means more or less covering a distance of 1500kms... i tend to forget that.) well there we were with all our stuff, sunday morning, the whole city still asleep. we decided to have a coffee somewhere and to search our hostal, the aguaclara, afterwards. and it was right what we heard about mendoza. it is a very untypical argentine city. there must be millions of trees lining the streets which makes the temperature bearable, nice. but we were not able to find the hostal. a friendly owner of another hostal helped us and we were told that in the three different parts of the city a lot of streets with the same name co-exist... the hostal we had picked just was in another part of town. as we reached the house we weren't sure if it was the hostal, there was no sign no nothing. i rang the bell and a woman opened the door and let us in. she told us that he hostal was brand new and it didn't look like a hostal at all. more like a family home. anyways, we had a shower. slept for a good siesta, took a walk to town, where we met a swiss couple (what else?) and said we should meet again the other day to exchange books.

after that we were very tired again so we just walked back and enjoyed the nice rooftop terrace.we had asked if we could store our bikes and the extra luggage there for about four weeks and she had said there would be no problem. ok, the next day we moved to another hostal, the lagares (i wanted to stay there for three days but they were booked for sunday night that's why it all became a little complicated) but i didn't like it at all. (reto had written a nice review but it just depends on your view...). our room had no window, just a door to the terrace and it was damn hot in there and you couldn't leave the door open during the night cause everyone was sitting outside in the patio having a party.

next morning erk awoke with about 40 to 50 ugly bumps from some kind of insectstiches. a guy from the us, who found a whole army of ants in his underpants this morning, said it looked more like bites from sandflies, but sandflies in a hostel. i think the beds had flees. well.

there we were wondering how to make it to the anconcagua national park (the aconcagua is with about 7000m height above sealevel the highest mountain, which is not in asia). there seemed to be no other possibility (affordable for us at least) than making a day trip by bus. so we settled on that and payed 70 pesos each (later we found out that you could buy the tickets for 50 at the tourist office.) and the trip was a real dump.

not my cup of coffee. the bus was late and we were rushed all day, get in get out, take a picture, get in and now we have lunch but of course you have to pay extra for it and no, we are not going to the nicest part of the tour the statue of christo redentor (which argentina and chile put on the old pass road between mendoza and santiago in 1904 as a sign of agreement. they had been fighting for frontiers a long time), it is not possible.

well now we know that as well. on the next day we wanted to move back to the aguaclara to store the luggage and pack for our "mochilla" tour. but the woman suddenly said that we weren't able to leave the luggage and so on. well, than there was no sense in staying there. we found another hostel "la uva" and there we are now. in a dorm with 7 other people. but at least they have aircon and agreed to store our stuff. i don't know if it is secure there but we have to trust... what else should we do? in the afternoon we just strolled to the big park san martin at the west end of the city and spend some hours there reading and writing. we were supposed to meet the couple from switzerland for diner but they didn't show up so we just had it on our own and i feel i'm getting tired of all the red meat we had during the last four weeks. no more bife de chorizo, please!!!

january 2 -13

we started the new year fully motivated to dig into the mysteries of the spanish language. on sunday we moved to the campground "selva negra" - schwarzwald, our "home" for the next two weeks. it was a very nice one with lots of trees, spotless sanitary facilities and a little bar and restaurant for chilly evenings. our first neighbour was a woman from munich, beate who had been hiking in the area for a couple of weeks. anyways, there we were on monday, excited and eager to learn as much as possible.

sil or silvana, our teacher, was very sympatic. in the first days we had to get used to a regular schedule again and to the process of learning. erk got a little frustrated because i was learning quicker and easier than him but in the end he couldn't complain and sil told us that she was really proud of us for having learnt a lot that quick.unfortunately the weather changed towards the end of the first week and we got huge amounds of rain and the temperature dropped about 10 C, so we had only 13-16C during the day... and the rain was annoying. we couldn't find a quiet place to do our homework because all the other people were seeking shelter in the bar as well. and our weekend was just completely flooded.

beate pursuaded us to go for a walk on the little peninsula llao llao some 30 km out of town but when we arrived another heavy rain just started so we returned frustrated (beate walked nevertheless and arrived at the camp a couple of hours later - soken wet). on sunday it cleared so we took off again just to find out that hiking is not very popular among argentins and the trails were in very poor shape. well. it stayed wet and cool for the first three days of the second week nd our mood just couldn't get any better. plus we didn't know how and where to go after the course. our travel agent had just informed us that our flight from santiago to auckland would be on the 19th of february (instead of the 29th of january). so we had another five weeks left but we didn't want to cycle in argentina anymore because it's just to big dry and vast. what to do?

we finally settled on taking the bus to mendoza taking our bikes as luggage, storing them there and moving on as "mochilleros". so we bought tickets, booked hostals and started to dream about hot and sunny weather.

one night when we were sitting in the bar again to do homework, markus from switzerland whom we met in puerto natales entered the room. he wanted to meet urs and daniel there also from switzerland. he told us they had been on the campground for a couple of days. that was a real surprise cos we also knew them from the torres del paine. we had a nice eve together exchanging stories and erk got stuck there on friday night til the weewee hours...what else?

well we had the best bife de choriza in bariloche, but all in all i think the one who avoids visiting bariloche in january will be better off because it's just crowded and packed with kids having finished high school and partying night and day. it's expensive as well and the number of cars seeking their way through the tiny - and few- roads is just amazing... an old lady told us that the city only had 6000 inhabitants in the fifties of the last century and now it has over 100.000. but they didn't build more roads... you probably can imagine that walking the three k's to and fro the camp was no fun at all. but we had to do something to balance all the sitting.well erk says that's enough about this experience and i'm running out of power...

Sunday, January 01, 2006

december 14 - 31


december 17 saturday
finally we got ourselves back on the road again though it was quite hard to leave. after a couple of days living in the same cabana, a very nice one, you get used to the static life quickly and after that to head out into the big world again with no security and stuff... well we had to. so we could sing, on the road again... and it was nice and paved for the first 25 km to trevelin. we asked for local information at the visitor center and had real gorgeous ice-cream for 2,5 pesos. after that we were ready for "ripio" meaning dirt road of the best quality. it wasn't too bad though. we had lunch at the shore of a nice little river and coffee shortly before reaching los cipreses. by that time i felt like finding a place to stay but unfortunately there was none. the wind had picked up and as i asked for accomodation in a tiny supermarket in los cipreses a senor offered us a ride to the next camp. the cabana there should have costed 80 pesos and was rotten so we preferred to camp. had spaghetti for dinner and felt asleep very tired around 9 p.m. i guess we had to get used to cycling again. (56.26km 3:49h)

december 18 sunday
half an hour after a late start we arrived at the chilean-argentinan border. erk was as nervous as usual because we had cheese, butter and stuff like that with us. and for some reason the
chileans are quite strict regarding the import of vegetables and other fresh produce. but there was no problem. the officer even urged me to make a sign in the "no" section of the questinary. from the border to the next village, futaleufu, it was only ten kilometers to go. we sort of got stuck there for a couple of hours and noticed that we were back to chile again. when we ordered coffee we were served a box of nescafe and a pot of hot water... i thought, ok, maybe i could at least pour myself another cup but senor took the pot with him. afterwards we tried to buy some food. but there was no real supermarket, just some tiny shops and the variety was poor. and the prices were just the same as in good ol' germany. anyways. we asked for camps in the information center and the senora told us to take the scenic route which we did. after a couple of ks a jeep stopped and the driver told us that this way wouldn't lead to villa st lucia but after we showed him our map he said yes is possible... the sun shone and we rode on happily until the road just ended. there had been a landslide which had taken it down. dead end and it didn't look like this just happened recently... i discovered a path over a pasture which we took but we had to return to the regular road nevertheless and to climb a real mean hill in order to reach the camp at lago epolon. nice place but in a neglected shape as all the other camps we visited and we asked ourselves why they always looked like that way. because obviously season was starting and a lot of tourists are visiting this area. anyways we had a nice risotto for dinner and erk played some harmonica for me. (31.76km 3:20h)

december 19 monday
we started fresh and enthusiastic. sun was shining and we were glad that the "wet zone" held no rain for us. the landscape was dramatic, turquois rivers running through deep valleys and rough mountains touching the sky. we had an early lunch at a hanging bridge and met a hitch-hiking israeli couple. once we arrived in puerto ramirez we decided to stay and camp free at the river. supplied in a tiny shop and had a nice talk with senora. she told us how she tried to learn some english all by herself with cassetts. had polenta and slept peacfully awoken by the song of lambs the next morning. (45.0km 3:11h)

december 20 tuesday
it looked like rain but i cleared during the afternoon. after some mean hills we arrived in villa st lucia and it was, honestly, the uggliest little town i have ever seen. it was settled during the time they had built the careterra austral in the seventies and i think it never changed. some chessboard like dirt roads with widespread houses made of wood and aluminum. internet should have been available but for some reason wasn't. we had lunch and agreed on riding on to the next supposedly free camp. direction north. it would have been possible to go south to cohaique from there but as we had already been south, having seen torres del paine and fitz roy we were sort of full of sights. maybe it would have been better to go down south step by step and not to hop around... whatsoever. our guide said it would be a steep two kilometer climb and then a nice 11 kilometer downhill, the highest pass on the caretera. but. it actually were nine damn kilometers up and we were cursing and sweating and pushing our bikes... as we finally reached puente ventisquiero i slipped in the curve and hurt myself a little. totally exhausted. some germans dontated a cold beer (and i lost my sunglases there) and we talked til late with hector the owner of the camp in the kitchen shelter which was fun. during the night a wet zone like rain developed. (48.26km 4:18h)

december 21 wednesday
so we had to pack the wet stuff. it seemed to be just not my day. i felt worn and the landscape
was boring and dull, maybe due to the grey skies. but as always we arrived somehow. the ferry to quellon on chiloe had just left and the next was supposed to leave on saturday. that left us sort of stuck in chaiten. but we rented a real nice cabana for three nights and made ourselves comfy again. from a mail from nikos we learnt that our nephew moritz had been born on the 19th and we were very happy to learn that mother and child we well and everything went ok. welcome to earth moritz! (62.41km 4:24h)

december 22 thursday
rest day. went for two walks, one leading east along the coast in the morning and the other one leading west after the siesta. the latter was the highlight of this day cos i spotted some dolphins very near and we watched them for a while. at the end of the day we were fighting about something i don't remember but it was good, sort of a clearing thunder storm, we both felt better afterwards.

december 23 friday
we took the bikes for a short ride in the morning (only 22km) and watched again some dolphins at a beautiful black sand beach. in the afternoon we got organized for chiloe and i suggested to celebrate x-mas eve on that night. we had a real nice chicken, baked potatoes and pumpkin. and we unwrapped our only gift from andrea: a tiny plastic x-mas tree with little red bulbs and candles... and i had told her that i was not in this life going to buy a thing like that... we were very touched by that somehow and decided to put it up in our tent the following night.

december 24 saturday
but things always develop differently. on the
ferry we talked to a real nice couple from the netherlands which was travelling in a camper, a couple from colorado on x-mas vacation and another guy from our neighbour country traveling south america for 15 months. he was very ecologically orientated and even didn't fly but reached buenos aires by boat... impressing. i talked to him for a while and got new ways of looking at things. arriving in quellon six hours later was really bad though. the city was really ugly and accomodation was very hard to find. we had thought of cycling to the next camp nine kms out of town but as we noticed the rolling hills and the dirt road we preferred to stay in town. after asking two police man we found a hospedaje. first the room should cost 9000 pesos but then it was already taken and we had to pay 12000 for a dump. while i was talking to the receptionist erk talk to a senora living upstairs. she invited us for x-mas dinner after some discussion we just took the invitation and experienced a chiloe x-mas eve with marcia, valentin and little nicola. went to bed way too late.

december 25 sunday
therefore slept in and started at ten in the morning, sun dashing down on us with the ozon hole right on top... and we were welcomed by some of them nice rolling hills (remember nova scotia?). they are real killers. you go up (10-15%) for a km and down and then up again just repeted until you are completely exhausted, no break in between. and it is very frustrating to go
up knowing that you don't really reach any top. well and the landscape was boring. a lot of agriculture and houses surrounded by piles of gabage and every peace of land fenced. so we didn't even find a place to rest. we desperately needed to so we ended up climbing over a fence and settled in the shade of what once might have been a picnick-area.
we waited for the heat to fade but it did not. we finally cycled on and started looking for a place to sleep. the first camp we saw was covered with junk so we went on to the next which looked a little better. a lot of chilean families were celebrating x-mas with huge asados, children running all over playing soccer almost in our tent until erk lost his nerve and asked them to play somewhere else (there was lots of space).
all of those little annoyances added up and we decided on leaving chile as soon as possible and on trying to reshedule our language class to the 2nd of january. my view possibly is too negative but i just couldn't enjoy being there any more. (45.88km 2:41)

december 26 monday
we left late again cos we wanted the tent to dry. it was already hot at ten in the morning and the hills weren't any better. i was absolutely exhausted and pissed after two hours. but somehow we reached castro and rewarded us with huge hamburgers for lunch. after that we found out that the bus for puerto montt would leave in about an hour and for a little extra money they agreed on taking the bikes. on the bus again. it took us a lot longer than we had expected. there was a long stop in ancud andwe spent about an hour on the ferry. then the main road to puerto montt was closed because of a accident and we had to take a long dusty dirt road...
we arrived in puerto montt around 9 p.m. and took a room in a shaby hostal not too far from the bus terminal. (44.52km 2:52h)

december 27 tuesday
we stayed in the city for that day to get organized and there really isn't munch to say about that day. i disliked the city. it was dirty, loud and crowded. and they have quite interesting trees there...


december 28 wednesday
i was so glad to be on the bus to bariloche that everything else didn't matter. going with "andesmar" turned out to be very comfortable. we were served coffee and a little lunch. had to spent a lot of time at the border but were lucky. they didn't examine our luggage. finally reached bariloche around 4 p.m. talked to some other cyclists at the bus terminal but they were only on a two week x-mas vacation trip. as we checked mails we learnt that we can start the language class on the 2nd!!! found shelter in the "el gaucho" hostal with a very friendly owner. she actually speaks german cos her parents immigrated from there. we went out for dinner to very good restaurant. tasty furnished and great service. and of course with delicious food. we shared a big bife chorizo (there's nothing like argentinan beef...) with salad and fries and a decent bottle of uxmal cabernet-malbec. yummy.

december 29 thursday
i had a little run before breakfast. we tried the whole day to find some cheap accomodation for about 2 or three weeks, the time during our spanish class, but found nothing cos high season started in bariloche and every shack is rented. i cooked a nice risotto, which we shared with henk from holland and had a nice evening with talking.

december 30 friday
we were checking out the cabañas along the way to llao llao by bike.
but they were expensive as well, no 50 peso per night anymore. we had a break at a nice little beach and decided to spent the two weeks on the campground, three kilometers out of town. we had a look at the place and it was a real nice one, quite, clean and cheap. so we made a reservation for the 1st of january. after a stroll through the centre of the town, i bought a pair of new oakley sunglasses, if it is a copy, it is worth the money cos i like them. otherwise, i will never know. in town is a fantastic fruit shop, so i made a salad-surpreme for dinner.
before bedtime, we had a little look on jewish hanukka, because some guys from israel were celebrating it on the terrace of the hostel.

december 31 saturday
jipper, today is new years eve and we are going to stay at the hostel and participate on the asado, which is a big bbq. we hope oscar will do a god job. we bought a cheap alarm clock cos we have to get up early, when we go to school next week. erk got a nice "boca" soccershirt (i think its a big club from buenos aires, the real clubname is club atletico boca juniors), which is a good start for spanish comunication. sometimes you have to pay only half prices, sometimes you pay double with this shirt and there is a lot of discussion about soccer cos everybody has an opinion. well, the argentinos are watching soccer the whole day long on tv, even matches in ghana or laos, crazy.

in the afternoon we went for a short hike to cerro otto. and i wish i could do something like this one day...

january 1 sunday
new year started with fruitsalad and yoghurt after the asado yesterday. going to a campground seemed not to have the no.1 priority cos it was raining when we looked out of the window. might be that the senor, we stayed a couple of weeks ago, has some cheap accomodation yet. but its highseason now and he charged 100 pesos a day. eva was in a bad mood for that and the campground was suddently the worst of all possibilities. after a real good icecream, she felt better with the decision, to stay in a tent for the next two weeks. finally the weather was clearing up and we left the hostel at noon.
we had to climb a very steap ramp to the campground, now with heavy loaded bikes, when halfway up a pickup-truck stopped and the nice guy offered help. we had a ride for our luggage up the hill and found a nice campsite on a plateau under a tree. cos the campsite was cheaper than we thought, our mood was better and we were glad to go up to this place. and it is a very good one, compared to the chilean junkyards, we were camping at. we had even nice neighbors from holland and were invited for a glass of wine.
we had a date for going out for a beer with monica and christof, a nice swiss-polish-couple from the us, we met at the asado. it was a nice evening with a lot of talking. we had to go back to the campground early cos tomorrow is the beginning of our spanis class. exiting !!!