Travel Blog: Day 50

Update: I fixed the link to the second gallery (Iguazu Falls)

This is just a short one. It is 7:16 in the morning and one of the computers at the hostel in Buenos Aires is "free". I did enjoy Sao Paulo even though the city did not offer much to me except for the interesting architechture. At times it did remind me of NYC, though. It was also a rather expenisive place - one night club we passed required a 300 Reais entrance (ca 117 Euro). I also had the chance to attend another football game. The fans were really giving their best but it somehow could not beat the cheerful athmosphere of the Maracana stadium in Rio.
From Sao Paulo I took the bus to Iguazu and the falls were just amazing. I am not sure if I have used the word before but the falls really made me hold my breath. Especially the "Devil's Throat" seemed to me like a computer animation out of an "end of the world" movie. It was just so massive and unreal. I also went to Paraguay for a few hours to buy some cheap electronics - I really needed a new memory card for my camera. The one I bought seems to work fine but the 2 USB flash drives I bought turned out to be electronic waste. 40 Dollars just went down the drain.
I then took a plane to Buenos Aires today and tried to dive into the night life. The evening (night) was allright but getting back to the hostel really was a pain. It was raining really hard and I was almost out of money. I did meet some locals, though, who helped me find a cash machine and a taxi...
Enjoy the pictures.

Travel Blog: Day 41

The night in Santiago was great fun. Went to see some live Salsa which was really good. I ended up paying for a bed I did not sleep in, since I got back pretty late and got picked up for my airport transfer at 4:50.
The flight to Rio was uneventful and once there I got on a bus that was supposed to bring me close to my hostel. I had 2 people tell the bus driver to let me out at Rio Sul Shopping Mall - but of course he "forgot". So I got out at Copacabana beach and had only about a 30 minutes walk with all my luggage in a comfy 37 degree Celsius heat (98.6 Fahrenheit). The first night I didn't do much and went to bed early. The next day I spent with 2 Americans and an Englishmen by the name of Neil. We went first to Ipanema beach and walked from there to Copacabana beach where we set up camp. The waves were awesome and after some time of practice I succeeded in a few decent body surfs. But every now and then - when my timing was bad or the wave was just to big - the wave would just wash me away and would play with me like I was a ping pong ball. I didn't know where up or down was and was just tumbling through the water....so much fun!
At night we all went to Lapa where there is a huge street party at the weekends. Because of the absence of public bathrooms the dark side alleys soon started to smell rather unpleasant. It is also pretty dangerous there when it comes to thieves. Three of the people I hung out with that night got some stuff stolen. But it was still a fun night and I got to bed at about 6:30.
On Saturday I again did not do much except going to the Fluminense stadium with Neil to get tickets for the Sunday game against Palmeiras. At night we went the the club "Rio Scenarium" which was a really good but fairly expensive club. For me the night out in Lapa was more fun.
Sunday was then the day of the football game. Neil and I took the subway to Maracana stadium and there the party was in full swing. People were singing and dancing intensively even before they got to the inside of the stadium. And once inside they atmosphere was even better. It was just breathtaking and beautiful. Check out some videos here.
On the next day I decided to finally go see a doctor because the pain in my right hand did not cease. It had been hurting since the Halloween party when I punched a door because the security guard at Loki hostel would not let me look for my lost cell phone. I know it was a stupid thing to do so keep your smart remarks to yourselves ;-)
I did spend almost 5 hours at the hospital and it turned out that the metarcarpal bone ("Mittelhandknochen") of my right pinky was fractured. It only took me 10 days to find that out. Cycling down the Death Road was really painful but then I still thought it was just a very strong contusion. I don't even want to think back to all the times people shook my hand and squeezed really hard. But one remarkable thing is that in Brazil (as well as in Argentina) the public hospitals are for free so I didn't have to pay a single dime. To all my American readers I can only say: "Support Obama! Public healthcare is not a bad thing!".
I was planning to go to the Ilha Grande to hit the beaches but with my nice little cast I figured it wouldn't make much sense. I decided to stay a few more days in Rio instead and go to Sao Paulo from there. In Rio I went up the cable car to the sugar loaf - which at 17 Euro (25 $) is not really a bargain. The view from up there is worth it, though. I was lucky - just when i finished my 'round' a cloud moved in and you couldn't see anything.
Today I took the bus to Sao Paulo. At a mere 7 hours this is only a stone's throw for South American standards. I will take it easy tonight because tomorrow is Friday and I need some energy for the bustling Sao Paolo night life.

Travel Blog: Day 33

Update: I found the picture CD from the Death Road trip and added some pictures to the second gallery (click on the second picture).

Sorry, but this post is goint to be a long one. So many things have happened since last time...

My little trip to Uyuni was stressful but worthwile. I couldn't really sleep on the nightbus on our way there because the last 3 hours of the ride were on a very rough, unpaved road. We got out in the city of Uyuni at about 7 in the morning and at first I was shocked by the desolateness of the place. It reminded me of Mos Eisley....just without the people and the action. The town was a dead place surrounded by barren lands. It got a little better later on when there were actually some people in the streets. But enough of that. We (Oli, the English guy, and I) booked a tour starting at 10:30 and somehow managed to pass the time until then. When the time arrived we got into a Toyota Landcruiser (Bolivia is totally "Toyota land") together with 4 other tourists and the guide. First we went to the "train cemetery" where you can climb the old train wrecks. After that we headed out into the Salt Flat which is the world's largest with covering more than 10.500 square kilometers. It was quite impressive to be totally surrounded by white...only the mountains at the horizon hinted that it does not go on forever. Basically in the middle of the desert is the "Incahuasi island" - a small mountain covered with lots of really tall cactuses. This was when the battery in my camera went dead. I will try to get my hands on some of the "funny pictures" we took and show them to you later.
On our way back we experienced another highlight. A tire of the Landcruiser blew at about 100 km/h. The driver handled it expertly but the replacement of the tire took a loProxy-Connection: keep-alive
Cache-Control: max-age=0

time since the car jack did not work properly.
Since I definately did not want to spend the night in Uyuni I took another night bus back to La Paz. This time I did succeed in catching some sleep even though it got really cold during the last 3 hours or so.
So I was back in La Paz for Halloween. I actually got a "costume". OK, it was only a wig but I did not feel like spending a lot of money on a costume. I went to a Halloween party at Loki Hostel with 2 guys I had formerly met in Cusco. The party was OK but the downer was that I lost my cell phone. Or got it stolen. Who knows? Tried everything to get it back - in vain. Shit. But cannot help it now.

I tried to set my mind to more pleasant things by going to a Bolivian football game. I paid about 2€ to get a ticket for the game of the year - the local derby between "Bolivar" and "The Strongest". It was quite a good game and Bolivar won it 3:0. The only downside was that they do not sell beer in the stadium :-(

I was wrong when I wrote last time that the "Death Road" descends almost 3000 m...actually it is more like 3600 m. But let's start at the beginning. I really wanted to do the trip with a company called "Pro Downhill" which was recommended to me by several people. I couldn't book the tour with them though, because they were closed on Sunday and on Monday - the Bolivians conveniently shift a bank holiday to Monday if it falls on a Sunday. So I had to book with one of the companies whose office was open on Monday since Tuesday was my last full day in Bolivia. I ended up booking at an agency called "Aka Pacha Travel" which I really cannot recommend. The bikes were basically crap. Worst thing was that the brakes were not as good as you would need on a dangerous road like this. When the road was really steep the bike hardly slowed down if I pulled the rear brake as hard as I could. Also the suspension didn't really work and neither did the gearshift. Well I am glad I survived. The trip was more exhausting than I thought and I can totally understand why some people fall off their bikes - the road is full of rubble and boulders. I came close to falling a couple times, too.
Somehow I cannot find the picture CD fro the trip so you have to be content with the pictures I took. I will try to recover the lost pictures from one of the outher guys on the tour.

Today I flew from La Paz to Santiago where I will spend the night before I head on to Rio tomorrow morning. I will get picked up from the hostel at 4:50 am. Yeah! I did manage to take a short walk though and I hope you enjoy the pictures.

PS: I have finished 4 books so far

• Der Schatz im Silbersee by Karl May
  
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (thanks to Olaf)
• Airframe by Michael Crichton
  
• "The Appeal" by John Grisham

It's just not easy to find really good books at the book exchanges in the hostels...