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...

Travel Blog: Day 27

Ok let's see...what has happened since my last post? In Puno I made a boat tour to the famous floating islands of the Uros. They were really interesting to see but I must say the Lonely Planet was right about the commercialization of the islands. When we left the women sang something in their native language for us (Aymara) before switching to "Vamos a la playa" and in the end the all waved and said in unison "Hasta la vista baby!"

After that we went to the island of Taquile where we hiked a little and learned some stuff about the local culture.

The next day I went to Copacabana - a small village on the Bolivian coast of Lake Titicaca. I spent most of the day reading before I had some Mexican food for dinner. This stuff must have been really bad because it made me sick for the next 4-5 days. That is why I wanted to get the hell out of that place and went directly to La Paz the next day...missing to visit the famous Isla del Sol.

At first I really didn't like La Paz too much but that was partly contributed to the lousy weather and me being sick. When both these conditions got better I actually came to like La Paz. It is really hectic and there is lots of traffic (and thus lots of exhaust fumes) but the setting between the two mountain ranges is spectacular.

Then I met some other travellers that I got along with really well and we decided to spend two days in a small village called Sorata to relax for a few days. We stayed at an eco-lodge called "Altai Oasis". It was a wonderful place with lots of green grass, colorful flowers and an army of animals: 4 dogs - including 2 puppies, geese, chicken, ducks and ducklings, two llamas, kitten, two cows, a sheep, a goat and probably some more that I didn't see.

On our first night we tried to cook some pasta....in a a kind of camping kitchen where you had to make a fire to cook upon. It was great fun even if the result really was not that great :-)

The next day Oliver (England) and I hiked to the cave of San Pedro. It was an easy but amazing walk with ever changing views of the surrounding mountains. The cave was quite impressive, too, but the pictures didn't turn out very well.

After going back to La Paz we went to have dinner at one of the fanciest restaurants in La Paz because it was Joanna's (US) birthday. We had a fabulous meal for less than 10 Euro each.

Tonight I will take the night bus to Uyuni to see the the famous salt flats. Upon my return to La Paz I only have one more thing to do before I fly to Rio de Janeiro: Cycling down the "World's most dangerous road" also known as the "Death Road". This sounds way worse than it actually is because nowadays there is hardly any traffic on the road and the cyclists have it basically to themselves. The amazing thing is that on the 65 km the road descends almost 3000 meters and thus includes several vegetation zones from the altiplano to the rainforest.

Pseudophilosophischer Gedanke des Tages #7

Der Weg mag ja manchmal das Ziel sein - der Rueckweg hingegen ist es selten.

Travel Blog: Day 17

The first thing I did after writing the last post was buying a new camera. Got myself a Canon again and so far I am totally happy with it. After relaxing a couple days I started my trip to Machu Picchu. Since I didn't have enough time for one of the four day treks I chose the "easy way", meaning that I would go to Aguas Calientes (the town close to Machu Picchu) by bus and train and would visit the site the next day and return afterwards.

People who want to climb up Waynapicchu need to get up early, because only 400 people are allowed to go up there each day. So I got up at 3:30 and started my hike up to the entrance of Machu Picchu around 3:50. It was still absolutely dark then but by the time I reached the entrance at around 5:10 it was getting light. I was among the first 40 people in line so I got my ticket for Waynapicchu.

Machu Picchu really is a mystical place that somehow radiates a peaceful aura. After the 2 hours tour I had some time to relax before I hiked up Waynapicchu at around 10. It was quite an exhausting way up and I wouldn't recommend it if you are not fit and healthy, but the view from up there is amazing.

I also found two hidden treasures in Machu Picchu - 2 Geocaches ;-)

When I came back to Cusco I checked in at a different hostel because the other one was a little too quiet. I ended up at Loki which some people claim to be among the top 10 hostels in the world. It is a really fun place and I finally got the chance to party a little :-)

So now I am in Puno at the Lake Titicaca and I need to make some plans for the next days. This town is located at an altitude of about 3800 m/12500 feet so I have to take it easy. The air is pretty thin up here.

Some things I experienced so far on my travels:

• Local drinks: I've tasted some of the local beers and most of them are quite drinkable. Pisco is a popular liquor made of grapes which is also the main ingredient of a cocktail called "Pisco Sour". Both pure and in a cocktail it tastes pretty good...but I have been told by a Peruvian that the cocktail is for women only (most tourists don't know or don't care).
  Coca tea or "mate de coca" is also really popular and is said to have a number of positive effects like reducing the symptoms of altitude sickness, providing energy and suppressing hunger and thirst. You can either buy tea bags or just throw some real coca leaves into hot water.
  Only "decocained" tea is allowed to be exported to the USA.
• Local cousine: I've already written some time ago that I tried some of the local dishes. In the meantime I had the chance to try some alpaca meat but not any guinea pig so far (Meerschweinchen). The later is rather expensive.
• Moon and stars: The moon down here is "the wrong way around", meaning that the waning moon has the shadow on the left side and not on the right side like in the norhtern hemisphere. Also especially in Colca Canyon I was able to see a fantastic starry sky because there was no "light contamination" for miles around.
• Traffic: I still haven't figured out the traffic here. The streets are full of taxis (an in Lima minibusses) and they pass each other all the time within the city. I also don't know who has the right of way but it always seems to work out somehow. As a pedastrian you have to be extremely careful as vehicles do not care about pedestrians at all.

As always: click on the picture to get to the gallery.

Travel Blog: Day 11

Hey there, just arrived in Cusco. But first things first. I left Lima on a nightbus to Arequipa where I spent several days. The bus was amazingly comfortable...if you paid extra for the VIP seats. Considering that I would be on the bus for 15 hours I didn't mind paying a little extra. It was kind of like flying first class (or how I imagine flying first class would be like). They served dinner and breakfast, handed out pillows and blankets and you could recline the seats almost to a horizontal position.

When I arrived in Arequipa I started speaking to a girl that I overheard talk German on her cell phone. She told me she would work some time for an organization that helps the poor children around Arequipa. I kind of sticked with her and the other volunteers for the day and watched them help some of the children with their homework (as you can see in some of the pictures). I would have loved to help more but my Spanish still needs improving.

The next two days I walked around Arequipa and visited the beautiful Monasterio Santa Catalina. I also got to see "Juanita", an Inca girl that was sacrificed by the Incas about 500 years ago in order to appease the mountain god.

After that I went on a 3 day trip to the Colca Canyon where we did some serious hiking through breathtaking landscapes. We even saw several condors. So after seeing the smallest bird in the Monasterio the day before (a humming bird) I got to see the largest one just the day after.

I have not yet any picutures to show you of the canyon because my camera broke the day before the trip. I will try to get a new one today.

Enjoy the pictures!

Travel Blog: Day 6

Just a short one today...since I need to get some breakfast now. I started a "A Picture a Day" gallery (another good idea I just stole from somebody else).
Here is the link.

I am still trying to figure out whether it's time to shave or not - what do you think?

Travel Blog: Day 4

So this is the fourth day of my trip. I arrived safely in Lima in the late afternoon of Oct 3rd. The 12 hour flight really wasn't funny and Iberia really did not impress me. I got picked up at the airport by a cab that brought me to my hostel. The cab driver spoke pretty good English and so we talked about football (or"soccer"for my American readers), Peru, beer and the local cuisine. At the hostel I met some other nice travellers and had the chance to try the local beer as well as pisco - the local licor.

On the next day I started exploring the vicinity. The district the hostel is located at is called Miraflores and it seems to be where all the tourists and rich people live. Everythings is really clean and has a strong American or western influence. I strolled along the coast up to the LarcoMall which is build directly into the cliffs and helped myself to plenty of local food at an all-you-can-eat buffet. I was brave and tried some of the local dishes. Most of them were actually pretty good...but neither do I know the names of the dishes nor do I know their ingredients.

Later on I visited the pre-inca pyramid of Huaca Pucclana. Quite impressive to see a site like this in the middle of a city. I also made contact with some naked dogs. Apparently the only peruvian dog race is the "Peruvian Hairless Dog". Interestingly many of the "normal"dogs in Miraflores wear clothes...

Yesterday I did some more cultural stuff: visting the museum "Raffael Larco Herrera" , the cathedral and the Monasterio de San Francisco. At the latter I got a private tour as I was the only participant of the English tour. I saw thousands and thousands of bones in the catacombs of the monastery. Sadly you weren't allowed to take pictures. The bones you see in the pictures were in the cathdral. At night I went with two fellow travelers from Israel to the district of Barranco, which is famous for its bohemian and romantic athmosphere. We ended up in a club that had some really good live jazz music.

What else is there to tell? Lima is colder than I thought. Considering some of my future travel destinations I might not have packed enough warm clothes.

Today I am just taking it slowly and I will hop on a 15 hours bus to Arequipa in the afternoon.

Enjoy the pictures....click on the one in this post and you will be directed to the gallery.

Travel Blog: Day 1

The day of departure has finally arrived. I am writing these lines at the Madrid airport while waiting for my connecting flight to Lima.
I have made reservations for a hostel in Lima for three nights and have arranged to be picked up at the airport. I do not have any more plans right now. Just want to get over the jetlag and explore the city. I will keep you updated about where I am going after that.

Gedanken zur Wahl

Nun, wer das hier liest ist ja sicherlich mit den Ergebnissen unserer schönen Bundestagswahl vertraut. Kann nicht sagen, dass sie mich vom Hocker reißen...aber dafür kann ich mich jetzt mal vier Jahre entspannt zurücklehnen und aus Oppositionssicht wieder hemmungslos über alles schimpfen, was von der Regierung verzapft wird. Für mich persönlich ist das Ergebnis vielleicht auch gar nicht so schlecht. Ich werde mir jetzt erstmal überlegen müssen, was ich mit dem ganzen Geld anfange, dass mir durch die bevorstehenden Steuererleichterungen zusätzlich zur Verfügung steht. Vielleicht lass ich mir ja ein Sprungbrett in meinen Geldspeicher einbauen.

Aber mal im Ernst, sollte es Herr Westerwelle wirklich schaffen, ein einfacheres und "gerechteres" Steuersystem einzuführen, dann gebührt ihm mein größter Respekt. Die Chancen dafür schätze ich allerdings ziemlich gering ein. Zu groß ist die Lobby der Steuerberater und der Profiteuere des jetztigen Systems. Zudem lässt sich so etwas von der Opposition immer ziemlich einfach als ungerecht hinstellen und wird dadurch unpopulär (Stichwort: Nachtzuschläge, Freibeträge für Übungsleiter, Pendlerpauschale etc.).

Wenn ich mir eine Besetzung des zukünftigen Kabinetts aussuchen könnte, so würde ich gern Westerwelle als Finanzminister sehen. Dann wäre ich mal gespannt, wie es mit den Steuersenkungsplänen aussähe. Aber Westerwelle wird sich ja mit ziemlicher Sicherheit den "relaxten" Posten des Außenministers sichern. Dort kann man immer glänzen ohne innenpolitisch irgendwas unpopuläres durchsetzuen zu müssen. Aber auf den zukünftigen Finanzminister bin ich trotzdem gespannt. Irgendein Depp muss sich finden lassen, der sich da zum Affen macht und die ganze Prügel einsteckt....und auch kein gesteigertes Interess an einer erfolgreichen Fortsetzung seiner politischen Karriere hat.

Zum Schluss noch einmal zu den nackten Zahlen: CDU und FDP vereinen auf sich 48,4 Prozent der abgegebenen, gültigen Stimmen. Ich finde es daher unpassend, wenn in den entsprechenden Medien von einer "deutlichen Mehrheit" gesprochen wird. Berücksichtigt man zudem noch die Wahlbeteiligung, so kommen die beiden Parteien auf knapp 35% aller möglichen Stimmen. Das bedeutet, dass wir alle die nächsten vier Jahre von einer Koalition regiert werden, die nur von etwa einem Drittel der Wahlberechtigten gewählt wurde. Das zeigt doch ziemlich deutlich, wie wichtig es ist wählen zu gehen!

Ich frage mich...

ob Jürgen Trittin in seiner Kindheit wohl sehr unter seinem Namen zu leiden hatte....

Lyrics Snippet #12

Today I listened to Marilyn Manson for the first time in ages. In his song "Irresponsible Hate Anthem" Manson expresses a rather negative weltanschauung.
I don't think his lyrics are very deep though...when it comes to Manson it is all about the show. But he does put on a hell of a show - the concert in Cologne in 1998 was one of the most entertaining I have ever attended.
Some of his songs really have a certain beat/groove/feel/oomph/energy/whatever to it that makes me want to jump up and down...and...well...into other people ;-)

Everybody's someone else's nigger
I know you are so am I
I wasn't born with enough middle fingers
I don't need to choose a side

~ "Irresponsible Hate Anthem" - Marilyn Manson ~

Travel Blog: Day -23

Finally some good news! After a lot of major and minor misfortunes it was about time!

A few days ago I decided on which three people I would like to live in my apartment and they have been waiting for me to get everything arranged.
But over the last days it looked like my landlord would not agree to me renting the apartment to three students. Rather suprisingly today I got the go and I am now only waiting for the three contracts to fly in. In a matter of days all should be settlted...

Only about 3 weeks left until take off.

Travel Blog: Day -31

No good news from my apartment. By now it looks like I will only get people to rent single rooms. I know my landlord will not be happy about it and chances are that I am not allowed to do this at all.
Yesterday two girls took a look at my place and seemed really interested. I had a good feeling about them, too. Got a message from them today that they unexpectedly got an offer for a dorm room so they are going for this (cheaper) option.

I now advertised in the local newspaper - the ad will be published on Friday. I just hope there are some people who are just as desperately looking for a place as I am looking for somebody to rent it to.