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I should be mid-way across the Atlantic by now, so this blog will soon cease to be updated. Unless I go on another trip of course.

Until then: thank you for reading, for responding and indulging me and my thousands of pictures.

Altos de Lircay

Wow!

What started out as a simple idea of stubborn "back to nature"-ism turned into a great experience of spring-time mountains in the Reserva Nacional Altos de Lircay, just a few hours outside of Santiago.

Starting with my late-night arrival at a truly deserted end-of-the-line bus stop, walking for 2 hours to the park entrance, pitching my tent in complete darkness on a supposedly closed campground, watching the fog of death closing in around me while I cooked up a feast (not), cursing the clammy morning clouds, tip-toeing through enchanted forests, gazing at snow-covered peaks in brilliant sunlight, trudging through snow knee-deep, wading through icy mountain streams, shivering in my puny tent at night.

I need to go back there! I only spent two nights and one whole day there, but I really fell in love with the place. Plus I met an old mountain guide on my way out of there - whilst enjoying my first cup of hot coffee in two days - who told me about a great 4-5 day trek through the national park, up an old volcano (the headless or "Descabezado") and down the Argentinian side of the mountains.

I didn't take that many pictures thought - even though I had a fresh 4GB card at my disposal -which tells me it's time to head home and let things settle down awhile.

So if anyone is looking for either somewhat strenuous day hikes near Santiago or challenging multi-day treks , Altos de Lircay gets my vote. But beware, apparently it's very popular from mid-september onward, so for the first 5 hours hike from the entrance, you definitely won't have the place to yourself!


PS: oh, and there's no decent hiking maps to be had for the region. At least neither Conaf nor the IGM could provide me with one. The old guide told me that the map he showed me was one of a limited run produced some years ago and not available anymore.

Reception

I should be safely ensconced in my tent in the National Park by now, so I feel you people living close to Frankfurt ought to start thinking about a rousing welcome for when I arrive back ;-)

My flight is direct from BA to FFM, arriving on Monday 22nd at 3pm. How about we meet up right after I land (5 or 6pm) in either Mainz, Frankfurt or Darmstadt for a couple of beers and some stories? I don't feel like going straight home and need to get nice and tired so I can thumb my nose at jetlag by getting a nice night's sleep straightaway.

Suggestions welcome. Marie, you'll drive me, won't you? :-)

Photos 5.1: San Pedro de Atacama

Catching up on some episodes I didn't have the time to publish before, here's San Pedro de Atacama in northern Chile, where I arrived right after my Uyuni tour.



Rage is apparently transmissible through badly washed fruit and... can't read the rest. Pity, might have brought us one step closer to world peace.



Heading off into the ravines and tunnels cut into the Valle de la Luna near San Pedro, we were surprised by the stark features and wind whipping across the place.



I does look just like a lunar landscape.



Sand blown all over the place by gusts of wind was a minor nuisance at first, mostly notable for the pretty contours it created in the sand.



...however the headwind and sandblasting took their toll on us, even on Nicholas, who had biked most of the way from Lima via Uyuni. My lungs felt like they were being filled with liquid after some of the hills we ascended.



This was covered almost completely within 30 seconds by sand blowing over.



The sky was forbiddingly dark behind us, but we decided to head back down toward San Pedro anyway, for fear of being caught in something more uncomfortable than the odd sandblast.



Other people were heading in the opposite direction, straight into the wind. It felt good to get out of there, I must tell you!




Nicholas waiting patiently for me to snap away at the spectacular scenery.



And just for once, I'm in some of the spectacular scenery. Mind the shorts; I had my calves sandblasted for cleaner skin that day.



Evening brought a long-awaited fogata in my familiar little hostel. Lovely people, nice wine, excellent dead cows!



There's a story to this I can't even begin to write about on this blog. So go on, ask me for details while you're buying me a beer once I'm back!

Overall judgement on San Pedro: expensive, a bloody nuisance to get cash in, stormy and sandy in autumn but very worthwhile for all the sights all around. Oh, and the people make for a startling but nice change from Bolivia... once you've gotten used to the touristy side of things!

not been eaten, yet

Now that a few concerned emails have arrived and I'm finally able to get to an Internet cafe: I'm fine, just not been within easy reach of the net.

To make a long story short, I had to ditch the idea of camping out of Mendoza and instead proceded to eat my own body weight in meat over the course of the next two days. Okay, so I also went on another short hike, with subsequent terrifying rappelling sessions down the cliffsides and surprisingly successful attempts at climbing up part of them.

Pictures off all this will have to wait, because they are now on their way to Germany. Yep, I managed to meet up with dad in Santiago over the course of the last 4 days.

Decadence started in Mendoza, because I decided to travel in style: the wide leather seats in the first class bus section were worth every cent. As was the suite in the Plaza in Santiago's Las Condes district. After months of staying in rock-bottom hostals, the views of the setting sun illuminating the snow-capped peaks as seen from the pool on the 17th floor were a nice change.

The food was spectactular, as was the wine, although the exercise room was the only thing that saved me from instant obesity.

So now I'm back to travelling on a budget for the last few days before I fly back to Frankfurt. I've managed to get one of the last seats on a bus leaving for Talca, a few hours south of here. From there, it should be a relatively short hop over to the Reserva Nacional Altos de Lircay for a few days' camping and longer hikes.

Santiago is chilly and damp today, and I'm a tad apprehensive about snow falling on my crap tent in the mountains. But what the hell - for some reason I couldn't face the thought of the Fiestas Patrias madness here in Santiago so I opted for getting away.

I won't break into song just yet, but it seems I may just get my nature experience set up by tonight!

trekking & camping

Right, even though my day has been filled with reading and general laziness, I have managed to circumvent the apparent impossibility of getting out of the city for more than a few hours ("¿Parque Nacional Aconcagua? No, hay demasiado nieve/es demasiado temprano/el temporal es demasiado fuerte" blablabla) by booking a one-day hike - they call it a trek, but it really doesn't seem like one - and possibly staying on at a small lake with my tent and sleeping bag for the night, before being picked up the next day (hopefully).

Will be taking off with bags packed for that possibility tomorrow, and if it turns out the wind/temperatures are too much for my crap equipment, I'll head back disappointed but safe. However, if it looks like I might survive a night on my own there, I'll sure as hell be staying to fight off the odd rat or feral cat.

In any case, I will be taking a bottle of wine along for the trip, so the day & night shouldn't be a total bust. Tried finding other people to go, but they're disappointingly conventional.


Wish me luck.

Photos 4.6: The last stretch toward Chile

We kept going on the second day in the jeep along deeply rutted paths through the desert toward the stone tree (Arbol de Piedra), that I found nice but not particularly inspiring (photographically).

I've taken a lot of panorama shots over the course of the trip that need to be pieced together some time soon, so that's why there are so few other pictures from this stretch of the journey.



Jeep tracks were everywhere in the desert, especially as we approached highlights like the Arbol de Piedra or the like. You're definitely not alone out here!



Laguna roja (colorada? I can't remember...) with its red algae on which flamingos feast.



Fabrizio went for a wander toward the lake at sunset along with everyone else but was the only one who could be persuaded to make a fool of himself ;-) Grazie!



No, I'm not posing as Leonardo DiCaprio on bloody Titanic, this is more of a case of the wind blowing mightily in my face whilst I¡m standing on top of a hill that slopes down to the warm waters entering the lake.



Flamingos congregating in the setting sun make for spots of bright light on the dark surface of the lake's waters.



I think this above may have been one of the few pictures I took on the bloody freezing third morning of our trip. Slept badly (because of the cold inside my longjohns & thermals, inside my sleeping bag, underneath 3 blankets, inside the uninsulated and unheated barracks we slept in), woke up at 4:45 and drove for an hour or so until we arrived at the Geysers at sunrise. Never have I been so cold in my life. I swear that the windchill was such that, wearing my finger-free bike gloves, I got back in the cars and had to shake vigorously for nigh on 15 minutes for any feeling or colour to come back to them!



The Laguna Verde wasn't spectacularly green, seen from its shore. A few days later, I met up in San Pedro with Nicholas again, a french biker we had given a lift to and who decided to hop off close to the laguna. He said that, when seen from the top of one of the mountains nearby, the water was amazingly green. I wait for proof.

This is where my Boivian picture-taking draws to a close, since I made a very very short selection of decent ones to upload, couldn't access the RAW-Format ones and haven't had time to collate the panoramas. So bear with me and you may see some other nice ones come forth in future.

Apart from that, thank you to my co-travellers. I couldn't have wished to meet a nicer bunch of people. Hope you enjoyed the rest of your holidays in Bolivia!

Photos 4.5: Through the desert

Still at the site of our lunchbreak on day 2 of our exploration of the landscapes in southern Bolivia...



...I almost overlooked the Zoro (or Fox) that was lying on the carpark not 100m from our car. Appears the poor beast had a broken leg and was fending for itself by eating scraps of food given to it by tourists. Not likely to last the next few days was our sad verdict.




Fabrizio and Ilaria, our Italian contingent, heading out from the lunch site for a stroll along the lake. Looking back at the pictures, I must say I think I became a bit jaded by the contrasts and the landscape in general. It seems so much more overwhelming when seen this way.



...or this way, for that matter; but that's due to the physics of the 300mm lens shrinking distances between objects in the picture and making it seem, that objects of different sizes are right next to each other.



The brazilians - Luisa, Leandro and Joana - waiting for our jeep to catch up to us and take us to our next stop.



...and - predictably - the jeep catching up!



The colours were amazing - especially when contrasted with the deep blue sky. Okay, so picasa may have helped the saturation along a bit, but the actual sights were every bit as impressive



The vegetation was either nonexistant or composed of little furry tufts of hair not unlike hamsters.



Vizcachas, little furry rabbit-like animals were everywhere - at least we think so, because they blend in quite well with the surrounds and hop away much like wallabies when scared. This one camped out in the shade next to the path when we drew up and couldn't be bothered to move.



Dry desert, high winds, colourful mountains and small piles of stone all over the place were a reminder of how inhospitable the land here was.



The riverbeds are very much in evidence, even in spring here, when there isn't a single drop of running water anywhere.



Our driver took a group photo of us all and skimped on the lighting a bit...



... and another better one!

Photos 4.4: Lagunas & Flamingos

Right, so these pic-posts aren't necessarily structured by different days, only approximately according to topics. I get a bit confused myself and find I need to look at the EXIF data the camera has registered.



I didn't think this needed emphasising, but being a bit of a geek at times, my title for this pic would be one from... yes, an old Star Trek episode (both from the original series and DS9, if you must plumb the depths of my geekdom). "The trouble with tribbles". I shall say no more.



So at the end of day 1 of our exploration of the Salar de Uyuni, we headed to a small town near the western edge of the salt flats, where ugly low prefab buildings cowered against the flanks of the mountains overlooking this quiet little town.



...or at least it would have been quiet had it not been for the overzealous, soccer-crazy french who invaded the pitch and sent the neighbourhood donkeys screaming for cover. These were the same french people whom we had rescued from a 4-hour forced march from where their car had suffered from a punctured tire. After 2 cars had driven by without bothering to stop, we helped out with out on-board compressor unit.

Just goes to show, it's a dog eat dog world wherever you go!



The next morning, we drove on to a small village an hour out and while people went to the bathroom and the local store to stock up on sweets, I poked around the place to find out where the tinny sound was coming from. Turns out it was a monday morning and school was in session! What I assume must have been the Bolivian national anthem was played with much gusto on an accordeon (reminding me of the old Far Side cartoon: "Welcome to heaven, here's your harp; welcome to hell, here's your accordeon) while everyone around stood to attention except a little kid with a ball under his arm who looked on rather sceptically.



And then we were out in the middle of the mountains, moving rather gingerly with our jeep along rough paths with much bumping and rattling. Coming to the first of the Lagunas (which, I can't remember), the setting was overwhelming.



This little bugger hopped right up to me and stared curiously for a while. Can't imagine how he survives up here, because there was still ice on the ground in full sun by the time we got there around 10am.



The lake itself is covered in places by a mineral whose name also eludes me (must be the Argentinian wine). So that's not ice or salt the flamingos stand out against.



I'm afraid this is another of those occasions when I need to subject you to inexpertly photographed and rather bland wildlife pictures.



... although properly cropped, they could well be okay. This one of a group of flamingos taking flight - if only for a short distance - looks a bit like a merged picture of multiple exposures. If you don't know what that means, just think of it as pretty. (Me, condescending? Never!)



Ice-frosted plants at 10am in full sun? Must have been a bloody cold night!



Vicuñas were in evidence everywhere. Their long necks and slender build is instantly recognizable. There were a lot more on the Salar, but we didn't stop near them and I didn't feel like snapping away from the moving car, so that's the best you'll get!



I'm thinking this picture was taken at the Laguna we stopped at for our lunch break. The flamingos were really close by, well-fed by the algae that abound in these lakes (and which make for some of the colouring in them).



Neither quite flying nor quite striding across the ground, these two performed something that looked more like a nuptial dance than a form of locomotion.



Our lunch break, made to look more peaceful and isolated than it was; there were about 4 more jeeps in evidence within a 100m and the bathrooms - jealously guarded - were available for the horrid price of 5 Bolivianos!




Not meant for flamingos, nor for Vicuñas, obviously!

Photos 4.3: Salar de Uyuni

Having finally arrived in Uyuni after a tiring 7 hour trip out of Potosi, leaving it behind to be beleaguered by celebrating crowds from all over the department.

I managed to scrounge enough money together (despite the power cuts and non-functioning ATMs) to get myself on a tour leaving the next day to see the Salar, the Lagunas and the deserts toward the Chilean border.



The first big stop was Isla del Pescado (so named for its shape), with the blinding white of the salt flats stretching toward the mountains in the distance.



Seeing people ride their bikes across the flats was reasonably common; but the tiny spots cycling along slightly darker paths on the immense white plains were an impressive sight to behold.



When the contrast on the pictures is turned way up, all the tire tracks criss-crossing the salt are visible. We were told that in high season, as many as 40 vehicles with up to 7 tourists on board would arrive at the island to have lunch and then scramble to the top. Luckily for us, there were only 8 vehicles there with us.



...and if you waited long enough and mucked around with your camera for ages whilst at the top, all the eagerly scrambling tourists would go down again in a bit of a hurry and leave you all alone for an hour or so before your jeep left.



The scenery was quite surreal, with the pure white of the salt, the deep blue of the skies, the green cacti and the scorching sun.



The mountains bordering the salt flats were hardly more than slight shadows in the distance.



Looking down toward the "carpark" side of the island from the top.



Characteristic patterns of the salt flats, a little farther out from the island



Need I say more?



Our vehicle had basically no tread left on the tires and a cracked windscreen but a safe and fun driver who was quite young. The tires weren't much of a problem on the salt flats (even though we had to help out another vehicle with our in-built compressor on the way) but when we finally got to the mountainous part, where the ride was very rough at times, I was very surprised the tires held up.