For all those who looked up my blog and found out there were no news: I am sorry, But it will most likely stay that way. I just don’t want to spent my time writing about things while i actually can experience things. I can tell you I am doing fine and am still having a good time. But there is also an end in sight, with the end of june I will return home and even if I am not blogging I will still be happy to tell you all about what I experienced when I see you in person!
All the best
Fir olle Freunde des Hocheffizient Schwimmens hon i mi ba Ausübung vun der hohen Kunst fotografieren glossen. Nochn Gardasee sein a der Indische Ozean, der Atlantik und der Pazifik ordentlich durchpflügt worden, sowohl in Rückenschwimmtechnik als a im Kraulstil. Mit Erfolg wia i behaupten konn, es isch nämlich iats so viel Sauerstoff im Wosser dass es dort kuan uanzign toatn Fisch gib! 😉
Hocheffizient Schwimmen im Indischen Ozean (Kenia)
Hocheffizient Schwimmen im Atlantik, genauer in der Karibik (Costa Rica)
Hocheffizient Schwimmen im Pazifik (Costa Rica)
Danke an die Fotografen Franz und Manuel
One thing Argentina is famous for are its steaks, so I had to try and figure out if the fame is justified. It is!!! Food in Argentina has not a lot of variety and even the pizza they claim to be the best in the world is actually very disappointing, but beef is cheaper than vegetables for a reason, by the way beer is cheaper than water, and makes for a meatlover’s paradise. You can get steak everywhere, their most favourite cut is the Bife de Chorizo and most of the time it is very good, but sometimes it is spectacularly good. As a natural consequence I had a lot of steak, but see for yourself.
Bife de Chorizo in ‘Alto el Fuego’ Bariloche (The best I had in Argentina)
Bife de Lomo in El Chaltén
Mutton roasted over fire
Last but not least, prepared my own Bife de Chorizo
Al Punto – Medium
Two hours south of El Chaltén is the city of El Calafate and the city itself is not too special, but it is famous for a certain thing, the Perito Moreno Glaciar. As these were the last days of my stay in Argentina I did not want to hurry too much i just hung around on the campsite a little, enjoyed some last argentinian steaks and went to see the glacier. I teamed up once more with Conny and Andy and fortunately they were in a similar mood than me. As there was not much to do around the area where visitors are allowed to stroll along and neither of us felt the need to do a boat or glaciar tour we found a cosy place to lie down and wait for the glacier to do its thing. As the glacier is moving several meters every day and as it is flowing into a big lake there are huge pieces of ice breaking off it all the time. You just have to be pacient and be ready once it happens. So that’s what we did, lying in the sun for a few hours with nothing else to do than waiting for some huges pieces of ice to break from the glaciar and crash into the lake. Spectacular!
Chilling in the sun and waiting for the ice to break
Breaking ice
A few years back I read an article about mountaineering in Patagonia and it featured a photo of a certain mountain, Cerro Torre. I was amazed and I made the plan to pay that mountain a visit, just from below of course! climbing it exceeds both my skills and will to suffer.
So I headed south which meant taking a bus along the Ruta 40 for two days, a famous road that crosses Argentina from nort to south always following the Andes. In the middle I visited the Cuevas de los Manos in an impressive canyon in the middle of nowhere with rock paintings dating back up to 8000 years. As if that was not yet enough there were also a lot of alpacas, a kind of Llama, a fox (in spanish ‘zorro’) and condors.
Rock Paintings in the ‘Cuevas de los Manos’
Once I arrived in El Chaltén, the small mountaineering and hiking village, I was already rewarded with views on Fitz Roy and I got excited. The next nine days were full of the outdoors and I enjoyed every single moment of it. It was simply great and except the fact that I broke my camera I loved every moment of it. That had also to do with the company I found, starting with Caroline and the two german girls Maren & Nora, my bouldering buddy Andy and Conny as well as the australian couple. El Chaltén was absolutely worth the trip and of course I have not seen all mountains of the world but until I see a better one I name Cerro Torre the most beautiful mountain in the world!
Cerro Torre
On the way to Paso del Viento
Perché questo articolo probabilmente é solo interessante per questi di voi che conoscono TIM lo provo di scrivere in italiano e anche per praticare un pó. Sono sicuro che la mia professoressa di italiano sarebbe molto soddisfatta 😉
Quando sono entrato in Brasile mi sono accorto che il cellulare mi mostrava il simbolo di TIM e mi é sembrato un pó strano, ma lo ho dimenticato subito.
Dopo un pó ho visto la prima reclame di Telecom Italia Mobile e ho capito che TIM deve aver comprato una dei reti brasiliani e gia ho sperato che anche i prezzi sono piu bassi. Ma niente di questo genere, era lo stesso come con gli altri, vuol dire 6€ per il minuto! Quindi non ho usato tanto la rete TIM brasiliana, peró mi sono divertito per lo stesso vedendo il colonialismo telefonico del Italia 🙂
Stepping out of the taxi I felt a bit weird. After the beach life in Rio getting to a place that resembles a village in the alps was not what I expected. The city is placed at a lake surrounded by hills on one side and the mountains of the Andes on the other. But not only the landscape looked a little familiar, also the architecture and culture. Mountaineering, trekking, skiing, climbing and many other outdoor activities are the main thing here as well as chocolate and other food. There was even a restaurant called ‘Der Tiroler’ with Schweinshaxe and Spätzle on their menu, I resisted the temptation to go in there 😉
Der Tiroler
I spend a few days in the Hostel 41 Below, Leo the manager was keeping the place very clean and comfortable. He also made fresh homemade bread every day which with the also homemade jam made very good breakfast. There were also the very kind and friendly Mathilde and Stephanie, two french girls who temporary worked for the hostel, that made the place even more enjoyable. That and some nice fellow travellers I met there made me wanna stay for a much longer time, but the mountains were calling and I went on a three day trek in the Huapi National Park. I was amazed by the beauty of the landscape and got very gelous of the rock climbers around refugio Frey. Rüdiger also had a funny experience when he met Max, a travel companion of two americans.
Max had a very similar history than Rüdiger and all of us became friends very quickly, which ended in having a steak and a few beers together once we came back to Bariloche. You can find pictures in the gallery for Bariloche and the trekking.
An interesting thing I learned in Bariloche is why there are so many people on the streets screaming ‘cambio, cambio’. When I saw them first in Buenos Aires I thought how can so many people make a living by exchanging money, but then someone explained to me what is going on. In Argentina it is not allowed to purchase foreign currency officially, apparently to protect the Peso. But if you want to buy something big, like a flat, you have to pay in Dollar or Euro as the Peso has a very high inflation. So what Argentinians do is to buy foreign currency on the black market to crazy rates which means if you have Dollars you get up to 150% of the official rate, which makes traveling in Argentina affordable and also increases the inflation even more. So it’s good for foreigners but for the country it’s very bad. Unfortunately I did not have a lot of Dollars left so I had to be ok with the official rate and could not enjoy the advantages of the so called ‘Blue Dollar’.
The flight from Rio de Janeiro to Bariloche in the Argentinian Lake District had a pleasant surprise ready for me. As usual I booked the cheapest combination of flights and did not pay any attention to the class I booked. Seems the cheapest seat was in business class, I did not mind! 🙂
Although it was only a 3 hour flight the business class was significantly more comfortable and I had plenty of space in the first row and enjoyed a very good service. The meal was served on real dishes and cutlery, I got a glass of wine and after being asked for the third time I also had a Baileys for dessert. Some luxury for a change.
Unfortunately on my next flight it was back to economy again and as if destiny wanted to even something out, the connection to Bariloche was delayed for several hours and I arrived there at two in the morning.
At the wedding of my best friend i met Gustavo and Julia a couple from Brazil and as they invited me to visit if I ever came to Brazil that’s just what I did. I could stay at their place in Porto Alegre and they also took me to spend the weekend with Gustavos very nice and welcoming family at their beachhouse in Imbe. We had great food, especially the big churrasco with a lamb leg, beef and chicken heart. I could also try the mate and Gustavo gave me some surfing lessons. Although the waves were not very good the surfing in the ‘chocolate’ sea was a lot of fun. I had a very good time!
Churrasco
From Porto Alegre I took a plane to Rio de Janeiro where I could stay with Carolina, Julias sister who lives in Leblon, one of the best quarters in Rio. Although she did not even know me she was very welcoming and I had a great time. I hiked up to the statue Christ on Corcovado and went to swim at the beaches of Leblon, Ipanema and Copacabana. I also went on a favela tour and did a multipitch climb on the Pao de Acucar. The climb was spectacular and being on the rock with Andrew felt more like climbing with a friend rather than with a guide.
Rio de Janeiro
Thanks to all the people who made my stay in Brazil so special!
On the way to Brazil there was one thing not to miss. I’ve heard of the Iguazu falls before but what was to come when I actually saw them was amazing and very impressive. I’ve seen a lot of waterfalls but none like this one, but see for yourself.
Iguazu falls
Right next to waterfalls there is a really cool birdpark, here are some pictures.
