Montag, 31. Januar 2011

Amaicha and Ruinas de Quilmes

at the end of day one, after a high class foto shooting cactus and we, we and cactus, we arrive in amaicha del valle. amaicha was one of my personal favorites on this trip, after all the cities ive seen finally i arrived in argentina :)

amaicha might have like what.. maybe some thousand inhabitants? plus five or six tourists every night, probably for the one and only reason, its situated on the ruta 40, mentiones earlier. its pretty, charming for not having paved streets and no defined opening times for stores. like ten blocks between the highway and the wilderness on the other end of the village are whats available for walks, a huge quite green plaza for being a desert and cactus everywhere.

dont know, how would you describe the magic of a place? if you could it wouldnt be that magic anymore.. i loved it for the old dude with his gaucho hat in the morning buying cheese on the plaza. for the guy in the farmacy that didnt know when the internet place opens. cause you never know.. for the huge fiesta on the plaza friday night, just because it was a friday night.

our first excursion this day was headed to the waterfall of amaicha. 5min away from the village, up the hills, hidden by another million of cactus, theres a little river. people of the village made it a kinda mini national park, sacrificing the pachamama, mother earth. theres people down at the waterfall, helping the visitors to climb it, and watching out that they leave with all their garbage. the waterfall itself was like.. tiny, cute, nothing compared to iguazu but incredibly beautiful. in between the canions, some rays of sunlight entering.
if you wanted to get to the end of the canion you had to well.. climb up. get wet baby.. we had loads of fun with the waterfall-assistans climbin the ladder, trying not to be soaking. without success :)

after getting lost in the canion when walking back to the car (cause there were two ways, which is one more than only one) we started right away to excursion two. this time some kilometers up the highway to the sacred town of quilmes. this is a town of ruines, alongside a mountain in the sierra. and of course a bunch of cactus, just to mention. quilmes has been a "major city" to the indians of quilmes, until the destruction by the spanish conquerors. today the territory belongs to the indians again, and is a hidden attraction for local tourism. didnt see other europeans :)

on the way to cafayate we stopped for coffee in i-dont-remember-the-name; the old lady serving was happy to know where france is :)

Sonntag, 30. Januar 2011

Mollares y Tafi del Valle

crossing the green greeeen jungle of tucuman we made our way to the mountains, climbin up to 2000m over sea level. first destination was mollares, a little village like two hours from tucuman. from the boiling heat and humidity of tucuman we switched climate to chilly mountain weather, cloudy and wet. anyway, think the pictures are pretty enough!

mollares had a certain amount of menhires, huge blocks of stone from ancient indian times with impressive symbols and reliefs craved in - and that right next to a river, before entering a village. but as humanity always got a sense of destroying itself and all that has been there before, a lot of the beautiful menhires have been destroyed by vandalists. so the town decided to move the stones from their initial place to a kind of garden in towncenter, now with nice descriptions placed next to them.
but still.. the natural magic of the stones is missing, as you just walk a circle taking a look at them and leave the garden again. pity.

right after that we went on to tafi del valle, capital of this municipality. tafi is the perfect spot to start excursions to all the beautiful sites in the valley, but actually doesnt have much to see when in town. besides the artesanias market.

all the way up to mollares and tafi is green and greener, jungle so to say. but leaving tafi and going up a little bit more the mountains the climate changes surprisingly fast. the green grass disappears, the trees change their faces, are shorter and broader, get less and less and when you start getting bored by seeing dry grass you finally make out a cactus.

CACTUS. i mean what i say. this plant was gonna follow me for two weeks from there.. and i still remember that sensation when seeing the first giant cactus in the landscape, looking like a mutated version of ikeas house plants. like maybe 2-5m high and thick as a tree, there are millions of them out in the sierra of argentina. and aparently they are as durable as trees aswell, in the area we crossed it seemed kinda common to use cactus as wood for furniture. pictures follow.

next destination: amaicha

Dienstag, 25. Januar 2011

Tucumán

next night after aconcagua i had another overnight bus, this time to santiago del estero. why there? who knows. i spent like ten minutes at the bus terminal, then i went on to tucuman. crusing.

tucuman is capital of the provincia de tucuman, a town like mendoza, just erm... green. i was told its the jardin de argentina, the garden. well, when arriving at the busterminal you wont see much green. but better than green, what i found there was laurine and her friends from france, lea and natalie :) so from there on it was me and three french. whod ever believe that? haha by now i can swear in french, lets see what else i can learn.

aaand the girls came up with some more ideas, one of them quite brite id say. we rent a car. a three-door volkswagen, shiny white jumper. not actually the jeep thingy youd need for off-highway in argentina, but how do they say here es lo que hay :)

besides that they had an idea what to do! thats what i was missing, what im generally missing i think. so we entered the car, me, three french, four huge backpacks, two cds of cumbia, one travelguide.

ruta 40

primary objective is reach salta, via ruta 40 through the mountains. ruta 40 is the famous panermicana, which starts somewhere in alaska and goes down to tierra del fuego in patagonia. but just that it got a name doesnt mean the route is something.. serious? well it is serious, for the thousands of travellers that go up and down the two americas. and aswell its a serious challenge. but its not a highway. its not actually a street. route just wants to say.. there is a way.
and i thought the guy of the car rental is kidding us when saying "like ten kilometers from there the asphalt ends". well he was right. the next three days we should manage ourselves on dirt roads :)

upcoming stories: mollares, tafi del valle, amaicha, catarata de amaicha, ruinas de quilmes, cafayate, quebrada de cafayate, san carlos, angastuco, molinos, cachi aaaaand salta.

a lot to tell, we were quite active these days


Montag, 17. Januar 2011

Mendoza

arriving at 8am in buenos aires after a night on bus and boat, still with all the impressions of uruguay in my head, it was this moment when crossing leandro alem avenue i knew i had to get away again. hundreds of ugly, stinky trucks passing by in front of me made the decision easy.

so pretty fast marion had her bus ticket to.. away. this time mendoza, the capital of wine production in argentina. anyway, thats not the reason why im here, i got higher objectives. i wanted to see the highest mountain of america, the aconcagua.

mendoza city

so after one night in buenos aires i packed my stuff again and left to the super busy bus terminal. the bus to mendoza takes like 15 hours, so another night sleepless in argentina. even more thrilling getting back to consciousness the next day, looking out the window and seeing.. what?? no mountain. i should explain, my expectation of mendoza was that it would be in the mountains. and if not that then at least .. dont know, hills that would indicate that theres one of the highest mountainranges in the world close. but nothing, the country around mendoza is as flat as patagonia. and as dry.

they say mendoza is an oasis, the water they need comes from the rivers around town and all green in town just grows thanks for human help. including the enormous wine fields, everyting is watered artificially. kinda scary.. it looks quite green here. in the flatlands.

on the horizon to the west of mendoza you can make out the mountains i was missing, aparently hiiiigh mountains. mendoza is something around 700m sealevel. the mountains in the back go up to 6000m. yeeheah, compared to that our alps might look like hills. not even half as high :P

me in the high mountains

so turning into tourist again i booked a tour to see these mountains. named "high mountain tour" it promised all i wanted. starting at 7am, cause there is like almost 200 kilometers to drive to get to aconcagua. but lets start at the beginning. we did a first stop at a laguna, aparently a lake of glaciar water, leftover from long time ago when here everything was glaciar. looong time ago, right now its really hot here.
and on we go to puente de picheuta. a bridge. nothing more, nothing less, a little bridge over an even smaller river. supposed to have been built by incas, so a precious artefact. dont touch it.

the really important impressions of this part of the trip were actually the mountains. finally they began to rise and rise, the road stopped being straight like a hairline. all together nothing comparable with the alps, might the andes have a really different history i dont know, but they look completely different. at least here. deserted canions, lots of soil but not a single serious tree in sight. and colours! the ground here contains several minerals, that give the mountains there characteristic layers of colours. yellow for sulfur (schwefel), green for copper (!!) and red for iron. impressive. sad but the colours are not that shiny in the pictures, sorrrry.

next stop in the trip was the famous puente del inca, the inca bridge. this is.. well i dont know honestly. a bridge, naturally "grown", of sand, soil, stones and termal water. shiny yellow, the bridge doesnt really fit into the landscape. it got its name cause it was used as a major route for crossing the andes by the incas. in the 1930s there was a spa hotel built into the hill aside the river, using the termal spring water here. sounded weird to me that in the 30s there were people, obviously with money, travelling out into the andes to get some wellness. but well, today you can see the ruines of what was a hotel before.

aconcagua

final and most desired stop on the tour was the aconcagua. its a national park where you walk like half an hour in the deserted landscape until you arrive at a viewpoint to get some pictures of the mountain. to mention, the mountain itself doesnt look that special on the pictures. thats first because the viewpoint is already on 2950something meters. second, the place is still like 40km(!) away from the mountain. by car you cant get closer, youd have to walk. and sorry im not gonna walk 40km. although i was tempted to join the hiking tour..

the tip of aconcagua itself is 6962m above sealevel. i would have loved to see it just from a bit closer. anyway, being up at 3000m was an experience for itself. the air is getting thinner and you get tired so much faster. haha and you notice who smoked too much in his life and who didnt. impressive was the wind up there. so hardcore, you could barely walk straight. and with the wind came the dust. i still got the dirt in my hair. and clothes. and ears. and probably nose.

alltogether a beautiful experience. people who know me i dont need to tell that i even liked the dust. on the way down a group of mulis passed our way, running downhill. following them was a group of shepherds on horses.
THE picture of the andenes, i swear :)

Donnerstag, 13. Januar 2011

Montevideo

its a kind of magic.. this my friends might be the town you could fall in love with. or maybe i could. its a weird version of vienna, with palm trees. and a beach all along the city. the joggers that run along schoenbrunn every morning would be jealous. i am.

what it got to do with vienna? well i felt like people dont care so much about you. no one gets excited when recognizing youre not from here. stores actually got a defined closing time. a lot less noisy. less people begging for money on the streets.
might all got something to do with holidays, as mentioned earlier, i think the entire population of montevideo left to the beaches. anyway, i liked it, and vienna for its part could need some southamerican flair; so things would be fine with me even when holidays are over hrhr

they miss the old palaces and well all the old buildings vienna got but hey who the hell wants to see more old buildings? vienna got that kind of spirit that its age makes the magic. here its different. i didnt find out so far what makes montevideo special, but i could mention some things that make it sparkle for me.

basically its a big town, got something of everything, but its not an oversize town that got too much of anything. like b.a. city. people are nice, but not too nice. its fun for some time saying youre from austria. but after a while you get bored and start finding funny answers to the questions, that are all the same anyway. [best creative answer to "what do you do for a living", a dude in rosario: gynacologist, you should have seen my face]. easier when people dont ask so many questions..

montevideo got a beach and palmtrees. and no snow in winter. thats what i would change in vienna, immediately, if i could. solution to the ugly water of rio de la plata: two hours bus down the coast, maybe less, breathtaking beaches.

things to do when in montevideo

for real, im not sure about that. as santi got a huuge house and a pool we didnt move to much. but things you should actually do: take a walk in the centro and see the parks, and you gonna find out no matter where you go you always end up at the sea. go to the harbour and walk around the market hall. see the beach. beaches. but dont look at the water.
open for any suggestions for next visit to montevideo :)

ah and get somehow out in the bay and have a look at montevideo skyline, at night, awesome!

Dienstag, 11. Januar 2011

(Repùblica Oriental del) Uruguay

finally made it out of the country. to uruguay, or actually, República Oriental del Uruguay, which means like republic east of the river uruguay, or maybe the place over there on the other side of the river. so now ive lost my uruguayan followers. damn.
well to make up for it i should mention that its also called southamerican switzerland. tells me they got too much money.. for sure it doesnt have this name for its incredible mountains. a random guy on the bus told me the highest point in the country might be like 500m up. didnt proof that but he might be right..

el campo

crossing colonia, montevideo and going directly to punta del este. the same random guy on the bus said its the acapulco of southamerica. well.. let me tell you, what they got in common is a lot of skyscrapers, tourists and the prices. apart from this nada que ver. but what knows a stranger, i stood there for one afternoon, sleeping on the beach, the hours of not-sleeping i spent travelling the night before. so lets quit with my opinion about punta, the very same night laurine, santiago and me took off to the campo. means going to santis charming country house somewhere in the uruguayan nothingness, away from the beach, away from civilization. nothing out there, apart from cows and sheeps and baby olive trees. but the most amazing sky at night, two million stars.

ah yeah, and how did we get there? rrrright on a jeep. santis lovely 1980 military jeep. any dude of greenpeace would wanna kill us for doing so, but me and myself and i just fell in love with this.. erm car. the most rustical kind of transportation. pictures coming soon.

la pedrera

the next morning, after being creative starting the jeep - battery low - we went on with the trip to la pedrera. pedrera is a village on the atlantic coast of uruguay, with literally nothing more than one main street, a campground, some houses to rent and an amazing beach. aaand hippies, so many young alternative people, dreadlocks everywhere. i love it. well i gotta mention that southamerican hippies in contrast to the ones i know apparently dont shower and dont wear underwear. dislike. anyway, hardcore switch to punta del este :) i felt home instantly.

also, for the kinda austrian weather. who would imagine that where i go for holiday it would be warm and sunny? nooou way, since i am in uruguay there was rain every day and a cool breeze is following us. yeah guys, dont ever wish you get my karma!! but let me forget my aggressions about that, it was a reeeeally nice time in pedrera. we stood in a huge luxury tent few blocks from the beach. awe-some.

punta del diablo

from there we went on to see more beach, after two days on the campground we switched over to punta del diablo. another two hours trip on the jeep, in the rain. who would want a serious car, if you could have that? i guess i kinda like to suffer. but we made it, arriving in punta del diablo at a cosy little hut in the woods, rented by santis friends. a hut all made of wood, the size of my living room for.. what, like 8 people? it was cuddly you know. but having a campfire every night and staying three blocks from the biggest club in town makes up for it. a looot. whereas, first, i would question how people here define blocks, there was nothing but woods, second, i gotta mention that there was no town. the club was huge, the village was not. but i lllllove it, the "centro" got a charming atmosphere, as i was told europeans like it. true true.

apart from that, you could possibly rent all town but wouldnt actually find a person that really lives there. another just-holiday-village, well and i guess the whole population of montevideo, which is half of the population of the country (!), had moved to the coast, these villages for holidays.

yes, its summer holiday, and i suppose the first 15 days of january everyone goes somewhere. the places were all full, ah yeah and the club you could barely enter cause there were so many people in. anyways.. we had a blast, spending the days outta civilisation in the woods and the nights in an oversize, overfilled, open-air club. two things to change? get the bugs and spiders out of the hut and tell the clubs dj to quit with cumbia. ah and nacho, quit with the fires. thats dangerous.

do i have to state agaaaain that i fell in love with a place and had a really hard time leaving? i admit im a bad traveller. the days in punta del diablo were definetly beautiful, had that kinda magic, not at last for the people. some time ago my favorite quote was rob machados it always comes down to the people. you realize after seeing some incredible .. well things, towns, buildings, beaches, that a palmtree alone doesnt make you happy. but it gets close to perfect when theres a dude standing next to it with a smile for you.

thanks guys, this trip was AWESOME


upcoming: montevideo story and pictures sooooon

Montag, 10. Januar 2011

Mar del Plata

uebersetzt heisst die stadt silbermeer. weiiiit davon weg irgendwie nach silber auszusehen oder den anschein zu erwecken mal huebsch ausgesehen zu haben, ist mar del plata die bademetropole argentiniens. sechs stunden von buenos aires weg zieht es vor allem die familien aus der hauptstadt an. eine grossstadt am wasser, buenos aires mit strand wenn man so will. genauso laut, chaotisch und nicht besonders sauber.

aber flair hat es. eine pulsierende stadt mit beeindruckender strandpromenade, die vom bild des grand hotel und des casinos gepraegt ist. viele menschen, omnibusse, taxis, bars und restaurants und einkaufstrassen. wer buenos aires mag der mag auch mar del plata.
mir erschiens ein wenig zu viel. wieder mal zu viele leute und zu viel abgase in der luft.

mar del cobo

sooomit, nach einem tag am uebervoelkerten strand in der stadt machten wir uns auf ins umland. und tadaa nach 30 minuten bus fand man tatsaechlich ein suesses kleines dorf mit strand, ohne turisten. in mar del cobo gibts (fast) nichts, ausser dem langen, sandigen strand und tuerkisblauem meer.
planungsfehler leider mit dem wetter, wer rechnet denn damit dass es im paradies regnen kann? nach einem nickerchen im schatten off the beach (dort gibts naemlich, ueberraschung, mal wieder keine baeume) und einem kaffee im oertlichen restaurant beganns derart zu schuetten dass wir die flucht antraten. schleichend. zwei stunden auf den omnibus zu warten war bissi ernuechternd. glueck trotzdem, der bus geht anscheinend nur 4mal taeglich und wir haben "nur" 2 stunden gewartet :P

Mittwoch, 5. Januar 2011

Puerto Madryn

puerto madryn ist das dorf neben der halbinsel valdez in chubut, argentina. DAS dorf weils nur eine ansiedlung im umkreis von drei stunden gibt. und valdez ist ein weiteres naturschutzgebiet mit vielen reichlich exotischen tieren, pinguinen, walen, seelefanten und seeloewen.


ne eigene story waer vielleicht noch die anreise nach puerto madryn, das irgendwie im nirgendwo liegt. wir reisten ueber calafate nach rio gallegos, das am suedzipfel des patagonischen festlands liegt. von dort mit nachtbus weiter in den norden nach madryn, durch die patagonische steppe, was uns wieder gezeigt hat wie leer das land hier ist. nichtmal baeume wachsen in der kargen landschaft. keine fluesse. nur schafe ab und zu.


puerto madryn an sich liegt genauso in der steppe, alles trocken und wasserlos. ein paar buesche entlang den kargen duenen am strand. ueberraschend warm fuer uns, da wir grade vom eisberg kommen. und madryn gibts in der form wie es ist eigentlich auch nur wegen der turisten. restaurants und bars uns hotels. und da wir nunmal auch zu den turisten gehoeren buchen wir gleich bei ankunft unsere bus- und bootstour nach valdez.


und was tut man auf der halbinsel?

- wale schauen: mit dem boot in die bucht hinaus und fotos schiessen. beeindruckende tiere, enorm und so friedlich. fast herzig, ein walbaby hat sich in unser boot verliebt und ist ne ganze weile drum rum geschwommen. wobei baby bei einem 15m wal eh schon untertrieben ist. fotos folgen.

- pinguine schauen: dachte immer die sind groesser.. so halben meter hohe, schwarz-weisse pinguinos auf den sonnigen kliffs der halbinsel. farbig machen sie sich gut auf den fotos :)

- seeloewen und -elefanten schauen: riiiiesen kolosse, bis zu 2 tonnen, einfach nur gross und schwer. um nicht zu sagen unhuebsch, recht schen sans ned :P aber gesehen sollt man sie haben

- orcas suchen, wenn gefunden dann schauen: kommt vor dass orcas (siehe free willy) an der kueste vorbei schwimmen. fuer uns ist kein willy aufgetaucht, leider

ergo: paedagogisch wertvoll. mittlerweile voll motiviert beim naechsten rettet die wale event mit zu laufen.