From the Pacific over the Andes - Santiago, Viña, Mendoza

Heute folgt eine Zusammenfassung der letzten Woche, wiedereinmal bin ich sehr schnell gereist. Ich war in Santiago de Chile, Viña del Mar, Valparaiso, Mendoza und dem Aconcagua.

Santiago:
I just continue where i stopped my last post, by being happy that i met Dominika, the chilean girl who supported me with food when i arrived in Santiago (picture).
Danach bin ich mal wieder mit allem Gepäck einen Tag lang durch Santiago gelaufen. Mit sämtlichem Gepäck in einer Stadt unterwegs zu sein die ich noch nicht kenne ist für mich eher psychisch anstrengend: Ich kenne mich nicht aus, weiß nicht welche Gegenden vielleicht etwas unsicher sind und ganz sicher möchte ich keine weitere Bekanntschaft mit Langfingern machen. Zum Glück hilft mir meine Intuition und dass ich in der Lehrerausbildung gelernt habe, meine Augen und Ohren überall zu haben...
Santiago ist nach meinem Geschmack als Stadt schöner als Buenos Aires. Die Gebäude sind einfach interessanter. (4 Fotos) Es gibt kleine bis riesige Parks mittendrin und man fühlt sich eher außerhalb als in einer Metropole. Einzig der Smog passt nicht so ganz ins Bild.
Ich habe 3 nette Italienerinnen getroffen und den Tag mit ihnen die Stadt erkundet, zB. auch das ehemalige Wohnhaus Pablo Nerudas. Außerdem gab es auch 'Mote con huesillo' zu essen/trinken. Das ist ein typisch erfrischender Mix aus Saft, gequollenen Körnern und einem Pfirsich. Lecker :)
Sprachlich lege ich mir auch immer wieder mal ein ganz schönes Ei. Beim aufladen meiner Handykarte wurde mir der bedeutende Unterschied der Verben 'cargar' und 'cagar' bewusst gemacht. Bei Interesse bitte mal nachlesen... (Brüder, los geht's) ^^
Mein Host Francisco war nett und wir haben uns gut verstanden. Nur beim gemeinsamen Fußball schauen fehlte uns (und damit der chilenischen Nationalmannschaft) das Glück.
I even met some Russians there! Unfortunately I forgot all my russian! I couldn't even remember one single word... but i know it will come back at when i have left the spanish speaking countries...
Schon mal ein Kilogramm Bananen für ca. 65 Cent gesehen? Ja, Obst und Gemüse sind echt günstig hier.

Viña del mar, Valparaíso:
I hitchhiked to Viña and arrived there once again without having a host. Exploring the city i chatted with Paula (from Valdivia) and once more she organized me one of her friends as a host! In not even half an hour! And as she said something like 'take care of him' to her friend Maria, she really did! She prepared delicious food for me while i was there! Thanks again to my sweet Paula, Maria and chilean mentality :)
Viña bietet außer dem Strand, Parks und einigen schönen Häusern die 'reloj de flores' - Blumenuhr (Foto).
Maria beschreibt mich als den glücklichsten Menschen, den sie getroffen hat. Des weiteren sei meine Stimme sehr verschieden, je nachdem in welcher Sprache ich spreche. Sicher wird mir das jemand mal näher erklären können...
Am nächsten Tag bin ich nebenan in Valparaiso gewesen. Schöne Häuser (Foto) und eine Stadttour machten meinen Vormittag aus. In the afternoon I could finally fulfill another dream from my bucket list: I was at a barbershop where they shaved me old style - with a knife. And of course after shaving they used beauty products and i got the softest face i ever had (picture)
I meet another cool guy on this hot day. Well he made a quite stony face but as he usually lives on easter island about 3000km away he is allowed not to smile too much... (foto)
Und immer wieder sieht man Leute auf öffentlichen Plätzen Dame spielen (Foto) oder andere Spiele, teilweise auch mit Karten, die unserem Skat oder Doppelkopf ähnlich zu sein scheinen.
Abends bin ich mit Host Maria und zwei Freundinnen ausgegangen. Durch vertraute deutsche Klänge im Ohr haben wir 5 Deutsche in einer Bar kennengelernt. Nur wollten die Jungs nicht mit ins Foto?!? :(

Die Fahrt über die Anden mt dem Bus war echt toll (5 Fotos). Nur die Grenzkontrolle habe ich nicht verstanden. Ist ja gut wenn man uns nicht unnötig aufhalten will, aber nach 2 Stunden des Wartens alle Passagiere mit allen Sachen aussteigen lassen, das Gepäck nichtmal eines Blickes würdigen und 3 Minuten später wieder alle einsteigen lassen... Naja, Sicherheit geht vor :D

Mendoza:
In Mendoza i met amazing Fernanda again. (Picture) She is a couchsurfer living in Punta Arenas, where I met here a month ago. Now she's also traveling.  We spent amazing 3 days together exploring Mendoza in incredible heat. Even the cactus started dying there! (Picture)
Fernanda had no good sense of orientation and this was obviously contagious. So it happened for the first time in my travel that i walked much more than i wanted because we somehow got lost in the city :)
We were also in the Zoo and discovered a completely new species of animals in red shorts (picture)
Next day we made a tour to the highest mountain outside of Asia (i just heard it, hope it is right). The Aconcagua is in between Argentina and Chile in the Andes and almost 7000m high. We did not get too close but nevertheless it was really nice. (4 pictures)
Unfortunately i had altitude sickness already at the 3000m where we were. Means i got headache, a feeling of sickness and felt a bit tired. After coming back to Mendoza I felt already a lot better. Now i am curious how to deal with the altitude in Bolivia...
Next morning we woke up earlier than usually because in the hostel was a waterpipe broke and luckily our roommates recognized and woke us up so we could save our belongings.
And now it is going back to Chile as fast as possible. I want to go south to Valdivia again. I met so nice friends there, especially Paula who helped me a lot with her contacts. I just have to change my plans once more :)
Da an der Grenze zu Chile mal wieder von Mitarbeitern gestreikt wurde und mein Bus damit sicher mehr als 5 Stunden hätte warten müssen,  bin ich kurzerhand ausgestiegen, habe mir in der ersten Reihe einen etwa gleichaltrigen Herrn angelacht, der mich weiter mitgenommen hat... Wie gut, dass ich unabhängig und mit wenig Gepäck reisen kann :)

Valdivia i am coming!
Hay lugares cuales te gustan, donde quieres quedarte mas tiempo... como Valdivia. Aunque mi español todavía no es bien, aunque no tengo mucho mas tiempo para viajar, aunque hace mi viaje mas caro: Yo tenia que ver otra vez esta ciudad y mis amigos alli!

Alles Liebe und Gute in meine geliebte Heimat.
Euer Miguel

Almost in the middle of Chile - Muchos kilometros 'al dedo'

Amigos! Hoy hablamos de mi viaje al norte, de Puerto Montt a Valdivia. Y (casi) todo que pasa entre estas ciudades...
Llege en Puerto Montt en avión. Del avión vi muchas islas pequeñas donde también vive gente! (Hay una foto)
Die beiden Hosts Jose und Luis holten mich im Auto ab und fuhren mich ein wenig herum. Auf diese Weise habe ich etwas von Puerto Montt und Puerto Varas gesehen. Ok, aber außer ein paar schönen Holzhäusern (meist im Zusammenhang deutscher Kolonisation) nichts besonderes. Die beiden haben mich rundum versorgt mit Essen, ich konnte gut schlafen und wurde am nächsten Tag aif Wunsch an der Straße ausgesetzt. Ab hier ging es alle längeren Strecken 'al dedo' (mit dem Daumen) weiter. Ich muss sagen, ich habe meist richtiges Glück. Ich muss nicht lange warten im Normalfall. Und wenn doch mal länger als 15 Minuten, dann ist der nächste ride dafür meist um so besser :)
Von Puerto Montt ging es nach Süden auf die Insel Chiloe. Reich an Mythen und Fabelwesen. An wunderschönen Holzkirchen. Und an Regen. Angekommen in Ancud wurde ich von meinen Hosts Teresa und Daniela in Empfang genommen und immer dann herumgeführt, wenn die beiden gerade nicht arbeiten mussten. Abends haben wir gemeinsam mit dem zweiten Surfer (Dominik aus Deutschland) typisches Essen zubereitet - Hering, Muscheln, Salat, Kartoffeln. Bisher nicht begeistert von Meeresessen machte ich gute Miene und voilà, es schmeckte! Ein toller Abend mit vielen Gesprächen und Gelächter und dem einen und anderen geistigen Getränk. (Foto Nummer 2)
The next day i woke up and left a bit later than planned. But i was lucky and got a direct ride to Castro, more south on the  big island of Chiloe. I was a bit sleepy but the  two little boys kept me awake... in Castro i didn't find a couch in time so I enjoyed the luxury of staying in a hostel in my own room!!! There were quite nice houses cute streets. (3 pictures)
Next morning all the way back north to Puerto Montt and further to Valdivia. A thing about hitchhiking here: It feels saver for me than taking a bus, because every kind of people is taking the bus and i heard some stories of people who were robbed on the bus.
In der gesamten Region leben noch einige Nachkommen der Ureinwohner Mapuche. Sie sind wegen der Versuchung zum Alkoholkonsum und Faulheit nicht immer sehr geachtet. Aber ich habe auch viele arbeitseifrige Mapuche getroffen.
In Valdivia hatte ich die erste Nacht einen etwas komischen host. Aber er und seine Familie waren nett und ich wurde zu leckerem Essen eingeladen. Dennoch bin ich am nächsten Tag zu Paula umgezogen. And i have to say I don't regret it! Once again on my travel i was her very first couchsurfer :) she not only tried, she really did spent every free minute with me to show me around. We went to a nice beach (picture of me with some tasty tang), to a bar and meeting her friends (another bar picture, Claudia, Miguel and Paula). And i ate my first real sushi there (picture). Obviously she thought i might be a nice guy and invited me to a party at her house aome days later... I used the time in between to visit Pucón (about 200km away) for 3 days.
One of my days in Valdivia i went to a german school nearby. I watched the german and mathematics lessons. And the headmaster of the school offered me a job just after 2 minutes of talking to me :) Maybe i have to come back soon...
While hitchhiking i met the fastest chilean guy on 100m: Ignacio. He also was at the athletics world championship in Moscow some months ago.
In Pucón i could live at the house of the lovely friend Carolina of Paula. She was a funny outgoing girl and told me about every possible tour to do in the area! I saw some beautiful lakes and beaches (3 pictures). Met a lot of israelian people (picture with twins). I spent a rainy day walking with a german couple in the national park nearby and the evening delebrating with Carolina and her friends (picture). Finally i managed to get a tour to a volcano! Unfortunately the weather was to bad to go all the way up to the summit. Nevertheless it was a nice experience walking above the clouds on ice and later slide down again on a plastic :) i will upload 2 pictures of my vulcano day.
The other day i managed to sneak into a Congress of chilean chemists and to get food and drinks for free.
I went back hitchhiking to Valdivia to get to the party. And here once again i felt the hospitality. 2 of my drivers bought drinks and food for me even if i said: 'thanks, i have something myself'. :) I love that!
The party with friends of Paula and her flatmate Claudia was nice (Foto), later we also went dancing. On our way back (it was only me and Paula) a man tried to rob her bag. First he succeeded to rip it off her shoulder, but after some meters i got him, stopped him and took the bag with everything back.
I spent another nice day in Valdivia (Foto eines Dornröschenturmes) and then finally had to leave to go north from here. Only one more month to travel and still a lot to see...

Other things:
In Valdivia konnte ich viele Seelöwen von ganz nah beobachten, sie leben auch im Fluss durch die Stadt und wenn man sich traut, sind 4m Abstand möglich. (Ein Bild mit aggressivem Tier hinter meinem Rücken)
A drunk old man told me I look like an angel with my blue eyes :)
Taxis and Collectivos (like small buses) use their horns in the streets to catch attention and make you enter.
Ein weises Sprichwort der Mapuche lautet übrigens: Worauf muss man im Leben achten? Auf Kopf, Herz und Hintern :) Ganz nach meinem Geschmack

Und gerade bin ich mit dem Nachtbus in Santiago angekommen. Meine Sitznachbarin hat mich spontan zum Frühstück in ihr Haus eingeladen. Inklusive Taxifahrt, Kekse im Bus und nochmehr Kekse, Schokolade und ihre Metro-Karte als Geschenk. Noch ein Argument für die netten Chilenen :)

South Chile - Pingüinos, lobos del mar, delfines, cóndores, guanacos and no pumas

Hallo to all of you!
It's been a while since i wrote here, so there's a lot to tell you about :)
After Ushuaia i left tierra del fuego (Feuerland) and crossed the Straight of Magellan, the famous route Fernando Magallanes took long before the Panamá connection of pacific and atlantic ocean... He got a monument for this in Punta Arenas, Chile (picture). Punta Arenas is the southernmost bigger city (more than 100'000 inhabitants) and i stayed there for some days and used it as a base for some tours.
First day there i had to do another thing from my bucket list: seeing some penguins in wild nature. So i went out on a touristical tour by boat to some small islands in the magellan straight. I saw a lots of penguins, sea lions and on our way back even some dolphins showed up and followed our boat for a while. (3 pictures) How amazing!!!
Of course i am couchsurfing here again and on of the nights there was a nice meeting/party of all couchsurfers and guests in Punta Arenas (picture). My host Alejandro (next to me, with hat) is always providing me with good information and keen to show me some chilean nightlife :)
But you can't go to the southernmost parts or the Andes without doing some hiking in the mountains. That is why Rick (my brasilian travel mate in south South America) and i wanted to go to Puerto Natales (a 250km distanced city) and from there to the 'Torres del Paine' an interesting rock formation in a national park.
So we started hitchhiking to this city with our hiking equipment and left the rest of our things in Punta Arenas. You can hear a lot of nice stories about hitchhiking, but what happened to us was the top of it all!!! We got our first ride for some 50km and then had to wait in the middle of nowhere close to a gas station. We waited about half an hour and nobody picked us up. Then Rick went to talk to some people who just went to the petrol station by car. And... HE CAME BACK DRIVING A CAR!!!
What happened there? An older couple had been buying a car for their daughter in Punta Arenas (so they had 2 cars now) but the woman didn't want to drive further. So we were kind of the solution for their problems. WE GOT THE CAR FOR 200KM AND DROVE IT OURSELFES ALL THE WAY TO PUERTO NATALES! (Picture in the car)
In Puerto Natales we stayed at a crazy couchsurfing family (always more than 5 surfers there!!!) for a night and met other travelers for doing our hiking tour together. Two americans, another german girl and the spanish guy Gonzalo. (picture)
As Rick and I had no equipment for a 4 days hiking tour we got a tent, sleeping bags and a backpack from our hosts in Punta Arenas. But nobody had some isolation mattresses for us. We improvised with chart boards from the supermarket (look at my red backpack in the picture). It was not very comfortable but good and we got a lot of attention for this from all the 'over equipped' campers :)
The next picture shows me in the bus to the national park with a bunch of nice chilean guys.
We took a boat over a big lake (picture) and at noon we put up our tents for the first night. From there we did our first 25km tour (this time without any heavy luggage) to see an amazing glacier and icebergs! I kissed my own small one... (3 pictures)
On our way back is was time for the condors to feed their offspring. We saw a lot of these huge birds looking for prey. (Picture)
The inside of our tent looked like in the following picture. Rick spent almost all time inside the sleeping bag, as a brasilian he was always cold. Luckily i was not. The first night there was so much wind our tent blew almost away with us and we didn't get much sleep. Once the tent bended over so much that it almost layed down on the ground and i saw the shape of Ricks face from outside of the tent!!! Well, we survived :)
The next day we walked with all our equipment some 7km to our next camp, build up the tents and only 3 of us (Rick, Gonzalo and I) did another 15km hike to a dirty glacier and a nice lookout. (Picture) On our way back a storm started blowing a lot of snow and it was getting difficult to find the path, but we made it. It is always saver not to be alone in the mountains... This night was not very windy but extremely cold.
Next morning we got up very early, said goodbye to the german girl (she wanted to walk slower) and started the hardest day. 25km most of the time walking steep upwards to the mountains with all our luggage...
It was a nice day with good weather. Extremely exhausted and with not much food left we reached our last camp. There are 7 picture showing the beauty of this part of our earth.
Next morning we got up early again to see the sunrise at the Torres del paine. (Picture) Simply amazing...
On our way back we started realizing how tough these days have been for our bodies and what a relief it was to get a warm shower this evening after some days. Nevertheless we enjoyed walking the last mountainous kilometers. (2 pictures).
And we managed to see some Guarnacos (picture) from really close (5m distance). Unfortunately all the time we didn't see their hunter - the cougar/puma. But I am pretty sure that we were watched by some pumas. :)
It was areally nice experience at the limit of the possible for our body strength and motivation. It was so worth it.
Other things about beeing in south Chile:
I met a lot of nice people there and from my experience it is really easy to talk to them. Especially when you look so different from them like i do with blond hair and blue eyes. Almost everybody seems friendly here and enjoys chatting with you. And the foreigners (we) got all the attention when Rick and I went out to a club with my host Alejandro :)
I never spend thousands of money so fast like here! 1000 for a drink is cheap here!!! Ok, yes. It is in chilean pesos :) And one Euro equals about 700 Pesos, so no worries - i keep spending my thousands of pesos.
Even though Rick and I became close in these days (i did my first haircut at his head) we are going to split up from here. Different directions. And it also feels right for me because like you know I love traveling alone.
Today I am enjoying my last day here in Punta Arenas and tomorrow i will fly north to Puerto Montt, Chiloe and Puerto Varas.
Always driven by my motivation and followed by good spirits and thoughts.
This is it for now. Whooooohhoooooow!

Bigs hugs from Chile :D