The Atacama challenge part 1

Hi my friends, sorry for the delay of this blog entry but I was somehow...disconnected.

In my last blog entry I promised u to show u Chile. Me, MIKE and Markus planned to explore the North of Chile, great white sandy beaches, cacti, tornados, reptiles, lamas, alpacas, millions of dogs begging for food and the huge huge desert. We rented a wicked camper van…a very conspicuous car with graffiti on the outside. It is equipped with everything u need on such a trip: bed, sheets, blankets, table and chairs, a little kitchen and a cooler box.

Our plan was to drive along the coast and see some of the great national parks, then spending several days in San Pedro de Atacama, a desert at an altitude of 2500m, and then driving back to Santiago. In total a road trip over more than 4000km.

In this blog entry I will tell you about our stay in Santiago and the trip to San Pedro de Atacama; it took us 4 days to get there. The rest of the story u will hear in part II.

First we stayed a few days in Santiago de Chile to chill out…relax and buy all stuff we needed for our trip. I am sorry that I am not going to tell anything about Santiago because there is not much to see and me and MIKE are already a little bit fed up with cities. We stayed in a great hostel which was more like a 5 star hotel with a delicious breakfast. The owner had such a cute little dog which loved to chew on my flip flops.

Fight of cat and dog

Almirante Riveros hostel...5 stars!

As soon as we got our camper van we started our road trip to Valparaiso, a hilly city west of Santiago. Janine, our great new German friend we got to know in Rio de Janeiro, recommended this place to us. Our first stop and lunch break was in the national reserve Lago Penuelas:

Markus and MIKE in front of the wicked camper van.

Arriving in Valparaiso the houses reminded me on the favelas in Rio; the city was built on the hill facing the lovely beach. There we experienced the steepest streets in our life’s but Markus and the van could handle them all.

View over Valparaiso

Valparaiso

The first night we spent at a gas station near Concón. This is the great thing having a van…u can sleep (almost) everywhere. The only disadvantage was that it has no shower, but many gas stations in Chile provide good showers, toilets and sockets.

Our planned next big stop was Pichidangui…beaches! On the way, there were so many Chileans selling empanadas next to the highway. After begging the guys for a while to try some, we stopped and bought some stuff. We paid a little bit more than 1€.

Hmmm...empanadas with Guave jam...

On the way to Pichidangui I saw a nice hill with a ruin were I was begging Mike and Markus that we can go up there. The view was amazing and I loved these rocks and all the cacti!!!

On the way to Pichindangui

Great beach where the sea beats up the stones and u can get a great salty shower.

Careful, SPIKY!!

When arriving in Pichidangui we immediately headed to its great beach. After some refreshment in the cold sea MIKE abused me again as his bar for a squat workout :(

I should loose a lot of weight that MIKE has to find a new victim.

After that we headed further north to Fray Jorge National Park. Beside very impressive cacti there is not much to see there until u reach the top of the mountain. Although hard to believe but there is a tiny rain forest in the middle of this dry and dead area. And the view towards the sea made the entrance fee finally acceptable.

Markus and MIKE in the small jungle.

Best fence in the world!!

Crazy flowers

In La Serena, the next big city on the way, we did a big grocery stop where Markus lost his wallet and we almost our nerves. As long as we r all all right, life goes on :P
After that we continued our journey to llanos the Challe National Park which is actually pretty boring except its incredible beautiful Playa Blanca – the white beach. Have a look at these pictures:

                                                    Donkey Kong rock on Monkey Island!

We did not stay the night here because we read on a blog that the beach in Bahia Inglesia is the most beautiful beach in Chile…a lie! Don’t believe all s..t in the web! See the difference:

Wonderful white sandy paradise

Crowded and stinky beach: Bahia Inglesia

After those beaches we headed to the desert. On the way less and less green plants were beside the road. The landscape turned into a dead and dusty environment where skeletons  and tornados greet u on ur way. At one gas station near Colón we get to know Daria and Wojciech. This nice Polish couple was hitchhiking to reach San Pedro de Atacama. They were lucky to meet us because we took them all the way up ;)

I finish this blog entry with some pictures from our road trip in the desert and the next time I will tell you about our adventures in the desert, where we lost our nerves, our mind and almost our life's.

U find everywhere next to the road this little spots to pray...I just took a picture.

Miss ya all kisses Jiny (in a bottle in the desert)...

Want some Mate?

Hey my beloved friends around the world,

We r back with a new entry about Argentinia - here we go:
After leaving Rio with many great impression in our mind we arrived in Buenos Aires on February 6th and stayed in this lovely city for 5 nights.
Buenos Aires is a very multifaceted city which looks like a mixture of Paris, Vienna and London with huge streets comparable to the US. Paris because BsAs grows starlike from the famous obelisk on the Plaza de la República. Vienna because some houses have similar architecture, especially the balconies and the coffee is very good. London because u see lots of doubledecker busses.

Obelisk of Buenos Aires.

We stayed in the best party hostel we've ever been - at Milhouse. There u have party and breakfast included literally every day. When I think back to the hostel in Santa Teresa in Costa Rica (Las Casas Blancas)...it was millions of miles better.
U guys probably know already our style to travel, so u may have recognized that we always walk through a city. We did that in BsAs, too. It has many nice spots to offer. E. g. at placa de Mayo u can see the national goverment house which is completely pink. me and MIKE called it the "Zuckerlpalast" (sorry for the German).

Zuckerlpalast

Go down to Puerte Modero where u will find a great area for dining, nice cafés and a bridge that looks like a tango dancing couple.

Puerte Modero

Tango-bridge

If u go further East u reach the natural resort: two large lagunes full of different birds and bugs.  West of the lagunes u experience a nice skyline and east the Rio de la Plata, which is very polluted and dirty. By the way, picnicking is very romantic there but watch out for the moscitos.

West view of the natural resort.

East view of the natural resort.

In Ricoleta district, u see the city from an scary side of view because there u find a large cemetery full of mausoleums. Lot's of rich people from BsAs are burried there. One example is Evita Peron, second wife of ex-president Juan Peron. She achieved for instance the right for woman to vote in Argentinia.
A funny story about another couple is told in form of two statues above one famous mausoleum. The wife is turning her back on her husband which indicates her hate and frustration against him. He treated her not well during lifetimes. However, she was just interested in his money and hence she accepted that situation. So she agreed to be burried next to him after he died because it was the expected behaviour of a real lady at that time but facing away from him.

Morsauleum telling the story of an unhappy couple.

Staying in the district Ricoleta, u have to see Floralis Generica, a huge metal flower which opens in the morning when detecting the first sun beams and closes in the evening every day. Unfortunately we just saw it during the day.

Floralis Generica.

Enough about sightseeing? Please, just let me show u the last great area we visited: La Boca.

U may have heard that in BsAs the people r dancing tango on the street and indeed; in La Boca this is the case. However, it is very very touristy. It is famous for its colourful buildings! U can also visit the Boca Juniors stadium. Actually, La Boca is the poorest area in BsAs, so if you approach the side streets away from the candy houses, u'll step on many broken glasses.

"Glasscherbengegend" in La Boca

Boca Juniors stadium - once the home of the great Diego Maradona (La mano de deus).

What I finally found again in BsAs are Starbucks cafés! I am sorry but I love my capuccino with soy milk. So everytime I ordered one the shop assistant asked me for my ?nombre?
I sayed always Jiny...
They wrote on my cup: Jimy, Gini, Shini, Gimy...
It was hilarious...

Our hostel offered beside everyday events and tours also cheap entrys to clubs. We went to club KIKA with two girls from the Netherlands/England one day and I have to say the music was weard and I felt unsave. It was way too packed and hence we left the club quite early.

me and the girls in club KIKA.

Enough about BsAs? We too, therefore we left it on Saturday and took the bus to Mendoza, the wine region of Argentinia...again 17h in the bus; but compared to Costa Rica we drove more than 1000km and not just 100km;). We stayed in the hostel Empedrado: very nice rooms, great breakfast, a little pool and free self made wine.
We decided to stay 3 nights in Mendoza for hiking and enjoying the nature. First we did horseback riding in the badlands outside of Mendoza. Before we jumped on our horses, we enjoyed a mate together which our guide, Alechandro, prepared for us. It is a special tea in Argentinia u have to drink with a metal straw. It tastes like a very strong black tea with a spicy intense ending flavour. Then we experienced the sunset on our horses. Mine was the slowest and MIKE had the crazy one. In the end we had a great Argentinian BBQ.

Mate cup

I liked Mate but damnon the pic I make a face like my grandmother.

MIKE did not like Mate that much...

Me horse riding.

Sexiest cowboy on earth.

 Pampaking and his crew - maybe I start liking horses;)

 

The cowboy crew @ BBQ table

On this horse trip we get to know nice people. I say hello to Mimi, Pamela and Mika!

The next day we went hiking in Vellecitos up to 3500 m. The highest summit there is about 6000m. Unfortunately we couldn't get a guide for the Aconcagua, with almost 7000m the highest mountain outside Asia. But actually also of those summits in los Andes look the same: no vegetation, stony and high. Mimi joyned us on that trip.

Nice ha?

me and MIKE on one summit at 3500m in the middle of clowds.

Lunch time with our tour guide Mathias.

Some rest before the descent

Paradise for lady bugs: moss and little yellow flowers. There were thousands of lady bugs!

Next day we headed to Santiago de Chile taking the bus over the Andes. Although another 8 hours in the bus, this time the hours went by quickly due the incredible view which made it finally worth to go by bus instead taking a quick flight.

With these pics I say good bye for this time and stay tuned for our next report from Chile.

 Kisses

jiny & Mike