Rio de Janeiro II

Here Pao de Acucar, Sugar loaf hill, a steep rock directly on the shore overlooking most of the beaches..

..and offering a superb view of the city and Corcovado.

Unfortunately we cannot arise your jealousy with many beach pictures, as real Coriocas (who we tried to imitate!!) don't take anything to the beach (pickpockets!!) except a bit of cash for coconut juice and snacks.

Also, lucky blokes that we are, we even managed to get tickets for the world cup 2012 qualifier game between Brazil and Bolivia. Yes, that's right we saw Ronaldinho, Robinho, Diego, Lucio and the whole lot of them LIVE!

For those of you who haven't already guessed, we absoluetely L-O-V-E-D Rio, it is just one fantastic place to be..

Rio de Janeiro I

"Cidade de deus" - the city of god. Rio de Janeiro, the final stop of our long trip through latin america, and boy, was it a good one. Rio has it all: fabulous beaches, probably the world's most spectacular bay views, incredible soccer enthusiasm for admittedly marvellous teams, artisanian small quarters, amazing nightlife.. the list goes on and on.

We did all we could to enjoy our last days and we may as well say, we were on our way to become real "Coriocas" - Rio locals.

Being soccer maniacs we visited legendary Maracana stadium on the very first day and took a tour there.

For those of you who don't know, this is maybe the world's most famous football stadium, where once the greatest crowd ever (200.000 people!!) witnessed the magic of such legends as Pelé, Garrincha, Sokrates, Zico, and many more. 

This is the famous Rio icon, "Cristo Redentor", Christ the Redeemer on top of Corcovado, more than 700m above the city, his hands widely extended to bless all those wonderful Coriocas..

The view from Cristo Redentor is deservedly one of the world's most famous..

(Here a little misty..)

Here a night view of Rio:

Chiloe

This remote island off the coast of southern Chile is famous for mainly three things. "Palafitos", which are houses build on stilts near the shore...





The typical wooden churches [16 are UNESCO world heritage sites]...




And last but not least a great variety of island liquors, of which the most notorious is "licor de oro". It is a strange brew consisting of milk, sugar and many peculiar spices - truly a unique and confusing experience.

Valdivia

This town, surrounded by three rivers, is known throughout Southamerica for mainly one thing. Kunstmanns fine cervezas - not only in our opinion the best beer on the continent. It is a legacy left behind by german settlers of the 19th century.

Pucon and Volcan Villarica

Having moved further south to Pucon, a hub for adventurous outdoor activities, we had to encounter that heavy rains and floodings made impossible most of the trips. Lucky enough, the weather was merciful with us and changed just in time so that we could climb famous Volcan Villarica - the still active, snow-covered volcano, which looms above Pucon.

This is our group of 8 people during the ascent

This is the two of us after having climbed for more than 6 exhausting hours ready to ski down the incedible natural slopes of the volcano [and yes, we had to carry all the skiing equipment up by ourselves...]

Concha y Toro

After returning to Santiago we a spent a leisurely afternoon at the 3rd largest vineyard in the world - Concha y Toro. A visit to the cellars and processing facilities was rounded off by some sampling of the most prestigous vines.

Valparaiso

Our second stop in Chile let us to the Pacific coast line to the nice, charming, bohemian city of Valparaiso. Countless elevators [ascensores] criss-cross between the hills that surround the port.

This rather lefty town vividly keeps alive the memory of 60s/70s socialist icon Salvador Allende.

Perfectly reflecting the spirit of "Valpo", we spent a fantastic evening in a intimate, classy restaurant enjoying a splendid live jazz performance of young chilean musicians.

and only two gringos were left

unfortunatley i had to go back to austria a little bit earlier than planned. so dont wonder if there are only two gringos you know on the next pictures and blog-entries.
anyway, i had a great time in southamerica, i could see a lot of great places and meet very nice people. i´d also like to say thanks to the best travel buddies ever, max and phil. without you it would have been less fun. so have a good time in chile and in rio!

markus

on my way back i stopped in NY for a couple of hours. it was a little bit stressful to go to DT but it was definetly worth it. amazing skyscrapers and people everywhere...
here i am just taking a break in central park.

Santiago...

...finally in Chile! This lovely city greeted us with its charming european flair and an astonishing background of the mighty Cordilleras.





The notorious cafe con piernas [meaning cafe with legs], a highly recommendable place to drink coffee, served by scarcely dressed women.



Feeling spontaneously european again, we decided to visit the Opera, and we honestly enjoyed Donizetti's 'La Favorita', even though hopelessly underdressed.

Potosi and the mine

After an icy, inhuman Altiplano busride we eventually arrived in Potosi. We rewarded ourselves with a football game [reigning champions Real Potosi lost against La Paz CF]. In the back you can already see Cerro Rico - the famous mining hill, were already the Spanish have exploited the mines for centuries.

Up to present times, an estimated number of 8 million miners had to die to fuel the spanish royal empire with gold and silver. On the topright you can see the shape of Cerro Rico at night.

In our breathtaking tour we experienced that working conditions have not improved much. Due to asbest and other toxic substances average life expectancy of a miner in Cerro Rico is less than 45 years.

Here are two miners dragging no less than 2.000 kilos of stone rubble.

Mr. T during our crawl\climb\drift tour through the mines.

A miner, chewing the traditional coca leaves, which are meant to give him strenght at work.

Having had a good time at the Salar, we took our new indian travelbuddies directly with us and dragged them into a shabby Whiskeria, not knowing by any means what a rough day in the mines expected us.

Uyuni and the Salt Desert

Probably the most striking place in Bolivia is Salar de Uyuni, which is a gigantic salt desert. The bright withe, flat plain makes you think you are travelling on clouds. In this truley surreal setting the horizon seems to be the only point of orientation.

This is a view from Incahuasi island, a lonely cactus island in the middle of the salar

Below is our travel group, consisting of two charming indian girls [cheers Sanju and Bijal!], french twins and your favourite gringos from Austria.

Sunrise in the desert is simply stunning!

One of the highlights of our salttour was climbing volcano Tunupa, until 4.700m height - by far the highest place we ever reached - [although it doesn't even look so, see photo below]

La Paz

After a wonderful busride we arrive in Bolivia's capital - the stunning city of La Paz! The highest capital in the world lies embedded between snow-covered mountains. Nevertheless the first impression is a little treacherous, because frantic traffic and lots of crowded places dominate the city. Here some impressions of La Paz.

Here the most typical bolivian snack - saltenas, delicious pastryshells filled with meat, vegetables and really anything one can think of.

Poltics and Evo Morales are literally everywhere in Bolivia - as for example on this wall in El Alto

Copacabana

Bolivia! Or first stop here is the small town of Copacabana, a peaceful place to watch the sun sink into Lago Titicaca.

Here a view of its brightly white Cathedral..

.. in front of which we witnessed the strange Sunday ritual of "Bededicio de Movilidades", which means blessing of the cars. This is in fact a peculiar kind of baptism for cars. Ha, we're liking Bolivia already!

Leaving Peru

After 3 wonderful and exciting weeks in Peru, we are now moving on to Bolivia, where we will spend the following 10 days.

One of the things we will surely miss is the strange, yellow, supersweet favourite national "gazeosa" INCA KOLA, which reminds us a bit of liquid Gummibaeren.

Salud!

Here some last impressions of Peru..

Cusco and Machu Picchu

Cusco is, according to the Inca, the navel of the world.

It is in fact an astonishing city with a bright history, a fabulous cathedral, and however, loads of gringos!

We stayed at a homely nice and cosy Hostal just two squares from Plaza de Armas, hosted by a charming old Cuzqueño, who whispered in perfect English and mysteriously smelled of chocolate.

The real attractions around Cusco are the historical sites of the "Sacred Valley of the Incas", such as the massive mountain fortress of Ollantaytambo and of course the most famous of all: MACHU PICCHU.

Today we spent no less than 8 hours wandering around, glancing, marvelling at this spectacular monument ontop of a green mountain. Until today it remains an unsolved mystery.
To put it straight, Machu Picchu undoubtly deserves being a World Wonder.

Unfortunately internet connections in this country are mostly excruciatingly slow, which is why sometimes we cannot upload photos. Lo siento! Rest assured, that we will always upload nice pictures as soon as possible.

Puno and Lago Titicaca

Titicaca lake, at 4000m height higher than any mountaintop in Austria!

The most famous sight are the so called "Islas Flotantes", where the Uro tribe lives on artificial small islands that are solely made of straw! We had the chance to walk on them and listen to the meaningful words of wisdom of "El Presidente" Jose, who taught us how to build and live on such mysterious grounds.

We continued by going to the Isla Taquile, a very isolated place with less than 2000 inhabitants, who wear their own peculiar clothing that tells about their social status. No cars, no horses, no electricity.. simply a very antique culture inmidst of a beutifully deep blue lake.