One of the greatest pleasures of traveling is meeting people you would
never come across otherwise! And I feel, I should try and share some of
those travel acquaintances with you - when I find the time. So far, I have to
admit, I did not... And I have already meet so many really great people.
Yesterday, I had a very interesting and educational chat with Evan. He
really did a great job in explaining to me what he was doing and why. I had
never thought Fly Fishing would be such a complex (and fascinating, I
must admit!) thing. I do feel, I lack the knowledge to explain properly
what I have learned yesterday, but I will nevertheless try. (Evan,
should you be reading this, please correct me where I err!)
So where to start? Let's try to understand what you see in the attached
pictures. Fly-making is an art of its own - and Evan certainly is a
master in his profession!. On the huge table he had about twenty
zip-lock bags scattered around, all stuffed with materials such as Elk
hair, Fasan feathers (one single bag just dedicated to about thirty
different sort of chicken feathers!), UV reflecting synthetics, thread,
beads, and what not. All raw fly material. Depending on the area, the
time of day (different bugs hatch at different time of day!), fish,
season and all sorts of parameters you choose the right fly to fish. So
at any time Evan would carry around a stock of about 300 - 400
different flies (with many copies each) so he can choose the right
species. And they are all delicate little pieces of art! And all handmade by the
fisherman. It is probably very hard to see, but on one of the pictures you
can see some examples in the foreground; 'Tschernobyl Ants' (big black things in front) an a few more
other - more conventional - flies behind from the ongoing production.
Then there is the set of dedicated tools for the fly-making. It was
actually a pleasure watching Evan putting the flies together - every
tiny little move obviously practiced many thousand times! A
semi-trancelike process, it seemed.
I blundered and showed my ignorance by asking if he liked to eat
the fish he caught. But his explication that the whole process of
preparing, getting to know the river and the setting, and the actual
fishing would be spoiled by killing the fish after he caught one, does
make sense to me. It is all rather a meditative practice (a way of life?!), than a way to
come by food. There are supermarkets around for the latter purpose, I guess.
This is why a dedicated pincer is used to remove the barb from the
hooks, in order not to harm the fish more than necessary.
I feel there
is a lot I have been missing and forgot to mention. If I have time, I
might catch up with Evan, ask more questions, and even go for a couple
of days fishing with him. I would certainly like to! This is to say, if
our trails cross again in the future, since he has already left today
for El Bolsón in the south... We will see.
   
At least we got it all in one serving! We rented a car between the four of us - Ronni, Fenella, Anna, and me, and set out for a supposedly very scenic two to three-day drive to El Bolsón and the Ruta de los Siete Lagos. ´Supposedly´ since due to the weather the views were rather limited... But well, it could have been pouring with rain all the time!
So we stayed a night in Hippie-El Bolsón, went to the market (kind'a nice) and up to the Refugio Piltriquitrón and the Bosque Tallado (a few wooden sculptures). The next day we drove back to Bariloche to 'do' the seven lakes. Let's say the weather was not horrible all the time...
During the night in San Martin de los Andes the wind was literally howling. The next morning we found our car in quite a bad shape (see picture below) - the windscreen broken and a big dent in the roof. Probably a fallen branch or something flying around. So we went to the Police to get the damage recorded. And then we drove the 250 km back into Bariloche, partly on the scenic, but very curvy gravel road through the lakes. Bypassing Valle de la Angostura, a very pretty little (tourist) town we got actually some sun - just after having taken the decision to cut the tour short by one night. As it turned out, the dent was easily mended by a slight push from the inner side of the car and replacing the windscreen would not cost us a fortune.
Well, I suppose it could all have been a lot worse. In hindsight it was not so bad, actually.
  
Hello Everybody! I hope all of you had some pleasant and relaxing Christmas days. I can not complain - Christmas at La Morada/Bariloche was wonderful! In fact almost every single day we were having great food... Thank you all for cooking such delicious meals! In order to compensate the binging, Anna, Kristin, and I set out for a three-day hike through the Bariloche Andes. We were staying two nights in mountain huts, which, although a little noisy, were really lovely and would serve surprisingly delicious food. We were really lucky with the weather and especially the second day (from Refugio Frey to Refugio Jakob) was a spectacular hike with ever-changing landscapes. Up through long slopes of snow to the pretty Laguna Schmoll (still covered almost entirely with ice!) and up climbing through some rocks to the pass. On the other side a great view over the Valle del Rucaco, which we were to cross. Down from the pass we were comfortably sliding through scree slopes and loose rocks. Then the walk lead through lush forests and meadows, where we had to cross the occasional stream balancing on rocks, fallen trees, or just jumping... Up again on the other end of the valley, climbing more snow to the pass Brecha Negra - with more spectacular views on both sides. Looking down into the next valley we could already see the Refugio Jakob. Enjoying the superb vistas across many snow-clad peaks and ridges we spent an hour or so on the pass. On the descent, following the traces of so many hikers before us, we quickly went down scree and rubble slopes. We should have rather tried to stick to the official path! And we were fully made to pay for our mistake; the scree slopes ended in Lenga scrub and forest which we had to cross - without any trail whatsoever. Hence very slowly progressing we started to be molested by Tavanas - big and hungry horseflies. Once out of the Lenga forest, we found ourself in a serious swamp surrounded by massive swarms of horseflies. Inching forward through the often knee-deep mud we almost got eaten alive. At this point I had a complete 'loss of sense of humor', being really pissed-off with myself for not making sure we kept to the proper trail (which I had actually known to lead down further north and which would have avoided the forest and swamp for the biggest part). After quite some time in the swamp, we came to the point where we could cross the stream that separated us from the hut. Just taking the boots off was almost impossible due to the zillions of horseflies enjoying their feast... Kristin could not even be bothered to get rid of her shoes and preferred wet boots to the hassle of the flies! Then a quick wade through the ice-cold water and a few hundred meters to the hut. There were still a few patches of snow around the hut and in order to cool down some of us hat a quick dip in the icy Laguna Jakob, drying ourselves on the huge rock in the remaining evening sun. What a day! Some of the worst walking I have ever had - just the last two hours! Everything before had been alright. Looking back now, I would certainly call the walk through scrub, swamp and horseflies an 'experience'! The last day walking out from Refugio Jakob lead through a lovely valley with beautiful bamboo forest, but after the spectacular landscape of the day before we did not really do it justice... And more horseflies made even the short brakes rather unpleasant. So now, back to Bariloche for New Years Eve. Lots of cooking again in the hostel... The first picture below shows Anna, Kristin, and me at the Laguna Schmoll in the snow, the second is just me in one of the many snow fields, the third has the two girls enjoying the view on the Laguna Jakob from the pass before the last descend. There are more pictures here. And, before I forget: HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!!!   
A Merry Christmas to all of you from the sunny side of the world!
Have to catch up... Just arrived in Mendoza, a pleasantly green city
with the Andes always in the background. The bus ride of 14 hours was
quite fine.
Long distance bus travel
Maybe a few comments for those of you who think a bus ride of 14 or
even 20 hours would just be a sort of unbearable torture. To start
with, the seats are really big and comfy, there is plenty of leg space,
even for a guy my size! Business class in an airplane is usually not
better, rather a little more cramped. Then, the friendly steward or
stewardess is handing out a snack and drinks briefly after departure.
Soon after, dinner is to follow. After the starters which I often
confuse with the whole meal, the main course is served. White wine? Red
wine? Whatever you like... Then you usually get to see a film or two
(of mixed quality). Some folks enjoy a Valium tablet to make them sleep
through all the night. Apparently you can buy Valium freely in
pharmacies hereabouts. The seats almost recline to fully horizontal and
hence sleeping is no problem, anyway. In the morning, you are served
breakfast with coffee or tea. For me, this is the ideal form of
traveling, since you do get an idea of the distances. And the
landscape in between is basically always the same - a lot of nothing!
Well, approaching Mendoza was quite spectacular with the snow-capped
chain of peaks of the Andes in the background.
Buenos Aires Intermezzo
After Bariloche (last weekend), Volker and I went to Buenos
Aires. Volker had to catch his plane back home on Thursday... In fact,
I did not do much except than enjoying the relaxed coffee shops in
Palermo. On Friday Juliana took me out to a local folk music show of a
band of students in a community center, which was lovely. After the
show we went to a parilla "at the corner" in her neighborhood, which
was cram-packed with people - at about half past midnight... Mainly
meat, basic but very nice - and incredibly cheap! Saturday night we
went to an open-air music festival in an area near La Boca with five
very different bands playing: Tango (Orquestra tipico de Fernando
Fierro - crazy boys around 30 with dreadlocks and sunglasses, hard to
believe they play classical Tango, but they do! And very good, too!), a
percussion group (very good as well!), a rap trio (interesting, but
well, not exactly my cup of tea), Portón - a fusion/pop group with very
nice songs and yet an other which we did not listen to, anymore. A
great night out.
So here I am, having really exhausting time on the 3rd Advent - with plenty of snow on the mountain tops in the background! The hostel here has the most exquisite panoramic view I have ever seen in a place like this (about 6€ a night). I would rate it the most fantastic place I have seen so far! Plus it features a huge and very comfortable lounge and kitchen area with open fire and the most lovely people running it. This is a true gem. So if any one of you should be heading for Bariloche, ask me about it. The only downside is, that given the superb view we could not be bothered to do any much hiking here. And since also the weather has now switched to perfect summer, we had almost no reason to leave the place during the two days we stayed here... The hostel can only be reached by a short drive in a Landrover (it is the highest hotel in Bariloche at about 950m above sea level!), normal cars would not survive the rocky track up here by any means. So what was your 3rd Advent like?!
I should add that we ran this fancy dinner competition during the last days. It all started when Volker was making the nice pasta dish - farfalle with mashed pumpkin. Simple but very yummy! Next day, he felt more energetic and we ventured for fish. So we had trout cooked with vegetables in the oven, delicious! The next day we went into lamb with rosemary and tomatoes with which we made the whole hostel envious... But we could feed quite some of the other travellers, too, with this absolutely superb dinner. After that, Anna decided to enter the competition and we had a "proper English Sunday dinner" - roasted chicken, loads of steamed vegetables, gravy... and apple crumble, yum!!! We ate until we could not move anymore. And finally yesterday Ronny cooked a fantastic meal again - fish... I will not eat any more food for a whole week, I think!
 
 We are either travelling to fast or I am too lazy to keep the journal up to date! Anyway, after having arrived in Bariloche yesterday it is high time to write a few lines. (Is anybody reading, by the way? I might stop writing much and just upload a few images in the future, so let me know if you are interested in reading this journal.)
So Puerto Natales first. It was a great pleasure to hang out in this slightly boring town which certainly still has some of the frontier town feeling to it, which already fascinated Bruce Chatwin. The town, however, is undeniably rather touristy now after a significant increase of the number of tourists flocking in to get into the National Park Torres del Paine during the last decade. We had a good time strolling around, hanging out in cafes, reading, and ‘preparing’ for the boat trip ahead. The view from the waterfront is actually truly impressive.
The first thing we got to see from the Navimag ship (the Magellanes) was actually Gitana, the cute ship dog which (as so many dogs before!? Do we smell???) decided to accompany us for a while while walking around at the water front. She was wearing her collar with her mobile phone number on it while freely strolling around in Puerto Natales, probably enjoying some real trees for a while and catching up with the local dog gossip in town.
While still in Puerto Natales on Thursday we came across a few other travelers which we had met before who would also be on the boat, so we were looking forward to catch up with them. We boarded on Thursday evening at 9pm, spent the evening chatting with our new and old fellow travelers before turning in. The next morning we left port at 6. The weather was not too bad, cloudy and very windy. The windmeter was showing wind speeds typically around 40 – 70 knots, with peaks going up to above 100 knots (equaling about 180 km/h)! The latter are hurricane wind speeds, i.e. your facial features start flopping around uncontrollably… Quite impressive, given that we were continuously in the fjords. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the crew and our ‘guides’ were truly going out of their way to make us comfortable, there were several breefings and educational talks given during the trip every day. We got informed about the route, the fauna, the indigenous population and so on, both in Spanish and English. I had expected merely a ferry ride without any frills. So together with the sumptuous meals we felt almost pressed into a tight schedule given that we had to take nap in between all these events from time to time.
On the first day the ship made a small side trip to the Glaciar Amalia, which was a great sight, unfortunately in rather mediocre weather. When not napping, eating, or being educated we spent a lot of time chatting with other travelers or watching the sea and the fjords most comfortably from the bridge which we could enter almost any time. Brooding over the sea charts, chatting with the captain or the first mate, having a look at the GPS, checking the course and radar screen, what is the current wind speed? Not that it really mattered since the autopilot would steer the 120m long ship without any risk through the fjords… A typical days activity would approximately look like this: get up, breakfast, nap, chat, watch dolphins/seals/sea otters/birds outside, educational talk, nap, educational talk 2, lunch, nap, chat, watch documentary, hang out on the bridge, nap, chat, lunch, chat, drink Pisco Sour in the bar, turn in.
On the second day we had an excursion to Puerto Eden scheduled, the only stop en route. Gitana (the ship dog) got really excited to get ashore for a while! So when we arrived there in the morning, we could see a flock of tiny boats and floats coming towards the ship. “The Indians are coming to fetch us in their canoes.”, I said, tongue in cheek. And indeed they were! So we got onto one of the nutshells to be shipped over to the settlement. Puerto Eden is a truly remote little village of less than 200 inhabitants boasting the last seven surviving full-blood Kaweskar indios. No streets and entirely dependent on the Navimag ferry which delivers all there is to have to the village. It was pouring with rain and so the locals sensibly stayed inside their huts and houses to watch the crazy tourists through their window wandering around getting drenched. The place actually has a hostel, a supermarket, and even an internet hook up (via satellite, I suppose)!
Then we had the “best Bingo of Patagonia” on the last night, which was truly hilarious! After the Bingo, the pub turned into a disco and the whole scene into something like a high school party con booze-up. The atmosphere was very funny indeed and we kept dancing until the pub closed officially at 2am. After this I ended up having very elaborate and interesting (but probably not very intelligent – given the alcohol) conversations with a few fellow travelers I had not been connecting with before (Christin, Collin, and Juan – it was great meeting you!). I turned in at 4 just to get up again next morning at 7 to be fed the last breakfast aboard before stumbling out into rainy Puerto Montt. What a great journey, I had almost forgotten how to organize my day without continuous announcements of educational talks, meals etc. Together with Anna, who we had met already a while before in El Chalten, we went to find some accommodation in town and then a little later we headed for lunch. Stumbling into the next best seafood restaurant we happened to have the best seafood I have had in South America yet! Copious amounts of yummy shellfish, sea snails and raw fish marinated in lemon and vinegar. After this lunch we did not even really wanted to eat anything that day anymore…
The next day (Tuesday/yesterday) Volker and I said good-bye to Anna and caught the morning bus back to Argentina, to Bariloche. The border formalities took about two hours. What a silly game! The difference in the way people interact in Chile and Argentina is truly striking. Although everyone was really friendly in Chile, they seem much more closed up and shy. The Argentineans on the other side seem always to be in for a chat and happen to be almost always really funny and open. Quite impressive. The first person we came across, the guy running the kiosk at the Argentinean border post immediately asked us where we were from and what we were doing… And all the people we came across running the hostels in Bariloche were overwhelmingly charming and helpful, even when their place was actually already booked out. To me, returning to Argentina is almost a little bit like coming home! That said, I am looking forward to getting back to Buenos Aires for a while, in a week or so! Where am I going to spend Christmas and New Years Eve?! No idea yet. Any recomendations?
A few more pictures can be found here.
Back to Puerto Natales. I truly did
sleep well during the three hour bus ride yesterday afternoon back to
town! Maybe this was due to the beer I had for lunch, or the fact we
had to get up at 4:20 am that day to catch the sunrise on the
mountains, or just due to the strenuous eight days of hiking the
Circuito Entero all around the fabulous mountains. The nap was a
little surprising since the ancient ramshackle bus went at a
tremendous speed of about 120 km/h along the bumpy dirt track,
everything shaking and rattling, about to fall apart...
The mountains had greeted us with mixed
weather, but all in all not too bad. Mainly cloudy or sunny, just
occasionally snow and hail, wind and drizzle on and off on most days...
And yes - the weather is changeable in Patagonia! But in fact we have
been really lucky, the day we had designed to be our 'rest day' without
any walking turned out to be the only really horrible day weather-wise.
So we stayed in the hut nearby the camp site playing chess and watching
other travelers arriving drenched. The landscape of the park is truly
beautiful and very varied. Lush valleys, alpine forests, fairy-tale
lakes, massive glaciers, serrated mountain scapes. Some
'interesting' swamps to cross, lenghty snow fields to scale on the
'pass day', mainly good camp sites. So many beautiful big and small
impressions and encounters. I reckon a few pictures say more than I can.
At the moment we are
enjoying some lazy time in sleepy Puerto Natales before
boarding our ship bound for Puerto Montt on Thursday night. It is a
pleasure to have clean clothes again! And fresh food - not just
the noodle / porridge / soup variety...
Some more pictures of this week can be found here .
Also have a look on Volkers great pics here which give a good impression of 'daily life' during the trek.
Make sure you have read the previous journal entry!
So we spent a lazy day in the big and cozy lounge of the youth hostel of El Chalten. Watching the day-trekkers setting out into the rain and storm just to get to see nothing of the mountains. No time to get bored, though. Many other travelers to discuss matters of previous and future trips with, talk about life, and the weather, of course. It just continued to rain all day and the storm occasionally picked up. The weather forecast was certainly the most discussed topic. It was traveling by Word of mouth from the other end of the village where the ranger station was situated. Although the official weather forecast was predicting terrible weather for the rest of the week, the local ranges were talking about a "pocket" of nice weather which would typically evolve from the current weather pattern. So there was hope. Others would report, that the local trekking agency refused to take customers for tomorrows ice-climbing excursions because of the weather. Not promising, hence. Other rumors had it that the local climbers were getting ready for the next day… When we turned in the weather was still as bad as ever and we did not expect much. Since we would take the 6pm bus back to El Calafate, we would probably have to live with not having seen anything...
At about half past five I happened to open one eye sleepily to see Volker in the bunk bed next to mine waving his hand and pointing out of the window. I was quite tired and felt I could not be bothered - about to turn around and continue sleeping. But Volker kept waving his hand intensly, so I decided to open the second eye and take a look out of the window. A spectacular sunrise was setting the clouds ablaze! No rain and blue skies! So we decided to get up and hit the tracks at about six for an early start. The remaining clouds slowly dissolved while we were walking all the way back to camp Poincenot where we had spent the night in the tent. Cerro Fitz Roy was still covered in clouds, so we decided to first continue to the Glaciar Piedras Blancas, a spectacular ice fall on one of the flanks of the Fitz Roy mountain. After this two-hour excursion, I went up for an hour on the snow-covered slopes toward the Laguna de los Tres, a lookout directly in front of the mountain. Volker had to skip this additional side-trip as he had a little trouble with his knee. The views were spectacular, the clouds had disappeared entirely, and there was almost no wind anymore. After the laguna we took the traverse toward Cerro Torre. On the path we met most of the other travelers we had been talking to the days before. Near Cerro Torre we unfortunately did not have enough time to walk up to the ultimate lookout on the moraine, since we wanted to take a shower before getting on the bus. But the views from the viewpoints farther away were very impressive nevertheless.
What a great day! We were really lucky the weather had changed to dramatically overnight. Hard to believe I had been walking around in just a T-shirt for most of the day where we had been battling against the snow and storm a couple of days before... It sure was a long day, about 10 hours of walking with only a few short brakes, about 35 kilometers, but with constant spectacular views! Dozing off during the four-hour bus ride across the pistes of Patagonia to El Calafate after some beer was a great reward.
The three pictures below show the Glaciar Piedras Blancas, the Cerro Fitz Roy with my sunburned face in front, and the Cerro Torre.   
OK, we got the bill for the great weather we had in Ushuaia... After setting out in sunny conditions from El Chaltén the day before yesterday for an intended four-day trekking tour through the supposedly superb mountain scenery of Cerro Torre and Fitz Roy, we could only watch the weather continuously deteriorate. After a while there was a constant drizzle and howling winds. The fact we were standing right in front of Cerro Torre and could not even get a glimpse of it was slightly disappointing, though. Then, we traversed to the Fitz Roy base camp. During the walk the wind picked up significantly, the rain increased in intensity and started to mix with hail and sleet... We were quite happy when we reached the nice and sheltered camp under gnarled beech trees. So we just pitched our tent and spent the rest of the evening cooking a sumptuous meal. The roaring wind actually enhanced the cosy feeling inside the tent and sleeping bag.
I briefly woke up around five in the morning, when our neighbours got up to push for the famous sunrise-lookout on Fitz Roy. But they quickly decided to give it a miss after a short while. We could not even be bothered to have a look out of the tent until about nine o'clock. What a surprise when we saw everything covered by snow... It continued to snow off and on during the day, so some time after noon we decided to pack our gear and head back for El Chaltén. The walk back through the snow-drift was not so bad, since we knew there was a hot shower waiting for us somewhere down in the village. This appears to be a good decision, since today the conditions deteriorated even further, the wind is very strong, even down here in the valley...
So this will be a pleasantly lazy day in the nice youth hostel. Maybe we get the chance tomorrow to do a day-walk and get at least a short view on those invisible mountains!
 
Very brief update, it is hard to catch up. The excursion to the Perito
Moreno Glaciar is a little touristy - but certainly "vale la pena"! The
gigantic mass of ice, constantly cracking and rumbling is a quite
humbling sight. We spent about six hours at the lookout, four of them constantly staring
at a huge slab of ice, which we expected to collapse every second. But
it didn't... It only peeled off a few "crumbles" occasionally, which
still gave rise to heavy thunder when thumping into the lake.
To be continued...
Who said the weather was terrible in Tierra del Fuego?! Clouds, wind, freezing cold?!? Haven´t seen any. Well, not so much at least. The last three days were really spectacular - blue skies and sunshine all day. Just when we really needed it - walking around in the gorgeous National Park near Ushuaia! And yes, we are really sunburned now... Not too badly, though (don't worry mum!). The landscape is really beautiful; meadows, lakes, hills, snow-capped mountains, streams and lagoons shape a perfect ensemble. The Beagle Canal dotted with many little islands... The night temperatures were a little chilly, way below 0 degrees. But thanks to our good tent and sleeping bags - no problem.
After this first little test-walk we had a great dinner last night in Ushuaia with a decent 'bife de chorizo', a nice huge slab of tender meat. The meat hereabouts is really great, other food (chicken, fish, sweets, salad) is edible, nicely cooked vegetables - never heared of any! I think Argentina is a vegetarians hell... Well, you would survive I suppose. There are potatoes.
There are two things typical - dulce de leche and mate. Dulce de leche is a great invention for the sweet tooth - caramelized condensed milk! Yummy. And yes, since yesterday we are also proud owners of our own mate straws. Nothing to stop us assimilating now. Many Argentinians would not leave home without their mate cup, straw, and a thermos with hot water so they can enjoy their beloved mate wherever they go.
I will upload a few pictures a soon as I get hold of a computer with USB port... In a couple of hours we will fly out toward El Calafate in the Patagonian Andes. But since we will be staying on camping grounds, it may well be uploading is going to take a while. Somewhere in the wilderness the internet availability is bound to decrease... (I hope!!)
 Brief update in transit. After driving about on the Peninsula Valdéz
for almost three days and a quick visit to Gaiman, a pleasant little
town founded by Welsh settlers, we have now arrived in Rio Gallegos
after an entirely uneventful 18 hour long bus ride through Patagonia.
The
wildlife on and around the peninsula is truly amazing, spotting wales
even from the coast is no big deal and at one spot they came as close
as just a few 100m to the cliffs. We were extremely lucky with the
weather - three days of sunshine in a row. Only the wind is a nuisance
at times, it ensures that the ultra fine patagonian dust gets into
every piece of equipment you have got. The car looked like it had never
been cleaned in the last four years after the trip... And it was
spotless before we left! Driving on the many hundred kilometers of dirt
tracks is not a big deal, we only had to change a wheel once for a flat
tyre...
So now we are in Rio Gallegos - only for a couple of hours,
though. There really is nothing to see or do in this provincial hub and
we will catch a plane to Ushuaia in the evening. I hope we get a decent
view of the Andes from the plane!
Finally, traveling has truly begun
and I thoroughly enjoy it! Patagonia is quite impressing - so much of
nothing! Really nothing! Endless planes, heaps of sky. Very long and
straight roads... Hundreds of kilometers between even the most remote
settlements.
We will hopefully have decent enough weather to go out
for a few good hikes in Tierra del Fuego before traveling up north
again toward the famous glaciers and mountains of southern Patagonia.
So much for now. All the best to all of you for now!
(picture courtesy Volker)
Last day at school. Volker arrived yesterday and we will take the bus to Puerto Madryn tomorrow. So I am finally leaving Buenos Aires, which makes me somewhat sad, actually. Buenos Aires is a great place and the atmosphere at school is just so nice, the whole lot consisting of teachers and students seems like a small and happy community of its own... But I do want to get into the 'real' traveling mode now! Who knows, I might return in a couple of months and continue my studies. If anyone reading this should be interested in a superb environment to study Spanish - let me know! I can certainly recommend one.
Tonight we will go out with a bunch of students and a few of my favourite teachers will come as well! Makes it really hard to say good-bye to Buenos Aires...  
 Just to make sure you all understand that traveling is actually not just easy holidays! ;-) The language course is actually quite exhausting and besides the homework there is not so much time left - and please keep in mind that the nightlife in Buenos Aires is very strenuous, too! The biggest trouble is to find a restaurant that will serve you any food before 9.30 pm. Seriously! You might be able to get a toast or maybe a pizza, but any decent food - no way. So I still work on adjusting my daily schedule and I am trying to adopt to the local habits. Then, if you go to a Milonga (a Tango place), the dancing is not bound to start any time before midnight, really. Not that I would be really up to dancing Tango, but some of the folks I go out with occasionally are. But it is good fun to watch, too. At least I tried a few steps during the introductory lessen before the actual milonga - poor chica who had to dance with me.
Quick update on the last weekend. We went in a group of five for a weekend to Uruguay, to Montevideo and Colonia. Luckily Steffi struck up a conversation with a lovely 'local' girl, Laura, who took us for a tour on Saturday and showed us much of Montevideo. This way we really got to see a lot. At night we went out and stayed up until about 5.30 am dancing, at least some of us including me. (You see, life as a traveler is hard!) The next day we went by bus to Colonia and later on the express ferry back 'home' to Buenos Aires. I really enjoyed that weekend, although it was rather exhausting too.
This weekend will be more geared towards practicalities. I have to get my (brand-new!) backpack repaired, one of the zippers broke when checking in at the airport in Berlin and I have to get it replaced. Then I will have to buy two tickets for Volker and me for the bus ride to Puerto Madryn near the Peninsula Valdes for the next weekend. Volker is coming over and we will go traveling together for some weeks.
So far, I do not really feel like I am traveling. Well, in fact I am not traveling. I am staying with my lovely host family, going to school every day and spend my spare time repeating Spanish lessons or exploring Buenos Aires. But I am quite pleased that my Spanish is improving rapidly. And spending time in this truly great city is a pleasure. I am impressed with how friendly and relaxed the people hereabouts are - this is quite a difference to all the other really big cities I have been to before. And Buenos Aires is a crazy city, literally. They say, that this city ranks first regarding the number of psycho-analysts per inhabitants... I am not surprised.
Time for an update. I have been really busy lately, no time to write even a few lines. But if I do not do it now, it will be much later. As mentioned, Buenos Aires is a fab place. I have been attending Spanish classes since last week, so there was little time left to explore the city.
I have been meeting heaps of people, among them Ian, a Canadian, who works as expedition leader on tours to Antarctica. One night I went out together with him and a few more people who work on his expedition ship. Who knows, they might employ me as expedition photographer?! Probably not, but hey, who knows. If I could lecture on geophysics, I would have gotten an asignement straight away. I might try and catch up with him in Ushuaia, as his ship has already left Buenos Aires on Tuesday.
The Spanish school is really great, the teachers are all highly motivated and very friendly, most of them about my age. And where else would you be greeted by your teachers with besos every morning?! Last week I took six hours of lessons, four in a mini-group (three people), and two individual. This was actually too intensive! So I changed the schedule to just four hours of group classes a day. At least now I can do something besides attending class (e.g. writing this). The other students are a great mix of people, we go out frequently together for all sorts of activities. Last weekend we went to a very professional Tango Show in the Centro Cultural Borges, which was truly impressive (see a few pictures in the photos section).
On Sunday we contrasted this experience with a visit to the football stadion. We went to see the match Boca vs River Plate (the two major clubs of Buenos Aires), which was a real experience. Unfortunately I was afraid to take my bulky camera, but I still hope to get a few pictures from Elise, an other student. The atmosphere was truly exciting, heaps of shouting and singing - already an hour before the game started! When the teams finally entered the stadion, you would believe the whole place would explode!! For 90 minutes nobody would stay on their seats... And it certainly did improve my Spanish ("burro", "hijo de puta" etc.). They were in fact almost celebrating carnival - drums, trumpets, all sorts of instruments and banners... They actually had to clean up the field >before< the game had started to remove all the litter. And later on, during the break, again, of course. Especially the Boca fans were incredible. They just did not stop singing and shouting, not even long after the game had ended. The actual match was a little boring, actually.
Then there are so many art exhibitions on all the time. Have been to a few, yesterday to one with drawings and prints by Dalí, earlier the contemporary Latin American Art. Yesterday we went with the whole school to a photography exhibition, which was partly interesting (photographs of painted bodies - cuerpos pintados). If I can muster enough energy, I will later go to an other photography exhibition of young photographers from Buenos Aires. It just means I will have to cross this crazy city twice... But tonight is an other music/tango show and for the weekend I will go on a short trip to Colonia and Montevideo in Uruguay together with four or five of other students. My plan is to do the Spanish classes for at least one more week, maybe two.
(All pictures by Elise, the Melbournian chica in the middle of the group picture in the stadion.)   
 Hello everyone! After the surprise farewell committee had assembled at the airport (thank you Volker and Matthias!) a fairly uneventful trip evolved. Maybe I just did not notice much, since I slept like a baby after the two glasses of champaign I had so early in the morning. I was surprised, however, that Iberia would only sell overpriced sandwiches on the three-hour flight to Madrid and that, on the 12 hour flight Madrid-Buenos Aires, they would serve just lunch and a snack! More impressive was the drinking ability of many of the Spanish and Argentinian guys on the long flight. The highlight certainly was when one of them even lit a cigar at some stage. I have never seen so many heads turning in a plane...
With one of the chaps who certainly belonged to the top group as far as boozing up in no time was concerned - he happened to sit in the seat row behind me - I had my first real conversation in Spanish. Sort of. I have no real idea what it was about, actually. But he kept shaking the half empty wine bottle in front of my face and was really friendly. Later, he switched over to just burping and snoring.
And then Buenos Aires. I believe many books have already been written on the driving habits of the Argentinians, so I will keep my comments brief. But I am impressed! First I noticed, that nobody seems to really care about switching on the lights when driving at night, not even on the motorways. That said, many cars certainly do not even have a single functional light source anymore. I have never seen so many obviously totally crashed cars actually driving! This is clearly a miracle I will have to investigate a little more. Then I was pleasantly surprised about the paintings of the streets - in Europe we tend to call them lane markings. Here, they clearly serve only decorative purposes. And then I came to realize for the first time that you really do not need any more then about 5 cm distance between cars while driving, not even when going at 120 kilometers an hour... The taxi driver gave perfect proof for that. He was a very skilled also at managing to squeeze his vehicle into impossibly narrow-seeming spaces between other cars and elegantly taking over on the right-hand side wherever possible. Whow!
Today, I spent a couple of hours walking about. And yes Buenos Aires is big. Very big. And very crowded. Berlin seems a rather provincial town compared to this (not to speak of Dresden). And I do have to improve my Spanish. I am very grateful that all the folks I met were happy to have conversations with me in my non-existing Spanish, but it sure is frustrating if you can not even communicate the most basic things...
And it is a beautiful city.
...the great party. Thank you everyone for showing up and making this a
memorable night! Very special thanks to those of you who have been
coming such a long way just for the party - from Dresden, Florence,
Barcelona, and even Sydney!
After only three hours of sleep, I am quite tired now and will turn in really soon, but
I did enjoy the party heaps! Sad, we can not have another party like
this for a while (at least not together). But there will certainly be a "Back-Home" party when
I have returned. You can find a few more pics from the party on this site, too.
So now it just slowly dawns on me I will be off soon.
I must say, it is hard to leave Dresden. I keep going on on about how
great the quality of living is in Dresden - but it is just true! No
long distances to cover, people are relaxed and friendly, the
environment is great. Especially in the summer (and in such a great
autumn as this year!) it is all so pleasant spending time in the
numerous beer gardens or at the festivals that take place almost every
weekend.
And have a look at the great baroque panorama as seen from the
river Elbe! I took the picture last Tuesday after sunset, among the other buildings along the Brühlsche Terasse you can see
the Semper Opera on the right hand side.
Why is he quitting work and life in Dresden? Just to travel?
And
what after that? - I can hear you ask those questions... Well, the
answer is easy and difficult at the same time. First, I decided it was
high time I realized my dream of taking some time off and go
traveling. Friends will know I was pondering this move for quite a
while. And they might already have been annoyed by this (hello L.!).
The time is NOW. It is certainly no good to keep hoping for a better
opportunity to do this in the future, that is never going to
come. Plus, I am unfortunately not growing any younger. And then, I
realized, I would be probably looking back to this time in a few years
from now and think "why didn't I do it then..." In fact, my decision
did not have to do much with work. Work is (was!) mainly fine. But work
is not
life. It is a part of it - an important one, admittedly.
So who knows - I might be back working for Inferno (oh, excuse me - but
my ex-colleagues might appreciate this little pun!) in about a year
from now. Or I might end up as a diving instructor on Bali. Or grow
potatoes in Patagonia, or apples in Tasmania, or... Who knows. Any recommendations from your
side? ;-)
In a nutshell, I am currently giving the realization of a personal dream
priority over career. And what is to come after traveling, to be
quite frank, I do not know yet. I feel, however, I do not need to have a set plan
at the moment. But I have rarely been more positive about a decision in my
life!
So what's the plan right now? - That is much easier to answer! I will
fly over to Buenos Aires on October 5, improve my as yet almost
non-existent Spanish, and then travel through Argentina, Chile,
Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador. There is lots of opportunity for many a good
walk and I will certainly take my camera... Once "done" in
South America I will see to catch a plane to Oz and probably first
settle for a month or so in Melbourne or Sydney. When I had enough
holidays from traveling I will grab a car and drive around for a few
months - looking forward to seeing all you friends down there! Oh yes,
and then there is still the North Island in New Zealand which I almost
entirely missed beginning of this year. After Oz/NZ the plan is
rather vague - maybe South-East-Asia, maybe an other trip to Japan
(will you still be there, J.? considering you decided to take a one-way
ticket
to get there...), maybe Nepal, India... or on the Trans-Siberian back into
Europe from China? I will see how things are the closer this gets.
So much for now. Let me know if there should be other questions not answered.
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