Bolivia - now really a different world! After crossing the border at La Quiaca in only about 3 minutes (my fastest border crossing in South America so far!), I had to wait for the bus. My first impressions: everything much more chaotic, colorful, and slow. Everything is slow here, really slow! The bus starts loading about an hour before departure (you have to be there at least half an hour early), since the whole procedure takes ages. Then there are about 20 people in the aisle, standing for the whole ride. The bus ride for about 80km took a good four hours, including the change of one of the front wheels as it had a puncture. This is actually no surprise given the quality of the dirt roads.

The drive to Tupiza leads through stunning landscapes. Serrated rocks in all shades of red, different species of giant cacti, beautiful hills on the altiplano. Tupiza turns out to be a pleasant small town, today is the market day and many people from the surrounding villages come into town to buy and sell stock. Many beautiful old women in brightly colored skirts, boulder hats and the typical carrying cloth containing the vegetables, herbs, and the odd baby. Unfortunately they are not very fond of the relatively numerous gringos (well, you know every other foreigner in town within about two hours, but still, they seem to receive more than enough tourists hereabouts), and having their picture taken is something they obviously do not like at all.

Tried to chat a little with one of the old women selling all sorts of magical remedies including at least a hundred different herbs and dried parts of plants, mummified llama fetuses (apparently very popular with easter), armadillos, birds, toucan beaks and so on. She really would not like me to take any photographs. What a shame. Sat around on the street to watch people and street life, this already being totally fascinating! Just had the best pizza so far in South America - with goat cheese and sweet corn, yum! (Disculpen amigos argentinos, pero és así!)

I am very glad I have learned some Spanish in Buenos Aires! This was already a delight in Argentina, of course, but here it just allows for a completely different experience. Sorting out the necessary stuff for traveling (at times a little odd and inefficient in Bolivia!) is now a real pleasure. Being able to talk to the locals transforms the experience totally! Well, there are quite a few people who actually do not speak Spanish. But still.

So far, Bolivia is a tremendously positive surprise! The people are very friendly (at least the ones who are not so reserved), found very nice travel companions, accomodation turns out to be almost luxurious (I am sharing a double room with TV and private bath room with a nice Canadian girl I met on the bus), food is good, all fine! But slow. Had to wait about an hour for my pizza, one other customer in the restaurant... The internet is extremely sluggish, almost slower than the net in Tilcara during the rain. So no way I can upload any pictures from here. Maybe from Sucre or La Paz.

Tomorrow I will be taking off for the four day jeep tour through the altiplano to see the lagoons, volcanoes, and the salt lake of Uyuni. So it might be a little while until you hear from me again.

Done. Finally. Uff. After two very intense weeks in front of the computer for at least 14 hours a day, I have just now released the first version of my stock photography website! As I do not expect to become rich (or even earn money at all, really!) this is more an experiment and it certainly has been a very welcome brain exercises for me. Given that I did not have any knowledge whatsoever of how to set up a website and / or a picture database, I think two weeks are actually not too bad. And no, it is not just a template I use. (Wish it was!) Certainly the work is based on templates, but so severely modified and extended that it actually does not have to do much with the starting point.

Many desired features are still missing. To start with: galleries, more pictures and an automatic ordering facility. But I feel these are not major issues, since I have a few possible solutions in mind. Most of that, however, will have to wait for a few months until I reach decent and accessible computer infrastructure again.

Of course, the site is currently still rather plain and does exhibit a few quirks. Watch it preferably with Firefox, Internet-Explorer does not like some details. And yes, I know, the logo sucks. But the whole thing works. Let me know if you should spot any problem, feedback welcome! (Oh dear, just spotted a really weird issue. Let's see if anyone finds it.)

If I had actually known how much effort this would cost me, I would probably not have started the whole business. But now it's done, I feel truly relieved. I can finally start to live again. There was not much "life" during the last two weeks, but I should not complain. My own choice, really. Poor Veronica, she had to put up with this computer-zombie in her living room for two weeks... This page would certainly not have been possible without her kindly letting me occupy her computer full-time for this period!

So time to leave and get on the road again. And time to take more pics! Will let you know about my trip as soon as there is anything to report. Hello world, here I am back again! Time to re-start my journey.

P.S.: Right, I almost forgot - you might want to have a look: www.ck-images.com

Since Friday last week I am back to Buenos Aires and enjoy city life and a social environment. I am staying with a friend of a friend of mine who happenes to have a room to let. This accomodation turns out to be the greatest luxury in all my traveling so far! Not only do I have my own room with wardrobe, bookshelf, and a little table, but also my own bathroom! And, even better, a grand roof terrace right next to my room!

But all this is topped by the joy of sharing the house with Veronica who is truly amiable and very patiently puts up with my shaky Spanish. This brings me to the subject of language classes which I started taking again last Monday. What a pleasure! But very exhausting, too. Besides school - four hours a day - and homework, I did not do that much during the week, except maybe the odd conversation with Veronica. Being an actor and singer, she invited me to a gig she gave last Sunday in a bar in Palermo, which was truly great. She has an impressive voice and sings a repertoire of Latin-American folk songs.

Even more impressive was the gathering in our house last night. Veronica had invited a group of friends for dinner, many of them musicians and singers themselves. What a special bunch of people! We ate and chatted on the terrace and then someone brought out the guitar and some percussion instruments around midnight... Without even a single repetition and without a break we kept singing Latin-American songs until way past five in the morning!!! Well, I should really not include myself here - as some of you may know, I am musically rather challenged. But I did help out a little with the percussion. All sorts of genres were brushed; sambas, boleros, well-known Argentinan songs, as well as songs from all over South and Central America, even compositions of some of the people present, and - of course - many Tangos. I felt quite embarrassed for not even knowing a single German song. Unfortunately we do no have a culture of meeting up with friends and spending whole nights singing. Before five nobody left. And after many people had gone around then, we kept chatting with the few remaining souls. I hit my pillow a little before eight in the morning, the time I normally get up and ready for school. What a night! Certainly a highlight of all my time so far in South America.

Three days Santiago. Seems enough for me. It's a big city, yet an other one... Not bad, though. A bit smoggy at times, but mostly alright. Nothing wrong. Nice people. Liked it more at night, as my photographs may reflect. Nice museums - especially liked the one on pre-columbian cultures in South America (very good exhibits!).

Had a funny conversation with a nice Bolivian doctor last night in the restaurant who had come to Santiago for a Herbalife convention. Asked him what Herbalife was. Seems that I actually missed in the past that I urgently need the 84 special ingredients for my nutrition which only the Herbalife products contain! How I managed to get as old as I am is a miracle... The funniest part was when he explained to me how I could earn up to a million dollars and more a month by joining the "family"! Yet an other pyramid game. And fairly successful as far as I can tell from the number of "members" he mentioned (was it 900.000 worldwide?). In the restaurant were many other Herbalifters - from Chile, Colombia, Venezuela. Obviously making enough money from their distributions for long journeys to such "extravaganzas" as the convention was called. Very nice chap, the Bolivian doctor, but very fanatic, too. Dollar signs in his eyes... At least a free Spanish lesson for me.

Have been pondering an Aconcagua attempt for several days. Finally decided against it. Too much gear I would have to organize (rent or buy). Not a difficult climb in itself, but very cold - hence the equipment necessary (mountain tent, very warm sleeping bag - going to -30 degrees, plastic climbing boots, mittens, crampons, ice axe, and a lot more...). Too much effort. And then the altitude (i.e. time required to aclimatize...). But I am still tempted. Anyone possibly interested in changing my mind and teaming up?! Or any other (not too technical) mountain?

So today Valparaiso. First impression - OK. Yes, it is a nice city on funny hills. Yes, its architecture is slightly chaotic and relatively old, odd, and colorful. And a port. Impressed? Not so much. Nothing wrong, though. Good place to hang out for a while, I guess. At least smaller than Santiago, but still quite big. Staying with lovely Signora Maria, a tiny but very cozy room near the center. Good to have my own room for a while!

After a couple of days in Pucón, Chile, I am going to Santiago on an overnight bus later on today.

The night before yesterday was a little short as we had to get up at 3.30am in order to get an early start with our guide Claudio, who also happens to be the owner of the hostel some of us were staying at. It had taken me quite a while to get used to the idea of a tour, but you are simply not allowed to climb volcano Villarica on you own... Those of you knowing me better will be aware that I am actually heavily allergic to "guided tours" and "tourist excursions" organized by agencies. The good side to the organized tour, however, was that we got all the necessary equipment (including ice axe, crampons, gloves, helmet, gaiters, over-trousers, jacket, backpack, even mountaineering boots if needed), so I did not have to rent any of these things. And the transport was sorted out, too, of course.

So we got onto the minibus at 4am, reaching the ski center on the slopes of Villarica at about 5am, from where we started walking. In the next hour I almost fell asleep again, trudging through volcanic scree and rubble. To our surprise it was almost warm at about 1900m! Given the time of day (read night) almost a miracle. Almost now wind made for ideal condictions. Soon, we would start walking on snow, first without, later with the crampons. The pre-sunrise light and later the early morning light created marvelous vistas of the partly cloud covered landscape far below. With only a few short breaks, we reached the crater rim at 2847m after only four hours ascending. A really easy stroll, as far as I am concerned.

The sulfurous fumes from the crater made breathing quite difficult at times, but the view of the splashing lava was certainly compensating for that. Also the vistas of the surrounding volcanic and non-volcanic peaks are spectacular. The walk down across the glacier and snow fields was sped up by long and fast slides in snow tunnels. Very good fun indeed! When we descended we came across about two hundred(!!!) people plodding through the snow. All from the regular groups departing at about 8am from Pucón. Volcano mass tourism. At this stage I was really glad to be on the "early bird" tour, also avoiding the burning sun for the longest part of the walk.