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Americas Project
  • Nadja Pfister
  • Americas project

Americas Project

A climbers couple 🇨🇭🇧🇷 travelling with their dog from the US to Patagonia by car.
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  • Americas Project

    Paraty/Ubatuba

    October 24, 2023 in Brazil ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    From jacket at 2000m back to sea level and bikini.
    Visiting the photogenic town "Paraty". Colourful, calm, clean & great for a morning run along the river.
    We found the perfect spot to camp, next to the sea where we even met other overlanders (first ones in Brazil) .
    The next day we made a boat tour to visit some islands and beaches. It was not the same as San Blas islands in the caribean but it was still a nice tour. For the evening we changed location for some night climbing in Ubatuba 2h south. Of course a storm came up and made us change our evening program (watching finals of the Panam Games).
    When we woke up it was still raining so we decided to leave our climbing gear in the van and only went for a walk to discover the boulders. We didn't climb but the walk was totally worth it! First time we saw pineapples growing in the wilderness.    Read more

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    Piraí do Sul

    October 27, 2023 in Brazil ⋅ 🌧 21 °C

    Piraí... where you have to ask the cows for permission to climb and get a pony as a pet.
    From rainstorms, floods & little climbing to perfectly sunny days with lots of climbing. A place to slown down and enjoy nature.
    On the weekends it gets more busy when the locals arrive. Then it's time for barbecue, beer and music in the evening.
    There is still huge potential for new routes! Vini went exploring one of the untouched walls, and bolted a route together with a friend    Read more

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    Nadja in São Paulo/Foz do Iguaçu

    Nov 1–6, 2023 in Brazil ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    After 14 months of travelling always together it was time for a solo trip. Vini didn't want to go back to São Paulo for a climbing competition so I decided to go there on my own.
    For the 6h drive from Curitiba to SP I could join a family that was going to the competition as well. Once we arrived I went to my hostel that was only 50m away from the climbing gym. The hostel was alright and I shared the room with a cool colombian girl but I was already missing luxury Vanbora 😌.
    On the following day it was qualification day. It felt weird to compete again in a lead competition but I managed to climb very focused and calm and made into finals in 1st place together with 4 other women.
    24h later it was time for finals. I felt good and was psyched to climb! Once again I managed to climb well and could clip the last quickdraw. Unfortunately the route was too easy and 3 other women managed to climb the route too. That meant the ranking was made by time. As I was the slowest one I got the unlucky 4th place 🤷. I still had a lot of fun and enjoyed the feeling of competing and seeing all the other girls 🤗

    The following day I had time for a quick sightseeing tour and then it was already time to take the bus to Foz do Iguaçu, the border between 🇧🇷🇵🇾🇦🇷.
    After a 17h bus drive, a freezing night (I was the only one without a blanket..) with little sleep we arrived in Foz do Iguaçu. Before visiting the famous wateralls I crossed "el puente de amistad" to get to Paraguay. Beside of buying a blanket for the next bus drive I didn't do much. Paraguay seemed poor and not very nice compared to Brazil. For the drive back to Foz I decided to go by mototaxi as the streets were calm and with little traffic. I was sharing my location with Vini so he could follow me the whole time! The helmet you get for the drive was not the best (way too big) but the drive was nice and I made it safely to the bus station.

    Next stop were the impressive waterfalls. Hugest waterfall system of the world is the publicity. Indeed it was huge and amazing! Especially with the amount of water at the moment (16x more water than normally because of many rainy days and storms).

    On the same day/night I took the bus back to Pirai where I would meet Vini and Leki 12h later 🤗

    I enjoyed my solo trip a lot. But I'm happy to be back with my boys and Vanbora 🥰    Read more

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    Reserva Natural do Alpinista Waldemar

    November 13, 2023 in Brazil ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C

    When we were planning our Americas Project we wanted to neutralize our carbon foot print by planting trees. Soon we realized that it would be very dificult because
    1 - Native trees are very expensive.
    2 - Planting the tree is only one steep in the process, taking care of it in the first months is very important to make sure it will grow. Claim to neutralize the carbon foot print because you planted one tree and never took care of it is naive or hipocrit.
    3 - Find lands destinated for reforestation with autocton forest without commercial purpose is very hard.

    We got invited by our friend Waldemar Niclevicz to visit him and help him to plant some Araucarias (my favourite tree) in his natural reserve in south of Brazil. It was a great opportunity to meet him again, get to know more about his project and the honey production.

    We can't say that we neutralized any of our carbon foot print, but looking in retrospect, of course we used a lot of fossil fuel to do 40.000+km, but in all other aspects our life on the route is very simple and surely much more sustainable than the one we had in Switzerland.    Read more

  • Americas Project

    Los Pfisters in 🇧🇷

    Nov 14–22, 2023 in Brazil ⋅ 🌧 25 °C

    After 14 months the Pfister family was finally reunited again 🤩

    We spent a wonderful week together. It was busy & chaotic us always, but just authentic & great.

     * visiting 3 different places (Curitiba, Corupá & Florianópolis)
    * asisting the brazilian bouldering championship with the best coaches & fans
    * climbing in the jungle
    * sharing a beautiful rustical villa with invisible but very agressive mosquitos
    * lazy beach days with Açaí
    * hike through the jungle & along a nice beach where we got to feel the currents & strength of the ocean
    * after diner family "workout" in the park
    .. and just many more good times 😍

    Thank you Pfisters & Vini ❤️    Read more

  • Americas Project

    Amazonas Part 1

    Dec 3–8, 2023 in Brazil ⋅ 🌩️ 27 °C

    Already being in Brazil my parents decided to visit the Amazonas in Manaus. Finally feeling at home at Vinis parents I didn't feel like travelling again but I decided to join my family as I was curious about the rainforest and I wanted to spend more time with my parents. The travelling was exhausting but it was totally worth it! We had a great time with many laughters and discovered a lot in peacful Amazonas.

    * left Caxias at 11pm and arrived at our lodge at 5pm the next day - 2x✈️ 3x🚙 2x🚤
    * stayed at a floating lodge in a hidden sidearm of rio Juma
    * lying in the hamocks, observing dolphins, reading or sleeping was our main activity between the excursions
    * jungle hike with a lot of sweat, unknown plants & trees, some monkeys & learning how to braid with palmtree leaves (all the houses are covered by theses waterproof leaves)
    * piranha fishing was for sure a highlight. Not because of fishing but all the laughters 😂
    * kayman spotting at night. What an experience floating on the peacful river at night, watching the stars, listening to the sounds of the jungle and spotting the 🐊. The peace was gone and the screaming/laughing started when we got attacked by the fishes jumping into the boat 😂
    * visiting a school from the outside (they are on holidays since mid october and they will last till february!!), hearing about the terrible school system and the problems behind (mostly corrupt politicians). Next to the school is a small house for medical care. No doctor available only a nurse some hours a day. You better don't have an emergency because the fastest way to the hospital in Manaus is by boat and car and takes 3-4h!!
    * visiting a local family. They are mostly self suficcient and have a huge garden full of fruits and food. Main food they eat is tapioca, gained from roots.
    * sunrise boat tour before breakfast
    * leaving the lodge with heat a sunshine, getting soaked & cold by a sudden rainstorm, arriving back home no more weat because of the rain but again covered in sweat 😆
    * surprisingely almost no mosquitos!
    * floating gas stations
    * experiencing what dry Amazonas means. On the way back to Manaus we went by a smaller river and sometimes almost didn't pass as the water level was so low!! (on the pictures you can see where the water normally reaches). Soon the water level will rise again as rain season is about to start. Last time it was this dry was 10 years ago!
    * conclusion: super english speaking guide, great staff & food, interesting tours, 3 days of peace but less wildlife spotted as imagined as we all had a very different idea of the Amazonas!!    Read more

  • Americas Project

    Amazonas Part 2

    December 5, 2023 in Brazil ⋅ 🌩️ 29 °C

    After 3 days it was time to go back to civilization in Manaus. Quite a contrast it was. We didn't like the city too much. Crowded, dirty, poor, more heat & mosquitos. But we were lucky to stay in a cozy hotel with swimmingpool and AC.
    The christmas decoration around the theater & the theater itself was beautiful though.
    Our second night in Manaus was short, we had to get up at 1am to catch our flight at 3.30am.
    3min after we left the hotel an other car crashed into our taxi at the red light. Fortunately nobody got hurt and we only got a stiff neck and a bit shocked 😅.
    When we were ready for boarding suddendly everybody left the gate an no staff was around to ask what was happening. After asking other passengers we finally understood what was going on - all flights cancelled because of maintenance of the landing/starting pist. The first flight was rescheduled after noon.
    It was difficult to get information and of course the queue for reschedueling was huge as every passenger had the same problem. At 7am I finally got an acceptable solution for me. At 14.00 flight to Brasília and at 21.00 flight to Porto Alegre. Arriving there only at midnight meant spending the night there as there was no bus to Caxias at this time. Luckily Vini has a friend in Porto where I could sleep and he even went to Caxias the next day 🙂
    My parents had to wait even longer in the queue, had to spend the night in São Paulo and got to Salvador next day at noon..
    Little sleep, many hours at the airport but in the end we all made it safe to our destination 😌    Read more

  • Americas Project

    Encuentro de familias

    Dec 9–19, 2023 in Brazil ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    After 7 years our families finally met each other for the first time! The meeting couldn't have been better although it was a bit stressful for Vini & me because we were the only 2 understanding both languages which meant a lot of translating 😅 but even when we were not around, our parents managed to communicate somehow 🙃
    Good days with many laughters, delicious food, charming brazilian/italian temper and some needed resting.
    We also visited a farm of Vini's uncles where we spent a night, explored the beautiful landscape, learnt how to do pastel and where we enjoyed the rustical farm life in good company.

    My parents even got to know the climbing crag of Caxias and climbed some routes there🤗    Read more

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    Caxias family & friends

    December 10, 2023 in Brazil ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    Enjoying family & friends & celebrating christmas with 30° 😎

  • Americas Project

    Caxias escalada/random

    December 11, 2023 in Brazil ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    * some rockclimbing
    * visiting the waterfall salto ventoso
    * dentist appointment with Vini's cousin Paula
    * baking swiss christmas cookies (mailänderli)
    * listening to good music in Felipe's private music studio
    * presentation of our trip in "Venga" (climbing gym)    Read more

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    Valle de los Cóndores

    Dec 30–Jan 15, 2024 in Chile

    In Valle de los Cóndores we had it all. One of the last wild campings next to a climbing crag. 16 days of sunshine, morning baths in the river, hours of cooking, laughters, eating & drinking in our "favela" and of course a lot of climbing in this incredible place. We had to get used to the steep and tricky climbing but now we can say that we definitely have better kneebar skills and a bigger bíceps 😉 (not so sure about our finger strength😅).
    Leki also improved his climbing (-& river crossing) skills, with and without his climbing shoes.
    The rest days in the valley are hard, especially when you don't have a van. You are totally exposed to wind & sun, no shade at all. That's way we often drove 1h to the lower part of the valley to eat empanadas and ice cream in the closest village 😋
    We spent a wonderful time with our brazilian crew & new friends 🙏🤗    Read more

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    Between Chile & Argentina

    January 16, 2024 in Chile ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    Heading south via the famous Ruta 40 we enjoyed the beautiful landscapes and...
    * lazy afternoon at the beach before border crossing
    * border crossings means, cooking every vegetable we have
    * spending the night next to Lanín volcano in a beautiful araucaria forest
    * free campground next to a gorgeous river
    * unexpectedly meeting overlanders who shipped their van on the same ship from Panama to Colombia
    * climbing in la Bestia (close to San Martin de los Andes) with the local Juan    Read more

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    Carretera Austral/Ruta 40 - el Chalten

    January 20, 2024 in Chile ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    On our way from Bariloche to Chalten we decided to skip a boring part of the ruta 40 in Argentina, and took the more scenic Carretera Austral in Chile. We went looking for beautiful landscapes and good climbing but only found one of them. Climbing was pretty disappointing, but the views made the detour worth it. Driving many km on good and bad roads but it was never boring and we enjoyed our drive. The harderst part of the journey was catching the ferry from Puerto Ingeniero Ibañez to Chile Chico. It was really hard to get tickets. On the 1st day we tried to get on the ferry there were tickets for us but not for the van. We got on the waiting list but didn't make it because of 1 car. They said that for the next day it should be no problem. We waited one more day but when we went to confirm our spot on the waiting list we were told that there was no ticket left for passengers and we needed both - 2 for us and 1 for the van 😖. We waited until the last moment and got lucky because a tourist bus with 30 people was delayed and didn't make it on time to the ferry. We were the last car that made it 👌😌Read more

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    Glaciar Perito Moreno

    February 13, 2024 in Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    We visited the famous Perito Moreno Glacier, also considered the eighth wonder of the world because of the spectacular view it offers.
    Really impressive to see the glaciar from only a few 100 meters away, hear the ice cracking and see pieces falling into the lake. This beauty is 30km long, 5km wide and up to 70m high at the front.
    The visit with Leki was a bit challenging as we couldn't enter the Nationalpark with him inside the van. We were allowed to leave the van and Leki at the park entrance (40min away from the actual parking) and hitch hike to the glacier with a german couple! Thanks for the ride 🙏🙂    Read more

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    Ushuaia

    February 15, 2024 in Argentina ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    525 days and 47687 km after our trip started we arrived in Ushuaia, the end of the world.
    For many Overlanders Ushuaia is the goal/end of their trip. As we never really followed the Panamerican Highway it was not important to us. We wanted to discover the climbing areas, visiting family/friends & getting to know all the beautiful coutries. The road itself didn't matter. Our most southern climbing destination was el Chalten in Patagonia. As it is "only" 800 km north from Ushuaia we thought, why not drive to the most southern point reachable by car. We needed a break from climbing anyway, were recovering from a cold and had to wait for better weather.
    I think we were the worst tourists ever in Ushuaia. We arrived, took some fancy pictures, bought some postcards, Vini got a haircut and went to a beach to relax and take more fancy pictures😆. On the same day we decided to already leave the town and head back north as everything felt overpriced, touristy and not that spectacular. Also the weather was not the best for recovering from a cold 😅
    Nevertheless it was worth the drive as the driving itself was beautiful with different landscapes from what we had seen before.    Read more

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    Puerto Natales

    February 17, 2024 in Chile ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

    Puerto Natales is the hub city for people exploring the southern part of the chilenean Patagonia, especially for visiting the Torres del Paine National Park. There we visited our chilean friends who we first met in Colombia and again in Brazil. They cooked a delicious, fresh and self caught salmon for us and they showed us some nice climbing spots around the city. We also discovered an other crag on our own and found one of the most beautiful wild camping places of our trip (lago Sophia).
    The town itself is small but cozy. It's surrounded by a fjord and therefore good for fishing and also a starting/ending point for cruising ships.
    It was only a short stop but for sure worth a visit!    Read more

  • Americas Project

    Torres del Paine

    February 20, 2024 in Chile ⋅ 🌫 4 °C

    Torres del Paine - Beautiful National Park but overpriced.
    As Leki was not allowed to enter the NP (not even staying in the car) we had to leave him in a dog hotel in Puerto Natales.
    After dropping off Leki we drove 2h to the visitor center of TdP where you could park and camp for free. We were in good company amongst many tourists also sleeping in their vans.
    The next morning we had an early start at 7am to hike to the famous view point "base de las torres". The hike was easy and nothing special as you never had views until the view point. But when you arrive at the top, the views are stunning! There are climbing routes on the towers but logistics are complicated and you need a permit. Only a few days ago a strong climbing team could free climb the hardest route on the middle tower for the first time in history. They spent 18 days on the wall with big storms!! Impressiv to see this wall in this remote place and imagine them up there trapped in the snow storms.
    Our hike was a bit less impressiv but we got tired legs from 20km hiking.
    When we got back to the parking we couldn't immediately leave as there was a tourist bus parked in front of our van and the driver nowhere to be found 🙄 after his lunch break the driver appeared and we could continue our drive through the NP.
    More nice views and a short hike to a waterfall and the "cuernos" viewpoint.
    To end the beautiful day we found a great spot to cook, enjoy the sunset & finally sleep.    Read more

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    Chalten

    February 24, 2024 in Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    Chalten was all about nature, adventure & friends.
    On one side you have gorgeous remote mountains, glaciers, lagunas where you can climb, hike & much more. On the other side you have a touristy village with many bars, cafés & restaurants to hang out with friends. Around the village within 5-10min walk you find sport climbing crags and nice boulders. There is even a nice boulder gym when the weather is bad or you need some training done.
    The weather is not easy to deal with. In the mountains it can be dangerous with big storms, wind, snow & freezing temps. Especially because it can change very fast. Down in the valley most days are pretty nice but often windy and little rainy.
    I was surprised how good the weather was and how much I enjoyed our stay in Chalten. I think I had a bad image of Patagonia in my head as Vini was preparing me for years to go there. 😂 When there were some harsh conditions and I was "suffering" he was always telling me, that's preparation for Patagonia. So I thought it must be very tough there 😅.
    Vini had some big adventures (& now stories to tell) in the mountains with friends whilst I enjoyed some hikes and spent some days alone with Leki, enjoying me time.
    Apart from climbing around Chalten and in the Fitz Roy range we enjoyed socializing very much. Only good people & vibes around us. Making new friends, seeing old friends, celebrating birthdays, going to a boulder festival, partying, enjoying an open air concert under the stars, running in the rain, eating many ice cream & chipas (argentinian pão de queijo) and much more..
    This is for sure one of the highlights of our Americas Project, it's definitely a special place to come back someday.    Read more

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    Piedra Parada

    March 2, 2024 in Argentina ⋅ 🌬 16 °C

    We moved from the Andes to the Steppe which means more sun, dust and stable weather.
    Piedra Parada (the names comes from the alone standing big rock "standing stone" at the entrance of the canyon) is a beautiful canyon surrounded by wilderness, that has to be accessed by 80km gravel road with a lot of dust 😁
    On our climbing days we stayed on a big but very simple campground. Unfortunately Leki was not allowed in the canyon so we had to leave him in the van on the camping. Luckily there were many big shady trees and we could let the windows open. For half a day Leki was trapped in the van but the other half he spent running around and exploring the place with his friends 😉 Vini had been in Piedra Parada almost 20 years ago. Back then it was very different and even more remote. For crossing the river he had to call the gaucho with his boat, whos family still runs the campground today. There is also much more climbing now and of course many tourists that hadn't been there 20 years ago.
    But it's still a good place to slow down, deconect and enjoy climbing and wilderness 🙂    Read more

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    Valle encantado

    March 11, 2024 in Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    What a wonderful last stop in Argentina!
    After Piedra Parada we did a quick stop in Bariloche. We decided to not explore too much the city as there are many delinquents who target Overlanders. Instead we quickly moved to our next climbing destination, Valle Encantado.
    There we finally met Charly & Dale, a climbers couple from the UK which are doing more or less the same trip as us but started 6 months later. We had been talking on Instagram for a long time already but we weren't sure if we would be able to meet.
    We had so much fun together that we all decided to stay there for a longer time, enjoying company, climbing and some beach time 🙂
    There was even more company when our friends, Dimi & Stefi from Spain, visited us 🥰
    The access fo the crag was special because you had to cross a big river. We saw many methods how to cross: kayak, boat, SUP, sleeping matress or even some guys swimming. We were lucky to get our friends paddle board.
    Valle Encantado was our favourite sport crag in Argentina. Climbing on long & slightly overhanging routes with many pockets. Vini also did some rebolting to make the routes safe again.

    Great place & great people💚    Read more

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    Frey

    March 24, 2024 in Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    Last couple of days before heading to Brazil, Dale and I took advantage of a good weather window in Cerro Catedral (Frey) and did a two days mission to climb there. Frey is a beautiful area with granite spires and walls full of short multi pitch routes. We were motivated to try an 8a+ in the south face of Aguja Principal, but we thought that a two days mission in a shady face would be too audacious. So we decided to try a 3 pitches project called ‘Otra vez arroz’ in the Muralha China graded as 7c? in the guide book. Turns out that the project pitch is much harder. Despite our efforts after 3 tries each, we decided to leave it for another opportunity. We did all the sessions of the crux pitch and we think it might be an 8a+/b.
    The second day we decided to climb something more moderate and went back to the Principal to climb ‘No te olvidaremos’ a really beautiful line with very unique shapes, specially for granite routes.
    It was nice to come back to Frey after almost 20 years since my first visit.    Read more

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    Last stop

    April 1, 2024 in Brazil ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    There it came, our last stop of the trip 🫣after an incredible time in Argentina we went back to Caxias 🇧🇷 to spend another three weeks with Vini's family and friends before flying back to europe.
    We had quite a lot to do and organize whilst there.
    It started with Nadja's wisdom teeth extraction (luckily it went smooth and wasn't painful) followed by selling our beloved home, Vanbora😪. Unfortunately we didn't find other travellers that wanted to buy our van, so our only option was selling it to a dismantling company. Sad ending for our van but it seemed to be the only reasonable option.
    Selling our home also meant looking for a new home in Switzerland. With a lot of help of my parents and some luck we finally managed to get an appartement in Bern🥳
    More medical check up's and appointments were done these days. Of course we also enjoyed these days with family & friends and spent some good days rock climbing, playing cards, and enjoying god company.
    The only sad part was the good bye 😔 but we hope to be back soon!!    Read more

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    Back home 🇨🇭

    April 24, 2024 in Switzerland ⋅ ☁️ 7 °C

    Here we are back at Zurich airport, 594 days later.
    Sad that our adventure came to an end, but happy to see our family & friends again and to settle down in one place.
    Also very happy and relieved that Leki made it safely to Switzerland after being 22h in his kennel.
    Thank you to all the people that made our trip unforgettable
    ,helped us in some way or followed our adventure from far away! See you soon somewhere 🧡    Read more

    Trip end
    April 30, 2024
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