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SouthAmerica Touring

December 2014 - April 2015
A 113-day adventure by Isa Read more
  • 38footprints
  • 7countries
  • 113days
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  • 19.7kkilometers
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  • Isa and UlfSouthAmerica Touring
    Day 33

    Mendoza and Los Libertadores crossborder

    January 16, 2015 in Argentina ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C

    We just wanted to add this footprint to show you how amazing this piece of the Andes actually is.
    Starting in the morning crossing the Andes at their highest point, close to the Aconcagua, America's highest mountain, we took the Libertadores pass in one of the most impressive mountain landscapes of the world.Read more

  • Isa and UlfSouthAmerica Touring
    Day 34

    Salta and entering Bolivia

    January 17, 2015 in Argentina ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    So far, we had seen an Argentina that was very dry, almost without vegetation and flat...leaving a green Chile that was green and became dryer to the north until turning into desert. Therefore we expected the same crossing the Andes again in Argentina..yet, we were surprised to see the exact opposite: while 50 kms west across the Andes lies the worlds driest desert The Atacama, Argentina suddenly became greener and humid...until we reached after 17 hours in bus the paradise of Salta.
    The city is, due to its proximity to Bolivia, more Latin than other Argentinian cities. A rich colonial city from where we made a trip to the Humahuaca gorge, the highlight of northwest Argentina, slowly moving up to the Altiplano, to get a first glimpse of what will expect us for the next weeks.
    We frankly regret not having spent more time in Salta 'la linda', because already at midnight, we boarded the bus to the northern border to the heartland of Latin america...Bolivia!

    The midnight bus was a real backpacker experience: Stopping at every village, getting lights on and off, and everybody coming in, waking us up. At the border, waiting in line to leave Argentina and entering Bolivia over the border bridge (maybe for a European rather strange to see below the bridge, people moving goods over the small river from Argentina to Bolivia back and forth, with police and border patrol watching from the bridge but not seeing any reason to interfere)...well, seems we have really arrived in Latin america ;-)

    After crossing the border we took a small minibus for 2,75 euro to Tupiza, to start exploring the almost primeval beauty of the Bolivian southwest!    Read more

  • Isa and UlfSouthAmerica Touring
    1
    Day 37

    Bolivian Southwest and Salar de Uyuni

    January 20, 2015 in Bolivia ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Forget all that we said before: best landscapes so far are here!
    Starting the adventure: a Toyota Land cruiser, 200 liters of gasoline, a driver\guide, a cook, an Argentinian guy, a French woman and a thousand kilometers and four days of adventure on the Altiplano at 4000 meters.
    The landscape was absolutely incredible, between prehistoric and the Mars-like dunes...Llamas, condors and hardly any people only ghost towns at 4500 meters, in which first the Inca and later the Spanish were mining for gold, silver and a bunch other minerals that pop out of earth spontaniously, in cities so high that the first Spanish families were unable to have children, because the babies died of altitude...only when the Spanish were changing to local woman, the next generation of exploiters could be born;-)

    We can actually understand the problem....sleeping at night at our camp at 4300 meters is anything but easy...it's was literally breath-taking.

    Ps. Tupiza was the starting point of this trip, and apart from that it was important because Ulf got rid of his 7weeks beard.    Read more

  • Isa and UlfSouthAmerica Touring
    1
    Day 43

    Potosi

    January 26, 2015 in Bolivia ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    Another mystic place from the history book, where one never thought one would be standing personally...the spanish conquistadors never found el dorado,but they found a mountain that consisted almost entirely of silver: The cerro rico, the rich mountain of Potosí. Here at 4080 meters they founded their first city in south america,and started to exploit incredible wealth. A place of glory for the spanish and place of terror and suffering for the indiginous people, who were forced to work under terrible conditions and millions died over the next 300 years, when it was called the "mountain that is eating humans".
    The mountain is still towering 4800 meters over the city, and looks like on the old spanish paintings from the 16. century,when Potosi was the largest city in the Americas and had about the size of Paris. And still today the e city lives from its mountain, and still thousands of miners work under terrible conditions and with pre-industrial techniques inside the mountain. We wanted to understand this place of glory and suffering, therefore we did not only visit the marvellous palaces and impressive churches of the old town,but also bought coca leaves and dynamite ( no joke) and entered the mountain to visit the miners working....difficult to describe this experiene, seeing the suffering and poverty, like the only 17 year old miner, to whom Isa gave a new pair of gloves as a present. Yet this is also an integral part of latin american history that may not be denied, and belongs to a trio that is destined to get to know the reality of the continent.    Read more

  • Isa and UlfSouthAmerica Touring
    Day 44

    Sucre & Tarabuco sunday market

    January 27, 2015 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Sucre is officially Bolivia's capital city and also known as the white city because it's colonial and neo-classical archicture, which gave them honor to be in the Unesco list. Most of bolivians like it a lot due to "warmer" weather and beauty and we actually agree with both!.
    But the highlight of this trip was Tarabuco; a small town 60km away from Sucre where we had to take a mini-van where everyone except us spoke Quechua and guess who was the only white, blue-eyed person of the crowd?
    The trip got us to see more of the bolivia's rural landscape with small villages of houses made of adobe and clay tiles on the roofs.

    Obviously a bit touristic but worth a while, a market where local peasants and natives come to sell their handy crafts, and where Ulf found a curious statue celebrating an uprising of local tribes in the 19th century by presenting a super-realistic scene of an indigenous warrior standing on top of a spanish soldier laying on the ground, ripping his heart out with bear hands...great motive for a "only in Bolivia picture". ;-)    Read more

  • Isa and UlfSouthAmerica Touring
    Day 46

    Quiz post! Odd observations:

    January 29, 2015 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 13 °C

    1.) why do many streets in La Paz have street signs in Chinese?
    2.) why is the "museum of bolivian coast" so hilarious?
    3.) just a funny picture ;-)

    Leave a comment to win a souvenir, best post wins! We promise to send it anywhere in the world... even personally.Read more

  • Isa and UlfSouthAmerica Touring
    2
    Day 47

    La Paz

    January 30, 2015 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 7 °C

    Well, quite frankly, we had no idea what to expect: maybe another gray, dodgy, overcrowded Latin american metropolis. A little gray indeed, but different than expected: A peculiar city, drenched into a narrow desert valley with up to 500 meter high walls on both sides, so narrow in some places, that only one street and the river fit in, overlooked by snow covered 6000 meter high mountains. Luckily we got the chance to use the brand-new 'Teleferico' (cable car) definitely the easiest way to get around above a unique mix of colonial buildings, modern skyscrapers, featuring all kind of markets, including the witch market where one can even buy dried baby lamas and everything else for pre-christian rituals.
    we walked around but after decided to organized a city tour for the next day, really interested to get to know the secrets and the history of this weird city; we learned that the Bolivians had kicked out their former president with a serious of strikes and violent confrontations, and that after Evo Morales emerged ten years ago as the new leader taking Bolivia and its people into a new era of fairness and equality in a country where 60% of its population is native.
    after all this history we decided to go wild last day in La Paz we rented mountain bikes and went to the famous "Death road" (sorry parents for not telling you in advance, probably better this way ;-) this gave us a chance to drive down from 4600 to 1000 meters in deadly speed, getting to know also the tropical side of Bolivia.    Read more

  • Isa and UlfSouthAmerica Touring
    Day 53

    Lake Titicaca

    February 5, 2015 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    Even travelers deserve a relaxed weekend every once in a while, so we decided to leave La Paz behind and travel north to the Titicaca lake. So this post resumes Isla del Sol in Bolivia and Uros, Amantina and Taquile islands in Peru.
    the bus ride was rather entertaining when a group of travelers from Chile critized the bus driver, which ended in a police involvement, and after all the bus driver decided to drive at 50km\h, excusing himself with the passengers.
    Nevertheless, we managed to get the ferry to the island of the sun where we decided to spend 3 nights in the middle of the lake under a bright star spangled sky. the island is the point where the Incas believed the god of the sun, their ancestor, touched the earth for the first time, making the island a big pilgrimage destination back in Inca time; and because we liked it so much we decided to go to the neighbor country and visit their side.
    we crossed to Peru and started from Puno, small border town rather friendly during this time of the year due to its 'fiestas' which are celebrated during an entire month. with our heavy backpacks we arrived at a gorgeous family run hostel in an old Spanish colonial building. we were received like part of the family, and enjoyed an excellent Altiplano dinner cooked by the grandma. when we realized we were the only guests, the family confessed to us that the hostel was closed during the fiestas, but they didn't want to send us away when we knocked at their door....we must have looked very exhausted from the voyage.
    from Puno one can take a public boat and head off to the islands; when they see you're a tourist they stop at 'Uros' the floating islands and explain to you exactly how they build them. hundreds of years ago, their ancestors used this lifestyle to escape the invading Incas, and managed to resist them....against the Spanish, it was no salvation though.
    On Amantani Island, we stayed the night in the house of a native family, receiving excellent local food and exploring the island. it has a magnificent view from its 300m mountain top all across the lake....we could even see the island of the sun, 100 km away in Bolivia, where we had stayed only 3 days before.    Read more

  • Isa and UlfSouthAmerica Touring
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    Day 56

    Arequipa

    February 8, 2015 in Peru ⋅ 🌫 12 °C

    Taking a super-slow bus from lake Titikaka down to Arequipa, passing the altiplano and entering the land of the canyons. After more than three weeks around 4000 m high, Arequipa almost feels tropical at 2400 meters. la ciudad blanca, the white city with 360 days of sushine and everblue skies received us with rain and clouds for the 6 days of our stay. Nevertheless, it will be one of the highlights of the trip. That is to large extend the "fault" of the casa de melgar hostel. Due to a communication error among their staff, the hostel offered us one of their best rooms, a honeymoon suite about the size of our entire apartment in Cologne, with four meter high ceilings and walls of massive, castle-like volcanic stones inside an old Spanish colonial townhouse for 28 euros a night...which we accepted gladly for three nights, and even managed to convince the hotel to extend another night. Every morning and evening with a big smile, we walked the almost a hundred meters from our cozy realm to the reception, crossing 5(!) interior courts and a flower garden, making every day in Arequipa automatically very special! apart from that, we celebrated halftime of our sabbatical with the excellent Peruvian kitchen,with Arequipa being one of its culinary centers and took a pisco sour mixing class, in order to not repeat the terrible result that we achieved when trying to prepare one for Ulf's family four years ago :-(
    In order to not only spend the days sleeping long, enjoying excellent food and prepare drinks, we decided it was time to do some hardcore sports: climbing the Chachani, a 6085 meter high volcano, overlooking the city and the canyon land. at the end, together with a lovely swiss couple, Samuel and Michaela, and Ivan, our mountain guide traveled up to our base camp at 5200 meters, where we all spend half of the night in tents, before starting to attack the summit at 1:00 o'clock in the morning. Isa decided after some climbing, that she would rather go back and wait for the group in the base camp, and also the swiss couple stopped at 5700 meters...kind of sad because it was Samuels plan to propose marriage to Michaela on the summit...but a proposal in the base camp with champaign was almost as nice. so in the end, out of the four, only Ulf arrived at the summit together with the guide. since then, we know, that "one of the easiest" 6000 mountains, does not mean "easy"at all. isa waited in the base camp for the completely exhausted Ulf, who returned after 10 hours from the summit...while she also broke her record, carrying for 5 hours almost 15 kilogram of equipment up to 5200 meters...after that, we slept almost 14 hours in our cozy hotel room.    Read more

  • Isa and UlfSouthAmerica Touring
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    Day 60

    Nasca

    February 12, 2015 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Honestly, Nasca really had a kind of a difficult start.
    We arrived with the overnight bus from Arequipa at 7:AM and it was incredibly dry and hot, (obviously after 9 weeks in the mountains). A friendly guy accepted not only to store our backpacks but also warned us not to get scammed by a bunch of people selling fake tours by the entrance door of the terminal and with the help of a friend of his' we went to the airport and took a flight over the famous nasca lines...

    The nasca lines from above are really impressive and our plan was to return and take a bus further north directly... but the maneuvers of the pilots trying to show us all caused Ulf to vomit in the plane- so, quite frankly we were too sick to take a bus and move on...and very happy we didn't. After a heavy "chaufa rice" lunch and a little siesta, we accepted an offer from an agency for an archeological tour. it turned out to be a tour to the pyramids and tomb fields of the Nasca: the pyramids extremely impressive, the tombs very sad. For an archeology-lover like Ulf, it was heartbreaking seeing skulls, bones, some even with human hair still attached after 1000 years, textiles laying around in the open sand as a result of looting and artifact trade...yet interesting and unique.
    The second part consisted in driving around at 90km\h on the sand dunes with a gigantic-open jeep and sandboarding in the dunes...hehehe honestly, it was big fun, and a great day after a-not-really promising start.    Read more

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