Today we been driving, a lot! We did however started the day at the local brewery in Struisbaai. It’s a tiny microbrewery and can discuss if its really a brewery or just home brew right now but they are moving to a bigger location, expanding and the beer, its really good! Their pale ale was pretty popular yesterday and since the brew master was on site we got invited to the brewery and sure, why not.
After a short tour and some tasting we got into the car and drove east. We have some loose plans but nothing really decided so we just drove as long as we wanted and after a lunch in Mossel bay we continued to Krysna where we are now. The the scenery reminds me of southern Sweden but with more hills and its really beautiful to drive with the ocean on one side and mountains in the distance on the other side. There between is a tiny road and large green and yellow files! We haven’t seen much of the wild life yet though, but at least I saw some antelopes, a baboon, a lot of ostrich and a lot of different fun and creepy birds I cant name. Today we also saw our first elephants so I got the first of the five big now, all completely random from the highway
No driving for me though, instead I’m the designated backseat driver drinking beer and eating biltong (like beef jerky). The reason for this is that they collected the car before I arrived so I couldn’t sign any paper but it’s OK for me, I’m having it really good here in the backseat.
I guess we all do different things to wake up during the morning and today I added a bungy jump to the classic cup of coffee. It is actually one of the biggest bungy jumps in the world and the base is the 216m hight bloukrans bridge. My first bungy jump ever and it was really fun and a nice wake up method. Bungy jumping do have a taste of the 90’s but I recommend it anyway.
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After our jump we decided to drive into the Tsitsikamma national park. Really awesome nature and after a short but steep hike to a viewpoint we got awarded with an absolute stunning view over the area. Once back down we took lunch at a whale and two dolphins came by. I’m not good at speaking whale in the ecstasy of seeing whales i took some really bad photos but the baboon we met on our way to the hostel, he did waited until i got my camera and posed so nice. No more picture than this thou because I misplaced my usb cable and the internet is so freaking slow ere.
The weather forecast promised bad weather and just as promised we woke up to rain. That’s totally ok thought because our plan was to spend the day in the car and drive back to Cape town, well actually a little bit further to Simon’s Town which is located close to Cape of good hope. The driving went fine and as we approach Simon’s Town we were greeted by a couple of whales playing just a couple of hundred meters from the shore. Really cool and fun to see but damn they are hard to shoot with the camera.
At the evening I went all in on the African kitchen, Kudu, Crocodile and Impala and surprisingly enough the crocodile was the best one.
The day has been mostly been spent on the cape of good hope but first we drove by the penguins who more or less lives in Simon’s Town. The penguins were really cool and it’s no coincidence that we ended up in Simon’s Town but such a tourist trap it was. I would never, ever set my foot here during peak season and there were a lot of people there today, but manageable as long as you don’t pay the entrance fee to go down to the penguins which we didn’t.
One ice cream later and a little bit high on the sugar rush we drove to Cape of Good Hope. As time is an limiting factor we decided to first walk up to the lighthouse and check the view and after that walk out as far as you can go on the actual point. Wonderful view and even if it was a bit windy I really liked it. On our way to the point we found a lovely beach, just to bad that the more or less vertical stair pretty much kill you when you want to leave the beach.
It’s time to say goodbye to Ryan and me and Jonatan aimed for the airport and a pretty long trip later, even longer time waiting on immigration we finally arrived in Zambia or more exact Livingstone. The whole day has been traveling and we started at getting up at 04:30 to get to the airport and return our rental car. After that we got on the plane to Johannesburg and just a little bit later we were finally on the plane to Livingstone. We were flying with British Airways but judging by the airplanes condition or the service level it could be any low price airlines from the 1970’s (we got our food like 10 minutes before landing).
Once arrived in Livingstone we settled at the Livingstone backpackers, a really nice hostel and our plans are an easy day since we are kind a tired of all traveling but tomorrow we will explore the Victoria falls.
We have spent the day at Victoria falls, really beautiful and supposed to be one of the natural wonders of the world. As I said really beautiful and since its low water now we was able to climb around at the fall. Really awesome and I let the picture speak for themselfes.
We are still in Livingstone and even if I get the feeling like I know this little village now and how beautiful the Victoria falls are there are limits in stuff to do. Neverless we still havent seen the falls from above so today, well we rented a micro aircraft. Its very touristic, its expensive and worth every penny. What a lovely view and even if we just got a short amount of time in the air its totally worth it. We saw the falls, some crocodiles, elephants, hippos and as a bonus I was allowed to steer for a while, well until I almost crashed the plane. Once the plane started to doing some nasty maneuvers while I tried to figure out how to steer the captain took over.
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Really cool to get airborne with more or less a lawn mower on your back.
Cant really say much about Zambia since I only been here in Livingstone but the people are really friendly, its really really cheap and it doesn’t feel as unsafe as for in example South Africa. I dont think its an good idea to leave the hostel alone at night but the odds are much better here for you getting back alive, without getting robbed. Well tomorrow we leave for Botswana and hunting down the big five, I’ll guess that means I will be offline for a couple of days but stay tuned, I will be back.
Back from a two day safari tour in Botswana and I now have successfully shoot four of the big five. Unfortunately they have no rhinos in the Chobe nationalpark so I got that one left. They safari was really awesome and it’s kind a hard to describe the feeling of sleeping in a tent while you hear the lions roar outside. I will not write more than that, instead I let you enjoy some of my pictures.
Back in Livingstone, Zambia perfectly timed with the opening of Devils pool todays schedule was decided, lets go swimming. Devils pools is just as you can hear of the name a natural pool, just at the edge of the main waterfall and if you want and have some courage you can more or less sit at the edge and look out over the scenery. This is of course very season-dependent and its only available during low water. We were very unsure if it would open up during our time here but yea, they opened up today and we were among the first into the water.
Really nice and warm water and no sight of any crocodiles and it was for sure a nice feeling to swimming at the edge of a waterfall, especially the swimming there was kind a interesting because of the very strong currents but we all survived. I thought it would give a nice adrenalin kick to sit there, at the edge but no, guess I’m getting used to do stupid shit.
Malastad is the pill from hell. Normally I don’t notice any side effects from the different pills I eat but this pill gives me the whole complete list, from a stomach like a nuclear war to bad sleep and weird dreams. As an example I dream that a huge mosquito tried to convince me to tear down the mosquito net to let the mosquito’s into my big bed since its really not fair that they are not allowed there. Lucky for me I didn’t buy it and to be honest, the bed ain’t that great. Two days after I voluntary ended my medication and Iḿ slowly turning normal again and its most common that you get sick of malaria after a couple of days and at that time I’m hopefully back home in Sweden so fuck this!
Today its president election in Zambia and there are big posters all over the hostel telling us that guests are not recommended to leave the hostel, stash up food for a couple of days since its usually gets messy during the election. Never less we decided to go outside to take a look and something to eat and its so calm here, more people on the streets but no fighting, riots or stone throwing as a regular night in Sweden. I guess it will be riots first after the result is published if there will be any riots and at that time we are on our way to Zimbabwe.
The Waterfall/river is the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe so why not take my backpack and cross the border to see what it looks like from the other side. It is actually and fully good excuse to get another visa in your passport or to visit the famous country of Zimbabwe. The foreign ministry warns for low cash flow, unstable electricity, no banks or ATM and more or less a big lack of everything but that didn’t stop us and after exchanged some US dollars we crossed this beautiful bridge and walked into Zimbabwe.
We only stopped in Victoria Falls which is a very touristic place and we didn’t see any of the problems everybody warn us about, I guess its worse if you continue further more into the country but here we could find banks, ATM’s, restaurants and cafés for every kind of wallets and many places accepts credit cards. We stayed at the shoestring backpackers which is supposed to be the party place number one but the closest party we found was some loud music.Of course we had to check out the waterfall from this side too and now then I can compare then I guess you could say that the Zimbabwe side gives you a lot better overview and nicer scenery while Zambia side is cooler since you can walk out and actually swim in the waterfall. Zimbabwe side is way more touristic and you can see that both in the number of people who are here but also on the prices of everything, its more expensive here. After their hyper inflation where the prices doubled every 15 hour they no more have any own currency and instead relay on the us dollar. You can discuss if thats good or bad but for sure it makes it easy to remember how much things really costs.
We now can this waterfall inside out so when we saw signs about white water rafting it was done, into the office and book a ride and after we signed all kind of papers it was game on. They informed us about this is a class 5 rafting but since neither me or Jonathan has any idea what that is we just said yea, no problem in a true african spirit. Class 5 is obvious the real deal and according to Wikipedia the scale is from 1 to 6 but we did survive. At one place our guide stopped us and asked if we really wanted to do this rapid, everybody on the raft was quite so I said “no problem so far so lets go” and yea, gnarly it was.
Once we were getting closer to the rapid our guide told us that we will absolutely not going on the right side, if we do we will die. The middle is gnarly as fuck so we want to aim for the left side, of course we ended up at the right side even if we paddled like crazy towards the left. Lucky for us we got stranded on a huge rock and could steer/push ourselves out towards the middle and after a huge drop we tried to climb an even bigger wave. If there is one spot you don’t wanna fall off this is the place and yea, I’m not sure exactly what happened but suddenly I was under water, tumbling around between rocks and really strong currents and just before i reached the surface I was sucked down again for another spin. Lucky for me I’m a lousy surfer and have some experience from this kind of shit so I just stayed calm and waited for me to get out of the current and pretty much at the same time it felt like my lungs would explode I got my head over the water and could grab a deep breath before going down again. After this experience the rest of the rafting felt kind a boring and today I’m covered in bruises besides the soreness in muscles I didn’t even knew existed.
Border between Zambia and Zimbabwe
Difference between high and low water
Victoria falls
Victoria falls
Victoria falls
Victoria falls
Devils pool @ Victoria falls. This is the place we were swimming a couple of days ago
I never got so many question about buying coke as here, in Cape Town. Wherever I go and where I stand people show up and ask me if I want to buy some coke, weed or anything other that makes you high. It might be because we live on one of the major bar streets but I mean come on, this is worse than Amsterdam.
More or less the whole dale yesterday was about traveling. From Livingstone to Johannesburg and then onto Cape Town. It feels kind a bizarre but I paid more for my tickets Livingstone-Cape Town than for my tickets Stockholm-Cape Town but now, after I did the trip I know it was worth every penny. Today I spent the day walking around in the center /Waterfront area and I realize that it doesn’t feel like Africa, more like any big city in Europe and besides its a lot colder here. Well its not cold, around 25 degrees during the day which makes it perfect to walk around in the city and besides, its a good way to get used to the cold weather back home. During the nights though it gets colder and the temperature drops to around 10-15 degrees.
The flight here was a new experience by the way. Its the first time ever for me that I been told not to use my seatbelt or do anything that may cause a disturbance since they were refueling the plane. Once we arrived they once more got on the speaker and this time they told the people back in the plane to hurry to get into the front since the plane was about to tip over. Really? Is this really British airways?
Some pictures form the day, spent most of the time in Waterfront which is a really nice area, however a bit touristic.
As it was the last evening in South Africa we decided its time to go meat frenzy, South Africa is almost as famous for their barbecue as Argentina and its so cheap here so lets enjoy our last supper. After a way to big plate of mixed barbecued beef, pork, chicken and ribs it was time for desert, a 200g steak. You only live once or what do you use to say and even if we had meat overload it was so good and the meat sweating, they never came.
The last day in Cape Town where spent on Table mountain. We did however cheated some, we did the hike up to the cable car but then we took the cable car to the top and to be honest, I’m not impressed. Both according to commercial and tourist information the Table mountain is one of the natural wonders of the world but I think it was just a big tourist trap, on the top of a mountain so you cant escape it. It do however really gives you a amazing view over Cape Town and the surroundings and I do believe that if you hike all the way up to the top you will have another opinion of the mountain. Whats really cool though is how the mountain is perfect located from the Ocean so it “creates” wind that clears the smog and pollution from Cape Town and creates rain which makes the whole region really fertile. This is however not something you really can see so I guess you have to satisfy with the views and the kind a cool form of the mountain.
Very few cities has got my interest as Minsk in Belarus. Their history is really interesting since the city has been destroyed a couple of times, last time during second world war to be rebuilt completely by the ideas of Stalin how a modern city should be. The soviet collapsed though and the eastern block of Europe started to be more and more like the rest of western world but not in Belarus. In Belarus Alexander Lukasjenko ruled the country (and still do) with an iron fist which makes Belarus a special place in Europe. Its our last dictatorship and even a communistic one which makes it as close to Soviet as you possible can come, even KGB does still exist here and keep their eyes on everything.
Many people warned me that there is absolutely nothing to do in Minsk, its gray, its boring, its concrete everywhere so with that in my mind I packed my backpack and took off for a weekend trip. The passport control went like a charm since they just started with 5 days without visa for many countries. During the airport shuttle huge fields passed by the window and one or two memorials. Huge statues and obelisks passed by together with some tanks and around every single on it was filled with flower garlands. Im not sure though if its always like this or if its just because 9 of may is coming up.
The city Minsk surprised me a lot once we got into the city. It may be gray but not boring and the houses has a very special architecture. It looks like Stalin took the best pieces of all different kind of styles and made it his own. Huge boulevards is mixed with even bigger parks with real forest inside and everything is very calculated and symmetric. If you see a house with a tower you can bet that it will be matched with another house with an tower. You can really tell by the city that this was built to impress, probably because this is the first real city you reach if you coming from west. However you can also tell that you are outside of the ordinary tourist zone. Everybody thought I was Russian/Belorussian and tried to talk Russian with me, English works better than expected but it doesn’t work good and I assume that if you leave the big city you must know Russian.
One morning in our quest for a good breakfast we met Nikita, he was one who actually spoke English and once he heard that we were from Sweden he opened up a bottle of vodka and cheered with us. Not really the breakfast I was looking for but yea, when in Rome, do like the romans…
But what about the KGB? Yea we met them too. During 1 of may (National workers day) we opted for the march which was not approved by the government, This one was about free speech, human rights and I estimate that there was as many police officers as protesters. I played stupid and decided to ask one of the gentlemen who stood a bit away, with an earphone what the protest was about but all I got was; “This is nonsense, nothing to care about”
In the hunt of another of the wonder of the world I ended up in the mythical Cairo. I confess that I wasn’t to excited about it though and I were expecting a dirty over crowded city filled with scams and people who do whatever it takes to take your last dollar. Once I arrived i wasn’t disappointed and it was all true, you can also add one of the ugliest architecture I ever seen were the most of the buildings looks like they passed their best before date with 30 years or so. So it do sound like I hate it but instead I got a strange, mixed love/hate relationship with the city. It is chaotic, dirty and filled with people who try to hassle your money but I just love to stroll around in the small alleys, drink some tea and smoke some shisha on the sidewalk, eat street food that I have no idea what it is but it tastes really, really good. Once you leave the major tourist areas the harassment will stop and you can walk around freely and surprisingly its not uncommon that people will actually ask if they may take a picture together with an exotic white man.
I did however hit some mines. Cairo tower which actually has a pretty good grade on TripAdvisor doesn’t really give you any view, the day after I found out that you could go up on the roof of our hostel (15-16 floors) and it was better view from there. Egyptian museum is huge but it felt more like a warehouse than a museum, there are more pieces of rocks, sarcophagus and other items than you can imaging but almost no information signs about it so without a guide you have more or less no idea what you are looking at. The Khan el-khalili bazaar was absolute the biggest tourist trap I ever seen but to be honest, the old city area around it is really, really nice. If you are in the neighborhood I can also recommend to visit the Al Azhar Park which is a green oasis in the city center which gives you both a opportunity to rest and a glimpse of the pyramids.
So what about the pyramids? Of course I had to visit them but I’m not convinced. Yes they are huge, yes its hard to understand how they succeeded to build them almost 4000 years ago but still there is something which doesn’t persuade me. It may be all the plastic garbage which is everywhere around the place, the plastic bags that whirls around in the wind or that the city is literally speaking built all the way up to the pyramids. Once you climbed down, into a pyramid you will end up in a empty room, it would be so much more fun if they left any stuff or at least replaced them with replicas but as it is now it just gives me a feeling of; ok check on that.
The good thing is that now I can focus on the street life which is really awesome, have a cup of tea on the sidewalk and just get lost in this maze of back alleys and small historic streets.
Since the first time I saw “When the raven flies” in the early 1990´s I wanted to go to Iceland and now I am finally here. Even if its only a short, temporary stop on my way I now have finally seen the magical land and I do know I will come back to explore it more but first I need to save up some money because it is expensive here, even for a Swede who are used to high prices and taxes on everything.
Iceland Air do have the benefit with free stop over at Iceland which is perfect for a trip like this, unfortunately it also mean I have limited time to explore. The first night was spent walking around in Reykjavik. Its a small, cozy city and beside its packed with tourists it also has a lot of restaurants, bars and guesthouses. I am not sure if I was lucky or if people here just are amazing chefs but the food was amazing and even if I never tried the fermented shark myself I start to drool every time I think back to the fish, horse and lamb I did try.
During day two we took a tour and started to visit Faxe which is a quite small but pretty waterfall, Gullfoss which a much bigger and probably Iceland’s most famous waterfall, Geysir to see the geysers and shooting water and of course, Þingvellir which is both the border between North america and Europe and the location where the worlds first parliament was started. If I only had more time I would love to dive in the water between the plates for the water was so crystal clear I cant even describe it but instead we hiked along the american plate and now I do know where RR Martin got his inspiration for the wall in Games of Thrones.
The last day we headed to the blue lagoon before we went back to the airport. Yes, it is a really nice place and it really pretty good to swim in hot water even if it doesn’t cure all deceases which they state but still. I cant help myself from thinking that all this is a hoax just to get as many dollars as possible from the tourists before they leave the island again.
My trip to Canada has one simple goal, to bike in one of the best bike parks in the world. Canada is huge and what I see is more or less a multi cultural resort where everything is possible as long as you have enough money for it. Not that fun but after spending a few days in the bike park I can say that it’s worth every penny. We have spent 4 days now and still haven’t had tried every trail they have and its more likely that your body sets the limit instead of the bike park. Today we took a day of resting which means that we took a hiking in Blackcomb, over 10km and 500m altimeter long, not much of a resting but the nature is totally beautiful here.
We never met or saw any bears but there is warning signs everywhere and we did meet a nice family of mammoths, a few birds and a squirrel that reminds me of Chip n Dale. Not many pictures when we bike but maybe, eventually there will be a short movie published once I get back home.
A long time ago, just before I went to India my mum told me “Remember that the Beatles never was the same after their trip to India”. I think this was a subtle way to say, don’t take drugs but general speaking she was right, you do change as a person when you travel. It was that trip to India which made me realize the enjoyment of living the life in a backpack.
You who know me knows that I’m a restless person, a person who doesn’t like the classic 8-5 office routine, instead I have much easier for improvisation and living the day as it comes. Therefore I must say thanks for my employee Oracle who let me chase my dreams, even if this will be the longest trip in my life (so far).
Right now I’m at the airport, aiming at a foreign country at a foreign continent. My plans for the upcoming months are very loose and just like the cliche, to travel is the goal. It is me, my backpack and with “Ehrling – I feel good” in the headphones I’m feeling more at home then ever.
You are supposed to see things positive so right now I can happy announce that i do not need to get any favela tours. But before that, lets start from the beginning.
The flight was just as it supposed to and it felt like we arrived in no time at all. With one of the fastest and most efficient custom/pass control I was suddenly in Brazil. Since I have no knowledge at all in Portuguese and I heard some bad rumors about taxi drivers that doesn’t find their way I had booked a airport shuttle and the driver was standing, waiting for me and within a few minutes we went off to what I thought would be my hostel in the outskirts of a favela, I was wrong.
My hostel is located in the middle of a favela, of course there is no roads to it so I had to walk the last hundreds of meter, up for narrow and steep stairs, through narrow alleys with what looks like half built houses surrounding it. I did however find it and it is a really nice hostel with an amazing view over Copacabana but every second here feels like a scene from Cidade de Deus. I do however not feel insecure here but I do think before I grab my camera and I am a bit more restricted of what and where I shoot.
Today I woke up a bit jet lagged but solved it by walking around the area. Started with Copacabana beach, moved over to Ipanema beach and finished with a stroll through the botanic garden before I headed back to my hostel, via the favela of course. Around 25 degrees and really cozy walk so I dont complain, however my feet does since they are not used to 40 000 steps per day.
I’ve got a feeling that wherever you are in Rio de Janeiro Jesus will look down at you. Is it an attempt to make the Brazilians to live a life with less sin? Maybe, but as long as its easy to ask for redemption the life continue as usual but I decided to visit Jesus.
After some Googling I decided to take a taxi to the statue, after a couple of attempts to pronounce the name of Cristo Redentor the cab driver finally understood where I wanted to go, however haggling about the price was out of the question but after some while we agrees to use the taximeter. I thought that the taxi would take me to the statue but I was wrong, instead I ended up and had to take a tram up the mountain. The tram was more like the start of a roller coaster, so steep but the view was totally magic and made it worth every second. Once up at the top I realized that Jesus is not big, he is just as huge as the number of people up there watching him. Even if there is so many people up there, this is a must if you are in Rio de Janeiro.
Also, then you are there I recommend that you on your way down jump off at the first station and head to the viewpoint Mirante Dona Marta. Its 1-2km from the tram station and you can easily walk it or do like me, take a mc-cab. The road is both up and downhill so I don’t regret it and it is something special to feel the wind of speed while you are in shorts and t-shirt, helmet was included in the price but if we crash I don’t want to think about the result but in my case all went good!
The rest of the day was spent in city center, its so fun to just stroll around, feel the atmosphere, look at it, smell it and of course, taste something from all the small stands in every street corner.
The last day in Rio I spent, in another favela. My plan was to do a lazy day on the beach however when the suggestion about taking a favela tour came up I simple joined. There is a high risk that I would only be bored at the beach.
We visited the Rocinha favela which is one of the bigger with its population of 160 000. Thank god we took the car to the top and then walked down, through the narrow streets, alleys and sometimes pretty weird streets while our local guide explained the history but most interesting, hows the life in a favela. It is always good to have a local guide and since I had plans of buying a house I could resist to ask for the price. For €10 000 you get a house and that means no involvement of estate brokers, banks or papers, you simple pay the previous owner and get the keys. If there will be any issues with the transaction you simple bring it up with the local drug lord and he will fix the issue.
Rocinha is probably one of the safest favelas and it doesn’t not meet the expectations that our press spreads. It even exists banks here and while I was visiting I saw armor car transporting money to/from the banks, this would not be possible in any of the more poor, mostly located in north favelas or here for 15-20 years ago. The architecture is still the same though, each house is a small block randomly places, also often on top of each other which creates these narrow streets and tiny staircases. The power grid would give any certified engineer nightmares but Im still most impressed that its actually work.
Before the tour I was a bit afraid that the tour would feel like exploiting poor people but it didn’t feel like that at all. Instead it was more any ordinary city tour in any given city, safe, secure and I must admit I feel a bit disappointed.
we finished the tour on a local bar and I just had to ask the guide about the favela I’m staying in. I didn’t really get any straight away answer, instead it was more like yea, its semi-safe and most likely there will be no shooting which means its just like back home in Sweden. Either way I will pack my bag and continue my trip west, next stop Peru.
If you look at the map it doesn’t look much for the world but I’ve learned the hard way that the distances are huge on this continent.
The day started at 04.00 with boarding my plane from Rio de Janeiro to Sao Paolo, after that I boarded a plane to Lima and finally, the last plane to Puerto Maldonado. The tickets were everything except cheap but since I have limited time here I don’t have much of choice if I want to see as much as possible.
Everything went super smooth though, from a simple and fast checkin to descent connections and pretty ok airplanes. The only thing that made a bt nervous was when we went in for landing in Puerto Maldonado and you could only see, trees. We did however land and the terminal building look more like a garage then anything else but as long as it works I am happy. From the airport I was able to take some shots before the sun went down and what a hostel I found, its so beautiful and calm and I even was greeted by a sloth who was chilling in a tree, now I am in south america for real!
Tomorrow I will head into the jungle so I will be quite for a few days but don’t feel bad, I will be back with a lot of pictures!
Back in the civilisation I’m now sitting and waiting for the night bus to take me to Cusco and hopefully I will see another of the modern wonders of the world.
The last days has been spent in Tambopata national park in amazons. Right now it’s dry season which means that the river Madre De dios which is around 100m wide is only 5m deep. During the rain season which starts in December the water level will rise around 5-6m, unbelievable but I can see clear traces of it at the shoreline.
I have stayed at two different lodges and got spoiled with both good, and a lot of food. Well needed indeed since it’s been long days starting around 4am And then off to watch birds, chasing tapirs and at one day, even took a paddle trip on Sandoval lake. It’s been quite tough and it started with some really bad weather which means no animals but it got better and I successfully spotted both macaws, parrots and many other birds, monkeys of all types, white and black Caymans, Agutis and even Capybara, however no tapir or jaguar.
But I am a bit disappointed that I didn’t saw more big mammals however that’s how seeing wild life is, you never really know. So today I went to Puerto Maldonado zoo and watched the boa constrictor, anaconda and both puma and jaguar, but that was on a zoo so it doesn’t count.
I add some pictures below taken with my cellphone.
Puerto Maldonado is roughly 185m above sea level, Cusco is 3400m. I may have arrived physical but oh my God what I’m feeling like I need a rest. Coca tea and chewing the leaves helps a little but far from enough.
I’m not sure if it’s the altitude, the 10 hour bus drive or that my stomach didn’t liked the Ceviche as much as my mouth, either way it’s been a really calm day for me. I took a 2 hour city tour through the historical part and it was really nice, feels like it covered most of what Cusco may offer.
The buses here are really amazing, kind a luxurious and I felt a sleep before we even left the city. The road however was very steep and went like a snake over the mountain. I did get a bit seasick which I normally don’t get but I guess it was the combo of the winding road and that it was pitch black so you had no idea where the horizon was.
Cusco as a city feels like a tourist trap with your agencies and hostels in every street corner. The historical center was nice though and it was really nice to get everything explained and some history of the Inca period. We did even find a statue of Jesus, located at an top so it’s visible from all of town. I do recognize this from Rio de Janeiro and for sure, theirs are greater.
After hours of googling and comparing prices and offers I finally decided for a really good compromise, a full day tour to the “Sacred Valley” but jump off in and take the train to Aguas Caliante. Another long day but now I’m so close I can be to Macchu Picchu.
The day started as I said early with jumping on a minivan towards sacred valley and the first stop was Pisac. Blue sky, shining sun and we almost beat all other tourists there made it even more fun to explore the ruins.
Next stop was a tourist trap, a market. It started with a lesson in how you see difference between real and fake silver and if course they tried to sell you a lot after that but no, not for me. On the market there was also a lot of mother’s with their small kids, all dressed up in peruan costume and with a alpacas which would pose with you for a coin or two. It felt just weird so instead I bought myself a bottle of water and added some more sun lotion.
Next stop was Ollantaytambo and even this time we arrived before the horses of tourists. Now it was really hot and the sun was so bright but that didn’t stop us from climbing higher and higher in the ruins. Our guide was really good and had a nice mixture of facts and jokes and overall I would say that sacred valley is a must if you are close by. Now I jumped of the tour a bit early but I think I covered the most of it.
The train trip wasn’t that impressive though. The was doing like 40km/h and the scenery was really nice for sure but it’s kind a the same for two hours. If you are hardcore you do the Inca trail instead but if you are like me and have no time, the train works really nice.
I finished the day walking around in Aguas Caliante and tried some delicious local dishes, this time I started with a guinea pig as a starter and alpaca as main dish. It may sound aweful but it was actually really, really good. Now let’s wait and see if my stomach thinks the same.
Some basic pictures from my phone since I can’t access my real camera for the moment.
Even if I already was in place at Aguas Calientes the day started really early, around 05.00 to stand in queue for the shuttle buses up to Macchu Picchu. When you buy your ticket to Macchu Picchu you will get a time slot when you can arrive and according to the rules you are only allowed to stay for 4h and you must have a guide. These rules are good to minimize the wear of the site but the rules are not checked. However you cant get on the bus before its your time according to the Macchu Picchu ticket.
I arrived to Macchu Picchu around 07.00 and the mountains where hidden in cloud which made it really mystical and beautiful. Once the sun arrived the clouds disappeared and it was blue sky and shining sun, cant beat it! My guide was really good explaining the different houses, temples, how it was built and used and how come the Spanish never found it and finally he gave some advice of what to do after his guiding was finished. I think it was roughly 3h with the guide and after that I spent another three hours so hike and see the inka.bridge and of course, the sun gate. The sun gate is a neat hike of 300 altitude meter from the citadel and is real inca-trail. The gate itself isn’t that impressive but the hike is really nice.
The whole place is magical and I cant put words on it. Is is defined as one of new wonders of the world and I do understand why. I think also its the only one who really impressed me and which I didn’t get bored at after 5 minutes. My pictures needs some editing but I give you some raw previews anyway.
Macchu Picchu
Macchu Picchu
Macchu Picchu
Macchu Picchu
Macchu Picchu
Macchu Picchu
The population of Macchu Picchu these days are Lamas
A sprained ankle and a upcoming cold made me decide to skip rainbow mountain as planned and instead rest for two days. I mean I think I could do it but then you are not feeling alright a 10km hike (in total) up to 5000m above sea level is maybe not the best idea. I rather miss it and can enjoy the rest of my vacation instead.
So instead I spent two days on a new hostel. This time the money had to talk and to be honest, I live in a hovel. The staff is friendly, the other guests are super friendly and the location is in the middle of the city which made it worth every penny and to be honest, we are not talking about many pennies here.
Yesterday I spent most of my time walking around in Cusco while today it has been raining with thunderstorms and hails so I decided to stay at the hostel and socialize.
That is actually the best part of staying at hostels. You meet new people and even if most of the people here are Spanish speaking and my spanish is, not good you do meet new people, you talk and learn new stuff. We have discussed high as low and how about the language? Well its a nice mixture of all kind of languages that I guess only we, backpackers understand.
Another overnight bus and I woke up in a new city, this time Arequipa. It wasn’t in my rough original plan to go here but what can I say, plans are made are made to be changed and now I have the possibility to see a live, wild condor.
The day today I spent exploring Arequipa with it’s 1 million population feels really tiny, it’s a really cozy and beautiful city but feels small and one day is enough.
However I found a city in the city, Santa Catalina monastery. I’m not a religious person and I don’t use to enjoy exploring old churches but this was like finding Eldorado. I spent several hours exploring this huge monastery . It’s located in the middle of the city but still its so calm and quiet here. The atmosphere is relaxing and the buildings are beautiful in both their architecture and with all the wall paintings. To get a grip of the size this monastery has its own network of roads, named after Spanish cities.
Fun fact is that during one of the earthquakes here the outer wall collapsed and they found skeletons from babies and fetus. Apparently the priests made the nuns to pay for their sins in a very nontraditional way.
Santa Catalina monastery
Santa Catalina monastery
Santa Catalina monastery
Santa Catalina monastery
Santa Catalina monastery
Santa Catalina monastery
Santa Catalina monastery
Santa Catalina monastery
Santa Catalina monastery
Washing station @ Santa Catalina monastery
Not the worst toilet so far on this trip @ Santa Catalina monastery
I’ve heard a lot of good stuff about one of the deepest canyons in the world and its quiet impressive with its 3191m depth. To compare it with something we can look at the pretty famous “Grand Canyon” which is only 1857m deep. Besides that the tour agency almost guarantee that I would see a condor, South Americas biggest land bird.
Of course I booked it and at 03.00 I got picked up at my hostel by a small minibus for a long drive towards the Colca Canyon. A few hours later, around 06.00 it was time for breakfast and our first stop, which was nice until it turned out to be a tourist trap. Suddenly two small kids join us, dressed in a Peru uniform and tried to do some sort of classic dance. I give them a capital a for trying, but the implementation wasn’t really that good and of course they demanded money afterwards.
Once we arrived to the Colca valley it was time for our second stop which means, second tourist trap. It was a small village with a market who sold the usual crappy things and of course a bunch of alpacas which you can get your photo with for a solel. The most weird thing was though a gentleman had dressed up as a condor and for “only” five solels you could get a hug by the condor. The dress was so terrifying though that I didn’t even dare to take a photo of it.
Lucky for us we soon jumped into the car again an headed for the climax of the day, the condor viewpoint. At more or less the top of the canyon they have built a viewpoint so you can literally look down, into the canyon and down at the birds who are majestic gliding around and looking for food. It was just one simple problem, there was no birds there. None, zero, zipp. After approx 40 minutes we finally saw three birds far far away in the horizon and we had to agree that we were beaten, such an anticlimax. However the luck changed and while driving down from the viewpoint suddenly the car hit the breaks really hard, we stormed out and yes, it was a youngster but still a free, wild, living condor. I did both get to see him in real life and took a picture, that saved the day!
The tour continued to stop number three, which means tourist trap number three. This time it was time to take a swim in hot springs. For you who know your geography knows that Peru has a lot of volcanoes and volcanoes are hot. That means that the hot springs was really, really hot and the people who paid for it could do it for five minutes before they had to go to the local river to cool down. Myself took a cold beer instead and just watched the spectacle, maybe laughing a bit for myself.
The last stop for the day was another viewpoint, this time to see all the volcanoes in the area. Around 5000m above sea level, a cold breeze and clouds so you actually didn’t see the volcanoes made sure that was a fiasco too. Sometimes you simply don’t have the luck with you and I guess that I could spent these 14 hours in a better way but hey, at least I saw a condor!
This will be a short post since I’ve been traveling for 23h in row now.
It all started with me checking out from my hostel and get the nightbus to Puno. As usual the bus hold a high standard but even so you don’t get a lot of sleep. Once I arrived I realized that my research was right and there is not much to do here.
A quick stroll through the city and then I jumped on a boat to the famous floating islands in Lake Titikaka, the highest navigable lake in the world. It was fun to see and we were even included inside their houses to see how they lived. Of course they wanted us to buy something from them in return but in this case I can accept it, after all they do something more than just trying to sell.
I am however sceptical to call it islands, it’s more like rafts but built by all natural which means they have to rebuild everything a couple of times per year. A bonus effect was the bouncing when you walked around on the island, that was cool.
After the tour I jumped on next bus, this time towards La Paz. This time it was not a tourist bus and let me just say that the 10 hour experience was not super fun. I did at least get some time to stretch my legs while I walked over the border to Bolivia and now, pretty exact 23h after I checked out I checked in on a new hostel, in a new city in a new country.
The city is located high up in the mountains and if that wouldn’t be enough its also hilly. You look at the map and think that’s not so far, I can walk but what you don’t see on the map is that is extremely steep, both up and down. From at have walked around 30 000 steps per day I am now down to only 14 000, still not bad for an old man like me.
The city is very beautiful in its own kind of way. Most of the houses are built with bricks and have no grout or color but then suddenly, just as someone has color bombed a specific area or house it change to bright colors.
The day was spent with trying to figure out how to find my way in the city since I will be here for some days. strolling around the small streets, checked out Witches market and hiked up to the viewpoint Mirador Killi Killi. With a almost 360 degree view over the city and surrounding mountains its an incredible view and well worth the hike.
I also visited a tour agency and attempt to re-schedule my trip. Apparently it is president election in Bolivia and both buses and flights are closed down. The days are running away and believe it or not, I actually have a time to suit.
Another day was spent strolling around in La Paz. This day was dedicated to try all kind of different street food and there is just as much as its good. Its really cozy with all the narrow streets and alleys here and suddenly you realize that the small shop you just entered is in reality a really huge one. Nothing here is built in the square and block architecture you are used to which makes it really cozy and nice to stroll around, but a pain to try to find your way.
A visit to the largest food market in the city, Rodriguez market almost ended up that I couldn’t find my way out. Its really huge and filled with everything from fruit and vegetables to clothes and cakes. A short comment from my side, I never seen as many different potatoes before in my life as here.
I took a lunch which in this country means a nice soap with bread, a large portion of rice and beef and a small ice cream for dessert on a restaurant I found on google. They recommended the food but warned that its expensive, it costed me around €6 including drinks.
After lunch I literally rolled over to the San Pedro prison. The prison is the largest in La Paz and has been nominated to the most dangerous prison in South America however for me its most known from the documentary/biography book El Choco. The book is really good and if you haven’t read it I can really recommend that you read it at once.
This prison is special and if you end up here the first thing you need to do is to buy yourself somewhere to live. If you are a drug lord you probably will buy a penthouse but if you don’t have any money you will end up in the sewer or on the streets. Previously there was unofficial tours into the prison and you could even spend a night there if you wanted to get the real prison feeling. The director of the prison was the replaced though and the new one effectively put this to an end. These days, if you wake up in the prison you know that you really fucked up.
The Yungas road was built by war prisoners during the 1930’s to connect La Paz with Coroico. The highest point is almost 4700 meter above sea level and it ends at only 330 m above sea level. It is a narrow, winding road built totally without any security in mind, the result is yearly between 200-300 deaths by year. This has given the road the nickname “The death road”.
These days there is a new, modern road which is both wider and safer you could take instead. This means that the old Yungas road is primarily used but tourist and cyclists like myself but Wikipedia is wrong. The old road is still open for traffic and it is still used by both cars and trucks, how they do if they meet another car or truck I have no idea about, the road is really, really narrow.
Myself decided to take and bike down the road. While getting shuttle to the top I should get a nice, cozy downhill trip with magical scenery, well that was the plan at least.
The first of the road is tarmac and to be honest quite boring, Its a a perfect opportunity to get to learn your bike though which I must say was way more modern and had a higher level of components than I thought. Somewhere around that we left the tarmac and went into the real Yungas road it started to rain, and what a rain. One of the main attractions on the road is that you actually drive through a waterfall, for us however it was no difference between the waterfall and the rain. The view which is supposed to be magical was, nothing since we were at the same altitude as the clouds. However you could look out, over the cliff and look down 3-400 meters.The surface of the road is hard packed gravel and stones/rocks, not really hard to bike on, it is really narrow though and on the right side you have a cliff wall and on the other it is just, nothing.
The death road lived up to its name and I think I did under under the worst conditions you can. As if the rain was not enough it switched to snow. Wet into the bones while the snow slowly fell down made me everything besides happy but I biked down and in the shuttle bus on the way back to La Paz I never felt more worthy of a beer.
President Election in Bolivia in not the same as in Sweden and if I knew about the election I would have rescheduled my trip.
Now it is like it is and I’m literally stranded here in La Paz. Every single bus, flight, tour, shop or restaurant is closed down and the besides the echo of boots of military and police in full riot gear the city is empty. Not even the doves who usually occupies the Plaza Murillo is here.
Everything is calm so far and the both candidates are so close that it will be another, second election. That means that I will get enough time to get out of here before all hell breaks loose.
The weather is at least good and my plan is to go to Uyuni for visiting the salt desert. It will be a long trip and probably without any internet but I will do a new post as soon as possible.
Since I’m already into visiting great things here in South America I thought I kind a had to visit the biggest salt desert on earth, Salar de Uyuni. However I am getting tired of travel around in minibuses so I decided to hire a motorbike instead and since all the backpackers are scrimp and counts every single cent it ends up that I was alone with the guide, perfect!
The desert is enormous, bigger than 10 000 km² and on my single day tour I only visited a small part of it of course. The most popular 3-day tour may be a bit to much but I think a 2-day tour would be perfect. With that you also have time to visit the surrounding volcanoes.
Desert is a strange word for this though, sure the surface is for sure a desert but below the 15-20 cm thick surface you actually got a 20m deep lake. The surface is really flat, containing salt and minerals and reminds me as a Swede a lot of ice. I must admit I did brake one or two times extra just because my brain thought I was driving on snowy ice roads which are slippery, but this time, no ice and no slippery surface but all the salt takes it tolls on the bikes for sure.
We drove around and checked out the classics though, the cemetery for trains for example. Normally you don’t use trains in South America however here they do since they need to transport all ore from close by mining’s and of course, salt to the ocean for further transport. We also visited the cactus island. This rocky island located pretty much in the middle of of the salt desert is an old volcano and its really cool to see both old lava, volcano rock and corals which clearly confirms that all this was once, many many years ago was under water, then global warming came. The whole island is covered in cacti and they grow roughly 1cm per year, that means that that 8m high cactus are close to 800 years old!
We finished the day doing some classic enduro riding. It so fun to just play around with the bike in deep sand, avoiding bushes and of course the wild lamas, guanacos. Using the railway embankment as a jump you could easily jump over the railroad tracks. In other words, this was a really, really good day!
Salt desert
Train cemetery
Train cemetery
Salt desert
Salt desert
Salt desert
Cactus island
Cactus island
Cactus island
Cactus island
Salt desert
Salt desert
Salt desert
My ride, ugly but doing its work above expectations.
Before I visited El Alto I took a detour to the biggest cemetery I ever seen. Here the culture is a bit different than back home and on the cemetery you celebrate and if you are sad or low there are shops available with both food and alcohol to make you happy. Every year there is a contest and the winner is allowed to do a mural on a wall, unfortunately I cant really capture the glow in these murals with my camera.
El Alto is a totally separate city with their own mayor for example but has grown so much that its actually bigger than La Paz now and the both cities are built into each other. Even if the city is big it still lack a lot of common infrastructure. For example, they are right now building the first shopping mall and it was just recently that they got their first cinema. They also have a very unique architecture and if they have money they love to build their houses to celebrate their idols, like Iron man.
You can also feel that there is a complete different feeling in this city, the street markets popup wherever and the “witches market” here is much bigger, more authentic and you can even find the witches here who will help you create a love potion or if you need to bless your house. However if you gonna bless your house it will be expensive and at least one whole, white lama will be sacrificed.
The easiest way to move between the cities are using the Teleferica (cable cars). For only 3 Bolivians you will silently swish through the air, over the cities with a beautiful view and with free WiFi. The other option is to use colectivos, a form of small minibus network which will be cheaper, only 2 Bolivians but it will take forever, the car honks, you got smog and you will get stuck in the traffic.
Even if I would love to see more of Bolivia I’m running out of days and there its now time to board the plane and head to Argentina.
Colonia del sacramento is a small town just beside Rio de la plata in Uruguay and apparently it is the oldest in the Country. The town was created by the Portuguese while they were colonizing south america and a few war later Spain took over, fast forwarding to today it is Uruguay.
The town is as I previously stated really small and to be honest, the modern part of the town is not much to see. According to Wikipedia the town has a population around 20 000 but it wasn’t these who dragged me to the town. Instead it was their historical part which according to rumors are supposed to be really good and they are even on UNESCO world heritage list.
Ok I haven’t been to Portugal yet but it do really feel like you arrived to a small, picturesque town close to the Mediterranean sea. Narrow streets, white and 1-floor only houses by stone, a lighthouse in the middle of the town and of course, packed with restaurants, bars and cafes. It is very touristic and you hear french, german and italian everywhere but I don’t really care, it is so nice to just stroll without a plan here.
But wasn’t my plan to go to Buenos Aires? Yes and that’s there I have my base for the moment however it is so good that you can take the express ferry and within 45 minutes you arrive in Colonia. With the town size in mind its perfect to go here as a day-project and the only negative thing i can recognize is that I now have 3 new stamps in my passport, that’s a whole side and Swedish passports do not have enough of pages, that’s for sure!
Wise from my experience from Bolivia me and Jonatan, a friend who I met in Buenos Aires took the night bus from Buenos Aires towards Posadas. A night later and we arrived, watched out over the parana river which is the border between Argentina and Paraguay. However our plans failed directly, the train that we were supposed to take to cross the border was of course shut down because of the election day. Instead we had to improvise and take a taxi. A bit more expensive than expected but still cheap and just a few minutes later we were on the safe side, in Encarnación.
Today is Sunday though and I have no idea why but every shop and almost all restaurants are closed here on Sundays. So yea, we got rid of the shut down but we have still nothing to do. Our plan to visit the old Jesuit ruins got spoiled by heavy winds and rain but at least we don’t have any stone throwing protesters or teargas shooting police here.
Encarnación is not a big city and even if most of the things are closed today we did find something to eat and a nice drink at Playa San Jose. In other words we had a very calm, relaxing day which mostly was strolling around in an empty city center. It was really like a ghost town with no other people around and when we entered the City Park it was almost creepy, more abounded feeling than I got of visiting Pripyat. Towards the afternoon the rain and wind slowed down and other people started to appear on the streets, feels better but almost everything is still closed.
Started the day really relaxing with breakfast and a walk toward the bus terminal to get some ticket for what I think would be an easy bus ride through Paraguay towards the border to Brazil, well…that didn’t happen.
To buy the ticket was no problem and we only had to wait one hour which were spend drinking Tereré, Paraguay’s national drink which has a strong taste of mint but is actually really tasty. Once the time closing in to departure one piece of shit bus rolled into the terminal and yes, that was mine.
Ive been spoiled with the buses in South America so this was a disaster, almost 39 degrees outside and I get a bus without air condition, rock hard seats and the toilet, well I didn’t even dared to visit it. I’ve never seen any time schedule in this country but according to wikitravel the bus ride should take about 4h, mine took 6h. Of course the shitty bus malfunction roughly half way and we had to wait for the next bus instead.
I have now crossed the country from south to north, started in Encarnación and ended in Ciudad del Este and even if i don’t regret the trip itself I cant really recommend anyone to do the same. Sure Paraguay is really beautiful with the green nature, huge farms and absolutely no tourists. The last thing may have a reason, there is nothing to do here. Sure the people are super friendly, the food is really, really good and its so cheap here bit still there is nothing to really do and you will get bored within a few hours.
That means I took my backpack and crossed the border to Brazil again. Tomorrow it will be to explore the Iguazu falls from the Brazilian side.
Mine and Jonatans hostel in Foz do Iguacu was not really a hostel, relative big room, private bathroom and we neither saw or heard any other guest made it felt like it was more a B&B than a hostel, but a really good one. The brazilian couple who run it was super nice and even if both the spanish and engling was struggling from both parts we made ourselves understood and I got a sweet breakfast and a hot water shower, I don’t demand more than that!
We spent the day checking out Iguazu Falls on the Brazilian side. The waterfall that actually is a system of 275 different waterfalls is classified as one of the wonder of nature and yes, its incredible beautiful at a must to visit. Still I cant resist feeling a bit meh about it. It is beautiful, the waterfalls are huge and impressive but I think I heard to much good things about this place and it simple cant live up to the hype
You can do a lot of research about the greatness of the falls but it is still only text, best if you can go over here and watch em yourself and get your own opinion like I did. The falls are big but not huge even if many many liters of water pass every second, the environment in amazing and if you are lucky you will spot a jaguar (I didn’t). However I did meet a few lizards and even a couple of friendly coat’s.
Tomorrow I will visit the falls from the Argentinean side, hopefully it will take my breath away but meanwhile I suggest that you go here yourself but try to keep the expectations down a bit.
As you might noticed I wasn’t really impressed by the waterfalls Iguazu Falls yesterday but since many recommends that you should start with Brazilian side and the move over to the more cool side, Argentina.
Of course I followed the recommendations and yesterday I once again crossed the border to Argentina. My passport is soon filled with stamps only from Argentina border crossings and at this morning after an descent breakfast I headed over to the falls again, this time on Argentina side.
The first thing to my mind is how much more exploited it is here, sure the bus from Puerto Iguazu to the falls is falling a part but once you get to the national park everything is really nice. Yes there is plenty of people but it still works really nice, even the queuing works. Once inside the area it is really tourist friendly and you have multiple options, there are trails for walking, trains to take you to the top and even boats you could join to get a really close experience from the falls (unfortunately it was fully booked) and well, in general everything is so much easier here.
We decided to start with “Devil’s throat“, the biggest fall and probably the main attraction of the park. To get here you will need to get the train since its pretty long to walk and there are no hiking paths. Well, once we were on the train we actually saw that you could walk just along side the railway but in 39 degrees I wouldn’t recommend it. Just take the train, its free anyway. Once you get to the top you still have to walk a bit but oh my god, yes its totally worth it! My skepticism towards the falls are gone and its finally feels like a true wonder of the world now. Yes there is plenty of people and you cant really catch it on camera but it is breathtaking
After we had visited what felt like the crown jewel we decided to hike the “lower walk“, a small hike for 2km which is fully prepared for disabled people (its an easy walk). To be honest I didn’t had any high expectations on this but to be honest this was almost even better. You get a really, really good overview of the falls and you also get close to some of them. The only thing I can possible complain on is the lack of animals, the coati are everywhere but besides that I didn’t saw much more than a few lizards and birds, a bonus though is that you actually saw the fishes through the crystal clear water
Argentina is a really good country to visit, the people are friendly, the food is really good even if I miss the street food culture. I mean when you just go up to a stand or a cabin on the street, buy something you really not sure what it is and get a true taste of the country. Argentina did however counter attacked with one of the hostels guests invited me to a Asado for my last night in Puerto Iguazu.
For you who don’t know what asado is and are to lazy to click the link I will briefly call it combined barbecue with a social event. It was a long time ago I had that amount of meat and to be honest, even the morcillas was really good, at least if you ate it together with some white bread to neutralize the blood taste a bit.
Argentina has its bad sides too though. Money is as many of you know a concern with their hyper inflation (53% in September, 2019) and the money you withdrawn one day may not be worth as much the next day. Another issue related to money is how to withdraw. After a lot of research I found out that in Argentina they use two different ATM systems, “link” and “banelco”. According to Internet banelco is best for foreign cards but my sources on site tells me to use link. Either way you never really know which ATM who will work and there is no guarantee that the machine who just worked will work again. As if that would not be enough of trouble all of the ATM’s I found has a withdrawn limit of 4000 pesos which is really not a lot and with a extra bonus, a withdrawal fee on 10-15%. In total that makes it actually harder and more expensive to withdraw money than to buy something.
Next problem is the reliability. Everything here is more or less 15-20 minutes late which includes the buses and flight. A few companies has corrected this by change their schedule to actually state departure time to 15 minutes before its actually depart, the problem is that you have no idea so you still have to go there and wait. Another issue that I found yesterday when my flight was delayed/canceled was the “mañana mentality”. I like the idea to not stress out but when you have a connecting flight it would be nice with some more information than “Im pretty sure another flight will be available in the future”. So annoying and my 4h flight ended up to be 16 hours instead before I finally ended up in Puerto Madryn.
Have only strolled around a bit today and its a cozy small town. Really beautiful with the beach and rocks/cliffs into the ocean. I was hoping to see a lot of animals but no luck so far. Hopefully it will be better tomorrow. Tonight the hostel is arranging a sea food evening with locally captured sea food, I doubt I ever want to leave this place!
Animals are fun and the more wild they are, the more fun it is. Because of that I decided to head out to the peninsula Valdés for some animals watching and I did not get disappointed.
The day started with a mini bus i heavy winds towards the peninsula, the possibilities for whale safari in the wind was very low so instead we aimed for the land-based animals. The nature reminds me of a desert with some smaller bushes and grass and it didn’t take many minutes before we spotted our first Guanaco, a form of wild camel. It appears that there are plenty of those here so it wasn’t that fun after a while. A little bit further ahead a nice armadillo welcomes us, he was a bit shy though and run of into the grass before I had time to take a picture of him. The maras did however pose properly and birds, yes there was plenty of birds but I have no idea what kind of birds.
Along the coastline we stopped by and said hi to a pack of magella penguins but the big enjoyment was the sea elephants who were laying on the beach. They are just as ugly as they are fat spend their days on the beach, burping and farting all day long and just simple enjoy life. They were quite noisy men incredible fun to watch and besides that they are the orcas favorite food. Glazing all over the sea to spot one but no, they must been somewhere else today.
After lunch the wind calmed down and the whale safari was on, happiness! Roughly 10 minutes into the safari we met our first mum with a new born. New born in this case is like three months old and both the mum and the kid was curious about our boat. Fun fact, the baby whale drinks roughly 200l of milk, everyday! Think about that next time you are breastfeeding your baby! A bit later we meet a bit older southern right whale, this one was approximately around 14m tall and the biggest challenge was how to capture it on photo.
The day after (in other words, today the next phase of my trip starts. However before that I had time to do what I think has to be the weekly highlight, snorkeling with sea lions. Sea lions are like the dogs of the sea, they are curious, playful and kind a brave in groups. Here they are completely wild and they do not use food or anything else to attract the sea lions, instead you just jump into the water and they will come out to you since they are curious of what and who you are. Unfortunately no pictures from this since my camera is not waterproof but it was so fun to swim around with them, play, pet and I even got a nice, wet kiss from one of the brave animals!
Now I will embark my ship towards Antarctica and that means it will be radio silence from me for a while but do not worry, I’m having a really, really good time!
Time to leave Puerto Madryn and to embark the ship you will need to walk out on a long pier into the ocean. The feeling of walking along the pier is different, a bit like “Dead man walking” but in a good way. The sun is shining, shorts, t-shirt, flip flops and of course the backpack. I spent the whole yesterday on whale safari and this morning snorkeling with sea lions, life is simple and good! The other passengers are a bit different though, they have huge suitcases and are dressed up with the latest collection from Fjällräven and Northface. They look very questionable on me, I look very questionable on them, why dress up like you are going on a hike when we only gonna embark the ship? The ship is by the way brand new, really nice but maybe a bit big with its capacity of 170 passengers. I share my cabin with Jesper and Morten, two danish guys which are just a few years older than me and together with form a Scandinavian cabin, this gonna be awesome!
The ship depart and I’m finally on my way to fulfill a very old dream of mine. However before we even left the harbor we had the mandatory security drill so put on your life vest, grab the survival suit and find your life boat. Even if the ship only has two life boats the number of people who went to the wrong one is surprisingly many, I guess the drill is a good idea.
After that its introduction of all the guides and dinner. To make it easy this first evening we had a dinner buffet but the rest of the days we will have a 3-course dinner and breakfast and lunch buffet, I will become fat on this trip! The captain set course towards Falkland Island while we start eating and socialize, after all we are gonna share a cabin for three weeks now.
Woke up exactly 07.30 by the cracking sound in the speakers before Mikael, our restaurant/hotel manager wished us a good morning and welcomed us to the dining room for breakfast. I noticed fairly fast that the ship was rolling a bit in the high waves so there was no queue for neither breakfast or lunch. One of my roommates started to feel ill and but a quick visit to the doctor fixed that, a nice patch behind the ear and he was back to normal again. Myself didn’t noticed anything but when Jesper went to the doctor I took one pill, just in case. I mean I have already bought these pills to prevent sea sickness and its not that fun to be ill so better take one just in case.
We are now out in the middle of nowhere and the sea makes you feel small. Besides the company of a few sea birds you don’t see or hear a living thing out here, well besides a few dolphins who came by but disappeared even before I was able to bring up my camera and shoot em. In other words the day today has been really calm. We have been eating, collecting some gears like life vests (for zodiac cruising) and rubber boots, eating some more and then some lectures before we eat even more. I will be both spoiled and fat from this trip because the portions of the food is just as large as they are many and it tastes even better.
According to plan it will be at least one more whole day at sea before we reach north west of Falkland Island. Its a relaxed, calm feeling on the ship and I kind a like it, I kind a need it after my adventure in South America however it will be nice to see land again and maybe mostly, to walk a bit but if a whale or a albatross will come by I may change my mind about it.
Another morning where you were woken up by an almost annoying happy Mikael who wished you a good morning. You can easily tell that the sea is much calmer today and that your body is getting used to be on the sea since plenty of more people are awake today.
With my 40 years I belong to the youngest part here on the ship but luckily for me I am sharing the cabin with Jesper and Morten who besides are in the same age as me also has the same kind a bad humor and we are interested in the same things, nature and mammals. A lot of the other people on this trip are birders and trust me, they are going all in for it! From early morning to late evening they are standing on the deck, with binoculars and a camera which probably costs more than the trip itself just to be able to catch one tiny bird on film. After spent some time in their company I do however confess that its quite fun to try to catch the birds and whatever you say, the birders are amazing on finding the animals. how tiny they even might be.
I still haven’t seen any whales but an albatross glided pass, big distance and shaking by cold made the picture very blurry though but hopefully I get a new attempt tomorrow.
But we have been good boys today too. Before our landing on Falkland Islands we have been washing, scrubbing, vacuum cleaning over and over again. Falkland Island are really afraid of invasive arts and now you will not find even a single sand corn in neither my clothes, backpack or boots, I’m ready for the landing!
Finally we can see land again but can we actually land? A strong wind from west made it uncertain but finally the captain gave us permission and the crew started to unload the zodiacs. Meanwhile we started to change clothes but what to wear? Around 6 degrees, strong wind and high waves made it difficult to decide but now, afterwards I can tell that three layers was to much. Even if I did the mistake to forget to close the ventilation zipper on my waterproof pants, well waterproof as long as you close all the zippers. The first wave rolled in over me and splashed my groin with pure, cold water. No, it was not warm and no, it was not a nice surprise!
Once we got on shore I was greeted by a much greener island than what I was expecting. We landed on Leopard beach at Carcass island in the northwestern part of Falkland Island. The island has some residents but judging of how happy they were to see me they cant be many and I think I walked around six km to meet them. A hike with only birds, more birds and some lost gentoo penguins at my side. It was however really nice to get off the ship and to just stroll around for a bit even if the wind grow for every minute and when it was time to head back to the ship the wind was over 50 knots (25 m/s).
Our crew really had to work hard to get us all aboard safe and I’m actually impressed that they succeeded, unfortunately the wind made it impossible for us to land on West Point Island as planned but its hard to control the weather and at least I got the opportunity to move around for a while which was super nice!
The Falkland Islands contains roughly 700 islands but two are bigger and more famous than the others, the western which I visited yesterday and the east which I took today. On the east island the capital Stanley (Port Stanley) is located and with its population of 2500 its the biggest city in the country. However even if it was just here we landed I didn’t stayed for many minutes.
instead I took a tour to see some rock hopper penguins and after 1 hour of 4wd driving we arrived. The was no road to this place and the Land rover drove over rocks, through water holes, over mountains and through valleys to get there, a bit shaky tour but well worth it and once we arrived there was plenty of rock hopper and even a Macaroni penguin. They are similar but the Macaroni is a different kind and this one was just confused and lost.
It started to hail and then snow but what does it matter, the penguins was just there, hatches their eggs and looking semi interesting on us with their bushy eyebrows. A few brave one approached us while other were just walking around in the colony, they were noisy and smelly but oh gosh, so beautiful
We were running out of time but me, Morten and Jesper took a chance and convinced our driver to take us to Gypsy cove. This place is not packed with gypsies as you can think, instead the name probably come from back in the time when the people in Stanley went here camping and with all the tents…yea you understand. Today its different, during the conflict 1982 Argentina spread a lot of mines here which makes one of the nicest beaches I’ve seen impossible to use. The positive side effect us the the natural life is thriving here instead, at least that’s what they told me. I didn’t see anything except one single, frozen Magellanic penguin in the distance and running out of time we had to rush back to the zodiacs.
In the zodiacs we were welcomed back by two commerson dolphins but of course I had my camera in the bottom of my backpack.
On my way to South Georgia which means another day at sea and I start to get cabin fever, or in plain English, I’m bored!
The day started as usual with a big breakfast and was quickly followed up by a lecture about invasive arts, bio security and photo and videos, all really interesting and good but I feel a bit restless and bored. Luckily for me I have thousands of pictures from my South America trip to sort and edit plus I found some games on my computer so I will be occupied but the day has been slow and tomorrow will be the same.
One positive thing is that we saw both Orcas and Albatrosses today. I was never able to shoot the Orcas with my camera but I must say that a few pictures of the albatross become really nice but I really feel that my camera is holding me back here. I already destroyed one lens (clumsy me) and the current one is not very good for landscape. At the same time I wouldn’t wanna carry around a huge, heavy system camera so my little Nikon 1 is probably a pretty good compromise after all.
The sea is a bit more wild today and except that we passed what looked like two randomly placed rocks where is absolutely nothing here except the sea. I even saw that the radar screen was empty while I was visiting the captain on the bridge in an attempt to cure my cabin fever.
It was actually really interesting and a bit nerdy to visit the bridge and I did not understand much of all the buttons, controls and screens there but a good way to summarize it is that if you think I have a hi-tech job, do visit the bridge on a modern polar exploration ship. By pure self-preservation I successfully avoided to press any buttons even if it was tempting.
It did help but unfortunately only temporary and I am still bored to the max even if we have seen both fin-whales, humpback whales and fur seals from the ship today. In pure desperation I even activated the Internet and tried to communicate with the world for the first time in a week. Internet is available via satellite on the ship but it is expensive, really expensive. For €150 you can buy 500Mb of data which is not much but we got a 100Mb for free, just like the drug dealers who try to get you hooked. The connection was so slow and bad though that I couldn’t get neither Facebook or my email to work so I will continue to live without knowing whats happening in the world and to be honest, it feels really good!
