Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Day 36 - 40, Tacna, Arequipa and Cuzco
The border crossing into Peru's border town of Tacna was uneventful, and we headed straight away to one of the many bus stations to buy our bus ticket to Puno in Lake Titicaca, as our intention was to make our way north as soon as possible. We then went to a seafood restaurant reccommended by Antonietta. "Mar Adentro" was closed, but the place next door was open for business and as they shared a menu we went in and experienced the first of many delicious meals of the well-known Peruvian cuisine. A proper ceviche and pulpo al olivo was in order, together with a real Peruvian pisco sour.
Well-fed, we headed out to catch our night bus. An interesting three hours followed. First, we heard that there were strikes in Puno, so many buses weren't going. Second, we were told that our original bus wasn't going, but we had been transferred onto another bus instead. That bus proved to be a really nice one (royal class), which indeed left the station. The bus had huge comfortable armchairs, and we were likely the only non-peruvians on it. There were several indiginous ladies travelling next to us, carrying more stuff than one can imagine possible: food, chinese alarm clocks for sale, a couple of kids, and countless wool blankets. They all seemed very restless, going up and down the aisle, speaking Aymara, seemingly getting ready for the long journey ahead.
Unfortunately, the journey was not to be. After arriving in the second Tacna station, the bus stopped, and although nobody gave us any information we deduced we had to get off. We suspected the strikes in Puno as well as road-blocks, but another theory was that the police had stopped our bus and one of the shift-drivers did not have a licence. Either way, we certainly were not heading to Puno, so we got our money back and a friendly lady called us a taxi to take us to a hotel in town. There we watched the news, and realized the situation was a lot worse in Puno than we had imagined, with 5 people dead and loads of disturbances in the surrounding area. Maybe not such a bad thing after all that we didn't leave that evening.
We took a bus to the city of Arequipa the next day which was also quite comfortable and sported a bingo game for good measure. In Arequipa we continued our food quest and had some excellent dinner to conclude the day. The next day was reserved for sightseeing. Arequipa lies in a valley surrounded by huge volcanoes, which makes for a pretty impressive backdrop. The highlights of our sightseeing activity was the convent of Santa Catalina though, a 400 year old areal which covers a full city block. Both history and the actual place were fascinating and well worth the visit. Speaking of fascinating, we also visited the museum of "Inca maiden Juanita", a mummy found on a 6000m high mountain top in the direct vicinity of Arequipa. Very well done and very informative!
Juanita gave the start to our own Inca period, which had only one natural place to be continued: Cuzco, birthplace and long term capital of the Inca empire. An uneventful night bus took us there and we quickly realized that we had made it back to nearly 3300m above sea level as the steep streets and steps literally took our breath away. Our first day was slow as a result, but at least we managed to organise everything for the upcoming trip to Machu Picchu. Day 2 was much more active as we trawled the city and its surroundings for insights into both its Inca and colonial history. Convent, cathedral, the Inca ruins of Sacsaywaman were the highlights and we also managed to go shopping. And last but not least, we also sampled the Cuzco style of Peruvian food, which turned out to be as good as any we had tried so far.
Well-fed, we headed out to catch our night bus. An interesting three hours followed. First, we heard that there were strikes in Puno, so many buses weren't going. Second, we were told that our original bus wasn't going, but we had been transferred onto another bus instead. That bus proved to be a really nice one (royal class), which indeed left the station. The bus had huge comfortable armchairs, and we were likely the only non-peruvians on it. There were several indiginous ladies travelling next to us, carrying more stuff than one can imagine possible: food, chinese alarm clocks for sale, a couple of kids, and countless wool blankets. They all seemed very restless, going up and down the aisle, speaking Aymara, seemingly getting ready for the long journey ahead.
Unfortunately, the journey was not to be. After arriving in the second Tacna station, the bus stopped, and although nobody gave us any information we deduced we had to get off. We suspected the strikes in Puno as well as road-blocks, but another theory was that the police had stopped our bus and one of the shift-drivers did not have a licence. Either way, we certainly were not heading to Puno, so we got our money back and a friendly lady called us a taxi to take us to a hotel in town. There we watched the news, and realized the situation was a lot worse in Puno than we had imagined, with 5 people dead and loads of disturbances in the surrounding area. Maybe not such a bad thing after all that we didn't leave that evening.
We took a bus to the city of Arequipa the next day which was also quite comfortable and sported a bingo game for good measure. In Arequipa we continued our food quest and had some excellent dinner to conclude the day. The next day was reserved for sightseeing. Arequipa lies in a valley surrounded by huge volcanoes, which makes for a pretty impressive backdrop. The highlights of our sightseeing activity was the convent of Santa Catalina though, a 400 year old areal which covers a full city block. Both history and the actual place were fascinating and well worth the visit. Speaking of fascinating, we also visited the museum of "Inca maiden Juanita", a mummy found on a 6000m high mountain top in the direct vicinity of Arequipa. Very well done and very informative!
Juanita gave the start to our own Inca period, which had only one natural place to be continued: Cuzco, birthplace and long term capital of the Inca empire. An uneventful night bus took us there and we quickly realized that we had made it back to nearly 3300m above sea level as the steep streets and steps literally took our breath away. Our first day was slow as a result, but at least we managed to organise everything for the upcoming trip to Machu Picchu. Day 2 was much more active as we trawled the city and its surroundings for insights into both its Inca and colonial history. Convent, cathedral, the Inca ruins of Sacsaywaman were the highlights and we also managed to go shopping. And last but not least, we also sampled the Cuzco style of Peruvian food, which turned out to be as good as any we had tried so far.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Day 34 - 36, Norte Grande 2 (Altiplano Chileno)
It's hard to believe just how long this country is. On our morning approach to Arica (which is pretty much as far north as you can go in Chile) we passed kilometer 2050 on the Ruta 5, which is the stretch of the PanAmerican highway that goes through Chile. Amazingly, this is measured from Santiago and there is another 2500km if you travel into the other direction. More amazingly, on the 500km or so from San Pedro we had actually covered nothing but rocks, sand and the many mines that dot the Atacama desert. This also became very evident as we left Arica in our new, temporary mode of transport - a well-used but trusty Nissan Terrano 4x4 pick-up truck. Our goal was the Chilean Altiplano, for which we first had to double-back on our bus trip for a good 250km. On the way the landscape became even more impressive and desert-like as we crossed huge valleys and got a view on the inhospitable nature of the far Chilean north.
After a lunch-and-fuel stop (which were 40km apart), we made for the Chilean altiplano, our real goal of the day. Our goal was to drive to three national parks: Isluga, Vicuñas and Lauca, getting a full experience of what the altiplano is like. 100km later we had climbed to a whopping 3500m in altitude and the landscape had changed. Instead of looking up to the mountains on the side of the road, we now were right in the middle of them. About 2 minutes after leaving the only paved road around we saw our first Llamas (or Alpacas, it's hard to keep them apart). The flamingo feeling of wild animals came back immediately and we went a bit picture crazy. A few hours later we realized that camelids were going to be a very (very!) common occurence for the next few days - which didn't diminish our fascination but slowed down our picture rate. After about 50km of gravel road we concluded the day with fording a little river (which saw the first activation of the 4x4 drive) on the way to a CONAF refugio in the Aymara village of Enquelga (population 20). We met two volunteers who were staying there as well. They are working with the villagers on how to negotiate with the government and make the best out of the national park's opportunities. It was really interesting to talk to them, just with a candle to lit the dark night, and see what issues they discussed, it's quite different from the everyday problems us city-people have...
We woke up the next morning with remarkably little signs of altitude issues. A little bit of a headache, but for sleeping at 4000m we felt pretty good. Maybe it had been our sunset walk the evening before or the amazing sky full of stars that we looked at as long as we dared to in the freezing cold, but we felt fine. Which was good, since we had a long day of driving and staring at breathtaking scenery in front of us. First off, we headed out to the Bolvian border post just to check it out. On our way back, we had the altiplano version of a bath, at a beautiful little thermal pool, with views to the volcanoes, all just outside of Enquelga. We swam for a while and dusted off the travel dirt, before we went for the major part of the route for the day. There is only gravel in this part of the world and Geraldine took it upon her to cover the first 100 or so kilometers, which turned out to be the toughest to drive of the whole day.
We more or less drove the rest of the day through a scenery that can only be described as majestic. The road swerved between mountains and volcanoes over altiplano plains, skimmed the Chilean-Bolivian border a few times, led us by inhabited and abandoned villages and gave us more astonishing viewpoints than we could count. One of the highlights was certainly the Salar de Surire, which is a lot whiter than the one in Atacama and also has decidedly less people around it. Speaking of people - excluding the two volunteers and a number of mining trucks, the only other people we met were the 5 cyclists we met on the road. Instead, we met about a thousand Llamas, Alpacas and Vicuñas on the way, roaming freely around the area. We took literally hundreds of pictures, but they unfortunately do not do the actual experience any justice. Navigation-wise, we were perfectly equipped using a guide book for general orientation and our phones as an improvised GPS device with pre-loaded Google Maps. The only thing it didn't show us as we climbed to the highest point of the day was altitude, but MyTracks came to the rescue and clocked us in at 4752m above sea level. From there is was "downhill" to Lago Chungara at 4500m, where we checked into a refugio again. A short walk by the lake just before sunset rounded out an amazing day, which had been certainly one and maybe the highlight of the whole trip so far.
During the next night and morning the altitude showed its impact, with both of us sleeping badly and waking up with some discomfort. We didn't waste much time and started our descent to lower altitudes. A planned stop at another termas didn't turn out to be possible, so we made straight for Putre, a town at the entrance of the national park, situated on 3500m. This was low enough for symptoms to disappear, so we camped out in a lovely cafe and recharged ourselves and most of our equipment. From Putre it was then an easy drive back down to Arica, although covering 3500m in altitude within less than 150km still boggles my mind. After returning our car to Osvaldo from Cactusrent, we packed our bags and hopped on a collectivo to the Chilean-Peruvian border.
After a lunch-and-fuel stop (which were 40km apart), we made for the Chilean altiplano, our real goal of the day. Our goal was to drive to three national parks: Isluga, Vicuñas and Lauca, getting a full experience of what the altiplano is like. 100km later we had climbed to a whopping 3500m in altitude and the landscape had changed. Instead of looking up to the mountains on the side of the road, we now were right in the middle of them. About 2 minutes after leaving the only paved road around we saw our first Llamas (or Alpacas, it's hard to keep them apart). The flamingo feeling of wild animals came back immediately and we went a bit picture crazy. A few hours later we realized that camelids were going to be a very (very!) common occurence for the next few days - which didn't diminish our fascination but slowed down our picture rate. After about 50km of gravel road we concluded the day with fording a little river (which saw the first activation of the 4x4 drive) on the way to a CONAF refugio in the Aymara village of Enquelga (population 20). We met two volunteers who were staying there as well. They are working with the villagers on how to negotiate with the government and make the best out of the national park's opportunities. It was really interesting to talk to them, just with a candle to lit the dark night, and see what issues they discussed, it's quite different from the everyday problems us city-people have...
We woke up the next morning with remarkably little signs of altitude issues. A little bit of a headache, but for sleeping at 4000m we felt pretty good. Maybe it had been our sunset walk the evening before or the amazing sky full of stars that we looked at as long as we dared to in the freezing cold, but we felt fine. Which was good, since we had a long day of driving and staring at breathtaking scenery in front of us. First off, we headed out to the Bolvian border post just to check it out. On our way back, we had the altiplano version of a bath, at a beautiful little thermal pool, with views to the volcanoes, all just outside of Enquelga. We swam for a while and dusted off the travel dirt, before we went for the major part of the route for the day. There is only gravel in this part of the world and Geraldine took it upon her to cover the first 100 or so kilometers, which turned out to be the toughest to drive of the whole day.
We more or less drove the rest of the day through a scenery that can only be described as majestic. The road swerved between mountains and volcanoes over altiplano plains, skimmed the Chilean-Bolivian border a few times, led us by inhabited and abandoned villages and gave us more astonishing viewpoints than we could count. One of the highlights was certainly the Salar de Surire, which is a lot whiter than the one in Atacama and also has decidedly less people around it. Speaking of people - excluding the two volunteers and a number of mining trucks, the only other people we met were the 5 cyclists we met on the road. Instead, we met about a thousand Llamas, Alpacas and Vicuñas on the way, roaming freely around the area. We took literally hundreds of pictures, but they unfortunately do not do the actual experience any justice. Navigation-wise, we were perfectly equipped using a guide book for general orientation and our phones as an improvised GPS device with pre-loaded Google Maps. The only thing it didn't show us as we climbed to the highest point of the day was altitude, but MyTracks came to the rescue and clocked us in at 4752m above sea level. From there is was "downhill" to Lago Chungara at 4500m, where we checked into a refugio again. A short walk by the lake just before sunset rounded out an amazing day, which had been certainly one and maybe the highlight of the whole trip so far.
During the next night and morning the altitude showed its impact, with both of us sleeping badly and waking up with some discomfort. We didn't waste much time and started our descent to lower altitudes. A planned stop at another termas didn't turn out to be possible, so we made straight for Putre, a town at the entrance of the national park, situated on 3500m. This was low enough for symptoms to disappear, so we camped out in a lovely cafe and recharged ourselves and most of our equipment. From Putre it was then an easy drive back down to Arica, although covering 3500m in altitude within less than 150km still boggles my mind. After returning our car to Osvaldo from Cactusrent, we packed our bags and hopped on a collectivo to the Chilean-Peruvian border.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Thank you!
Hey all,
THANK YOU very much for all the good wishes and congratulations. The party is already being planned, so we'll keep you posted. :)
We are about to head out into the Chilean Altiplano for a few days, but we'll post all remaining updates after we have regained access to civilization. New pictures are coming as well!
Geraldine & Kai
THANK YOU very much for all the good wishes and congratulations. The party is already being planned, so we'll keep you posted. :)
We are about to head out into the Chilean Altiplano for a few days, but we'll post all remaining updates after we have regained access to civilization. New pictures are coming as well!
Geraldine & Kai
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Day 30 - 33, Norte Grande 1 (San Pedro de Atacama)
The far north of Chile. The Atacama desert, the driest place on earth. We hadn't seen much of it as we approached since it was night, but there clearly was a desert outside of the window as we approached our destination. For dryness though, not what we expected. Thick clouds covered the sky and within 2 hours of us being in San Pedro it had rained. well, there had been a few drops falling, but the locals clearly considered this rain and - according to them - that was highly, highly uncommon for the time of the year. And as so often with uncommon occurences, the unusual weather should define much of our stay in San Pedro de Atacama.
Most importantly, rain in the oasis town of San Pedro meant snow in the high Andes. Tours returning in the afternoon of our first day reported heavy snowfall and for the following four days, all tours going up into the Andes were cancelled. Due to the uncommonness of the weather the cancellations were happening day-by-day (everyone was hoping for better conditions the next day), which gave us quite a bit of waiting time as we hoped for improvements. Overall, we ended up doing much less than we had thought of, but still got a good impression of the area and got to see many very impressive places in this remarkable landscape. And we were much better off than the many travellers who had planned to move on to Bolivia or Argentina from San Pedro - the snow meant that all mountain passes were closed as well.
So we decided to make the most out of it. To get started, we took a trip to the Valle de la Luna, located in the Cordillera de la Sal. An integral part of the Atacama salt flat, this area of the Salar de Atacama has been shifted up due to tectonic pressure of which Chile has so much along its coastline. The result is a mountain/hill range composed almost exclusively of mineral salts, but mixed with sand and mud, which gives it a really interesting shape and colour. Our cheery tourguide did much to make this experience an interesting one and our first evening concluded with a (nearly sunless) sunset at the top of a high cliff overlooking the valley below.
Given the continuing weather issues, our next day trip was shortened as the altiplano lake area was inaccessible. Nonetheless we continued our education of the area with a trip to the Salar itself, walking around the area and doing some bird watching. It struck us how different it is to see animals in their natural habitat compared to a man-made environment - in this case it were the flamingos who were flying right to left and left to right above our heads, going from one lagune on the Salar to the other. We didn't get to see hundreds, but just the few dozens already shifted our minds and got us very excited about our upcoming Africa experience. The rest of the day was spent wandering the town and sampling the excellent food on offer in San Pedro. We also got to catch up on some logistics, such as booking upcoming flights and other travel arrangements.
By now we had settled in to the slow atmosphere of San Pedro and got up late the next day. For lunch we went to yet another nice place, but despite the very nice food lunch was somewhat overshadowed by the trembling earth we had experienced about an hour beforehand. It didn't seem strong to us when it happened, so we were surprised that it had been a 6.5 quake not even 150km away from us! We experienced it as a brief, slow shaking of the earth, almost like a spell of dizzyness and it was more of a "did you just feel the same thing" kind of experience than a shock. Nonetheless it was another fascinating moment. Later in the day San Pedro lost electrical power for about an hour, but we don't know if there was a connection between the two. The locals didn't seem to bother much, so our third and final tour in San Pedro again went to the Salar as planned and advertised. This time Geraldine confirmed her affinity for cold water and went for a swim in the extremely salty (and cold) waters of the Laguna Cejar. Even after rinsing off, she still had plenty of white flakes on her face as the salt crystalised. The tour concluded with a nice sunset (the clouds had thinned a little) and of course some Pisco Sours.
Our last day in San Pedro turned out to be our laziest yet. We tried to book a trip to Chile's second largest mine, Chuquicamata, but due to strong winds the tours were cancelled. The weather had ben clearing up over the last days, so ther was more sunshine, but we had arranged our transfer further north for the evening, so didn't bother with investigating other tour availabilities anymore. Besides confirming some travel arrangements, picking up our laundry, having yet another tasty lunch and buying our bus tickets we didn't get up to much. Until 4pm that was, when we got ourselves to finally take the short stroll to the Pukara de Quitor, a pre-Inca time hill fortress, eventually taken and destroyed by the Spanish around 1540. Walking back along the river gave us another long, beautiful view on the most impressive landscape around San Pedro de Atacama. For all its issue-causing in terms of tours, the slowly retreating cloud cover had actually given us a different view every day, from a grey nothingness at the horizon to a glorious panorama of snow-capped mountains and red-grey hills. Overall, when we grabbed out 8.30pm night bus to Arica, we were very happy with what San Pedro had offered us.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Day 25 - 29, Norte Chico
So now we're onto the next chapter of the trip, the Norte Chico or "Little North". It's known as "chico" to differentiate it from the Norte Grande; the former is 800kms stretching from just north of Santiago up to the start of the Atacama desert, whilst the latter is over a 1000kms of mostly desert until you reach the border with Peru. On our way to the small north we got on a bus in Santiago's Terminal Borja headed for La Serena, which we reached 5 hours later. Last year we had already used the Chilean bus system extensively and we can still totally recommend it, if you don't have strict time constraints. Trains are rare in Chile, and flying is a lot more expensive, so using the excellent buses is a great option.
The scenery starts changing dramatically as you head north out f Santiago, so it's actually quite interesting to just look out of the bus window and observe how the mountains and greener valleys give way to drier and drier landscapes.
The first night after the bus ride we spent it at my cousin Keny's house (after yet more parrillada and wine) and then it was off the next day to rent a car, see a little bit of La Serena and then to tour the Valle del Limari and Valle del Elqui. First stop was Ovalle, where we dropped my cousin as she was teaching there that afternoon. With a little hand-drawn map done by my cousin the night before we continued to Monte Patria, to find the house where my grandparents had lived and where my mum was born and brought up in. It took a couple of drives around the little town since we were not having any luck finding the house, and I'm sure people were beginning to wonder what we were up to. We tried one more final time from the other end of town, and found a small dirt road that lead us to the house in La Palma, 492. The outside wall was showing a few cracks from the 1997 earthquake that hit this area, but it was still as I remembered it from years back.
We then continued our drive to Hurtado, in a dark winding stretch of road. Days are quite short at this time of year, with the sun setting at around 6.30pm, so by the time we got to the little mountain village, and the hacienda we were planning to stay in, it was pitch dark. The Hacienda de Los Andes is actually owned by a German couple, and although they were not there, a German girl was there to greet us, make us some dinner and show us our room.
A really loud rumbling noise and substantial shaking woke us up the next day at around 6am: We were actually experiencing our first real tremor in Chile. Nothing happened, but we were still pretty much awake afterwards. Good time to take a walk in the really pretty mountain area that surrounds the hacienda, so after breakfast we headed out for the trail, going from sunburnt slopes to the little river running through the valley. The valley theme continued afterwards, as we navigated our trusty little Urban Cruiser over a certainly not urban road to the town of Vicuña. Not urban in this case meant a 90km gravel road covering a good 2500 meters of elevation up and down.
Vicuña made for a quick stop over only, our real destination for the day was Pisco Elqui, a little town in another valley, where the famous traditional drink comes from. Well, there is a longer story to it involving Peru of course, but that is a different story. As fitting for the place, we visited one of the oldest distilleries of Chile and got a taste of the product on offer. We also overnighted in a so-called astro-lodge: a two stories, open dome-shaped tent, with telescopes handy to watch the night sky - only that it was the night of full moon, so there wasn't much to see beyond our planet's silver glowing satellite. Sky-related issues continued the next day, as the famous observatories in the region had to cancel their public sessions due to weather issues. Instead we visited the Gabriela Mistral museum, Latin-America's first Literature Nobel Prize winner. We then headed back for La Serena early, well in time for another family dinner. This time we were invited by my cousin Carola and and her family, where we got to catch up on family news and we learned a lot about the South American train system from Ignacio, Keny's 18 year old son.
Early the next day we got a bus for another 400kms drive north to Copiapo, made famous last year because it was near here that the 33 miners were trapped. Our reason for stopping here, besides being on the way to our final destination, San Pedro de Atacama, was to stop over in the nearby town of Caldera. Here we met up with Barbara, a childhood friend of my sister, and also checked out Bahia Inglesa, one of the most beautiful beaches of the whole Chilean coast.
With over 800kms travelled, the Norte Chico did not seem so chico to us after all.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Day 21 - 25, Santiago, Chile (Continued)
... After those news we are back with the writing on what we did the next two days in Santiago. Saturday was a really happy family day, where we were able to celebrate our engagament news with a big chunk of my family (and my family is big). And as any good celebration in Chile, we kicked it off with pisco sours (can you see a trend here?) and a big asado (BBQ). My cousin Claudio and girlfriend Lia were there too, and it was a double celebration as it was her birthday as well. Later on my cousin Mario, his wife and two kids showed up and finally my cousin Adolfo and his girlfriend. Even more to celebrate as they are expecting twins for the southern springtime. From BBQ we had moved to "las onces" or basically a late tea time with bread and pastries. So we basically did not move much, but ate and shared with my Chilean family. The only downside to the day was that I managed to get a substantial cold, which basically meant that any wild Saturday plans to go into town and see the Santiago night life were canceled.
The next day we met up again with my childhood friends Vanessa and Carola, who drove us to Pomaire, a town about 40kms south-east of Satiago, famous for their clay pottery and for being a nice day trip to let santiaguinos breath some fresh air. We headed directly to a restaurant and shared a half-kilo empanada and then most of us had "pastel de choclo", a very tasty meat and sweetcorn dish served in the traditional clay pots. We then walked around the streets and stalls in the little town and even bought a tiny "chanchito de Pomaire", a clay-figurine in the shape of a pig, usually sold as clay piggy banks. The days in Santiago have been bright and sunny, and maybe around 20C degrees. Of course in the morning it's much colder, but remember we're starting winter here. So it was a nice chilled sunny Sunday afternoon that we continued enjoying as we headed back into Santiago to meet up with another childhoof friend, Antonietta, with her husband Jorge and baby Emma. And to top it all, we headed back to my other aunt's house, to share the news and enjoy an evening snack and more pisco sours.
The whole weekend was really special to us, as we were able to share and celebrate with friends and family who are very likely not able to travel to Europe easily. And plus all this food and pisco sours, who would not be happy?
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Breaking News! :)
The previous blogpost had to be momentarily paused, since we could not continue with the Santiago diary without sharing with you, our friends and family, some very very good news. We would have liked to tell everyone in person, but due to our travelling circumstances this turned out to be a little difficult. So the blog it is.
On Saturday morning (day 23 of our travels), this happened:
Yes, we got engaged!! :)
Day 21 - 25, Santiago, Chile
It's a good feeling being back in Chile; it's still familiar in many ways, but also new to me and to Kai in many ways. The flight was uneventful (thankfully!) and we passed migration very quickly. Kai got his brand new passport stamped for the first time by a friendly lady, who saw we were staying in Maipu and was delighted as she was from Maipu herself. My uncle Omar was waiting for us outside already, and he took us home so we could nap, shower and have our first meal "a la chilena". Nothing fancy, and I'm sure I'm biased, but it was a beautiful steak with the most delicious salad on the side and some good red wine. My cousin Claudio was there too, and afterwards he took us on our first tour in Santiago: up the Cerro San Cristobal. My last time on this hill had probably been over 20 years ago, so it was a nice (re-)encounter with the city, although the pollution was clearly showing up again after what we were told were a few days of clear skies thanks to the rain that fell a few days prior. We then grabbed a beer in Bellavista (have we mentioned that Kai is starting to actually like beer??) and headed back home to see my aunt Toya and then to bed.
Second day in Santiago can be described as "food & drink comatose". We went over to my other aunts' house, where Tia Ana Maria and Tia Rosa were waiting for us with pisco sours, and a huge meal of pastel de papas, which some might say is Chile's answer to sheperd's pie. This was accompanied, again, with delicious salad of all types, and good red wine. We rolled down to Plaza Maipu aftewards and got ourselves a Chilean sim card, something we would highly recommend when you are travelling for a while in any country. In the evening we took the brand new metro from Plaza Maipu to Manuel Montt to meet up with some childhood friends, Carola and Vanessa as well as Daniel and Lorena in a gastro-pub in Santiago center, called Liguria. It's a really nice local place, with loads of food and drinks on offer. We still could not eat after the mega-lunch, but a pisco sour (grapefruit flavoured) and a couple of red wine bottles were in order!...
Thursday, June 09, 2011
Day 17 - 20, Berlin, Germany
At 5pm sharp, my parents rang the doorbell, ready to pick us up for the trip to Berlin. After the long weekend in Germany, traffic was heavy on the way into Berlin, so we arrived somewhat late, but certainly still in time for dinner. Good thing that, since after climbing five flights of stairs with all our luggage, we were clearly in need of some food. Based on Bente and Jan's recommendation we went to a nice, little Italian restaurant in the neighbourhood before climbing the steps again and heading to bed.
Monday became our main sightseeing day, so the whole family headed out for some of the finest sights Berlin has to offer. In the morning, Jan proved to be an excellent tour guide for the ladies, taking in the Brandenburg Gate, Reichstag, Bellevue. Potsdamer Platz and a host of other sights, while the men were off on a secret mission. We re-united at the cathedral at noon, which we promptly checked out. It was also revealed that my father and I had been shopping and got two brand new Android phones for my parents, which obviously required some extensive testing over a late and much awaited lunch, for which my sister joined us after finishing work. Touristed out, the motivation for more sights was low and everyone was tired and hot (as Berlin weather was fantastic at ~28°). So, the best thing to do in this case was - obviously - to go cut my hair. After having thought about it for a long time, the warmth and hassle of having to constantly tie it up became too much and the encouragement from the family helped. Despite being Monday, we found an open hairdresser, who conservatively shortened the mess. Tea, shopping, dinner and playing with the phones concluded the day.
My parents left early on Tuesday morning, but we had said goodbye on Monday, so were able to sleep in. Which was followed by a very leisurely breakfast, a siesta after that and a break after that, before having strawberries for afternoon tea. In short: We didn't do much. We did get a lot of things done though, putting finishing touches on the blog and dealing with a number of logistical issues ranging from immediate travel bookings to tax issues. We concluded the day with Bente and Jan, an enormous amount of Spätzle and a very overwhelmed first-day waitress at another neighborhood restaurant.
Wednesday was planned as and turned out to be a travel day - with added company throughout. Except for missing our very first bus of the day (to Berlin HBF) everything went smooth as we went from my sister's house to the train station and from there to Frankfurt (where we had lunch with Paola), to Frankfurt airport. A small plane took us to Madrid, where we took the Metro into town for the evening, meeting up with Julian, Borja, Marta, Antonio and Eugenia for dinner (more jamon!). After having had breakfast in Berlin, lunch in Frankfurt and tapas in Madrid, we headed back to the airport to have dinner on board a LAN A340 en-route to Santiago de Chile!
Monday became our main sightseeing day, so the whole family headed out for some of the finest sights Berlin has to offer. In the morning, Jan proved to be an excellent tour guide for the ladies, taking in the Brandenburg Gate, Reichstag, Bellevue. Potsdamer Platz and a host of other sights, while the men were off on a secret mission. We re-united at the cathedral at noon, which we promptly checked out. It was also revealed that my father and I had been shopping and got two brand new Android phones for my parents, which obviously required some extensive testing over a late and much awaited lunch, for which my sister joined us after finishing work. Touristed out, the motivation for more sights was low and everyone was tired and hot (as Berlin weather was fantastic at ~28°). So, the best thing to do in this case was - obviously - to go cut my hair. After having thought about it for a long time, the warmth and hassle of having to constantly tie it up became too much and the encouragement from the family helped. Despite being Monday, we found an open hairdresser, who conservatively shortened the mess. Tea, shopping, dinner and playing with the phones concluded the day.
My parents left early on Tuesday morning, but we had said goodbye on Monday, so were able to sleep in. Which was followed by a very leisurely breakfast, a siesta after that and a break after that, before having strawberries for afternoon tea. In short: We didn't do much. We did get a lot of things done though, putting finishing touches on the blog and dealing with a number of logistical issues ranging from immediate travel bookings to tax issues. We concluded the day with Bente and Jan, an enormous amount of Spätzle and a very overwhelmed first-day waitress at another neighborhood restaurant.
Wednesday was planned as and turned out to be a travel day - with added company throughout. Except for missing our very first bus of the day (to Berlin HBF) everything went smooth as we went from my sister's house to the train station and from there to Frankfurt (where we had lunch with Paola), to Frankfurt airport. A small plane took us to Madrid, where we took the Metro into town for the evening, meeting up with Julian, Borja, Marta, Antonio and Eugenia for dinner (more jamon!). After having had breakfast in Berlin, lunch in Frankfurt and tapas in Madrid, we headed back to the airport to have dinner on board a LAN A340 en-route to Santiago de Chile!
Sunday, June 05, 2011
Day 15 - 17, Hamburg, Germany
We arrived in Hamburg relatively well rested, though at the wrong station as the train decided to skip Dammtor station. From there we made it to the Google office, which was a bit of a surreal experience, given that we didn't go there on a work related issue. Instead, we picked up Patrick's keys from Max (thank you both!) before getting breakfast by the Alster, organising some things in town and heading back for lunch with Max. With enough food taken in, we then went to our home for the weekend, where we were delighted to see that Patrick had labeled all important components in his house for our convenience.
Freshened up we were ready to start the main weekend activity proper. First stop was the Gröninger Braukeller, meeting up with Yvonee, Alex and most of the wedding party for tasty food and homemade beer. On the way there we ran into Tobi Altendorf by total conincidence, which was a really nice surprise. Arriving at the Braukeller, we had a great time, catching up with the bride and groom to be, colleagues from Ireland and getting to know new people along the way. We left around 8.30, but we heard that the party went on for much longer, with Ray finishing the beer in style at around midnight. Ourselves, we met up with Max and Tobi for the night, starting off by (half-)watching the (awful) Germany-Austria qualifier game in a pseudo-Irish pub called the Shamrock. It was great catching up with Max and Tobi and I certainly enjoyed the Cider on offer. As the night went on, we moved ourselves to trendier areas, finishing on a large, very minty and very tasty Mojito in the Sternschanze quarter.
Saturday was Yvonne and Alex's big day. We started things early though and got our shopping hats on. For us, walking into an outdoor shop without a list is extremely dangerous, so we made one and - against expectations - managed to stick to it ... well, almost. Most importantly, we bought the most essential piece of equipment for our Africa stay: Really good binoculars. Thank you to everyone who contributed to this!
After that we got ready and headed out to the wedding, which was set in a beautiful hotel housed in a restored water tower in the heart of Hamburg. The ceremony was heartfelt, warm and beautiful and we met a lot of friends at the following reception and party, including Jorge, Claire, Thomas and Alex. The party went on into the early hours of the morning, with plenty of great food, good wishes, small activities and vigorous dancing keeping us entertained. The DJ/MC was particularly entertaining as he took requests from guests, and he sang and danced to all the greatest diva songs in style. There was a brief debate about the danger of the tomatoes and cucumbers on offer, but we decided to be brave and dug in regardless of the news reports. The highlight - besides the confident "yes" obviously - was the moment where everybody went outside to put on special glasses that surrounded every light source with two rainbow-coloured hearts. We headed home around 3am with the couple and a number of guests still going strong.
Understandably, we slept in the next day, but good weather dictated outdoor activities. Kathi and Max picked us up and we headed out to Blankenese for one of the most delishious brunches we've ever had. Fish, meats, salads, bread, sweets, juices - anything we tried was really nice. With all the food intake, a walk was in order afterwards, so we made it down to the river to bathe in the glorious sunshine for a while. The height of the day made it really hot though, so at some stage we had to head back to cooler pastures, getting some cold refreshments along the way. Kathi and Max dropped us back at Patrick's place, where we carefully repacked everything. Thank you Max for taking care of some of our stuff, we are looking forward to see it back in Istanbul!
Freshened up we were ready to start the main weekend activity proper. First stop was the Gröninger Braukeller, meeting up with Yvonee, Alex and most of the wedding party for tasty food and homemade beer. On the way there we ran into Tobi Altendorf by total conincidence, which was a really nice surprise. Arriving at the Braukeller, we had a great time, catching up with the bride and groom to be, colleagues from Ireland and getting to know new people along the way. We left around 8.30, but we heard that the party went on for much longer, with Ray finishing the beer in style at around midnight. Ourselves, we met up with Max and Tobi for the night, starting off by (half-)watching the (awful) Germany-Austria qualifier game in a pseudo-Irish pub called the Shamrock. It was great catching up with Max and Tobi and I certainly enjoyed the Cider on offer. As the night went on, we moved ourselves to trendier areas, finishing on a large, very minty and very tasty Mojito in the Sternschanze quarter.
Saturday was Yvonne and Alex's big day. We started things early though and got our shopping hats on. For us, walking into an outdoor shop without a list is extremely dangerous, so we made one and - against expectations - managed to stick to it ... well, almost. Most importantly, we bought the most essential piece of equipment for our Africa stay: Really good binoculars. Thank you to everyone who contributed to this!
After that we got ready and headed out to the wedding, which was set in a beautiful hotel housed in a restored water tower in the heart of Hamburg. The ceremony was heartfelt, warm and beautiful and we met a lot of friends at the following reception and party, including Jorge, Claire, Thomas and Alex. The party went on into the early hours of the morning, with plenty of great food, good wishes, small activities and vigorous dancing keeping us entertained. The DJ/MC was particularly entertaining as he took requests from guests, and he sang and danced to all the greatest diva songs in style. There was a brief debate about the danger of the tomatoes and cucumbers on offer, but we decided to be brave and dug in regardless of the news reports. The highlight - besides the confident "yes" obviously - was the moment where everybody went outside to put on special glasses that surrounded every light source with two rainbow-coloured hearts. We headed home around 3am with the couple and a number of guests still going strong.
Understandably, we slept in the next day, but good weather dictated outdoor activities. Kathi and Max picked us up and we headed out to Blankenese for one of the most delishious brunches we've ever had. Fish, meats, salads, bread, sweets, juices - anything we tried was really nice. With all the food intake, a walk was in order afterwards, so we made it down to the river to bathe in the glorious sunshine for a while. The height of the day made it really hot though, so at some stage we had to head back to cooler pastures, getting some cold refreshments along the way. Kathi and Max dropped us back at Patrick's place, where we carefully repacked everything. Thank you Max for taking care of some of our stuff, we are looking forward to see it back in Istanbul!
Thursday, June 02, 2011
Day 10 - 14, Clarens, Switzerland
Dad was waiting for us at the station when we got to Montreux, and we actually managed to fit our two trolleys, two large backpacks and two small backpacks into their Peugeot 107. The real welcome came with the pisco sours we had as soon as we got home. Many more of those shall be drank in Chile and Peru I'm sure. Although on the first day the weather was sunny and warm, it changed for the worse the next two days, so we spent them mostly at home, relaxing, eating and also sorting some final bills and canceling contracts from our apartment in Dublin. We also took my parents to see a movie, and as usual Montreux did not have too much on offer in original version, so we saw Pirates of the Caribbean IV in 3D, and we actually all really enjoyed it. It might be a bit long, and I find 3D a bit annoying but this movie was pretty entertaining.
We had thought of doing some treks around Lake Geneva, with the good intention of training a little bit before heading to South America, but the weather so far had not been on our side, so we had only managed an hour and a half walk by the lake shore, but on the last day the sun came out again, and we decided to do a 3 hour trek around Glion. We left early after breakfast, got our bags (which we didn't really need but wanted to try out) and walked to Montreux train station from where the walk started. The trail took us quickly down by the river, where we left the town of Montreux behind us and we were suddenly surrounded by lush green trees and plants, which looked more like a Central America jungle than the Swiss Riviera. The path continued and started to climb steeply into a forest by the mountainside, ending up in Glion with a good view of the lake, even being able to spot my parents house from there. The way down was mostly through steps back to the train station.
The trek had opened our appettite quite a bit, so we welcomed the BBQ my parents had for us to send us off. We also got to see and spend a bit of time with Brendan, Anoushka and my niece Shana, and then it was off to the train station again, to catch the night train to Hamburg.
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