argentina – radrauschen

Christmas in the Andes

Kunstmann – das gute Bier – I’m sitting in La Calera in a restaurant with the name La Estacion, where they have german beer. For me a fresh jugo de frambuesa (raspberry juice) is waiting to be consumed, while the Beatles are playing. And just some minutes ago I was invited by the owner of this place to have lunch with him. On top he is responsible for tourist and culture informations in this region.
While I’m enjoying my day off, I will let you know how I spent Christmas and the last few days.
La Noche Buena (Christmas Eve) I spent in Rodeo, with the two lovely owners of the place called Clandestino and Arved, a german traveller. We went out for dinner at a fancy place with good food and a dancefloor out of sand. On Christmas morning I had a relaxed breakfast with fresh bread before I went on cycling.

Another Andes crossing, this time from around 1500m to the top of the pass Aqua Negra , 4735m. The first day I met wild horses and camped on 2700 meters. Me and my tent survived a hail thunderstorm, which was going down on on my little housing with an unbelivable loud noise.

The next day I just cycled half a day to camp on 3900m, where it was cold, but not as cold as it would have been near the top.

The highlight of the crossing arose during my third cyling day. It was amazing: ice and snow and magnific mountains surrounded me and when I crossed the top, the chilian side was even more beautiful. I was totally flashed by the beauty and when it became time to set up my tent I arrived at a lagune, where I found the best camping spot of my whole travel.

I arrived in Rodeo, where I visited a Observatory learned a lot about all the things which are million light years away from us, saw the ISS passing by and for the first time the cross of the south.

My accommodation in Vicuña was owned by a woman who used to live in Stuttgart nearly 20 years ago. I found a facecloth on my bed and had a german breakfast with Christstollen and a small Rittersport choclate.

There will always be a solution

Its about noon, more then 30 dregres, intense sun and a light wind, which will get stronger over the day. I’m sitting in a fancy bar next to the lake of Rodeo in Argentina, with an amazing landscape around me, the green water with the snowy andes in the background – I feel ready for Christmas surfing. Today and tomorrow I will spent the days here, away from the stress of the cities, where people try to get their last presents for family, friends and relatives, apart from cold temperatures (although this year seems to be the warmest ever due to global warming) and without any rain. I have some days off of cycling and I’m happy to practice some windsurfing!

Looking back, the time between Salta and here were full of ups and downs, and I’m not just referring to my paths on the road, but also to tasks, which had to be solved.
One thing which occupied me was that I was running out of money, because my credit card was not working at the ATMs nor was it possible to pay with my VISA. But as I got to know during my travel: There will always be a solution as long as you believe in it. And so there was. After over a day of trying to find a solution, I finally got the proposal to try a western union transfer. I registered in the internet, transfered money, received the money in the local post office, so that finally I could rent the surf equipment.
Some days before at the bus terminal in Tucuman, people tried to steel stuff from my bag at the handlebar, but I noticed early so that nothing was stolen and the thieves left.
The third bad thing that happend, was the transport of my bicycle: I bought a ticket and asked for a transport possibility of my bike. It was confirmed by the ticket seller but the bus driver declined, so that I was not allowed to take that bus. I changed my ticket, was told that this time my bike could go with the bus, but at 12:30 in the night there was again no space for my bike in the bus. So I spent hours of waiting in that bus terminal with the result that I had to find a hostel in the middle of the night. The next day I discussed with the people from the bus company andesmar, who were not willing to give me back my money! I was forced to wait until 5 oclock at the next day, when the shift of the guy started, who had sold me the ticket. Luckily he gave me back my money and I was able to find another company, where the bus driver was ok with the transport of my bicycle.
Very energy-sapping all the discussions, the waiting and hoping of a working transport. Traveling with the bus in Argentina is definitely not fun with a bike.
But travelling with the bike in the north of Argentina is definitely fun. From Salta I decided to take the road to Cafayate via Cachi, where I crossed a beautiful valley which went up 2200 meters to a pass where there is the entrance to the national park Los Cardones. I nearly ran over a snake, a kind of dear crossed my path and the mountains were primped in different colours and huge cactuses again.

The second day I met up with Arved, a german traveller on his motorbike, who I already had met in Salta. The last few kilometers up the hill he was pulling me up the mountain. We camped next to the laguna Brealito, had a swim in the lake while the last rays of the sun shine on the water, made a campfire and enjoyed the calmness of this place as well as the amazing ceiling with all its stars.

On that altitude at that season the climate is dry and hot, so that my throat needed some water every few kilometers. On top of the heath the road from Cachi to San Carlos was not paved and offered a lot of unpleasant washboard. When I was back on the tarmac, a sea of white butterflies welcomed me and before I arrived in Cafayate I visited a vineyard and bought a bottle of white wine, which I shared with Arved in a hostel in Cafayate.

From there we went to a canyon, close to the town, which we crossed half climbing half walking. Some goats showed us there climbing abilities, before we arrived at a first waterfall, where we jumped into the refreshing water!

I left Cafayate with the bus, due to several narrations that the part down to Mendoza is not that interesting and to have more time in Patagonia. The bus story is already told and I was very relieved when I was finally in the bus to San Juan.

I want to cross the Paso Aqua Negra, so I headed north to San José de Jachal. The path trough another beautiful valley to Rodeo was just a half day trip and so I arrived in the calm village about noon.
I got to now some nice people which whom I spent some time with. Slackline, soccer, reading, hanging around and the my issue with the money dominated my last few days!

Today 8 months of my travel have already passed! Time pass by very fast and this year was definitely the one I experienced a lot, met awesome people, saw beautiful places. But still I miss Germany sometimes, my family and my friends. Have some happy christmas days, enjoy the atmosphere, take your times to relax and reflect. I’m looking forward to see some of you next year!

The world is beautiful

It seemed as if somebody threw some buckets of colours over the mountains in the north of Argentina. Amazing face of the world, unbelivable composition. After some relaxing days in San Pedro de Atacama I found my way to country number 8 on my way down south in Latino America. A lonesome region on high altitude, a dry desert, lagunes and salt lakes, decorated with vicuñas, wild donkeys and Llamas. But this time I could lift my eyes and observe my surroundings more than on the Lagune route in the south of Bolivia, cause this time the road was paved and so my joints and my affected but we’re happy to recover a bit more.

From San Pedro I hitchhiked the 2000 meter uphill until the point I came from Bolivia, a truck from Paraguay gave me a lift and so I found my bike inbetween cars, which are transported from Iquique at the coast of Chile to Paraguay. Heaps of these trucks drive this 2000 kilometers way several times a month.

So I was on 4600 meters of altitude again to start my way through the desert on the so called ruta del desierto. The wind was already there but this time it was pushing me into the land. Due to the advanced day I searched a shelter after a few kilometers in this impressive landscape, which appeared to be like in the mars or moon. Next to a lagune with some ducks a found a small wall which served as a shelter. The night was bitter cold, so that my water in the bottles were totally frozen and I also felt a bit cold for the first time on my travel.

On day 2 the landscape presented me rock constellation, more lagunes and after I arrived the highest point of Paso Jama on over 4800m it started to go down. Finally I arrived Argentina and although officers at the border worked slowly like rusty trains, everything went without any problems. Looking on a map I realized that I had wrong distance kilometers in my mind and so I augmented the daily kilometers to reach Purmamarca within 4 days. At the Laguna Ana I found an old bus behind a small hill. I felt like in „into the wild“ and also the interior was not as comfortable as in movie I decided to camp inside this rusty vehicle.

The first little village I arrived was Susques. A calm place were I could by some fruits and chocolate to get some power for the next kilometres. I went up some hundred meters before I went down a beautiful valley with cactuses and weird rock formations. It felt like in the wild west. Some kilometers further the valley opened for the great plain with the Salinas Grandes. But before I entered it, I set up my tent next to an abandoned house. From there I could observe a rising thunderstorm, which arose to an enormous spectacle during the night, the beautiful ceiling full of stars with a play of lightnings at the horizon in the distance.

Through the plain to the Salinas Grandes and up another 700 meters to the top of the last big mountain, I had my first lunch in Argentina: A small empanada de queso, humanitas and for dessert goat cheese with cane honey. The last ascent was quite tiring but the way down on the other side a real pleasure. The next valley was amazing. First of all the canyon and more cactuses. And at the end, the colourful mountains round me. Blue, red, white, orange, black, I couldn’t stop to marvel.

Finally I arrived Purmamarca. The evening I spent with a guy from Buenas Aires, we had some beer, shared a pizza before we had a red wine from Mendoza with some cheese back in the hostal. The next morning I had a walk inside thesencolourful mountains.

When I went down to San Salvador de Jujuy, the landscape changed a lot. More and more plants transformed the natur into a green forest, it became more humid and more clouds covered the ceiling.