Chile

Once again in the bus, we saw the flat of Yuyui disappearing in the rear window and soon we were passing the first cactus, Llamas and Vicuñas in the altiplanos of the Precordillera de los Andes. At the 4300m Paso de Sica we shortly had to gasp for air while handling the Argentinian border formalities, but soon we where "down" again at San Pedro in the Atacama desert of Chile.


At the Argentinian border post. Hypoxia makes Stevie grumpy ;)


Travelling also means searching for your true Self...


Slurping Mate in the Bus

San Pedro is as Mexican as it can get considering that we where in Northern Chile: Painted and scalding wooden doors in red clay walls, dusty sand roads and a merciless sun above. The heat didn´t really fuel our motivation to do things like sandboarding or riding bikes through the desert, so we just visited the nearby Valle de la Luna.


Valle de la Luna


The man on the moon


Unreal


Tall blondes are always very popular photo backgrounds


What we missed by skipping the Ho-Chi-Minh tunnels, we got in the Moon Valley


Daredevil


Rocks at the Valle de la Muerte. Originally called Valle de Marte - Valley of Mars - by some Danish pastor, who seemed to have similar pronunciation problems like me.

But the principal magnet of the Atacama region is the 3-day Jeep tour to Bolivia. It is not only the most scenic, but also the cheapest and fastest way to get from San Pedro to Southern Bolivia, the region of the Salar de Uyuni, the largest salt flat in the world. It is not one of these Jeep Tours where you might as well go with a low-slung Opel, it is one where a Jeep is really necessary. And better not one of the new American models, as we´ve been told by our driver, but an old Toyota which he can just fix with his tool box and a bit of wire, should something go wrong in the middle of the desert. There are no roads, just rough tracks of sand, rocks, riverbeds and gravel. ´Cause what is called desert is actually a variety of landscapes, as different as they can get without almost any flora and fauna.


Pit stop at a hot pool. Now I know, Borax (whatever this is) makes skin itch...


Enduring scalding heat and freezing cold


A maverick. The volcanic pool, not Stevie


I guess the view from the floor was not good enough ;)


Flamenco!


On the bow of the Titanic

But the biggest risk on this trip are overtired (and sometimes drunk) drivers, who literally have to spend all their lives in the Jeeps. They can call themselves lucky if their wife is a cook in one of the two lodgings on the track.
But due to a misunderstanding in the price negotiations we went with a more expensive but also more reliable company, which maybe was a lucky twist for us, as some really bad accidents occur on this tour now and then. On our second day, a Jeep of another company overturned, down a steep riverbed. (Luckily nobody was hurt too gravely.)
But our driver was always perfectly sober and, apart from the occasional coca-leaves he was chewing, perfectly clean. He also answered sporadic questions of his passengers patiently like: "Will there be more sun tomorrow?" "Depends on the weather." Or: "How does the Salar look like when it hasn´t rained?" "Dryer."
We also had luck with our travel companions, who were an interesting mixture from Germany, Switzerland and Vorarlberg. At least the German spoke a language we could understand ;) Even tough some of us had problems with the altitude, especially during the first night at about 4500m, we had a great time together and with some of them we kept travelling until Lima...


Llamas posing for Stevie


the incredible Hulk strikes back


Ghetto slam


Our driver "revitalizing" himself for the drive


Had too much coffee for breakfast


Cactus island in the middle of the salt flat


You talkin´ to me?


Pyramide


This one didn´t work out as well as the last one


The Jeep


Felt like dying and waking up in heaven - but then I saw Stevie...


Watch the first seconds of Matt Hardings famous vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNF_P281Uu4


Sorry for this big load of pics, normally I try to keep the albums small, but this time I couldn´t help!

Saint Peter at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephan_mittas/sets/72157616142141775/
Lick the floor at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephan_mittas/sets/72157616142719693/

Argentina - or: the Autobus Diaries

After the big laze on the Cooks another deadline was closing in on us: Stevie’s departure from Lima on the 11th of March. This meant 4 countries to see in less than 4 weeks. The batteries were still well recharged but the energy draining quickly after 5h of flight from Rarotonga to Auckland, 12h of stopover at the airport and another 11h of flight to Buenos Aires.

‘Buenos Aires’ (like ‘La Paz’) is one of these cities whose name promises something it can’t keep. BA is a rather polluted and moreover noise city with a fair share of hustlers. Still, there are some nice spots and sights, but the European flair the city boasts with isn’t quite what I was looking for in South American cities. (In contrast, the first cash machine I tried to use, which didn’t give out my solicited 300 pesos, fit my image of SA perfectly.)
But considering that all the people we met who have been to BA for a long time not only liked, but idolized it, particularly the night life, I am maybe doing the city wrong. But we stayed in our hostel 2 of our 3 nights in BA, where we spent the evening with some nice Chilean girls, which we had some hard time communicating with, as they spoke Spanish exclusively and my Spanish still needed (and still does) a lot of brushing up on. But the last evening, while I was going to bed early thinking that I´d have to die from a meat poisoning after we had allmost an entire cow including all its intestines for dinner, Stevies Spanish skillz proved to be airtight when he responded to the girls, asking where I was, with: "comer mucho carne"...


The cementerio de Ricoleta, with Evita´s grave. Lots of mauseleoums for BA´s haute volee...


La Boca, the colorful artist and Tango district of BA


Darum-tum-tu-tum


He still got it


We even met Diego Maradona, financing his addiction by taking pictures with tourists...


Unexpectedly I survived the meat intoxication, and we could take the next bus to Puerto Iguazu. With a duration of 17 hours it should be one of our shorter bus rides in South America. And: the most comfortable one. Argentinian buses definitely meet their reputation, they come up with steward(ess), dinner, whiskey on the rocks and - most surprisingly - enough leg space!


Towards (North)West - towards the setting sun

Puerto Iguazu is a small pueblo, but its share of the the Iguazu waterfalls is outstanding, compared to the Paraguayan or Brazilian side (even though Brazil is said to have the better views). So after one day at the Argentinian side we felt like we´ve seen it all and left our all-inclusive-club-ish hostal (Hostal Inn) to Salta in Northwest Argentina.


Somewhere over the rainbow


Standing at the uvula of the devil´s throat


I can´t see anything because of the spray, but I´m so wet and excited...


Only a part of the falls


Iguanas...


...and Alligators


Another 24 bus-hours and at least as many police checkpoints later, we arrived at the snug but fairly unexciting Salta, where we checked off the main sightseeing attractions, met a Death Metal music (Buenos Aires) and a Folklore music (Salta) fan, grabbed our last chance to bay a Mate and spent the rest of the time with what we like best in our holidays: Blogging...


Exploring Salta Austrian style


Salta at night


Good air at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephan_mittas/sets/72157615721296347/
E-Wa-Zoo at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephan_mittas/sets/72157615942549715/
Salta mortale at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephan_mittas/sets/72157616184187054/

The Cooks - Atiu

The third and last island we were hopping on at the Cooks was Atiu - if you don´t count the nerve-racking stopover after a failed landing attempt on Mitiaru in heavy tropic rain.



If you ask yourself if we didn´t get tired of all these Cook islands with their boring white beaches and coconut trees, I´ll have to disappoint you. Atiu has some features that distinguishes it clearly from the other islands we´ve been on. There is no lagoon or wide reefs, but rather a platform of petrified Corals, which have been raised in a tectonic movement millions of years ago. These Corals form a rather edgy ground, which is penetraded by a whole system of caves with some unique species, and which is the fertile soil for all kinds of fruits, above all the Coffee, which Atiu is famous for. On a flat hill in the middle lies a small village with more churches than food shops, and more dogs than people.
At the time were on Atiu, there were said to be two other tourists on the island, which we never met. :) But allegedly BBC was shooting its Survivor- (or Shipwreck-, whatever) show at one of the 28 beaches of Atiu during our stay, so there probably have been some millionaires trying to survive on the island without their blackberries and limousines - but they were isolated by guards and we never got to see them.


Stevie basking in the cool water of the Anataketake caves, where the fascinating Kopeka bird is nesting, who navigates both by eye-vision if there is light and by clicking noises in the dark.


The Southern Coast of Atiu. One beach next to each other, seamed by a wide reef.


The Sinkhole near the Coral Garden. Can get pretty rough when the waves are high. I could barely hold on the the edges when I tried to snorkel into it.


Atiu´s lush interior. Fruits like Mango on end!


To put it in a coconut shell: Atiu was a complete waste of time! 5 days of lazing around on the porch (at a pace of 1 book/day), strolling down the dirt roads when we felt like it and listening to the sporadic broadcasts of the Cook Island radio stations´ pacific sounds - How I love wasting my time!!!


Our little mansion, which we had alone for ourselves almost the whole time.

Things got even more wasted when we were visiting the local Tumunu´s, the bush beer drinking sessions and Atiuan equivalent of an Irish Pub. During these gatherings you sit in a circle around some sort of barkeeper who constantly keeps giving out the sweet (and strong) bush beer made of malt, sugar and seasonal fruits, in small coconut cups out of a big canister. At Tumunus there is a lot of singing and sometimes food involved, but also a strict set of rules when someone is allowed to raise his or her voice.
I hope Stevie will provide you with some photos of the Tumunus (and the Sunday Mass) soon.

Get wasted at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephan_mittas/sets/72157615495105730/

The Cooks - Aitutaki

Visiting the Cooks without doing at least a quick side trip to Aitutaki would be like going to Paris without seeing the Eiffel Tower. The 500-inhabitant-island sports the most beautiful, vast and blue lagoon, with green turtles, corals and reef fish being the gems in the crown of the Cooks. It is surrounded by very small motus (little islands), which you can go to by boat.

On One Foot Island for example, there is a small post office where you can have your passport stamped with a big, smeary, black foot (this can´t be legal, can it?)...which we of course did ;)




One foot island



The lagoon cruise, a MUST on Aitutaki!



Stevie having his leg hair removed by the hords of fish



The one dollar for the Cambodian straw hat still served valuably


But to Aitutaki, you better come prepared (if you dont live in a resort): Vegetables and bread are sometimes not easy to obtain, altough fruits can be picked in abundance, even in town. (That´s were two streets cross.) If you don´t eat freshly caught fish (or moray, in our case - see the food post), the stores are even more expensive then on Rarotonga as everything has to be flown in, first to Raro then to Aitutaki.



Enjoying the beach of the 5-star resort for a while, before we were being...dislodged...



A giant clam, probably dragged into the lagoon for the tourists.



Public transport on Aitutaki - hitchhiking



Nice on the outside, nice on the inside



The island show. The dancers were not as, let´s say professional, as on Rarotonga


The Cook´s choice at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephan_mittas/sets/72157615495037196/