Family Travel

Mart:
After seeing the end of the world pt. I in Chile, we came back to the crowded noise in touristy Bariloche. We got into Hostel 1004 - a great place in the only high building in town, with lovely people and stunning views over the Nahual Huapi lake. This is another paradise, so much water surrounded by mountains with snowy peaks. It's very cold and windy, a good preparation for the next steps southwards which ensures that we'll purchase some more jumpers, socks, gloves, hats, scarves. Before getting on the ferryboat through the Chilean fjords, we wanna see the 7 lakes district, a famous national park. Hoping that weather gets better though. Meaningless entry, hum? Well, I'm just talkative for two reasons: We had a very good school visit today (I'm doing school tourism for my BA thesis while travelling) and tomorrow I might drive a VW Gol - the spartanic South American variant of a Golf. >D

Cheers, more pics when we're back in town, big hugs!

ups:
"Moldova? That's a first!" ten times per day...
a kilo meat for 4 US dollars
the calm atmosphere in the woods today, where only the cracking of the trees could be heard and Cristina's unbelieving "WOOOW!"
snow in the morning.

downs:
only met people from 18 countries so far, 11 of which European, 2 of which Chile and Argentina; most travellers: Aussies, NZ, US, Germany, France, NL, Swiss, Israel.
200 g chocolate for 4 US dollars
Films on busses. Feels like home though, with Russian bus drivers...

Martin:
Sorry for not writing earlier. Waiting is a normal thing, in Argentina, too.
The first weeks flew by. Of course Cris is writing too, so I wanna share my personal favourites, good and bad.

Buenos Aires:
Pros:
The football fan songs in South America in general and at Independente in special - not the boring songs European fans chant. Here it is melodic, rhythmic, long, loud, fun.

Café Americano Doble at Las Violetas. Perfecto.

Hunting for mate.

Cons:
The dirty water at La Boca port. Amazingly horrible and disgusting. Disaster tourism at its worst...

The city.

Hunting for a network...

Iguazu waterfalls:

Pros:
The thrill of hearing stories with scared Cris about aggressive vipers in the jungle when there´s no other way out.
Soooo much green and blue and flow and fall.
The sweet animals.

Cons:
The bored-to-death-boring-to-death backpackers and travelers in the americanized hostel.
The whole city becoming a waterfall the second day when we wanted to see the Brazilean side. At that point we actually decided to go South directly, skipping Brazil.

Cordoba
Pros:
Walking the city with fellow travellers... in that case Dan from Israel, a very relaxed chap.

Delicious all you can eat for 4 Euros in a real place when being hungry.

The handycrafts market with so much diversity and so many nice things.

Cons:
The wifi in hostels never worked so far...

Mendoza

Pros:
Meeting Ralf from Dresden in his paradise.

The best maracuja ice cream ever.

The beautifully tiled banks in the parks.

Rafting with scared-then-happy Cris

Cons:
Aconcagua, the highest mountain outside the Himalaya hiding from us.

Argentinean-Chilean border

Pros:
Officers showing around Cris´visa to their co-workers which was a curiosity.
The incredible mountain views.

Cons:
Air.
Waiting.
Grey.

Valparaíso

Pros:
Painted houses and graffiti everywhere.
Hills, steep roads.
The Deutsche Schule in Valpo.
Our hosts John and Hannah.
The little boy not succeeding in stealing out of the backpack.
The tour through the harbour for 2 Dollars in a rotten boat going close to all the things and animals, including sea lions, a pelican, and supposedly a penguin.
Pablo Neruda´s bedroom, shower, restrooms, bar.

Cons:
/

Santiago
Pros:
Finally a double bed room.
Watching the crazed people in a bar when Chile wins against Argentina for the first time since 1973. The bar looked like a catastrophy area afterwards. Intense.
The Precolombian Museum. Very very beautiful art and interesting cultures.
A city not as bad as people say.

Cons:
Exchange offices...
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What´s ahead? Patagonia, national parks, and the end of the world! Plus Buenos Aires again, and then up north.