lovelyplanet

Around the world in 716 days Not nearly as determined and swift as Phileas Fogg but still 366 days faster than Fernando Magellan's expedition we have completed our journey around the world. And as it happens to be if you follow a circle you end up at the point where you once started. So we are back in a world of busy people, easy meals and useless tv-series. We have the feeling that - apart from private things (including some real tragedies) - not much has changed. People's routines and everyday life are still very much the same which makes it relatively easy to come back. It is also a world where we meet good friends and great opportunities. Which furthermore facilitates our re-entry into our new old life. We really can consider ourselves lucky. What ... read more

The infectiousness of abuse On the back of a motorbike we are curving up the mainroad of one of Rio's infamous favela neighbourhoods. In my ears still sounds the mocking voice of this big black fellow with rasta look singing "Do not be a gringo, be a local, do not be a gringo..." (The motto of our tour operator) while I observe with amazement one of our tour members taking one-handedly a dozen pictures per second without looking through the viewfinder of his Nikon D2 at all. As I need both hands to hold myself on the bike and still have not seen anything worth risking our camera or my own health to take a picture of amazement was the predominant feeling about our companions behavior. But soon it turns into anger and disgust as we ... read more

Suffocating in the Gore Tex® My first impression of Patagonia was that of an endless and boring steppe. A landscape with no hills, no trees and no fun. When I was waking up in the morning on our bus journey from Puerto Madryn to Rio Gallegos it came to me as a bit of a shock to see that nothing had changed. 1000 kilometres of the ugliest landscape imaginable. Could this be the famous Patagonia? The dream of adventurers? The nightmare of early explorers? Well, it really is part of Patagonia (quite a big one, actually) but of course this is not all it has to offer as I would soon discover. In Torres del Paine we meet the rest of the world. A Swiss couple we have met at lake Titicaca, an English couple we ... read more

On the Death Road with Sissi and the space cadets Every morning a couple of cyclists gear up at La Cumbre, the 4700 meter pass outside of La Paz to whiz down what has officially been declared the most dangerous road of the world. A relatively narrow gravel road, with huge drops on one side and waterfalls spilling onto it from the other side, which plunges down 3300 meters (over only 80 kilometers) to the misty valleys of the Yungas. According to our guidebook an average of 26 vehicles disappear each year into the great abyss which earned it the inglorious name "the Death Road". As if the facts wouldn't get the adrenalin pumping already, tour operators have come up with additional stimulation methods. Some dress up their customers with motorcross helmets, ski goggles and something ... read more

The back door to the Lost City Sitting on the upper terraces of the guards house - the spot where "the picture" was taken to bring fame to the rediscovered lost city of the Inca empire - I watch some clouds rolling in over that sacred place hiding it in a cloak of mist. Seconds later the evening sun breaks through and its light is reflected by the humid air in a ray of colors. With the crowd gone and the shifting clouds the only movement (except for a couple of ill-placed llamas and three or four guards, unmissable in their bright red, blue and orange raincoats) this legendary place feels just mystical. It has been written a hundert times, but I happily confirm it once more: if it isn´t for the factor of the unknown ... read more