Sucre was a both necessary and welcome stop on my way to the Brasilien border. It is a town of many universities and has been the capital of Bolivia for a long time. Still today many ideas and political movments are said to have their origin here. My visit was more extended than planed because the Bolivian busdrivers went on strike to paralyse the country. Rising fuel prises made them call the government for a zero taxation. When their service started again after three days the government had promised to do so. Later I heared the promise wasn't kept as usual... Until I could catch a bus again I hung out with some young German fellows to play cards. For the first buses that left one had to pay double. Naturally, since many people were waiting ... read more

In the middle of the Altiplano is the Salar de Uyuni, one of the biggest salt lakes on earth. I spent some days in the town with the same name visit the salt lake and to acclimatize to the high altitude conditions around there and the passes to come. With a group of mostly spanish speaking guys I had a guided tour of the lake. We drove in a run-down jeep across the extensive white, visited a salt producing family (Well, is more packing than producing, since the salt is already there. It just has to be dried and filled into plastik bags.), visited Isla de pescadores, a cactus island, had fun with salt crystals, and in the evening stoped for some pictures at the old train cementery. It was one of the best places I ... read more

The Atacama Desert is the driest place on earth. For that reason it has been chosen as a site for various space telescopes. Astronomers and Astrophysicists value the dry atmosphere and the little amount of diffused light due to the remotenes because it gives them a much clearer view into the sky. It makes visits to the telescopes quite difficult though. I had arranged a visit to the telescope of the European Southern Observatories (ESO), the Very Large Telescope (VLT). This prestigious facility was built during the nineties on top of Cerro Paranal as a cooperative project between different European countries. It still remains to be the most powerful telescope today. I had once taken part in a summer school where we got to know the telescope's basic features and discused research projects done based on ... read more

Latest since the release of Jule Vernes "Around the world in eighty days" we know about that special day that you win when traveling eastwards around the world. You count you days by observing the continuous change of day and night while traveling. Finally you come back to the place you started from and if you counted correctly the folks at home will tell you, your journey took you one day less than you counted... How come? Imagine you do your journey in a very fast plane. The plane is so fast that you camo back on the same day...just imagine. Imagine you do your round the world flight in the morning, starting from Europe. While you are sitting in the plane and flying eastwards you observe the sun through a window. Above Europe you see ... read more

If I really want to be so crazy, here's the place to do it: Taupo Skydiving. Jump out of a plane, from 12,000 feet, roughly 3650 meter. Freefall for about 40 seconds, then hopefully the parachute of your tandem partner opens for a nice ten minute scenic flight and a smooth grass landing! So far the theory. I called the evening before to make a reservation, the next morning at around eight we drove to Taupo's small airport. Where else would you find a sky diving school. In Taupo there is three of them, thus, the low prices. For less than eighty euro you are on the next plane! So I signed away my life (literally, you have to sign that you do not blame the sky diving school if you die!). Then I got some ... read more