Buenos Aires, the city of Tango, Evita Peron, amazing cemeteries, coffee shops, outstanding bookshops and an amazing atmosphere. I can tell you that this city is by far the best city I had the pleasure to explore in South America. Having spent only 7 days there, which is not enough in my books to really get to know this town, I can tell you that I would be more than happy to live there. Well, that is from a tourist’s perspective and I am aware that reality is different. But what a place….. Carla and I took the plane from Brasilia to Buenos Aires early on Sunday morning. We didn’t fly together as Carla’s flight was purchased with points and I had to pay for mine. So Carla's flight departed at 5.00 in the morning and ... read more

Well one thing I have learned so far travelling in the south of Brazil is that my preconceived ideas about this country were absolutely wrong. Brazil is not only about Samba, football and Rio’s famous beaches; Brazil is a country that has many surprises like all these cities and towns tucked away all over the place where European cultures survive and thrive in a way I would have never thought possible. And to show me more of this Carla wanted to show me the state of Santa Catarina….. Carla really dragged me from one Germanic settlement to another. But Blumenau, and especially Pomerode, was something special. It is not every day that you are in areas so far from Germany where people speak Portuguese and German dialects. But let’s start where I finished the last update. ... read more

Well, it is pretty hard to get this blog updated all the time when travelling to all these wonderful places. And Carla is keeping me busy as hell with her planed approach to sightseeing. It looks like I need a holiday from the backpacking soon. And Porto Alegre was not different with the added bonus that Carla was born and has lived in POA for a long time, so she knew the place pretty well and I was dragged around every place there was to see. Not that I complain as I got a superb tour of the city, but an old man like me needs its rest from time to time. But let’s see what happened in POA. São Paulo was our starting point to get to Porto Alegre and in true backpacking style we, ... read more

An “Imperial City”, which motto is “always seeking higher things”. That is Petropolis, a city about 1 hour distance from Rio and easily reached by bus. And the contrast between Rio and Petropolis is just chalk and cheese. Petropolis is a city that is calm, well design where one thinks that is in a traditional German town. The buildings are just amazing and so well preserved that you think that they were built just a few years ago. Walking through the town was just like a time warp……… So just for you to understand a bit of this history of Brazil here a bit of a background… The Royal Portuguese family came to live in Brazil in 1808 running away from Napoleon Bonaparte and the headquarters of the Portuguese Empire was transferred to Rio de Janeiro. ... read more

Talk about a relaxing and lazy time I had in Brasilia. After nearly 2 ½ month of nothing but traveling, trekking, climbing mountains and exploring Antarctica I had 3 weeks of doing not much at all. The backpack wasn’t packed and slept around for all this time and life was pretty normal for a change. And one needs that after a full-on travel schedule….. But let’s start from where I finished off on the last blog entry. So after Antarctica I took the plane to Brasilia to escape the cold for a while. After all that time in cold areas I was more than ready to get into some warmer climate. What also helped was that I had an invite from Carla, who I knew for over a year via Facebook, and she was eager to ... read more