• Bolivian Jollitas oder Colitas (weiss nöd wiemers schriebt)
• Es gid Ort ide Städt womer ned hii daf, wills zgförlich isch
• Au wemmer es Hostelzimmer für 4 hed, schaffts üse ‘’Mitbewohner’’ eini abzschleppe und mer münd alles mit alose
• Irgendwie chönd da all Männer choche und tanze…….
• d’Chilene und d’Peruaner striited sich ums Pisco-Rächt, aber de peruanischi Pisco isch wükli ned schlächt
• Pisco sour mit Passionsfrucht, yammi
• Pollo Saltado mümmer unbedingt mal sälber mache, zumindest probiere…
• Zähputze mit Wasser us de Fläsche, kei Salat, kei Iis im Ztrinke, nur Frücht wo mer cha schelle….
• Furzerei (ständig)
• Nach 10 Stägetritt schnufemer scho wie mer no nie sind go wandere (high altitude in the Andes above 3500m)
• Sehr viel Abfall überall ☹
• Guets traditionells Brot (süess)
• Alles kriegt mer uf de Strassemärt (Bustickets, Esse, Kleider, Souvenirs, Touriste-Toure, Massage, Benutze vomene Smartphone, Geld wächsle, usw.)
• Collectivos (en Art Taxi, wo mer zerscht wartet, bis es voll bsetzt isch)
• Jede ATM verlangt 20soles zum Abhebe (!10Franke!) und mer cha nume 400soles im Maximum uselah (!200Franke!)
• Salsa 😉
• Quittige i de Supermarkets sind vo Hand gschriebe
• Mer zahled extra Taxe für alles (zum en Insle betrete, fürs Busterminal, Fähri, usw.) au wenn mer s’Ticket scho hed
• Gueti Bus companie: Cruz del Sur
• Bus fahren macht Spass 😊 Just enjoying the landscape around you! Having time to sleep, dream or writing blog.
• Wenn 20s niemert hupped, de ischmer elei uf de Strass
• Im Bus feschthebe isch läbensnotwändig
• Bi Rush Hour Bus fahre, gar kei gueti Idee, vill zwenig Platz und ultra langi Warteziite
• Soooo vill tolli Fruchtständ…….Nur leider döfemer fast nüt devo ässe
• Lüüt womer känne glernt hend, weder zträffe isch eifach uh lässig
• D Lisa hed immer de Überblick, defür muss sie ihre Chopf und ihri Bei immer iizieh!
• Was be üs als Altmetall gilt, wird hie als Public Transportation verwändet!
• Fried fish…..zom Leidwese vode Natascha, isch en ganze Fisch cho, no mit Allem dra! 😉
• Pisco tasting da, Pisco tasting det……
• Massage?
• Food: sooo guets Ässe, yammi:

1. Purple Maiz (Morado) und Potatoes sind die zwei wichtigste Gmüesarte
2. Jamaica Flower (für Tee oder tröchnet zum Ässe)
3. Inca Chips (tröchneti Bananachips)
4. IncaKola (schmöckt wiene flüssige BubbleGum)
5. Saltena (bolivischi Empanadas)
6. Lomo Saltado (es Gricht mit Pommes, Ris und Fleisch, Tomate in Sojasauce und Zwibeli)
7. Sajta (Chicken mit tröchnete Potatoes)
8. Pique Macho (Gmües mit Fleisch und Pommes)
9. Api (es warms Getränk mit Purple Mais (Morada), Zimt und Nägeli)
10. Chicha Morada (es chalts Getränk mit Purple Mais (Morada), Ananas und Lemon)
11. Ceviche (es Gricht mit rohem Fisch)
12. Emoliente (warmes Getränk)

Nazca

From Cusco we took the night bus to Nazca. It was a long and curvy way (around 700km) through the Andes and it took us around 14 hours. In the bus it feels like we were on a boat, because the bus was shaking a lot, because of the many curves. When we arrived in Nazca we watched the end of the football game Spain against Russia (3:4 n.P.). After waiting an hour till our next host Juan picked us up at the bus station. Nazca is a small town 450km south of Lima. This town is famous for the Nazca-Lines, which belongs to the Unesco World Heritage sites since 1994. These lines are ancient geoglyphs founded in the Nazca desert and determined by the German mathematician Maria Reiche in the last 100 years. The largest figures are up to 370 m long and the best way to see them are by an airplane. Juan’s place was very close to the touristic airport called “Maria Reiche airport” and he works as a tourist guide and could give us all the information we needed. Lisa was supposed to do such a flight in the afternoon, so we decided to see three of these famous Nazca Lines in the morning from a small viewing platform. We saw the three figures a hand, a tree and a lizard. In fact, its impressive to see these huge figures kind of painted or engraved in the dry and very hard sand desert. We also went on to the Maria Reiche museum, which was located at her place, where she used to live till she died in June 1998. On the way there we met the Italian guy Alessandro, with whom we spent the whole afternoon walking around Nazca and sharing our travel stories while Lisa were waiting for her flight. Unfortunately, there were too many people, so she could not fly this afternoon. She got the opportunity for another flight early in the morning of the next day, which turned out as an amazing time replacement. The weather was fantastic, sunny and no clouds. She had a clear view of a lot of different figures engraved in sand and rock as well (monkey, whale, astronaut, spider, etc.)

Lima

The bus ride from Nazca to Lima was wonderful on the “Panamerica Sur” highway through the impressive landscape of a desert. This street runs between the Pacific coast and the mountain range “Cordillera de los Andes” and from time to time we passed by some oases around a river in which are located small villages with a lot of fruit markets and a lot of orange trees, corn fields and palm trees around. After this nice calm bus ride, we arrived in the crazy busy city Lima. From the bus station to the place from our next host Jose we took an Uber-Taxi. It took us 2 hours to get there and we got to know how crazy high traffic in Lima’s rush hour can be. We just saw cars around us and heard horns everywhere. I guess some streets in the city had kind of 12 lanes (or maybe 6? Why we should not use the empty space between each car?). Once we have arrived in Los Olivos (suburb of Lima), we met Jose our host. He showed us, where we could stay, and we had a whole equipped apartment for us alone, like Airbnb. Together with Jose, we went out for dinner, just close by to not use the car anymore. I ordered fried fish and I did not expect what I finally got. I got a whole fish fried! It was sooo funny to see Natascha’s face, when she got her fish! It was like, oh my god, what should I do with this thing on my plate! 😉

The next morning, we ate breakfast as usual (Milk with muesli). Together with Jose we went to the city centre by bus. He wanted to show us around but suddenly Lisa got sick. We needed to find a restaurant with a toilet immediately! Lisa was so sick, she was not able to go home by bus. We found a hostel room close by, where she could rest for a while. Without Lisa we continued our sightseeing tour in the city centre with Jose and we walked from nice Plazas to nice old buildings and saw nice parks. We tried different kinds of Pisco and chocolate and we discovered Chinatown where we shared an egg tarte, which reminds us at the time in China. After our sightseeing tour we went back to pick up Lisa. She felt a lot better, but not good enough yet. Nevertheless, we tried to take the public bus back to our apartment. Horror! Never saw anything like this. It was rush hour again. We were waiting for the bus at the bus station. More and more people were standing on this platform and waiting for the bus. Once the bus comes, it starts such a rush, and everyone just tries to get in this bus as fast as he can. Once we were in this bus, I thought I will die or collapse.

The next day we took a bus to Miraflores (a really beautiful part of Lima) and met Oscar from Cusco again. It was so nice to see him again. Because Oscar is actually from Lima, he showed us around. We went to the coast, saw a big shopping mall and enjoyed an amazing lunch at the local market. After our delicious meal we visited the Parque Grau. It was so cool, the view of the sea was fantastic. After our stroll we went back to our appartement, packed up our stuff and ordered an uber to the airport of Lima for our flight to Asuncion (Paraguay).

Ollantaytambo

Finally, our trip to Machu Picchu started today. We were thinking a lot in advance, how we want to get there, and we had a lot of possibilities to do so. Many people on Couchsurfing and other travellers gave us ideas and recommendations how to reach the top of the Machu Picchu ruins. From Cusco there are many Inca trails and possibilities by bus, car and train. We finally decided to take the train from Ollantaytambo. Because we knew this region is full of Inca-ruins everywhere (Machu Picchu are far not the only ones!!!), we decided to make a stop in Ollantaytambo before. By minibus we got there, where we stayed at a nice cute hostel for one night. We met Manuel (another CS friend) in the afternoon and made a nice stroll through this amazing Sacred Valley with him. We saw many ruins, small ones (for free) and also big ones, where we would have to pay to go get inside. The next morning, we visited the Pinkuylluna ruins (for free) before we took the Inca Rail train to Aguas Caliente. The train took around 1.5h and we drove through this very green valley along the famous Rio Urubamba. In the train we met Jose from Sao Paulo. We had nice talks and at the end, we promised to meet him again in Brazil, as we’re planning to travel in Brazil after Peru. 😊

Aguas Calientes (Pueblo Machu Picchu)

When we arrived in Aguas Calientes, the first thing we wanted to find, was a place, where we could watch our football game Switzerland against Costa Rica (2:2). Of course, they were showing the Brazilian football game everywhere. But lucky as we usually are, we found a restaurant with other swiss people inside and we could ask if they change the game in the tv. 😊 In this restaurant we also had our dinner tonight and Claudia was the brave girl and tried the famous Inca dish: Guinea Pig! The dinner was truly delicious with Alpaca meat and Pisco sour again!

28.06.2018 Hiking up to Machu Picchu Finally, one of our highlights during our trip through South America is in the offing this day. We got up very early in the morning and had breakfast at 5am. Then we started walking to the lover entrance of Machu Picchu. The queue in front of the bus station to reach the top was huge (probably 1km). Anyway, we decided already in advance to walk up all the stairs to the upper entrance which is on an altitude of 2’400m above sea level. We reached the top after 1 hour just in time for enjoying the sunrise over the amazing Machu Picchu ruins. The hike up was exhausting, but because we expected this to be much worse, it was not so bad at all. In the beginning we could walk around the ruins without problems, but then more and more tourists came and there were many guardians with a whistle who disciplined us when we took the wrong way (what we did in fact a few times). We enjoyed the whole morning walking around through the ruins, took pictures, chilled in the sun and Claudia tried to recover from her bad stomach cramps she unfortunately had this day. The ruins are very impressive in fact. We heard many stories in advance and saw many pictures before, but when you are there in real, everything looks different and the place looks wonderful hidden up in the Machu Picchu mountains above the Sacred Valley. It’s impossible for us to imagine, how people could live there, so far away from any water resources. No one knows exactly when the last Incas were actually living in this place. They just know, that these Inca citadels must have been built during the 15^th century. After lunch we walked all the stairs down. For recovering our legs, we spend some time in the healthy thermal bath of Aguas Calientes before we had dinner and a typical drink from here: Chicha Morado.

The next day we already took the train back to Cusco. In Cusco we met Jose the Brazilian guy from Sao Paulo again and we decided to have a coffee and a cake and after one or two beers with him. Again, we had nice talks and shared funny stories. This night was supposed to be a party night, so we went to the club “Mama Africa” for the free Salsa lesson again. Also, we went there with our host Jorge. It was another great and funny party evening. 😉

Puno (Lake Titicaca)

Our next stop was Puno at the Lake Titicaca as well but on the Peruvian site. To cross the Peruvian border was not a problem at all. We could walk over the border, get the stamps on both sides and get in the same bus again, which continued driving after all the passengers were back in the bus again. This is probably the most touristic border crossing between Bolivia and Peru. When we arrived in Puno, unfortunately Peru was going to lose the football game against France, what means, they cannot qualify for the finals anymore. The atmosphere was very sad, and we could even feel it at the mood of our hostel receptionist. Football means everything for the people here, and in every corner, shop, house, etc… people were watching this football game. So, we could feel the sad atmosphere around us everywhere. Nevertheless, this afternoon we explored the city centre of Puno and the promenade at the lake. We had a coffee at a nice place and a delicious dinner with Alpaka meat in the evening. We enjoyed the sun and strolled through the markets. On this high altitude the sun is strong, and it gets very warm on a day, but as soon as the sun disappears behind the hills, the air feels cold and the nights are freezing. Fortunately, Lisa could ask for a heater, when our receptionist was in a better mood again. 😉 We decided to get up early the next morning, for another boat tour on the Titicaca Lake. It was worth it. First, we visited the floating Islands Uros, a community which uses layers of the buoyant totora reeds that grows in the shallows of Lake Titicaca. It was very impressive to see how they live, and how the children did walk around without shoes even though it was very very cold. We continued by boat to the Taquile Island where another community lifes. This island has a lot of Inca remains like the pre-Inca terracing and small ruins. We walked around and had lunch in a place, where our tour guide was telling us some stories about the community which lives on this island. The islanders are speaking their indigenous language “Quechua” and their live minimally changed by mainland modernity. They still live their old traditions and wearing their own traditional clothes. On the boat trip were many other young travellers from France, Chile and Mexico. We had nice talks during our lunch and on our boat trip back to Puno.

Cusco

Cusco so, I think it was one of the coolest city we visited. We took a very comfortable bus to Cusco and walked to our next Couchsurfing host Jorge. He lifes in a hotel room. That means it was one room with a small kitchen and a ‘’bathroom’’ behind a curtain. This evening we made a delicious pumpkin-zucchini-risotto for our host and he made an awesome passionfruit-ginger ale Pisco. After that we tried to sleep on our air mattress. Some of us slept very well, some of us did not. 😉

The next day we walked around in the city centre. The centre was crowded because of the ‘Inti Raymi’ festival. This festival is an Inca festival in honor of the god Inti (Quechua for “Sun”). It takes place every year on the shortest day of the year (24^th of June) and many people from all over the world travel to Cusco at that time. The celebration involves a lot of music, colourful costumes and traditional dances. It was nice to see these ceremonies (at least Lisa could see something over the small Peruan people 😉). Fortunately, we met another Couchsurfing friend, our favourite chocolatier Oskar. He showed us his work place, the chocolate museum from Cusco. We had an interesting tour with a special Pisco tasting at the end. It was amazing to try chocolate and Pisco at the same time. What a great combination! After that we visited the San Pedro markets. There, we had a typical Peruvian lunch and bought some souvenirs. In the late afternoon we met another Couchsurfing friend, our tour guide for the next day, Washuma. We realized fast, that he is a ‘’special’’ guy. Open for a lot of things…. In the evening we met Oskar and his friend again. They cooked for us a perfect Lomo Saltado and made some Pisco-sour. This evening/night was epic. We tried to dance Salsa and a few other dances for the first time. I think Natascha and Lisa did a great job and Oskar is a sustained Salsa teacher, but still I have two left feet! And I think, this is not true at all. Claudia did a great job as well. Like me, she had problems with the turns. Every time we should do a turn, our feet came in such a confusion, so we were out of the rhythm again. 😊 But I’m quite sure, after some (long!) training we all would be able to dance like professionals! 😊

Because of the long night out, we didn’t have a lot of sleep. Maybe two hours. We promised Washuma, that we will meet him at the bus station for our walking tour in the morning. We were all a little bit tired, but still we managed to reach there on time. We took a bus to Yungcapata and walked to the InkillTanbo ruins. It was a chilling walk through the beautiful landscape from the surroundings of Cusco. Washuma told us a lot about the plants and other natural things. After this ‘’funny’’ adventure we came back to Cusco and watched the Portugal-Iran football game in a cool coffee. As usual, we cook one time for our hosts, so we cooked this evening our famous ‘’Rösti’’ for Jorge and had a few Pisco’s. In Cusco there is a club named ‘’Mamma Africa’’.  From 8 till 11pm, there is a free Salsa course. We went there with our host Jorge. It was another great and funny party evening. 😉

La Paz

After we crossed the Bolivian/Chilean border, we arrived in Oruro, where we had to change the bus for La Paz. The bus ride to the capital city of Bolivia was very interesting. The differences between the two countries Chile and Bolivia were obvious. We saw many people walking with their traditional clothes (Cholitas women) and carrying so much stuff, probably their whole property. The landscape we passed by was amazing with snow-capped mountains and areas with many alpacas or lamas’ grazing. When we arrived at the bus station in La Paz we saw the last minute of the football game brazil against Switzerland (Olééé 1:1). We were very happy, that Switzerland has not lost the game against the great football country brazil. But we knew, brazil wouldn’t be happy about this result. Afterwards, we checked-in our hostel called “Wild Rover”. It was definitely a crazy hostel. For dinner we met our Couchsurfing friend Ruben in front of the San Francisco Church. We spent a nice evening with talking. This night we experienced how crazy our hostel was. After putting off the lights, our roommate came back. He was not alone, what we could hear clearly. We could hear everything from the beginning till the end, we could not believe. But after they were finished, they left the room and we had to laugh loudly. The next morning, we met Ruben again. He was a tour guide looking for a new job, and we could enjoy a private free walking tour through the city. It was very interesting. Ruben has a huge knowledge about the cities La Paz and El Alto (next to La Paz on a high altitude of 4’095 above sea-level), where he lives and grew up. We saw the San Francisco Church from inside, went to the Witches markets for buying souvenirs and ended up at the famous San Pedro prison. We had lunch at the main avenue (Saltena = Bolivian Empanadas) and headed up to El Alto in the afternoon by the modern cable car (red and blue line). In the evening we met also Franklin, Rubens friend and we had Bolivian dinner and played UNO together. It was a funny evening. With Franklin we met a person, which can talk without breathing. 😉

Weiter gings nach Oruro. Nur schon vom Bus aus, konnte man die recht grossen Unterschiede zwischen Chile und Bolivien erkennen. Gerade um die Busstation von Oruro, sahen wir viele Menschen, die nicht mehr besitzen, als das was sie tragen konnten. Die Landschaft ist sehr trocken aber faszinierend und mit vielen Lamas und Alpakas. 😊 In La Paz angekommen, sahen wir noch die letzten Minuten vom Schweiz-Brasilen Spiel! (Oleeeee 1:1 😊) Unser Hostel hiess Wild Rover (ich denke dieser Name passt ganz gut!! Crazy Hostel in a crazy city). Dank dem wirklich großartigen Couchsurfing App trafen wir am späteren Nachmittag Ruben. Er wohnt in El Alto, etwa 1h vom Zentrum von La Paz entfernt. Wir verbrachten einen wirklich lustigen und interessanten Abend mit ihm. Kurz nach dem wir das Licht in unserem 4er Hostelzimmer ausmachten, bemerkten wir, dass uns noch eine spezielle nächtliche Unterhaltung bevorstand. Unser ach so toller Zimmergenosse, kam nämlich nicht alleine zurück ins Zimmer! Zu unserem Leidwesen mussten wir ‘’die Geschichte’’ von A bis Z anhören. Zum Glück ging es nicht sehr lange! ;P Wir waren alle etwas überrascht, lachten uns aber fast zu Tode als beide wieder aus dem Zimmer flüchteten! Nach unserem Frühstück trafen wir wieder Ruben. Er ist ein Tourguide und hat sich für eine neue Stelle beworben. So durften wir eine absolut großartige und gratis Stadtführung von ihm geniessen und er konnte üben. Wir lernten so einiges über diese nicht ganz ungefährliche Stadt. Sahen den Government Palast und seine lustig verkehrte Uhr und schauten uns kurz die San Francisco Kirche von innen an. Der Höhepunkt, für Claudia, war der Witches Market. Dieser Markt zieht sich durch die Gässchen von La Paz und man findet fast alles dort, von den typischen farbigen Hosen bis zu irgendwelchen speziellen Pülverchen, die in Sachen Liebesglück helfen sollen. Auch wirklich beeindruckend war die Hauptattraktion von La Paz, das Gefängnis. Es gibt viele Geschichten über dieses Gefängnis, alle ziemlich spannend und beängstigend. Nach unserer Führung waren wir auf uns selbst gestellt, wir kauften Souvenirs, probierten die Luftseilbahn aus und versuchten den momentan laufenden Protesten aus dem Weg zu gehen. Am Abend trafen wir Ruben und seinen Kollegen Franklin. Wir assen Abendessen zusammen und spielten später in einer großartigen Bar UNO. Wir stellten fest, dass es Menschen gibt, die wenig reden, aber viel sagen und dann gibt es Menschen wie Franklin, die reden seeeehr viel, ohne Punkt und ohne Komma! 😉

Copacabana (Lake Titicaca)

The next day we continued travelling by bus in the direction of the Titicaca Lake. This Lake between Bolivia and Peru is considered the world’s largest high-altitude lake with an altitude of 3800 above sea-level and around 8400-sq-km wideness. The bus ride leads us along this lake through a wonderful hilly landscape. Just a little bit, it reminds us on New Zealand around the Wanaka Lake. But the mountains look a bit different, and we already could see a lot of Terraces made from the Incas around the 13^th century or even earlier. We also had to cross one of the lake arms with an old ferry, that means, just a wooden floating boat. When we have arrived in Copacabana we first climbed up to the Cerro Calvario summit. It was a very steep climb up, a bit too steep and exposed from hight for Lisa and probably not the official path to go up. But after all we managed to reach the top we could enjoy the nice view from up there. For the way back, we took the official stairs. Back in the hostel (we had our own little apartment), we could cook our dinner in our own kitchen and just relax and talk and plan the next few days. From time to time, there were two Alpacas in our front yard, looking into our kitchen. 😉

The next day we took the ferry to the Isla del Sol. We met Lukas from Germany again, who we met in the bus the day before. He joined us for our trip to Isla del Sol, where we made a nice stroll to two peaks with an amazing view of the entire lake. This day was very relaxing, we could enjoy the sun, the nature and the cute villages where we had lunch on a nice terrace. Some “Cholitas” women were walking with their donkey’s or selling their handcrafted jewellery’s all around. In the evening we took the ferry back to Copacabana and walked through many souvenir markets. This time all of us could not resist, so we bought some souvenirs: Some new trousers and a bag for Natascha, a new bag for Lisa and new sunglasses for Claudia.

• Alli händ sich gern (schmuse, küsse, umarme überall uf offner Strass und ide Metro)
• Maestro charte funktioniert
• 1000 chilenischi Peso sind ca. 2 Franke
• Meeega viel Smog in Santiago
• Streunendi Hünd ohni Bsitzer überall
• Alli Mänsche mit helle Haar und Auge falled uf
• Mote con huesillos (Pfirsichsaft mit Weizensamen)
• Terremoto (Getränk oder Erdbeben)
• Suena el dembow (great music)
• Chico Trujillo (musician from Valparaiso)
• Pisco-la (chilenisches Getränk)
• Pisco sour (peruanisches Getränk)
• Paso del Sol, Carmenere (chilenischer Wein)
• Jobs für alles: Tanken, Toiletten (Toi Toi’s) sauber machen nach jedem Benutzer, Produkte einpacken im Einkaufszentrum, vor dem Zahnpasta Regal stehend dir die Zahnpasta rausgeben, Früchte wägen, Bus anhalten an Busstation, Traffic Light Entertainer,
• Farbiges Gebirge (Anden),
• The Taste of…. Men, meal, pisco, women, whatever, …
• Of course!
• Pisco-Jacket
• Empanadas!!! Lecker!!
• Einkaufen in Unimarc oder LiderExpress
• Sich unterhalte ohni Spanisch z’chönnä, es funktioniert! 😉
• Buscompanies: Turbus oder Pullmann
• Bus bueche online, das isch sone Sach…😉
• Elqui Valley: 3 days of rain a year, is a rainy year!
• Gschlossnie Gränze wägem Schnee!!!! So en Kak
• Tsunami-Gefahr überall!!!
• Alles was mit «Marley Coffee» agschriebe isch, isch eifach guet!

Iquique

Luckily, we had to change buses in Calama on our way to Iquique. We could have a break, walk along the nice pedestrian zone and have an empanada in one of the numerous nice bars and restaurants. Even though, the bar where we watched a part of the football game between Spain and Portugal was more considered to have male guests, everyone was in a good mood and enjoyed watching the game. When we finally arrived in our hostel in Iquique we once again bumped into Johannes from Germany. He has already been in the same hostel in Caldera and also in San Pedro we met him again by chance. The next day we wandered around the cute small village and visited the strong-smelling fish market at the port. Buying our bus ticket to La Paz turned out to be more difficult as we thought because there were no official bus ticket offices. When we finally found the indicated street, we could choose between all the local women shouting different destinations and prices. The rest of the day we spent with Johannes. We enjoyed the sun at the coast, tasted Ceviche (a local fish dish) and played Ping Pong at our hostel which was very funny. Then our crazy, funny but also tiring night bus trip to La Paz started. Because our bus only arrived at the bolivian border after midnight, when the border was already closed, we had to sleep in the freeeeezing cold bus until the next morning. (Well, at least we tried to sleep..). First, we thought we could cross the border by walking, but when we saw the other people crawling under a fence, we soon realised we should better return to the bus, grab a blanket and hope the next morning would begin soon to quickly defrost our feet. When sunrise finally arrived, we could immigrate legally in Bolivia with another stamp in our passport.

Da wir von San Pedro nicht direkt nach Iquique fahren konnten, mussten wir am Morgen unseren Bus nach Calama buchen. Zum Glück hatten wir in Calama ein paar Stunden Pause. So konnten wir uns ein wenig die Füsse vertreten und etwas essen. Calama hat eine tolle Fussgängerzone mit vielen kleinen Bars und Restaurants. Da gerade der Portugal-Spanien Match lief, stoppten wir bei einer x-beliebigen ‘’Bar’’, bestellten uns etwas zu trinken und schauten den Match. Sehr schnell wurde klar, dass wir nicht wirklich die idealen Gäste für diese ‘’Männer-Bar’’ waren. Es schien aber niemanden zu stören, deshalb schauten alle zusammen das Fussballspiel. In Iquique angekommen, wurden wir von einem Taxi zu unserem Hostel gebracht. Dort trafen wir wieder einmal Johannes aus Deutschland. Johannes war bereits in Caldera im selben Hostel wie wir und auch San Pedro sind wir ihm bereits mehrmals über den Weg gelaufen. Am nächsten Morgen schlenderten wir durch das kleine Städtchen. Wir liefen durch die hübsche Fussgängerzone und besuchten den stinkigen Fischmarkt direkt am Hafen. Danach versuchten wir das Busticket nach La Paz zu kaufen. Es war nicht ganz einfach, denn die Tickets, die über die Grenze führen, kann man nicht an der normalen Busstation kaufen. Dank unserem genialen App Maps.me, fanden wir dann endlich die von Einheimischen vollgestopfte Busticket-Strasse! 😉 Den Rest des Tages verbrachten wir mit Johannes. Wir genossen die Sonne an der Küste, assen Ceviche (typisches Fischgericht) zum Mittagessen und spielten Ping Pong im Hostel (das hatten wir schon lange nicht mehr gemacht und es war richtig lustig). Dann kam unsere ach so lustige wie anstrengende Busfahrt nach La Paz. Da unser Bus erst nach Mitternacht an der Grenze ankam und der Zoll schon geschlossen war, mussten wir im Bus übernachten! Zuerst dachten wir, wir können über die Grenze laufen, sehr schnell war aber klar, dass das nicht geht. Also zurück zum Bus, eine Decke in Beschlag nehmen und versuchen zu schlafen, denn unser Bus fährt erst um 8.00 Uhr morgen weiter. Es entpuppte sich als eine seeeeehr lange Nacht mit eiskalten Füssen!!! Eigentlich war alles kalt! Als es endlich hell wurde, wurden wir zum Zoll gebracht, bekamen unsere Stempel und kamen ganz legal in Bolivien an.

It’s a long time, since we had a rainy day for updating our travel blog. Besides we have experienced so many highlights in a really short time, we met so many nice people, we were just enjoying. Now sitting on a couch on a rainy day next to the beach, we take the time to continue telling you, what happened the last two month on our trip through South America.

Antofagasta

Our next destination was Antofagasta. In the beginning the bus journey was along the nice coast and further through the dry landscape of the Atacama Desert. This nature is impressive and something completely new, that we haven’t seen so far during our “Around-the-world” trip. In Antofagasta we were staying at our next host’s place. His name is Jesus. He picked us up at the bus station and showed us how Chilean people make BBQ. He and his two friends Roro and Christopher prepared the big amount of delicious meat while we were eating and listening to Reggaetón music. 😊 Together with the 3 guy’s we spent a very funny evening / night. We played UNO-cards, Beer-Pong and drank a lot of Pisco-la. The next day, we call it our “Hangover-Day”, we didn’t do a lot besides eating. At least Jesus and Christopher showed us the port of Antofagasta in the afternoon and we walked a bit along the coast. Antofagasta is a long city trapped between the sea and a mountain range. At the shopping mall we ate Ice Cream before we were heading back to Jesus place to cook Spaghetti together for dinner. Before we took the bus to San Pedro de Atacama the other day, we visited “La Portada”, which is a bit offshore around 20km north of Antofagasta. This often-photographed national icon is a gorgeous natural arch and home for a lot of birds. We made a stroll along this impressive coast and observed many many birds flying from and back to this natural arch “La Portada”.

San Pedro de Atacama

The bus ride to San Pedro de Atacama was through the impressive landscape of red sand rock formations. It reminds Natascha and Lisa a bit of the landscape in Death Valley of California, USA, where they have been travelling in autumn 2016. During our bus ride we enjoyed a beautiful sunset over the Atacama Valley and we didn’t really recognize how we gain on altitude. Suddenly, it started to snow. It must have been on a high altitude of around 3500 m. A bit afraid to freeze during the night, we arrived in San Pedro de Atacama on an altitude of 2500m, which was located in a valley in the middle of the Andes chain. There we met Klaus our next Couchsurfing host. He is a tour guide and living with two friends in a kind of house, which is still under construction. Not knowing where we will be sleeping this night, we enjoyed the evening with good red wine and delicious self-made spaghetti from Klaus. Finally, we ended up sleeping on the floor on a half-broken mattress which was so-so comfortable. Nevertheless, we got up and wanted to see, which activities we could do in San Pedro. Unfortunately, we were unlucky with the weather and because of the snow in the higher mountains and a sandstorm, all the activities and sightseeing attractions were closed that day. We visited this little cute village San Pedro with its many restaurants and souvenir shops instead. We also met the brasilian guy Rogerio again, who we got to know in the bus from Antofagasta the day before. We had a nice evening together with Rogerio, and because we could not really handle the behaviour of our host Klaus, we changed our accommodation and stayed for the next 4 nights in the same hostel then Rogerio. The next morning, we made a walking tour through San Pedro. We learned a lot about history, culture, plants, the environment and the food and could try a special nut “Chanar” and another leave, which tastes like chocolate when you chew on it. In the afternoon we wanted to explore the surroundings. We went to the “Pamela” tours and booked a tour for this afternoon to a Canyon called Qubrada del Diablo, the Sand dunes in the Valle de la Muerte and a nice view point of the Valle de la Luna, where we enjoyed the sunset, despite the steady and cold wind. In the evening we cooked our favourite dish “Rösti” with purple potatoes from Chile. Because of the weather (sand storm, snow, wind) still a lot of tours were closed the next day. We decided to explore more San Pedro and the surroundings. We were buying souvenirs and walked around 20km through the dry desert to the archeological site “Aldea de Tulor” (old Ruinas from the 12^th century). For the next day we booked another tour to the Laguna Miscanti and the Salar de Atacama (Salt desert). The Laguna Miscanti are on an altitude of around 4000m above Sea level, and it suddenly started to snow. We could not continue driving anymore, that’s why we made a rest for eating breakfast, before we had to drive back. It was a special feeling to see snow in a desert. 😉 In the Salar de Atacama we went to the Laguna Chaxa, where we could see pink Flamengos in the wild life. It was so amazing to see an animal in the nature again, which we only have seen in a Zoo before. In the evening we got the message, that all the borders to Bolivia and Argentina were closed for the next few days because of the snow. Our plan was to cross the border to Bolivia for visiting the Salar de Uyuni. But now we had to change our plans and we took the bus (back to the coast) to Iquique in the north of Chile.

Bahia Inglesa

In the morning we strolled through Caldera, booked our Bus to Antofagasta and walked to Bahia Inglesa. This walk leads us through the driest desert in the world (Desierto de Atacama). It was impressive to see how dry the landscape, covered with sand and how flat the area is. We could feel the strong sun, burning on our skin. This town Bahia Inglesa has a breath-taking beach. The turquois colour of the sea next to the white sand is so beautiful. We enjoyed the beach, walked along the Playa Las Machas to the sand dunes, and had a big and delicious fish lunch in Bahia Inglesa (Ceviche). Not our favourite dish so fare. For getting back to Caldera we had to walk through the Atacama Desert again. In the evening we could pick up our laundry and we ended our day with a good Pisco-la. Unimaginable, after such a sunny day, it was getting colder and colder in the night.

Caldera

The next day, we had a chilling day. While walking to the nice light house at one end of Caldera, we passed the ‘’harbour’’ of Caldera. The view out there was amazing. We really enjoyed the blue water, the blue sky and the cliffs with the white foam when the waves broke. To see the wide ocean has always an appeasing effect on us. On our way back, we found a pretty Café, where we had delicious Sandwiches and a cheese cake with chocolate y majar (dulche de leche). Yammiii!!! Even though it was a bit cold (between 15 and 20 degrees) Lisa and Natascha decided to have a refreshing swim in the sea. Finally, we managed to swim in the Pacific Ocean from the other side, even though it is winter right now on the southern hemisphere. 😊 The next time we have the chance to swim in the sea might be in Brasil, so that’s why we could not withhold us.

Valle d’Elqui

From La Serena we made a trip to the Elqui Valley. A nice little village surrounded from the Andes. This valley is famous for its very dry weather and for the many grapes plantation to make the famous Pisco (Chilean schnapps). We walked to the oldest distillery of Los Nichos and could see how they produce the Pisco. At the end, we could taste two different types of Pisco. Unfortunately, there was no tour at this time, but lucky as we usually are, there was a Chilean girl with two German friends, and she showed us around and told us all the important things about the Pisco. In the evening, we found a cosy restaurant for having traditional Chilean food again (pastel del choclo). This dish is made of corn and mixed together with egg, mushrooms, chicken and tomatoes. It tastes like “Polenta”, just that it is baked with cheese on the top. In the evening we had a private tour in astronomy. We went up on a hill to an observatory and had the occasion to see the breath taking starry sky in winter on the southern hemisphere. It was the most impressive sky we’ve ever seen. Milky way was visible so clearly with on its one end showing Southern cross star formation including Alpha cross, which is the brightest blue star in our galaxy. Antaris is the oldest star in our galaxy. We can distinguish it shining in a red colour. It forms the heart of the scorpion star sign. There are around 500’000 stars in our galaxy with an average distance to earth of 500 light years. So, when we’re looking into the sky, we can actually see the past. We could even see stars of another galaxy. Of course, we could also made heaps of wishes with all those shooting stars passing. Our solar system has a diameter of 7.5 light hours, which is nothing compared to the distance of certain stars. We could feel that while seeing Jupiter and Saturn moving through the telescope. It was sooo amazing! Jupiter’s 2 black tails and even a storm in form of a red dot on its surface were visible. Saturn was the best! We could really make the difference of the planet as a bowl and its flat tail all around. Just magnificent! We were overwhelmed by these impressions. He told us about 18’000 more planets in our galaxy similar to Solar system. And beside our milky way galaxy, astronomists talk about 100’000 more galaxies somewhere up there.

The next day we did a nice bike tour to Horcon, a small town close to Pisco Elqui. Actually we wanted to visit the Horcon market, but sadly the market is closed every Monday….. ! Back in Pisco Elqui we took the Bus to La Serena. There we booked a nice Hostel (El Punto) close to the city centre. It is a very pretty place with a small restaurant inside. On our way out, we met a very ‘’special’’ swiss guy. He worked in this hostel for the last 7 months. After our delicious dinner, we booked our flight to the Iguazu falls.

La Serena

After a great breakfast (Desayuno) we explored the City La Serena. We walked to the beach and to the old light tower, which was beautiful due to the perfect weather. The city is cute with a lot of shops and cafés. Finally, Claudia found new sneakers!! We had Spaghetti and Cesar Salad for our lunch (Almuerzo) in a nice café. They served cafés with the cutest foam-drawings on top that we’ve ever seen. Later we took the bus to Caldera, a quiet little town close to the famous beach Bahia Inglesa. We had a great hostel with our own apartment.