Camping im El Chaten Nationalpark

Wir haben heute eine Wanderung zum El Chatten geplannt. Bei einem Campingshop konnten wir uns ein Zelt und Schlafsaecke ausleihen.

Fuer diesen Trip haben wir zwei Tage eingeplannt. Der erste Teil bis zum Camp war 12.5 Kilometer und der zweite Teil ca noch 4.5 Kilometer.

Ich habe natuerlich gedacht, dass mir das keine Probleme bereiten wird aber leider habe ich dies arg unterschaetzt. Ich habe in den Rucksack viel zu viel eingepackt.

Dies bekam mein Ruecken schon nach der ersten Steigung zu spuehren. Der Trip wurde somit zum HOELLENTRIP. Ich habe geflucht wie ein Rohrspatz. Vanessa hat mein schweiz.deutsche Fluch Ausdruecke zum Glueck nicht alles verstanden.

Natuerlich wurde unser harter Aufstieg mit einer atemberaubender Landschaft wettgemacht.

Nach 2.5 Stunden sind wir beide erschoepft im Basecamp angekommen. Das Zelt welches wir ausgeliehen haben stand schon nach einer Viertelstunde ;-)

Die Groesse des Zeltes war sehr klein obwohl es ein Zweimann Zelt war. Somit schlief ich in einer Krueppel - Embrio Stellung.

Fuer denn letzten Teil bis nah an den El Chaten haben wir uns was besonderes ausgedacht. El Chatten beim Sonnenaufgang erleben.

Um 3 Uhr Morgens ging der Wecker los. Wir verliessen den Camp in totaler Finsternis. Vanessa war zuerst aengstlich weil sie dachte das in diesen Waelder Bolivianische Guerilla Kaempfer Touristen entfuehren koennten....HAHAHA.

Der Aufstieg war natuerlich wieder knochenhart aber diesesmal haben wir einen grossen Teil unseres Gepaecks im Zeltlager zurueckgelassen. Somit ging es einigermassen. Einmal haben wir uns verlaufen. Die Zeit wurde immer knapper....aber schlussendlich klappte es doch noch. Wir kammen rechtzeitig an und wurden mit einem HAMMER AUSBLICK belohnt.

Der Sonnenaufgang war Atemberaubend, in Worten nicht zu beschreiben was für ein Hochgefühl.

Gruesse Marcel

La Boca Match on Film

Check out the passion!

Argentine Football : Boca vs. Colon

Today the Boca Juniors are playing their final match for the season to win the cup. When we woke up late this morning at 11:30, of course we had no tickets and no chance to see the game live. However it was such a beautiful day, we thought why not head down to La Boca area of Buenos Aires to watch the game in the street with the other Argentines, eat some street chalchica and drink quite a bit of Quilmes beer.

We arrived around 2pm in La Boca. The streets here resemble the south Bronx with dusty broken up cobblestones and colorfully painted walls. You can see old train tracks that lead to nowhere and there and many old heavily weathered buildings. After wandering La Boca for an hour, we got right up to the bright canary yellow and royal blue stadium. Everybody was outside... T-shirts optional, cooking, eating, drinking (soda) and chanting for Boca. It was at least 35 degrees outside and the sun was beaming!

We tried to get tickets at the counter, but it was totally sold out. Bummer. All the way to Boca freakin Argentina and no tickets.

Still feeling excited from the energy of the people, we walked around refusing to leave when a scrubby looking dude walked by and said, "Tickets!" Oh schnookies... tickets off the street? Can we really scalp tickets in Latin America? ok ok... calm down. Lets check how much money we have to potentially throw away.

MMMN ok, should we, should we not... lets do it. Lets buy the tickets from scrubby dude!

In anticipation of expensive crap food inside the stadium, we ate quickly a pizza and empanadas with cokes (no beer on game day) and queued up outside with the Boca fans. Marcel put on his newly bought Boca shirt and guess what?

We got inside! Our scalped tickets worked!!

As for the game.. I will let Marcel write that story. For me, it was the best futbol match I have seen. Aggressive, Loud, Fireworks, Hot Stinky People and lots of Passion. Vamos Boca! (of course they won, 3-1)

By the way, we payed the Gringo price of $AR 140 each (original price $AR 24) and loved every second of it.

xxx

Vanessa

2m x 2m Cell... Ummm I mean Hostel Room

On the Road - Hostel Cooking

Yeah so, on the road we stay in hostels for about $AR50-60 each per night. Not a bad price with the option to cook in their kitchen, we can save cash and cook for ourselves. The first hostel, there was about 4 other couples also cooking in the same kitchen at the same time as us... with 6 cooking burners, pots with no handles, no potholders, no spices, one chopping block and one knife.

I froze.

Marcel had to cook and I prepared the beer to be drunken with dinner :)

Penguina - Rio Gallegos

We have seen the living and breeding place of the Magellan penguins. They make this crazy sound to talk to each other. I hope you can hear it in the video... although you might hear more of the wind instead of penguin calls.

We were lucky to be in the right spot at the right time. During December, the penguins lay their eggs and make lots of little furry penguin babies. You can see the babies in their nests, though the daddy protect them and tries to cover the babies so that you cannot see them in the nest.

It was amazing. I had the biggest smile on my face the whole time.