India - Maximum City

Tomorrow we are on our way to Mumbai (Bombay.) In preparation, I have read (almost finished) the book Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found by Suketu Mehta. The book is amazingly descriptive and gives a super behind the scenes to what is really happening in India, on the streets and behind closed doors. I am actually quite floored and look forward to "meeting" India in person.

xxx Vanessa

Australia!!! Welcome to Oz!!!

Oz... the land where the most dangerous and venemous animals live.

I am so tired and internet access here is so expensive... that I will keep this one short.

In the land of Oz...

• Arrived in Sydney
• Arranged 2 India Visas
• Visited the Japanese Embassy - no need for visas
• Went to Cairns and I got my deep diving open water certificate. I can now go to 30 meters below to look for sharks and sweet lip fish.
• Back in Sydney, organized 2 Chinese Visas (and still waiting)
• Out by train and bus to Mildura
• Visited Mungo National Park
• Bus and Train to Melbourne
• Sitting in the hostel internet cafe

Check out the pics on Facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=103288&id=504184250&l=04ddea12ec

xxx Vanessa

Exploring New Zealand (Aeoteroa)

We started in Auckland in the North Island and after a few days flew to the South Island to the cool town of Christchurch. Here we picked up our "love bus" named Rusty. This camper van had quite a bit of rust covered with loads of graffiti spray paint picture of Kelly Slater (pro surfer.) Rusty was good to us. He gave us shelter, a bed, a mini kitchen and loads of fun (and a couple of crashes - ooops.)

We took Rusty to Mount Cook, Dunedin, Te Anau, Queenstown, Doubtful Sound, Fox Glacier, Franz Josef Glacier, Pancake Rocks, Marlborough Sound. Then took the ferry to Wellington on the North Island.

In the North Island, we drove up to Rotorua and went on a class 5 river raft tour. We went down a 7 meter waterfall in the raft. ROCKIN!

Our favorite meal on the road was SteakFajitas cooked on the campground grill with Speights beer. This meal was supplemented with Snickers bars regularly.

We met lots of people (from Germany and Switzerland ;) plus a really friendly Maori guy who was a lumber saw person. He told us some crazy ass stories about hunting wild boars only with a stick.

To find our pictures, you can go here on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=103269&id=504184250&l=b1c8f5a38a

A NEW POST (finally)

After we left the comforts of Santiago's apartment with swimming pool and WIFI... we entered the land of the Incas, Peru. We've done so many things in the last 20 days, you wouldn't believe it.

Finally after one month of no computer access, no email and no bloggin... we are back!!

Stay tuned for the updates... and if you want to check out the pics, you'll have to log into to Facebook.

xxx V

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