I traveled westward to Mendoza, when I arrived shortly after noon all the shops closed for a siesta of 4 hours to escape from the heat, probably to have a picnic in one of the shady parcs, definitly to have some MATE, a funny sight to see all those people carrying around their MATE-cup in one hand and a thermo with hot water in the other, sipping from it now and then. I crossed the Andes to get into Chile once more - SANTIAGO! I quite liked the city: the artist quarter Bellavista, one of the shiplike houses of Neruda, la Moneda, nightly projections of art upon the Mapocho-river......I also went to the habourtown of Valparaiso: colourful houses on hillsides overlooking the bay, some of them really seem to be hold together by the paint only -the mixture of colour and decay giving it a special flair, even the dogs and cats ( and there are maaany of them) seem to be more charismatic than elsewhere. I walked across the market ( all that fresh fish!), went on a little habourcruise and walked up and down the hills afterwards. I took one of those old lifts once, feeling like in a little wooden shoebox as we got up one of the hillsides. I had a look at another of Nerudas houses over there- what a view over the bay and the whole Valparaiso! I finally made it to the lake district, a place called Pucon, you really can´t blame the Chileanos to choose it as a holiday destination. The vulcano Villarrica greats you with some smoke, and there are nice hikes in the nearby Parque National Huerquehue.  For a stunning, beautiful view of the surrounding vulcanos and mountains I hiked up to a "mirador" in  the Cañi- sanctuary, accompanied by the dog of the information center who obviously had chosen me to take him for a walk that day.

 

I stayed in the oasis of San Pedro de Atacama/Chile for a couple of days to see the surrounding marvelous landscape, especially the "Valle de la Luna" with the vulcanos of the Andes ( the dominating "Licancabur") as a beautyful background and the amazing sky filled with stars at night. I crossed over to Argentina, to a city called Salta, strolling over the main plaza with nice cafes and restaurants certainly made you feel a bit shabby in your old backpacker clothes. The nearby city of Cafayate is surrounded by wineyards, I certainly eared a new pair of shoes there, walking a lot. I went to see the Ruinas de Quilmes ( and the wide land filled with cactuses), I started early in the morning, and it was a nice walk while the sun rose, I saw some birds flying over my head that somehow reminded me of the macaws that I saw in Peru, cows were staring at the "early" visitor (me) as I was passing by, a big hairy spider crossed the dusty street right in front of me - the way back with the sun further up in the sky was a bit more sweaty. In the afternoon I walked to some nearby river to cool off a bit, but getting there took quite a while, and I felt relieved when I finally got there and could put my feet in the cold stream. Another bustrip brought me to Cordoba while the heat was increasing. From there I made a daytrip to the little town of "Alta Gracia" to see the "Museo de Che", and one evening we went to "Jesus Maria" for the Festival of "Doma y Forklore", nice to see all the gaucho dressed up in smashing clothes, there were bands playing music while gauchos struggled with wild horses, even staying on their backs when they went down to the ground.... not to forget the awesome smell of grilled meat from countless BBQ's stands everywhere and other traditional food.

I rushed from one bolivian town to the next - La Paz, Cochabamba, Santa Cruz, without really warming up to any of them. Finally, I found a great hammock in the little village of Samaipata. There's an archaeologica site called "El Fuerte" 9 km out of the village where I hiked to one day, the last part of the way  the image of that local that saw me leave on food and just said "pero el calor!!!!!" haunted me, but I made it! I also had a glimpse on the Amboro National Park nearby. Another remarkable bustrip brought me to Sucre - the white city -, where I spend Christmas and New Years Eve, there are certainly worse places to get stuck at in Bolivia. I passed through the mining town of Potosi on my way to Uyuni, where most of the trips to the "Salar" start, which I thought would be a Bolivia-highlight and a good way to leave Bolivia ( and it certainly was). The Salar was stunning, nothing but white as far as you can see, but I also liked the EPIC desert landscapes that followed: some little vicuñas almost blending in with the background with their brown fur, and in the distance mountains with a mixture of colours ( vulcanic sediments) - milky white,caramel,yellow,red and different shades of brown blending into each other. And of course there were all those "lagunas", most impressive the "Laguna Colorada" with loads of flamingos , also vulcanos and geysirs to marvel at. I crossed the border into Chile at a little remote outpost and just arrived at the "touristvillage" of San Pedro de Atamaca

Wie jede Blüte welkt und jede Jugend
Dem Alter weicht, blüht jede Lebensstufe,
Blüht jede Weisheit auch und jede Tugend
Zu ihrer Zeit und darf nicht ewig dauern.
Es muß das Herz bei jedem Lebensrufe
Bereit zum Abschied sein und Neubeginne,
Um sich in Tapferkeit und ohne Trauern
In andre, neue Bindungen zu geben
Und jedem Anfang wohnt ein Zauber inne,
Der uns beschützt und der uns hilft, zu leben.

Wir sollen heiter Raum um Raum durchschreiten,
An keinem wie an einer Heimat hängen,
Der Weltgeist will nicht fesseln uns und engen,
Er will uns Stuf' um Stufe heben, weiten.
Kaum sind wir heimisch einem Lebenskreise
Und traulich eingewohnt, so droht Erschlaffen,
Nur wer bereit zu Aufbruch ist und Reise,
Mag lähmender Gewöhnung sich entraffen.

Es wird vielleicht auch noch die Todesstunde
Uns neuen Räumen jung entgegen senden,
Des Lebens Ruf an uns wird niemals enden...
Wohlan denn, Herz, nimm Abschied und gesunde!
(Hermann Hesse)

Well, it felt a bit like running from Cusco or running out of money, but I could hardly leave without having seen Machu Picchu, could I? I got myself on a Sacred Valley tour, maybe a bit too much of a tourist shock after returning from the remote ManuNationalPark. The first place we stopped at was a town called Pisac-althrough it was sunday, there was not much left of the traditional market- the tourist market had taken over completely many years ago...well from Cusco I've been used to people dressed up in traditional clothing with lamas behind them, their first word not being "Hola", but "Do you want a picture with a lama?" - but here on the market  I saw a mother dressing up her little girl- ohh sooo cute in traditional clothing with a nice hat - , then putting a lama baby up to the girls chest, slapping the lama to get it in the right position - the expression on the girls face certainly put me off taking pictures of any of those kids. And while the kid was send off for tourist snapshots ( she was barely around the corner when the first tourists couldn't resist), the mother was dressing up her second, even younger daughter. Another woman asked me if I want to take a pic of her baby - I just felt the urge to run from this place......the Inka- ruins were impressive though, even more the ones at the beautyful town of Ollantaytambo, although the weather started to get nasty, and when I got off the train in Aqua Caliente ( the place near MachuPicchu ) that evening, all that I could do was put up my wet clothes to dry and hope for better weather for the next day. I made it to the bus station shortly before 4:30 the next morning and got one of the last seats on the first bus up to MachuPicchu at 5:30 - getting up that windy zig-zag-road revealed the stunning surrounding with every turn of the road, finally I arrived at MachuPicchu, and as there were only about 40 people who hiked up to the entrance that morning, it wasn't a problem to get one of those 400 stamps that allow you to climb Huaynapicchu, the mountain you see in the typical MachuPicchu-snapshot. Beeing at the ruins quite early, I enjoyed the view before the huge touristgroups arrived - and I can't say anything but that it's a magnificent, stunning, impressive, magic place, also I was lucky with the weather- blue skies and pure sunshine. Around noon I hiked up that mountain to enjoy the breathtaking view down on the town that indeed has the shape of a condor. I returned to Cusco and went on to Puno at the Lake Titicaca, I explored some of the islands on the lake, like the floating islands of the Uros people, the Taquile Island and the "Isla de la sol" on the bolivian side of the lake. Obviously I made it to Bolivia, from Lake Titicaca I went on to LaPaz, didn't stay tooo long in that big city before I went on to the town of Cochabamba.