South America:

19.01.

.

16.02.

07.04

Sydney, Australia

Antigua, Guatemala

Cartagena, Columbia

Merida, Venezuela

 Santa Elena, Venezuela

Boa Vista, Brazil

31.07.

 18.08.

 25.09.

 11.10.

Santiago, Chile

San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

La Paz, Bolivia

Buenos Aires, Argentina

This is it.

In Sydney my Australian adventure has begun over eight months ago and here it will end.

Experience the new year in Sydney was magical. On the steps of the Opera House, overlooking the world-famous harbor bridge, what an experience.

Now the new year is already three weeks old and again in recent weeks, a lot has happened. My plans have changed a dozen times. I made a little trip up the east coast and had some nice days on the Great Barrier Reef. With a stopover in Brisbane I returned to Sydney and now I prepare myself for a whole new adventure.

On 23 January, I will fly from Sydney via Los Angeles and Ft. Lauderdale to Guatemala City. I will pick up my bike which is chained in the backyard of a hostel for more than one year now.


From there I will go to Colombia. South America I come!

My trip officially started with the exit stamp at the international airport of Sydney.

I looked forward to a 13 hours flight with a lot of movies, video games, music and of course dinner and breakfast. By jumping over the international data line, the setting sun became a rising one, as we were traveling faster than time. After the departure at 9 pm and a 13-hour flight, I reached Los Angeles by 3 pm the same day, six hours before I actually started.
It was a good trip. In the long, even for my legs, comfortable seats, I found good ten hours of sleep.

Rested and exited about my 39th stamp, I walked to "Homeland Security" for passport control,. Fingerprinting and photography. My ninth entry into the United States of America, ran as smoothly as usual.

For five hours I had a big smile on his, running through various terminals. Suddenly it was back. The feeling that I had almost forgotten. The travel bug was back. I was back on the road. Back in one of my favorite tourist countries.
My smile turned into a quivering and I couldn’t stop it while waiting for my plane in Florida. I went to the beach, that place where I have been one and a half years ago, on the US Roadtrip with Linda and again later before reaching Miami by bike. What a feeling to be back.

I flew Spirit Air to my last destination, Guatemala City, Back into the chaos of Central America.
Without a trace of jet lag after 33 hours I had reached my final destination but the highlight was yet to come.

I left the shuttle bus in Antigua and I walked familiar streets until I stopped in front of the "Jungle Party Hostel".
Here it was, here I had locked my bike on 13th January 2009. I opened the door and there it was!

I think I've never seen anything so beautiful. The red bags, the black handlebar, the tires who have never let me down, it was all there. For a year I've been waiting for this moment, the moment that I open these locks again.

I do not need to mention that I can’t wait to get back on this sattle.

Colombia here I come!

I spent two weeks in Antigua and granted me the luxury of a Spanish school. I need a little practice, but the basics work out quite well.

Leaving Guatemala, I have continued my journey through Central America. In Panama City, I used the last chance to stock up on U.S. dollars and get some spare parts for my bike.

Unfortunately, my search for a boat to Colombia was not successful, (a boat across the Pacific was easy to find) and so I finally decided to take the plane to Colombia.
At the airport, nobody was surprised that my bike box weighed nearly 30 kg (packed with two of my panniers) and so I flew with gas stove and bottle.

Cartagena is the starting point for my "Bicycle Adventure South America 2010". It's hot! I'm sweating continuously, and could actually live directly under the shower.
After doing Colombia and Venezuela I will go through the "Guyanas" via Brasil. The road to the south will lead me cross the Amazon and to the Iguazu waterfalls. I hope to reach Tierra del Fuego in six month.

Next I will go back along the west coast. Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador are on the way. The circle closes in Colombia, by the end of the year, so I hope.

That's the plan and anyone who knows me, knows that I don’t allow any changes in my plans :-)

I'm traveling in South America and the first days were hard. It is hot and noisy, it stinks and it is a total chaos. Not the best conditions for a month-long bicycle tour across the continent.
After the first five days I have really had thought about taking a plane out of here.
Then there're these little things that make it so special. Nice people and nice conversations.
The first week I spent every night on another farm and I never had to prepare make my own dinner.
In Bucaramanga I met Carolina, I've met her a year ago in Panama. It felt good to relax for a few days and not to have to get back on the bike the next morning.
The first Andean pass came quick and hit hard. It was a 60km climb to "Berlin" and took almost ten hours. The 160km down to the border were then done in four hours. What a blessing.
In Cucuta, I crossed into Venezuela, the fourth "most dangerous country in the world" on my trip.
The paperwork was done in five minutes. At the first intersection I had to ask for the way and got invited for breakfast, how dangerous is that.
Two minutes later I had to fight a taxi driver who wanted support my trip with five dollars. The second Andean pass ended at a police checkpoint and cruelly, with an lunch invitation from the officer on duty.
In the afternoon bananas and oranges were given to me on the way and my first day in Venezuela ended with a dinner with my hosts for the night.

In Merida I'm going to take a break before I'll fly down into the hot plains. Looking forward to a ride down the Andes roads.

mhhh, Mangoo


Cocain? For me it is all coffee


Crossing Rio Magdalena

Blockades in Columba


Going home


want some fruit???


New friends on the road





Being high up in Columbia

Yes, the steppes were hot, big and boring. It went straight on, for days and days. Passing small towns and remote restaurants in the middle of nowhere.

Every morning I played with the idea changing the route and go to Caracas and along the coast. A little further and more dangerous (as everyone says) but perhaps more interesting.

People were talking of a Japanese who rode the same route four days ago. After a while he was just two days ahead and then, all the sudden, he was standing there.
Ken (much easier than the Japanese name) had left Alaska in June 2008 and was, like me, on the way to Santa Elena and the Brazilian border.
That is luck, a travel companion was exactly what I needed now. There were 2000 km to ride to Brasil.
For a week we went through barely changing landscape. We slept in military posts, hospitals and small restaurants. We didn’t have to worry about food. An invitation daily was the average, four meals a day the maximum. Through sun, dust and the many presents our consumption of coke increased to up to three liters per person per day.
The police set up roadblocks on the main routes and inspected (more or less) the transport documents of hundreds of trucks roar down the roads. It was not rare that we got invited to a glass of "confiscated" Coke before we were allowed to pass.

Once again, a smile grew on my face when I saw the Orinoco river bridge and Ciudad Bolivar, the first real city after nearly two weeks, and this is important, a real bed.

After hours in an internet cafe, kilos of corn flakes and a few days without my bike, we went on. Same road, same pictures. With the Easter holiday traffic coming up the police was even more present and we surprised once again with the many colorful stamps in our passports. I could have had being married to hundreds of Venezuelans, after showing pictures of my family which I carry around in my diary.

It was not before Km 88 (a larger town than Km 33 and Km for 56) that the landscape dramaticly changed. After a 40 km ascent, we were in the "Gran Savanna", the nature paradise of Venezuela and the home of the highest waterfalls in the world (not in the dry season) and Roraima, one of the meeting points for mountain trekking fans from around the world.

In the Easter holidays to Gran Savanna is also the destination for thousands of campers and short-term tourists from all over Venezuela.
A five-day hike on a 2500 meter high mountain was not on my "to do list, but since the Angel Falls tours have been canceled because of water shortage, why not.
Loaded with three kilos of pasta, tents and hiking boots we were off to a five-day mountain hiking adventure. This time, the predictions were right. It was "the highlight" in Venezuela.

The last 70 km to the Brazilian border were like a recovery phase. Here, in Santa Elena de Uairen, we will now separate after riding together for almost a month. I am going on to Brazil and Ken will return to Colombia for the Pan-American Highway to go to Chile.

Just one more useful information. If you have to take the bus because you can’t pay fuel anymore, come to Venezuela. One liter is 0.01 Euro (one cent per liter) and I filled up the fuel bottle for my stove for 0.002 Euro.

Going to Venezuela


The way I came


A new passenger


Please, stay on the road


I am famous :-)


Roraima, Venezuela

with Ken at the "Tripplepoint"


Basecamp


on the lookout

looking for ants


rainy season in Guyana


Where is the bridge???


going down the main road

It was good to return to a "normal" day-to-day life. A short time to wake up from a dream that I can call life for two and a half years now.

It was a necessary break from a daily routine which, at the end perhaps become a little too normal. It was a positive change to feel needed again and to actually do something productive with my time. It was nice to see my family and to fall back into old habits for a while.

My old and a lot of new friends gave me the feeling that I wasn’t too far away. The feeling that I still matter in their lives. Nevertheless, there was this demand for something new and, there was a date with Karoline. We had met two years ago in Iceland. Since then, summer of 2008 we had dreamed of a trip through South America and now, at 31 July 2010, it should finally happen.
My first stopover on the way to Chile, was the "Tropics" hotel in Miami Beach, USA.

From Ft. Lauderdale airport, I went towards South America and in the direction of the first problems. By law the airlines are required to check on an onward ticket from Peru before they can issue a ticket. In my case, with a one-way flight, this already failed. The second problem was a self-imposed ban for excess baggage on flights to Lima. More than 25Kg are simply not allowed. The manager himself had to come to the counter give me the green light for the bicycle. The way was clear for 47kg of bicycle equipment.

The other problem couldn’t be solved that simple and an e-mail from the Peruvian government finally told me to get a return ticket. I had to switch to plan B, a solution of which I have read so many times but never been affected myself. I needed a ticket. After one hour with a relaxed official I had my boarding pass to Peru in the hand and a return trip to Miami in the pocket. Do I really need that… we will see.

Fifty hours were scheduled for the bus ride to Santiago and, oh yes fifty hours it was! I gave myself a little bit of luxury, cruising the Pan- American Highway first class.

And then, somewhere in the Peruvian desert, when the sun rose above the Andes, it was back. This feeling of being on the road again and it felt amazing. On the way to new adventures in a new world.

Now we sit in a hostel in the capital of Chile with the normal south American chaos out there. We are excited about the next six weeks in Chile, Bolivia and Peru.

After two days in Santiago our first goal was Valparaiso on the Pacific coast.
With the Pacific Ocean on our left, we went north and after a few stops we found ourselves in Copiapo, the starting point for our adventure in the "National Park Nevada Tres Cruzes”. With a rented SUV, we made our way through the mud and gravel roads near the border with Argentina. We got to the last checkpoint at 9 PM, two hours after the gate were closed.
The nights up here are freezing cold with twenty degrees below and we were lucky to meet a smiling policeman who offered us a room to sleep in. We spent our first night at 3800 m above sea level next to oxygen masks and painkillers on stretchers in a pleasantly warm customs station.
On the next morning, breakfast was waiting for us and at nine o’clock we were on the way to "pass of San Francisco”.
We went past herds of Vicunas and the highest mountain in Chile, "Ojos del Salados" at the sight of diamonds eyes sparkle strangely began.
Today's highlight, however, was another. The Green Lagoon (Laguna Verde) was waiting with its breathtaking beauty.
On the way back the unexpected happened. In the middle of the plateau of the Chilean Andes without a helping hand in sight, the car suddenly stopped with a damage to the alternator. It was a while before the first car came along and dragged us into the Customs Station where we had spent the previous night.
Our friendly police officer was not worried about the two tourists who’d just broken down but was rather happy to have guests for dinner and breakfast. We spent that night in the second sleeping room and “Toby” arranged the road assistance to pick us up the next morning. For us, equipped for all eventualities anyway, it was just another adventure.
The Humboldt penguins are residents in “Park National Pan de Azucar” and after a interesting day we took the night bus to San Pedro de Atacama. Time for a new adventure.

Valparaiso, Chile


One night with the police


Vicuna


Sunset NP "Pan de Azucar"


it is a long way


Laguna Verde, Nationalpark "Tres Cruzes"


Hunting


Humboldt Pinguins


Hot springs


Proud


... still proud


Argentina


Toby, the friendly police man

It was a long way crossing the desert and up to the worlds’ highest capital 4000 m above sea level.
In San Pedro we decided to join a tour across the "Uyuni salt flats”. A few dozen tour operators take groups in three days from San Pedro in Chile to Uyuni, Bolivia.
A general strike had stopped life in the Bolivian city of "Potosi" and cut off the supply lines for fuel in the southern part of Bolivia. For the last ten days more than thirty tourists had been stuck in Potosi. Tour vehicles couldn’t fuel up after their arrival in Uyuni and couldn’t be sent back to Chile. Most tour operators were running out of cars. We found one company that could still offer tours. Our idea found 14 other participants from Italy, Spain, Belgium, France and England. We went past stunning lagoons and herds of llamas and vicunas.
The first day went according to the plan but at dinner time the first news about a changed situation came over the radio. The strike had spread out to Uyuni.
The new morning brought new information. Other groups were already stuck and our next night camp was not to reach for some, for us not apparent reason. Our guides ensured replacement and organized a hotel in the small town of San Juan on the edge of the Uyuni desert. Now the situation changed every hour. Uyuni was sealed off and once in the city, it was impossible to leave. The solution: a third night in the desert and the direct route back to Chile. Meanwhile, there was no other topic in the group.
The fourth day began with a surprise. The idea rose that we would hire two vehicles with drivers, who would navigate around the road blocks.
Shortly after sunrise 14 tourists in two SUVs rushed across the desert on unmarked roads with the hope of an unstopped ride on the white surface.
Eight hours later, these 14 tourists arrived in Oruro, just four hours away from La Paz.

We have some fun on the salt flats


Flamingo


Crisis


Salt flats Bolivia


traditional party on the way to La Paz

The last weeks have been packed with highlights. Uyuni Salt Flats, Lake Titicaca, Machu Picchu, Nazca, and Easter Island for a stunning end.

Now I am back in Santiago, and prepare myself for the next 5,000 kilometers on two wheels. From Chile to Argentina, the Iguazu Falls and across Brazil back to Venezuela. I got a new tent in the luggage and new ideas in my head. It is a little bit of a race race against the calendar because I would like to sit on the Caribbean beach mid-December.

Easter Island, Chile

Hiking in Huaraz, Peru

Machu Picchu with Karo

riding the most dangerous road of the world near La Paz, Bolivia


THE Road

I didn’t see it coming and I don’t remember the moment it actually happened. I do remember lying on the hard asphalt, unable to move my legs.

The next time I opened my eyes, I was in a hospital with thirty stitches in my head and a bandage stabilizing my four times fractured leg.

Later, the police told me that a 45t truck had hit me with 100km/h (60mph) from behind. I got airborne and shattered into the ditch in a distance of ten meters. On the way off the bike I hit the handlebar quite badly and broke my pelvis bone as well. It took one hour to get me to the hospital and I was knocked out for three hours in total.

I’m lucky to be alive with all my bones at the right spot and I want to thank everybody who is trying to get me back out there. Thanks to Pamela Pomeis and her team of the “hospital publico Villa Mercedes”. I also want to thank for all the visits in the hospital, the good wishes, e-mails and FB- messages.

It is the first time I really have to hope for help supporting me in a foreign country. It is awesome. My health insurance does everything necessary and even moved me to a private clinic in Buenos Aires to get the operation done properly. Did I mention, they moved me in a private plane accompanied by two doctors.

My sister, who got informed by the police in the first place, coordinates the actions from Germany, connecting the insurance, the embassy, the hospitals. Once again she is the most important person and the best sister in the world anyway!

There are some operations to be done and I’m looking towards some recovering time of at least another month in the hospital. As I can’t move at all, I will just call my hospital “home” since Christmas.

The police told me that my bike looks a little bit shorter than it used to but I will sure get back on the bike (or a new one) next year. There must come something bigger than a truck to stop this trip.

Transport to Buenos Aires


Truck accident on Routa 7

half way between the Pazific and the Atlantic


the Andes


"las curvas"