Sunset Saturday XXXX

I am still in Durban and running around the ICC, climbing over the bridge, organizing things, attending meetings, and hoping for some successful outcome of the COP17. In all this craziness, I hardly know what the weather is like during the day, and I certainly didn't have time to take any scenic pictures (yet). So here's a photo of the sun setting behind the high-rise buildings in Valparaiso, taken during my trip last year. Enjoy your weekend und den 2. Advent!

Sunset Saturday XV

I snapped this picture of one of the sunsets during the longest bus journeys I have ever been through, somewhere along the Pacific coast of northern Chile. After the earthquake I did not really want to stay in Santiago but the only way out was by bus. And so I booked the ticket for the 30-hour bus ride from Santiago to Arica. The sunset and the tranquility of the ocean were nice to watch, but I remember that looking at the steady swell for too long made me kind of dizzy. From Arica, it was 'only' another 10-hour bus ride to La Paz and then I did not even want to come close to a bus for a couple of days.

surviving Santiago

the earthquake hit in the early hours of the morning and shook everyone out of bed by its force

luckily, the building was very solid and so no big damage was done but of course everyone was shocked and scared and only slowly realised what had just happened

I am really thankful for getting out of this without a scratch, but my thoughts are with those who were not as lucky as we were...

Vulkanalarm

arriving in Pucon late at night I only got a glimpse of something glowing red in the air in the distance - apparently the top of the volcano

the next morning everything was covered in clouds and rain....like a moody diva the volcano kept hiding from us for the next 2 days behind her white and grey veil!




only when we boarded the bus to leave Pucon the volcano finally showed us a little bit of the snow-covered summit and the white slopes in the evening sun...



(sorry for the poor quality but that's the best shot I was able to get with my camera from the bus)

lost in time

Chiloé's island of Mechuque seems to be part of a different timezone.
It feels like travelling back at least a 100 years and if it wasn't for the TV antennas on the roofs of the shingled houses and some random kid with an electric guitar on his way to I-don't-know-where, you wouldn't know it's the 21st century.

For a short afternoon we enjoyed the laid-back atmosphere and took in the slow pace of life, wandering around the tiny town before the boat took us back to the bigger island of Chiloé, on first sight similarly last-century-like but reality hits quickly once you´re back on the busy streets of Castro.

A Day in Jurassic Park

Leaving Coihayque, the Carreterra Austral leads through Valdivian rainforests into the Queulat National Park with its huge trees and enormous ferns.
The jungle is so thick that you can´t see the ground and only hear the noise of the almost constant rain and the birds hiding in the green.

In this landscape you totally wouldn´t be surprised if an ancient dinosaur would suddenly appear on the narrow road in front of you and even the birds´cries resemble the noises that we all know from certain movies....

After hours of driving up and down, passing waterfalls and glaciers, we reached little Puerto Puyuhuapi on the fjord and I was glad to be back with some more humans ;)

General Carrera

The second day of our road trip we spent driving around a huge lake in a beautiful landscape. In Argentina it is called Lago Buenos Aires, but after crossing the border into Chile, they call it Lago General Carrera.

The gravel road is quite narrow and winds up and down along the shores of the lake, so you get very pretty views from a lot of different angles.

After hours and hours we finally reached the Carreterra Austral and left the General behind us to get to Villa Cerro Castillo - but before we left, we got a beautiful rainbow as a goodbye...