Africa, BABY!, Africa....

Off i went again about a week ago, where this time i am dragging my bum across Africa! First part was a bit more touristy, but no less fun, climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro with my dad, and then doing a safari with mom and dad across the serengeti.

At Kilimanjaro airport we had no visa problems, getting our bags right away and our guide was already waiting to take us to the hotel, it was almost scary how everything worked out. Well until I unpacked and found that my hairgel had exploded (what dork travels with hairgel anyways, serves me right I say!!!) I am currently still brushing my teeth with that faint taste of gel, I think it s pineapple flavor!

After a good nights sleep we got up the next morning and found the porters, cook and guide, already preparing everything, our bags were (despite our disagreement) taken by the porters and we were given these tiny backpacks to carry, we had the mandatory guide, assistant guide, cook and four porters that all carried up to 35kg up the mountain. A little on the insane side when you see that they are carrying tables, chairs, and non-dried food up there... but hey, arguing was senseless, that s the way it s been done, no change to come... hmm....

Us and our porters/guide/cook...

Several groups on their way...carrying their load on their head



Camp 1

After starting from Machame gate at 1500 meters we walked slowly (pole pole, in the Swahili language) up to the first camp, enjoyed the easy hike through the jungle, talking to the cook and learning the most important words of Swahili, now, after a week me and my dad can already properly introduce ourselves, talk about the weather and most importantly haggle and bargain, its great fun!! We slept at 3000 meters the first night (about 10000 feet) and over the next three days slowly hiked up to 4600 meters, to properly acclimatize... of the 50 people or so that tried to summit the mountain the same day we did, many were already complaining of AMS (accute mountain sickness), which can occur above 10000 feet and lead to headaches and vomiting in the beginning, but become much more serious later if not properly treated. Having learned a thing or two from Lucas, the swiss doctor i traveled with in Nepal, I tried to help a couple of people that complained about problems, and explain basics how to minimize the altitude problems (e.g. staying above camp for a couple of hours before sleep if there is time, lots and lots and even more fluids, nope guys, beer wont do the trick!).

Last leg we were supposed to get up at 11.20 pm, no sleep for me as my dad was snoring like he s at sea level.. all the power to him if he can sleep at that altitude... we got up to get ready, had a hefty breakfast... strange only 5 hours after dinner.... and set off at midnight to watch my most spectacular hike i have done so far.... star lit sky, the moon lighting some of the way.... it was bitter cold... about -20C/-10F, so the breaks we took were many but short, again hydration was very important... at 5 30 am, about 2 hours ahead of schedule we arrived on top of Kilimanjaro at 5895 meters, 19345feet, VERY exhausted (me that is, my dad is a machine, I dont know how he does it with 57 years old, but i sure hope its heredetory!!)

Creatures at the top... my dad, guide and porter...

Did it!

Amazing bud sadly slowly disappearing glacier...

Picture of a lifetime: Glacier, Mt. Meru (small one) and shadow of Kilimanjaro (big one)

I was hyper taking tons of pictures as the sun came up, it also kept me warm. After an amazing sunrise and about 45minutes rest we descended at six fifteen, passing by all the ones slowly making it to the top. Back on the steep volcano rock face we could easily surf down the gravel, but had to take care, falling would have been quite painful, we descended the 1200 meters elevation in 45minutes, and finally got breakfast, WONDERFUL....

My mom arrived a day later, having made the trip by herself to Tanzania. She was picked up by achmed, our fantastic tour organizer. Like so many others that have booked tours with him, I inquired about 1 year ago about kili and safaris, and though i knew little about this guy called achmed, with flawless english and good german skills (never occurred to me to ask), I was very surprised to see this tall skinny English guy picking us up at the airport. Truth is i would have been less surprised by a 5foot1 Pakistani with a small mustache...

Achmed proofed to be a great choice, no surprise after the meticulous answering of my questions and thorough inquiries.

At the serengeti, we witnessed all the wonderful wildlife (we saw the big five over and over... (big5 being elephant,lion,buffalo,rhino and leopard, the latter two really hard to encounter), plus lots of cheetas, birds, baby lions playing...a male lion 5 feet from our car, etc....), then returned to a wonderful lodge, and reviewed the day by having a cold beer and looking at the pictures on the digital camera, followed by a wonderful dinner....

Impressions from the Serengeti....

I knew already the days of plenty and posh hotels would soon be over. After spending the last night in a gorgeous hotel in arusha and having a grand time with my parents, i left last Saturday to backpack again, .... first i visited Kate and her family in Nairobi, a girl i met while skydiving in New Zealand. She was so nice to offer her "hilton gardens lodge", a shack they have below their huge house in a nice district a bit off Nirobi downtown, like the beverly hills area. I was received very nicely with a great curry her dad made and spent two days there, visiting museums and a snake farm, and decided to go off by myself to the north a bit too.

That was quite the trip I have to say.... I haven't seen another traveler in two days... just taking matatas (like minibuses for locals), spent yesterday at lake naivasha visiting a gorge. I had to stay in the hotel all night since I ran out of money, the banks close at three and the cash machine was broken.... so crackers and water is was.

Hiking the devil's canyon

Now i am in nankuru, it is deserted from travellers (the tourist hotel is absolutely empty, I am the only visitor and have been for days)... after the extremists set fire to three german hotels in kenya people are scared, but I feel very safe here... its totally off the radar out in the boonies. Not what most of you would call "nice traveling", a lot of poverty and no tourist facilities, but people are very friendly and it is certainly interesting and gives you a different perspective. I ended up taking a 5h minibus, cramped in with 10 locals and about 20 boxes of young chickens (2000 chickens, not chicks unfortunately!! :), the noise was UNBEARABLE, i am still coughing up feathers, but its a trip i wont forget.

Roger and the 2000 chicks

p.s. 1
note that the correct translation for roundabout in swahili (as found in the official english-swahili dictionary from daressalam university), is keepylefty keepylefty

p.s. 2
it is said to be a fact that the great massai tribe that live in his area, claim to be the rightful owners of all cows around the world...they just haven't had the time to collect them yet....

p.s.3
katia (a friend i met traveling in bolivia, chile and new zealand, gave me a book called "the essential survival kit for traveling", and I actually already used it: there is a section called "how to pass a bribe", which I had to do yesterday since I was out of money and could not pay the entry fee to a nice park, the guard, after a textbook bribing conversation let me in for free (after i paid him a third of the entry fee i was supposed to pay... good stuff to know!

Far away in a land down under....

I have been to so many places, seen so many continents, but Australia and NZ have been given a miss until now, and I ll be damned if I wont come back. I took one of the longest flights in exsistence, Santiago de Chile to Auckland... 17 odd hours and with the timechange thing where you fly over the time zone I actually missed an entire day and flew on the 20th, and arrived on the 22nd... groovy.. or not, since I lost a day.

I got picked up by a friend who I stayed with in Auckland, and she showed me the city and I stayed there for a few days, but it was not really why I came down under for... the amazing outdoor activities is what lured me, and soon made me leave the city. I was happy to find that Katia was just a few hundred miles north, she had meanwhile traveled to Fiji to meet her boyfriend for a 2 week vacation (sort of a vacation from travelling :), and was back. So we met up at 90 mile beach and took a day trip to the "end of new zealand" where the two mjor streams of the pacific and atlantic collide... amazing to see the large swirls....

Roger on 90mile beach (actuality its much shorter but kiwi's like to exxagerate :)

A little fun must be included... woohoo!

The end of 90 mile beach and new zealand...

I speed-travelled the north island in a figure 8 path, only had 8 days and then three weeks in Australia, I had spent too much time in South America and was running out of time to get back to CH, work for 2 weeks, get my visa's straightened out for the US (work) and Africa (travel), so oh well speed traveling it was!

Went down to Rotorua and Taupo, where I mountain biked, visited active crators, hiked the tongariro crossing, did some caving and my very first skydive!!

That was a whole lot of fun and action all packed into about 7 days. In Rotorura I met Karen and Mike from England and we became a good travel pack for those days, they were on their honeymoon, sold their house to travel for one year, and were adventure junkies like me. We had a grand time, and mixed our daytime adventures with pub crawls at night so there was no time to rest until I flew out to Australia. All in all a very good time, but way too short, need to come back some day, especially since I have not seen the south island yet.

Caving trip, amazing views but the darkness and water is not conducive to cameras!

Some mountain they used for Lord of the Rings

Tangariro crossing, bitter cold

Karen, Mike and I

Dont I look like one of the Armageddon guys?!? :)

Australia was not much different, you cannot see a continent in three weeks, so I did not attempt to do so and focused on staying with my friend Alexandra and her husband (she is originally swiss) in Sydney, and her mom Maggie in the blue mountains. I had a phantastic time staying with them, after months of no private room it was nice to have a home for a few days, and swiss friends to talk to!

The usual classic picture...

In the blue mountains with Alex, her husband, and Maggie

Three sisters...

Additionally I booked a trip from the northwest down to Sydney, taking a one-way flight up to Cairns. Up there I started off easy with some snorkeling trip, and getting ready to take the bus down to Airlie Beach where I would take a two night three day sailing trip to the whitsunday islands. Arriving in Cairns I realized that the laid back traveling of south america had given way to adventurous excursions in NZ and now wild parties in australia. Not that I am a prude but I saw more live $ex shows from travelers getting it on right there in the bunk bed next to me, and saw more live throwup parties (fortunately except for once they always made it out of the room) than I ever needed to see. See here is the deal, the trip you book is dirt cheap, and the quality you get is dirt cheap... not complaining, you get what you pay for. So 30+ bunk beds it was....

After that somewhat shocking first few days in Cairns I realized if you cant beat them (e.g really I felt like beating some of them... was I getting old and cranky?) you have to join them. After all I had two weeks left and then I was going to travel off the beaten path in Afria again....

So once I arrived in Airlie Beach after a 20h bus ride I was plastered, and checked into my gigantic bunk bed room and chose the bed the farthest away from the bathroom (that s where most of the action occurred at night, either or if you know what i mean). I met a german, english and canadian girl who were all about to head out to the bar, and they convinced me to go with them as sleeping now would not be smart, the only way to get a full nights sleep is to go out and be home last, most drunk.. hey, whaddayaknow? The english gal had gigantic knockers and ended up being harassed every 15 minutes by random guys who begged her to take part in the miss wet tshirt contest.. and finally caved, not because of the guys, but because of the rather impressive 1000 australian dollars first price.. heck I d consider showing mine if I had any :)

So Miriah (the canadian girl) and I, after having drinken several pitchers, proceeded to go to the contest to support the gal by telling every guy in there who to vote for.. once the thing started the commentator came to the front and started getting everybody fired up... people stared jumping around and the girls got on stage and it was too lound to hear what was going on but somehow he started pointing to me, maybe because I jumped the highest... but all of a sudden I realized I was the one that was supposed to pour the ice water (two pitchers each, in both hands) over the girls shirts.... yep, sure not something my mom would have been proud to see but probably one of the "top hunderd things to do before I die" off the list! :)

Believe it or not it was hard work, sure I got front row but had to slowly pour fifteen times two gallons of ice water over these girls, and my arms were hammered by the end. For my hard work I got even more free beer which tipped the scale to favor the idiot in me, there was random beach exploration with Miriah involved, and fence climbing which damn near killed her as she got stuck hanging upside down (only to find out the next morning that literally five meters next to there the fence was open)... needless to say I did have a good nights sleep, latest and drunkest.

The sailing trip to the whitsunday islands was fun, though it ended up not really being a sailing trip since there was no wind.

Jungle, Mountain, Sea

About 11 months into my travels, I am far from being done mentally with traveling, in fact I like it so much I will extend it to 18 months. South America has really gotten to me, despite the fact that i have had some really scary moments on this trip, and as you will now find out, the past month as well!

Last I communicated I was spending about 2 weeks relaxing in BA, staying with my friends ... I had a grand time there, people here are super hospitable and I also barely spoke English during my stay, getting to know the locals much better than the gringos, a nice change of pace for this part of the trip.

La Boca... part of Buenos Aires

The last night in BA I actually met up with Jennifer, a girl I hiked with in Patagonia, and it involved way too much alcohol and too little sleep, a tradeof when spending time with travelers that dont have to get up at a specific time the next morning. I left for Foz de Iguazu (largest waterfalls in the world, as big as the niagra falls, with gorgeous tropical backdrop!)....

Part of the falls...

The big momma!!

Everything s big here.. even the ants!!

The park...

I spent again more time there than anticipated...probably simply since the longer you travel, the slower you go, seeing new places becomes less important than just being out there and experiencing different cultures. Argentina is first rate and dirt-cheap, and the travellers and hostel staff just made me stay a few extra days... since it was low season there, there were about 5-7 staff members and not many more guests, Yamila, was so kind to show me the area around town and exercise the large knowledge she had aquired during tourism school... an offer too good to say no to.

I did have a pain to catch for Australia in three weeks time, so I traversed Paraguay pretty quickly and ended up flying to La Paz instead of taking the 50h, horrifying sleeper bus that travelers had warned me about... I m sure it would have been a good experience :)

Arriving in La Paz, there had been this big plan looming in my head ever since Dani and I travelled through Peru and Bolivia, climbing a mountain higher than 6000 meters (20000 feet). I dont mull things over for too long usually, I sign up and suffer the consequences later, so I did.
After a few hours of checking out the possibilities it was all set, get acclimatized very fast (I really only had 48 h at 3500 meters, then was to ascend to 5200 meters for one night, and get the peak at 6088 meters the next day at dawn.....) Acclimatization isnt that hard for me, so I spent the good part of the day drinking tons of water and mate de coca, and getting my stuff ready for the trip. There was a great bit of anticipation in me, I had been above 5000 meters, but only over passes, and as we were climbing Huayana Potosi, and there was a 70 degree glacier right at the end, ice climbing at 6000 meters could not to be taken lightly. I got my gear, and since Marc, the second person coming along, felt stomach sick, I agreed to additionally carry our tent, which gave me a hefty 25-30 kg backpack that I needed to carry from the base at 4600 meters to the basecamp at 5200 meters.

Finally up there, after stunning views of the peak-to-climb, we put up the tent, ate dinner at 4 pm, and went to sleep at 5pm. Well we laid in the sleeping bag until midnight, sleep never came at that altitude and additionally there was a mean wind blowing, sounding like our tent was about to fly away with us in it! At midnight we got up, under a perfectly lit star sky, almost full moon, so we did not need our lights for breakfast and preparations, as the reflecting glacier even enhanced the light. Anyhow, a tough six hours of hiking on the glacier and a last great effort ice-climbing the last 200 meters at a 70 degree inclination, we got up there just as the sun came up. Very happy but also very very tired, it is really true that at these elevations you can only do a few dozen steps before needing a break, unimaginable how it must be over 8000 meters!

Uppedy up....

Roger over 6000m on top of Huaina Potosi...

After another 5 hours of descent we arrived in la paz later this afternoon, i pretty much went to bed right away (again at 5, only this time no 2 minutes needed to fall asleep!) and slept until my alarm clock woke me at 6 am.

I had another mission! Montainbiking down the worlds most dangerous road (150 deaths each year on a 65 km strech from La Paz cumbre (4700m) to Coroico (1500m). Nope, i dont have a death wish, but this is the road to the jungle in bolivia, and as i didnt want to fly both ways i decided biking down is safer than taking a bus with some sleep-deprived, drunken driver.
The day started as well as it ended... I had a great breakfast, got my material (a brand new trek bike with disc brakes), and found out i was the only one doing the trip, along came a bike guide and a driver (to bring my bags and food, etc...). Crazy, all that, 2 guys for a full day, a car, 2 first class mountainbikes and hearty breakfast and lunch (at a hotel-buffet!), cost me 40 US dollars, I do not know how these guys can still make money off of that, really!!

Being an avid mountainbiker i told my guide to give it what he got and not worry about me, i would be able to follow. I was happy to find that I was still in good enough shape and though we were careful at dangerous places (there are dozens of indications of fellow travellers with bikes or buses crased and died along the way) We made the trip in about 2.5 h instead of 6-7 as advertised, good for me, more fun, good for the guide/driver, much shorter work day.

A day later i took the overnight bus to rurrenabaque, down to the jungle in bolivia, this ride was absolutely NOTING for the faint of heart, they call that the easier part of the bus ride down into the jungle, but the Bus was on such a small, rutted road and was going at full speed into curves where I, at the end of the bus, sometimes saw nothing but the Jungle 1000 meters below,.... i arrived at 8.15 in the morning after a pretty unconfortable ride but decided as i was sweaty and dirty i may as well go into the junlge (actually called a pampa tour) for the three days, and as a group was leaving right at 8.30, i was able to save some time that i may need later to get back toSantiago....

For the next three days I was in a group with our guide, Einar the pampas man (great guide that grew up in the pampas and obviously knew every anymal that ever lived there), and an irish and american couple. After a four hour drive to the river, we proceeded to the middle of the pampa by a boat for another four hours, and started seeing the most amazing animals... many birds, some of the most colorful ones I have ever seen, a capibara (the worlds largest rodent, size of a grown pig but looks just like a rat :), crocodiles, aligators, river dolphins, and turtles. We swam with the dolpins, in the river that could not have been more brown, visibility 1 inch, not kidding you. Feels a bit weird swimming in a river with dolphins when alligators are all around, however the guide absolutely swore to us that no alligator comes close to the dolphins.. they swim in large groups and would bite a predator such as the alligator to death. God I believed so much on these travels!

Whats for dinner??

Minus two alligators...

Group foto with the anaconda...


Slimy...


Scary...

And here it goes again, Roger is just a bit too accident prone this trip, but i cant help it!! Roger's close encounter with death #3, last but not least. We discovered a very large turtle nest while cruising down river, and right then the fled out of fear. We knew we had disturbed it and needed to cover its nest so that the vultures would not devour the eggs. Einar asked who wanted to come on shore with him and sure enough I said yes, as always, just a little to eager to try everything. As we were doing this I must have stepped on a beehive. Within seconds there were several dozen bees hoovering all around me and kept attacking and stinging me.... what a nightmare!! Noone else nearby got stung, even though hundreds of bees surrounded us, I had disturbed the peace and I had to pay for it. With my shirt off I kept slapping around as much as I could, but got stung a lot my head, on my face, pretty much wherever i could not reach. Our guide fortunately was quick enough and screamed at everyone to get into the boat, and drove that thing as fast as he could down the river, they threw blankets over me until finally all the bees were gone. According to the guide, who was VERY freaked out, these killer bees can smell you at large distances, he had seen a friend of his get stung literally 150 times, spending 3 weeks in the hospital). I started to take out the stingers, I got stung "only" about 20 times, and as I am not allergic i just took an antihistamine and smeared toothpaste all over the areas, apperently it helps! I was totally dead that night, could barely move, joints were aching, heart war racing, may have been the histamine, the bees or just the adrenaline rush.....

The rest of the trip though I survived quite well, barely got stung by the millions of mosquitos, and had a blast looking for crocs, alligators, and found TWO anacondas!! The second anaconda we tracked down was almost 3 meters in length and it was just great seeing one of those in nature....

After that exciting outing in the jungle I flew to la paz in a military airplane, then made my way to Arica (northern chile), took another 30 h busride, man i am sick of those, and now i am awaiting my flight to new zealand in a few hours. South America has been phantastic, sure will not be the last time I have come here... but now I am looking forward to English speaking, English food (outch!) and 1st world tourism.. bring on New Zealand and Australia!!