Pics of Nat.Park Laguna del Laja, Central Chile

Just scroll down for my last contribution about Salta, Mendoza and Buenos Aires or click on http://jeroenoorschot.blogspot.com/2006/04/salud-de-holanda.html

The pictures of the Nat.Park Laguna del Laja, Central Chile, which couldn't be posted in my story at: http://jeroenoorschot.blogspot.com/2006/04/back-in-argentina-after-many.html


(The vulcanic lake where I got dropped out of the car and where I could impossibly camp; the Laja river near the campsite; my tent with great scenery, before the wind started...; vulcanic remains that block Laja river; a condor!; the lava blocking of the Laja river made these great cascades, a real paradise!)

Salud de… Holanda!

(Back in the Netherlands: Windmill "De Vink" of Herveld, near Zetten)

Well, finally I made the big crossing of oceans again and arrived safely in the Netherlands. My parents picked me up from Amsterdam airport Schiphol and now my residence is my parents’ place in the metropole of Zetten (5.000 heads). Now I’m writing about the last piece of my trip through Argentina and Chile, at my own fast computer, with a CD of the Argentine band Los Fabulosos Cadillacs running in the CD player.

Some things are still to be told about my last days in Salta (if you live in the Netherlands and you’re interested in Northern Argentina, watch the TV programme “Wie is de Mol?”, this is filmed in and around Salta): I rented a car again, to visit the rainforest of Northwest Argentina in the National Park Calilegua (this is part of the rainforest belt which goes into Bolivia). It was a nice Chevrolet Corsa 1.6 Sport (actually an Opel or Vauxhall with another name on it) which drove perfectly. On the way up to the north, I took a policeman and an old farmer as hitchhikers, which was a nice contact. After parking in the forest, I asked the maintenance men of the National Park what was the best way to hike. But they did not explain it to me before I had some coca leaves with them: small leaves that you put into your mouth like a guinea pig and chew and suck a bit (I didn’t feel a thing…).
(Visiting the rain forest of Calilegua: chewing coca leaves; the river grows and turns red from heavy rainfall; without a 4x4, I could come up to 1.000m on the dirtroads; the great colors of the forest)

As I went into the forest, I found out that I completely forgot my mosquito repellent, which is not so smart when you visit a rain forest. The mosquitoes started attacking as soon as I came out of the car. So I dressed in my coat and long trousers, although it was very warm and humid (26°C) and immediately started sweating. I drove around for a bit and hiked some smaller trails and this was really amazing! It’s the red soil, the land slides, the thick green vegetation with brightly colored flowers, the warmth and humidity and the sounds you know from Discovery Channel or any travel or forestry magazine, together with birds, huge colored butterflies and grasshoppers, really amazing and worth driving up there! The raining season had just started there (although it was dry all day), so I could not make it up to the small indigenous villages with my car, but I still had a great experience. But you could see the rain coming: there were thick and dark clouds and the bigger rivers already had been transporting loads of water, since you saw a lot of red streams flowing.

Back in Salta, at the camping site, I talked with a French biker who was on his way “through the world” for more than a year already, and with two German motorcyclists, who went through South America for a long period on their enduro bikes (www.zwei-auf-reise.de). This was a nice and interesting meeting.
(The world travellers in Salta; two "helpers" while drying my tent)

This camping site was in the middle of a poor suburb, so there was police protection at the gate, and the police was patrolling around our tents at night! I don’t know if this gave me a secure feeling or rather not…

Salta was also the place to buy some souvenirs, as you can see on the picture with the windmill: a nice sheep-woolen poncho and alpaca-woolen hat.

Then it was time to finish the trip: since I was running out of time, but I was also getting very tired of traveling and organizing everything every day again (I think, when you know that three months come to an end, it’s been enough as well). I took the bus back to Mendoza (again 18 hrs.) to round my circle through Argentina and Chile. A very nice meeting with Alejandro and his family took place. It was at Eastern, so we also had a great lunch at Eduardo and Delly’s (Ale’s parents) place and we visited Ale’s girlfriend Luci’s house in the pre-Andes. The first night, we went for dinner and playing pool with Ana Maria, Silja and Vivienne from the language school, whom I met in January.
(Bingo game in the bus from Salta to Mendoza; Alejandro and family at Eastern)

And I bought another great and important souvenir: a black leather trousers for motorbiking!

Last Monday, Ale brought me to the airport for my last trip: visiting Buenos Aires! This was just for one day and night, but it was really worth going! Such a nice and living city (and huge, 14 million people!), such great buildings (you think you’re in Paris!). I took a city tour, to get to know the highlights in the short time that I had. This was nice, we passed the square of the “mothers of the lost sons”, the church where the body of San Martin lays (the liberator of Argentina and Chile from the Spaniards), the tango place San Telmo, the poor place called Boca (with all the colored sailor’s houses and the soccer stadium of the Boca Juniors) and the rich place Recoleta (with it’s interesting cementary and monastry). Unfortunately, after the tour, many places to visit where already closed, so I went back to San Telmo to have dinner and find some tango. The first thing functioned very well (very nice steak again…) but the tango didn’t: there where some shows for € 50,=, where gala clothing where asked (so I didn’t fit in there, unshaved with my hiking boots and T-shirt). I ended up in another nice bar with a live folk band and good wine, which was fine for me.
(Buenos Aires: the Boca Juniors stadium; a surprise at the end of the city tour, me dancing with...; the main square with ancient, colonial and new builings, much crowd and noice, the statue of the Republic and the daily socialist demo against unemployment and poverty)

The next morning, there was not much time left in Argentina, because my flight went at 1pm from Ezeiza airport, which is about 35km from the city. So I walked a bit around San Telmo and then I took the subway and bus to the airport. And then, after 13 hrs of flying to Milano and a great flight over the Alps, with a marvelous, very clear and sunny sight on Mont Blanc, Monte Rosa and Matterhorn, I landed in Amsterdam, last Wednesday morning.

So this was it: I’m sleeping much now, getting used to Holland again (which is not so difficult with the great spring weather we have). I already did a motorbike tour with my father. The next weeks, I will be a trumpet teacher. My friend Harald plays with his military police orchestra in Australia, so I will replace him in his music school, with about 30 pupils from 8 to 60 years of age (also on flute, keyboard, guitar, clarinet, let’s see how that works…). And after that… who knows? Even Joost doesn’t!

I want to thank you for reading and reacting on my stories. This was not only to inform you about what I was doing, but more about keeping up the contact and about telling about my travel experiences (which you really need when you’re traveling alone!).

Then thanks a lot to everybody who made this trip to a success and made me feel at home in Southern America: Alejandro, his family and friends, Alina and Francesco from CIEFAP in Esquel, my Welsh friends Clare, Esyltt and Christian (who got married at Eastern, congratulations!!!), Lily from Chiloé, Klaus from GMF in Salta, my parents and all the people who gave their hints about where to go and what to do in advance and the Intercultural language school in Mendoza.

Thanks again to NBBS Traveling for the “luggage experience” I had in Buenos Aires, to Lowe Alpine for making the most expensive but worst gaitors I’ve ever had, to Euro car rental who rented me a broken car for a two day desert trip, to Salewa for making a water proof and breathing jacket which does everything apart from keeping strong rain out and letting sweat out and to Vaude for constructing the most basic “tent” I’ve ever used. But then, many thanks to Karrimor (backpack 100ltr., at least already 15 years old and still rocking (and thanks to Fred for that!)) and again Vaude (small backpack), again Lowe Alpine (compression bag, about 13y.o.), Leki (hiking/tent poles 4y.o.), Trangia (camping stove on burning alcohol, 14y.o.), HanWag (hiking boots, 6y.o.) and to Nomad (sleeping bag) for not letting me down and to Lonely Planet “South America on a shoe string” for helping by planning this trip (in my 2004 edition, Argentina was very good; Chile was not really up to date anymore; what really misses is good info on National Parks)! And thanks to the three great cars, numerous bus companies, Alitalia, Aerolineas Argentinas and LAN Chile for taking me around Chile and Argentina safely. But the main equipment price gets “Cadans Star” (probably a “Bristol” or “Zeeman” shoe brand…): my basket ball shoes that I bought in about 1991 for school sports and were still serving me during this trip! Now they rest in peace, somewhere near Mendoza…

(The travel award 2006: my Cadans Star basket ball shoes of 1991!)

I hope to see you all soon!

Jeroen

Back in Argentina after many kilometers of desert

(The trip`s almost round...)

The last ten days of my trip have started. I`m writing you now from Salta, a big, poor and dirty, but on the other hand beautiful colonial city in the North-West of Argentina. So I left Chile again after a small month of great experiences.

From Los Angeles, I went into the great adventure that is called "Parque National Laguna del Laja". Even coming there is one big adventure (Chilean state forest service CONAF seems not to understand how to get visitors to their parks). 100 km in an over-crowded bus and then... the Park is still 8 km away. The same thing happened to me in Hornopiren, you see that the National Parks are not prepared on people without a car, which is a strange thing, I think (especially a Nat.Park should to be reached by public transport, because that`s the most environmental friendly way to travel...). So I started hiking with 24 kg in my backpack and a plastic bag with food for three days, wine etc. Then, a van stopped and I could hitch-hike into the park. But this man said: the nicest part is up near the vulcanic lake and you can camp there very nice. At the entrance, there was no map or any information and a very unmotivated park guard, so I decided to believe the van driver. So we drove another 8 km through the park and there I stood, in the middle of vulcanic rocks, near a huge lake with steep shores. No way to camp with my little tent... So I took some pictures and started hiking down again, because near the entrance was the camp site. On that site, I was alone and this was great. Next to it was a deep valley with a rough river (river Laja, which is partly blocked by the vulcanic deposits), and the sunsets on the vulcan and the mountains was really nice. It was a very quiet evening, but at night, a very strong wind started. I had to get out of the tent two times to stick tent pins back into the soil! The advantage was that my tent finally ventilated well... So the next morning, I replaced my tent to a more quiet (but wet) place, where I camped the second night. That day I hiked around. Once, a big shadow flew over from behind. I looked up and a condor was above me, perhaps only 25m! After this great hiking in the mountains, I went back to Los Angeles again, where I could catch a bus the same day to the next place.

Sorry, the pictures of the National Park are on a CD in my backpack at the camping site of Salta, so I will put them online later...

After Los Angeles, I went to the harbour-city of Valparaiso, at the Pacific coast. This city is famous of its harbour (there are some Dutch navy vessels that Chile just bought and there were some problems with it, although I didn`t quite understand what was wrong, since the news was in spanish...) and of the way the city is built: it goes up on steep hills; people who work down town go up by big (and old) elevators to go home. And it is a city woth many colors: all the houses are painted, which gioves a very friendly atmosphere. But on the other hand, it also is a poor and dirty city, which really makes you sad sometimes!
I went into a rather nice backpackers hostel and I thought about sleeping early, because I was very tired of my experiences in the National Park. But at night, there was the year opening beach party of the students. So we went with some packs of cheep wine and cans of Cristal beer (THE beer of Chile; Cristal sponsors all the soccer teams in Chile, so on television, you see the competitors with the same shirt advertisements...). This was very fun, I talked a lot with Chilean students.
Valparaiso

Then I went for a killing 20 hour bus ride to one of the driest deserts in the world: the Atacama Desert, with great sand and rock mountain formations, salt lakes, geysers and more natural beauty. I went to the uninteresting city of Calama to hire a car, because I didn`t have much time to visit the desert, and I didn`t want to spoil my time sitting in a tour van with bored tourists (as I saw enough the past months), visiting places I didn`t want. I hired a Nissan Terrano pick up, 2.5 ltr turbo diesel intercooler (no 4x4), brand new! This looks a bit too much for a poor student, but you needed a car with high clearance to be able to drive up to the geysers. Well I drove 75 km with it and then it stopped working. I had stopped the car to look at some nice views and after that, nothing worked anymore! In the middle of the desert, that was quite scary! I could hitch-hike the next 10 km to San Pedro de Atacama with a Chilean family to call the hiring agency for help. It took about three hours until I was helped. I thought the problem was with the car key (such a smart key with a lock function), but as the mechanic tried it, he said: this car is dead! He looked at the motor and found out that the battery was staying loose (not attached to anything) and because of the battery jumping around while driving, one of the poles had come of. So by attaching that and by improvising to attach the battery, the car was ready to go again. This was quite sad, because it took a lot of time. I drove up the desert valley, visited some indigenous ruins (you had to cross rivers, that was fun to drive), took some hitch hikers with bikes with me (this is the great advantage of a pick up) and finally ended up at 4.300m above sea level at an abandoned research village near the El Tatio geysers. They are famous, because it`s a great geyser field and at sunrise, you have the most marvellous views. I had no clue where the geysers really were (there was a sign, but I didn´t find them), so I made up for a cold night in the village and decided to wait for the tour buses that would come at 5.30 in the morning. I cooked and slept in an abandoned hut and made a great fire outside, burned a lot of old furniture and other wood, because as soon as the sun sets in this desert, it`s getting really cold! To test this, I put my cup filled with water in the pick up and at 4.45 the next morning, it was completely frozen! That`s also how it felt while trying to sleep...
But the next morning, my trick with the tour buses functioned and in a queu, we drove to the geysers. This was amazing! The geysers made sounds, bubbled and spit water and steam (about 85 degr.C).
So at about 8 in the morning, I had seen my first point of my second "desert day by car". After a lunch in the sun (warming up, because seeing the geysers was a freezing event), the rest of the day, I saw great valleys with cactuses, a huge salt lake with flamingoes, the sunset in a valley that mostly looks like a moon landscape (sand hills with salt on it and with great scapes) and small ancient villages.
At night, it was time to return the car in Calama (after more then 500km of driving through the desert). With my bad Spanish and his bad English (at least his appearance...), I couldn`t convince the man from the rental company to lower the price because of the break down of the car, so in the end I had to pay the whole price (which fortunately wasn`t much). Then, it appeared that the hostel in Calama that I reserved was occupied. Fortunately, they could organise another bed for me, but I was exhausted after this weekend of driving and bad service experiences and I had to get up early again to go by bus to Salta, Argentina.
Well, this bus drive took 12 hours instead of 8, because in some mountain village there was a traffic jam because of a catholic holiday, so I was even more broken when I arrived in Salta at 1 at night. But finally, I could build up my tent and enjoy camping again!
Those were some bad and tiring experiences, but that doesn`t mean I didn`t enjoy the time in the Atacama desert. This was really a superb experience to see those empty flat and hilly landscapes, cactuses etc.!!!
(The Atacama desert has many sights, but this is at least a "real desert" to me...; The car broke down; A memorial site for victims of the Pinochet regime - 36 people were shot in the middle of the desert; Crossing a river - a fun car when it works...; Jeroen near his first cactus!; Camp fire to stay warm at 4300m; The El Tatio geysers; A Atacamena-church at over 4000m; Flamingoes in the Salar de Atacama)

So now I`m visiting the city of Salta. I just went to the German-Swiss wood and forestry company GMF S.A., which produces tropical hardwood with sustainable, European forestry systems. This was a very interesting private excursion; I have to thank Georg and the director of the company for this! Tonight I will eat with the people of the company. Tomorrow, I will hire a small car again and drive to some rain forest in a national park, to which I'm really looking forward! And at thursday, my trip back to Mendoza will start, another long bus trip, but with a good address to arrive: I will visit Alejandro again. Next week, after a short stay in Buenos Aires, I will fly back home to the country of tulips, wooden shoes, mills, grass and Dutch speaking people. I might inform you about my last experiences from home!
(Spanish colonial history in Salta)

Until then: ¡Chau! Jeroen