border crossing at night

Loja
Sleeping to around 12h (sleeping on a a bumpy nightbus is not ideal), expploring the city, at night discover the delicous caña hot juice, lots of sugar, and even more alcohol, again a good sleep

Loja oldest street in center

1 mars
I’m still with the French traveler I met on the bus from Peru, we walked to the mirador above Loja, and to city gate (nice but restored around 1999), bus to Cuenca, arriving around 19h

2-3 mars Cuenca
Beautiful and ancient city-center, lots of students too, and for sure one of the best cities to live in Ecuador, still the not so visible poverty is chasing away people to other and far detinations.

Presidential elections, Lucio himself on campaign in center of Cuenca

Lots of old colonial buildings in city center Cuenca

4 mars Baños
Nightbus, swithing buses very early in the morning, arriving shortly before noon in one of the touristic top-destinations for Ecuadorians. Unfortunately I did not get to see my main attraction point there, the active volcano Tungurahua, just over 5000m on which flank the village lays; it is too cloudy to see the upper parts, I do a cycling trip eastwards towards more jungle-territory, various casacadas to be seen there, roads under construction.

wonderfull landscapes around Baños, unfortunatelly clouded most of the time

arcoiris (rainbow) over the small city of baños

5 mars Quilotoa
Switching in Latacunga I reach the remote village of Quilotoa, wonderfull nature reserve at the western side of the Andes, easy to spend a week here in this area with a mostly indegenous population. Evening I walk down the crater to the water, and finding my way back up just before the sun falls.

Just started the descent, path is still very visible at this point

6 mars: 3h54 walk around the crater, marvelous views, also from other mountains, villages, valleys.

Morning view on the crater, with the magnificent Illiniza twin mountains at the horizon

Evening to Latacunga, walk in city

Municipalidad central square in Latacunga

7 mars morning walk Latacunga, biggest city close to the Cotopaxi, which is still covered inclouds.
bus to Quito around midday
walk in old center and Quito Nuevo

Central square in old-Quito

8 mars climb of Pichincha volcano,

View on Cotopaxi during climb on Pichincha volcano, part of Quito in between

walk in modern district of Flores,

Sunday = cycling day, new Quito

big park, sunday afternoon in new-Quito

evening walk in old center

9-10 mars Ascent of the Cotopaxi volcano,

Jurgen on top of Cotopaxi, pointing westwards were the Illiniza twin-mountains are

flight back to Belgium in the evening.

Chavin de Huantar, main temple

4 day trek, Santa Cruz trek, start in the tiny rural setting of Yanama, unfortunatelly it rained most of these days, and the snow peaked mountains were mostly not visible because of the clouds.</p>

Punta Union, hightest point on Santa Cruz trek, altitude where snow begins, and unfortunately also the clouds

<p>13 februari Casma, Sechin</p>
lots of ruins around the tiny town of Casma at the Pacific, some very well kept, others barely digged into
<p>14 februari<br />
morning ruins of Chankillo in Casma,<br />
collectivo to Chimbote, the shithole of Peru, took bus to Trujillo,<br />
evening walk in center of Trujillo.</p>

Lunch in Trujillo with Abrahan and 1 other CS guy

<p>15-19 februari Trujillo<br />
City center<br />
2 days to Huancacho, coastal town at the beach<br />
huaca del sol, huaca de la luna, chan chan and huaca arco de iris<br />
museo archeologico (having the oldest found skeleton of latin-America, 10k2 years old), dentist visit.</p>
<p>20 februari bus to Cajamarca (9h30)<br />
21-24 february Cajamarca<br />
3 days of carnaval, the first day was rather unseen for me. Mostly young children in the streets and on rooftops throwing waterbaloons, traditionally to people of the opposit sex, but that is a very loose rule, tourists (gringos) are a much wanted target as well.  Later spraying water and whole cups of 10 liters were thrown.  I was almost completely wet at that moment. Than in the main avenida, more groups came with paint, throwing paint at each other. Decided with 2 CS people to go down see if we could buy some..<br />
And not much later we were all covered with paint of different colors.<br />
Later young boys started to rip t-shirts of other men in the streets. And yes, 3 blocks from the plaza the armas I had 2 big holes in my t-shirt, and I was a very wanted target to say so. One adult man and 4 boys ripped my t-shirt into pieces in a couple of seconds. Without hurting me or trying steal anything else, that must be said, it is still a rather established tradition. Luckily there was still sun, later it started to rain, time to go home.<br />
Next 2 days desfiles, big ones, nice, and also here lots of water thrown at eachother, but no paint, saterday and only saturday is the paint-throwing-day.<br />

2nd day, keep on singing (and jumping) in the wet world

so this is how they educate children here: The chainsaw massacre and a shot of liquor.

New clothes, and ready for another day of carnaval

Cathedral from Plaza de armas, Cajamarca (the day after)

4th day visit to cumbe mayo, city center including cerro Appolona, and ventanillas Otuzco and a cheese factory. Evening of 24th night bus to Chiclayo.</p>
<p>25-27 february Chiclayo<br />
- Huaca Rajada Sipan: señores de sipan tombs, museo sitio de Sipan<br />
- Piramides de Tucume, 26 piramides around a central hill/big pyramide.<br />
- Museo tumba reales de Sipan (Moche culture): very good museum with nearly all the findings of the lords of Sipan, most of the findings cleaned up, so a huge amount of shining gold, silver cupper and bronze.<br />
- Museo nacional de Sipan (Lambayeque culture), very nice museum<br />

Central square in the little town of Lambayeque

- Batan Grande: bosque de Pomac, arbol milenario, and more pyramids in the forests.<br />
- Museo Hans Heinrich Bruning in Lambayeque, oldes museum in north of Peru with lots of findings of all the cultures of north-Peru, from Cupisnique and Vicus (2000 a.c) till the arrival of the Spanish.</p>
<p>27 february bus to Piura</p>
Did stay only 3 hours in this cosy little town in the north of Peru, just enough to walk around a bit in the center, to see another carnaval desfile and eat something;
before taking the nightbus to Loja in Ecuador..

border passing Bolivia to Peru

14 – 19 January Arequipa
14th arriving in Arequipa in the evening (20h), evening walk and already a first demonstration on the marvelous Plaza de Armas, students supporting the Palestinians, bear in mind it is summer holiday for the students, but they still managed to put together a rather nice action, including comic actor and burning of the flags (Israel and USA-flags)

Student protest on plaza de armas

more protest the other day in the center, farmers against water privatisation

- Visit cathedral, iglesia compañia, Recoleta, Santa Domingo, San Augustin, Santa Teresa
- Around the city: Plaza de Yanahuara, Carmen Alto, Cayma, Sachaca, casa del fundador, Toros, Molino de Sabandia, San Fransisco church + museo in center

In front of Yanahuara church

- Misti, climbing the Misti in 2 days, very cold the last part during the night, but succeeded, later, in the afternoon instead of resting visit Santa Catalina, the principal tourist attraction in Arequipa.

Misti

- Arequipa virtual museum and Chiribaya pre-inca museum in center, taking bus to Cuzco in evening

<p>20 – 27 Cusco<br />
- Cathedral, plaza de armas, plaza regocigo, Santa Teresa<br />
- center, museo de arte religioso, San Blas, La compañia<br />
- 4 days inca jungle trail: one day cycling down to the selva, 2 days walking, one day Machu Picchu (Huayna Picchu, smiling Picchu,  Intinkani, Puerte del Inca)<br />

Olantaytambo city square statue

on the jungle trail

Machu Picchu seen from top of the smiling Picchu, famous ladder climb to get there

- Museo de archeologico (inca), museo de arte precolombino<br />
- Plaza San Fransisco, Convento La Merced, Monumento Pachacuteq, Sascayhuaman, bus to Ayacucho</p>

Cuzco overview

28 january – 1st of Februari Ayacucho

Ayacucho street view

- city walk, museums, churches.
- pampa de Ayacucho
- Vilcashuama (one full day, 2 major inca-ruins and rustic village, 4.5h from Ayacucho, very remote indeed)

Vilcashuama : me in sillion del inca

- dentist and peluqueria day, museo de la memoria (Sendero Luminoso)

2-7 februari Lima
- Chorrillos (cerro + walk along beach, monkey-diver), Miraflores (evening)

Chorrillos - Lima sunset

- San Isidoro: Huaca de Huallamarca + tiny museo, parque El Bolivar; centro Lima + congreso, mirador cerro san cristobal (barrio Rimac)

Plaza de armas, center of Lima

- Pachacamac archeologecal site (south of Lima), centro (parques neptuno (+ other south of 28 de julio), paseo de los heroes(palacio de justicia)), plaza Francia, monasterio S Domingo, La Alameda, plaza de armas plaza San Martin.
- Caral, archeologecal site close to Supe (civilisation of 2200 a.c.), full day, short stop on way back in Huacho (just a little coastal city, absolutely no foreign tourists here)
- Museo dela nacion (where I saw back my good English friend Dex !) Pueblo libre (shopping centers), Callao + submarino !, parque de aguas (beautiful water+sound+light effects and games)

Callao Fortaleza, me and the giants

Parque de aguas, the water games !

- Huaca Pucllana in Miraflores, Miraflores center + Malecon Cisneros, museo de oro, Surco-barrio + parques, parque de amistad, nightbus in the evening to Huaraz.

Villazon

19 – 21 december Salar de Uyuni
3 days in de salar, first day to cementario de trenes,

Cementario de trenes

the actual salar

Thirst in the desert, unfortunately no Malheur to be found here

, including the island Incahuasi (isla de pescadores). 2nd day along several lakes with flamencos, sidestep to arbol de piedra up till the laguna colorada at almost 4300m. 3rd day to the geysers, thermas and to Laguna verde

Laguna colorada

Laguna verde with volcano Licancabur (south-western point of Bolivia, on border with Chile)

Uyuni, street market sunday evening around sunset

22 december bus to Potosi
the 7h bus drive was very beautiful, the bus itself was ok. Unlike in the Quebrade de Huamaca in Argentina, these colourfull rocks are not protected by Unesco, but are at least as amazing. It is very clear at first sight that a lot of minerals can be found in these rocks.

even under cloudy weather, amasing colours of the rocks on the way to Potosi

23 – 25 december Potosi

Very examplary is the Cathedral, when I arrived the 22th around 18h it was open, I decided to leave my bag in the hostal and than first visit the cathedral, but when back it was already closed. I passed several times at that central square, but it was closed every time ! the 24th it would probably have been open, but there was a demonstration of mine-workers at the square, apparently a good reason to close the house of God !
- Visit of the mines (very interesting, if not tough at the same time, yes still some 7k mineworkers work there, including children).  Hot, quite humid, dust (including Arsenicum dust), bad corridors, witch rocks that are loose, low ceiling, and this all this at an altitude of 4300m.

oi, oi, oi, oi, oi, oi, oi, oi, oi, oi, oi, oi, oi, oi, oi, See me ride out of that sunset On your color TV screen Out for all that I can get If you know what I mean Women to the left of me And women to the right Ain't got no gun, ain't got no knife Don't you start no fight Cause I'm T.N.T I'm dynamite T.N.T And I'll win the fight T.N.T I'm a power load T.N.T Watch me explode I'm dirty, mean and mighty clean I'm a wanted man Public enemy number one Understand So lock up your daughter lock up your wife Lock up your back door and run for your life The man is back in town So don't you mess around 'Cause I'm T.N.T I'm dynamite T.N.T And I'll win that fight T.N.T I'm a power load T.N.T Just watch me explode T.N.T oi, oi, oi T.N.T oi, oi, oi T.N.T oi, oi, oi T.N.T oi, oi, oi T.N.T I'm dynamite T.N.T And I'll win the fight T.N.T I'm a power load T.N.T Watch me explode

- La Moneda (the most interesting museum of Bolivia, the former house where the Spaniards stamped their money)
- visit of other museums and churches in the city, talking an hour with the mineworkers on the central square which had a demonstration, they also used bombs, yes in Belgium unions also use little bombs during demonstrations, but here they use real dynamite, yes this really blows, there is a lot to tell about this, the bombs, the tourists, the humor and the reason of the strike, maybe later I update

25 – 28 december Sucre
Chistmas morning bus to Sucre.
- Museo Charcas, Dinosaur foutsteps 6km outside Sucre, Museo de arte indegena ASUR.
- museo de San Fransisco and Casa de libertad  and churches in the city and the parque Bolivar.
28 december

Panoramic view of Sucre

Cathedral of Sucre

- Tarabuco in the morning, the little town 120km from Sucre, where farmors and local people from the whole  wide neighbourhoud come to the local sunday market, quite nice, in the evening take bus to Santa Cruz, nightbus.

Market in Tarabuco

29 december arrive late in Santa Cruz, 4 hours stuck at a road, where a truck was stuck in the mud at a difficult curve, (through a river), workers are repearing the bridge, which collapsed, but everything takes time here. Evening walkin Santa Cruz

Cathedral in Santa Cruz

30 december – 1 januari Samaipata
Laidback and relaxing town of Samaipata, arrived in the afternoon, and after lunch it was too late to go to El Fuerte, so we stayed in the town, reading, talking and drinking more.
31th to El Fuerte, a religious/ceremonial center of the Inca empire, which was already used as religious center for much older civilazations, quite an impressive place, and on lots of levels similar to Macchu Picchu, far less visitors, and they are still delving here, only an estimated 20 /100 of the houses have been carved out by now !

El Fuerte close to Samaipata

Bit tired, so not done too much around newyear, some fireworks in the center of Samaipata, and drunk people, which was a bit worrying to return.
1th of January trufi (collective taxi ) back to Santa Cruz, yes finally found a driver which was not drunk and was working, so we could return. Dropping of at the Bi-modal bus therminal to check buses/trains, unfortunately almost everything was closed.  Some interesting and nice people and the 2 tucans in the hostal made up for a nice evening, watching movies, talking,..

2th of January no traintickets anymore to San Jose this day, and the tickets for saturday are 3 times more expensive, so I decide to skip the Missiones Jesuitica to head straight to La Paz, nightbus, time to catch up with my blog, repair my watch (the strap was broken), so I get finally get rid of my latest nickname (whitewatch).  Although from time to time it rains  heavily here, it is hot, and quite humid in Santa Cruz.

3-7 La January  Paz
In La Paz itself there is not so very much too sea, at least in terms of classical tourist attractions. But it is very  nice to walk in the city, all the bustling markets, the different areas, all the houses uphill and (when it is not clouded higher up) magnificent views of the mountains, most impressively Illimani.

Huayna Potosi above a part of La Paz

- Tiahuanaco: the ruins of this ancient civilization (-1500 -> +1200) are still impressif, even though an unbelievable amount of pieces has been taken away by spanish and other rulers. Some parts are also being reconstructed, what sometimes raises the question, what´s original and what not.

Tihuanaco

- cycling: La cumbre – Yolosa: also known as the words most dangerous road. Actually quite nice to do this by bike. I´m not used to mountainbiking downhill, and also not so very good at this. But have of course more than enough cycling experience to handle this one. Fortunately there is a new road now, so very few cars, buses and trucks pass there right now, but the road is still narrow and the canyon deep.

View of the road...

- city: cathedral, plaza Murillo, congreso, mercado de hecheria, Sopacachi (middle-class neighbourhoud), museo de coca.
Calle Jaen + museos, del cathedral, arte moderno

8-10 Huayna Potosi
First day at base camp 4700m, exercising ice-climbing at a glaciar at 4800m.

Having some fun on the glaciar

Second day a relaxing day, 2 hours of climbing to rock-camp at 5130
Third day to the top, just on time 6h40 to see something, sun lilght and 5 minutes later also the top covered by clouds, and then back to La Paz down, in evening visit museo national de arte, quite a beautiful museum, next to the central square, plaza de Murillio.

11-13 Copacabana
City, cathedral with virgin de Copacabana, Bolivians premier pelgrim destination. cerro calvaro, other pelgrim destination on top of a hill.
Isla de la sol, walking from north to the south of the island, visiting the major inca ruins.
on island: Challampampa, El Santuario with the sacred rock Titikala, La Chincana (labyrinth, probably storehouse), Fuente del inca, escalera del inca, Yumani, Pico Kayma (2 stored building)
Visiting some other inca ruins close to the city: Horca del Inca,  astronomical stone on hill sout of Copacapana; Intikala, ceremoneal place of Incas; El trono del Inca; El Baño del Inca, terraces and irigation system under eucalyptus trees 4 km north of city, nice walk.

14 january: bus to Arequipa, arriving in the evening in Peru

bridge (good bridge) over rio walk to refugio Jakob

21 bus to village Perito Moreno.
22 Cueva de los Manos

cueva de los manos, from first humans who entered this area -11k years

and bus to El Chalten.

23-25 El Chalten, 2 days hiking around Fritz Roy, first day good weather walk from Estancia El pilar to Piedra del frai Laguna piedras blancas to Poincenot, but at 23h it started snowing for 12 hours, the second day I had by consequence less time, so I did not go to the laguna del torre, but did a shorter walk via Laguna Capri back to El Chalten.
Before going further to the even more touristic Calafate I did a morning walk to the mirador de las Condors and mirador de las Anguilas, I found a baby-anguila in the tree screaming for sunscream, or XTC, I couldn´t understand her very well, maybe I listen to much to Soulwax these days, which is an antidote of itself, though I go deeper into that another time in spacetime.

Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre, last day from a little distant

26 Calafate
Perito Moreno, the alternative tour was ok, though not really that different from the other tours, but beautiful and impressive is the glaciar without any doubt.

Lago Argentino, where most Argentine side glaciars end up into

Perito Moreno Glaciar

27 Calafate day 2,
at first I thought of it as a lost day, after all I could not take an early bus this day to Chile, but it turned out to be a nic day where I did a lot of things. Cerro Calafate 2h up, 2h down, without any indication or path, I came back on another way and ended up in a nature reserve, birds seeing me obviously as an intruder, of course there was no sign whatsoever I was entering a nature reserve, so I had to slip under the barbed wire to get out of the reserve (bombspotting, or what it is good for !)
Cerro Calafate, cuevas in Punta Gualicho, nature reserve Bahia Redonda, and Laguna Nimez.

28 Travel to  Puerto Natales, visit the small city, museo, and prepare for Torres del Paine.

Puerto Natales, part of harbour at lake Seno Ultima Esperanza

29-2/12 Torres del Paine national park Chilenan Tiera del fuego
walked 4 days, resp. 6h10, 7h10, 8h35 and 6h15  did the W trekking in 4 days, very beautiful.
The weather was also quite good there.

Cuernos del Paine, at sunset, look at the red-colored horns !

Typical view in Torres del Pain, very impressive

3 from Puerto Natales to Ushuaia over Street of Maghelaen

4-6 Ushuaia
boat trip Pinguins

Museum Maritimo y penitentiaro -

Me and my friends

- Tiera del fuego national park, camino de la costara 6h walk
museum casa gobernador,

Ushuaia, the trivial picture

, cerro Martial + glaciar, boat trip other islands, museum fin del mundo

Storm on the beagle channel, I obviously liked it

7-8 travel to Puerto Madryn 36 hours bus ride
9-11 Puerto Madryn

Plaza San Martin, city center Puerty Madryn: - I'm a clone I know it and I'm fine I'm one and more are on the way I'm two, doctor Three's on the line He'll take incubation another day

Peninsulina Valdes, the trip you have to make when you are there, Whale watching, yes I could see the whales from quite close, though we had to go a bit further into sea, since right now they are leaving for more Southern waters, quite windy, and waves coming overboard. Most of the time I spend at the very top of the boat, cathing more wind, you know I like that a lot, with the extra benefit of drying more quickly.

Later saw some salinas on the Peninsulina, which are located 42m under sea-level, lobos and sea-elephants, and later Maghelanic Pinguins.
Next day visit of the Galesa city and towns of Trelew and Gaiman.
Biggest surprise was that in Gaiman I walked into a Welsch celebration of end-of-the-year studends, students of the Welsch language, they were singing, dancing – the rather monothonous celtic-folk-dances – and reading poetry in their Welsch language, I could not understand a thing of it. Incredible how they try to sustain their culture.

Gaiman: El Desafío, most entertaining monument/sculptures I have seen yet on my trip, incredible humor with all kind of recycled garbage...

The third they I did a bike- ride to Punta Loma, 16km south of Puerto Madryn, a place where lots of lobos are, I could hear much better their sounds, also lots of birds, esp Comarados. In the late afternoon I took the bus for Cordoba, another 20h, and the bus left 2 hours to late, because of a strike and some problems with the fuel-tank. Unfortunately the bus only stopped once, so I could stretch my legs only once, at 0h50, to have dinner, a little strange at this late hour, had been sleeping for 2 hours by that time.

december 12 arrive in Cordoba, late in afternoon, do a city evening walk to the Plaza San Martin. A lot of people in one of the churches, turned out to be a wedding.

Cordoba 13-15
First day walking around in the center, well, visiting the things not closed at that moment.

Plaza San Martin, city center

Second day to Alta Gracia, early 20th century was top period as holiday resort for richer Argentinas, mostly from Buenos Aires, also the young Che Guevarra lived there for 11 years, visiting his house where he lived

Me and my friend, pt. 2

, and a beautiful Jesuit Estancia + church.
15 visiting rest of city, quiet, it is hot this day.
16 visiting some churches, doing administration bus ticket / blog, pics copy / book exchange..

Friday 17th of december I had my bus at 12h45 from Cordoba to La Quiaca at the border. Since I wanted to see some things in the city and to post some things home, I got up at 8h. After visiting el Colegio de Montserat (finally open and in the Jesuit quarter, exams were still going on ), I went to the post office. It took me 2 hours to get the packet send, the famous Argentinan inefficiency, 5 times I had to queue in a row, they even had no photocopy-machine there. After that I had to rush to the hostal, check out, and yes I was in time at the bus therminal for another long bus trip.

18 December La Quiaca Argentina.
The bus arrived on time, athough it stopped a lot of times the last hours, normally the hours you sleep the best, at 7h, my clock !
Because of the rain I waited half an hour before walking to the border, just a bridge with passport check on both sides,

read more on next article…

3/11 bicycle the whole day, first to Pucara, a fortress on the hills of a pre-incan group, the garganta del diabolo, I beautiful narrow gorge where you can cycle through.
Catarpe-valley, beautifull valley, though I did not find the ruins there, like on most places the indications are completely missing, the one local man I met also send me to the wrong place.
In the evening to the valle de la luna to see the sunset. Although only 12 km, it was quite tough, mostly up, I estimate 1 full km had an average of 14%, no asfalt, grind ! against the wind, against the sun. But I still managed to see the most important things and be at the supposed to be best viewing point at sunset 19h30

Small isolated church in valley close to San Pedro de Atacama

Sunset Valle de la luna

4/11 visit 3 lakes in the Atacama desert, I swum in 2 of them, 30% and 5% salt resp. the last one had much more salt, I estimate 60%, but was only 30 cm deep, did not even try to swim

The Jesus trick, or was it Milk inc. ¿¿ , "Walk on Water"

5/11 Salar de Atacama, + Laguna de Chaxa + reserva  national Los Hamancos + Lagunas(in between volcanos) + Toconao
6/11 Move to Antofagasta, 5h bus, evening : center and north of city
7-8/11 Antofagasta, quiet day, lovely host, walked to the south of city, Huanchaca ruins  ( of silver rafination factory ), walk along the harbour + coast. 8th, evening bus to Valparaiso

View on beach side Antofagasta

18h bus, 9th evening, arriving in Valparaiso.
10th visit Valparaiso and Viña del mar, twin city, the first run down, with multicolored houses, or how they sell their poverty, the more interesting neo-colonial houses in the center are all rather neglected.

Typical coloured uphill houses nearby city center

Viña del mar has the richer (elit neighbourhoods like el castillo with big fences..) and middle class, o yes, in the evening traffic jams, the car people are as nervous as in any European city, to be short, not a very interesting city, unless you like Blankenberge, casinos or the beach in general.

The famous Viña del mar coastline

11th morning visit to casa Pablo Neruda, at noon a huge manifestation 12k people , afternoon bus to Santiago

Santiago de Chile 12th
second day of the 48h strike, most museums/parcs are closed today.
Santiago de Chile 12-16
Cerro Santa Lucia  + centro + barrio Prima..

Cerro Santa Lucia

City tour + bodega ´torro y cancha´
cerro San Cristobal + museo historico + casa colorada + bellavista
Aconcagua trekking

on the way to base camp , first clouds already coming ...

museo arte precolumbiana + casa velasquez + west side of city (caidos) + pàrque Niques + bario Brasilia

Plaza de armas, city center Santiago

16 evening nightbus to Osorno
17 change to other bus to Bariloche (Argentina), decided not to visit anything in the Chilean lake district, and head straight to Bariloche.

Volcano de Osorno

Ok, Chile is not so very much different from Argentina, on a material level it is quite better organised. Bus stops are ex. indicated very well, in Argentina usually not at all. The Metro of Santiago is the cleanest, most efficient and most beautiful I have ever seen in my life. You can pay in every shop with credit card, usually my normal Belgian creditcard, and probably most impressive of all, on highways through the capital of Santiago cars are registered automatically and an an ectronic board indicates how much you will have to pay for this part of the highway. At the end of the month the bill is send to you. If this is not advanced, as to my knowledge only Ireland has such a system, smaller and the payment method is not that efficient.
Remember that in both Belgium and Holland politicians talk about this subject already for years, without any decision whatsoever.
The people then, compared to Argentina they are less direct, quite a bit like in Belgium. If they complain about something, they usually circle around it, not saying directly what is bothering them. I have not only seen this, several people confirmed this to me.
An illustrating example of this is when I talked with a highly educated, independant woman who lives alone in BA, Argentina. When I asked whether she was looking for a man, and if so what kind of a man, she answered straightforward that she was looking for a rich man with a highly payed job; because she wanted to work much less, at best halftime, to have more time for herself, and eventually to have time to raise children. After my initial disappointment – emancipation has still a long way to go – I was not that much surprised by the answer itself ( patriarchal is the world we live in ), I was surprised by the straight to the pointness of the answer. I was not a complete stranger to her, and we trust eachother, but where in the world are woman that honest ?
I came in a very similar situation in Chile, and though I did not go as far as asking that straight question, the replies I got were already cloudy. And when it gets cloudy, it is smart to not go further, as clouds do not disappear instantly; fortunately I always have my compass with me, saved by the bell !
I have learned to know Chilenean people as highly sincere, less proud on example their music. Yes it is very western, it is sometimes llike they only listen to Western music. But to be honest, the finest local music I heard on my trip comes from Chilean artists, this came as quite a nice surprise, to be explored further..

Salta Negra (Argentina)
Zillertal ( Uruguay )
Austral Calafate Ale (Argentina)
Andes Blanca (Argentina)
Nova Schin (Brazil)
Norte Negra (Argentina)
Isenbeck   (Uruguay)
Kunstman amber (Chile)
Quilmes stout (Argentina)
Brahma blanca (Brazil)

Cuzceña (Chile)
Austral (Chile)

By the way, the monopolisation of the beer market is very visible everywhere, in nearly every bar in whatever  country you can find the Inbev-labeled Stella Artois or Brahma, or other giants like Heineken, Quilmes, Budweiser and Corona. You can compare it a bit with the music-marketing industry that throws all their American ans UK shit all over the world, with the one possible execption of Corona, and even then, that is a matter of personal taste.

Puente del Inca, hoge Andes

13/10 Moved to a hostal, discovered the city, big city, beautiful irrigation system, that was already there from the Huerpes-indians, the Inca improved it, and the Spanish “industrialised” it, it looks like open-gutter, but it is to irrigate the trees that are in every street, in an otherwise dry climate that is needed.
14/10 Rafting, very cold to be honest, cold water, a very cold wind, I was in front and got some waves all over me, completely wet, I could hardly stand on my feet after stepping out of the boat, but it was fun in the nice Rio Mendoza, in afternoon mountainbike around a lake that was made artificially to have a more constant stream of water all year round downwards.
15/10 Trekking, altough only an hour a bit disappointing, 3 rappels which were nice, esp the last one over 40 meter, Thermas in the afternoon, it looked an adventure day, but all in all it made a rather lazy impression on me, but I enjoyed it.

Walk in the precordellera of Andes

16/10 Some museums in Mendoza  museo area fundacion museo del pasado Cuyano near plaza Italia( if they were open), and catch the bus in the afternoon to San Juan. Evening visit to Museo Arqueologico, outside city center, what a big city this is, good museum.

17/10 bus to San Augustin del Valle Fertil, exploring the city a bit, looking to book a tour, not that simple, the siesta has an almost holy status here.
18/10 Talampaya national park and Ishingualasto national park (better known as Valle de la luna), very beautiful parks, with an artic hot climate, my camera gave up in between 2 shots in Ishingualasto, the dust, the wind, who will say.

Talampaya national park

Valle de la luna - Argentina

19/10 before noon, walking around in the town, afternoon: Return to San-Juan, go to shop, cook, look for camera( on internet )
20/10 Decide to leave in the everning to direct to Tucuman, eplore the city of San-Juan, look to repair my camera, if possible. The siesta is also rather strict here, the 2 museums I was interested in closed before I arrived there, weather is very good, sunny, hot, dry but not too dry.

Oh well, as I prepared to leave the hostal, I heard the studio verion of the reflective ‘Sometimes’ coming from the TV-room, I directly rushed to the TV-room, and indeed someone put my all-time favorite cd (No Code) in the player. I realised it was just a coincidence, but a very pleasant goodbye for me, so I had to leave on the eastern melodies and contra rhythms of ‘Who you are’

Who are you ¿
You are who
Who you are

21-22/10 Tucuman
For some odd reason, Cristina would be the creater (though I find that hard to believe), the province of Tucuman is one hour ahead of the rest of North-Argentina, and falls in the same time-area of BA.  And as an odd coincidence I traveled from BA to Mendoza on the night they flipped into wintertime, so that I did not notice anything when arriving in Mendoza. Anyway, Tucuman is Argintina’s 3rd biggest city, not touristic, and quite ok, in the afternoon I climbed the hill on the west-side of the city (1 million citizens !),  to reach the cristo, who is looking down on the city, where have we seen this before. 3 hours of walking up under a streaming sun.
The day after I explored the city, 3 museums, some churches, and looked further for a new Camera, which I finally found.

Valentina and Jurgen in Tucuman

23/10 Tafi de Valle – Quilmes
Bus to Tafi de Valle, popular weekend-trip for Argentines, and indeed a beautiful village in an even more beautiful valley. Cause Quilmes was my main objective, I only stayed for 1h30, just enough to visit the Jesuit monastery just outside the village.
Quilmes, just could visit the ruins before sunset, stayed the night there.

Ruines in Quilmes

24/10 Quilmes – Cafayate
Visited the ruins a second time (this time with loaded camera !), it reminds me of Macchu Picchu to be honest, and the Quilmes Indians were also quite legendary.
Cafayate was not really on my pick-list, but I thought a day of rest could do me good, as a matter of fact I cycled for almost 4 hours, did some 50 km, mostly in the valley (quebrada de las conchas), but that´s still not a flat area, against the wind, with the sun almost right above me, but it was beautifull.

Bodega in Cafayate

25/10 Salta
In morning to Salta through the quebrada de conchas, evening in center of Salta.
In and around Salta: 26-28/10
San Antonia de las cobres, following the tren de las nubles to its last stop, through the quebrada de torres, several stops in between, like Tastil, and further in the Puna, train ends at 4200 m altitude.

I had to run up, no joke-run hard (64 m of altitude difference ) to take this picture, some declared me crazy at this altitude

Cerro de San Bernando, mueseo antropologico, museo de la municipal (case Hernandez) and cerro at San Lorenzo.
Cachi and quebrada de Cachiques, a whole day through this beautiful valley, seeing condors, guanacos, vicunas and llamas. City of Cachi a little disappointing, but valles very beautiful.

29/10 Jujuy
Rain when I arrive, a bus-therminal that does not use its platforms and which has billeterillas on different places, welcome the the more chaotic city of Jujuy, which actually looks more like Bolivia, esp aroud the bus-therminal you see only Bolivian people selling their usual stuff. Getting of the bus is ok, but when the platforms are not used I have to ask where the bus leaves, and then 4 people send me to the wrong street (at least one of them, I misunderstood, I realised later), nevertheless I did not miss the bus to Purmamarca !
Before noon Museo Historico del norte and Museo de bellas artes, and short walk in the city of Salta, in afternoon to Jujuy. It rains the rest of the evering..

central square in Jujuy

30/10 Jujuy -> Tilcara
Still a cloudy day in Jujuy, discovering city until afternoon.

31/10 Tilcara, Humahuaca (walking around town, watch the touristic top-event: San Pedro de xyw coming out of his sell at the main plaza, hundreds of people watching and taking pictures, with some andino background music which really derserves the label background), Uquia (very small village along the Quebrada)

Humahuaca, the most touristic town in the Quebrada

01/11 Tilcara, walk to Garganta del diabolo, waterfalls in a very  narrow gorge. Move to Purmamarca, do evening walk of 7-colores

a bit further than the garganta del diabolo, there was another beautiful valley

02/11 Tilcara, morning walk of 7-colores in opposite direction, of course with the bright sun in the east the colors are sharper, quite amasing

morning light, small town, stellar colors

, bus through paso de Jama to Chile, amasing views and stunning landscapes, more than an hour the trip goes around 4500m, highest point 4600. Both the Argentina and the Chilean adouana (80 km further on) take a lot of time. on the Chilean side I used my casual trick to declare 2 goods that need permission to enter : ‘dulce de leche’ and ‘ojas de coca’ with the expected result : they hardly checked my bagpack.

Boca Junios football game + buying ticket + hanging around in Boca with CS-people calle el caminito, casa amarilla,

San Telmo + centre + museums + plaza Dorrego + mercado de San Telmo + museo historico National,
Boca + Constitution + museums,
Recoleta + parks + museo de motivos polupares Argentinos Jose Hernandez,
Avenida Florida + financial center
Museo Bellas artes + mueso Malba + barrio parque (rich neighbourhood),
Bike trip, Avenida Santa-Fe  (other major shopping street in center),
Puerto Madero + Las Nereidas (marble fountain)/Costanera del sur +(Reserva ecologica) / fregatta general Sarmiento,

going out: el tiempo de bomba, El Museo
In between: 2 Spanish lessons, looking around for a mobile phone, looking around for a usb-stick, since my main one stopped working somewhere, bying food, cooking, catching up mail/news/blog. All of which take up quite some time.

9-10 Almagro, 6km from center of Buenos Aires
Parque centenario, museo ciencas y naturales, Avenida Corrientes, tango lesson,
Avenido 9e de julio, panoramic view from Hotel ´I can´t remember the name cause that´s not really important, 50m north of Asterix, east side of the avenue´

some pics:

commuter train arriving at Olive station, very crowdy on train

Plaza San Martin, just above me the statue, it did not rain, luckily, was bike trip thenAsterix at night

Asterix in daylight, from other angle, from widest boulevard in the world, avenida 9e de julio

Murga in the park, park just outside the touristical map, glad I stepped outide

CS group foto in Bocca, just before the match

Some kind of ceremony before the match, with cheerleeders, singing will not stop before the end of the match

o yo miss the dancing and singing, even when Bocca Junions lost from Estudiantes with 1-2

Puerto Madero

Other side of skyscrapers of Puerto Madero, seen from Costanera del sur

Costanera del sur, Loros not afraid of me

Fregatta General Sarmiento, training ship of Argentina marines until 2006, I was late enough to get a free entrance

Free music in calle Florida, rather campy, but funny, the bass player moved a bit like Michelle Dekoster (A big Hi to all fans of "De Mens" ) or like that crazy bass player of Therapy ?

Plaza Dorego, San Telmo, turistic but beautiful

Crowdy Centenario Parque, 7 km from city center, this city is huge

Arty foto of oldest metro line of South America, wooden metro-parts, see metro arriving

Casa Rosada contra-light, seen from Cabildo

And who do you meet at the Crossing of Corrientes and Av. 9e de Julio ¡ Asterix of course

Temple of the dog, caring for other people

Almaro 6km from city-center, still very beautifull..

Uruguay-interior
Uruguay-sea-side
Independance (ramblings)

I´d like to add some more general things about the country, let me start with the econimical state and how it reflects on people.
A welphare state it is for sure, that´s obvious in many ways, but also a fallen glory, the economic and financial state has mostly gone downhill the past 50 years. Uruguay won the worldcup football in 1930 and in 1950, that may be a lucky strike, but Uruguay is by far the smallest country ever to ever win the worldcup, the second smallest country who ever won.. was …. Argentina..

Anyway, let me make a point in giving one of the mayor reasons I travel South-America and not Asia:
It is clear that Asia has a lot more older and complex cultures / traditions, and a much larger history, however the people are at least as important for me..
Uruguayan people have a lot of freedom, see post above, they can really choose to study or not, and study what they want to study, the secularisation of society is top-notch, in their religious choice people are far less dependant on their family or society in general, as a sign of proof a lot of different religions floorish, like in the USA, all kind of reformist, catholic religions, not that they have a lot of followers, but the choice is there !
Now for Education, as far as my Asian experience goes, Asian people, when given the chance to study, grasp it with both hands, teeth, feet, tongue, and do literaly everything for it. Given an opportunity to doctorate in their study, they jump on it, delegating all other things in live to the second plan, it really does not matter how much other things they miss, or how boring the doctorate may be… The reason behind this is that status is everything…
I am not sure the culture is the reason that life got so canalised in Asian countries, but for me it makes people rather predictable, and thus uninteresting for me. Those who know me well enough already know I am not interested in status-seekers.
In a way Uruguayan people have outgrown the organised religions, to put it mildly. Most if not all big organised religions advocate values like gentlyness, friendleness, modesty, being empathic, not being egoistic (think primarily of your own, or your own status), helping poor and handicapped people. If these would be the criteria, Uruguay may very well be the most advanced nation in the world. Having achieved so much of these criteria, why would they need an organised religion anymore. Ok, there are other psychological and social reasons, …

TV:
Ho there we go down quite a bit. A lot of commercial channels, and lots of propaganda in between programs, and even during programs, even during the news, you see banners underneath, with sound, like on the internet, with the difference that you can not use ad-blockers on TV.
Overacting seems the one property TV-persons need to have. A lot of talkshows, or games, think of the Spanish TV, well actually it is the same probably in the whole of South-America. Games like “De juiste prijs”, still exist here, and they are probalby even worse than the infamous Belgian TV-show, with more overacting than you can imagine. Oh what”s this, that is a Anouk lookalike in that tv-show: blonde, big mouth, big boobes, ass also, does not look very clever, and listening to what she says, she is doing her very best to confirm all cliches of blonde girls, but that is what she is paid for of course, only difference with the dutch Anouk, and I was very happy for that, she did not sing. For those who see the original Anouk as a feminist, please think twice, she even tells it herself with a double negation: I will NEVER be NOBODYs wife.
Anyway, as it turns out, there are a lot of Anouk and other cliche characters on TV here.

Music:
3 basic types I heard candombe, Murga and Spanish rock.
Unfortunately I haven”t seen a candombe street fanfare, I have heard repetitions of a few players, and heard candombe from far, even in Montevideo, I could only get directions of where candombe would probably be played at around what time. Anyway I thought, given its history, it would be similar to the nowadays commercial Brazilian Capoeira. As it tuns out it is closer to a modest version of the Brazilian samba, the tambourines are smaller, the dances less theatratical. The rhythm comes over as rather monothonous, and the dances are very fast, I am sure you need to be in some trance, cause it does not seem easy.
Murga, I saw in different versions, the traditional is difficult to get in to, cause it is a mix of music, telling stories, “Voice male” like a Capella singing, carnaval, musical and humor.  The street versions are easier to get in to it is closer to candombe or Samba, with dances that seem more streamlined and easy. I{ve seen several Murga rehearsals in Buenos Aires also.
Spanish rock. Oh well decent to good, absolutely not anoying. Some Uruguyans complain their rock is unheard of outside their country. Hm ok it is better than the Cooks, but some things are justified. The Spanish rock is good, like “De Kreuners” are also a good band, but to me it is justified that “De Kreuners” are completely ignored outside the vast territory of Flanders…

Women:
For those who keep on asking me how the women are here. Well not much different from in Europe, think of Spain or Italy. Less blonde, but more with an indigenous look, so I do not complain. A little bit smaller, and most seem to do less sport, certainly those with children. However it is still not clear to me what women do once they finished studying. A lot of men want to go working in the countries where they can earn more, to come back 5-10 years later to buy a house. Not sure if women do the same, or if most go abroad only when married, or if they keep on waiting for the big fish”s return to marry. I know they are rather emancipated, but even in Belgium, still,..
But all in all very similar as in Belgium. I have also seen several woman who are only interested in my feet, and, lo siento, but I don”t believe feet tell a lot of the peronality of a person…