Bolivia

Vertical La Paz

We barely spent 3 days in La Paz, but it deeply impressed us. Built in the Andes, the city ranges from 3100m to 4058m, but it’s not in a big flat bowl like for example Quito, the buildings of La Paz cling to steep mountain walls, spread out over several canyons. Recently the city has received 3 cable-car lifts (actually ski lifts from Doppelmayr) and a few more are in construction. These create a cheap and fascinating way…

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Bolivia

FLAMINGOES, SNOWBALL FIGHTS AND MAGICAL SALAR DE UYUNI

We started at 7:30 in the morning in San Pedro and took a bit of a climb to the boarder of Bolivia, I should rather say a little shed with a Bolivian flag on top of it. It’s were we got the stamps in our passport before changing from the mini-bus into a 4×4 for the coming 3 days. With us were 4 Brazilians in their young ages. It’s been a relaxed and funny group…

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Chile

OUR LAST DAYS IN CHILE – SAN PEDRO DE ATACAMA

Yes, we were ready to leave Chile. 3 months after we had bought our bikes in Santiago, we were ready to leave the country in which we had spent more or less half of the time of our South America trip.  We tried to squeeze a couple of things in before leaving. It felt that we had not seen everything we should have. Well, the more time we spent talking to people the more places…

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Chile

Meet Pisco Gonzales

In one of the far ends of the Elqui valley, we ran into a little handicraft market. With all the weight of the backpacks on our shoulders, we were so sure that we wouldn’t buy anything at all. And so we browsed the many arty stalls, resisted finely crafted souvenirs, pottery, jewellery, woven dreamcatchers… and then we saw him. Nicely set up on the side of one of the stalls, in between Sponge Bob, Mario…

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Chile

Surrounded by cacti and grapes – the Elqui valley

On the way north from Santiago we stopped by in the Elqui valley, an arid, almost desert-like, mountainous region, flown through by little but substantially nourishing streams. It’s famous for a couple of things: The enormous wineries that produce Pisco exclusively, a liquor used for Chile’s national drink, the “Pisco Sour”. The contrast of the arid mountains and the green valleys is beautiful and fascinating. The clear skies, ideal for astronomy and star gazing. It’s a…

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