Tower Hill, Australia
After only few hours of something you might call sleep in our JetStar plane, we arrived about some thousand kilometre further down south in Adelaide.
As many other towns in Australia, Adelaide looks nothing special to us…no really historic places/houses and everything nicely laid out in an ordered grid system of streets. So what to do here ? Easy: Shopping, Relaxing and BBQ
Kakadu National Park, Australia
It has been a while since the last posting…but – other that expected – getting free internet in Australia and New Zealand is much more difficult than in South America…
After nearly one week throughout Queensland including Daintree National Park and another visit to the Great Barrier Reef it was time to switch locations again…and how do you do this best in a country where there’s thousands of kilometres between major cities? Right, simply take a plane from A to B – and be prepared, that people you will meet more in our local buses rather than in a plane will do the same: “Cheers mate!”
Apropos “mates”: We’re still travelling together with my dad Peter and my sister Kirsten
After some initial trouble getting an acceptable rental car – thanks to our “friends” from Hertz, which still haven’t been able to sort things out in their system – we easily found a nice hotel to stay.
Next morning it was time for our Northern Territory adventure: Well equipped with tips from Iris’ dad, we opted for an early start to the Kakadu National Park *yawn*
Continue reading All around Darwin: Kakadu and Litchfield National Parks
Port Vila, Vanuatu
…at least that’s what an old German saying tells us – and it’s true, especially if you wanted to do something “special” and visit Vanuatu
According to various sources Vanuatu should be, what everybody considers “paradise” – not yet overflown by tourists, comparable cheap, sunny, friendly people all over the place, smiling all day long, …we could continue for some more time, but…
Back to the German saying mentioned above: You already have a vague idea, what this is heading to? Right…but let’s go through the topics one by one – in German, we found a word beginning with “Un” for each of them:
“Unverschämt teuer” – Lets just remember, that Vanuatu is a third-world-country and only every 7th person has something you would define as a job… The prices in the supermarkets and on the normal communal market on the street struck us like lightning: 1,40 EUR for 1 liter of milk, 1,50 EUR for a small can of really cheap beer (kind of “Öttinger-Pilsner”*smiley winking*, at least 14 EUR *smiley exclamation mark* for a main course in a restaurant (meat, pizza, what so ever), cheapest accommodation we could find 30 EUR per night
“Unfreundlich” – We read a lot of articles about Vanuatu and its famous number 1 rating in a survey looking for the happiest people in the world… But nobody was laughing and/or looking happy at all in Port Vila. Maybe we just got a wrong start there, as we found some more “happy” people away from the capital later on…
“Unwillig” – Nobody seemed to be willing to do anything at all…only if one of these annoying and disturbing tourists was pushing you can be sure some effort is done to get rid of you…
“Unfähig” – And even if you do try to push people and make sure that you get what you want, it still doesn’t always work…after one week discussion about flight dates, tours and hotels they messed up with the final confirmation and we could not go to Tanna or any other island as planned…
“Ungeziefer” – We couldn’t avoid it any longer….even after surviving South America without any major incidents (let’s forget about this small cockroach invasion in the jungle). Disaster stroke with a flea plague here…you’re reading correctly: Fleas!!!
Well, not everything was bad and we really tried to make to best out of it by searching for the nice spots with nice people…which worked out in a way
Continue reading Vanuatu – or “Wer eine Reise macht kann was erleben…”
Bora Bora, French Polynesia
Even if the weather was not perfect, we don’t wanna hide the “best available” view onto the lagoon from the airplane *smiley laughing*
Well, ok…two of these shots are “comercial” pictures found view Google Picture Search – guess which ones *smiley winking*
But anyway, this really was a glimpse of paradise *smiley smiling*
Absolutely no need to be sad – at least from what we have seen, experienced and mastered To sum it up a different way, than just putting together some numbers we tried to find some more “interesting” milestones – *!?#…that still sounds much like “Berater” slang, but we have another 3 months to get rid of that
Most unusual bathroom(s)
“Lightly” separated bathroom/toilet in Sucre
“Outdoor” feeling on Bora Bora
Most unusual “beach”
Some gravel at the Bolivian-Chilean-border area at more than 4000m and less than -20 C outside temperature on the way into the pool
Easter Island, Chile
Day 3
5:00am! We will definitely beat the crowds visiting the Moai at sunrise!
Unfortunately the sunrise is on the other side of the island, its pitch dark (no street lamps), the road has quite some pot holes, we have a scooter… and it is raining *smiley annoyed* Don’t ask how, but we made it well before any sun light was hitting the horizon and enjoyed a dramatic looking scenery
Continue reading Rapa Nui by scooter / Mit’m Roller über die Osterinsel – continued
Valparaiso, Chile
After quite some time in more (or less) remote locations (see our Salar de Uyuni blog), we arrived in the modern mega-city of Santiago de Chile on a Sunday… and is was a special Sunday: There was some type of ceremony for the president of Chile!
Sounds good! But result et in a very frustrated taxi driver dropping us off some five blocks or so from the hostel, because he simply could not get closer due to closed streets. And that meant walking through a deserted city center (all people must have been somewhere else watching the parade) after a 24hour bus ride with our backpacks *smiley annoyed*
We stayed in the hostel Plaza de Armas directly at the central place – with the same name – and in a converted apartment. Straight to the point: Location great, facilities (showers, kitchen, WiFi=WLAN) good, staff sucks – but fortunately we haven’t come here to meet them…but to do some sight-seeing
But as Europeans and after more than two months on the road we got more attracted by the modern amenities than the whole sight-seeing *smiley winking*
Continue reading Back to the city! – Santiago de Chile and Valparaiso
Laguna Colorado, Bolivia
This will be an unsual posting – until we find some more time for an update… As we – hopefully – will leave for Easter Island and some more islands tomorrow morning and the internet connection will at least be a “bit” slower there we decided to already upload/post the selected photos
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Edit: Being on the islands now – to be more exact: on Rapa Nui / Easter Island – we have been busy the last couple of days exploring the island and organizing our onward travels over a VERY slow sattelite connection (which even breaks at times, when it’s raining). We decided to call this our posting for the Salar de Uyuni trip…so read the picture descriptions – and/or invite us for dinner and drinks sometime in January 2010 – to get more infos
Stay tuned for the outstanding postings about San Pedro de Atacama and the Valle de la luna, Santiago and Valparaiso and – last but not least for now – Easter Island!
Uyuni (City)
Potosi, Bolivia
Being currently in the writing mood – and under a little pressure from my travel partner to finish some blog entries before we hopefully (flight confirmation outstanding ) take off to the islands here come some details of our visit to Potosi in Bolvia.
Once it was one of the richest towns in the world – and one of the largest ones (close second after London at that time) as well *smiley surprised*
Main reason for their wealth being the tremendous silver resources under nearby Cerro Rico – a hill that back in that times was obviously about 300 to 400m higher than it is today…yes, that difference might have mainly to do with the amount of silver extracted from it *smiley surprised*
Another example to illustrate their – once – increddible wealth is the more than 80 *smiley exclamation mark* churches that serve around 150.000 inhabitants of Potosi…and I am not talking about small churches here *smiley winking*
Sightseeing these days is a little tricky…
…as to see the real attraction of Potosi, you need to go underground!
Continue reading A little closer to hell…in Potosi (Bolivia)
Sucre, Bolivia
Was gibt es über Sucre zusagen? Gemeinhin wird es gerne auch als “die weiße Stadt” bezeichnet…Ihr werdet bei den Fotos sehen, warum Was weniger bekannt ist – und da tue ich jetzt mal was für Eure Allgemeinbildung – es ist auch die konstitutionelle Hauptstadt von Bolivien und Sitz des obersten Gerichtshofs des Landes.
Und was kann man in einer Hauptstadt am besten tun? Richtig: Ausspannen, von den Strapazen der “anderen” Hauptstadt Bolivienes, die wir gerade erst hinter und gelassen hatten – und die uns ja nicht soooooo gut gefallen hat.
Und dafür ist die Stadt wirklich schööööööön Man fühlt sich so ein bisschen wie in Spanien – alles relaxt und entspannend
