South America - Patagonia

Next Tuesday I will finally leave to South America. I still have no idea how I can pack all my stuff. I have far too much, especially this time I need a sleepingbag and stuff because I will be camping. Also I need clothes for all temperatures. In the beginning it will be > 30 degrees but in Patagonia weather can be everything from warm to snow...
This time I will fly from Frankfurt to Rio de Janeiro with TAM. After 2 nights in Rio I will arrive at the 30th of December in Santiago de Chile. From there on I am on a tour.
According to the itineary I won't have much time in Santiago, the first 3 days will be going to Pucon. I hope I have time to climb the Villarica vulcano. From there on it goes to Bariloche in Argentina (another 3 days including travel). Back in Chile I take the ferry from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales. The ferry takes 4 days and 3 nights and everything seems very rustical. Shared facilites... But the landscape will be amazing (and as I read also the food :) )
From Puerto Natales the tour goes to the most important National Parks in Patagonia. El Chalten (Fitzroy), El Calafate (Moreno Glacier) - Torres del Paine... Finally after a stop in Punta Arenas the tour will end in Ushuaia. From Santiago to Ushuaia that will be 21 days... Not much but enough to take some good pictures I hope.
From Ushuaia I will fly to Buenos Aires to spend another 2 days there before returning home.

Here is a map with an overview of the tour.


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San Sebastian

The short 3 day weekend in San Sebastian was a trip back into the warm weather. Instead of -1 back home it got up to 20 deg... lovely warm temperatures... T-shirt weather. Apart from the great basque food (Pinsho) there is quite a lot to see in San Sebastian. Lots of beaches, lots of nice lookouts... nice people. Check out the pictures at www.jsbpics.de

Istanbul

Some crazy weeks are behind me... Just 2 weeks before flying to Istanbul I was in Las Vegas, and in between hiking in snow...

Well Istanbul was great. It is one of my most favourite cities and it is easy to spend a lot of time there especially on the Bazaar shopping ;). After some trouble getting to the airport (Swiss bus/train ticket machine only take coins...) I could not take the offer of 250€ to take a flight the next morning because it was overbooked ;). Too much to see, too much to do... The weather in Istanbul was not the best, the first 2 days windy and not sunny at all. Most impressive were the mosques but they are filled with tourists. But a little off the main sights it was very nice. Pictures can be found on my homepage...

back home...

Well it has been some time after the last entry. I am already back since a couple of weeks and spent a lot of time with my pictures. The rest of the tour went well. Snow at Grand Canyon, 32 Celcius in the Death Valley and a little luck in Vegas (won 120$). Now I am already preparing for the next trip to Istanbul. Can't wait.
The pictures of my US trip can be found on my homepage (www.jsbpics.de)

rain... rain... rain... in Zion NP

The evening arriving from Salt Lake City to the Zion are the sunset at Kolob Canyons viewpoint was great, but the next day started cloudy. After a dissapointing sunrise the first trail in the morning was to the Canyon overlook. Afterwards we took the free bus to the end of the canyon for the riverside walk, that ended into a slot canyon. With a wetsuit it is possible to walk further into the canyon, but we didn't bring one... Instead we took the bus to Weeping Rock station to hike up to the weeping rock. From here on the rain started. About 3 hours we hiked up and down to Hidden Canyon a small slot canyon high above the valley. The hike was interesting as it was steep and secured with metal ropes. The slot canyon was dry, but due to the rain and recent flash floods I did not hike far into it. On way back the rain got stronger and stronger and it got a little slippery...

It is still raining cats and dogs and for tonight the forecast is snow at Grand Canyon North Rim where we will be tomorrow, what would be awesome for pictures. And in Vegas and Death Valley the weather will be nice anyway.

The hotel in Vegas is booked. Not the most fency place but we got a good deal on Stratosphere Tower.

Grand Teton National Park

Two days in Grand Teton Nationalpark were not enough. Such a nice place, just perfect for taking pictures. South of the Nationalpark is the little town Jackson Hole where we stayed for two nights. Not much to write and tell, just that I took a lot of pictures...

  

After a night in Salt Lake City and a short visit there, and tonight close to Zion Nationalpark, we will visit the Nationalpark tomorrow.

Yellowstone

Well, it could have been snowing at this time of the year but the weather was awesome. The first day we arrived at noon at Yellowstone and stayed the rest of the day to watch geysers erupt. Most impressive was Grand Geyser. But also Old Faithful and Castle Geyser did erupt. The second day started at 5:55 am. The sun was not up yet but everywhere it was smoking in the ground. And lots of wildlife. First stop was the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone to watch the rainbow at the Lower Fall afterwards Hayden Valley for wildlife. It was really worth it. A coyote came very close... The afternoon we spent at Mammoth Hotsprings. To watch more wildlife we went back to Hayden Valley and we saw 5 Grizzlys very far away, too far for pictures but with the telescope some guys had they could be seen. Well and then it happened. The remote control of the car stopped working. Battery was dead. And also the emergency key did not work. The car did simply not open. And ALL stuff was inside. Mobile phone, passport, warm clothes... I asked a guy if he could help us calling the rental company. And he and his friend were awesome. Well the rental car company could not send anyone to Yellowstone, and gave us a number of Yellowstone car service which was closed... Great. We ended up in calling 911. A ranger was

send to help us. In the meantime it was getting dark and cold. Great that we had company! They gave us warm clothes, started cooking a lovely dinner and even gave me a wide angle lens for the night sky because I still had the tele on my camera... So we got really really lucky. Well in the darkness you could not see but hear the animals, especially coyotes. The night sky was awesome! Great view of the milky way. Luckily the grizzlys did not get attracted by our food. Just some days earlier a guy got killed by a grizzly in this region. Finally the ranger did arrive and he could brake into the car. Took him two minutes... And we could finally drive back. Thanks to the two guys the evening turned into a great experience!

Days 1-5

Finally the first entry. Absolutely no time to write... So a short overview:

Day 1: Flights were alright. No food on the second flight which is a desaster for me ;). As rental car we got a Chrysler 300...

Day 2: Denver... Not much to see, just walking around the city... Visited the Oktoberfest and had the worst Käsespätzle in my life.

Day 3: Rocky Mountains National Park. Just 1.5 hrs away from Denver. The scenic Trail Ridge Road goes up to almost 4000m and has some nice lookouts. Took all day to drive to Grand Lake on the other side of the pass (have something to eat there) and back.

Day 4: Rocky Mountains National Park - Today was the hiking day. Getting up at 6am to catch the sunrise at Bear Lake. Afterwards a hike to several lakes with some really nice views, especially Mills Lake. In the afternoon 2 more hikes and a nice sunset.

Day 5: Getting up at 6am and taking some other sunrise pictures. Well, due to a 4hr stop at a shopping mall we did not reach Cody. Instead we are staying in Sheridan, Wyoming, 3-4 hrs away from Yellowstone.

Thats it for the moment, next entry will follow...

Overview and Travelmap of the USA Trip September 2011

My first post gives an overview about the upcoming 18-day US Trip end of September. I will check out the new intercontinal connection from Stuttgart to New York ;) and continue to Denver. The rental car will be picked up in Denver and the first 10 days will be spend in the Rocky Mountains.
Following National Parks are on the list:
- Rocky Mountains NP
- Yellowstone NP
- Grand Teton NP
- Zion NP
- Grand Canyon NP
- Death Valley NP
and visited Cities are
- Denver
- Salt Lake City
- Las Vegas
The tavel map gives a rough overview about the route.

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