Parque Nacional Natural Utria

Zona Cafetería, Santuria, Colombia

Parque Nacional Natural Los Nevados

Parque Nacional Tatamá

Santa Elená, un Barrio de Medellín

Zona Cafetería, cerca de Solento, Colombia

Zona Cafetería, cerca de Solento, Colombia

Medellín Tour

Hiking from my doorstep up to Santa Elená - Medellín

El Peñol - Guatapé

Jardin, Colombia

Jardin is located far away from everything.
Well, to Medellín it's only 120km, but as the bus has average speed of 40km/h it takes 3 hours (Great in math, wa?!) That is because of the bends and up and downs of the mountain chains.

In Jardin it is common to ride the horse. Like the milkman, or the farmers, or to get drunk on the weekend (yes, you get served on the horseback!) the church and the park are beautiful and everything is very well taken care of. and the mountains surrounding it are huge and covered with trees and agricultural goods, specifically
coffee, plantanos and bananas. There are many fish farms as well and happy cows.

My host in Medellín is from this village and he brought me to is parents house for two nights. So many details
I wouldn't be to write them down!

Medellín, Colombia

After the first 4 month of traveling Argentina, Chile and Panama I feel tired of packing my stuff. Here in Medellín I study everyday at the university Spanish. Thanks to Couchsurfing I am very much integrated into everyday life. I sleep at a CS host, Marío, have my own room, Internet and everything. And he is a very good compañion!

There is a lot of culture here, the infrastructure is really good for such a big city and I feel far my saver than in Buenos Aires or in Panama City.

Currently is rain-season in this part of the earth. That means in the afternoon it rains almost everyday for 2-3 hours. In June that should be over and I will go backpacking again. The Ands are in Colombia the widest, divided into three different ranges. I hope to peak above 5000m this month.

Back in Panama City for boarding

Natascha and me are back in Panama City after a long bus travel. Tomorrow is our flight,... Natascha back to berlin and I decided to go south again,... Colombia.


I will stay there a while and have time to update the blog, upload some pictures and... learn more Spanish :)

Panama City

I already spend a week in Panama City, couchsurfed with Miguel, had some blue cocktails, fantastic sea fruit dinners, got myself a Minibook (Acer AspireOne, Linux = cheap, small, light and no Microsoft), took a language course and discovered a bit the city.

Not that I would not like it here,... Well, it's my first time in a Central American City, and the diversity is just wow. Super rich, super poor, almost nothing in between visible. The transport system is superbad. People feel extremely scared.

Natascha is arriving tonight and we will check the most important touristic sights:
- Casco Viajo, the historic city
- The Canal

Looking forward to get on the Caribbean coast and visit San Blas, you know, this little islands with just one palm tree? Anyway, I'll send you a postcard in a bottle :)

back in Santiago

For the weekend I found a host in Santiago and she is going to the (first) Radiohead concert in Santiago. Will go to a club called www.Blondie.cl which sounds like fun to me.

Santiago itself is superb. It´s very modern, quite fast, huge and far cleaner than BsAs. Lots of German stuff to buy and German spoken here, which I found (surprisingly) cool. Got a haircut at a Sallon called "Berlin" :) No major changes, don´t worry :) But the owner Madlen said the beared would give me a long face,... well after hiking so much I hope so :P

Valparaiso was great!

Weather on the coast is colder than in Santiago and than expected!

I found a host for a second night and we were having some really nice food and wine. Valpo is defenitely the most crayiest town I have seen in my life. Hope to upload some pictures soon.

Arrived well in Santiago de Chile

I arrived well in Santiago and have a great couch with my friend Alexandra I already met in Bariloche. I arrived at a Sunday morning, about 8am with some friends of her housemate still singing Spanish songs drinking Rum.

Next Sunday is my flight to Panama, one week for one of the cities that I am most interesting in. This is the view from my couch.

Again, lucky me: A very nice late summer week with about 26Grad.


First generation VW Bus, popular used from driving schools.

Adios Púcon

After spending almost two weeks in this area I was very sorry to leave. It is a very nice, but as well very touristic little town. All my contacts were very friendly. Here some impressions, I uploaded them in quite high quality so you can enjoy them in more details by clicking on each foto:

Two elderly Chileans on the main street.


Cigarettes are sold only in bigger supermarkets and have huge labeling above them. In spanish written:
"Tabacco kills. If you want to keep living stop smoking.
In Chile the tabacco kills 14.000 people each year. You might be the next one. "

Like the "Lucky Strike" boxes you can see below are only half with the brand, the other half is the campaign picture and slogan. In all public accessible buildings smoking is forbidden and generally I have seen little people smoking.


The beach of lake "Villaricca". Birds looking for food and flying surround me.


View on the city and the little hill on the right side is the Peninsula, which is the safety area in case of a volcanic outbreak. The Peninsula is privately own I was denied to have a walk on it.


In the little city-harbour Chilies flag in the evening light.


The setting sun from the city harbour.


The all over Latin America popular "Mexico-Beetle". On the background the shadows of the fire brigade in the very city centre.