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.

Hiking Villarica (National Park)

In the early morning we are west of the glacier, a cold breeze and the sun sets in the crater of the Vulcan.


Our tent between rocks on soft ground, in the morning hours in the shadow of the crater, the valleys are covered by clouds (click to enlarge).



Gnom looking trees, this one is a baby one, they become many meters high.


The only fresh water source after and before each direction hiking for 10 hours.


Clouds covering the valleys.


The dark lava heats up already in the morning hours and no shadow to be found for many hours of hiking.


Getting higher and higher with less vegetation and landscape becomes surrealistic. On the bottom left Jaque with his back pack.


Can you hear that?


Getting down again to see the first trees after all the heat during the day.


reaching the camping area down in the valley with access to drinking water just before dawn.

Hiking Villarrica (Vulcano)

I took a bus to Pucon and in one of the adventure offices I met a French-man Chaque, who owns a tent and wanted to hike in the National Park Villarrica, too.


So we planned the hike to first climb the peak of the Vulcan and directly afterwards starting our way "into the wild". Right, first day we actually got stocked and could not hike the peak because of the bad weather.


Due to the fact that Pucon is located in the red zone of the one day happening Vulcan outbreak the fire brigade is well equipped and in the centre of the city. Just across I was hanging out a lot in the café/Internet-café. On this picture the French owner on his motorbike.


Well, no hiking, so I booked a trip to the thermal place. It was alright and I got as well a relaxing message, which made me actually fall asleep.


The next morning was clear and we made our way up. (Click picture to enlarge.)


Climbing the Vulcan is actually a big tourist attraction. In one day up to 150 people do that. All, of course, starting at the same time to get back before darkness.
Looks like ants, doesn't it?!


That is me on the crater, however I could not force a spectacular outbreak :(


Looking east with two further Vulcan in the background. The area in between those is the National Park Villarrica. The last Vulcan, Lunin, is half Chile and half Argentina. The whole region is called "The fire-belt", because of the hundreds of Vulcan.


This is my French travel buddy Chaque as well on the crater.


Back down on the base station: Of course you are so cute you can have some of my bread even if I go for a three days hike out of civilisation. Sooo cute, it makes you survive.


Getting finally away from mainstream tourism: Into the wild...

sleeping next to Villarica (lake)

Well, I hitch-hiked back to town and took a very nice Pasta. I booked myself in a fair priced B&B directly on the lake and this picture is actually from my room in the morning hours!

arriving in Villarica (town)

In my coffee table book of Patagonia I had a picture of the volcano Villarica. It's almost perfect shape attracted me so much, I knew before I even have left it would be one of my highlights on my whole trip.

I tried to couchsurf in Villarica but somehow my host forgot me. I kept trying to contact him and first thing in Villarica was therfore to look for an Internet Café. I Was shocked and surprised noting the price they charge in the header bar.

Officially the Peso symbol is the same as the dollar: "$". This Internet Café however used the "€". Puff, a hundred Euro for 10 Minutes of Internet usage... well, it had been actually 13 Euro Cents...



The Gringo (US American) gave me the address earlier in a mail. So despite I could no contact him I made my way up to his place. He was not home. As I informed me later, he went fishing for some days and forgetting about me. Well anyway, he lives at a nice spot!

At some stage I got really bored of waiting :) It really was a very nice timing as the climate exactly was as it is in Germany in late summer. My favourite time of the year.

on the way to Villarrica - Chile's lake district

Well, two of the three bus I took in Chile broke down :) Anyway, that gave me the chance to make some pictures in a place so small I even have not found on the map, somewhere in between Valdivia and Villarica.

And why I write about that here? Possibly just because of the shoe on the photo I made there (as always, click to enlarge :)

No man's land Argentina - Chile & Valdivia

This picture is made in between the borders of Argentina and Chile. As nice as it looks, when the sun rises in the early morning in the East (Argentina) the rainbow actually means that there is heavy rain in Chile. Just minutes later the Bus broke down, still in No-Mans-Land, this time in rain, and that's where I actually met a Kiwi, Josinta, with which I ended up traveling for two days, going straight to the pacific beach.

The (exchanged) Bus ended in Osorno and we changed to go straight to Valdivia. It's a city with a strong German influence. (Not only because the biggest brewery of Chile is located there.) Close to the bus station we booked a B&B and took another Bus to the actual coast. We found just in time for the sunset a beach with a great fish restaurant!

Auf Wiedersehen Argentina!

After I have spend about 5 weeks in Argentina and traveled all the major points of Patagonia I actually felt really sad to leave. The people I met, the landscapes, the food, the language, the Tango. It was a great experience. For those who want to do that as well: Get good and light camping equipment and double your budget: Things are costly at the end of the world!

Well, I just really love these really old cars that keep on running and running and running. In Europe it is illegal for security and environmental reasons. Fair enough. But the design was just really so much nicer that this modern style!
Cool green, isn't it :)


This is me with my Mexican friend José. He is as well a CouchSurfing Nomadic Ambassador - the first I met on my travel. At that time he was actually as well traveling to Patagonia, but got stuck in beautiful Bariloche working in a Hostel. I found his profile, contacted him and we spend 2 great weeks running the Hostel packed with Israelis ;)


All the Best for your experiences in the US, Germany and Israel - and make sure to send me your business card whenever you actually get back to Mexico and your Business.

I am sure you will do great, José!