New Zealand: Dance on the Volcano: Tongariro Crossing
Highly recommended is the following: a day tour through a wonderful lunar landscape in New Zealand. The „Tongariro Crossing“ in the middle of the North Island, not far from Lake Taupo, leads through an unreal world.
It took us about 8 hours to cross, passing crevices from which sulfur vapors rose and looking astonishing at the turquoise Emerald Lakes. A stunning view, you should not miss. Start early and stay away from the crowd.😁
Mexico: How to drive a car in Mexico DF?
Driving in Mexico is really exciting, no actually it is more dangerous to call. Horses, donkeys, dogs and people can stand, lie or sit on the unlit roads at any time. Even bicycles with their owners sometimes end up on the „autopista“, because there are no other roads.
Bizarre are the many dead animals on the roadside. The feeling of driving through a dead horse is rather unpleasant, the dead dogs (hundreds!) with their legs pointing to the sky in rigor mortis, almost comical. The buses here overtake even when there is oncoming traffic; we avoided overtaking altogether in Mexico. In cities like Mexico City and Guadalajara, traffic rules are like weather forecasts: pretty unreliable!
So only those who love adventure, should drive themselves here.✌️
Mexico: Where can I see 10 million butterflies at once?
Millions of butterflies (mariposas) fly from Canada and the U.S. to Mexico every year to congregate at an altitude of 3200 meters. Near Ocampo, one drives by car up a stony unpaved serpentine road to 3000 meters. Possible punctures cannot be excluded. In the middle of a village a farmer stands with a rope in his hand and demands toll, which one should pay willingly. The rope then falls to the ground and you fearlessly drive your car through a little creek.
When you arrive at 3000 meters above sea level, the children who have been “hanging on” for the past kilometers fall off the car one by one. Then you have to overcome -with a paid guide- only 200 meters of altitude, your lungs have a hard time with it, and you stand in front of a unique spectacle. Millions of monarch butterflies hang on the trees and fly around. A bit like in an alien movie and yet really beautiful and amazing. 😍
Argentina: Short flights to New Zealand
The direct flight from South America to New Zealand is via an almost polar route. Unfortunately, Aerolineas Argentinas simply put us into another plane plane, because the booked one was “overbooked”.
So we actually flew from Buenos Aires to Miami, then to Los Angeles and from there to Auckland, NZ – this will be forever the longest flight of our lives.
We were then 5 weeks in New Zealand traveling both the North and South Island. Otherwise, the real direct route is supposed to be a very interesting flight, with a „point of no return“ when the winds and kerosene are not sufficient to turn back. Glad we took the other alternative. ☺️
Argentina: Tierra del Fuego
Even though Magellan is said to have seen only smoke upon his arrival and referred to the land as “Tierra del Humo” (Land of Smoke), Charles V. changed this on the grounds that there is no smoke without fire. He renamed the land “Tierra del Fuego” (Land of Fire). It is true that the fires of the Fireland Indians have been extinguished for many years, because here, too, the indigenous people were systematically exterminated.
Nevertheless, the sunset every evening in Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world, convinced us of the name “Tierra del Fuego”. The sky burned every time in the most incredible colors from orange-yellow to pink-purple: no trace of smoke! 🔥
Canada: Time for prison
No, of course, we didn’t go to jail. But in Ottawa, the capital of Canada, there is a jail converted to a youth hostel: „Carlton County Jail“ 1862-1972.
Through the jail entrance you enter sort of a scary building. Take a tour and learn about the history of the building complex. In principle, there are three ways to spend the night here.
First, you can sleep where the guards lived, large rooms and guaranteed ghosts in the heating! Secondly, you can be locked in a cell, we are talking about a real „cell“ (4sqm)! And finally, you can stay awake all night waiting for the ghost of the last man sentenced to death by hanging in Canada to re-appear.
He was probably innocent… 🥺
New Zealand: Once in a lifetime
We can’t explain why. Bungee jumping didn’t really have a big attraction for us in the beginning. But then Katja & Guido jumped the highest platform of 134 meters over a gorge into the void. It was the most horrific experience ever, a pure horror and we kept dreaming from the moment one decides to actually jump – against every logic you brain tells you right there.
Nevertheless – the feeling when the elastic rope holds – is surely unique. That´s what we call relief. In Queenstown, New Zealand, everyone gets fun on their money. 😎
Chile: Wilderness Trekking in Torres del Paine
For five full days we endured the so called „W-Walk“ through the National Park „Torres del Paine“. Food, tents, water, everything was there and on our shoulders. We had three very entertaining Israeli soldiers traveling with us through this wilderness.
Crystal water, spring weather, no snow and freshly blooming „notro“ (a red flower) in front of turquoise lakes make this trekking tour an extreme scenic experience. But watch out. Other experiences are also quickly possible here. Mountain lions, snowfall and dangerous steps can ruin ones experience. We arrived lighter, happier and relieved after five long days back to civilization.
In Santiago de Chile we met later an Englishman who had to walk through waist-high snow for 2 days… ⛰
Guatemala: Travel to Antigua
Your luggage pulls you backwards as you cross the bridge from Talisman to El Carmen. The Mexican customs officer takes your tourist card, the Guatemalan your money. Both have one thing in common, they laugh at you, your luggage and the tropical sun.
The way on foot is shorter than expected, because there are buses on the other side of the border. After you have resisted the protestations of the cab driver – who claims the opposite – you already see them. Old, rarely repainted, American school buses in pale yellow. It’s hard to tell who is driver, conductor or passenger as the jeering mob rushes toward you. In the seconds between breaths, your luggage is on the bus roof and someone is holding the rear door open for you. “You’ve got to be kidding!” It isn’t and yet there is laughter – perhaps hysterical. The bus is full (!) and you are to be made fellow sufferers with your two fellow passengers.
It is pushed, pressed, felt, experienced, replaced and asked for forgiveness. There is a light smell of sweat mixed with sultry air and yet everyone remains cheerful.
It is this laughter on a bus in Guatemala that makes the confinement bearable, the closeness acceptable and the heat manageable. There’s an old woman laughing in the front seats, twelve double rows of three people away from you – she waves and rejoices. There’s the dust-covered farmhand and a cowboy hat laughing and baring his silver-rimmed front teeth. And the children, though bashful and curious at the same time; hide behind “really” black hair.
What good can you say about 5 hours of bus ride? When you change buses once, you stand between the buses and see your luggage flying through the air from previous to newer bus. Black something against the sun and yet, we stay calm. Weren’t you already afraid that it would disappear forever in the jungle in a curve flung through by squealing rear tires? Or that it might have been “accidentally” dropped during one of the numerous stops?
It is a brilliant feat of the human brain that the un-uniformed conductor rolling through the crowd can assign an unknown face to each piece of luggage. We are talking about a constantly changing variable of 70-80 souls. Thus, your luggage reaches the ground of Quezaltenango, from there Panajachel, Chichicastenango and finally Antigua as safely as you do.
The bus moves through an overwhelming landscape. Gray clouds creep over the volcanic cones, silently rolling down the slope, only to catch themselves and hover like banks of fog, insular but ‘above’ Lake Atitlan. When the sun dives into the tropical jungle early in the evening, you are standing in front of Dante’s hell, glowing red clouds draw fragments of liquid lava on the evening sky. Fire, water, earth in an elemental frenzy. Where are the dinosaurs?
The rear axle of the bus, which has jumped in and out of the pothole, pulls you off the sticky seat and out of your daydreams. A window breaks open, knocked out by time. The wind presses your glasses to your wondering eyeballs, compressing incoming air into unbreathable wall as the driver hurtles down the valley toward the bus station, and you with him, utterly faithless in incarnation.
The disquieting sound of worn brake pads ends your journey breathlessly. Between Fuego, Agua and Acatenango, the three volcanoes around Antigua, you bus-worldly globetrotter stand in „La Muy Noble Y Muy Leal Ciudad De Santiago De Los Caballeros De Goathemala“. This is a unique experience! 🚌
Chile: Walking on fire From today´s point of view and with parental guiding experience we would never have done this climbing tour. There is an active volcano in Chile, named „Villarica“.
We had professional gear including spikes for our shoes, pickaxe and a gas mask together with an Austrian mountain guide who suffered from a hangover.
Constantly we were told, to be the last ones to be allowed to climb up, as the volcano was about to erupt. Nothing happened though. (It actually had a major eruption 5 years later and almost 4000 people were evacuated) Instead stunning views from 2847 meters and and we sledding back down on our buds, amazing tour. 😂
From rags to riches
First of all, we did not manage to become millionaires. But we met wonderful people and earned good money.
The owners of a restaurant in Upper Michigan hired us as dishwashers and busser.
Often it is the simple things in life that can be fun. A Yugoslavian who fled Tito , a Native American with caustic hands and a much larger wife, a single American woman with daughter and a group of super nice cooks and waiters. We took boat trips together, ate around the campfire and sang together. This is the real America! 🇺🇸