Today I finally uploaded the pictures of the last 3 weeks in Chile and had some time to reflect the impressions. I already told about Pumalin, the South and Co. Plomo. The week after Co. Plomo I stayed in Santiago where I lived first at Stefans' (the German who organised the Plomo trip) and then at Tocho's (Ghis' brother) house. Nice accomodations and great company. Mucias gracias! The week was full with meeting people and small trips but anyway good chill out.

I was at La Campana, a National Park about one hour from Santiago with the famous 'Palmas Chilena'. Then I was at Zapalla and the Pacific coast. I saw the movie 'Bloddy Diamonds' (violent but good) and the show 'Los buenos muchachos'. Let me tell about - it was big show, in deed! I finally got Paola (Costa Rican girl I knew from my visit 2 years ago) and, together with Paula (Chilean girl, also met during last visit) and Paolas boyfriend we watched the show. First highlight: after getting seated in the very last corner Paola convinced the waiter to give us another table - which worked out to be the best one in the restaurant, right in front of the stage. Congratulations! It was a happy evening with good Chilean red vine, Pisco sour, dancing and a colorful show. Highlight of the show: dances from Easter Island. The native indegenious polynesian population has some special ones. Lightly dressed dancers and women in bras out of coconut...

The last day was a quick visit in Valparaiso together with Paula who originally comes from there.

The flight home was long and exhausting: one night Santiago to Atlanta, nearly a day at Atlanta Airport and another flight to Munich. Highlight: all plants I brought (among them a Palma Chilena) passed the customs (the US openly, the EU secredly) and now happily grow in my green house.

Back here in Haimhausen I played Tennis twice, met friends and family. Tonight there will be a big celebration for my dads birthday. Tomorrow in the evening I will take the 7 pm plane to Beijing. I have not been there for 4 week and I am curious who things look there. Keep fingeres crossed. 

Hello from sunny Santiago. I kind of shortcutted the trip to the South. Not that I did not like it any more but I got a good option for a trip here in Santiago. And I also must confess: it rained a lot in the South, as usual at the Carretera Austral. Here in Santiago it is pretty warm again. Time for the 60 sun block once more.

So on 2.3. I flew from Coyaique back to Santiago packed the backpack again for another mountain experience and joined Stefan, a German who lives in Santiago for 20 years and his friend Joerg, a Lufthansa pilot, for a trip to Cerro Plomo, the 5400m high mountain just outside of Santiago.

It was an express trip. We came to ‘La Parva’, a Ski-ressort at 3000m altitude by car and then, with the help of mules, to the ‘refugio’ at 4100m were we camped. A pretty fast ascend. It makes you feel the altitude. Slight headache and nausea but not as bad as I had expected.

The next day was already the summit day. We got up at 2:15 a.m. and started at 3 a.m. During the first hours a quite strong wind was blowing, increasing with the altitude. We passed ‘La Oja’ another camp at 4300m and reached refugio Agostini at 4600m which is not more than some pieces of wood providing small protection. In Agostini we decided to stay and wait a bit for better temperatures. It was –10 degrees and maybe 60 km/h wind, still 5:00 a.m. Then, Stefan and Joerg decided to walk back, not really equipped for that  cold temperatures. I lent Stefans gloves and crampons which made the further access possible. It was steep and hard. At 5100m a snowfield with some blank ice needs to be passed. You definitely need the crampons for that. After that it was another 2 hours to the summit which I reached at 11:30 a.m. Extraordinary exhausting with no acclimatisation. I could not really enjoy the view on Aconcagua from the summit. Only rested for a few minutes, asked a Chilean for a summit picture and started to go back. Very carefully. After I passed the snowfield again a lucky incident happened: I was asked to bring another Chilean, a guy called Emanuel, down to the camp. I happily accepted and it came out that Emanuel was in better shape than me. We walked very slow and rested (I slept) every hour. I was very lucky when we reached the camp at 4 p.m., just willing to sleep. At 8 p.m. I got a nice dinner and two glasses of red wine from a group to which I had further borrowed Stefans crampons.

Next day we went back to Santiago. Short, exhausting, of course nice trip. Anyway a miracle how fast the body recovers…. Even yesterday was feeling good again and enjoying the rest of the trip.

Saludos desde Chaiten. So much to my Spanish knoweledge (which, when talking, in many cases ends in stuttering).

Pumalin Park lies behind me. As told before I took the ferry from Hornopiren where I got the aquantaince of Peter an American from California. Good luck because the ferry took 5 ½ hours and Peter had many interesting stories to tell. Among them the following: Starting in 1960 he and his wife traveled for some (!) years through Europe. They had an Opel Kadett and lived on the motto of their guide book: Europe on 5 dollars a day. Yet he told that for most days 5 dollars was the budget for both persons! I was quite amazed and asked a lot. In the end he told: may I should add one thing. This was the way I escaped Vietnam war!

In Caleta Gonzalo I camped for one night. Lots of people there. Around 50 tents! Nearly Italian dimensions. But the surrounding is different. Caleta Gonzalo is located most beautifully, surrounded by hills and deep forest. And also the standard of camping is different. In Pumalin you really see that they don’t lack money. The path to the camping is a tunnel in the bush, lighted by soft shining lamps that give a mystic atmosphere – very convenient, I arrived at dusk.

Maybe I should explain some words about Pumalin National Park. It is a private Park and goes back to the initiative of American millionaire Douglas Tompkins (Esprit, North Face) who bought up 3000 km2 of forest to form a National Park and protect nature from industrial interests. Yet the idea of the park is highly controversially discussed in Chile. The Park goes from the Pacific ocean to the Argentinan  border. At Pumalin Park the Carretra Austral is interrupted which means that there is no North South connection by road. Chile is cut into two pieces – as the opponents say.    

After a lazy morning I started walking to the other end of Pumalin Park, to El Volcan. A 30 km walk along the gravel road but still very nice in this surrounding. In El Volcan I camped one more night and decided to rename the place to El Mosquito. Next day I climbed the notorious Volcan Michimahueda which I have been warned about twice before – such a long trip (ab. 10 hours). Actually it was long, I even prolonged by missing the trail one time and walking back for one hour. Stupid me! For the rest of the return I walked with two South Africans. Safer and more entertaining.

After one more night at El Mosquito I started walking towards Chaiten today. Again 30 km, so it was sure that, after  the two exhausting days I would need a ride! But not already in the beginning! I let pass the first ten cars during the first hour of walking and got rewarded with hard raining, and the fact that except one car which rushed by no more cars came during the next 2 ½ hours. What to do! I got really wet and was deeply relieved when at 2:30 a car of the Guarda Parque gave me a ride to Chaiten. In Chaiten it was so windy and hard raining that I ran into the first restaurant – and had lunch. After that I checked in into a nice hospedaje and by now sun is coming out again.