the most important thing

back home now, we need a little time to cope with all the things that happend on our hasino-tour around the world.
first we want to thank all our supporters, new friends and people we had a nice time with. you all made the trip so special.

staring in order of appearance:

michael armstrong (canada)
julien arsenault (canada)
bob and june harquail (canada)
cameron macdonald (canada)
renette and norm leblanc-cormier(canada)
lise melanson (canada)
briand melanson (canada)
briand "tounar" comeau (canada)
alphonse and elaine melanson (canada)
gary, caroline, christiane theriault (canada)
hildegard doucet (canada)
chris, michelle and ava schmidt (usa)
bill and annette manfra (usa)
romy forster (switzerland)
andrea schaermeli (switzerland)
alfredo and nicole (chile)
reto rothen (switzerland)
daniel and urs (switzerland)
sil (argentina)
henk van der wijk (holland)
tobias utz and marcela fuentes (germany / mexico)
tania (denmark)
gypsy (new zealand)
cees kranen (holland)
linsay and sarah with bridget and katy sutcliff (new zealand)
peter and emma maccracken (new zealand)
norma schwierk (germany)
jan, arne, aline = "the bench boys" (germany)
suz and tim (new zealand)

march 26 - april 11

march 26 sunday+march 27 monday

we both felt slightly ill and very tired. weather was stormy and rainy. so we just stayed inside, reading, writing.

march 28 tuesday

walked a trail called "the snout" probably because it is shaped like the head of a lying dog when you approach in a boat. weather was at least dry but still cold and stormy. went to town afterwards and out for dinner in the local yachting club. nice and quite cheap.


march 29 wednesday

wanted to take the 10h15 ferry to wellington. but due to storm over the sound it was cancelled and we had to wait till 13h15. decided to work on the blog but the local server had broken down... just not our day. arrived at wellington downtown backpackers about 18h and felt tired. stayed in the hostel and spend the evening with a canadian couple who was also cycling.

march 30 thursday

visited the free te papa museum in wellington. sort of everthing about new zealand from science to cultural heritage. very good museum and huge. you could easily spend a week there without being able to see everything. took the comutertrain to parapaumo in the evening and arrived at the beautiful seaside hostel. decided to stay for two nights and tried to figure out what to do with our last ten days in new zealand.

march 31 friday


no more cycling. the prospection of busy highway 1 north not even running along the coast didn't attrackt us too much. booked the bus to hamilton, a hostel there and a bed in raglan for 2 nights (norma, the woman we met at the hang dog camp in tataka recommended raglan and this hostel and she seemed to like the same things i like).

april 1 saturday

our bus driver had worked as a radio speaker before and was very entertaining. told us about a lot of things we passed. arrived in hamilton about 17h and really did nothing more. there was a big rugby game everbody in the hostel went to so we had the whole house to ourselves.

april 2 sunday


woke up to pouring rain. were dropped off at bus terminal and waited for the raglan bus. didn't want to take our bikes cos there was no bike rack on this bus and the driver was afraid to loose his license but he finally did. were welcomed warmly in raglan backpackers hostel by tim and suz. there wasn't much to do cos the pouring rain did not stop. i attended a quite inspiring yoga class in the afternoon and we decided to spend the whole week in raglan.

april 3 monday

weather was beautiful that day. stefan a guy from osnabrueck invited me to kajak. enjoyed gliding through the raglan fjords.

april 4 tuesday - april 9 sunday

it would be quite boring to tell what we did every day in raglan. it is my favorite place in new zealand for many reasons. though a very small village a lot of interesting more alternative people gather there (raglan is said to have the longest left in the world and a lot of surfers stay there, maybe that's the reason).
there's one main street with some cafes, second hand shops, a herbal dispensary and a four square supermarket which has everything in stock from fresh herbs to organic yoghurt... i started yoga seriously. suz is a very good taecher with her own mixture of shihatsu, yoga and other styles (i'll never forget the 'dead possum'!). and i started to feel better and more myself every day.
lots of people stayed in the hostel for more than just one night (hi to the bench boys ;-) and it was just perfect! we were really sad when we left on monday morning and had the feeling that we found a new home there (it is all about people though raglan itself is perfectly located at the coast! i could go for a run every morning barfoot on the beach!!!).

april 10 monday

another travelling day. arrived at the skyway lodge at 11h30. but even though it was pouring rain the friendly owner made us wait outside because check-in was from 13h on and he wasn't ready vacuming yet... well...
packed our stuff, went for a walk in the rain and just waited for the next morning.

april 11 tuesday

which came. arrived at auckland airport, got the tickets re-issued which was another 200€ (f***) and waited there til 16h for our flight to melbourne. had to spent 5 hours there and i wanted to have a cigarette but it was a non-smoking airport. had to go outside but wasn't allowed because i had no visa for australia!! will never travel to this stupid country!
finally flew 9 hours to hongkong, had an interesting hour there and went 12 and a half hours on to london. through cloudless skies we could see mongolia and kasachstan which i found rather interesting and arrived in london around noon. had to wait another two hours there and at last made it to hamburg at 19h. and our luggage was there as well. amazing. felix was already waiting and we hugged for a long time. home again! broke but happy and we are not sure what we will do now but we know that it will definitely be different. travelling changes you a lot and it wasn't the last trip. that's for sure!!!

march 20 -march 25

march 20 monday


we wanted to do some hiking in abel tasman national park, but it was not a day for cycling today due the drizzle, so we rented a cabin at the campground and left our tent, which almost dried out in the afternoon. even the worst weather is better if you have a room under a roof to stay. so eva did a bit of writing and i did a stroll along the pohara beach to find some of the beautiful shells, but i didn´t. had another lazy day and a nice steak for dinner.

march 21 tuesday


finally we went to tataranui at the end of the "abel tasman track". to get there we had to climb a 300m ascent to the "pigeon saddle" that took about an hour of hard work on a winding argentine-style gravel road. at some parts we had to rest every 500m to load up our energylevel. then we arrived at lunchtime in tataranui, a doc campground with no hot water or kitchenfacilities for incredible 12 dollars each. that was a rip off, but the weather was good and we decided to stay though. went for a nice walk on the abel tasman track. due to daylight saving time it was dark at 8:00 pm and we went to bed early.

march 22 wednesday


did a 6 hours hike in the abel tasman national park, a big loop leading us through forrest up and down the hills, with some nice beaches, a cormorand waiting for us. "the most beautiful hikingtrack" in new zealand was a little bit boring after 3 hours cos the variety was a little bit low. reached the campground tired after 6 hours.

march 23 thursday


back to pohara over the "pigeon saddle" was quite easier than two days ago. we did it without stop and eva was very proud of that. we stayed at the same campground and went shopping to takaka with unloaded

march 24 friday

in the morning we had a nice conversation with tim and anja from the us and carol from england. left to takaka to get the shuttle bus to havelock at 1:00 pm. we pitched out tent at one of the worst campgrounds on the south island. it was cold and stormy.

march 25 saturday


cycling through the marlborough sounds from havelock to picton was nice, but the wind was still cold, southerly wind from the arctic with heavy gusts sometimes. we arrived at noon in picton and eva rented a cabin at "marina holiday park" for three nights. we supported in picton and found a cosy cabin at the campground afterwards. for the first time in new zealand we found a lot of friendly people here, even some germans who said hello, strange place !

march 07 - 19

march 7 tuesday

we decided to stay as long as we need to get over the on the road blues. so we were in no hurry. i did some laundry or rather tried to but gypsie just took it off my arms and threw it into the washing mashine. she had to go to cheviot to pick up jane (one of the four westhighland terriers they have) from the doctor. so i went with her to buy some more food. i was specially keen on flour and yeast to bake a little. that i miss a lot. we again invited cees for dinner, had a delicious homemade pizza and i also did some buns and a loaf of bread. we talked til late and cees supplied us with some more books to read. very important!

march 8 wednesday

and so reading was what we did all day long. sometimes i need that. the book by ruth rendall was fascinating. we were almost alone on hawkswood, no other guests, cees wanted to travel on (very sad, that i don´t like about travelling. to learn to know people and part after a very short time!) and gypsie had to go somewhere with her husband and they would not be back until late. i finished the book in the evening and had not moved all day long. amazing how hungry you can get without any sport! we had lamb and risotto for dinner and gave the new zealand television a try. but it was so boring that we turned it off soon and talked instead.

march 9 thursday

and today i am writing this. almost done and i definitly need some exercise. so we will take off for a little luggage free bike trip soon and decide afterwards if we are going to stay here tomorrow (yes!!!) or head for chrischurch.

march 10 friday


the bike trip yesterday was quite hard. we took the wrong road which lead us straight into the kaikoura mountains. it was uphill all the way and after 13 kms we decided to head back. which was a real good decision as we later found, cos it was a dead end road just leading to a remote farm, gravel of course. anyways. we went "home" and just discussing what to have for dinner when gypsy came in and handed us two premium steaks, some potatoes and vegetables from her garden... we couldn´t believe it! thanked her and had a frugal meal.
this friday would be our last day at hawkswood, we decided and even though we felt we had to leave we were very sad about it. i did some laundry, helped gypsy, cooked some jam from her plums and also a german plum cake and of course we had to pack again... a lot of new trampers were arriving during late afternoon. excited voices everywhere. that made it a little easier for us. had pumpkin and potatoes for dinner and talked about what we were doing with the rest of our trip til late.


march 11 saturday

we woke up to a bright and warm morning. after breakfast we had to say good-bye to gypsy and john. we all were very very sad. erk took some pictures and i had to pull myself tight not to break out crying. there we went, on the road again. after we had biked for about half an hour gypsy came after us to had us a fax she just received. instructions from lindsey, how to find him in christchurch. we were quite touched by this!


met a couple on a tandem in cheviot where we supplied and checked mails. first time after ten days and our parents had been a little worried already...
after that we rode on for another 20 km and had lunch in a forrest with a view. the weather changed, wind picked up and made cycling rough. but we struggled on. and made it to waipara. the tandem couple had told us that there would be a nice camp and it was true! but i couldn´t appreciate it, missed gypsy and hawkswood too much. the kitchen was not really comfy and a guy came in while we were eating, doing his dishes not saying hello or anything and guess where he came from... went to bed early being tired from cycling. had to get used to it again. (81.52 km 4h48)march 12 sunday

the sky was overcast and a little rain fell but we started nevertheless knowing a bed was waiting for us in christchurch. first we went downhill for about 20 kms and then the landscape changed - canterbury plains. i did not like them. reminded me of northfriesland. plains always depress me and these ones were heavily agricultural used and only seperated by ugly thuja hedges... whatsoever. as we arrived a little early and rain began to pour down we decided to have lunch at macdonalds (once a year..). it was ok. we arrived at lindsey´s and sara´s around four in the afternoon, learnt to know bridget (6) and katy (4) and were given an internet flat connection! heaven! talked til late with lindsey. unfortunately sara had to work at night. (58 km 3h18)

march 13 monday

went to town by bus but i am just so full of seeing things that we just went to the hairdresser´s, had an opulent lunch and strolled a little around. went back early and had a nap before emma and peter (friends of lindsey and sara) arrived for barbeque.

march 14 tueday

we were allowed to stay. erk went to town again and i just wrote and relaxed. went to the zoo in the late afternoon. wasn´t to bad for a zoo but we didn´t see the kiwis in the dark room... prepared to leave for the westcoast next morning but decided against cycling the arthur´s pass.

march 15 wednesday

biked to town very early to catch the bus to greymouth at 8 a.m. as i saw the road i was very glad that we decided against cycling. the first stretch was a continuous slight uphill through the endless plains and afterwards two steep narrow passes. day was overcast and cold. arrived in greymouth at lunchtime and went to the "global village" hostel to camp there. nice hostel. we were both so tired and feeling sick that we just slept, read and ate.

march 16 thursday

on the bike again. the road along the coast was beautiful but quite hilly. weather was nice and after a long ride we reached punakaiki (that´s where the pancake rocks are - but we decided to have a look at them in the next morning without the people in the tourbusses). erk found a 20$ bill in front of the info center and we went down one more hill to a quite nice motor camp. just the other people staying there all seemed to be in a bad mood and unfriendly... (49.29km 2h54)





march 17 friday


we had a look at the pancakes. amazing. two different materials formed rocks and the softer one got washed away during the last thousands of years. after that it was hills again. i felt sick and tired. but after we had lunch in chesterton where we met two nice guys from germany we decided to go over the next two hills to westport because the camp was ugly and there was no supermarket. we finally reached westport. very tired and talked about the future again. we settled on just cycling the beautiful and easy stretches and going by bus otherwise. erk booked the k-bus for the next morning to tataka in the golden bay region and we felt asleep soon afterwards. (62.59km 4h05)


march 18 saturday

had a whole day busride. talked to a nice german girl and reached tataka climber´s camp late and again very tired.


march 19 sunday

moved to pohara top 10 holiday park directly at the tasman bay. relaxed, walked the beach and enjoyed the sun.

february 26 - march 6

febuary 26 sunday

it had rained during the night but the morning was bright and clear again. we started after a good breakfast and mastered the first hills with ease. in ward we had coffee and ice cream - what else? - at a so called tea room (they sell everything in those small villages from gas to butter).
one last hill had to be climbed afterwards and we reached the pacific ocean. the color of the water was amazing, a caribic light blue but of course the water temperature was much lower.

the road then undulated along the ocean. we had lunch in the dunes and finally reached waipapa bay where we were the only guests on a small roadside campground. it also had no kitchen so i cooked couscous on our little camping stove. and we had to have a cold shower... well, the day was warm enough.
(74.77km 3h59)




febuary 27 monday

i felt worn and tired even after a good night´s sleep. had to get used to cycling again i guess. we started slowly and met a german cyclist going the opposite direction after 12 kms. talked to him for a while and it started gettin´ really warm. stopped to watch seals!

(find the seal !!!)

they were lying lazily in the sun. how nice it must be to be a seal i thought. and afterwards we just pedalled on to kaikoura, supplied in the big "new world" supermarket and pitched our tent at the nearest campground, quite expensive but really new and well equipped. i rested and erk went for a walk along the cliff. talked to a nice french couple after dinner. later a couple from erlangen arrived, also on bikes though they had decided not to be slaves of their bikes and were taking a lot of buses if they felt like.
a big thunderstrom arrived during the night a the temperature dropped significantely. (32.38km 1h55)

febuary 28 tuesday


i talked erk into staying in kaikoura. i felt so tired of moving on and on and on and as a strong southerly wind had developed he agreed quickly. we went for the cliff walk together, checked mails and returned tired in the afternoon. did a lot of talking and reading and had pumpkin and potatoes for dinner, yummy!

march 1 wednesday


decided to stay another day. did laundry, some repairwork that needed to be done for a long time and relaxed in the sun.

march 2 thursday

finally we were ready to move on. although some passes were waiting i felt calm and enjoyed cycling again. the ride out of kaikoura along the coast was beautiful. the first pass was hard and suddenly the weather changed and i got really cold. we were told later that this happens often in new zealand because it is not protected by surrounding continents...
there was one hostel with camp in the "pedaler´s paradise" that should have turned up after 40 km but it didn´t so we thought we had to go on over the next pass into cheviot but after 50 km it was there and luckily i suggested to stay! hawkswood farm!


a nice small non comercial camp and a very friendly lady were waiting for us. i was so tired. some trampers just said good bye and were really excited about the walk they had just done. we pitched the tent and went to the house in order to pay. gypsy (how she calls herself) suggested we should also do the walk and i don´t know why but we decided spontanously to do it (though it was 150$ per person for three days). the walk included accomodations, so we could stay in a nice cabin through the night. in the evening was briefing at j.d´s, the 86 year old owner of hawkswood farm, where we met the other 8 people, who would do the track.

march 3 friday

only packed with a daypack, we started the first part of the kaikoura coast track at 9:00. it led us through native bushland uphill to magnificent views of the coastline, the farmland and the kaikoura mountains. after 2,5 hours of hiking we had lunch at "skull peak shelter" were coffee and tea were provided. it offered a panoramic view all along the pacific coastline. afterwards we were heading to ngaroma loft, our accomodation for the night. we had a nap and spent the rest of the day with reading.

march 4 saturday

the track continued with a quite hard walk along the shore cos the sand was very soft. some were complaining about that, but a beach is a beach and usually not paved. we liked the walk, although the weather was changing into storm and rain. we could see some sleeping seals but no whales or dolphins cos the sea was to rough. after lunch in a little shelter, we walked over farmland to bushland again, so we had a good protection for the increasing rain. at 14:00 we arrived almost dry at "the whare", our next accomodation.

march 5 sunday


the last part of the track began with a steep 640m ascend to mount wilson were we had an amazing 360 degree panoramic view. the southern alps got white peaks ovenight cos it was pretty cold and there were lots of snow in the mountains. in the afternoon we were back at hawkswood and gipsy offered her car for supplying in cheviot, cos we were running out of food. eva drove well, the first time sitting on the righthand side in a car and driving on the left side of the road. we had steak for dinner, which was not as good as the meat in argentina. gipsy said, we could stay in the cabin and had not to go to the campground. so we had our cosy mud-brick cabin again and felt really happy.

march 6 monday

we had a very lazy day on hawkswood farm with a lot of reading. at noon we met cees from holland, who was the only guest on the campground, and were talking for some hours. afterwards we made a little stroll, called the fantail track and invited cees for dinner. we picked delicious prunes in gipsy´s garden for desert and had our favorite baked potatoes and pumpkins and a little bit of wine with a nice conversation in the kitchen of ash house.

february 21 - 25

february 21

we arrived in auckland at 6:00 in the morning after a 12 hours flight, but lost one day in fact of crossing the international date line. the bikes were ok and the customs not so hard as we often heard of. no extra yellow fever vaccination for travellers coming from south america and no desinfection of our tent, but we had to declare all foods and tenting equipment. think its ok, cos new zealand has to take care of its nature.
at 8:00 we made a telephone-call to the hostel, we booked in advance (skyway lodge), to get picked up from the airport. the van arrived 10 minutes later and we were carried to the hostel, which was well organized and run with a lot of restrictions, as we could read on all the warnings on the wall. don´t do this and don´t do that!!!
so we gave the owner the name "the blockward". nevertheless, he was quite helpful, but complained about some bad experiences with german and dutch visitors, who didn´t do their dishes in time! we decided to go as fast as possible to the south island, cos its getting cold in march, so we booked the train-tickets for the "overlander" to wellington, what was very easy compared to book busrides in argentina. we started to assemble the bikes and cos we had a little jetlag, went to bed early.

february 22


after fixing the bikes, we bought a busticket and went to auckland downtown to supply with some camping-stuff. it was hard to recognize that the cheap days were over, when we had a salad (without bread) and a pita-sandwich for lunch. we have to get used to the new prizes and to the traffic, which is lefthanded in new zealand. auckland is just a big city, without a special flair, not like buenos aires or santiago. eva cooked a nice lunch and we repacked our stuff for our biketour.

february 23

we did a 12 hours trainride to wellington, which was scenic but too long after all the long-distance-travelling in busses and plane, so we ended up exhausted in a hostel in wellington, had fish´n´chips and went to bed.

february 24


booked the ferry to the south island and made a short stroll through wellington. the boattrip was nice, because travelling on the sea is very slow and quiet. the weather was sunny and we arrived after 3 hours in picton, where we found a nice campground.

february 25


the hasinos are back on their bikes. we were heading south to christchurch on the eastern side of the island and on the wrong side of the road. feals strange, driving on the left side of the road and to look over the right shoulder to watch the traffic. the roads were in good shape, better than we were, after the long time of backpacking, but we made quite a good distance and climbed the weld-pass to seddon, a tiny, ugly 500 soul-village, which offered a well eqipped and cheap motor camp. it seemed, that all the campgrounds have good kitchens, so we can cook a larger variety of foods, yummy !


after 5 days in new zealand, we miss the always friendly and happy people, we saw in south america. maybe there the sun goes into their hearts and here they use too much sunblocker.

february 11 - 20

on our way back to colonia, we found a nice and very cheap little campground in kiyu, the most "tranquilo-superlindo" village, we have been so far. everybody was relaxed, the girl in the supermarket or the two policemen, sittin on the porch in front of their policestation. we had a tentsite directly at the lovely beach of the rio del a plata. after building up our tent, we had a short bath in the warm water and a stroll along the shore. after watching the sunset we saw lots of "gluehwuermchen", shining like little stars and a "sternschnuppe" appeared on the sky, very romantic.

next day we brought back "el rochito" to the car rental and stayed for the rest of the day in the hostel. we could do our laundry, made a stroll through the beautiful old center of the town and had dinner in a street restaurant.


next day we took the ferry to buenos aires and arrived early, so we could walk some hours through this big city until our bus left to mendoza.

the walk to uvas hostel, where we stored our bicycles, was taking all my nerves, but the bikes were ok and all our luggage still there. we found some boxes in a supermarket and at bmw-argentina, so we could box our bikes. we had a bad peach and got "montezumas revenge" two days before our departure, so we sat almost all night long on the toilet seat and lay in bed the next day. no last bife de chorizo !!!
next morning we got our king-size-bikeboxes into the bus to santiago for 50 extra pesos each and had a long busride to chile, with a two hours stop at the border from argentina to chile in about 4000m altitude, which made us dizzy. in santiago we stored the boxes at the busterminal and had our last stay in one of the best southamerican hostels.

bike transport to the airport was not so difficult and check in was ok, but we had to pay airport taxes, which should have been included in our rtw-tickets. after a one hour delay we sat in the fat airbus, heading east to new zealand.

february 3 - 10

after a 2,5 hours boattour we entered uruguay at colonia, which looked like "little mendoza". a peaceful, quiet and nice little town, were cardrivers let you pass !!! we made a short stroll through the town and tried to get information for busrides to the beaches in the east. even in uruguay, you have to go to the busterminal and book your ticket there, so we had to go to montevideo to go further east.
finally we rented e small car ("el rochito") to go to the beaches, ok, expensive but very comfortable. we went to la paloma and found a nice campground in a park. you could walk to the beach in 2 minutes and we did some nice walks in the sun.
we spent also two days in punta del diablo cos the uru-guide said it has nice lonely beaches and is a non touristic place, still a little fishermansvillage. it was more like a hippiecamp and not non touristic, but the beaches were nice and we had a lot of fun in the water. after two nights we came back to la paloma because we liked the campground and the weatherforecast was a bit better for this region.

january 29 - february 3

during the long busride from salta to puerto iguazu we anticipated, what the meaning of tropical heat is. eva used the few stops for having a cigarette, while i stayed in the bus with aircon instead of being roasted outside in 40 degrees or more. besides i could barely move cos i had bad stomachaches the whole tour. finally we arrived next morning at puerto iguazu, a tiny, quiet village at the borders to brazil and paraguay and a guy from the hostel "el guembe" led us the way. we found the best hostel, we ever had, which was really clean and nice. there we met tania from denmark and made a short sightseeingtour through the centre with her. afterwards we relaxed at the hostel, where we found some nice books in the book exchange and had a little conversation with some germans, who did a "whole-argentina-in-two-weeks-tour" including torres del paine in chile for one day. eva got addicted to harry potter, one of our new books.


next day we went to the specteculous iguazu-waterfalls. we took the bus at 7:40 and entered twenty minutes later the national park. cos the park is one of the highlights in argentina, it was really crowded. busloads of tourists were carried up there, but the park was so amazing that they didn't bother too much. at noon it was too hot for strolling in the park, so we took the bus back to puerto iguazu and had some sandwichs for dinner.

the following day we went to the park again, to see the "garganta diabolo", the main waterfall. everybody wants to see it and it was like a queue, moving over gateways to the spot. but it was amazing. staring in the masses of water was kind of mesmerizing, if you were not always disturbed by people, who wanted to take their photo from the falls. afterwards we made a 3 kilometers hike to a little lake in the jungle, were we could take a bath and a shower under a small waterfall. lots of colourful butterflies were flying between wonderful flowers. we shared our delicious mango with a argentine couple and they gave us some plums. the best fruits you can imagine.

the last day in puerto iguazu was quiet lazy, cos i still had my bad belly and eva had her "harry potter".

next day we took our bus to buenos aires, we booked total cama, that meant, with seats you can transform into beds, tiny beds, but beds. we arrived early in the morning, just in time to catch the ferry to uruguay. we were glad, to leave the big city as fast as we could.

january 23 - 27

we made a reservation til the end of the week at the three sisters hotel, because we planned to go to iguazu waterfalls at the border to brazil and the busses were full, except saturdays. the room was cozy and cheap and the three sisters were nice old ladies from salta, but they did not offer their kitchen for making our meals. eva felt sick that day and i strolled around in the pouring rain. again lluvia, lluvia, lluvia. time for reading books and learning some more spanish.



the next day weather was clearing up an we saw the sun again. we did some sightseeing and visited the museum in the cabildo, to learn something about local history. it was a little bit boring because there was just a presentation of ancient pots and pans and a little exhibition of argentine hat fashion.
in the evening a german-mexican couple (tobias and marcela) arrived at the hotel. they had rented a car for some excursions and we asked if it was possible to join them for the next trip. they agreed and we packed our stuff for a two-day-trip up north. we were glad to get the opportunity to leave the busy town for a couple of days.

we left early in the rented volkswagen gol (gol, not golf, maybe because people are so fanatic in fudbol - gooooooooooooooooooooooooool !!!!), and arrived in purmamaca, a nice pueblo with typicall adobe-architecture, and an amazing landscape around. the mountains were so colourful, we can't describe. we had lunch in a little comida (i had lama for the first and the last time, nothing special) and had coffee and postres in a nice restaurant afterwards.

we had to skip our next destination in the mountains, cos the road was flooded and the inhabitants were shaking their heads. heavy rainclouds sent us back south, were we visited humahuaca, a nice small village with an big skulpture, reminding of the fight for argentines independence.

we slept in a local hostel after some german-spanish conversation with wine, bread and cheese.

next day we headed up more than 4000m to the altiplano, were we visited a large salina. it looked like a frozen lake but was salt. even the houses were made of salt, unbelievable. we had breakfast there and made a stroll over the white surface of the salina which was very exhausting cos the air was very thin. a very breathtaking scenery and quiet, really quiet, great !!!

the way back to salta lead over the famous routa 40 through some adobe-villages and finally we arrived back at salta. tobias and marcela left for their bus to mendoza and we went out for dinner. two good days !

today is sunny, but we are a little bit lazy. we'll see what happens.