On the Amazon

On the Amazon

Pantanal

Never heard of the Pantanal? Don’t feel bad, I think most people haven’t, including me for all that matters. Everybody seems to be too occupied with the much flashier Amazon. The Pantanal is the world's largest fresh-water wetland system, a giant swamp the size of France basically. Well, at least half the year, when it floods because of rains in the surrounding mountain ranges. Then vast lagoons appear and fill with squillions of fish, shellfish and mollusks. During dry season, the water begins to recede very slowly but not all the fish make it to the permanent rivers. Some get stranded in the disappearing pools and present an open buffet for other animals. This time normally starts around June and last until October and is naturally the best time for a visit.

Visiting the Pantanal is like being in your very own documentary about wild life in Brazil. There are no tracking skills required. The wildlife is practically parading in front of you and doing its best to completely ignore you. Only exception being the mosquitoes that far from ignoring you seem to think you are actually the main dish!

Mostly you go to the Pantanal to do animal watching. Hard to miss are the birds. They are everywhere. I am not a birdwatcher, but it was hard not to be fascinated. The beautiful Macaws could always be heard long before you actually saw them. Kingfishers and hawks were a dime a dozen and even a greenhorn like me recognized the stunning Toucans with their big beaks. The Jabiru, the symbol of the Pantanal, is a stork easily recognized by the red band around his neck.

Apart from the birds, the animals you come across most often in the Pantanal are the Jacarés (Caimans or Pantanal alligators) and the Capybaras. The latter is the world’s biggest rodent, basically a gigantic guinea pig!

Other animals are a bit more elusive, but in my short visit to the Pantanal I also saw an anteater, a tapir, an ocelot, marsh deer, a fox, river otters, monkeys and last but not least a Jaguar!

I was very lucky to see a Jaguar. I saw it while on a night safari on Fazenda San Francisco in the Southern Pantanal. It was an amazing sight. This beautiful cat lay on the bank of a canal a stone throw away and did not mind us in the least. It was fantastic! There used to be a healthy population of Jaguars in the Pantanal but their numbers were dwindling because of farmers killing them to protect their cattle or by poachers who were after their skins. Now hunting is illegal. A sure way to see a Jaguar is the Jaguar Research Center in the Northern Pantanal. I would have loved to go there, but being a long term traveler my budget did not allow it.

Since the wildlife is so abundant and seemingly completely unafraid of humans, driving through the Pantanal is a good option for a visit. But to really explore the Pantanal, I would recommend a stay on a Fazendas or a boat trip.

There are two tracks through the Pantanal: In the South the Estrada Parque do Pantanal is 117 km of track with 87 wooden bridges to cross. It begins in Buraco das Piranhas and ends in Corumba on the border to Bolivia. It is possible to catch a ferry from Corumba up the Rio Cuiaba to Puerto Joffre in the Northern Pantanal. As I have heard, it is supposed to be a three day trip on the river, which you will share with a lot of mosquitoes. It should be arranged in advance, as there is no fixed schedule. Mirjam in Miranda can help with that. It will save the long, boring and very stressful drive around the Pantanal between Campo Grande and Cuiaba. There might be less mosquitoes on this road, but instead a lot of trucks! Puerto Joffre on Rio Cuiaba marks the end of the Transpantaneira. This is a 149 km track with 118 wooden bridges which has been cut into the very heart of the Pantanal. It was supposed to go all the way down to Corumba. Fortunately this project was stopped. There is nothing in Puerto Joffre, except a very expensive hotel, a very basic campground and a lot of fishermen. But along the Transpantaneira there are a lot of Fazendas and Pousadas which offer a bed, food and trips into the Pantanal. I stayed at the Araras Eco Lodge. It is a lovely place and the viewing towers are a great way to watch the sunset and sunrise and of course visit with the monkeys.

There are actually huge cattle ranches in and around the Pantanal. They are called Fazendas and some of them have recently discovered eco tourism as a source of additional income. They offer rooms, food and tours into the Pantanal. Some of these Fazendas are very big operations who mainly raise cattle and grow rice. They are typically on the edges of the Pantanal. Staying there has very little to do with ‘Eco’ tourism, but they can easily be reached and are a quick, easy and fun way to explore the Pantanal. Other, smaller Fazendas in the heart of the Pantanal are harder to reach but offer more intimate visits. Strangely enough, I kept running into Swiss people who helped me with my visits to the Pantanal. Miriam and her husband Marcello run the travel agency Explore Pantanal in Miranda. Marcello is of the Kadiwèu Indians and grew up in the Pantanal. He and Miriam can recommend Fazendas or organize tours into the Pantanal.

Near Aquidauana lives Anne Lys, another Swiss lady who runs a little farm. She also has a few lovely rooms where she welcomes guests and she will personally guide you on any excursions you would like to make.

Summary Travel Information:
Best time to visit: June - October
Where to go: Miranda-Buraco das Piranahs-Corumba-Puerto Joffre-Pocone-Cuiaba
More info: Mirjam and Marcello in Miranda: Explore Pantanal

Brazil First Impression!

The only thing they seem to be doing small here in Brazil is the bikinis! Everything else is big! For starters the country in itself is huge and so are the portions in the restaurants! The cities are gigantic and so are the distances between them and the pot holes in the roads! The giant anteater, the giant river otter and the giant armadillo are all found here, as is the biggest snake in the world, the anaconda and biggest rodent, the Capybara. The Amazon boast the world’s biggest rainforest and on a completely different subject Blumenau boasts the biggest Oktoberfest outside of Munich! I suspect this list is far from complete.
Coming from Argentina, getting used to Brazil took some time. For one thing I was robbed of my ability to communicate properly. Portuguese is quite different from Spanish. The officer at the customs office in charge of filling out the temporary import permit for the motorcycle only spoke Portuguese. He apparently also didn’t have a clue as to how to enter the information into the computer. So he did the only sensible thing and rebooted the machine a couple of times! Obviously that didn’t help and so he was forced to call someone to come and help. To my surprise this officer spoke German! It took two hours, but eventually I was handed a big stack of papers! Welcome to Brazil! Actually, things here in general, seem to be very well organized and usually work. Traveling in Brazil is a breeze.
Brazil is not what I had pictured it to be. But it is very distinct, different from any country I have been to so far. There are certain things here that I will now forever associate with Brazil: For example being afraid of getting electrocuted every time I get into the shower where the hot water comes from a 220 Volt water heater often precariously installed! How green everything is, but also how hard it rains. And I am just amazed at the incredible variety of fruits and vegetables. Thank god the Brazilians love buffets! This is a great way of sampling all unknown dishes without having to bother trying to decipher a Portuguese menu!
I have been here two months now and I love it. I have been far too busy to write any blog updates, but right now I am spending some quite days in Lencois and maybe I will get around to it after all. By now there are quite a few stories to tell......

For those following my tyre tracks....

April - May 2009

Argentian: Rosario-Iguazu-Brazil:Foz-Cacador-Lages-Florianapolis-Lagoa-Ingleses-Pomerode-San Francisco do Sul-Curitiba-Maringa-Campo Grande-Bonito-Miranda-Chacara Anis-Coxim-Cuiaba-Puerto Joffre-Chapada dos Guimaraes-Barra do Garcas-Brasilia-Gurupi-Palmas-Dianopolis-Ibotiranma-Lencois

For those more interested in pictures: www.flickr.com/photos/ceciliarojas/collections/72157618765480092/

Un cortado doble y dos medialunas, por favor!

I left Argentina a couple of days ago! How sad! I have come to like Argentina very much. But I went out in style. My last days in Argentina were spent at Iguacu, a wonderful place. I am adding some pictures to give you an idea.
Actually about Argentina, I fell in love with that place on my very first day there. I had come over Paseo de Maule from Chile and after a spectacular ride ended up in Malargue. There, while looking for an ATM, I had my first of many encounters with ‘The Natives’. A family stopped me because they were impressed with the bike. We chatted for a while and on saying goodbye they all kissed me ‘Argentina’ style on the check and we parted like we had been friends for years. That same night I was taken in by a family of musicians. During winter they play up at ‘Las Lennas’, a ski resort. To my surprise they knew more about the Swiss National Ski Team, than I did. Turns out, my compatriots come here in ‘our’ summer to practice on the slopes of Argentina in what is 'their' winter. Within hours I had been integrated into the family and we were sitting around a campfire drinking wine!
There were days, when the curiosity and hospitality of the Argentineans could be over whelming. After all, how many times a day can you answer the ‘where are you from’ question? And I was asked that a lot! While stopped at traffic lights, while driving down the road, while having lunch, while fixing a flat, while looking for a place to stay to name just a few. But to tell you the truth, I never got sick of answering that question because I just have to love the people here!
Almost without exception right after asking you where you are from, they will go on to tell you how much they hate their government and that the current crisis is just awful. But then in the next sentence they will rave about their country and its natural beauty: ‘Ah que precioso, que lindo, que bárbaro!’ And they are right! There are wonderful places in this very, very big country: From the highest mountain in South America, Aconcagua, to the Southern Most Point on the American continent in Ushuaia there are more than enough natural wonders to gaze at. Some are overhyped, like Routa 40, but others like the Perito Moreno glacier live more than up to their expectations.
But still: natural beauty can be found in a lot of places on this planet. What makes Argentina special are the people and their way of life. They seem to always have time for family, friends and strangers.
In today’s globalized and standardized world, Argentina is refreshingly different. Why drink coffee at Starbucks, when there are local coffee shops where you can meet over cortados and medialunas? Or maybe skip coffee all together and share a mate instead. Why put peanut butter or marmalade on bread, when there is Dulce de Leche? Why eat at McDonalds, when you can have an asado with friends instead? That is not to say, that there is no McDonalds and no Starbucks here in Argentina. Unfortunately they are. But somehow it is still different here. Maybe this can be best explained with 'Malbec'. Malbec is Argentina’s typical wine. The name comes from 'Mala uva', which means 'bad grape'. In any other part of the world this bad grape is worthless. But in Argentina it is turned into wonderful wine!
There also seems to be a different rhythm to live in Argentina. Nothing goes between 13:30 and 17:00, dinner before ten o’clock is unheard of and the party does not start until two or three in the morning! How do they keep this up?
I have grown very fond of Argentina and even fonder of the people I met there. It wasn’t easy for me to leave and that is why I am writing this maybe over sentimental blog post.
But I am taking a lot of unforgettable memories with me: There is waking up in Cafayate to birds singing in the trees outside the window. There are wonderful evenings in Rosario with people who feel more like family, than just friends. There is working on the bike in Carlos’s shop in Mendoza and afterwards having a well deserved glass of Malbec (or two…) with friends. There is the overwhelming joy after many, many boring kilometers of finally reaching Ushuaia at the bottom of the continent and thinking: ‘I did it! I really did it!’ And then there is time and again having a cortado and dos medialunas for breakfast while watching Argentina!
Thank you!

Buenos Aires

I just got back to Buenos Aires after a three week vacation in Switzerland. I had gone home for my brothers wedding. The wedding was smashing and done in true Nudi&Heidi style!

I have now spent a year in South America. I explored the continent all the way down to the tip in Ushuaia and as far North as the Cordillera Blanca in Peru. There have been a lot of problems with the bike last year. Which is not surprising considering that Stybba now has more than 350'000 kilometers her back. Talking about back: I did end up replacing Stybba's frame in Mendoza a couple of months ago and she has been almost good ever since.

I know I have been a very lazy blogger of late. I will try to do better this year. I plan on driving through Brasil and Venezuela up to Colombia in the next couple of months. Should I not live up to my blogging promise, try following my journey on facebook. In the meantime, I am leaving you with some pictures of Buenos Aires.

Sola? Revisited!

I just can't resist writing another entry on the subject. If you have been following this Blog, you might remember me telling you about how big a deal it is over here in South America, to be traveling alone as a woman on a motorcycle.

It still is. Not a day goes by without the question: 'Sola? You are traveling alone? Really?!?' So I am getting a lot of attention. I am not complaining. I kind of like it, I think it is nice to get noticed.

And then I traveled with another motorcyclist for a while. A guy. And you know what? I disappeared! People stopped noticing me. They even stopped talking to me! For example we went shopping for tires. We walked into a shop and I asked the attendant for tires. He looked at my companion and asked: 'Street or Enduro?' I answered by telling him: 'Neither, I am looking for dual purpose tires.' Again he turned to my companion and said: 'Ok, I will go see what I have.' Do you get the picture! I was suddenly invisible woman!

Once I was back to traveling alone, guess what? Yes, I reappeared! Just the other day I pulled up to a hostel to ask about a room. The owner almost had a heart attack when he heard I was traveling alone. 'Really, alone? Aren't you scared? And with a motorcycle, dios mio!' His wife was standing behind him and couldn't believe all the fuss he was making. Finally she had enough and exclaimed: 'And why do you think a woman cannot drive a motorcycle alone? She has got two hands and feet as well! That is all it takes!'

But there is the other side to traveling alone. Like today: I went into a repair shop and wanted to by some gear oil for my bike. The guy behind the counter asks me what kind of car I have. So I tell him, that I ride a motorcycle. He informs me, that therefore I don't need gear oil, I need motor oil. 'Well yes', I tell him, 'I need motor oil for the motor, but I also need gear oil for my gear box.' He doesn't think so and he flat out refuses to sell me gear oil unless I show him the manual for the motorcycle. I give up and walk away. Outside the store I ask another guy if he could please go into the store and buy some gear oil for me. No problem, the guy walks in and gets the gear oil without the 20 questions!

I am not sure what I am to make of all this. I do agree with the wife of the Hostal owner. It should not be a big deal for a woman to be traveling on a motorcycle alone. There really is no reason why that shouldn't be possible. But on the other hand, it feels good and it is tempting to think that it is a big deal after all.......

Cusco, Machu Picchu, friends and cheescake

It has been a while since my last entry. Sorry! If you have been following this Blog, you will remember that I was having some problems with the bike (broken frame) and that I have lost my tent.

After a long wait, the tent finally made it to Cusco! I was ecstatic! Now I could finally take off up North to Huaraz to do some mountain climbing! There was a big celebration that night at Paddy's in Cusco and I was sure I was almost out of there. I should have know! To quote a good friend of mine: 'Never count your chickens before they've hatched!'

To make a very long story, as short as possible: the next day, while trying to fix the oil-leak on Stybba's cylinder with new gaskets that had arrived with the tent, I noticed that I had far bigger problems! The upper, right engine stud was coming loose. I wanted to fix it using a helicoil. Unfortunately there are no helicoils to be had in Cusco. So another long wait for yet another package, only to find out that the helicoils were not doing the job either! In the end the problem was solved by 'bush-mechanics' at a little back-alley 'tornero'. Not pretty, but I think it will hold!


Once I was ready to finally leave, I was amazed to realize that I had been in Cusco for more than a month! What did you do all this time, you might ask? Well, for starters there is a good crowd at the campground in Cusco. Almost everybody ends up staying longer than originally planned and so I made some wonderful new friends and met back up with some old ones. Even met Esther and Peter a couple from Lucerne, my hometown! Turns out we had to travel all the way to Peru to meet, even though we grew up in the same neighborhood.

Camping Life in Cusco is really relaxed. There is a cozy little living room with a gas-heater and lights. Perfect for long nights drinking and talking, but just as good for movie nights, courtesy of Douglas and Stefanie who carry a projector and tons of DVD's with them. A luxury we bikers can only dream of. There were barbeques at the campground but also nights out in town at Paddy's or Norton Rats.


Then Katharina and I went to Machu Picchu together. Machu Picchu is a very well preserved pre-Columbian Inca site spectacular located on a mountain ridge way above the Urubamba Valley. Even today it is hard to reach, since there are no roads there. There is a train from Cusco to Aguas Caliente, a village down the valley from Machu Picchu. Every day more than 2000 tourists visit Machu Picchu and it was a bit of a challenge securing a seat on the train. Nevertheless I am really glad we went. It is a spectacular site. The city was built around 1450, but abandoned a hundred years later. And as everybody here will tell you, it got rediscovered by Hiram Bingham, an American historian. By now I am sure there is millions of photos from Machu Picchu, but for all it is worth, if you want to check out mine here they are: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ceciliarojas/sets/72157606477699190/

Back in Cusco the bikers from the campground all went for a Sunday ride together. It was Thomas and Katharina (globusbiker.de) which I had met for the first time at the hot springs of Fiambala. Then there was Carola (easyri.de), from whom I had heard a lot but now finally met. And there was Rupert on his Tenere. We did a loop from Cusco to Urubamba and by ways of Pisac back to Cusco. We had lunch in a nice little restaurant in Urubamba, with a Peruvian musicians who was playing not just Peruvian folk tunes, but also the title song of Titanic on his pan flute. Then we crashed the market in Pisac. Helmie had recommend a cafe in Pisac for cheescake. Unfortunately the cafe was in the middle of town where the sunday market was in full swing. Still we managed to get through with our bikes. The Peruvians loved it, but we got really told off by some French tourists.
And so the days in Cusco went by rather fast. Still I was super happy to be back on the road again, once the bike was running. However my Peruvian Visa had almost expired and so instead of heading up north I went South back to Bolivia. But that is another story and will be told later.

Everything can be fixed, right?

Hello everybody! Yes, I am still alive and I am still out there traveling on my motorcycle Stybba. Right now we are in Cusco, Peru trying to recuperate from a streak of bad luck!

We got to Peru a couple of weeks ago at Lake Titicaca. Then we ended up in Arequipa for two weeks, where I took some Spanish classes. It was a wonderful time with good company, good food and a movie every once in a while. But after two weeks as a city dweller it felt great to get back up on the bike and do some riding. And the ride up to the Colca canyon was great for that. After Arequipa the road starts climbing and there are great views of the volcanoes Misti and Chachani. Before getting to Chivay, the city at the entrance to Colca canyon, it gets a little chilly on top of a pass at nearly 4900 meters. I had decided against staying in Chivay and wanted to drive the 58 Kilometers to the end of the canyon in Cabanaconde. I was hoping it would be less crowded there.

Sure enough there is hardly any traffic on the way there. It is a good dirt road and we were cruising along just fine. Then I thought I had a flat. At least the bike felt like I was having a flat. So I pulled over and checked the tires. But no flat. Strange? Must be the road or me not being used to dirt tracks anymore. So I drive a little further. No, something is defiantly wrong. I barley manage to stop without crashing and check the bike again. No flat tires, but the frame is broken and not just a little fracture, but seriously broken in more than one place right underneath the steering wheel. No way can I ride the bike anymore. It is still a good 10 kilometers to Cabanaconde and more than 48 Kilometers back to Chivay. And of course not another car in sight.

But then two Swiss guys showed up: Stephanie and Tobias. They were on a walk back from the Viewpoint. They said they would go to Cabanaconde and send a truck back. So I settled down, put all my clothes on and waited. It got dark and cold and the moon was just starting to come up behind the mountains. I had almost decided to pitch my tent when I heard a truck coming. Sure enough it was Tobias and Stephanie with the local police in a tiny Toyota pick-up. By moon-light we heaved the bike on back of the pick-up. It did not fit of course, but we tied it down as good we could. I stayed on the back of the truck with poor Stybba and we were in for a bumpy, full moon ride down to Cabanaconde. To my surprise we did actually make it. I was frozen solid but nothing had fallen of the back of the truck. For now there was nothing else to be done, but unload the bike, find a place to crash and wait for tomorrow.

Next morning I had a look at the bike and was convinced the trip was over. There is no way this can be fixed! Funny thing happened at that moment: I had been feeling kind of blue lately. Unsure as of what to do next and feeling sorry for myself, because I was traveling alone. But now confronted with a possible end to the trip, it was crystal clear to me, that I did not want the trip to be over. There had to be some way to get back on the road again!

Cabanaconde is a little place out in the middle of nowhere. There is not much there, but people dancing and singing in the street. There always seems to be some party going on. But I did find a welder and he was willing to come have a look at my bike. Nevermind all the parties and the fact that today was Sunday. He was convinced he could fix it, but he said the problem was binding everything back into a place so that he could start welding. In the end it took a big crowbar and tree men but eventually we did manage. At least it looked like it just might hold. I gave it a try. The bike still felt a little funny, but nothing I couldn't get used to. Things were looking up. I am still worried though. This is the second time the frame broke and not because I crashed, but because of metal fatigue. No telling how long it is going to hold this time and where it is going to break next. Having to worry about breaking the frame every time you start down a deserted dirt road, kind of defeats the purpose of the trip. So I think I will have to see about putting a new frame on my bike. But for now I think I can make it to place like Cusco, where this might be possible.

I stayed a couple of days in Cabanaconde to hike into the canyon and have a look at the condors before heading of in direction of Cusco. I had decided to take the direct backroad instead of heading back to Arequipa and the paved road to Cusco. But of course I was still worried about the bike. I can’t remember how many times I stopped to look at the welding to see if it was still holding. No problem there, but when I stopped on top of a pass with a good view, for once not to check on the frame but to get an orange out, I noticed that the bag with my tent was missing! No telling if it had fallen off, or if somebody had stolen it in Chivay while I was out shopping. The bag was gone! Shit! I drove all the way back to Cabanaconde looking for it, but of course in wane! No more tent!

Next day was a long day riding. I did make it to Cusco and was super happy to have made it here. On the campground I ran back into Thomas and Katharina, two bikers I had first met at the hot springs in Fiambala, Argentina. Also Helmie, the owner of the campground let me borrow his tent, until I can figure something out. Live is good! I hope for now my streak of bad luck is over. And after all, everything can be fixed, right?

Full moon, Atacama