contains Festival/Fiesta/Art photography.
20130306-O'Higgins Glaciershare
I am Manfred, photographer, writer, globe-trotter. This is the fabulous trek site, travel photography since 2004. Non-commercial use of photos is free, please link back. For updates follow me on Twitter or Facebook. Share it round if you like it.
Future plans.
Vienna to France to Spain to Morocco, summer with my boys.
Tweets from the road.
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29th of April, Vienna, Austria.
Reunited with Daniel and David.
23rd of April, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
So this is the end, quite a long way from Seattle, and looking back to all those different places that I have been over the past 2,5 years, it is almost more than the brain can grasp. Sao Paulo is one good place to celebrate this.
So what were the best, the highlights, I am being asked again and again, and after all I now can ascertain that every country had its greatness, whether Mexico, Peru, or Chile, or the chicos in between Guatemala, Panama, Ecuador. Now in Brazil it overwhelms once again and maybe this is the most extraordinary of all, the variety of music and ethnicity, the perceived frictionless going together of blacks and whites, indigenous and mixed people of all races, and it comes out in food and music and dance. Just I have no time right now, but baby I will be back and bring all the time in the world, a year or five, just what it takes, new mad love of mine, Brazil.
21st of April, Florianopolis, Brazil.
Finally Brazil, last, and sadly not for long, the South America adventure is coming to an end and I have had quite a good running all the way. Most important my boys and I will spend the European summer together, and eventually I would have to find a way to earn some plata; so see you soon from Europe.
16th of April, Montevideo, Uruguay.
Today they robbed me, fast, 3 men, I made a mistake, camera gone, time to rethink what I am doing. Smile and change!
It was almost like giving something away, that is in the way in order to be able to look forward and change.
15th of April, Montevideo, Uruguay.
9th of April, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
4th of April, Mar del Plata, Argentina.
Hitch-hiking 3,000kms from chilly Ushuaia over the windy flat Patagonian steppe and its oil rigs and pumps, all the way to the corn, soy and sunflower fields around Bahia Blanca and Mar del Plata, all in just 7 days, and on some 30 rides the tales and stories of Argentina at this moment in time come to us.
The timing of renewed Malvinas/Falklands rhetoric could hardly be worse while at the same Easter weekend Argentina struggles with rogue holdout investors in a US court. Argentina is different than the rest of South America, notably Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Chile who all seem to have laid their past to rest; Argentina, a G20 with just 40 million people should be the richest country but is an interesting mess, and has not changed for many years; inflation runs at 15% or (much) more, and the blue (why not call it black market) Peso hits record lows as we go north; yes the books could have taught the Cristina Kirchner government that exchange controls don't work, but destroy confidence, home and abroad. 'Everybody virtually lives in a prison' we hear all the way, as getting your hands on the dollar is difficult and traveling abroad taxed. But the gaz at the pump is still flowing as the oil is Argentinian, and the shelves in super markets are all still full and we discover the great Italian and Spanish heritage in jamon crudo, olives and wine, and their pastelerias and famous parilladas libre (eat as much as you like grill restaurants), and they are all full at night as Argentinians are simply spending as saving doesn't make much sense (inflation as a lubricant for the economy).
And then on day 6 the torrential rains reach us, and the news of more than 50 killed by the floods in Buenos Aires and La Plata, all just a bit more north, and I think that we might have escaped the harsh south just in time before the snow starts.
My lady C., not la presidenta C., has done well; the self coined 'modern mochilero' (backpacker) pulled her trolly every day between 4 and 8 kms, out of towns, over rough terrain and through the winds and the rains. The real star though is her trolly which, made to roll on marble from an airport to a taxi, did not fall apart, break or shed a wheel.
1st of April, Puerto Madryn, Argentina.
Stranded in Puerto Madryn, after 3 days of constantly hitching the rides over 1,700kms of the windy Patagonian steppe all the way up from Ushuaia, today after a lunch Quilmes (beer) on the grass in the sun near the beach, our luck just went....
27th of March, Ushuaia, Argentina.
I always wanted to come to the end of the world, and C. and I took a small plane from Punta Arenas over the Magellan Straight and south, and over the many glaciers of the island Andes to Puerto Williams. The last town of any size is actually Puerto Williams on Navarino island and it belongs to Chile and is just south of the Beagle canal and Ushuaia which is on Grande Tierra Fuego island. Yes, all islands here, and somehow it is complicated and expensive to go further to Cape Horn, the last island before the Drake Passage and Antarctica, but then there are even more last smallish islands ... let's party, we have reached destination, just why are all bars Irish Pubs in Ushuaia?
20th of March, Punta Arenas, Chile.
Torres del Paine was indeed walking 160km in 6 days under mostly deep blue skies and I could have done the whole in 5 days, a 'fabtrek' propelled by adrenalin and enthusiasm at the southern end of the South America, and I am most proud of C. who came for last 50kms (photos 2come).
We are in Punta Arenas, Tierra del Fuego island is on the other side of Magellan Strait, we soon move to the el fin del mundo, Puerto Williams or Puerto Toro or where ever the southern most town is, but soon there won't be more lands or islands further south. The native Selk'nam people, who nakedly gathered round the fires in the harsh cold, and this allegedly gave the land the name 'Land of Fire' here, were hunted down and extinct like everywhere else, the end of the 19th c. sheep and gold rush.
10th of March, Puerto Natales, Chile.
Ready for Torres del Paine?
Colors of the world, images are linked to stories. Jump right into it!
How to navigate?
The story is best understood reading from the Prep time, back to front. Alternatively jump in it where ever you feel like. Click on the Maps, zoom in, pick your location. Click on the green "G" for country-gallery pages.
Left top Navigation bar (<--), looking up "Journey", you find continents and countries. Guinea, Africa.
Right top Journal bar (-->) lists the pages (journal entries) as they appear online. The journey in chronological order. Also try the years pages: 2007.
Try the Master Gallery.
Try Google ThisFabTrek (<--). Just under the Nav pane.
How to get most of it? Download the latest browser version, expand the browser window to maximum. Try full screen, hit the F11 (PC), Shft-Command-F (Mac) key.
All images are clickable (open a 1536 x 1024 image). All links and images open in the same browser tab/window. Use the back button of your browser. To open links in a new tab hold down the Ctrl-key (PC) or Command-key (Mac) or right click.
The journal entries top right tell the story - or you start right where it started.
Enjoy!
