From 0 to 4000 meters above sea in ten days
Our adventure to reach the Andes Mountains along our journey south-west is like an encounter of the five Tibetan elements - Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Clouds! In Argentina!
Fire: We feel the urge to leave Françoise and all the friends in Rio when the thunderstorms come up. Before definitely leaving Brazil, we make a short stop in Curitiba - out of pure curiosity about the all-so-different "Southern Brazil way of life". My need for architectural inspiration gets completely satisfied here, thanks to an appropriate "VIP" visit to the main exposition hall of Oscar Nimeyer's museum - and Padi loves the philosophic biography of this artist.
Water: Millions of liters per second fall into Devil's Throat at the border between Brazil and Argentina, hundreds of curious tourists from all over the world watch this spectacular worldwonder, accompanied by all kinds of beautiful butterflies and entertained by a swarm of thousands of birds playing in the windy mist around the cliffwalls. This is probably our most lasting impression of the Iguassu Falls. You have to be there on your own, there are no words for this! It's just wet - unless you encounter a Jaguar in the near rainforest park... Forget about hearing hummingbirds. Just watch them, the noise of the waterfalls overwhelms everything.
Earth: On our way crossing the Parana plain by bus we get to enjoy a wonderful sunset. This gives us a first idea of what the famous Argentinian Pampa could look like. We still don't know what Pampa means, but haven't stopped to associate it with thousands of free horses, the Argentinian Gaucho cowboys, hundreds of 50-years-old american Trucks, hot Mate teapots, great Churrasco BBQ accompanied by strong red wines, and neverending fields with hallucination horizons. After 4 and a half months along Brazil's coastline, you can be sure that those Pampas along with their geological formations created one hell of a contrast to what we'd seen before. This is where the hero Che Guevara grew up and started his inspiring motorbike travel adventures through Latin America.
Wind: Mendoza is the first city where we feel the austral autumn, brought in by the cold winds from the South. After having spent 4 nights travelling in busses, we decide to reanimate our numb legs with a little bicycle ride to the nearby wineries. Our bikes swirl the dead yellow leafs up into the wind as we hop from one cellar to another to compare the different creations from the Malbec, Syrah, Cabernet-Sauvignon and other grapes. Our lips, throats, eyes and noses suffer not only the abundant cosumption of red wine, but especially the cold, dry, dusty, heavily polluted air of Mendoza city. At night we recover mentally, sharing all-you-can-eat Asado-BBQ parties with other backpackers, or visiting the cinemas and bumping into melodic indigenous cultural gatherings. We are very happy to see that those regional events aren't only organised for maintaining the roots and the traditions of these nowadays minority groups, but also attempt a lot to build a future-proof identity that seriously takes into account sustainable development.
Clouds: The inversion in Mendoza (sun in the mountains, fog in the plain) motivates us to move to Uspallata, a little town in a huge valley between the Pre-Cordillera and the Cordillera de los Andes. We drive up the first mountain range at nighttime to watch sunrise above the sea of clouds, before seeing the reddish, majestic range of Aconcagua (highest mountain outside the Himalayas) for the first time. This region reminds Padi a lot of his Tibet adventure trip (Bikeventure 2002). In fact the film "7 years in Tibet" was produced there. We explore the ancient Inca Trail and the dramatic mountains of this valley by horse, bike, foot and car. Each moment the light changes, and the clouds as well as their shadows give us the feeling of being part of this eternal spectacle. Now and again we see an eagle gliding above our heads, and wonder how people can go on living in mega-cities.
Tomorrow we will leave Argentina in order to reach Santiago de Chile, but our experience of the Andes has only just started!!!
Check our photo sets for more impressions:
Curitiba (Brazil)
Iguassu Falls (Brazil & Argentina)
Cordoba (Pampa Argentina)
Mendoza - Uspallata - Aconcangua (Andes Argentina)
Our adventure to reach the Andes Mountains along our journey south-west is like an encounter of the five Tibetan elements - Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Clouds! In Argentina!
Fire: We feel the urge to leave Françoise and all the friends in Rio when the thunderstorms come up. Before definitely leaving Brazil, we make a short stop in Curitiba - out of pure curiosity about the all-so-different "Southern Brazil way of life". My need for architectural inspiration gets completely satisfied here, thanks to an appropriate "VIP" visit to the main exposition hall of Oscar Nimeyer's museum - and Padi loves the philosophic biography of this artist.
Water: Millions of liters per second fall into Devil's Throat at the border between Brazil and Argentina, hundreds of curious tourists from all over the world watch this spectacular worldwonder, accompanied by all kinds of beautiful butterflies and entertained by a swarm of thousands of birds playing in the windy mist around the cliffwalls. This is probably our most lasting impression of the Iguassu Falls. You have to be there on your own, there are no words for this! It's just wet - unless you encounter a Jaguar in the near rainforest park... Forget about hearing hummingbirds. Just watch them, the noise of the waterfalls overwhelms everything.
Earth: On our way crossing the Parana plain by bus we get to enjoy a wonderful sunset. This gives us a first idea of what the famous Argentinian Pampa could look like. We still don't know what Pampa means, but haven't stopped to associate it with thousands of free horses, the Argentinian Gaucho cowboys, hundreds of 50-years-old american Trucks, hot Mate teapots, great Churrasco BBQ accompanied by strong red wines, and neverending fields with hallucination horizons. After 4 and a half months along Brazil's coastline, you can be sure that those Pampas along with their geological formations created one hell of a contrast to what we'd seen before. This is where the hero Che Guevara grew up and started his inspiring motorbike travel adventures through Latin America.
Wind: Mendoza is the first city where we feel the austral autumn, brought in by the cold winds from the South. After having spent 4 nights travelling in busses, we decide to reanimate our numb legs with a little bicycle ride to the nearby wineries. Our bikes swirl the dead yellow leafs up into the wind as we hop from one cellar to another to compare the different creations from the Malbec, Syrah, Cabernet-Sauvignon and other grapes. Our lips, throats, eyes and noses suffer not only the abundant cosumption of red wine, but especially the cold, dry, dusty, heavily polluted air of Mendoza city. At night we recover mentally, sharing all-you-can-eat Asado-BBQ parties with other backpackers, or visiting the cinemas and bumping into melodic indigenous cultural gatherings. We are very happy to see that those regional events aren't only organised for maintaining the roots and the traditions of these nowadays minority groups, but also attempt a lot to build a future-proof identity that seriously takes into account sustainable development.
Clouds: The inversion in Mendoza (sun in the mountains, fog in the plain) motivates us to move to Uspallata, a little town in a huge valley between the Pre-Cordillera and the Cordillera de los Andes. We drive up the first mountain range at nighttime to watch sunrise above the sea of clouds, before seeing the reddish, majestic range of Aconcagua (highest mountain outside the Himalayas) for the first time. This region reminds Padi a lot of his Tibet adventure trip (Bikeventure 2002). In fact the film "7 years in Tibet" was produced there. We explore the ancient Inca Trail and the dramatic mountains of this valley by horse, bike, foot and car. Each moment the light changes, and the clouds as well as their shadows give us the feeling of being part of this eternal spectacle. Now and again we see an eagle gliding above our heads, and wonder how people can go on living in mega-cities.
Tomorrow we will leave Argentina in order to reach Santiago de Chile, but our experience of the Andes has only just started!!!
Check our photo sets for more impressions:
Curitiba (Brazil)
Iguassu Falls (Brazil & Argentina)
Cordoba (Pampa Argentina)
Mendoza - Uspallata - Aconcangua (Andes Argentina)
posted by anh-dao at 4/24/2007 10:54:00 PM
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