Schlagwort-Archive: hiking

Argentina, World Trip 2018-19

Mountains & Wine in Mendoza

Februar 27, 2019 Just Booked A Trip Hinterlasse einen Kommentar

We arrived in Mendoza in the morning after a 18 h bus ride from Salta. It was ok though – it didn’t feel that long and we got a good amount of sleep. We were lucky to be able to check in at our AirBnB straight away, shower, do laundry, get organized etc. Later, we ventured out to see the city – one of the greenest ones we’ve seen yet. Unfortunately, weather was grey and it started to rain soon, so after seeing the main squares and streets, we returned to our AirBnB.

Next day it looked a little better, so we took a train and bus to Maipu where many bodegas are located and where we were able to rent bikes. In the course of the afternoon, we visited 3 different wine goods and did a wine tasting at each of them. While the cycling wasn’t as nice as expected (big roads and lots of traffic), it was a fun way to spend an afternoon. We realized that we definitely preferred red over white wines of the region and the rosés were barely drinkable. The views from the wine goods were quite pretty, despite the clouds that stayed persistently throughout the day.

On our third day in Mendoza, we woke up super early and caught a bus at 6 am to Aconcagua National Park. It takes 3.5 h to get there, so if you want to hike to the base camp Confluencia like we did, you don’t have another option. The drive itself was spectacular already and we were once again (like so many times on this trip) sad to be on a bus where we couldn’t stop for photos. Luckily, the landscape was still beautiful when we arrived!

We straight away set off for the hike – it takes about 6 h and the last bus is at 16.30, so you can’t be much slower than that. It’s not that we’re such slow hikers, but we (especially *one of us*) loves to take hundreds of pictures which always takes a bit, stopping a lot along the way. As mentioned, the mountain scenery around us was breathtaking! We were so lucky it had snowed the day before, so in the morning everything was covered with a layer of fresh snow… On our way back, most of it had melted already.

Even if the main attraction of the hike – Mt. Aconcagua – was hiding himself behind a blanket of clouds, we really enjoyed the hike. The surrounding mountains made up for missing out on Aconcagua and the trail leads through such a nice valley, that you have beautiful views in both directions. Very much recommended!

From Mendoza, we hopped on a bus across the boarder again – to Valparaíso.

Bolivia, World Trip 2018-19

Stuck in the rain in Samaipata

Januar 12, 2019 Just Booked A Trip Hinterlasse einen Kommentar

Similarly to arriving to Toro Toro, we took a night bus once again from Cochabamba to Santa Cruz which was again really good and we got some decent sleep. Definite recommendation for the bus company Bolivar! Again, we decided not to stay in the big city but move straight on to Samaipata. Luckily this time though, the ride was on asphalt roads and we had good seats in the shared taxi car. When we arrived in Samaipata it took us quite a while to find affordable accommodation – overpriced tourist town… It certainly has its charm though with the little cobblestone streets. Unfortunately we were quite tired from the journey and decided to postpone the hiking to the next 2 days. Mistake!

For next day, we had booked the hike „Codo de los Andes“ but woke up to fog in the streets and rain pouring down. We’re really not the luckiest with weather on this trip! The hike was still going through, so we basically had to suck it up and do it mostly in the rain… The landscape was still really beautiful, even though this doesn’t come out on the photos that well.

Green mountains, steep cliffs and pretty valleys… if only the sun was out this certainly would have been one of the nicest hikes we’ve done! Like this, we tried to enjoy still, but it was exhausting with slippery trails and rain starting again and again. Too bad, especially since it would have been so amazing otherwise…

Next day, we had planned to hike to El Fuerte, but guess what!? Yes, it was still raining. So we basically killed time, checked out as late as possible, sat around a lot and waited. Around 4pm, just before we were headed to dinner and our next night bus, the sun came out. As if to make fun of us. Sigh! We managed a brief walk up a viewpoint over the wineries and Samaipata and that was it…

Samaipata for sure has some great potential if the weather is good, and I’m sad we missed out on that. On the plus side, we found some really good food here at La Cocina and Noah so our poor damaged stomachs got some treats.

Jordan, World Trip 2018-19

Exploring Petra: Hikes, views and bedouins

Mai 30, 2018 Just Booked A Trip Hinterlasse einen Kommentar

If you’ve been following my blog over the past few weeks, you probably realized that I did A LOT. Especially in Israel, my days were full – from waking up early to heading to bed totally exhausted, travelling to new cities almost every day. Jordan so far had not been an exception – so once I arrived by local bus in Wadi Musa, I really, really felt like I needed a rest day. Sometimes, when you travel for longer, this is what happens! You need a day just to relax, surf around and get some things in order. Also, weather was grey-ish on my (originally planned) first Petra day which would have been bad for photos. Since I had one buffer day anyways, the decision was easy, and I only left the hostel grounds for lunch and dinner that day!

As things go, it ended up being a good decision: the next two days were fully sunny and I met some cool people to explore Petra together with. There are one or two things you have to understand when it comes to Petra: It is a huge site, not just that one famous Treasury carved into the red rock. And the best way to see it is to spend at least 2 days trekking around the site, going up to different view points – it is all about the views!

IMG_5608 (Small)

I was lucky to be trekking with two guys who were even more into photography than I am. While usually, among backpackers, I’m the most crazy photographer, I was nothing compared to them – also in terms of experience and skills! So I ended up with lots of cool photos of myself from these two days. For once – not someone cutting off my feet and/or the top of the building. Haha!

Best Petra group!

Walking through the Siq

Me in front of the Treasury

On the first day, we maybe exaggerated a little. We first climbed up to a kind of unofficial viewpoint of the Treasury which one of the bedouins showed to us. He also explained to us a path crossing over to the High Place of Sacrifice – along which we had some of the most amazing views over the area. Definitely worth paying that bedouin some overcharged tourist fee for showing the trails!

The Treasury

Unofficial Treasury viewpoint

Views along the way to the High Place of Sacrifice

We then continued the trail down to the other side, ending at the two restaurants – a good time for a much needed lunch break! Sun was also burning down at this point, so we kind of passed out for about 2 h in the restaurant. Lol. In our defense, we were the first ones entering Petra that day, being at the gate slightly before 6 am already!

Trek down from High Place of Sacrifice

After re-fulling and re-charging our energy, we went for the long walk up to the Monastery. Many, many steps! And annoying donkey traffic, carrying useless tourists up and down. Oh well. We went up in the late afternoon and ended up staying almost until sunset. We did not stay until sunset since the Monastery was getting into the shade step by step, so the light conditions would not have been great. I guess around 4 pm light was at its best.

The Monastery

Rocks around the Monastery

The Monastery

I liked the Monastery, however, I preferred the Treasury (contrary to many people). The Monastery looks almost a bit too fake or restored to me – not sure if this is the case, but that is what it looks like to me. The Treasury had something more fascinating about it, probably also because you are reaching it after walking through the Siq (canyon) for about 20 min. After we left the Monastery, we only realized how absolutely exhausted we were. While I was fine for the first hour or so (of our long way back to the entrance), in the end I also felt my legs and every meter seemed just too long. In the end of course we made it – but let me say – do not underestimate the way back to the entrance after a long day in Petra!

On my second day in Petra, my group was down to Chris and myself and we decided to take it a lot slower. We had seen most of the highlights, so we only spent half a day more exploring the rest. We were also really, really done from the day before and our legs and feet still in pain! Still, we opted for another 6 am start to get the best light. We first took the trail past the Royal Tombs up to the other (official) viewpoint of the Treasury. It was nice, but I must say – I preferred our unofficial one from the day before.

Official Treasury viewpoint

Walk up to the viewpoint

Royal Tombs

Then, we explored some of the ruins in the center (around the colonnaded road) a bit closer. However, I seen realized that this was nothing major (some Roman ruins I had seen were better for sure), so after a quick round and some pictures, I called it quits and said goodbye to Petra. Was it as expected? To be honest, it was much, much better. While there is probably better ruins and carved out buildings to see in other places, it’s the whole setting that makes Petra special. The long walk through the Siq to reach the Treasury, the different viewpoints, the little cafes up there run by bedouins (looking like Jack Sparrow’s brothers), the surrounding landscape… Petra you have been absolutely amazing!!