Category Archives: 2009-11 – 2010-04: Georges in South America

Dear all,now that I have reach main target behind me, it is already time to think a little bit ahead: I will have to come back!Saturday, 15th of May 2010 I organize an “apéro” with drinks and small stuff to … Read More »

Dear all, everything gets to its end… after a looong week in New York with Franziska, we finally came back to “reality” and landed with over 4 hours of delay in Zurich. I really cannot recommend to anyone of flying … Read More »

Hi all, for the one of you who are addicted (or interested) in numbers, here an overview of my trip: Distance: 3,329.51 km Time: 259:46:54 h:m:s   (including waiting at traffic lights, etc) Calories: 181,749 kCal (or minus 7 kg on … Read More »

Now getting to the end my time in south america I would like to thanks a lot people, mainly those who stayed in touch during my travel, especially:Fränzi, my better half! And the kids for supporting her…Maman for her great … Read More »

As I did not slept well during the night, Wednesday was an easy going and lazy day: after buying some food around, I stayed at the hostal and enjoyed doing nothing.Thursday was first dedicated to some cleaning (bike, tent etc) … Read More »

For today, I had in mind to leave as early as possible: I ha the feeling that the wind could get an issue on the way to Arica. The guy from the hostal said, the wind would only rise in … Read More »

After the leaving of the Carabiñeros, I could finally sleep… And woke up today morning well, even the night was cold (-4C). Due to condensation, the tent was a little humid and I needed to wait until packing it. So … Read More »

Yesterday nights few rain drops have changed my plan… As I wanted to leave early to get quite far today, I needed to have a dry tent, as I didn’t wanted to pack it while still wet. So I left … Read More »

As I woke up a little bit earlier than the other, I started to clean yesterday’s dishes. And as I finished, we could start with breakfast. Yan made again a reaaaaal coffea, which definitively better taste than Nescafé (which is … Read More »

Fortunatley, the rain stopped quite rapidly yesterday night. Despite it, the tent was wet and I needed to wait until packing it. During all yesterday, one thing disturbed me especially in that beautifull part of the national parc: all the … Read More »

I sarted the day with cold müesli, as I didn’t want to start the oven in the tent. Then I finally got up and looked around Of course, the most interesting was to see how warm the therms were. Well, … Read More »

Jaime and me where waken up a first time by a noisy dog and the carabiñeros’ car that was started and used about 90 minutes later and a second time by another carabiñeros coming for Jaime: he had another service … Read More »

I woke up as usual around 8am and packed everything after having breakfast. The road was in direction of the pass and just a little less steep as some passages from yesterday: from 5 to 15%. I arrived at the … Read More »

The day started as the last one ended: children crying, freezing, drink tea, eat Llama for breakfast (with egg and bread) and then I prepared myself to leave. During the breakfast the house tennant which is as well working in … Read More »

Dear all, as take the opportunity to say that I am alive… But I don’t have the connection with the phone and the pictures. You will need some more time until you can read what happened the last week. The … Read More »

Today was not really productive in terms of kilometers. After short night and quite long ride (55km with a long pent) my body was tired and the sand on some parts did not help.After only 12km I passed by a … Read More »

As usal now for me in Chile, I woke up at about 8h: who can have a “party” can cycle…;-)Sergio and another guy had already left, Prudencio was finishing is night shift. He told me to take breakfast. After packing … Read More »

Todays goal was easy: joining the station from the cabiñeros, as I had heard that I was only 20 minutes away – by car. So after breakfast, drying the sleeping back and the other stuff from every morning I left … Read More »

Now that I’ve reached my goal – I still can’t believe it – it was time to leave and follow the Andes to the north. There was three ways: -go back to Ollagüe (steep and bad road down, loosing to … Read More »

Please… Don’t do it! Sorry for those words, I just want to avoid any reader thinking: “let’s do the same!” Today was much different then all the others, with not only one risky part. So if you think you are … Read More »

After the longer walk from yesterday I wanted to give some rest to my body (legs, lung and feets) as there was not used to such a day. And waanted hust to enjoy the view of the mountains, checking some … Read More »

During the night, the pain was not decreasing, so I decided to take some of the Diamox I did get from Manfred and Birgit.When I woke up (I could sleep!), the headache was gone…and I could go for a little … Read More »

Yesterday after sending the last emails I finally headed in direction of Amincha and the place where RocketGeronimo had let some water for me with a beautifull weather!Amincha is the rest of the pueblo from the time people were needing … Read More »

Today morning I am packing the bicycle again since 8 days once again. Yesterday evening, I heard in the news about the 6.3 earthquake (or seisme as they tell here) about 180km south of Ollagüe. Here, I did not feel … Read More »

Well, yes, I’m still living! 🙂 After arriving in Ollagüe I needed some time for different points, mainly finding a solution for getting to Calama and getting to money. From Ascotán the solution would be much easier… here in Ollagüe, … Read More »

For those who havn’t read the blog from start: I had some troubles with the first trailer and lost some nerves about it.When I then bought the other one (Bob Ibex), I wrote an email to extrawheel, the constructor of … Read More »

….then I looked down and saw a strange dark line near the seat post. Hmmm what’s that? I had to stop and looked closer and started to laugh: the frame has a little fracture! My logic told me to lower … Read More »

I woke up when the merchandise train to Bolivia passsed in front of the guards house at seven o’clock. It was anyway time to stand up and get breakfast with Luis and the others.I left the Carabiñeros at about 10am, … Read More »

Today was set as a lazy day, as I had to recover from the last one. The plan was easy: cycling to Ascotan, find a restaurant, charge the main battery and call home.The view on volcan San Pedro showed some … Read More »

Today I started with the rest of yesterday: 1) I had made to much spaghetti (or better: my stomach refused as much food as the other days) and 2) I had to fix one of the fixation made of tissue … Read More »

I know, we already had that title. Why not reusing it if it match absolutely? So in the night I woke up and wanted to know the time. As I don’t have a watch, I thought I could use the … Read More »

I knew I would wake up early as all tourist were going to see the fumaroles of El Tatio. So I was woken up at 5h30, which wasn’t a big issue.The plan for today was easy: enjoy, rest and don’t … Read More »

Yes! No luck again! Well.. Stupid Georges thought there was no Stan’s liquid more enough so I had to find way to bring it in. It was not possible by inflating and having liquid so I had the genial idea … Read More »

The day started with a good breakfast to finish my eating rest: choricos (spicy saussages) in the pan, then cutted in slices and covered by goat cheese. Beside that, tomatoes and avogados (or paltas as I’m now telling tbem: Chile!). … Read More »

The tourist guide from San Pedro de Atacama has a nice page. Copyright by them!

As per tommorow I will head to the north and don’t know when I have internet again, that will be the last entry for a while.Todays goal was to find and book a hotel for Franziska and me in New … Read More »

Today I had the valle de la luna on my target as I wanted to see it before leaving definitively San Pedro.The Valle is a geologic speciality in the west of San Pedro. It is quite desertic and gets special … Read More »

Sorry, today was a boring day…writting email and other administrative stuff! Nothing special! Gud n8

Todays highlight was the Laguna Miscanti on the way back. Just amazingly nice. On the way back we had a look at the special chruch of Socaire.After we had to drive back to SPdA where we ate something and Gérard … Read More »

Geysir of El Tatio? Well when we heard that, we thought of "bpschhhh" for 4-6 meters…. We know for sure that there is a gap between think and is!The geysirs are all less than one meter and more bublling water … Read More »

…just to say that I’m alive. Still having a great time with Gérard and will fill up the blog when time is adequate. Cheers, Georges

Friday was for me the relaxing day: Rocket Geronimo had not seen the Chucicamata mine and we wanted to see the church of Chiu Chiu which was on the way back to El Tatio, where we wanted to camp. So … Read More »

Ok, I make it short: no, I was not able to get on top of it.Not because my breathe was not enough..but my head started to ache at 5000m around. I could fight against it up to 5400 to 5500m … Read More »

Today was dedicated to packing and buying food for the next days.When Gérard arrived, I had to submit him the proposition to keep the car longer and see some of the scenes I had see before. He called the agency, … Read More »

Dear all, Just to say that I am still alive and sorry for the missing inputs like story and pictures, they are “nearly” ready. After the first tour, I created for myself a tour to more than 4700m, all by … Read More »

I woke quite early and ate spaghetti for breakfast. May be because of the pasta or because of the altitude of the last days: I was like doped or felt like that. I was drivinmg between 18 and 20 km/h … Read More »

Today was the longest ride up to now: 147km…even with a lot of downhill. It started when I stopped by the mine and learnt the were searching for Ferrum…(Fe, Eisen) or its oxid. They were drilling down to check the … Read More »

When I woke up today, the car of the French was still there. So I had breakfast and put everything back on the bicycle. At 10h15 I went in direction of the car as it was anyway on my road. … Read More »

When I woke today up, the thermometer showed a minimum of -4°C in the front part of the tent. The ride was mixed between cycling and walking. The road is not in good condition and I guess since long not … Read More »

Today was in direction of the mountains. I continued on the old road 23 following more or less the diverted river the Chilean had brought into a tube. After a few kilometer appeared on the right the old village of … Read More »

Today morning, Gérard and me woke up quite early and went out to ge some bread, eggs and ham to make breakfast.While I was then packing everything into the trailer and 18 liters of aqua on the bike*, Gérard returned … Read More »

After getting back my sleep over night back, I headed to the ferreteria (where you buy all stuff to build anything. I was still looking for some nails for the tent (yes, Tobias: your idea is really good) and a … Read More »

Today morning we stood up quite early to be at the border before the new tour tourists arrive. So we left at 5h15 after the driver had to find some stuff for his car.The ride was quite bumpy and we … Read More »

Because the hostal was stil quite loud (full of Brasillian) I moved to the other one. But for that I needed to wait for 12h as I could not enter before. So I went to the cabiñeros to ask if … Read More »

And mostly dedicated to train fans….…and Giorgio feeling like on the Titanic on the roof of the moving car! 😉  

As I can “only” send 10 picts per blog entry….here some more. Hope you are enjoying it!🙂  

Today was a special day: thanks to Richard who was willing to drive on the Salar de Uyuni even there was 5-10cm of water, we were allowed to see a marvellous scenery: there was no horizont, as everything was mirroring … Read More »

That night was quite hard…. In the evening before I was glad to get a little bit out of the “hostal” to the fresh air: it reduces my headache, I guess due to the altitude as I never experienced that … Read More »

(pictures to be added from other camera)Today I wake up much earlier then usual on the trip: 6h45! 😉The night before, I had stored my bike and trailer in the backyard of the hostal so I just needed to take … Read More »

Since I rested for about four days in San Pedro de Atacama – mainly waiting for the very late TNT delivery of documents – I did not touch the bicycle. So I had two goals for today: getting the ticket … Read More »

(sorry, my email box is not sending messages anymore, so I had to create a new account) After the nice evening came a terrible night were I stay awake in a bed that was like a banana: soft, uncomfortable and … Read More »

First I have to agree with Catalina and Georges: approaching San Pedro is marvelous, beautiful etc! But first I had nice 18km downhill with 5-7%. I’m so happy not to have chosen the way back! I had several stops to … Read More »

My goal for today was to move in direction of San Pedro de Atacama from where I plan to do some shorter trip to get used to the altitude and not to join San Peedro directly. The height lines showed … Read More »

The turistica of the evening before (I hope I’ve learnt the lesson about icecream) was gone very rapidely. Unfortunately it had started in the restaurant while Catalina, Georges and me were discuting. So I made of list of what needed … Read More »

Everyone who wants to see the mine needs to be registered in advance. And that is one of the major problem by bicycle, you never know when you arrive at your destination (wind, road etc). And there are no visits … Read More »

As I had put the tent in the shadow of the reservoir of water, the sun did not wake me up as usual at 8:00 so I could sleep one more hour. The sun did as well not warm the … Read More »

Today I’ve learnt, that the wind takes some time to travel from the cost and reach the desert. And the difference is again great:10-20km/h against vs 20-30 with the wind. And because I had the feeling to be glued on … Read More »

Yesterday I went quite upset to bed, after a phonr call with American Airlines…. But today was a day as I like them. I had breakfast, could skype with my mom and with dearest Franziska ( I LOVE and MISS … Read More »

The last days were used for several things while staying in Antofagasta: First get back a normal digestion, while I know think it had more to do about that I wanted to avoid sugar…and was eating/drinking more sweetener. Chile do … Read More »

Antofagasta is a city of 285000 habitants. The hotel Bicentenario were I am staying is for me typical: no insolation but more or less clean. As it is two houses beside a night club, you hear all the night the … Read More »

The long night with relative much sleep was what I needed, feeling much better. My back was hurting from much laying so I needed to stand up (for biological reason as well). 😉 The two options were: staying one more … Read More »

Because I waited long for the shower yesterday evening and woke up at six in the morning, the night was very short. My plans in the begining were to have a day of rest. But the situation did not allow … Read More »

The day started as usual with breakfast and packing all the stuff on the bike. 1 km later, I finally found the road, that would have bring me to the mine, where I may be have get some water. The … Read More »

Before leaving Taltal I passed at Anitas’ house to say goodbye. As the last days she was smiling… The road in direction of Antofagasta I had chosen is following the cost and brand new. From Taltal to Paposo it is … Read More »

…for a new stem takes time! But I wanted first to have one, before taking the other apart. I could fix it a little bit, at least until Antofogasta, where I could buy a new one. Juan could help and … Read More »

After yesterday’s ramp I had a nice surprise: my guess was correct as now, the road was going down. First with backwind and speed of 30-40km/h and then 25km/h when it changed. Anyway, it was fun, even to take a … Read More »

The second part of the day is mainly marked by the views in the main valley of the parc: at every corner you could take a picture, some nice colours, grat contrast and all with wind from the coast that … Read More »

After a great breakfast prepared by Hector with Eggs, whole bread, milk coffea, tomatoes and avogado (and a long discussion) I gave him a big hug and said good bye. A very nice person who cares about the human! We … Read More »

When I woke up today, I was happy to have not planned bicycle day. My muscles were burning as well as my bottom. So after breakfast and a nice talk with Hector, the intendend of the Residential Sulivan, I went … Read More »

Don’t ask me why, but today I first wake up quite late and it tooks me half an eternity to boil water for the coffea, eat breakfast, prepar myself and pack everything back onto the trailer. Oh, by the way: … Read More »

That night was a little bit special, as from what i understood, the mine worker came back from the xmas vacation and met or slept in the same Hostal as I did. That means noise in the night and especially … Read More »

Today was resting day and some culture: short visit at the local museum and once to “see” a catholic cult in the church. Well, seems to be like in Europe so far I could understand. Just the music had a … Read More »

After yesterday’s long trip against the wind, I decided to stop after 40km in Copiapó as there are some stuff to see and to give a rest to my right knee: some pain behind the rotula. Any hinzs are welcome…;-) … Read More »

First may be a few words about yesterday evening: people came at the river where an amphitheater surrounds a basketball field. A one-man-show music man was singing apparently local songs while some where dancing. At midnight, champagne was opened and … Read More »

Holà together Well, yesterday I was telling how nice it was to have a heater from below, as the sand was still warm when I installed the tent. Heating in combination with a warm sleeping bag was to much: the … Read More »

After an awfull night with then and when lots of dogs yelling I stood up with one thing in mind: leaving as fast as possible So I went with all the stuff through their house, paid and left. At the … Read More »

Finally, after one week of searching for solution and craeting new troubles I continued the trip by bicycle. What are great feeling, at least for the kilometers, as my bottom was fast saying his words. The Road Number 5 (transamericana) … Read More »

When I stood up, I did not feel well – may be due to some local water. So I decided to stay one more night in La Serana… One night more or less, what’s up?But it was good so I … Read More »

Well, after yesterday’s experience I was asking myself if returning home was an option. On the other hand, when one thinks to be quite done it often only can go up. Today was such a day: after asking several people … Read More »

What a week… All the week I’ve tried to find a solution for my railer. What did I whish to have my own one with correct dimension. Because the only shop that has one is in Santiago, I finally had … Read More »

Today’s goal was to join La Senerada (108km and 600 pos meter). Karsten from Germany which I met after some 10km had more luck as he had ride with wind. As he is “finishing” his trip from Mexico over the … Read More »

Today’s goal was to join La Senera (108km and 600 pos meter). Karsten from Germany which I met after some 10km had more luck as he had ride with wind. As he is "finishing" his trip from Mexico over the … Read More »

Don’t worry, I won’t speak about work! The sky yesterday evening was really great. I’m looking forward for the observatorium, hoping it duable to cycle to. After the night in the tent using the sleeping back over me, I woke … Read More »

After one of the best and quietest night up to now, I stood up relaxed for a new journey. As in the evening before the wind came from south and the forecast was to remain like that, I had great … Read More »

As we had a long talk the day before, the wake up was a little more difficult. But Ramon and Jose and both no problem to continue talking. The first kilometer needed some learning, as the "s" had still an … Read More »

After a short night due to a loud dog and bed I finally left the “habitation”. The Highway way still good, the landscape with different views. I saw my first cactus and after 33km I wanted to lunch and have … Read More »

After breakfast (first up) I definitively packed all that stuff on the trailer and didn’t want to stop…here something more,oh here another something etc, just to give the first down. But then I finally managed to bring everything down (2nd … Read More »

Monday was the last day in that interesting city full of contast. The view from the Cerro San Christobal. Santiago is quite wide so the “challenge” will be to find the way out, knowing that the first 20km will still … Read More »

While the Chilean are asked to vote for their president, I went for a first ride by bike in town. Unfortunately, the park San Christobal was closed, because of the elections. Something to be done by tomorrow. It is quite … Read More »

The goal was to find “benzina blanca” for the stove for those days when I will have to cook myself. Quite easy if you know that it can be found in una “ferreteria”… Of course, IF you know! Then I’ve … Read More »

Santiago has a quite wide undeground system called Metro. Its air conditioning is very efficace: just stand in front of the fan and wait for the water dust!

…from the fifth floor (equals sixth in (south) america). 1) Telecom Chile and in the back: Santiagos virgin statue in the parc.2) Middle: parc just in front of the hotel with mountains in the back.

…before eating and falling asleep! 1) Rio mapocho2, 3) Universita de Santiago4)Parco San Christobal Buonas noches!

Waiting for the room with a coffee and enjoying the sun…

After several hours of travel and nearly no sleep, I finally arrived at the hotel Principado de Asturia. Nice and with free internet (wi-fi). When I have taken the room, I will enjoy some hours in the city and look forward to … Read More »

The question is just: where to get them from? In Chile from most fuel station called “Copec”. There are different version, like north / south etc… that’s the north one:  (containing as well useful infos about hostel etc)

Eastcost of north america. About the flight: AA is in all terms a cheap company… I guess it will be time for them to invest in their airplanes. Here once can say: not the path is the goal, but the goal … Read More »

Luckily, I’ve got a sunny picture of my dearest girlfriend in my heard!!! All the Swiss and AA checks (customs, controls and security) are well behind me. The journey can begin! Cheers, Georges PS: I love you soooo much, F.!

A picture says more than thousand words…. 😉Cheers, Georges

Here the summary of my package… up to 65 kg to carry through the Andes… Article Weight [g] Total w/o bike, Bags and trailer 21581 Bike, trailer and bags 22310 Food and water 21000 Total: 64891 Tent Vaude Taurus Ultralight, … Read More »

Now the flights are booked: departure is from Zurich on Thursday December 10th @10h20 (am). The next weeks will be needed for the packing of the bike and the extrawheel.com, reparing the fork and getting the last information for the ride, … Read More »

… even the Trip has not started yet. During the last 4.5 years at Waters I could learn a lot on multiple topics, for which I’m thanks full. Time changes, so soon, I’ll spend some months travelling on the south … Read More »