Flight Zurich - New York - Miami with Pan AM
26.10.87Stay one day in Miami. Visiting Sea Aquarium. The Pan AM flight in the evening has been cancelled. The company offered a free meal at a fast food restaurant. Accomodation was neither payed nor organized.
27.10.87Flight Miami-Guayaquil. Arrival was late at night. We caught a taxi which took us to the bus station driving with about 20km/h through slums. Travelling by bus straight to the boarder of Peru. There were several military check-points to be passed. Foreigners always had to quit the bus and show their documents to the officers.
28.10.87Arriving in Huaquillas (boarder town between Ecuador and Peru) in the early morning. Took the next bus to Lima after having breakfast.
29.10.87Arriving in Lima and doing sight seeing.
nn.10.87Travelling by train from Lima to Huancayo. The train reaches an altitude of 4800m which is at the time the highest level reached by railways. A doctor is attending passengers suffering from altitude sickness.
01.11.87Visiting the cementory in Huancayo. The locals are partying on the graves having meals with their deceased.
nn.11.87Traveled overnight by bus back to Lima. After one hour on the road the bus driver lost control over the vehicle and ended off the road. Apparently the connection between the steering wheel and the axis was broken. The driver repaired it provisorily and managed to drive the bus over the 4700m high pass without any further incident.
nn.11.87Flight from Lima to Cuzco with AiroPeru for 30 USD in first class.
04.11.87Visited the city of Cusco and Saxahuman. Latter is a wall built with huge blocks of stone.
05.11.87Excursion by public train to Macchu Picchu. The site is just breathtaking and has defenetly a mystic touch. The ancient city on top of green steep mountains surrounded by wafts of mist, down in the vally river Urubamba meandring around the mountains and in front of the site mount Huayna Picchu which we climbed in maybe half an hour. In fact it is not necessary to climb with rope and pickaxe, there is a narrow path which leads to the top.
We stayed over night at Aguas Calientes which was at that time a small town with just a few tourists. Rain dropping on the corrugated iron roof, Santana playing 'Black magic woman', Pisco on the rocks and somewhere the noise of Urubamba ....
Back to Cusco.
nn.11.87Excursion to Ollantaytambo which is another Inca site in the sacered valley. There is a fort built high above the valley. Nobody knows how human beings could transport the enormous blocks of stones from the valley up to the construction site.
nn.11.87Travelled by train to Puno.
nn.11.87Visited the swimming islands of a tribe called Uros on lake titicaca. The residents live in strawhats. Indeed everything is made of straw, huts, boats, even the floor is covered with straw. The site is quite touristy, locals try to sell handicrafts and kids keep begging pens and sweets.
nn.11.87Travelled via Copacabana to La Paz.From Copacabana you have probably the best view over the enormeous lake Titicaca which is situated on an altitude of 3800m. When arriving La Paz from El Alto there is a stunning view down the valley which is completely urbanised up to the steep hills.
nn.11.87Visited La Paz and the moon valley which is full of rockformations, narrow canyons and plenty of cacti.
nn.11.87Flight from La Paz to Trinidad. The temperature in La Paz was 10° Celsius, down in the flat lands 35° Celsius and humid. Trinidad is a typical tropical city, not much to see and little to do. After sunset the main plaza is populated by teenagers who are cruising around with their motorbikes.
nn.11.87Flight from Trinidad to Guajara Mirim. The plane was delayed by five hours. But finally we got to the border town.
nn.11.87After having some trouble with the customs officer we crossed the border by boat to the other side which belongs to Brazil. We had our first cerveja and boarded the bus to Porto Velho. The trip was quite spectacular. First there were quite some drug checks. One passenger apparently had some white powder in his bag. He had to stay with the police. After the dinner break the bus could not be turned on anymore. After some trials without success, we had to change to another coach. It was already full so we had to travel standing in the aisle. After some hours in the middle of the night the vehicle bogged down. Dozens of cars, lorrys and buses were standing in front of us. At sunrise huge excavating machines appeared in the horizon. They built a new road just alongside the existing one which is not navigable anymore. Just before lunchtime the trip continued and finally we arrived Porto Velho.
nn.11.87Porto Velho is just another tropical town. It is situated at the Rio Madeira a tributary of the Amazon. We spent all day hangig in the hammock and having bar-b-queue at a Rodicio. Rodicios are restaurants where you can eat grilled meat as much as you can.
nn.11.87The bus trip from Porto Velho to Manaus takes 24hrs. The unpaved road leads straight through grasslands towards the center of the Amazon. The jungle is far away from the road. All tall trees have been cut years ago. Breakdowns are common in this region, so we had to wait to cross one of the numerous rivers. An animal transporter could not get down from a ferry. So the ferry was blocked for about two hours.
nn.11.87The Amazon river is just impressively wide still far away from the estuary mouth. There's not much to be visited in Manaus apart from the Teatro Amazonas. We did not book a trip to the jungle as the offers were not too provoking so we took the plane to Brasilia.
23.11.87Night flight from Manaus to Brasilia with Trans Brasil.
24.11.87Brasilia is a city full of highlights compared to the last few towns we have been to. It is completely modern built out of nowhere. The shape of the city resembles an airplane. A cathedral, temples, sculptures and other fancy buildings are scattered in the city where space has never been a problem and would never be one. Nobody feels homelike here, but the capital has a futuristic touch which has to be experienced at least two days.
25.11.87Coming from Manaus, we haven't experienced the jungle yet so we decided to take a flight back to the Amazon rain forest. The flight back to Brasilia was open as all flights were fully booked. After a turbulent flight through thunderstorms our turboprop landed smoothly on the grassy runway. Sta Terezinha is a small town at the Araguaia river which is an affluent to the Amazon. It is supposed to be richer in fish than any other river in the world. We were the only tourists in town. At sunset we went to have a quick swim after having seen little children taking a bath in the wide brown river. After the refreshment we saw a crocodile (chagaré in Portuguese) on the other side of the river. It was our last swim in the Araguaia.
nn.11.87Excursion to the Bananal island which is the world's largest river island. The island is approximately 320km long. We were accompagnied by a biologist, ranged the jungle with machetes and visited a tribe.
nn.11.87This was a fishing day. Early in the morning we boarded a boat with fishing rod and baits (Pirhanyas). We were lucky and catched two huge wels catfish, one meter in length each. To be honest, the professional fishers had to help us in dragging them into the boat.
nn.nn.87Another day in Sta. Terezinha. The flight was full, therefore we had to stay. We were watching an important game of the Brazilian football league and had a couple of beers, the first ones since our arrival. The beverage transporter was delayed for a couple of days, therefore there was no more beer in stock.
03.12.87Finally we got a flight back to civilization. We took the night bus to Belo Horizonte. We travelled by leito whose seats are to be compared with the first class seats of a long houl flight.
nn.12.87Belo Horizonte is the fourth largest city in Brazil. The sights are quite limited. Exciting was a semifinal game of Brazils football cup. We were lucky to escape unscathed when hooligans started to throw bricks and launch rockets in the stadium. Even after the match nearly all windows of our bus broke due to vandalism.
nn.12.87Excursion to Ouro Preto which is a historical city in Minas Gerais. The former capital of the state has cobbled streets that wind up and down steep hills which are crowded with 13 churches. The site is an island in Brazil which is dominated by 20th century urban architecture.
nn.12.87We travelled by bus to São Paulo. It is the biggest city in South America. The center of Brazils economy is the Avenida Paulista which is surrounded by the most modern sky scrapers and seems to be more inviting than places like Praça da Sé, the city center which is populated with beggars, drug addicts and alcoholics.
nn.12.87Excursion to Ilha Bela. This could be a typical tropical island somewhere in the Caribean or Pasific Ocean if it were not that close to the mainland and one of the world's biggest sea ports (Santos). Flakes of raw oil are spread on the beaches originated by the supertankers which are being cleaned not far away from the island. Apart from that the island has marvellous cascades coming down from steep treecapped mountains, it has dense forests and nice spots to recover from the city-life.
nn.12.87We travelled back to São Paulo and from there to the final destination in South America: Rio de Janeiro.
nn.12.87When driving along the waterfront having the Sugar Loaf and Corcovado in front you are getting goose pimples and you must admit: God made the world in six days; the seventh he devoted to Rio. Beaches surrounded by sky-scrapers are not realy appealing, Copacabana is the big exception. There's no better spot for relaxing and let the hours passing by. From Corcovado there's a marvellous view over the bays of Rio whereas the Sugar Loaf does not provide such a spectacular panorama. Having the possibility to participate (as a spectator) in the footbal cup final at the Maracaná stadium is a highlight of a footbal fan.
21.12.87Pan Am flight to New York
22.12.87Visited liberty island, the Empire State building and the Guggenheim museum.
23.12.87Flight back to Zurich with Pan Am.
24.12.87Arrival in Zurich.