Paraty is a beautiful colonial town on the Brazilian "Costa Verde" which we already visited in 2016 but really wanted to experience again. This time, we had a help of a local... Well, Michel actually comes from France, but he's been living in Paraty for ten years now. He sailed his beautiful sailboat from Canada and remained anchored in the bay of Paraty ever since; apart from some sailing trips around the region. He kindly accepted us aboard as couchsurfers and helped us out with recommendations for experiencing the local cuisine. The weather was extremely hot and the sea temperature (above 30°C) didn't really offer any refreshment so we visited one of the nearby mountain streams that form cascades and pools filled with crystal clear and cool fresh water. After that we decided it's time for another of our crazy adventures. We packed our camping essentials, rented a simple "sit-on-top" kayak and started a three day exploration of the nearby Mamangua bay. During our trip, we met a whole expedition of sea kayakers with proper equipment and plenty of experience. Their leader Christian (who turned out to have Slovenian heritage) recommended us some nice places to visit and our three day kayaking trip turned out to be a breathtaking experience. Once again we combined our impressions in a short video. Our "vagabonding" had finally come to an end. And how better to finish the South American journey than with one of its most representative places - the marvelous city of Rio de Janeiro. We had already visited the main tourist attractions such as Christ the Redeemer and Pao de Azucar back in 2016. This time we took it easier. We slept at a place of a charming couchsurfer Thiago just a hundred meters from the Copacabana beach. We chilled around, visited the Rio's markets to stock up on cachaca, acai powder and guarana, we strolled the modern promenade with the famous "Museum of tomorrow" and graffiti of the Brasilian artist "Kobra" and paid a short visit to a "bloco" - a pre-carneval party at one of the town squares. We also hiked to one of the best viewpoints over the city. The hike to "two brothers peak" begins at a pacified favela which is only reached by a sketchy taxi-motorbike ride with one of the locals. At the beginning of the hike, the favela didn't seemed to be completely pacified to us - there were around ten young men and boys walking around fully armed with guns and rifles, hunting someone that apparently broke the favela rules. They didn't really gave much of attention to us and so we hurried along not to be caught in a potential cross-fire. We reached the top without incidents and were joined by some other tourists as well to watch the amazing views over the city. Four days went by like nothing and all of a sudden, we were on a plane back to Europe. We reached Munich at noon and the sun had been good to us to warm up the winter temperatures at least a little bit. After more than a year we breathed in the cool European air with all it's aromas and smells and even though we were not yet back to Slovenia, everything felt very familiar. Well, staying with Jose (our friend from the times we had lived in Munich) and meeting up with some friends added an important part to the feeling as well :) But in the end... nothing can compete with the overwhelming feelings of coming back home. The drive from Munich to Ljubljana was another pleasant experience as Gaja & Peter redeemed themselves for taking us away for the long journey in the first place. Seeing our parents, siblings, nephews and the closest friends brought out many feelings and memories and for the next couple of days we had been meeting-up with people and getting back in touch with the surroundings. Only then it really became clear to us - we are back to "normal life"!
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Southern Argentinian coastal area is a somewhat boring and desolate environment. There is no end to the dry grasslands of the Patagonian stepe and just every two hundred kilometers or so a river brings some water from the other side of the continent allowing some green to break up the sandy brown colors of the surroundings. The coastline itself doesn't seem to be any different. The waters in this part of the Atlantic are cold, there are no trees to offer shade and so there is not really much of a beach atmosphere around. Apparently the marine animals have a different opinion and every year these parts of land are attracting large colonies of seals, whales and penguins to serve them as a breeding point. A colony of Penguins at Cabo dos Bahias was first of our stops. We could stroll among the penguins on metal pathways that offer a very close and genuine experience for the people while leaving the penguins with their personal space on the ground. Mixed in between hundreds of Magellanic penguins there were plenty of nandus and guanacos and in the ocean in front of us a couple of orcas were proudly showing off their fins. It was pure luck to see them at this point, because they usually patrol the waters around the famous peninsula Valdes where we were headed next. We arrived to El Chalten and met with Klara and Mitja - our Slovenian friends that we actually got to know during our stay in Munich. They stayed in a hostel where the friendly staff allowed us to use its amenities while actually sleeping in our car at the parking lot (We are saving on every step of our trip :) ). In the next days, we did some warm-up hikes and organised everything for the Huemul Circuit - a four day trekking through beautiful landscapes that gets you right to the edge of the Southern Patagonian Ice field and includes some zip-lining to cross the glacier rivers. Of course we decided to make the already difficult trek even tougher and added a significant detour on our first day. A couple of hours of walking and we arrived to the Laguna Toro where a gale almost blew us of it's shores while we were watching the stranded ice-bergs that broke off from the glacier at the end of the lake. We were accompanied by dozens of people that came for a day-hike from El Chalten. For them it was already time to turn around while for us the adventure just began. We successfully crossed the first zip-line which crossed the river just at the edge of the lake and then continued to cross a mountain pass into the neighbouring valley. The path was unmarked and with some insecurity we managed to find a way to the other side. Pretty tired, we set up our tents, made dinner and collapsed onto our mats keeping our fingers crossed that the strong wind doesn't brake any of the suspicious looking branches above our heads. We finished our last blog with impressions of Perito Moreno glacier and the idea of a perfect day in Patagonia. But we quickly found out that perfection is easily found in Patagonia and it is impossible to choose one of the experiences to be the best. In the days that followed the competition would get even fiercer :) We were on our way back to Chile, towards the national park Torres del Paine - one of the most visited places in whole Patagonia. The trails in the park are crowded, the campsites in high-season need to be booked months in advance and the prices are insultingly expensive, but with a little luck and planing one can still enjoy pristine moments in the park. There are legitimate reasons that people from all over the world want to see this amazing piece of land. The panoramic views over the mountain massif with many lagoons and lakes reflecting the beauties are breathtaking. Despite the numbers of tourists, the park still contains plenty of wildlife and has the highest concentration of pumas of all the parks in Patagonia. Unfortunately we didn't see one, but Gašper was delighted to be able to creep-up on a proud condor that was fearlessly showing off on a rock - it's usually impossible to come this close to these magnificent creatures. |
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February 2019
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