The end of this journey

Today is my last day in Santa Cruz in Bolivia and the reason for my stay here is that it is from here, I have a flight home.✈

It is therefore also my last day of my trip to South America. After nearly five months – 20 weeks / 141 days – it’s time to go home. Fortunately, it sounds as if there is now spring in the air, so I can look forward to another period of spring and summer. Long bright days, plenty of time to catch up and to a lot of tours on my bike.😀🌞🚲

It has been an amazing journey. I have seen so much great scenery, wildlife and had so many different experiences. I think, I mentioned in one of my first blog post, that I would probably run out of words to describe it, and it has happened. What I’ve seen the last month on top of everything, I experienced the previous months, can not really be described or shown fairly on photos. It should be experienced firsthand.

I have met so many wonderful people some just a few minutes, but also some for longer periods. It is so easy to get in touch with other travelers, and we always have a story to tell each other. Of course there are a lot of young people. I think that the average age is somewhere in his late twenties, but when we meet in a bus, in a cafe or somewhere else, age does not matter. I enjoyed myself on a bus tour with 13 year old Lukas from Germany. He was 2/3 through a one-year trip with his family. He was excited about the trip, but lacked meeting boys his own age. Most of the other Germans they met was in his eyes “old people” – I am sure a lot of those “old people”, was much younger than me, they were just not having bringing children, but he was incredibly charming and  very sweet saying it had been a pleasure speaking with me. I have also exchanged emails and hope that I will hear from or maybe even see some of you again later. It would be really great if it happens.

Has everything been perfect? Unfortunately, the answer is NO, but the only thing that has been harmed, is my pride and my bank account.

“Chilean people are thieves”

The quotation above is from a young girl in Valparaiso. She caught me on the way down from one of the many hills in the city. I was taking pictures of grafiti / art on the walls, and therefore walked with my camera visible. When she stopped me, I was well aware that she thought, I should put my camera away. She had to lookup the word thief on her mobile but her English was really ok. She told me that she was very ashamed, that so many people were robbed in her country and wanted to avoid it, but residents on the top of the hills were very poor people and when possible they would steel from anyone. Unfortunately I had to agree with her. A week earlier in Santiago – I was tricked – I fell for it – and I had my backpack and my bag with my camera stolen 😂.

I still don’t understand why my alarm bells did not ring, but they didn’t, and with a few seconds of distraction the bags were gone. Someone threw something at me. I have read about these tricks, it was just not in the same way, and I could not see anyone, so I thought it was a bird that had shit on me. Not very nice, so naturally I began to wipe it off. A very pretty lady approached me and offered napkins and water. It was here that the alarm bells should have kicked in, but I have met so many nice and helpful people, and there was at the time really no difference between her and the young girl in Valparaiso, who followed me down the hill and even gave me her mail address and phone number, as she-  like me – were going to Santiago over the weekend.

Unfortunately the pretty lady in Santiago tricked me. My advice is: Never stop and never accept help no matter what gets thrown at you.

Yes, it was terrible and took a couple of days to get over. I realized, that I could not continue without a camera, so I bought a new one in Santiago and new bags. The rest I had to live without, including my phone.

Being a “target” was hard to handle, but in less than week, I had to accept that it is part of being a solo traveller as I had a similar experience In Valparaiso. It was actually a totally identical situation, except this time I did not fell for it. On the other hand, I saw how a team of three people were working together. Person 1 – An elderly man, presumably the one who throws something at you and is the first to try to stop you. Person No. 2 is the friendly and endearing man / woman with napkins and water. The third is the thief. In Valparaiso I saw all three of them and also their disappointment when I did not stop. This time it was tomato sauce, they had thrown on my back. I was on my way to one of the city’s cable cars and nice people in the queue helped me to remove most of the tomato sauce.

Thieves are everywhere also in Argentina, and they are very professional. In Mendoza, I stayed at a hotel in the city center. A good price and the fact that there was access to a terrace by a small pool sounded attractive. I knew, I needed time to plan the rest of my trip, so it was nice with an option to be outside “working”. The terrace was almost always empty, so I had no worries sitting there with my computer, but my lack of care meant that I got my bag with my new camera stolen by two girls. I am quite sure that someone – either other guests or staff – had contacted them. They came because I was there, and I think the goal was to get my computer. They did not manage to distract me, to get that, but in the situation I forgot my camera bag. Neither the hotel staff or police contradicted me in my conjecture. The policeman even believed that they probably would be very disappointed not being able to get  my computer. I had a long conversion with the policeman when we met immediately before I was leaving with a bus to Salta, and he offered to drive me to the bus terminal. So here, I arrived to the doorstep in a police car.👮‍♀️🚔

I have subsequently met many other travelers who have had bad experiences in Mendoza. Too bad I did not hear about them and about the incidents in Santiago. I think, that it is all you need to keep being alert and careful whereas if you think you are ok, it is very easy to put down the guards.

I think, I have been very careful, but it’s hard work to pay attention all the time, and the police officer tried to console me, with the fact that even police officers were deceived because the thieves are so professional.

It was really hard and sad to be robbed again and losing another camera. Electronics are very expensive in Argentina, but to go to the north of  Argentina and Chile, and to Bolivia, without a camera was not an option, so now I have a very small camera. It has zoom, but it works very poorly and it is difficult to focus, but on the bright side. It is much easier to have in a pocket.📸

I keep telling myself that it’s only money, and I’m unharmed. Yes, I get reimbursement from my insurance, but far from the full amount. Unfortunately, wounded pride is not insured. Then I would be rich.😅

I am very much behind with my blog posts. The above incidents and the ongoing Internet problems put me a little off. The last month I have also been very busy with excursions to see as much as possible of the incredible scenery in the places, I have visited.

The last days in Santa Cruz, I have had good internet, so I have uploaded a lot of my photos. Here you can – despite the bad quality – see what I have experienced, and why it would be terrible to be without a camera. I will add the remaining blogs posts later.

In the Chile folder there are photos from Santiago, Valparaiso and the Atacama Desert. In the Bolivia folder there are photos from a fantastic 3 days trip past lagoons, geysers, amazing rock formations and not least the incredible Uyuni salt desert. In the Argentina folder there are photos from the fantastic scenery around Salta. Colorful mountains, gorges and small towns, towns where we include experienced carnival.

On these trips I have moved up and down several times. From 1200 m in Salta to almost 5,000 meters in the Bolivian highland. I’ve seen plenty of mountains above 6000 m, many volcanoes and some of the animals that are able to live so high up. Thankfully I was coping fine with the height, but it is important to drink water constantly, take it easy and move slowly when you are close to 4000 m. Perhaps I forgot to drink enough water, when I came to Sucre, located in 2800 m height or perhaps I got a reaction to the many vertical meters. as I unfortunately have been a little sick the last week so I did not quite see and do what I had planned, but apart from a couple of colds in the beginning of my trip, it’s the only time I’ve had health issues on the whole trip. In the beginning I was nervous about twisting my ankles because of the many bumpy and uneven pavements but at some point I completely forgot to think about it, and although I always had to be careful, it became a habit.

Do I look forward to come home?. Yes of course I do. I have always felt thet when it was time to go home, it was the right time, no matter how long I had been away. It is the same this time and as I said before I left. I will come home once the winter is over. I hope that is going to be correct.

I very much look forward to see everybody again. To get away from my suitcase and to wear some different clothes, but apart from the incidents above, I have enjoyed the trip all the way. No bad days and no homesickness. It has just been a fantastic exciting and wonderful experience.

NB I have arrived home safely. It was dark, cold and wet but now the sun i shining and the forecast says spring is here.🌞

Thank you for reading the blog. I hope to see or hear from you soon

The link to my South American photos.