Expedition "Chachani" or How "Iron-Rennie" lost her fame

To be on the top of a mountain on 6.075m altitude...a mountaineers dream! and our dream still

In the last days we attempted to climb the vulcano "Chachani" near Arequipe (Peru) where we are at the moment. On the first day we were brought to ca 5.000m with a jeep (Arequipe lies on ca. 2400m) and climbed to the camp on 5.300m. We reached the camp at ca. 14:00, made ourselves at home in he tent, cooked dinner and crawled into our sleeping bags at about 16:00. Unfortunately it started to snow at about 15:00 and became very cold during the night (ca. -10º to -15ºC)! We had a horrible night with headache and cold (although we used three layers of sleeping bag) and wind kept us awake all through the night. Actually the expression "all the night" is wrong, as we had to get up at 1:00am in the middle of the night to start our ascent, had a cup of tea, put on all our warm clothes and started to climb the mountain, through icy wind and snow, with our headlights on...brr.. after about 1,5h we had to put on crampons and use the ice-ax to climb over snow and ice for about 2h. It was very cold, pitch dark and there was very few oxygen as well! The climb was partly very steep and exhausting (especially with the crampons on) but without crampons it was as well more then tiring. After the icy part the sun started to come out, which bettered the situation a bit, but unfortunately by that we already were very tired. After 5h of walk we had to give up, because Renate was so k.o.! And we had still3h more to the top! and all the way back as well! ... All the chocolate and sugar could not help and we decided to turn back at 5.700m as we were tired, all our fingers were halfway frozen and there was still the way back to consider!
At about 10:45 we again reached the camp at 5.300m and we were totally ko! and still we had to pack the tent and continue down to where the jeep awaited us to bring us back to town. UFF!
In the end we are a bit disappointed, but at least we tried!
... and here are the PICTURES!

Anyway, it was an experience and adventure we would not like to have missed!!
And: we reached 5.700m! :-)

Looking forward to tell you about our next steps!
Regards, Renate & Mirko

Last days in Bolivia

Hallo,
we are still alive ;-). Since returning from the brasilian Pantanal we have visited "La Paz", the biggest city of Bolivia (PICTURES of La Paz - click here). After two days we continued our way to the small town called "Copacabana" on the shores of the "lago Titicaca", a lake which lies in an altitude of 3.800m. Therefore although the name suggests, bathing and swimming was not an apropriate activity because despite the strong sun (because of the altitude) the air and the water were rather cold :-).But the setting and the nature were beautiful. A blue lake and in the background the "Cordilliera de los Andes" with its snowwhite peaks of more than 6000m ... the scenery was especially nice. We spent two nights on the "Isla del sol", an island, which is rather small and thus very quiet und relaxing. The whole island smelled good like eukalyptus (the main tree there) and some other herbs and at sometime we thought to be on a mediterranean island. Only that it was colder and the water was not salty :-). -> PICTURES - Isla del Sol
Today we crossed the border to Peru (as yesterday whole Peru was on strike and the borders were closed) and are now in Puno (still on 3.800m..brrr).Tomorrow we will continue to Arequipa where we will again be a bit lower (ca 2.500m) and hopefully it will again be a bit warmer.

We send you a cool breeze from 3800m in Peru as it seems to be hot at home, and hope you are all well!
Renate and Mirko

Mirko and the jumping killer-fish - ein Heldenepos

It was Tuesday, 15:34, when Mirko, the strong and fearless hero from Germany dared to approach the dangerous waters of Bonito in order to look the fishes directly into the eye. Hundreds of big and bigger fish could be ovserved swimming around in the cristal clear water, waiting for (expecting?) our hero. Our hero went nearer and nearer without showing any fear or hesitation.
Having considered all possible dangers ("Do fish have teeth?") our hero felt seflconfident and safe. He kneeled down to show the current fish-leader who is going to be the new leader here. He started to explain the fish how he (our hero) intends to take over the power in the river right now and how the fish and the whole fish population need to follow all his orders in the future. And then our hero commited his only error, which turned out to be fatal: he held a cookie in his right hand. Unaware of the fishes greed he waved the hand around above the waters surface.
At this moment the fattest of all fishes (probably the trained Killer-fish) gathered all his powers and jumped out our the water at least 1m trying to get the cookie our hero held in his hand; Unfortunately the killerfish seemed to be shortsighted or bad in mathematics as his calculations turned out to be slightly wrong and he bit Mirkos little finger instead!! AAaaaahhh!!!
After our hero stopped bleeding like hell, he was furious and decided to have Sushi this everning, but it was impossible to identify the culprit among the hundreds of identical fish and the fish refused to surrender the finger-killerfish!
Therefore instead of having the adequate fish-massaker and a big sushi in the evening, we showed up at the local hospital to get our heros finger fixed and desinfected (Tetanus injection and the whole programm inclusive :-( )
All plans to take over the power in the fish-pond had to be cancelled...but our heros diet plan includes fish for the rest of his life - as a revenge!
What´s left to say is that our hero stayed totally cool all the time, although it must have hurt very bad and it bleeded like hell (seems the fish have good dentists which keep their teeth sharp)!
We can be SOOO proud ouf our hero!

This was Renate live from Bonito with the daily news.......

P.S.: Ask to see the scar when he is back!

Pantanal & Bonito (Brasilia)

We had three days full of green vegetation, birds, crocodiles, monkeys and piranhas...we have been to the brasilian Pantanal, a wonderful wetland which is known for the high number of bird species. We did a Jeep safari, boat trips, jungle-walks and fishing of piranhas (which taste really wonderful, although there is not a lot of meat on them ;-) ).
We spent the nights in a lodge in the middle of the wetlands and were woken up at sunrise by hundreds of birds trilling, chirping etc. ....
The warm temperature was sooo nice (T-shirt and bikini) and it was gorgeous to hang around in a landscape full of green and life instead of the freezing cold, wind and stones on the Altiplano.
We enjoyed these days very much and are hesitant about returning to La Paz (Bolivia, 3.700m!! Brrrrr..), as this means leaving Brasilia and the wonderful summer-weather again ... but the flight is already booked, so ... ;-)

As usual you we have uploaded PICTURES for you!

Greetings to all of you, Renate & Mirko

"Sucre" or "May Mirkos jeans rest in peace"

Hallo, we have spent the last days in Sucre which was very agreable as Sucre lies only on 2600m and the climate is warm (we didn`t need gloves at the breakfast table). We could sit in the sun with our t-shirts only and enjoy fruit juices and coffees.
The town is supposed to be the most beautiful town of Bolvivia and it really is beautiful with a lot of white colonial buildings, streets, a lot of churches and all nice and clean.
We actually didn´t do much these days but wander around town and visit some churches, museums and buildings. Mirko made me (!!) visit a place where we were supposed to see "dinosaurier tracks" in the earth...and I had to go there in a so-called "dinosaurier-truck" for tourists: a truck which is painted outside with colourfull pictures of dinosauriers (AAAAhh!!!!) .. I do not know how I deserved this...but I could not argue much as I deleted a very precious video from his camera by accident (Gulp! :-( )

As we liked the city, we chose it as a last resting place for Mirkos jeans and his rucksack, which both have been nothing more than shreds for more than a month. There was an official ceremony and everything....I nearly cried (Sniff) ;-)
Unfortunately Mirkos "I-love-it-soooo-much-don´t-make-me-give-it-away-although-it-looks-horrible"-T-shirt and his embarassing "I-have-been-through-so-much-with-this-sunhat" sunhat are still coming with us :-(

Have fun viewing the PICTURES.

Today at 17:00 we will continue our journey for a quick "hop" (1 week) to the brasilian "Pantanal" (wetlands).
See you and whish you all the best.
Renate & Mirko

Potosi - City of Silver

Hi,
a quick entry from the "City of Silver" - Potosi. The city lies in an altitude of 4.090m, and claimes to be the highest city in the world (as well as a cold one :-) ). The city fomerly was the richest city of south america because of the silver which was found in "Cerro Rico" (the mountain you can see in the background). Nowadays the importance of Potosi has shrunk, but they are still extracting silver - and this with tool, material and under working conditions of the middle age (probably the same with which they have started in the 16th century)! We visited the mine, talked to the "mineros" and could enter the mines pits which were not only narrow and steep but also full of toxic gases and dust! It was really incredible under which working conditions they are working! To drill a hole for a roll of dynmite of about 30cm length the worker needs about 6hours using manual tools and manpower only, they push the trolleys by hand, the temperature varies between zero and 45 degrees ... take a look at the pictures yourself ... they are not from a museum!!!

The city itself is pretty nice with a lot of colonial architecture. Most people work in the mines but the rest of them seem to be advocates (nearly each house has a sign dangling outside saying "Abogado") ????
Today we will continue to "Sucre" ... hear you!
Renate & Mirko

Salar de Uyuni

Near Uyuni there is the giant, most impressive "Salar" which we visited in the last few days. With a guide and a Jeep we drove through salt, salt and again salt..the landscape was nothing but white as far as one could see and it was incredible!
The area covers 12.000 km2 in an altitude of 3.650m !
You should view the pictures ...I think you cannot describe it with words and one cannot imagine what it looks like without pictures.... It was GREAT!

During the same excursions we also visited some lagunas and drove a lot of km through the dry landscape of the south of the bolivian Altiplano (Highland). We slept on 4.500m altitude (brrr....cold, cold, cold!!!) ) and inhaled tons of dust and sand during the ride on very, very bad roads ;-)

Whish you all the best!
Our time of travelling is running out ... so you will see us again soon! :-)
Renate & Mirko

first impressions of Bolivia - from Arica to Uyuni

Hallo,
we have survived about one week in Bolivia and we are still in posession of all our luggage ;-).

The journey from Chile into Bolivia first to Oruru and then further south to Uyuni (all of them in the Altiplano above 3.600m) was characterised by delays, breakdown of the bus, a hard struggle to assure that our luggage was carried in respectively ON the same bus as we were, and the experience of the most horrible night-busdrive. We bought a ticket for a busride of 8 hours with heating inside the bus...the first time we got suspicious was, when all the locals entered the bus with at least two or three blankets..it still didn´t make click in our heads when a man in the bus sold blankets (????) ... and for this naivity we got punished with a 10 hours ride (20:00 - 6:00) in a freezing cold bus (there was ice on the windows INSIDE the bus of 3mm thikness), the windows were not closing properly, seats were bad and worse, no toilet, strange electric cables dangling from the ceiling (?...better don´t touch) and it was pitch dark, the roads were horrible and we thought that
a) the ride was never going to end
b) we will never arive alive but instead frozen to death
c) at least we will loose some of our toes or fingers due to freezing
d) did I really pay my travel insurance which will fly me home in case of severe health problems?
e) we are going to kill everybody especially the woman who sold us the busride "WITH" heating
f) it would be best to rob the blanket from the weakest passenger in the bus
g) maybe we should have bought some drugs before
h) wether we should have written a testament before leaving home
i) if at the end of the busride there is a "Plaza Hotel" with rooms for 400 USD the night we will take it! No argueing!
and:
WHO the hell had this bluddy, stupid idea of travelling through south america ?

Unbelievably we arrived with a bodytemperature probably below 35 degrees C in Uyuni, took the best hotel in town with heating and slept under 5 blankets till we recovered.

Brrrr.....Renate & Mirko