Probably no blog posts for a few days

Tomorrow I'm flying to Punta Arenas and my hike in Torres del Paines. According to the agency there will be no wifi and also limited access to electricity, so it might take some days before my next blog post. But be patient. I will write one for each day, even if I write them all during one day. Coming back soon to a blog near you. :-)

Observations during flight and Arriving in Chile

OK - I admit it! I'm extremely interested in my fellow passengers. I just can't help it. So again - here is an observation on the fight from Madrid to Santiago (13,5 hour but the way - long flight).

Already when I came onboard the plane I realized that I would have issues with my seating. I had window seat (which I prefer on long haul flights, since you sleep much better there - less disturbances), but the couple who sat next to me were older (between 70-80 years old) and both were overweight. In short - they had a hard time to move. So when I pointed out that my seat was the one at the window next to them - they looked at me like I insulted them. Suddenly they started to sigh a lot and were having extreme difficulties to move so I could take my seat. On top of that, the woman had several bags on the floor that she for some reason needed to move before I could take my seat (it was easy for me to jump over them). It took them several minutes to make room for me. On top of that they started to discuss, while standing in the aisle, how they should handle their rest of their luggage, so they stopped a couple of 100 people to get on board. I then realized that it was probably the first time in their life that they were on a plane. Quite brave of them to do it so late in life. They didn't speak any Spanish and hardly any English, (I think they were from somewhere in eastern Europe, but I couldn't really hear them while they were speaking to each other) so it was even hard for them to ask for help. The procedure then repeated when I needed to go to the bathroom the first time. They seemed insulted and were making a lot of noise. The second (and last) trip to bathroom I pointed out to them that it was enough if the man moved, since I could jump over the woman. They seemed relieved by that, but then the man wanted to have paper towels from me, when I came back from the bathroom??!! I'm sorry, but I didn't realize that paper towels were the general toll to get out of once seat on a plane?! Finally, just before we landed they started to prepare themselves to get off, so much so they even put the luggage in the aisle. You should have heard the stewardess (who already had had several talks to them about security). At this point she was quite fed up. But at least - they gave me entertainment.

We came to South America in the morning, so we got to see the sunrise.

The flight over the Andes was BEAUTIFUL. Check out!

Finally, after 27 hours of traveling I arrived at my hotel in Santiago. Since I arrived in the morning my room wasn't ready. But who cares - when you can sit out in the sun and enjoy a cup of coffee with fresh fruit and pancakes. For me it was the perfect start of the day and my trip in Chile.

Since I noticed on the flight that my hiking pants had brown paint on them (I probably got it the last time I used them and didn't even notice. Obviously a wash didn't affect the paint.) I decided that I needed to buy a new pair. The other pair was quite old and the paint just gave me an excuse to replace them. So after a shower I walked to closest shopping mall. It is located next to South Americas tallest building. Some people think it is beautiful (I would assume they are men ;-) ) some people think it is ugly. Look at it and let me know your opinion.

Tonight I will go to bed early. Tomorrow morning I will take the 5.50 flight to Punta Arenas, so they will pick me up at 4.15 from the hotel. I need to get up at 3.15, so I can have some breakfast before I leave. I hope I can eat at that hour.

New trip - to CHILE!!!

Here we go again. :-) This time I’m off to Chile and the wonderful Patagonia. Just listen to the the name - 

P A T A G O N I A. It has a wonderful sound. The funny thing is that I don’t really know that much about the place, but I still have thought about going there for the last 10 years. Maybe it has something to do with the brand Patagonia, that makes high quality hiking clothes, since it is one of my favorite brands. Or maybe it just because it is in South America. I have always loved that part of the world and always been sorry that I didn’t learn Spanish, since that is the most common language there. 

Anyhow - I have looked forward to this trip since September, when I started to talk to the travel agency about it. I knew from the start that I wanted to do the Patagonia hike, but the rest of the trip activities caused some discussions. Finally I ended up up with the following list of activities:

• Hiking in Patagonia
• Horseback riding
• Wine tour
• Beach hut

You can read about the hiking part of my trip here. OBS! In Swedish! http://www.aventyrsresor.se/Resor/Patagonien/Vandra-i-Torres-del-Paine

I was so happy when my friend Maria told me that she would come down from Argentina (where she lives) and spend the days in the beach hut with me. Now the trip felt complete. A little bit of everything that I enjoy in life: hiking, animals, wine and friends. I'm also hoping that I will be able to do some running when I spend the days in the beach hut. The only thing missing, on my list of interests, on this trip is music.

The flight can often be quite boring, but during the my first flight, Arlanda - Heathrow,  I had some entertainment. The couple next to me were fighting the whole time. About everything and nothing. When I see these kinds of things I'm always happy that I'm single. It would take too much energy with that kind of constant nagging. I ALMOST said "Get a divorce" when they were at it the most, but it is none of my business how other people live there lives. 

It was a very bumpy flight to London and we "jumped" several times. We even saw the lightning. It is interesting to watch people's reaction when the flight is a bit scary. Both during the trip and after. Some people becomes white and silent, others start to talk a lot with a very loud voice and some people keep calm. I'm usually quite calm, mainly because I can't do anything about the situation, so I don't want to react. The flight to Madrid was delayed because of the weather and also quite bumpy. Luckily we landed well in time for my final flight to Santiago. Part one of my trip was done.

Leaving Transylvania and a Summary

Since I missed my run the Final Day I decided to do it in the morning before we started to travel back home to Sweden. I really NEEDED one more run in Transylvania. 

Even if it meant that I could only drink a little wine on our final dinner.

At dinner Lucian and Alex (our guides) helped me to find good places to run, so I went up at 6.30 and left at 7 in the suggested direction. The weather was great and it was not too hot. The first part went only uphill. The surrounding was beautiful and picturesque with the mountains, plenty of cute houses and farmers just arriving to their fields for the day’s work. Even though it was uphill I fully enjoyed the run. I took it easy and focused more at the surrounding than the speed. After 4.5 km I turn around and went downhill the same way as I came. Now it was just pure fun. I even stopped to take pictures. It was the perfect end on a perfect hiking trip. I couldn’t ask for anything more.

My morning views

The rest of the day we spent traveling back to Sweden. EXCEPT for a stop at the world’s second largest building: Palace of the Parliament. It was HUGE!!!

Palace of the Parliament

The trip back went fine and the group only lost one pice of luggage, as far as I know. ;-) See an earlier post about flying with KLM.

As a summary of the trip I have to say that Transylvania exceeded my high expectations. It was even more beautiful than I expected: the food was better, the people were among the kindest I have met around the world and most importantly the hiking was one of the best I have experienced. It only lacked in toughness, but I think I could have found tougher trails around if I would have looked for them. They were just not included in our trip. So I can really recommend to go hiking in Transylvania, where the environment is still romantic in the old-fashioned way.

Until next time - Take care! Hugs!

Alex and I

p.s. It is possible to loose weight on vacation, IF you go hiking. I lost 1 kg, despite lots of good food and drinks. :-)

The Final Day

On our last day in Transylvania we stepped out of the hiking boots and into the city sandals and took off on a trip to Bran Castle and Brasov. It actually felt a bit strange not to pack and dress for a day in the mountains.

We started with Bran Castle. When I first heard about this point on the schedule I was excited to visit the Dracula castle. But I was quickly informed it had nothing to do with Dracula. It just looks like the castle that is described in Bram Stoker’s book about him. It was still an interesting place to visit. I especially liked the music room. :-)

The piano in the music room. Lovely piece.

The Bran Castle.

The rest of the day we spent in Brasov and visited all the city highlights: St Nicholas Church and first Romanian school, all the city protection that was built during the 15th century, the black church that was built between 1385 and 1477 and so on. I liked to stroll around the city and look at how it has changed through the years. It is a really cute city.

In school with Alex as our teacher.

 

The Black Church                           The alleys are quite narrow

For those of you who know me, know that I like to plan. When I looked through the trip itinerary I decided that I would go for a run the final day. That was the whole idea behind me bringing training clothes on a hiking trip. Yes - I got to use the clothes on an earlier occasion, but this was my main running day. Unfortunately there were some misunderstandings on the schedule and I didn’t get the time to run after the trip to the Brasov. So frustrating! I REALLY wanted to go for a run and see how my body felt after a week of hiking. That was the ONLY thing that put me off during the whole trip. The rest of the week I just kept smiling.

In the evening we looked at a movie about the region including interviews with our guide Alex. It was interesting to see how Americans had taken on Transylvania. :-)

Then it was the final dinner. It is always a bitter sweet thing. I usually never want to go home from a hiking trip. I ENJOY hiking and I often think that I will buy a house in the mountains so I can go hiking everyday. It is also sad to say goodbye to some people, especially the guides. Most guides that I have met are great people (only a few exceptions). This time was no exception. Lucian and Alex might even have been some of the best guides I have ever met. 

It was another great day, even though I missed to be in the mountains and didn’t go for a run. ;-) This is happy me!

The Final Hike

The final hike was supposed to be the highlight of the trip. I had looked forward to the hike the whole week. You see  - I love to go up to peaks. There is something so rewarding about doing that. It is a bit strange that I love that so much, since I have a fear of heights. But somehow I always manage. For every time I manage to get up to a top I become a little bit tougher.

So I woke up in a really good mood, the day of the final hike. I prepared all my things and went down for breakfast. When I was relaxing after breakfast, just hanging with the others, I started to feel ... well, not so good. I excused myself and went back to my room where I immediately had do place myself in the bathroom. I spent the major part of the next hour there. I took some stomach pills and hoped for the best.

This hike started in an usual way - we drove there with horse and wagon. It was so nice, even though I had some difficulties during the ride. I felt nauseous. I hoped it would pass, but it didn’t. The first part of the hike is pretty much in a blur. Someone suggested me to take Resorb, which is a tablet that consists of salt and other good things. I put it in my camel bag and slowly started to feel a little bit better. At lunch I took some vegetable soup and coke and at last I felt almost as my usual self. It was pity though that I ”missed” the first part. It was very beautiful as far as I have seen from the pictures.

A horse and wagon ride

A bit tricky but beautiful part of the hike

After lunch we started the final part to the peak. It was as beautiful as the rest of hikes that we had made that week. But it was somewhat challenging. At a couple of points it was quite steep and we needed to use a wire to climb. We did the climb one by one, with the help of our great guides. The wait for your turn was the worst. I felt like a lamb waiting for the slaughter house. When it finally was my turn I asked Lucian, our guide, to carry my back-pack and started to climb - extremely focused on the task in hand. Which of course meant that I climbed very quickly. Lucian wondered a bit why I was in such a hurry, but the only explanation I had was that I just wanted the bad part to be over soon. 

On our way to the top.                         Happy at the first peak!

The view from 945 m above the valley!

Memorial of the soldiers that died in First World War.

There were several people that overcame different obstacles on that hike. We were many with a fear of heights and we all managed to do the climb. But the hero of the day was the guy in the group that has osteoarthritis AND a fear of heights. He was just a BIG smile on the peak and the rest of the day, since he was so happy that he managed to do it. Some people back home had told him that it would be too difficult for him to manage that kind of a climb. But he made it!!! The fact is that the whole group made it, which is not always the case. Yeah us!

On the way to the second peak!

We were all rewarded with a great view and a feeling of being on the top of the world in more ways than one. We actually visited several peaks up on the top. It was AMAZING and I was soooooo happy that I didn’t stay in bed in that morning, even though I didn’t feel fine.

On the way back down to the valley we walked through the forrest, on unofficial trails. The only reason that we found our way was that Lucian knows the forrest as the back of his hand. We entertained ourselves with singing songs from different musicals. It was a lot of fun.

A farmer that we met on the way down.

The final reaction to the somewhat exciting day came during the dinner. I could hardly keep my eyes open while eating. I was so tired. But it was the right kind of tiredness, the one you get when you have done something amazing.

The Fourth Hike

The fourth hike was a hike that I expected to be sort of ”in between” hike. It was, as far as I understood, more of a transport hike. We were also told it would be quite easy, not any steep uphill anywhere. 

On top of the hill down to the valley we came from

It wasn’t hard, that was true. We started the hike, by walking through the village with all the cute old houses. Then we continued up the hill to reach the forrest. We then followed cute little trails in the forrest and arrived at a wonderful grass field on the top. We walked over the fields and continued to follow nice little trails downhills. On the way we walked pass cute little farms, meadows and forrest. It was an absolutely beautiful hike where I enjoyed every minute of it. 

Up the hill   

Through the fields

I love hiking since it is my kind of meditation. During a hike I focus on my basic needs (water/drinks and food) and to move my body. I clear my head and I just fill it up with what I see and experience. This means that I prefer to hike where there are beautiful views and a calm surrounding. I don’t want to see cars, planes or any other kind of machines. I don’t want to smell petrol or exhaust. I just want to smell the clean air. I don’t want to meet too many people, preferably only locals.    

On top of the hill, on the grass field - it makes me want to run

Farms, meadows and forrest - The surrounding was changing all the time

The best things with hiking in Transylvania is the feeling of being in another time. You meet mostly shepherds and people working the fields, not too many tourists, while hiking. If you would pass farms in Sweden there would have been a lot of noise from machines cutting grass or similar. In Transylvania it is all quiet, since they don’t use any modern machines. It only smells of forrest and fields. The most disturbing noise is actually the mobile phone of our guide. :-) Which shouldn’t be a problem for me, since I will start to work for a telecom operator - again.

So the it fourth hike was very, ver beautiful and ended in the small city of the area, Zarnesti, and a local bar. And as always the beer tasted wonderful after the hike.

Don't ask - I don't know what the sheep are doing