Last time when I was in Winterthur again, I only took my 50mm prime plastic fantastic Canon. It gives such great sharp pics! Look at this nice pink tulip which I found in the front garden of Christine.

I made some more pics, have a look at them by clicking the thumbs below!

Last week I was in Switzerland again and we had the chance to go for a short walk. Beautiful colors because of Autumn.

For the really curious ones, Christine made a quick selection of pictures from our Sweden adventure. For the stories you have to wait a bit longer. Have a look at the gallery! ( Or click on the pic below )

Last weekend was the Albanifest in Winterthur. Christine and me walked over it on sunday evening (and quickly on saterday afternoon). Most action took place on friday/saterday evening so it was rather quiet. We only went in one ride which gave us a cool look over the city and a bit of weird feeling in the stomach after but got some funny pics.

I said I was gonna try to put up a photo a bit more regularly, well last days I’m spending in Switzerland so I’m not that much behind the computer, but it doesn’t mean I take no pictures! Last weekend I was in Zürich where I walked around a bit. Unfortunately the weather was not that great, but think I made some cool pics. For example this .. traaaaaaaam

Ok, finally some time to put something on this page again. As some of you know, I went to Chile on a studytour. Ofcourse I made a lot of pics there and I wrote something about every day. For the next week I will daily try to put a day of Chile online, maybe with a nice picture. I’m still processing some photos so for some you have to wait a bit longer. ( Have a look in the archive for March and April 2007 )

After Chile I already went to Switzerland again and to keep you nice and warm I have a cool panorama for you.

I woke up at 6.50 and went for a cold shower again. Then me and René B went for a walk through the village. It was nice and quiet so we could get an impression of the village.

The night before we agreed with some other people to go for a brekky at 8. We found a cool place where I ordered a bacon and cheese egg toast. The 2 girls running the shop were not really customer friendly. One tried to get our order while talking to her boyfriend on the phone. Then the other took over and it seemed as if they were working there for the first time. After a while some other people joined and we had a nice brekky. When walking back we found a laundry place where some of us brought our laundry. They wash, dry and iron it for 1200 pesos per kilo.

At 10 we gathered to go to quitors Fortress. The bus couldn’t go further because of a small river it couldn’t cross.

So we had to walk a bit. After arriving we climbed up which was pretty heavy because of the temperature and altitude (2200m). The amazing view immediately faded the discomfort of our sweaty and heavy breathing bodies.

Back in the bus we drove to Tamarugo’s Forest. This forest was planted and the trees carry a fruit that is eaten by llama’s. The trees also carry a very sharp kind of needle which actually went through the bottom of shoes. This happened with 5 people. The guide didn’t tell us which was a bit shitty. I helped some people with my first aid kit. We then walked back to the bus where the guide wanted to play a kind of very childish game. I didn’t feel playing this stupid game so walked around a bit and made some more pictures.

After some minutes of driving we stopped at a small, not really interesting, village called Toconao. I used my super swiss army pocket knife to pull out crazy long needles from the tamarugo forest. I considered myself pretty lucky because none reached my foot. Ies had the idea to bake pancakes for he whole group at the hostel so he and Ilona went to buy out a complete stock of milk, flower and eggs and some other ingredients from a local store. We then drove to chaxas lagoon. This lagoon is known for its flamingo population. It is a big salt plat area. We first got an introduction about these birds and their habitat. Then we went for a walk where I shot a lot of pictures hoping I have some good ones. The distance to the flamingo’s was still pretty far in order to not disturb them so here my 70-300mm was very usefull.

Back in the hostel we baked pancakes for 30 people which was a success and then to bed!!

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The plan was to drive all night and arrive in San Pedro at 9 in the morning. When we woke up at 7 we found out that were never gonna be there at9. Also the chauffeurs didn’t know anything about being there in the morning.

We drove to Calama where we had to pick up our new guide. When we arrived there he was not there yet so we had the opportunity to look around in a huge american look a like mall. We first invaded the toilet with 28 sun burned people, everybody trying to squeeze out some feces. This didn’t work too good but everybody went for brekky/dindin in the food court. Here I ordered in my best spanish some weird hamburger. On the picture it looked ok but in reality my stomach already turned upside down. But accepted the challenge and emptied my plate as soon as possible. After that we walked around a bit more and found a nice coffee bar. After this very good tasting coffee, I went for a more succesful visit to the toilet.

When the new guide arrived we drove to San Pedro de Atacama and found our new accomodation. This place was a bit more primitive than the cabins in La Serena but very cool. At 17.00 we had to gather again to go to the moon valley to see the sunset. We drove there by bus and the guide took us totally unprepared into a very dark, narrow and pointy cave. I hurted my knee pretty bad on a big rock in the middle of the path. But we went on to end up somewhere in the middle of some rock formations to see the sun go down. It was cool to see. We then went to a sand sculpture. The sun was already down so we had to make pictures with a long shutter time.

Then we went back to the hostel where I  took a very cold shower and went to bed. I hoped I could have a nice sleep but unfortunately I woke up a lot of times.

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Some days ago, Rosa came with the idea to go dolphin and penguin watching today. Originally the interested people got picked up by an agancy and dropped off at the cabanas again. Then we found out that almost everybody wanted to go, so we could also arrange the bus to take there and leave north at the end of the day as planned, but then from the penguin watching place.

I got up at 7 to take a shower, pack everything and have breakfast. At 9 we sat in the bus to start driving north to the place where we would get on the boat. It was a nice drive of about 2 hours over very bad roads but finally we got there. We got in 2 small boats to drive to some islands where we would see penguins. We first saw some deals sitting on some rocks and then we saw some penguins. Also pelicans were flying around there a lot. I didn’t bring my camera because I was afraid it would get wet ( good decision ). I could have made some cool shots. But had to safe them till we got back, where I did make some.

We had some good lunch after the boat trip and continued our way further North. Around 22.00 we arrived in Copiapo to have dindin. I had a big pizza which tasted pretty good. At 0.00 we continued our way. I tried to get some sleep.

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I slept pretty tight and got up at 8.30. With the other commission members we wanted to get some breakfast but there was not really a restaurant. We went to the reception and they explained us that we were going to get brekky in our Cabana’s. So we waited a bit and yes, there came a maid with a plate with fruitjuice, bread, cheese and ham. We also boiled some water for the always good tasting Nescafe.

At 11.00 we got in the bus for a drive through the Elqui valley. This valley runs from the Andes to La Serena and is a place which is very fertile. A lot of wineyards for both wine and the very nice and strong alcoholic drink Pisco are grown there. The guide told us you can see the difference in the way they grow. For wine, the plants are visible in nice rows and for the pisco they are more like a roof of plants.

We stopped at a very big damn. It was nice to see the huge lake with the mountains on the background and on the other side the big difference in heigth. We continued our way through the valley and stopped after a while because some people were hungry. I used the opportunity to walk around a bit and shot some pictures. THe next stop was the little town called Vicuña. Some got a pretty big appetite. WE went to a restaurant and I ordered Lomo with papas firtas. It ended up in a big plate covered in fries with a rather big steak beneath. Completely full we got in the bus again to go to the Capel Pisco Brewery.

A nice lady lady told us everything about pisco. From the kind of grape to the part where the drinks get bottled. The tour was a bit touristic and short but funny to see how that drink that we discovered already back home is made. In the end we got to tast one of the already mixed pisco drinks and we had the poosibility to buy some bottles and souvenirs. I went for the most expensive bottle ( 4690 pesos ) which should be more like a brandy instead of the harsh taste we were used to.

Back in the bus we drove to Vicuña again. We had to wait a bit before we could go to the observatory. We sat on a square where a lot of locals were sitting. Someof us got attacked by some stray dogs that wanted to play a bit. Nobody got hurt but it was a bit scary when they started to growl. Then at 17.00 we started driving to the observatory. We got there a bit too early but we could walk around a bit and make some pictures.

Then a guide took us inside and explained us something about star signs, milkyways and the universe. It was a funny guide that told the story on an interesting way. Then we went upstairs to have a look at the telescope. We watched at the sword from orions belt. Andat Saturn. It was really cool to see it for real through a telescope. We then walked outside and he showed us the southern cross which is only viewable from the southern hemispere. We then could make pictures of the moon through the telescope.

We then drove back to the cabanas. It already got pretty late. Some still wanted something to eat, others including me went to bed to have a nice sleep.

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