Germany (Koblenz) and Switzerland (Zurich)

Some time has passed since we got back from our very exciting trip around the world. I always tried to avoid people talking about an “around the world” trip because in my opinion an actual around the world trip is a trip on which you get to see each and every country of the world (or at least a larger share of them than we did). Technically though, I have to admit that we went around the world once and that I have to accept that people talk about an “around the world trip” when they refer to Flo’s and mine past few months.

Touching down in Germany and coming back to the town of Koblenz after more than a year of absence, I started to realize how beautiful well-preserved old buildings actually are. It was probably the contrast to so many other places that changed my perception. We had seen so many old buildings that must have been very beautiful in the past but either countries or their governments didn’t seem to care about the preservation of the cultural goods or they simply didn’t have the money to afford it. I’m glad to originate from a region where we are able to appreciate these charming treasures of our very recent and sometimes not so recent past.

After my quick visit to Germany I went back to Zurich. The city is supposed to be the city that offers the highest quality of living in the world (Mercer Management Consulting says so). I really liked the city before we left but I started to love it after we came back. Of course there are many cities in this world where there is a lot more going on in terms of variety of restaurants or nightlife. But since I either way fell sick with going out with less than 10 friends recently (because it seems to be all the same everywhere around the world in every club you go), I have to admit that I could imagine to stay here for a long time.  The beautiful lake, the closeness of the mountains, the clean air, the excellent public transport system, the good looking crowd, the charming old town, the security, etc. make tis city an outstanding and unique place. Furthermore people usually don’t trick you here, you just pay the price that is indicated on the label. One doesn’t have to fear to fall sick from cleaning their teeth with tap water, etc. Zurich generally just offers a very, very high standard of living to everyone.

I’m happy with my decision to start working in Zurich for now. Let’s see how my gut feeling evolves as my memories from the amazing past year fade out and everyday life fades in.

Bolivia (Uyuni, La Paz, Death Road, Copacabana)

Finishing our second part of the Chile trip, we took a three day tour from San Pedro de Atacama through the area around the Salar de Uyuni to Uyuni. The trip (with Cortillera´s safe, Michael Schumacher-like  and very funny driver Javier) was a combination of some very unique wonders of nature. Within a very short time we got to see green, red and white lakes, saw Flamingos, drove by unique rock formations and took pictures of hundreds of picunas, lamas and the like. During all this we could always enjoy the panorama of sometimes multi-colored, somtimes snowy mountain-tops and volcanos. The “Salar de Uyuni” tour was already a highlight before we even reached the highlight of the tour itself: the Uyuni salt flat. This former lake is now a desert-like area of nearly 12´500 km2 completely covered with plain white salt (and at least one very small island somewhere in the middle of nowhere). You can barely see some of the mountain tops at the horizon as you drive through this area – it is again something that cannot be described with words. It´s wonder of nature that has to be experienced (and is very, very cold in South American Winter!!!).

The town of Uyuni didn´t have anything special except for the spooky train cemetery to offer. So we wanted to move on quickly to Potosi, which the mine workers didn´t want us to do and decided to strike for better working conditions. Finally we had to go straight to La Paz where we spend a calm day in the internet and watched some Eurocup. The Highlight of our stay in La Paz was a mountain bike trip (64km in total) on the “Death Road”, which got its name from the fact that 200-300 people used to die on these mighty 34km every year and many still die. Apparently an unnamed American insurance company assessed this road as the “the most dangerous road of the world”.

The first 30km could be speeded down until the beginning of the real 34km “Death Road” (our agency was Downhill Madness and I can highly recommend them because of their attitude to safety, their excellent bikes and their well-trained guides). From there the street gets narrower, collections of crosses indicate that many people died along the way and the guides keep telling stories about the most recent deathly accidents along the way. From time to time one can see rusty left-overs from cars that fell over the corner of the road. It´s fast, it´s fun and it´s safe as long as you  do exactly what the guides tell you to do and as long as you keep 99.9% control of your bike. One guy from another group lost control of his bike and fell off the road near the “Israelian Corner” just as we were passing the place. Being very, very, very, very, very lucky this guy could hold on to some bushes and managed to climb back to the road without any serious injuries. Generally speaking, this trip was another good and very fun adventure.

After another calm day in the town of La Paz we moved to Copacabana at lake Titicaca where Adrian had to recover from his sickness and Flo and me could enjoy our hostel´s hammocks, a walk around the calm and very little town centre, as well as a trip to Isla del Sol. Lake Titicaca doesn´t look like a lake at all. It rather looks like an ocean (8´500 km2) on 4000m above sea level :-). The next step was to move to Peru (Puno) to see Germany lose the Eurocup final.