Rosario

By Frieda

 

We went to Rosario to visit an old friend of Daniel: Debby. With her we spent a wonderful weekend. She showed us around town and I felt safe, happy and spoiled by living in a real and absolutely beautiful appartment for a change and being guided around all the time. Thanks a lot Debby <3 We hope to see you soon and maybe we can host you one day in our place.

The thing I loved most about Rosario is the amazing river. It is the biggest one I have ever seen, being a few kilomters wide. This enormous stream is so wide that you can‘t even see the other shore. Besides that it has a myriad of islands in it so that there are a lot of beaches where you can swim. (but you have to bee carefull not to go too far because of the strong current).

And I had the best icecream of my life J at touche de la creme.

Buenos Aires and Montevideo

By Daniel

We did not do too much here. We rested in order to recharge our batteries after the rather strenuous previous travels and apart from visiting the usual suspects (Recoleta, Palermo, La Boca, San Telmo, Montevideos) we just hung out with friends – props to James, Dom and the bunch, Agustin, Clemente and Ömer, Enes and Muhammad aka los Turkos.  

There is one thing that struck me though. I had been here in 2008 volunteering for the Fundacion Internacional Raoul Wallenberg and at that time either did not realize it or, more likely, it has drastically changed: the cost of living is immense - and thus we left after just three days. Both cities, I’d say, are more expensive than Berlin and given the significantly lower incomes in Latin America it struck me as tremendously unfair. There was this moment when I stood in front of a wall of yogurts in a supermarket (and the yogurt with apple pie aroma that I fancied was at 38 pesos which is more than two Euros) and I just wanted to cry. Also think of the many cows that are around Argentina! Buy a big bottle of beer in a bar and you are likely to pay around six Euros, often far more than that.

It is moments like these when you realize that the world is an unequal and unfair place (something that will strike you in Africa even more). Living in Germany is a huge privilege and life in Germany is incredibly good – a fact that we do not really appreciate that often. And when cohorts of so-called ‚angry citizens‘ paint a picture of a failing Germany and politicians cater to these fears to promote an even more exclusionist and nationalist agenda they either lack perspective or are purposely playing with fire for the sake of personal power.

Iguazu

I guess the pictures will speak for themselves. This place is so majestic that you will forget the masses of tourists around you.

 

 

New year in Sao Paulo

By Daniel

(Travel tip: when you arrive at the airport, take the local bus just outside the arrivals area to Metro Tatuape, change into the Metro, go wherever is close to your accomodation and only then take one of the many clearly marked taxis outside the Metro stations. This will save you a lot of money and there’s no need to be afraid. Sao Paulo is much safer than foreigners usually assume.)

After travelling Ethiopia and Madagascar Sao Paulo came like quite a bit of a shock. Antananarivo is quite big, Addis Abeba dwarves Berlin but Sao Paulo is another dimension - it has more inhabitants than most European countries. However, the shock for us was being back to ‚civilization‘. McDonald’s, Burger King, Nike, Adidas and the rest of the familiar chains again were everywhere around us.

Since it touches your most basic needs, getting used to processed food was one of the major changes. In Ethiopia and Madagascar everything was fresh and local (with no need to call it ‚organic‘ or ‚fair trade‘), here it became the way we know it – industrial. Second, there was the availabilty of pretty much everything 24/7. I reckon, we put on some of the previously lost kilos again.

After a good night’s rest we headed out into the Villa Madalena neighbourhood where we cured our jetlag in a tranquil park and then went on to admire some of the finest street art I‘ve ever come across in what is called Beco do Batman. After some posing and photoshooting we had dinner in a place called Casa Bráz. Wow! The best pizza I ever had! Sorry to all my Italian friends but really ….

For Sylvester a guy in our hostel invited us to a private party in another hostel so we headed there at night. Black and White hostel (highly recommended) is really a huge modern villa with big and homely living room where the owner surprised us with a lot of self-made brazilian specialties. We met a Brazilian couple, Wayne and Fabiana, and with them left to the city center to watch the fireworks and dance away to Reggaeton into the wee hours…

 

 

Madagascar - some tips

-          Fly in with Kenya Airways. They are much cheaper than the rest of the bunch.

-          The best guide for Madagascar is the „Routard“, it is in French though. Our „Dumont“ guide in German was wasted money. The „Lonely Planet“ can give you some decent orientation.

-          Having said that, don’t rely on the Lonely Planet for accomodation. Their „budget“ options are really mid-range. Asking around will give you cheaper options.

-          Brush up your French – with (even some basic) French travelling will become easy as many people speak the language of the former colonialists – scarcely anybody speaks English.

-          Public transport is incredibly cheap but you should prepared for fully crammed run-down minibusses.

-          That said, negotiate prices before you go (also with taxis and the like)

-          Don’t be afraid – Madagascar is very safe and Malagasy culture is really laid-back and peaceful

-          Don’t bargain when it comes to food – the Malagasy don’t like that

-          Be polite (the Malagasy are too) and learn some basic Malagasy words

-          Respect the local ‚fadys‘ (taboos) and try to find about them when you arrive at a place

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ALABRI - an educational project in Miarinarivo

by Daniel

We have spent our first and our last days in the rural highland town of Miarinarivo where we had the honor to gain some insight into an outstanding educational project called ALABRI. Of course, it was not chance that brought us there but my cousin Magdalena, who works there as a volunteer. There were some other international volunteers and them and the German manager of this project gave us a warm welcome. While they continued their work we had time to explore the project a little bit.

The focus of this educational project is opportunity building for disadvantaged children. They are mostly from poor families from far away villages and with ALABRI they have the opportunity to access a broad array of academic and educational courses. Of course, they go to school where they will get their degrees, but when you realize that most public school French teachers in Madagascar have difficulties speaking French then this project’s work seems even more important.

Other areas include nature, sciences, communication, computer science, value learning, etc… Unlike many other parts of the world all the kids here enjoyed learning and were highly motivated.

We also stayed for christmas where we enjoyed a very special christmas celebration with all the children and many adults from the town and its surrounding villages and, after the kids had left for holidays, a quiet christmas celebration with the volunteers. We all took to cooking together and eventually dished up a nice swabian meal of Kaesspaetzle and warm potato salad.

Although work could at times get tough for my cousin Magdalena she was always there for us and what had been a somewhat loose relationship within my family turned into a real mutual friendship – many thanks, Magdalena!!!

PS: Please contribute to this outstanding non-profit organization. You can find more infos on www.alabri.net

Reserve Speciale d'Ankarana

by Daniel

Another one of Madagascar’s many highlights is Ankarana. Conveniently situated halfway between Nosy Be and Diego Suarez this national park is easily accessible, has budget as well as luxury accomodation and is well maintained with different circuits for different levels of fitness. Thus, some spectacular sights are within easy reach at almost any time of the year and you are guaranteed to sight other tourists :-)

The park’s outstanding starlets are limestone and water, which in unique combination have formed delicate yet majestic formations. Tsingies, for example, are sharp pinnacles of partly dissolved limestone that give you the impression of looking at a city made of rock with towering skyscrapers and narrow canyonish streets. This terrain is absolutely inaccessible were it not for a dramatic skywalk and suspension bridge that allow for a unique insight into this natural wonder.

Then, of course, this terrain is just made for caves. There are many caves to be found, some of them are just huge and many remain unexplored. The caves that are accessible are holy to the Malagasy being burial sites for their ancestors and even featuring graves of royalty. The cave that we visited on our trip is the burial site of the last kings of Madagascar’s northern tribes and it is fady (taboo) for anyone who has taken part in the war against the king (and their ancestors) to enter this holy place. This applies to the whole national park and also to domestic animals. Therefore, a fady has also the function of preserving this place in its pristine state which in turn results in an abundancy of wildlife from strange plants to a variety of curious lemurs to huge colonies of bats.

My personal highlight however was another stunning feat of mother nature: La Perte des Rives. This is a conjunction of three rivers in a large basin that suddenly opens into an abyss that swallows these rivers in order to transport them to the coast underground. Although it was dry season it was just breathtaking and must be even more so when the rivers form a literally abysmal waterfall.

These wonders with their accessibility and convenient location in Madagascar’s northern tourist circuit come at a cost: the entrance fee is 65.000 Ar p.P. per day plus 90.000 for a mandatory guide for up to three people. For the independent traveller it should be noted that it is easy to reach Ankarana inexpensively by Taxi-Brousse.