Dec 12
A novel following five generations of the infamous Scorta family living in a village in southern Italy. A wonderful story which makes you instantly feel as if you were sitting on the piazza of the small village in Puglia quietly following the saga of the Scorta family from close up. Wonderful read.. take it with you on a summer holiday.
This book had been recommended to me by a fellow traveller. It has originally been published in French and the writer is from Geneva – vive les suisses! It is a novel about a young writer that is struggling to write his 2nd book after the first being a huge success. Meanwhile the book had been translated into 33 languages being a huge success. A true page turner and here my kindle flipped through the percentage despite being a huge book.
A story about a drug trafficker who had been caught and sent to the San Pedro prison in La Paz. Honestly not sure as much of it is true. It is badly written but still an interesting read in my opinion and i only read it after i left La Paz as i was to scared to read it while being there – don’t ask me why. If you go to Bolivia do read it, if you don’t it is not really worth bothering.
Ein Roman über das Leben eines Mädchens im Warschauer Ghetto, welcher sich wie Geschichte anfühlt und der Grossmutter des Authors gewidmet ist. So ganz anders als ‘Mieses Karma’ aber schön und direkt geschrieben.
I assume about almost everybody who reads this has read this book about 15 years ago… never mind i did manage this now too – a nice book to travel encourage you to take the risk and follow your dreams…
Ja es war ein kurzer Besuch für so ein grosses Land, aber hauptsächlich ging es mir darum meinen Götti & Firmgotti zu besuchen. Sie sind nämlich for 15 Jahren nach Brasilien abgereist nachdem Gloria die Vorpensionszeit in der Schweiz ‘abgesessen’ hat 😉
Schon im Flugzeug realisierte ich, dass mir Portugiesisch ziemlich Spanisch vorkommt… hmmm zuerst in Argentinien das ganze sssscccchhhh und jetzt in Brasilien geht’s noch weniger buhuuu. Nanu geht schon, dafür gibts super Steaks in beiden Ländern!
In Florianapolis stand Erich schon parat als ich mit meinem Gepäck in die Ankunftshalle kam. Danach hiess es Auto abholen – diesmal keinen Chevy sondern einen ziemlich schicker neuer schwarzer VW Fox, freu freu! Dann fuhren wir auch gleich los Richtung Tubarao wo Gloria uns schon mit einem Znacht erwartete. Ich weiss jetzt schon wieder nicht mehr wie diese Maniokmehl-Ringli hiessen aber die waren einfach super lecker.
Am nächsten Tag gingen wir ins Sitio eine alte Maniok-Farm. Dort angekommen wurden wir von ein paar tierischen Familienmitgliedern erwartet: Pavarotti (leider kein Foto) und seine Chica, sowie die Enten und eine Truppe Bibeli -> die Nachfolger von Herr und Frau Pavarotti 😦
Veranda des Sitios
am Maniok ausrupfen..
Weil Gloria’s Bruder eine Nierenklinik leitet, hatte ich die Gelegenheit diese in einer Rundleitung kennenzulernen.
Auch wichtig aber nicht wirklich notwendig war havaianas shoppen – ich hatte ja immer noch nur die Fakes von Mallorca.
Zum Abschluss meines Besuches gab es noch ein richtiges Churrasco mit Caipirinha 🙂
Nach Tubarao gings weiter nach Barra da Lagoa. Ein ziemlich kleines Dörfchen an der Lagune von Florianopolis. Wunderschön gelegen, nur leider leider kann ich nicht surfen – das wäre fast ein Grund einfach ein Monat dort zu bleiben. Ich war dort in einem super coolen Hostel http://www.barrabeachclub.com direkt am Meer… ist absolut ein Ort zum bleiben. Sie geben sich auch Mühe, gibt es dort doch zwischen 19:00 und 20:00h gratis Caipirinha 🙂
temporärer Zuwachs der Kollektion
Nachschub…
der ‘Hostel-Hund’ war nicht viel fleissiger als ich 😉
Fisch gekauft – in Zeitungspapier eingewickelt, schmeckte hervorragend und kostete 10 Real – ich war erstaunt. In diesen Tagen wurde ich ein richtiger Sparfuchs, weil ich keine Lust hat nach Lago de Conceicao zu fahren weil es in Barra keinen Bancomat gab!
Grundsätzlich habe ich in Barra fast gar nix gemacht, ausser am Strand zu spazieren, andere Touristen oder Tiere zu fötelen, zu joggen, einfach rumzuliegen, versuchen nicht zu verbrennen und sich in einem Buch zu verlieren.
ohne Guarana läuft aber gar nix – i love love love it!
Kite-surfing auch sehr beliebt.. auch nur zum zuschauen ha ha
in bester Gesellschaft beim Joggen…
und die würden besser auch joggen
und diese zwei liessen sich auch von einer blonden Joggerin nicht aus der Ruhe bringen… wohl keine echten Latinos !
davon gibts keine Suppe mehr..
Fugu??
Brasilien definitiv ein Land um zurückzukommen.
Since i am small, i know about the Iguazu Falls as my godfather sent a postcard from there… I was very impressed at the time and told to myself that one day i will be visiting these huge falls myself.
Now it took me many years to realise it but here we are. Arriving in the evening from Salta to Puerto Iguazu (Argentinian side) i went straight to the hotel and organise the trip. The receptionist told me i should do better with a cab so i could visit both the Argentinian and the Brasilian within the same day without difficulties.
She should be right. Carlos my driver navigated me between these 2 countries with such a nonchalance it couldn’t be any easier. He did all the passport stamping for me – so i hadn’t got to do anything but wait in the car.
Argentinian side:
yes i did the boat trip and i did get totally soaked like everybody – i have the impression this is the only target of this trip!!
and the Brasilian side
TAM messed up my flight to Montevideo and therefore now stuck in Sao Paulo for a few hours… instead of a short stop over in Rio de Janeiro…. well then
Cafayate (to be pronounced in Argentian Spanish as Cafaschate) was a kind of a time out from Salta which was supposed to be a place to be. Well it wasn’t really made for me. It started again not very welcoming – again i didn’t find any cash upon arrival so had to walk with all the luggage across the city to my hostel. It was not that far though.… because i could have also taken a taxi and tell him to take me there and stop at an ATM on the way. Anyway once arrived at the hostel it was not at all to my gusto.. or let’s say hoped to find. A 6 people dorm, mixed, not full but still 😦 a very tiny room with this ugly guy lying next to me, the old lady snoring… jeeze but well it was only 15 bucks per night, guess that’s what you can expect. So i needed to have a plan B as quickly as possible as i was supposed to stay in Salta for almost 1 week. Impossible to even imagine this… thus went online and with the help of trip advisor i found a nice Bodega in Cafayate. Then went to book a car and yes i was ready to hit the road. In fact i was quite excited to be driving a car again. It had been weeks / months that i did so. It felt really cool even though the car wasn’t at all. My Chevy ‘C’ which stands for classic and not cool!
Despite the fact of having a really boring car which in fact drove quite nicely and had a radio – yesssss how did this feel finally being able to sing very loudly in a car again. That must be the reason why some people cannot imagine to commute by public transport. Once i had left Salta behind, villages and farming land become scarse and soon vanished from the surface. This gave way for bizarr rock formations in ’50 shades of red’ as well as narrow canyons carved into the mountains – the quebrada de Cafayate.
la garganta del diablo
i was totally taken aback by this amazing landscape which i didn’t expect to see at all, as i thought i am taking the less interesting way as not passing Cachi which takes supposedly 6 hours. Well the road which normally would take approx 3 hours took me quite some more time as without kidding sometimes stopped for pictures within less than 5 minutes. It was simply breathtaking – like a combination of Death Valley and Grand Canyon together.
Then finally arrived in Cafayate. Unfortunately my Navi was perfectly happy with having reached the major crossroad which the Bodega put as its address on their website. However at this crossroad there was the vineyard of El Esteco and not the hotel. Now i thought that the hotel must be within the vineyard, so i drove through the gate and started to cruise around the wines. But after 2 rounds i figured out that this must be wrong and i’d better get out of the vineyard and search harder, i.e. drive a bit closer into the village and here we go – only a few more meters and there it was Patio de Cafayate. Once i got closer i burst out laughing. The winery El Esteco is owned by Michel Torino whose most basic wine – which we had to degrade to the cooking wine shelf as we got terrible headache from it – can be purchased in Denner! I was shocked, i landed in the only winery in Argentina which wines we really disapproved from. Should the Salta curse continue?!
(here rests the non headache wine…. in fine oak barrels and not in the steel tanks!)
so after checking into my suite – yes i got an upgrade – i went on a tour of the headache winery. During this tour i learned that the wine being exported to Switzerland is the most basic wine they produce – the elementos. Ufffff what a relief to hear that because i was already concerned what i will be drinking for dinner, water? tea? surely no headache juice! The wine chosen was fantastic, a younger Malbec, fruity yet full bodied.. and i kept the cork, so that i didn’t have to drink the whole bottle but could take it with me back to Salta – it would be a great help to overcome the hostel sueblues.
yes life can be very tough and then quickly again very sweet 🙂
(half a bottle of malbec to go)
the drive back was again the same as the way there and still i discovered new rock formations and had the 2nd chance to stop where i didn’t stop the day before.
oooops fin de la carretera….
 | suebluesky on Velotour oder mit dem Velo auf… |
 | Jean on camino de la muerte – WM… |
 | EstanciaElVenado on Cafayate…. the life save… |
 | etenwa on Llama con papas y mas… |
 | Pjan on Quito |
suebluesky 