Cordoba, Argentina

Cordoba depresses me. I arrived Sunday morning and the city was ghost town until noon. Many people suggested me to come here, because Cordoba is a great city, the 2nd biggest in Argentina, and blah blah blah. Bah! It's not the first time that happen something like this, that the place isn't above the average but everybody seems enthusiast of it... Maybe it's something wrong with me, but I guess it's only matter that once you've tasted Champagne water doesn't appeal you anymore. Many times I think back at the 2 years I lived in Rome. Rome was an incredible city: full of history, culture, tourists, fun... According to what a Frenchman met in Uyuni said "Rome is the most beautiful city in the world". I agree. Sometimes, travelling all around South America, I ask myself if is it worthy to travel for entire days just to visit newborn historical sights or nasty cities, when you can see much more interesting and rewarding historical things in just one afternoon's stroll in Rome. Living there was amazing, even if tough for many reasons. I could say that for some short moments I felt something closer to what is called happiness. Then everything quickly drowned away, but I'm glad to have lived that experience, at least to understand the meaning of the word "richness": to feel rich, to feel the need of nothing else, even with an empty pocket.

Cafayate, Argentina

Well, the point is extremely easy: I had the first "bife de chorizo" in my life and I've fallen in love with it. Just when I was thinking to have done and tried almost everything during this journey, I've found a shack near the bus terminal offering "bife de chorizo" at low prices to make me change my mind... Yeah, I still have many things to learn indeed. But you really cannot understand until you try how perfect, how delicious, how incredible, how sexually exciting, a t-bone can be in Argentina! While you chew it and it melts slowly in your mouth and explods into a tasty kaleidoscope of undescribable flavours! And the chilly glass of local white wine served with it's the perfect complement for such king's lunch. Well, I always thought deeply if it was right or not to kill animals just to eat their meat, and watching all the waste of meat people usually do without thinking a minute about animal's life made me even more doubtful. But now I know that those animals are killed for a good cause! I loved that slice of dead cow in my dish as much as I wouldn't ever have done it if he was alive... I will always remember that bloody wonderful cow. And I must admit it was also a great deal if compared with the quality offered: just a little more than 5$ for a full dish with french fries and one glass of wine, maybe the best deal I had uptill now. Well, in Bolivia I had many cheaper meals but the quality wasn't higher and the last day before leaving Bolivia - you still don't know this - something I ate made me suffer the pains of hell for one night, and the common bathroom of the hostel obviously had no current water for that occasion... But it was obvious he had to happen sooner or later, for sure. I didn't have any other stomach trouble since the first days in Russia and I was pushing myself to the very human limit, eating almost any kind of crazy food on the streets, in just-for-locals shacks, or any shitty place you can imagine. Epic was the lunch I had for 80 cents in La Paz (1 soup, 1 main dish and 1 drink), the 1$ meal I had in a Chinese restaurant in Cuzco, or the 30 cents dish of meat to eat with no forks (aka with the hands only) had in Puno. Ok, after eating in those places at such prices, the only next step available would have been a meal directly into the sewers, I thought.
Anyway, the news of the day is that I'm still alive after having travelled along one of the most scenic routes in Argentina and, maybe, the whole South America. Because of that route I reserved a ticket for the front seat on the upper deck of the bus: was the first time I ever had that place. Everything was fine until that stupid driver hitted with the upper deck of the bus a tree branch, exactly in front of my head... I've seen a tree hitting my head. The glass shattered, some splinters explodes on me but, for my luck, the glass didn't fall out, otherwise I would have been in serious serious troubles. Fuck off bloody fate, is that all you can do??? Ah!

Tourists? Bah!

-Where did you travel before?
-Well, let's say something like around the world... it's almost 7 months I'm on the road.
-What? Alone? You've been really lucky that nothing bad happened to you! You could have been killed, you could have been slaughtered!
-Maybe the vampires out there don't like the taste of my flesh...
-But how... how could it possible you did it???
-If you want, you can.
-Mmmmmh... are you son of a rich?
-Maybe. What about you, are you son of a bitch?

Tilcara, Argentina

As soon as I crossed the border to Argentina and I've seen all those Fiat cars running, one guy with the slogan "Napoli siamo noi" printed on the t-shirt and another one wearing the Juventus jersey, I realized that Italy is not too far from me now, that my journey is not too far to the end. It's two days I'm in Tilcara, a small town in Northwestern Argentina, in the Jujuy region, in the middle of the Quebrada de Humahuaca - a world heritage site famous for the vivid shining colours of its mountains. I came here upon suggestions of an Argentinian couple met in Quito who strongly suggested me to see it, so here I am! I've visited many small interesting Quechua-speaking mountain towns during these days: Purmamarca, Humahuaca, San Salvador de Jujuy and Iruya, an incredible isolated tiny town at 4000 metres high, reached only by a gravel unapproachable road. Was definitely worthy to be seen. The only shame there was a bonehead guy into the ticket office who made me miss the bus because he had no change! Yeah, you understood well! I missed my bus because he didn't sell me the ticket because he had no change for my money! What the hell??? By the way, the geographical area included within the boundaries of Southwestern Bolivia, Northern Chile and Northwestern Argentina is really stunning, I didn't expect so much: higher mountains, geysers, salt flats, unbelievable colours, there's all. Here the landscape is similar to Arizona and Nevada, it looks really close to those US states, except by the fact that there are no tourists at all here! Well, to be honest is not spectacular and deep like the Grand Canyon, the Bryce National Park or the Death Valley, but for sure it's similar as well as amazing. The morphology must have been the same as the colours, the rock formations and the cliff shapes are identical.
Anyway, after some weeks spent on the Andes in 5 different countries, tomorrow I'm gonna leave this mountain range. Now I can say with no doubt that the Andes are higher, wilder and bigger than the Alpes, but the Alpes are definitely much much much more beautiful. Word of Lonelytraveller, Amen.

San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

Third desert I'm facing during this journey: after Gobi desert and Nevada desert, it's time for Atacama desert in Chile - the driest desert in the world. Two days I'm here and I must admit I had stunning times. Unbelievable has been the first day while crossing the border and passing from the snowy freezing cold of the Bolivian mountains down to the hot desertic sun of Atacama in just 1 hour's bus ride - 45 kilometres only! The feeling I had was the same one I felt passing from China to South Korea: two countries geographically closed but distant many years in reality. Back to civilization, I thought! Even Chilean people is truly different from Bolivians. All the persons from Chile I've met on this journey are really nice and friendly - truly good people - while the Bolivians (but it's better saying the indigenous poupulation of the Andes) are friendly and nice like an early morning kick in the balls... San Pedro de Atacama is a small "tourist resort" in the middle of the Atacama desert, settled at the altitude of 2800m. It's like an oasis for tourists, a Chilean version of Las Vegas without all those stupid casinos and entertainments for adults that the City of Sin has. I like it, even if prices are overcharged and you can see only tourists walking the road. But the nature is really stunning, many interesting sites to visit that I reached renting a bike for both two days: the Moon Valley, the Death Valley, the Pukara, the "Salar de Atacama" which is the third largest salt flat in the world... I loved to cycle into the loud silence of the desert with the warm sun taking care of my skin. One bicycle and one desert, that's all I need to be happy like a kid.

Uyuni, Bolivia

Tupiza, Bolivia

I spent one day in the cozy town of Tupiza and I had the feeling to be back in United States. The landscape is really similar to the American one, with red rocks and mountains which remind me suggestive states like Arizona, Nevada or Colorado. Maybe that's the reason why the two famous thieves Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid moved here to end their "careers", as Butch Cassidy was killed here in Tupiza. Nowadays, Tupiza is a nice place to spend one day or two, for enjoying slowly the beautiful nature on a bike or an horse. And, yes, after more than two weeks I've finally seen again the rays of the sun! Then I moved to the small town of Uyuni by bus, the roadtrip to Uyuni has been the real highlight of the day and totally justified the detour I had from Potosi to Tupiza: almost 7 hours on a narrow gravel road up on incredible colorful mountains and gorgeus sceneries, for 4 euros only then! I was dreaming how beautiful should be to ride it on a bicycle, but honestly was unbelievable also from a giant bus on those small tracks...
Tomorrow I leave for a 3 days tour to the Salar de Uyuni, the biggest salt flat in the world.

Journey to hell: Potosi, Bolivia

Today I've had one of the most memorable, valuable and interesting experience of all my journey. I'm in Potosi, in Southern Bolivia, the highest city in the world at 4070m, a city that lives today's present on the same mining "industry" which gave it a glorious past (in the early 17th century Potosi was the most populated city in the world with 160,000 citizens). There are more than 450 mines around the city and the conditions the mineworkers are subject are among the most subhuman in the world. As I hopefully will be never a mineworker, I thought it would have been a remarkable experience to have a tour into those mines to understand better what it means working in such places. Well, Dante has probably took the inspiration from a Bolivian mine to write his Divine Comedy: that's the hell on Earth, for sure. Let start saying that into those mines are employed about 20,000 workers, a couple of thousand of which are between the age of 12 and 16. Bolivian law forbid underaged workers but there are no controls, so nobody cares about their rights. The life expectancy for the adult workers is 42 years old, which dramatically decrease to 28-30 for people who starts working at younger age. They work 8 hours a day, 6 days a week, 50 metres below the ground at a temperature close to 40 degrees celsius. Moreover, outside the weather is awfully cold and in wintertime it can be minus 20 degrees. As this wouldn't be enough, the houses have no heating system and hot water is a real luxury... The average salary? 200 US dollars per month. To survive (just for few years) to this impossible conditions, they chew coca leaves all day long, starting early morning, and they drink pure alcohol at 96%.
Having a tour into one of those mines just for few hours has been eyes-opening for me. Once more, it was the closer thing to hell I've ever seen. Walking (but it's better say crawling) those narrow dark labyrinth of tunnels, with mineral's dust making the air unbreathable and the hot climate making you sweat for each single step, into the mud, along arsenic-covered rocks, potentially dangerous gas and an endless effort required, made me definitely understand I'm a very lucky one. I cannot ignore that.Before leaving, the guide (which is working as a miner as well) told us not to forget to have children, as it's the only important thing in the world. His life expectancy gives him no hope: just few more years left, if he's lucky.
For sure, I'm gonna leave this place with less energies but a little bit more of consciousness and wisdom.

PS: The picture above shows you all the consciousness and wisdom I was talking about... Just a stupid tourist who plays with dynamite!

Dead Calm...

When I was on the catamaran to Colombia, in the middle of the open sea, for a couple of times I've thought at the movie "Dead Calm" (Ore 10: Calma piatta, 1989). I was thinking what the hell I gonna do, in a such place, if someone goes crazy? That was the kind of thoughts everybody does, but everybody knows it's just a stupid thought resulting of the too many movies we have watched in our lives. Well, sometimes imagination is closer to reality than what you ever may think. Especially when me is involved.
The captain wasn't the friendliest person on Earth, but I must admit he has been almost always kind with me. He taught me the first steps how to swim, he gave me as a present an (half) bottle of rhum before leaving, and he asked me if I wanted to help him on the boat for the next month. What if I said him "yes"? What if I decided for living that experience in the Caribbean Sea?

http://www.tvn-2.com/noticias/noticias_detalle.asp?id=46978

La Paz, Bolivia

It's a long time I'm dreaming about traveling in Bolivia. Now I get it and I'm quite disappointed. I'm in La Paz, whose full name is Nuestra Señora de La Paz, and is the highest capitol of the world setted at 3600 mt on sea level. The urban sprawl is huge and even if the mountains surrounding the city can be charming for some views, many neighborhoods are scary as the poverty rate is really high and crime out of control. The main thing that shocked me is watching to all those working kids on the streets, on the buses, everywhere: they sell ropes, clone cds, coca leaves or they shine shoes. Underaged work isn't allowed, but authorities are probably unable to do anything when poverty bring population to this point. Ok, Bolivia is the poorest country in South America, but I didn't expect so much, honestly. I mean, if I hadn't travelled all those previous third world countries maybe I would be scared now to walk down the streets of La Paz, as some areas look more like dangerous favelas. More news soon to come.

Sad news from Panama

God, that`s too bad and it`s not a joke as I was thinking at a first glance.
Jean Pierre Bouhard, the French captain of the boat I took from Panama to Colombia, has been found murdered last Saturday, thrown into the ocean with the body tied up with chains and an anchor.
Javier, the Spanish guy who asked us 60 dollars each at the hostel the day before sailing (and the same one who Jean Pierre reported as a scam on us), he`s supposed to be involved in the crime.
At the moment, Don North - the owner of the catamaran Levante - and the boat itself are missing.
You can read the full articles here:
http://www.panama-guide.com/article.php/20110210144018231
http://www.panama-guide.com/article.php/20110210171954941

Lake Titicaca, Perù

At a first glance Puno scared me, then it was fine, and at the end I loved to walk its suburb... Puno is settled on the Peruvian shores of the Titicaca lake - the highest navigable lake in the world - at an altitude of 3600m. At night it's awfully cold here. The city is in huge partytime because of the Candlemass holiday: people is playing and dancing and making shows in each corner of the city, almost all night long. It's really interesting to see how happy and full of life they are despite of the tough weather conditions (think here is summertime now, I don't even wanna think how awfully cold it should be in winter).
As the weather was cloudy but not rainy, today I've been to visit the amazing floating island settled in the Titicaca. The floating islands are an archipelago of about 50 small islands created by Uros indios by using a layer of ground and multiple layers of plants, which allow the island to float for about 10 years if well preserved. Imagine these guys, wasn't too much isolated for them to live on the Andes at 3600m, they wanted to move living in the middle of the lake! Well, the reality is that they started building these floating islands to escape from the Spanish conquistadores in Pizarro's era, then it become tradition living there.
Anyway, as usual, with the first cold winds and bad weather, my throat start to be sore. As I'm running out of the cheap medicines got in China, I went to a local pharmacy to try to get some Amoxicillina. I'm saying "trying" because all over the world is sold only under medical prescription. Well, for the guy into the pharmacy there was no problem at all to sell it for few "soles". I only wonder what else he sells with no prescription... Mmmmmh, maybe is this the business I was looking for? eheheh

Arequipa, Perù

I'm back to Arequipa from a 2 days trip to Canyon del Colca, which is the deepest canyon in America (more than the Grand Canyon) and the 3rd in the world. Rolling mountains up to 4900m, lamas, alpacas, vigognas, cheap traditional food among locals: I loved it. The weather was unpleasant (like everyday here, regular weather till noon then rain) but the scenery was definitely worthy the effort. I'm talking about effort because sleeping at 3600m with no heater, when rains turning slowly into snow it's not properly a joke... But I don't regret at all, I've been lucky and happy to be there 'cause I've also seen the Andean condor in action, a bird close to extinction, with more than 3 metres' wings and around 12 kilos' weight, which make the Andean condor the heavier flying bastard among the animals. Cool, uh?
Anyway, you gotta know it's pretty funny for me to keep record of the all strange mutations my name has when printed on a bus ticket here in South America: Mateo Doncelli, Matted Donceli, Mattheo Donicelli... Well, today I've got the brand new "Mateo Gonzales" which is my all time favourite. Mmmmh, maybe this is also a sign of fate... Maybe it means that from tomorrow I gotta change my life into a new me, into a new relaxed one, into a Mateo Gonzales? Maybe, why not.
Tomorrow it's my birthday. Will be exactly 6 months I'm on the road. Many memories, places, cities, adventures lived, persons come and gone. The time of my life? I'm celebrating it moving to Puno, on the gentle shores of lake Titicaca.

Machu Picchu, Perù

So now you're expecting from me to write how beautiful, unbelievable and amazing Machu Picchu is... No! I won't write it! I was tempted to write that it's just a stupid bunch of rocks on a stupid hill, but it shouldn't be fair nor true. I'm angry because, yeah, Machu Picchu is nice, and if you're an history junkie it can be awesome, but the problem is that the area is a tourist playground with hords of freaks coming from all over the globe to see the astonishing "lost city". First of all, I'm in Cuzco since 3 days and they charge you even for the air to breath, tourists are treated as cashcows. They can do that, because the average tourist in Machu Picchu is the sort of freaky gringo - the rasta peaceandlove one going up there to feel the energies-of-the-universe and stuff like that - the one who climbs the Wayna Picchu mountain with radio turned on, the one who has previously seen only one mount in his life: his mom's mons pubis... Endless queues at 5am, crying babies, loud people, you don't miss anything up there. Second, everything is awfully expensive, too much. I mean, paying 70 bucks for a 1 hour and half return train ticket to reach it (the Inca trail is closed this time of the year), 55$ as entrance fee, and 8 more dollars if you want the bus to bring you directly in front of the archeological site, sounds to me like an insult to all the poor people I've seen on the streets, those selling rope to earn few cents just to survive... In a country where the average salary income is about 200$ per month, it's crazy paying all those money (money which obviously goes in the pockets of the rich politicians in Lima, not to the population). By the way, the view is pretty cool, but it's definitely overshadowed by the crazyness of mass tourism. My suggestion is: come to Peru', visit Peru', skip Machu Picchu... Let's stop the mass tourism madness! Let's give the Inca's lost city his lost dignity's back! And if you're thinking now, yeah, he's talking about avoiding Machu Picchu but he went to visit it, I reply you that it was a mistake driven by that fuckin' Lonely Planet guidebook... Macchu Picchu is considered in that book as the very souuthern America's highlight and I followed those advices, I was slave of Lonely Planet advices, all the travellers are slave of Lonely Planet advices! All the people I met was following the same route suggested by that stupid book: there is no more creativity in traveling, travels are not anymore a personal decision and way to grow, an exciting way to explore the world and living new adventures. No, it's just a matter of following the path shown by Lonely Planet's authors. Lonely Planet is the teacher who says to all his students where to go and what to do...
Well, it's since a long I'm not student anymore and I've always been the only teacher of myself. So I've thrown that supid guidebook away and I've got my freedom back. Now I'm gonna travel only by the advices of the people I meet on my way.

Lima, Perù

Lima, more than 8 millions of population, an high crime rate, and lots of poor people. It's not a nice city, I spent there one day and was enough to see what Lima has to offer. But you know what, it's charming to me. Lima has a huge urban sprawl, with a true middle-eastern taste, dusty gravel roads and mountains surrounding the city. I climbed to the top of Cerro San Cristobal, to see the skyline of the city as well as the poorest neighbouroods: I found them charming, I don't know why. Should be great to walk around those areas catching pics of he people, talking with them and listen to all the stories they have to tell. Yeah, should be great, but it's not time for me to be killed just for few pics and stories, the view from above is enough for now. By the way, on the road heading to the top there was the writing you see in the picture on the left side (which literrally means, Pantani lives on). Pantani was my favourite cyclist ever, when he was attacking the steep uphills of Alpes was such a fun I never had anymore watching a cycling competition, I don't care if he was doped or not, was a great show and a great athlete, that's all. His story impressed me a lot: during his career he has always been extremely unlucky, many accidents avoided him to win as much as expected, and when he won the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France the same year, he was treated in Italy like a living God, everybody was talking about the phenomenal Pantani, the newspapers were writing daily how great he was. Then, the year later he has been disqualified from Giro d'Italia when he was first: nobody talked anymore about him, people started insulting him and saying that all the competitions he won was just because of EPO and the other drugs used. From that point he started his endless way down. The epilogue was dramatic: he was found dead for cocaine and benzodiazepines overdose, alone, in an awful hotel near Rimini, the Saint Valentine's day at the age of 34.
I loved to read that in Peru', a country so far away from Italy, someone still remember him.