Barefoot on the Mountains - Moses and the Inca

 

Barefoot on the Mountains - the first thing that came to my mind was „Barfuß durch die Hölle“ [Barefoot through Hell], as that is the German title of a Japanese film adaptation of a novel called „Ningen no jōken“ (The Human Condition) [1]. However, I also came across Romano Guardini [2] on the topic, as I read the following passage in „Von heiligen Zeichen“ [Of Sacred Symbols] [3]: „[And steps lead up to the altar. Those who ascend are told, as God once said to Moses on Mount Horeb: „Take off your shoes, for this is holy ground.“)“ This reminded me of a trip through Argentina that also took me to Salta. There, I visited the MAAM - Archaeological Museum, which displays, among other things, three 500-year-old child mummies found on the Llullaillaco Volcano in 1999. The Llullaillaco, located on the border between Argentina and Chile, is 6,739 meters high [4]. The structures and tombs on its summit are considered the highest archaeological site in the world. Unfortunately, photography of the mummies was not allowed, and I only managed to take a photo of the museum in the evening. The mummies were of three children, two girls aged 13 and 4-5 years, and a boy aged 4-5 years (another source states their ages as 6, 7, and 15 years); the boy was on display.

The cold and dryness of the mountain peak contributed to the exceptionally well-preserved state of the mummified remains. They were found barefoot, but it is uncertain whether they climbed the volcano themselves or were carried. No shoes or foot coverings were found with the mummies. It is likely that the children were given a diet of high-quality food before their deaths, as well as coca (hair analysis and coca leaves in their mouths) to prepare them for the sacrifice. Chicha, an alcoholic beverage made from fermented corn, was also found, which may have had a ritual significance. It is believed that the children were calmed or put into a trance-like state using various substances. The children were buried alive on the summit of Llullaillaco. Studies have shown that they show no signs of injuries or physical trauma indicating a violent death [5]. This not only sounds cruel, it is cruel, but such rituals were performed in many parts of the world. The administered drugs, the lack of oxygen due to the altitude, and the cold allow for the consolation of their passing away in unconsciousness.

Although „Ningen no jōken“ by Gomikawa Jumpei, the Bible passage quoted by Romano Guardini, and the Llullaillaco child mummies are temporally and thematically far apart, and the connection by the term „barefoot“ may be called gossamer at best, this word „barefoot“ also brings a sense of reconciliation to me, as a song says: „ Ich mööch zo Fooß no Kölle jonn [I want to go to Cologne on foot]“ [6].


Links and Annotations:
[1] "Barfuß durch die Hölle (人間の條件, Ningen no jōken, literally "The Conditions of Being Human" (conditio humana)) is a Japanese epic film trilogy that was produced from 1959 to 1961. The films are based on a novel by Gomikawa Jumpei (五味川 純平, 1916–1995). Another Japanese television adaptation consisting of 7 parts, with the same story, was broadcasted in 1967 on ZDF." I saw this on German television (2nd channel) at the end of the 1960s.  https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barfu%C3%9F_durch_die_H%C3%B6lle
[2] Romano Guardini (17 February 1885 – 1 October 1968) was an Italian, naturalized German Catholic priest, philosopher, and theologian. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romano_Guardini  
[3] Romano Guardini: Von heiligen Zeichen (1922–1925) [Of Sacred Symbols]. Matthias-Grünewald-Verlag, Mainz undated around 1950, 102nd-111th edition, p. 22. Original text: „Und Stufen tragen zum Altar empor. Wer da hinaufschreitet, dem sagen sie, wie einst Gott zu Moses auf dem Berge Horeb: „Zieh deine Schuhe aus, denn hier ist ist heiliger Boden.““
[4] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llullaillaco and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llullaillaco
[5] Andrew S. Wilson, Emma L. Brown, Timothy Taylor: Archaeological, radiological, and biological evidence offer insight into Inca child sacrifice. PNAS 110 (33) 13322-13327. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1305117110 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llullaillaco
[6] Unfortunately, only in German: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heimweh_nach_K%C3%B6ln I was born in Cologne.

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On the Road – Driving through Tierra del Fuego

Recently I looked through an old travel diary after I had told a story on driving in Tierra del Fuego (literally Land of Fire), which I had to some extend already written about [1], but there's more to tell. I've been to Tierra del Fuego in 1990, 2006 (all happened during this trip) and in 2017.

We were rushing from El Chaltén to Cerro Sombrero on Tierra del Fuego, which wasn't  planned this way as we had to cross the border from Argentina to Chile and take a ferry, and on top of this we were driving about 630 km mostly on gravel tracks and this takes time. We intented to stay in Rio Gallegos, but it didn’t look too nice, so we went on. After crossing the border to Chile, we thought to stay in San Gregorio, but all rooms were taken by workers repairing the roads (a paved road on this stretch). It had already been far into the evening. Then we had to catch the night ferry at Punta Delgado to cross the Magellan Street and reached Cerro Sombrero around midnight. It's about 80 km from San Gregorio to Cerro Sombrero.

 

The next day was to be an exciting day - different landscapes and an accident. In the morning we went to get gas and noticed that one tyre had lost some air (left front tyre). We pumped up the tyre and drove first to Bahía Inútil [2], looked at remains of an estancia and an old graveyard; didn't care too much about the car. These stops had been 80-90 km after we've left Cerro Sombrero.

Another 66-65 km later a tyre blew out while driving down a slope. The car didn’d react anymore and I feared that it turned over, which luckily it didn’t do. Off road we were sliding down on that slope despite breaking,  but we were lucky, as our car was caught by a livestock fence. And our streak of luck continued! Two minutes later one of the few vehicles on this lonely road stopped – a bus of and to the border post - and the border guards helped us changing the tyre. Now, we still had some problems: we had to go back to Villa Cameron, about 25 km away, the spare tyre had hardly any air, one break wouldn’t loose it’s grip (right backward wheel), and we had to call the rental agency. So we went back to Cameron, where we asked for help at an administrative building: we called (with the help of a nice young lady) the rental office. They had a compressor to pump up the tyre. With the help of the janitor (the husband of the local nurse, who serves more than 10,000 sqkm) [3] I was able to fix the break. Rosa, the nurse, didn’t want us to leave as we had to go about 100 km and she feared we might not find the remote Hosteria Las Lengas in the darkness. I remember her saying: „Pero la Sra. alcalde también pasa por aquí. Puede llevárselo.” But we decided do go on. And soon we were well into the night. When we got there, we knew, Rosa's fear wasn’t without reason. We asked at the border station, someone answered vaguely and wedrove for about 25 km through woods, through little pools, swamps to reach the remote hotel. When we stopped once (see picture), my friend's wife thought we had to spend the night in the forest. But „Praise the Lord, I saw the light“ [5], much like in Hank William's gospel song … no, but I saw a light behind some trees and we soon reached the hotel. Our hostess had to travel from her home in Punta Arenas, which took about 8 hours; I think she mentioned not driving via Villa Cameron but Rio Grande in Argentina and crossing the border at Rio Bellavista. Anyway, we were 3 hours earlier than her at our destination.

We've spent some time at Las Lengas and Lago Blanco. We also had to see the police to get a certificate about the accident, which we did and could settle this affair. The husband of our hostess, who owns the Hosteria and I don't know how much of the land and the lake, came for the weekend and brought us a new spare tyre from Punta Arenas. So we were lucky again! Don Alfonso also has been the mayor of the region [4]. The next day he had business in Argentina and drove with with his car through a ford of Rio Bellavista in frond of us, where we left for the Argentinian part of Tierra del Fuego, especially the border post.

About 20-30 km past the border we watched the left front wheel moving ahead of us and disappearing in the bushland to the left. The wheel suspension hit the gravel. I went into the wilderness and found the tyre. We had failed to retighten the screw-nuts. So I went back on the gravel road to look for the screw-nuts, which I didn't find. O.K., time to go back, I thought. In the mean time my friends met two Catalans, who spoke good French (my friend is Swiss and his wife is French), who helped with putting the wheel back into place. So the wheel was fastened only with three and not five screw-nuts. I had to retighten them every few kilometers. We reached Rio Grande and found a very able mechanic. But still I used every stop to make certain that the screw-nuts were tight.

Curious guanacos

We went to Ushuaia, to an island with penguins, saw a lot, had a wonderful house above Ushuaia with view of the Beagle Canal, but somewhen we had to return.

We had to go back to Las Lengas as we still had one tyre there and arranged for another  stay. This time crossing Rio Bellavista wasn’t as easy as before, as the waterlevel had risen. Driving [6] into the river, one huge wave swept all over the car. When the car levelled inside the riverbed, the water reached to the windows. But I drove on and we got out ford and water without having problems with the engine. Only very little water entered at the left rear door. The river could have rolled us over. So again we were lucky!

My friend closing the border

I think I've learned a lot during travels, even in unintended areas.

Links and Annotations:
[1] https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2009/04/2006-patagonia-chileargentina.html
[2] https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bah%C3%ADa_In%C3%BAtil The name had been coined by Captain Phillip Parker King, who verified that the bay offered no possibility "neither of anchorage nor of refuge, nor any other advantage for the navigator".
[3] At the time we didn't know that Villa Cameron [3a], this hamlet, is the administrative center of Timaukel [3b], which is a little less in area (12,850 km²) than Connecticut [3c] (14.357 km²), but Connecticut has 3.605.944 inhabitants and Timaukel just has 405.
[3a] https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cameron_(Chile)
[3b] https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timaukel
[3c] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connecticut
[4] I just tried to look up his full name, which is Don Alfonso de Lourdes Simunovic Ojeda, who had been alcade for about 40 years, starting from 1989. https://www.bcn.cl/leychile/navegar?i=91053 and more recent article: https://archivo.laprensaaustral.cl/cronica/alfonso-simunovic-ojeda-alcalde-de-la-comuna-de-timaukel-daremos-prioridad-a-proyectos-que-vengan-de-punta-arenas-y-porvenir-para-poblar-pampa-guanaco/
[5] "I Saw the Light" by Hank Williams. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtolv9kM1qk
[6] I had written „diving into the river“ and corrected it to „driving into the river“, but diving isn't far from the truth.

 

PS. Here's the picture. I could not find. Coming back with the wheel in between the border and Rio Grande.

 

 

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Laguna Nimez of El Calafate

Laguna Nimez is a natural reserve of the town El Calafate at Lago Argentino. The reserve is relatively small, but provides a recreational space and enables observation of flora and fauna. “The ornithological wealth is the aspect of greatest interest in the reserve. Around 80 species have been detected, including some that only use the place temporarily in their migration.” [1]

 

 This bandurria kept walking around a bush -

very clever

Laguna Nimez is in walking distance from the town center and is also mentioned in the Lonely Planet [2]. For more information, if you want to visit the reserve, look here: [3].

 

 

 

Cinereous harrier or gavilán ceniciento

 

A maca


 

 

Bandurrias in the hotel garden

 

 

 End of a glorious day

Links and References: 
[1] https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laguna_Nimez (Wikipedia only has a Spanish article)
[2] https://www.lonelyplanet.com/argentina/patagonia/el-calafate/attractions/reserva-natural-laguna-nimez/a/poi-sig/1275736/363081
[3] https://www.patagonia.com.ar/El+Calafate/835E_Municipal+Ecological+Reserve+.html

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Lapataia Post Office

 

This post office at Lapataia Bay is more a tourist attraction than the southernmost post office. There is a sign reading open every day, it is wasn't. This didn't surprise me as I had my experiences with Correo Agentino [1]. There are good views and this in itself is enough.

Links and References:
[1] https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2015/11/on-sending-postcards-from-argentina.html

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The Small Museum on the Valdés Peninsula

 

When you cross the Carlos Ameghino Isthmus from the mainland you reach the Valdés Peninsula. There's a center cum museum just a few kilometers away from the entrance of the national parc (Centro de Visitantes).

The exhibition inside has lots of information and must be a nightmare for pupils because of the mass of data. There are geological and palaeontological showcases, taxidermy mounts of animals, and a complete whale skeleton.

Outside the is an educational trail with plants and animals. On this educational trail there were boys who had been abducted there by their teachers. Suddenly they shouted: "Una rata! Una rata!" And ran rumbling over the wooden planks - of course, the rata had vanished immediately. Well, it wasn't a rat either, but you couldn't see it anymore.

All in all I liked stopping at the the place before venturing into other parts of the peninsula.

 

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Lago Argentino and Gunther-Plüschow-Memorial

 

Recently I rearranged my library and suddenly leafed through a book. It has been a book by Gunther Plüschow [1]; Segelfahrt ins Wunderland (Sailing voyage to Wonderland) . There has been a distant bell ringing, but I had to look him up in Wikipedia [2]. Then I remembered having been at his memorial site at the Brazo Rico of Lago Argentino.

In his book Plüschow tells about his journey on the sailing vessel Parma in 1926, which took him around Cape Horn to Valdivia, from where he traveled overland to Patagonia. The book is adventutous, but also nationalistic and colonialistic. Not to my taste. The book ends with his retun to Germany.

The next year sees him back in Patagonia. He and his engineer, Ernst Dreblow, brought his plane to Punta Arenas and they flew to Ushuaia and later explored Torres del Paine and other parts of Patagonia. In 1929 he returned to Germany because of funding issues. In 1930 he returned to Patagonia and was killed together with Dreblow in a plane crash near Brazo Rico in 1931. It's a beautiful landscape he chose to explore. He died aged 44. His son Gunter Guntlof lived from 1918 until 2017.

 

Links and References:
[1] Plüschow, G.: Segelfahrt ins Wunderland. Ullstein A.-G., Berlin 1926
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunther_Pl%C3%BCschow and https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunther_Pl%C3%BCschow

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A Herd of Naughty Cows at Lake Fagnano, Tierra del Fuego

Outside the fence

This story is already a couple of years old, but so far I haven't told it. I had been driving with two friend through Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego [1] in 2006. We stopped at Lago Fagnano for the view and accidentally ended up after the estancia, we wanted to stay at, was booked out and another one was without appeal to us. The Kaikan Hotel also had rooms in cottages, so we took these and had a splendid view of the lake. 

 

Puente Yuco

The next morning I looked at the lake and Puente Yuco and then I also saw a herd of cows that was grazing outside the fence. While I was musing about the fact, an old small open diesel truck was coming down the slopes to the lake. And out of a sudden the cows ran to two small openings in the fence and through these onto their meadow. There they laid down – ruminating as if nothing had happened. The truck had nothing to do with these cows, but I interpret that they suspected the farmer coming and didn't want to be caught outside the broken fence.

 

 

Links and References:
[1] https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2009/04/2006-patagonia-chileargentina.html  

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Love Locks of Cologne and elsewhere

I’ve probably discovered the first love lock in 2005 or 2006. I use to cross the Hohenzollernbrücke in Cologne (that’s the bridge next to the cathedral or Kölner Dom and the Main Railway Station) several times a year, as I park my car on the other side of the Rhine, called Schäl Sick (Cologne dialect for wrong side). Once I’ve seen a lock right next to an inlet to the railway track and thought that someone had deliberately latched it there, in order to be able to fix his bike outside of the fence or something like this. I had not paid attention to an engraving. Now I know that this must have been the first love lock, because why would someone leave a padlock at the bridge and carry the chain? It was in later years that I recognized the growing number of locks.

Enamored couples have their names engraved on a padlock and latch it to the railing of the Hohenzollern Bridge to swear eternal love and fidelity, and then the key is thrown into the Rhine. How romantic!

 

And some criticism: "What kind of society is this, in which the symbol for love is a padlock?"  

 

The estimates of the amount of locks and their weight diverge. The highest estimate for the number of love locks has been 300,000, while the highest weight had been estimated around 46 metric tons. I think more realistic are 160,000 love locks weighing 22 metric tons. It seems much, but actually isn’t as one empty boxcar weighs as much. Therefore it is quite unlikely that the love locks pose a risk to the bridge’s statics.

The love locks have a touristic relevance, as many visitors specifically come to Cologne to put their love locks on the bridge, and often come back for a second and third time, for example on occasion of the wedding anniversary. But space becomes scarce for to put new locks. Some locks have been placed, where safety reasons might lead to removal [2].

 

 

Times gone by ... 

 

 

A foot bridge in Kiew

 

At the quay in Arkhangelsk

 

 

Buenos Aires, the old harbor

 

 Buenos Aires, the old harbor

 

And back to Cologne

Links:
[1] http://rheumatologe.blogspot.de/2009/04/die-liebesschlosser-von-koln.html
[2] http://www.ksta.de/koeln/-sote-liebesschloesser-duerfen-haengen-bleiben-1152350

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No hay nada - on a road less travelled in Chile

We were travelling just outside of Torres de Paine National Park. There were no roads leading to Argentina, but one road ending in the border reagion South West of El Calafate. On one map we've seen a mark for a hotel and were giving it a try. A long drive! And I'll show you road condisions soon. We had to open cattle gates and drive through the ground of estancias. Then, as we were reaching, where the hotel should be, the final cattle gate had been with chain and padlock; the place looked deserted. We had to turn around. On our way back I saw two shepherds, wild guys. They must have  just returned from the great wide open. Their faces were nearly blackened by sun and campfire smoke, but at the same time glistening like been polished. I asked for the hotel, but the answer was: "No hay nada!" Someone wanted to build a hotel. And someone had put it on the map prematurely, when the remote area project already had been abandoned. We drove back to the Estancia Cerro Guido, which is a nice place to stay.

On the road heading North

A wild landscape, but used as pastures

It may look like a farm lane, but it's a road

After returning on the orad, the rainbow indicates good luck for finding a hotel to stay

Estancia Cerro Guido

PS.: That's where the hotel should have been (Google Maps): https://www.google.de/maps/@-50.7415595,-72.4080873,5526m/data=!3m1!1e3