Travel Tips

23.02.02
Hello everybody!
Greetings from Mexico! I´m here for a week now. First I spent 5 days in
Mexico City with my (pen-)friend Fabiola. The city is incredible, with
approx. 25 million people the biggest one in the world it is situated
2500m above sea level surrounded by montains, it is very hot and
absolutely chaotic. The only time I left the house all by myself I got lost on
the way back and ended up at the other end of the city from where I had
to go 1.5 hours by subway, bus and taxi. Usually I was with Fabiola: we
went to the center where there´s really a lot to see, in Teotihuacán,
an old Indian cultural sight where we climbed the 2 big pyramids, to
Fabi´s friends´, went out to eat,... I stayed at her house with her sister
and mom and 4 dogs. It was very nice and I´ve got plans to go back
there next month for a couple of days when Fabi is on vacation, so we could
spend some more time together.
I arrived here in Monterrey yesterday morning by night bus (12 hour
drive) and was picked up by a girl from the Mexican organization - while
both of the other Germans were simply forgotten. Monterrey is, with a
population of 3-6 million, the third largest city of Mexico, located in
the notheastern part of the country, 300km from the Texas border.
Monterrey is an industrial city, rather American than Mexican, surrounded by
mountains. It's also kinda hot here. We're only 4 foreigners, all from
Germany, the forth one will arrive on monday and will be sharing my
room. We're all living in a Holiday Inn hotel, a pretty luxuary one that
is, not quite what we all had expected from our stay in Mexico, but
well. Yesterday night the 3 of us were invited to a party which was a lot
of fun, a lot of Tequila, very nice people, and once again I couldn't
get away without having to dance Salsa... Today I finally explored the
city and this evening a German family living here took us out to eat in a
typical Mexican restaurant. Tomorrow they'll take us on a trip to the
mountains. On Monday I'll start my work in the emergency room where I'll
be for one month, I'm pretty excited how that will be.
So far I like Mexico a lot. For European messurings it's very chaotic,
the busses are almost falling apart, cars always have the right of way
before the pedestrians, you have to watch out for not receiving fake
money, you can buy everything on the streets,... The people I've met so
far are all very nice and helpful. Unfortunately you're always looked at
as a Gringo at the first place and by some people treated less
friendly. When I say that I'm from Germany people become a lot nicer and get
interested. Further I'm being stared at by the men for being blond, just
today a guy asked me if he could take a picture of me, for a school
work, yeah right! Anyway, I'm really glad that I speak Spanish.
Well, I hope all of you guys are fine, and I would be happy to hear
from any of you.
See you, Steffi
P.S. I'm sorry for writing to you in this unpersonal way, but I won't
have that much time for e-mail writing, and so I thought I'd make it
myself as easy as possible. I'll still try to write as many persoanl mails
as I can, but you all know what a lazy writer I am...

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15.03.02
Hello, I'm back with the second part of my report...
Meanwhile Monterrey has become a little more like my second (or third,
or forth) home - as far as that is possible living in a 4 star hotel
where one night costs almost 200 Euros (US$ 150) per person... I think
the faculty of medicine could better spent their money on medical
equipment which would make more sense - even if they receive a 50% discount
from the hotel!!
We are 4 German med students who all live here in the hotel: Adrienne
from Berlin who I'm very good friends with, Benjamin from Kiel, whose
girlfriend arrives tonight, he is kinda weird and stubborn (both are in
gynecology/obstetrics) and Ainhoa from Munich who is half Spanish (bask)
and pretty boring (she's doing pedeatrics) and brought her Spanish
boyfriend. Ainhoa was supposed to share my room, but now she's with her
boyfriend and I'm staying alone.
It`s already my third week in the emergency room. My official working
times are: 15 days from 7am-7pm, then 15 nights from 7pm-7am, no
weekends, no days off! At least that's how it is supposed to be for the
Mexican students. But I don't go on weekends and rather use them to get to
know some of the life outside of the hospital and the surroundings. And
when I got something planed in the evening I normally leave early. It's
not that they really need me here - there are about 15 med students and
quite a few residents here in the ER.
The people here are all really nice, even if doctors and nurses are not
exactly best friends. By looking at the hospital you can realize how
poor Mexico really is. When I stepped in for the first time I almost
suffered a culture shock (coming straight from the luxuary hotel...) The
hospital is full of patients who wait in line even at night for someone
to take care of them the next day. Momentarily everything is under
construction, they are ripping off the floor to make it all new and there
are entire rooms full of garbage. By the way, the floors are quite
dangerous here: they are really slippy and within one floor it goes up and
down, so that you have to be careful when pushing beds... And in the
halls it is freezing cold because some windows are missing, especially for
the patients who have to wait in their beds for their x-rays, since
they are just covered with a thin cloth. The ER is more or less like in
the TV show, just not all that well equipped. It consists of a big room
(observation room) with at least 12 beds that can be separated with
curtains. In this room there are incredibly many people working and there's
action all he time. It is here where the new patients who get it by
ambulance are received by students and nurses and sometimes also doctors
and they check how acute the situation is. Then the patients are put
into one of the beds and are taken care of with more tranquility.
Next to this room there is another smaller one which serves for
non-life threatening cases of traumatology and plastic surgery, for example
for sewing, and ambulant patients are treated here. All in all they don't
do too much diagnostics here, mainly they use their hands, their
stethoscope, blood samples, (for arterial blood tests they take blood from
the radial artery instead of capillar blood from the ear) and eventually
radiology, for polytraumatized patients and special cases they also use
their C.T.

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Maya pyramides of Palenque

You can easily notice that the medical treatment here in the "2nd
world" can't messure with the one in Germany for example, not even this
university hospital with a little German hospital. Here they have to take
care not to spend too much money because they just don't have that much
and the patients have to pay everything by themselves. The ones who
just don't have the money pay less.
(Those ones with health insurance have
to go to special hospitals to not having to pay. There are also
hospitals that are much cheaper than this one.) Everytime you want to use
gloves you have to go get a single pair that will be put on the bill of
this same patient. There's nothing to desinfect one's hands ("what for?
you'll get dirty again anyway!") and neither do they work as sterile as
in Germany. Of course they also lack of lung ventilators, so that we
usually have 1 or 2 intubated patients in the ER that have to be given
artificial respiration manually by us students, an hour each one, which
can be fairly exausting. I'm learning some invasive techniques and a bit
of sewing. I've been to obstetrics and saw my first birth, which was
incredible. Well, I haven't done and learned too many new things, but for
sure I see a lot and it's very interesting to see how medicine works in
a poorer country.
The best of all: Camera teams are filming their real life movies here.
Especially on friday and saturday night they are in search of bloody
action in the ambulance as well as in the ER, which you can see on the
local TV channel...
My first week I mainly spent in the hospital and dropped dead into my
bed at night. Then on friday I went to the students' farewell BBQ (now
there's a new group of students), which was a lot of fun. Adrienne and I
were invited on a rancho (ranch or country house) by the host and his
cousin, but then they didn't call on saturday. (The cousin was a
complete jerk - probably he had noticed how we thought about him and decided
he better didn't want us on his ranch...) Instead we spent the day
downtown and then had some beer in the hotel room with José (another med
student).
On Sunday Adrienne, Benjamin and I went on a daytrip to the nearby
caves, where already the way there turned out to be a small adventure (like
everything is for us in Mexico): by bus without any shock absorption
(the worst of all the buses I've seen so far) we pased through a ghetto,
further we went hitchhiking (which I did for the first time in my
life), on the way back again we stopped a pick-up truck where we sat up back
with 10 others.
On our very first sunday excursion, which was with a German family that
lives here in their bus in a national park (half desert with really
pretty mountains) also wasn't really unadventurous: on the road we once
got out of the car to help 2 Mexicans to push their car that got stuck on
the gravel road. Then we turned since the road became worse and worse,
their car did the same and they pased us. Shortly after they had
another accident and stopped in the middle of the road so that we couldn't
pass them. As they said the battery was dead. All that seemed a little
strange to us, but we couldn't help it and had to help them to remove the
car from the street.
The two of them then asked us to give them a ride, we took one of them
with us. He stank like tequila and it wasn't really comfortable with
him in the car, but indeed nothing happend. But we really were a little
scared - an obviously rich Gringo family alone in the desert with 2
drunk Mexicans who had already found out before that we were foreigners...
Maybe we just were too many to deal with and they didn't dare to rob us
(the parents, 2 children and us 3 students).

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Healthy twins, Rushere Hospital, Uganda

The surrounding landscape here is really pretty, for the time being
it's very dry and the temperature changes real quick: at first it was like
36 degrees (Celsius) and within just a few days it dropped downt to 0.
Now it's incredibly hot again and you can hardly lie on the hotel pool
whose water is hotter than the air. It's really crazy.
Last weekend Adrienne and I went to Zacatecas, an old colonial silver
mining town 500 km south from here in the middle of the dessert. It was
very pretty, not to be compared to stinky industial Monterrey. We lived
in a little hostal whose owners took us out at night, onces cooked for
everybody, and they took us all on a rodeo which was great. We got to
know young and old travellers from Mexico, USA, Canada, Argentina,
Uruguay, England, Italy and Sweden.
Tonight I'm invited for dinner by a Mexican friend and her family at
their house.
Anyway, my medical training is until March 26. After that I'll spend
some more days with Fabiola in Mexico City, since she'll be on vacation
during that time. And then I got 2 more weeks that I'll spend travelling
Chiapas and Yucatán with Adrienne (the 2 of us are getting along so
well that we decided to unite our travel plans): some more Maya pyramids,
colonial cities, mountains, rainforest, beach,... On April 15th I got
my flight back to Germany
Thank you all for your numerous e-mails, I'll go on and do my best in
answering them all as fast as possible.
To all non-doctors: I'm sorry for the long and boring description of
the hospital, I tried not to use technical slang ;-)
Best greetings, Steffi

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26.03.02
Hello my loved ones!
It's my last day here in Monterrey. This night I'm taking the bus back
to Mexico City to stay there with Fabiola until Saturday. Then I'm
gonna meet up with Adrienne again and we're gonna start our 2.5 week trip
to the South: San Cristóbal de las Casas - Palenque - Mérida - Chichen
Itzá - Valladolid -Tulum - Isla Mujeres, among others.
During the last weeks and days Adrienne and I had quite a good time
here - hardly went to the hospital, often downtown, movies, sun and
nightlife, once we went hiking in a national park, and once to a waterfall.
We got to know some great people and had a lot of fun with them.
This weekend we went on an aid mission in a village here in Nuevo León.
Among students of nutrition, psychology, economics and dental medicine
we were just 5 medical students: one Mexican and 4 Germans, besides a
Japanes girl who couldn't do anything because she didn't speak Spanish
and 2 second-year-students who just took the blood pressure. The 5 of us
played doctor and gave away medicines that we had brought. We couldn't
help them too much since we just had our hands and stethoscope and
lacked the most important medicines. We spend the nights in the village
school on stone floor, in this same room we then saw the patients -
several ones at the same time. We could take showers at the peoples' houses
(during the times when there was water) and the women of the village
cooked for us. Everything was incredibly simple. It sure was a great
experience.
Ok, I'll tell you guys good bye for now. During my trip I probably
won't be able to sit on the computer for hours, and I also wouldn't want
to. I wish everybody a happy Easter. Take care, and see you soon, Steffi

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Murchison Falls, Uganda

UGANDA (Feb-Apr 2003)

16.02.03
Hi guys!
I'm just sending out this short note to tell everyone that I'm leaving
the country (and my pc) on Tuesday to spend 2 months in Uganda (East
Africa)! The first 3 days I will spend in Kampala, the capital city. On
Saturday I will meet up with an elderly English lady (who writes me
lovely e-mails) who is the director of a small rural hospital in the
southwest of Uganda. I'm going to work there doing a clership for my sudies
for 4 weeks. (I will be living in a tent!). In the end I will travel the
country for 3 weeks, enjoying Uganda's fascinating nature and wildlife.
I'll be back here in Aachen, Germany the 12th of April. I probably
won't be able to use the internet a lot, so I better don't promise you
anything. ¡I still would love to hear from YOU! :-)
So. I'll talk to you later,
Love, Stefanie

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21.02.03
Hello!
Sorry, don't have much time, so English for everybody...
I've been spending 3 days here in the capital city, it's quite nice,
very busy and colorful, friendly people and beautiful nature around. The
climate is just perfect, about 30 degrees I would guess.
In a few minutes I will meet up with the English lady to go to the
hospital where I will start to work on Monday.
Anyway, I'm ok, I'm having a good time, and I hope the same thing for
you too!
Best,
Stefanie

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11.03.03
Hello!
It’s been 2 weeks now that I’m in the hospital, it’s really a culture
shock, they don’t even have running water, let alone any technical
equipment… As I dont’s speak the local language of course I cannot treat
patients alone, but I do learn a lot! There were only 2 operations so far,
one hernia and one Caesarian section. The
patients in the wards (only about 25-35 in number!) have all the major
tropical diseases, half of them malaria (almost all of the kids),
others include tuberculosis, typhoid, brucella, meningitis, HIV (few), and
pregnant women. There are only 2 doctors in the hospital, further 2
clinical officers (between docotr and nurse), 1 anaesthesist (which here is
a nurse with further qualifications, not a doctor), and a few nurses
and midwifes.
The lady I live with is very nice as is her Ugandan housekeeper Grace
and everybody else I have met! I feel at home here. And I don’t live in
the tent, but I the guest room (as there are no other guests at the
moment). Rushere is just one street and I don’t dare to go “downtown”
again, once was enough, everyone stared at me and the kids shout “Mzungu!
Howayou!” (Mzungu means White/European)… I spend most of my time in the
hospital and then at home relaxing and studying a bit, sometimes.
Last weekend I was at Lake Bunyonyi (in the very southwest of Uganda)
with a Dutch girl that I had met in Kampala.
This weekend Joan (the English lady) took me to a game park to see
zebras, monkeys, antilopes, warthogs, hippos, buffalos… After that I was on
the Ssese Islands (Lake Victoria) for 3 days, it was great!! I’m just
coming back, I’m in Masaka now, it’s just a stop that I use for
emailing.
let me tell you, travel in Africa is an adventure! You need a lot of
pacience, but in the end everything goes well!
2 more weeks in the hospital are awaiting me in Rushere, than I’ll
travel all the game parks and nice places that I haven’t visited yet,
including gorilla trecking, whitewate- rafting and more animals and nature!
Can’t wait…
Oh, and thanks to those who have been sending me sms! It’s fun to hear
from home or from other parts of the world! Makes me feel less
isolated!

See you all later! Stefanie

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05.04.03
Hi there!
Checked my e-mails again today, thank you all!
I'm back in Kampala now. Just got back from Murchison Falls, the most
powerful waterfall in the world, suposedly, and survived a night with a
leopard strolling around the campsite, urg!
Tomorrow I'll go rafting the wild rapids of the Nile in Jinja! Then I
might end up on Ssese Islands again before I fly back home next
friday...
Talk to you all later!
Stefanie

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On top of Vulcano Villarrica (2,800 m)

CHILE (Sep 2003)

30.09.03

Hello everybody!

I’m now in Santiago de Chile. To everyone who doesn’t know yet, I’m doing an elective in a foreign country once again: About 3 ½ months of Internal Medicine in a hospital in Mendoza, Argentina. Mendoza is very close to Santiago, just across the Andes, much closer to Santiago than to Buenos Aires. At the moment I’m living with Nelson, whom I got to know in Oviedo, Spain and his (very nice) family. Tomorrow Katrin (from Bonn) will arrive, I also know her from Oviedo. The 2 of us will be traveling the South of Chili for about 2 ½ weeks before heading to Mendoza. (She is also gonna work there.)

Actually I was going to arrive here on Saturday morning, however I got stuck in Madrid, as my plane from Duesseldorf was late. I was running across the airport for 20 minutes, but the gate had already closed… Together with 3 other Germans I was put in the 4 star airport hotel including free food and a 24-hour stay in Madrid. The 4 of us got along quite well and it ended up being quite a lot of fun. At 4.30 a.m. we had Tapas in a Cuban restaurant in the center of Madrid.

On Saturday – already having adapted to Chilean time – we strolled around the center again (one of the girls was on a business trip, so we could take the taxi for free, and she even put some more of our expenses on her bill!). In the evening, after a great buffet in the hotel, we got shuttled back to the airport and then everything went alright.

On Sunday morning I arrived here, got picked up by Nelson and taken to his house. Then his parents took us to the sea, first to Viña del Mar to a fish restaurant where we had a lot of different sea food, then we walked along the beach a bit and had some ice-cream. After that we went to Valparaíso, the most important harbor of Chili, and took a boat ride there.

Yesterday one of Nelson’s sisters took me to the center of Santiago. Today I’m here again alone. Tomorrow morning I will pick up Katrin from the airport, and then we’ll see what where we’ll end up next…

Many greetings from Chili,

Stefanie

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After having spent 3 days in Santiago with Nelson and his family Katrin arrived, and the both of us headed down south right away in order to travel for 3 weeks before starting with our internship in Mendoza. (Katrin is from Bonn and I know her from Spain, just like Nelson.) Because we wanted to travel relaxed (and budget orientated) we didn't make it all the way down to Patagonia, but regarding the low temperatures we didn't find it all that bad after all. (It was only the beginning of spring.). Our route was as following: Santiago – Los Angeles – Villarrica – Valdivia – Isla Chiloé – Puerto Varas – Viña del Mar / Valparaíso. The country really fascinated us. The nature is wonderful, reminding me of the Swiss Alps, (even though they miss the volcanoes), or vast Canadian landscape. There are green hills and snow-covered mountains and volcanoes, in between forests, lakes, rivers and beautiful villages of German immigrants, where you can buy “Kuchen” (cake) in every corner. It was a completely different type of travels, once for it being so cold (we mostly wore 5 layers of clothes wishing we brought some more), and it also was mainly a nature trip. We hiked, climbed Volcano Villarrica (sliding down on our butts), went bike riding, horseback riding, bathing in hot springs, went on a boat ride on Chiloe to visit a penguin and sea lion colony, also visited some little towns and villages, the Mapuche museum in Valdivia, and in Valparaiso we went out to a Salsa club once. The Chileneans (?) are extremely nice people, they even give way to pedestrians crossing - in contrast to the Argentine kamikazee-drivers!

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Paragliding in Mendoza

ARGENTINA (Oct 2003 - Feb 2004) (German)

ANKUNFT IN MENDOZA UND WOHNUNG

Am 17.10. kamen wir dann - nach einer 6-stuendigen Panorama-Busfahr ueber die Anden - hier in Mendoza (Argentinien) an, wo wir zunaecht in einem Hotel untergebracht wurden. Eigentlich sollten wir, wie die anderen Austauschstudenten auch, zunaechst in Familien untergebracht werden, doch das hatte bei uns aus irgendeinem Grund nicht geklappt. :-( Die Wohnungssuche stellte sich auch als sehr schwierig raus, da es kaum WG´s gibt, und die Studenten sowieso im Dezember zurueck zu den Eltern gingen (Sommerferien). Private Wohnungen muss man wohl fuer mindestens 2 Jahre mieten. So waren wir dann froh, als wir 5 Tage spaeter hier in das kleine private Studentenwohnheim ziehen konnten - auch wenn wir uns ein Doppelzimmer teilen muessen! (Bald leeren sich die Zimmer und wir werden wohl fast als einzige uebrig bleiben, so dass wir auch in getrennte Zimmer umziehen koennen.) Noch sind wir hier mit fast 30 Studenten, ausser uns ist momentan noch eine andere Deutsche da, der Rest kommt aus aus den verschiedensten Teilen Argentiniens. Wir teilen uns alle eine grosse Kueche, einen Aufenthaltsraum und eine Dachterrasse. Es ist echt nett hier und es ist immer was los. Nachts kann man ohne Oropax zwar nicht schlafen, aber naja...

MENDOZA STADT

Menoza ist die Hauptstadt der gleichnamigen Provinz und recht klein (ca. 200,000 EW in der Stadt selbst) aber fein. Sie wird mit Hilfe von in der Kolonialzeit errichteten Strassenkanaelen kuenstlich bewaessert, so dass ueberall gruene Baeume stehen, obwohl drum herum nur Wueste ist und es erst einmal in den letzten 10 Monaten ein bisschen geregnet hat (-> und gerade dann war ich natuerlich draussen unterwegs...). Bald faengt erst der Sommer an, dabei ist es schon seit meiner Ankunft hier schweine-heiss! Es streigert sich aber langsam und stetig... Da hier Erdbeben-Gebiet ist stehen hier fast keine koloniale Bauten mehr. Die Stadt ist quadratisch, praktisch, gut, mit vielen gruenen Plazas, Einkaufsstrassen und einem grossen Park, in dessen Naehe ich wohne. Dort kann man z.B. gut um einen 1 km-langen (natuerlich kuenstlichen) See joggen (war ich aber - aufgrund diverser Wehwehchen, Faulheit und zu starker Hitze - erst 2mal) oder spazieren gehen. Es gibt dort auch einen kleinen Zoo (war ich auch noch nicht), einen Huegel mit Aussicht ueber die Stadt, Reitclub, Golfclub, etc, etc. Unsere Parallelstrasse ist die beste Ausgeh-Strasse mit vielen Cafés und Bars. Discos gibt es wohl auch jede Menge, aber so richtig aus war ich hier noch gar nicht. (Komisch eigentlich! Wollte eigentlich hier, so wie damals in Spanien, viel Party machen, bin aber irgendwie immer mit so vielen anderen (fruehmorgendlichen) Aktivitaeten beschaeftigt, dass ich nachts einfach nur schlafen will. Ausserdem schafft die Sonne auch ganz schoen!) Jedenfalls hat Mendoza eigentlich alles was eine Stadt so haben muss, im Zentrum bemerkt man bemerkt man die Verarmung nicht so (naja, ich weiss ja nicht, wie es vorher war) und ich fuehle mich auch ziemlich sicher hier, auch wenn man immer mal wieder Geschichten hoert und ich nachts doch meist lieber Taxi fahre. Das Leben hier ist fuer mich extrem billig, die Preise sind (seit der Wirtschaftskrise) etwa 1/3 derer in Deutschland, teilweise noch weniger.

LEUTE

Die Argentinier sind wahnsinnig nett zu uns Deutschen, ich wurde sehr offenherzig im Wohnheim wie auch im Krankenhaus aufgenommen. Natuerlich haben sie auch ihre negativen Seiten wie einen ziemlichen Schlankheits- und Schoenheitswahn (sogar (schlanke) Maenner sind hier auf Diaet!) und teilweise recht krasse Einstellungen gegenueber anderen Voelkern und Rassen (wir haben hier das Glueck, dass wir blonden Deutschen zur "besten" Rasse gehoeren - und alle Tueren stehen uns offen!). Ausserdem sind die Argentinier staendig auf Braut- bzw. Maennerschau, was ich ziemlich anstrengend finde! ;-)

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3-day Andes trek: arriving at Plaza Francia, 4300m

KRANKENHAUS

Im Krankenhaus war bisher noch nicht so viel los. Ich rotiere ja durch verschieden Abteilungen der Inneren Medizin. Bisher war ich nur in einem privaten Krankenhaus (=hoeherer Standard und weniger Patienten), erst 3 Wochen auf der kardiologischen Intensivstation, wo es fuer mich absolut nichts zu tun gab, und jetzt bin ich die 4. Woche in der Gastroenterologie, genaugenommen gucke ich nur bei den Endoskopien und einigen endoskopischen (und auch ein paar offenen) OP`s zu, es gibt also noch weniger zu tun... Trotzdem gefaellt es mit dort sehr gut, da ich erst um halb 10 kommen muss und da meine Docs total nett sind und ich mich hier koestlich amuesiere. Es sind 2 Gastoenterologen und 1 endoskopischer Chirurg, pseudo-schwule Machos, deren Muckis man zu deren Ego-Auffrischunng auch mal betasten und bewundern muss, im Gegenzug wird dann auch mal fuer uns Maedels gestrippt, dreckige Witze und Anspielungen gibt es auch zu genuege, nachdem die Patienten mit dem Kinderlied "Señora Vaca" in den Schlaf gesungen worden sind... Ihr seht, ich hab hier meinen Spass! Dazu gibt es auch noch 2 nette Anaesthesisten, einige Schwestern und eine Sekretaerin. Am Anfang dachte ich ja, ich waere im Irrenhaus gelandet, doch mittlerweile will ich gar nicht mehr weg! Leider werde ich mich jetzt aber doch mal um einen Wechsel in ein oeffentliches Krankenhaus kuemmern muessen, da man dort einfach mehr machen und lernen kann. Naechste Woche bin ich aber erstmal zum Jahresabschlussessen der Gastroenterologen eingeladen, bin ja mal gespannt...

FREIZEIT

Ich komme immer so zwischen 13 und 17 Uhr aus dem Krankenhaus und geh danach oefters mal ins Fitness-Studio (hab mich vorletzte Woche angemeldet, ist echt billig und nicht so schicki-micki wie in Deutschland) oder durch die Stadt bummeln. Ab und zu geh ich abends was trinken, war schon Billard spielen, Bowlen, Kickern, im Kino (argentinischen Film gucken), ... Ausserdem gehe ich ab und zu zu einem Tango-Kurs, nehme Franzoesich-Unterricht, und war am Dienstag mal bei einem interkulturellen Treffen, wo Argentinier und Auslaender Spanisch und verschiedene Sprachen miteinander sprechen koennen.

Am Wochenende mache ich meist irgendwelche Ausfluege in die schoene Natur. Ich war schon zweimal raften (leider noch wenig Wasser), einmal Paragliden (einsame Spitze!!), ein wenig wandern, in einem schoenen Open-Air-Termalbad, auf einer (enttaeuschenden) Touri-Busfahrt zu einem schoenen Canyon (Schlucht), in 2 Bodegas Wein probieren, auf einem 3-taegigen Rock-Festival mit argentinischen (und einer chilenischen) Bands, ...

Einmal war ich auch schon raus aus der Provinz Mendoza, naemlich in Santa Fe (14 Std Fahrt), Luciano besuchen, den ich seit fast 2 Jahren nicht gesehen hatte! Seine Familie hat mich sehr nett aufgenommen! Wir sind ein wenig mit dem Fahrrad durch die Stadt gegurkt, haben am Fluss Mate getrunken, waren Billard spielen, in einer Disco, ...

Morgen abend fahre ich mit einer anderen Deutschen nach Puerto Madryn, bzw zum Nationalpark Peninsula Valdes, wo man (hoffenlich noch) Waale beobachten kann, und tausende Pinguine und Seeloewen! Es liegt im nordoestlichen Patagonien am Atlantik, d.h. es erwartet uns eine Busfahr von 23 Studen und 10 Minuten! Wir werden 3 volle Tage da bleiben und am Mittwoch abend wieder hier in Medoza ankommen. Freu mich schon!

So, soweit das Update der letzten Wochen und Monate. Ich hoffe wenigstens einige von Euch haben es durchgehalten bis zum Ende zu lesen...

Mendoza gruesst den Rest der Welt!

Besos,

Steffi