Rolo on Tour

One of the things you have to think about before starting a trip like I do is the question, what medicaments you need to bring. As I had absolutely no experience in travelling I was  looking for advice in the internet and in books and I ended up getting nearly everything I saw recommended. So my medical reservoir looks now like this:

How can I help you?

What I did not think about was the fact, that the people giving these advices may want to be more on the safe side. Also, unless you are spending let’s say 4 weeks in the jungle or in the Himalaya, you will usually be in civilized areas, where you can hardly avoid running into pharmacies. So, if you need something, you can normally just go to the pharmacy and buy it. Also in some countries you can buy the medication per pill, so if you need like let´s say only 2 pills of something, you don´t need to buy the whole package of maybe 20 pills like in Germany.
Concluding you should just take those things with you, that would really improve your well-being that much, when let’s say the next doctor or pharmacy is 1 or 2 days away.
Sorting the stuff I got with me by importance, I arrive at the following recommendations:

1. Imodium: In my opinion the most important thing to bring. Travelling in some not so developed countries at some point you will get food poisoning. And then you don’t want to spend all day on the toilet (especially if you are on a bus ride or hiking in the middle of nowhere), which this will keep you from doing. A must-bring!
2. Ear plugs: Ok they do not quite fit in the category, but I will mention them anyway :-). Sleeping in dorms, you will encounter snorers and in order to get some sleep you will absolutely need earplugs.
3. Wound desinfectant: I do not know how I ended up accidentally bringing two of those bottles. I have used it only once I think, but I guess it’s a good thing to have around.
4. Plasters: They weigh nothing and are absolutely helpful, so take them.
5. Malarone Malaria stand-by medication: Travelling through areas with possible risk of getting Malaria you have to think about how to fight that. One way is taking pills in advance. As there are some severe side effects I decided for the second way consisting in taking some pills with me, which are only to be used in case I get some of the symptoms associated with Malaria and there is no doctor nearby. Good thing my health insurance even paid for those! Anyway, which precautions to be taken for Malaria should be discussed with your doctor in advance.
6. Electrolyte drink: Although it tastes like vomit, this is a helpful thing in case you got diarrhea. Brought a little bit too many of them, though.
7. Paracetamol: Against fever or pain and a thing to bring, I guess. But 20 pills seems too much to me.
8. Fenistil: Helps treating sunburn and easing the itch you get from mosquito bites. I’m glad I have it with me.
9. Hametum topical: Helps healing some minor wounds.
10. Tape: Can be useful in lots of ways.
11. ACC Akut: Dissolve those and drink it in case you got cough. It also really tastes good 🙂
12. Lemocin: Against a sore throat and also really tasty.
13. I don’t know the english word, but it’s something to put on wounds. As it does hardly add any weight, take it.
14. Sagrotan Hand antiseptic: No weight and maybe there might me a situation where you are glad to have them. I have not been in that situation so far though. Also in case my hands are that dirty and I want to use the antiseptic I would need to search my bagpack before with those hands, which may not be the best idea anyway..
15. Some bag to put all those stuff in.
16. A list describing the content of the bag and explanations about when to use what thing in 3 languages. As I brought some stuff I had no idea what it was for I needed to remind myself in case I lost the package insert.
17. Ear drops: Buy them in case you need them (or if you go diving a lot maybe), but don’t bring them in advance, as you will probably not need them. As well, in case you do and there is no pharmacy it will not get that bad.
18. Eye drops: No sense in bringing them in my opinion, unless you often have problems with your eyes.
19. Anti-allergy pills: Dito, unless you often have problems with allergies.
20. Cream against fungal skin disorder: I read that I should bring it and that’s why I did. But again applying the same reasoning I don’t see the necessity.
21. Pills against sea sickness: Unless you start your trip with a 4-week-ferry ride, you don´t want to bring them in advance but rather think about purchasing them before you get on a boat. I bought mine before going on the ship to Puerto Natales. They also can help you sleep 😉
22. Pills against altitude sickness: You are flying from sea level into La Paz? Ok, buy them in advance. If not, think about when it really could be necessary. For example I bought mine before climbing up to 6000 metres.

Concluding, I think that Numbers 1-7 and 15 are necessary, Numbers 8-14 and 16 are helpful and the other ones are superfluous. So if I went again on a trip like this, I would bring that stuff:

My recommendation

Of course what you should as well do is consult some doctor with knowledge in that area about the question which vaccinations you need. And you should do that in time (let’s say 6 months before takeoff), as some of those need several shots. For example I got vaccinations against yellow fever, typhoid fever, Hepatitis and rabies.

Also think about additional health insurance, as normally your regular health insurance will not cover any costs abroad. Sure you can take all these meds with you, but if really something severe happens, they will not help you and in that case I am sure you don’t want to take the costs!

And finally I am not a doctor, so don’t nail me on anything I said. If you are one and see some flaws in my writing please correct me!

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The next day after arriving in Puerto Natales everything was prepared to go hiking in the national park Torres del Paine: I got a tent, a sleeping bag, an insulating underlay, some simple food consisting of mainly instant noodles and most importantly my hiking companion Maik who also provided a stove for cooking. The plan was to do a series of trails called the „W“, which is named like that as it looks like a W on the map.

Departure from Puerto Natales

Naturally the first day our bags were heaviest as there was still all the food in there. So we were glad reaching our first destination for the night, which happened to be the only refuge open in the whole park at that time. Already on this day we got good glances of what landscape to expect the next days:

Day 1: If you guess what I am saying here, you win a price

Another picture of Day 1 with an added component: Can you find it?

The second day was a relief, as we could leave our bags at the refuge. The destination of the day was the Grey Glaciar and the weather was awesome permitting to get some really, really nice photos:

I discovered I like taking pictures of clouds 🙂

So beautiful, I wanted to be in that picture too:

Maik as well:

Arriving nearby the glaciar we took a lunch break. Having nearly finished I saw a fox approaching us. Appears he was just hungry and wanted some of our delicious rice and hospitable as we are we invited him for lunch. Maybe one day he will redo the favor?

Yes, he was that close!

Foxy likes my rice

„Nice glaciar you have there“, he said

Time to pick up our bags again the next day: But soon we got a problem as the stove was not working and the only food we had left, which did not need to be cooked, was 2 portions of oatmeal.
What were our options? „Maybe we can get a bonfire to work and cook on it. I was a scout, maybe I will be able to do that. Or we just make a diet for the last 2-3 days.“ The thing is we could not rely on meeting somebody and use their stove as the park was basically empty.
But then we met our saviour. It was a mexican coming the other way. He told us that in the next refuge on our way there was a window broken and maybe we will find something there which may help us.

It´s not breaking in, when the window is open!

The house was empty and a bit dirty, but it offered some nice features: There was lots of food left, there were mattresses and so we could comfortably sleep inside. Only problem was that water, electricity, heating and gas were disconnected. Having tried without success to fix his cooking device Maik surprisingly found a way to connect the gas and so we could cook something inside the house. Unexpected and certainly Awesome! Later we made a fire in the wood stove and drank Piscolas. We thought: What a nice life we have in this place, let’s stay another day here 🙂

So the next day we relaxed, had breakfast with a brazilian guy walking by and I did the usual stuff to keep the house running: cleaning the house, removing some of the dead rats, collecting and chopping some wood and placing signs for our fellow hikers:

Rendezvous at my place?

The rest of the time we could just enjoy the setting. Why not just stay here for a month?

I don´t know, where I was, when Maik was taking these impressive pictures…

But still the next day it was departure time and we were to get to the Torres del Paine, which give the park its name. And some wearisome hours later there they were:

Finally arriving at those towers

A freezing night (It is probably not a good idea to be too lazy to set up a tent.) , some other hours of walking to the pickup point and a broken wheel later we were back in civilization. I probably had one of the longest showers in my life and besides some marks on my shoulders caused by the bagpack and a right foot which hurted me on every step the effects of those last days were forgotten.

Well, not exactly. I for sure had an amazing week and I will always be glad to remember it. I can only recommend going there in low season as it’s certainly nicer to be there meeting maybe 3 persons per day than 500 (It’s said to be like that in summer.).
To wrap it up, I will leave you with a picture of

one of many birds you could observe in the park.

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Temuco, Pucon, Puerto Varas and the island of Chiloe. What can I say about these places? Well, it was not too exciting FOR ME. But it’s not the problem of those places, as they all lie in beautiful surroundings. The problem lies probably more in the fact that I’m already travelling for quite a while, so it is hard to find new things that excite me that much. It is now often like this:
Oh, there is a nice volcano. Ah, have been to too many of them. See, there is a nice lake. Well, lakes I have seen plenty. Wow, there are some beautiful waterfalls around. Hmm, another waterfall…
You get the idea: It is getting difficult to always encounter completely new experiences. But I am not complaining about it, as it´s probably just part of travelling, isn´t it?
Some things are still enjoyable, though:

Yes, it was already beer o’clock

So I was quite happy to get some distraction by doing a ferry trip from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales, which was supposed to take us 3 nights. As I have never been that long on a ship and the movement used to cause me some sickness in the past, I bought some pills to fight that before entering the ship. Well, what I did not know about those pills is that they also make you sleepy and so the first 2 days you could often find me like that:

Sweet dreams are made of this

I probably slept as well, while other people were busy taking pictures like that:

Splash!

Also we had some delay, as the ship was stopped for nearly a whole day – it would have been to dangerous to go into the open ocean at that time. So we got an extra day of sitting around and doing not too much – the weather being rainy and cloudy almost all the time. Only the last day was nice, sailing through the fjords of Patagonia and enjoying the time outside.

Fairplay is important, kids

Teaching some famous combinations

Safety first

Jugglers never get bored anywhere!

Finally we reached our destination in Puerto Natales. After waiting what felt like ages we could leave the ship and the rest of the day was spent trying to organize everything for the next day: The national park Torres del Paine was waiting…

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