Into the land of the 'Pampas'

AFTER months on road, Brunei's very own global trekker Norhayati Abu Bakar and her husband, Harun Kurt Eichbauer, are on their leg of the South American continent. Norhayati's expedition is in commemoration of Brunei's 25th Independence celebration.

The journey is supported by the people and government in Brunei as well as the private sectors that are enthusiastic in making both Norhayati and Harun's journey a success.

In this edition, The Brunei Times presents Norhayati's travel note for her journey entitled: "From Brunei to around the World 2009 - 2010, 25 Years Brunei Independence Expedition".

The following are excerpts from their 2010 travelogue (www.overthehorizon.net)

It was Sunday, May 23, when we left Madrid airport on a 13-hour journey to Buenos Aires. After a perfect touch down, the city greeted us with rain. It was evening and cool. It took them about 30 minutes to the destined hotel. We were just plain dead tired.

The next morning, we went to the office of the maritime agent who handles our four-wheel companion Jambo. The view from this office gave us a first impression of modern Buenos Aires.

The city of about three million is something like, let say Singapore, but yet different. Buenos Aires is not as clean, and there are homeless in street corners and parks, glue sniffers and drug addicts who hang around in the dark alleys.

Most Argentineans are descendants of European settlers. Of the estimated 50 million, over 85 per cent are of European origin. Argentina is the largest Spanish-speaking nation in the South American continent. One thing that we couldn't stop noticing is that the Argentineans love sport. Next to football, they are crazy about motor racing.

As we drove via taxi to the mosque in Buenos Aires, we were hoping to meet some fellow Muslims to get more information about the community and their Halal food. Besides the security guards, there was no one around. This mosque was deserted.

There are supposed to be 700,000 Muslims in Argentina.

Wednesday, May 26

We were already up very early in the morning to meet the challenges of how to get Jambo out of the port fast and cheap. We were just running from one customs broker to another until by chance we found a lady who could do all the necessary paperwork for just US$400. And so we agreed and went with her to the customs office.

"No problem with your car," they said. That was good news. But it did not remain that cheap.

The maritime company who got the shipping documents released charged for their service including "extras" at US$ 596. And then we were to pay port charges. daylight robbery!

"How much again?" we asked. "Estimated US$1,300," was the reply. Now that was rather extremely high. We were shocked; but let's get Jambo out, and then we'll talk.

Thursday, May 27

It was hectic day indeed .We left the hotel by 8am and returned at 7:30pm. During those long hours, we were running around trying to get the proper travel papers. First the Chilean consulate for my visa. Next stop was an insurance company that could insure Jambo for its travel through several countries. We later rushed to the Chilean embassy. Too bad, the office was closed.

We decided there and then to go to the Bolivian consulate, the consular spoke German. We had a friendly discussion and he too was amazed about our travel since departing from Brunei.

Friday, May 28

The really bad news for today was that our wallets had to depart with a tidy sum of US$2,650 in order for us to get Jambo out of the port. Anyway, it was 3pm when Jambo finally rolls out into the Argentine highways.



Saturday, May 29

We received the visa for Bolivia the day before. And in 10 days time, we have to return to Buenos Aires for visas for Chile, Brazil and Uruguay. For now, we left southbound to Ushuaia the last settlement before the Antarctic. But first we drove Jambo west towards Mendoza a town on the foothills of the Mt Aconcagua.

Driving all day in rain westwards through agriculture land, we stopped by at a petrol station for our first night in Hotel de la Jambo. The agriculture sector in this area is still the most important export earner. Mostly from haciendas with 5,000 ha land. Over 50 million cattle, 28 million sheep and three million horses compete for grazing land.

Sunday, May 30

We were travelling westbound and later reached the town of Mendoza. From there the road climbs up into the Andes and over a pass to Chile. We went until the foothills of the Aconcagua, the highest mountain of the western hemisphere, reaching almost 7,000m.

I recalled that in 2002 we wanted to climb it, but back in those days there was lots of enthusiasm but no sponsors. The Aconcagua still looks as impressive as ever, even from a height of 2,700m. The sky was clear and crystal blue.

On the crest one could see the snow flying, blown up hundreds of meters. The Aconcagua is well known and feared by mountaineers for its fierce storms which can run amuck for hours. I later raised the beloved national flag, symbol of my beloved Brunei.

Later on we travelled around the Cordillera los Andes, driving during daylight and sleeping in Jambo parked somewhere in the middle of nowhere when night falls.

We drove all day again on Routa 40, always having the Andes on our right side, hills up and hills down, passing a river bridge again. In the riverbed occasionally a group of flamingos searching for fish and plants in the water.

Shortly before we stopped by a petrol station, we passed by an army control post, the officer was a young woman of Indian ancestry. "How far is until Carlos de Bariloche?"

"Doscientos (200) kilometros," she smiled. We then drove on.

Friday, June 4

Today we intend to reach El Calafate, a tourist town, about 70km away from the Glacier park.

We consulted our map and we reached an access road into the park before El Calafate town. The junction was easy to be found and we turned westwards on a gravel road along the shores of a lake.

Somehow we wondered; if this is the road to the Glacier park, why was it not tarred? For 75km we thundered along the gravel road, seeing once a in a while herds of alpacas, which turned away and fled the sooner we drove closer.

Before El Calafate town we checked the GPS. We had driven a lengthy journey of some 4,046 km distances from one place to another in this country are enormous.

After leaving El Calafate, we drove for another 294km southeast to the town of Rio Gallegos, and from there we had to cross Chile to reach Ushuaia, the southernmost town of our planet.

Arriving at night we went to the bus station which was busy with passengers in transit throughout the night, and enquired whether we could get a transit visa at the border.

The conductor said in plain English, that there is no such thing and advised us to go and see the consulate to get one. That would be on Monday the earliest. Therefore we decided to head back before we went to rest in our Hotel de la Jambo.

The Brunei Times