Nota Bene

When the temperature drops below -50°C, the world turns into something else. It doesn’t just freeze; it visually transforms. Everything gets wrapped up head to toe in hoarfrost and grows a thick layer of fluffy white crystals. It’s kind of like the inside of a freezer, only way more intense. Trees, road signs, poles and the wires on the poles are all coated in white hoarfrost:

This year that kind of a deep-deepest freeze in the Russian Far East only took place in December and January, while February turned out to be unseasonably warm. In fact, I’d say it was hot for February in Yakutia. If the thermometer shows -20°C at that time of year – yes, that’s hot! The thermometer only crept lower than -40°C a couple of times early in the morning, but it’d almost immediately warm up to -30°C or even higher. It got to the point where, for most of the trip, I wasn’t even wearing thermal ski pants – just jeans. I had some thermal leggings on underneath the jeans – but that was it. And I only wore my fur-lined boots once (when we spent the night in our cars on the ice of the Kolyma River to enjoy the northern lights and a total lunar eclipse).

At such higher-than-usual temperatures, all the white beauty melts away quickly, and the world turns gray and boring again. But at least a few times we got lucky and drove right into “proper” bleached scenery:

Read on…

Colors No. 1
Colors No. 2

In Argentina’s northern region of Jujuy there’s another multicolored spot that’s simply must-see: the Quebrada de las Señoritas valley. Here it is on Google Maps, and on Yandex Maps. The whole valley is made up of brightly colored rocks, and it also boasts… expressive cacti. But the main attraction for sure is an impossibly bright red canyon about half a kilometer long:

“Welcome to the Señoritas!” ->

There not much walking to be done here, though the altitude would suit hikes perfectly at just 2500 meters instead of the 4400 meters at the previous Jujuy-colors spot.

The cacti look like they’re… gesturing to the tourists wandering around. Or maybe they’re trying to warn them about something?…

The views: woah!

Here’s the entrance to the “main course” – the canyon:

Oh my gawdy-gorgeous! Mind-blowing! And we certainly didn’t expect something like it here…

The canyon winds this way and that, and with every turn a new scene emerges:

Then, suddenly, we see a ribbon strung across the canyon. What?! Our guide told us there’d been rain and landslides posing a risk to tourists. Or could it be a ruse of the guides – so they don’t have to take groups all the way to the end of the canyon?!…

// I was still reeling (and still am today if reminded!) that they close the Mountain of 14 Colors to visitors at 6pm and don’t let you enjoy the sunset. WHY? It makes no sense! Could it be that they’re just too lazy?!..

On the way back, we heard excited shouts from a nearby tour group. They noticed that one of my travel companions had a telephoto lens on his camera, and started pointing excitedly at the mountains. Their gestures were accompanied by cries of “Viscacha! Viscacha!” So said travel companion zoomed in and…you guessed it: Viscacha! ->

In closing, a few colorful shots from my ever-present travel companion, DZ ->

Hi-res photos from LatAm-2026 are here.

…*But were afraid to ask

Being somehow drawn to the deep-frozen (sometimes down to -60°C!) North in winter, obsessed with brutal Siberian winter roads, having to put up with equally brutal overnight stays, and thousands of kilometers of rough roads tracks… – let’s be honest, it’s a mental anomaly. Most people would only venture into such a world against their will. Suggest a winter trip to Oymyakon instead of, say, the Maldives, and any normal person would twirl their index finger around one of their temples and roll their eyes. At the other extreme – there are some folks who can’t get enough of such extremely frigid locations like the Arctic or Antarctic. I’m not quite that far gone, but every couple of years I do try and tackle a new winter driving route. I simply mad for it!…

Up north in the winter, it’s a completely surreal world of whiteness!

The scenery in places is simply stunning:

You zone out watching these views roll by, driving as if hypnotized – for hundreds and hundreds of kilometers…

Read on…

// If anyone missed Jujuy №1 – here it is.

The undisputed highlight of our trip to northern Argentina was the Mountain of 14 Colors, aka the Serranía de Hornocal, in the Quebrada de Humahuaca region – a World Heritage Site. And it (rather – they, but in Spanish the name’s in the singular) really is (are) multicolored! Through some geological miracle, the sedimentary rock here ended up layered in different colors. Then erosion ground some of it down (over millennia) and washed it away, and what we’re left with today is this:

Look closer and it gets even more OMG! ->

And if you grab the binoculars or crank up the zoom on a telephoto lens – it’s all just fantastic! ->

Read on…

We’re all different. Some folks have a pedigree dog and a whole houseful of kids and grandkids. Others keep two or three cats – each with its own personality. Some even keep exotic tropical cockroaches and snakes. Some get hooked on online games; others prefer the real world. Some head to the beach in summer for the sun and sea; others make for the mountains – the higher the better. We’re all different – me included. For me – here’s how: my face is usually tanned from trips to the tropics, yet I’ve also developed a serious fondness of Siberian winters and frosty landscapes – those of the meditative-contemplative kind…

For Siberian frosts (especially those in Yakutia) really do invite contemplation – particularly when you’re driving long distances through the wilderness. Like this season…

Not that we got a proper cold snap this year, while the bleached winter scenery really does depend on the uniquely Siberian deep frosts. But I’ll save that topic for another post; for now…

Read on…

Our trip to and around South America early this year had taken us to the north of Argentina and the mountains of the Jujuy province – famous for its bright red (and other colors) mountains. And I just love staring at views like this: the distances, the scale, the colors – it all just blows your mind! We checked out several different locations with these colorful mountains, and now I’m wondering which to start off telling you about. Unlike my usual “at the beginning”, today I’ll go for “in ascending order of awesomeness”: from the modest to the monumental!…

First: where? Here. Also here ->

Read on…

LatAm-2026 so far:

• Mount Fitz Roy – approached
• Cerro Torre mountain – viewed
• Fitz Roy again – seen properly
• Huemul Glacier – nearly reached )
• Perito Moreno – observed up close

Next up – Jujuy Province and its multicolored mountains, salt flats, and roads that seem to go on forever…

Note: none (0!) of these photos is Photoshopped! This is exactly how it all looks. No, really!…

– Read on…>

Though our first attempt of getting up close to a glacier on our LatAm-2026 tour didn’t go quite to plan, our second sure made up for it. And so – introducing (to most of you, I think, dear readers): the Perito Moreno Glacier! ->

And here it is on Google Maps:

Read on…

Privyet folks!

With a few thousand kilometers behind us, things were getting somewhat rough and ready – despite the gorgeous bleached-white scenery…

At times, for five (5!) days straight we didn’t have any internet at all. Or a shower with soap and shampoo. Or a warm WC. Nothing at all! And when such comforts of civilization did finally show up, a line quickly formed to get at them!

Anyway, on with my notes from the winter roads…

Another “1111” sign for my collection ->

But where is it?…

Read on…

Greetings, ladies and gentlemen!

And now – time for a mathematical brainteaser. So without further ado – here it is! ->

How can you turn six arbitrary digits into a hundred?

That’s it!

Now, off you go to try to solve it; then come back later for the answers below. No peeking!

If you’ve come back scratching your head – fair enough. So here’s a bit more meat to this mathematical bone:

Is it possible, with any six consecutive digits (except for a leading zero) – using addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, exponentiation, roots, factorials, and/or parentheses – to get exactly 100? You can “glue” digits together, but you can’t rearrange them.

All right, off you pop again with your thinking caps firmly on…

And now – answers!…

So, how do you get 100 from “123456”? There are plenty of ways; for instance:

Read on…