On the road again.....

Amazon

2012-01-14T08:48:00.000-06:00

From Belem, we went on a 24-hour boat trip on the Amazon forest. Not the deepest and wildest part of it, but enough to spend exotic moments...amongst crazy baby green parrots:

...Giant trees:

A highlight of the trip was a ballad on rivers that are remote mouths of the giant river Amazona (which was too far to visit). We saw unique forest landsapes from near:

We said hi to the habitants of the area - who are very courteous - from their boats:

...or their houses built on stilts at the river shore:

Jericoacoara

2012-01-12T16:33:00.000-06:00

After a 29-hour bus trip including 1h on a vintage bus equipped for sand driving, we got to Jericoacoara. It consists in a little but touristy village fully built on the sand and surrounded by dunes that are protected by the National park designation.

One highlight is the Pedra Furada:

Another must-do is watching the sunset (together with a few hundred people...) on the dedicated dune, logically called "Duna do pôr do sol":

The second day was spent Buggy-touring within the park (passeio do leste):

...featuring stops at the Lagoa Azul, which offers a unique lagoon-plastic-chair-sitting experience shared with our tour-mates:

And a stop at Lagoa Paraiso, whose water is known to be very transparent:

The trip also featured sandboarding at the "Lagoa do Coraçao" which unfortunately was too dry to have its heart shape. Here is a view of another lake we stopped by to admire the wind drawing sand clouds on the dunes.

A particularity of all these lakes is that they have been created by the rain and are therefore filled with freshwater. We too were freshpeople:

Salvador, Bahia

2012-01-08T14:25:00.000-06:00

We stayed in Salvador for few more days than initially planned. Salvador is a coastal city of a few millions inhabitants, which dominated the Bay of all Saints. Entry point of most of the african slaves a few centuries ago, it looks like a melting pot of different cultures, mainly African, European and Indian.

We had time to explore the different terraces up the hilly old town, and sip a caipirinha at sunset.

And after sunset, a number of live concerts start a bit everywhere on the street. Just as the cultures are mixed, the music is also an interesting fusion of different styles: bossa nova, samba, rock, jazz...

Our stay in Salvador was actually split in two, since we stayed for two days in Morro de Sao Paulo.

The skyline of Salvador, as seen from the boat taking us to Morro Paulo (see above post).

Morro do Sao Paulo

2012-01-07T14:05:00.000-06:00

It was way too hot in the big city of Salvador de Bahia, so we decided to have a break at the beach...
We are now heading to the island Morro de Sao Paulo, a 2h boat ride !

It s just a typical tropical island, with its palm trees and its warm water... Almost too hot!!

It was a good start for our suntanning sessions...

Birthday present - Sunny Rio

2012-01-03T09:38:00.000-06:00

However, in the morning of the 3rd (ok, lets say it was a birthday present), we found Rio sunny, for the first day since our arrival (and also our last day there). You may see the view awaiting us early in the morning...

We then went to a viewpoint to see the Corcovado (Cristo Redentor). Every single tourist had been waiting for that day all week, so we did not try to get to the top, which was virtually inaccessible because of the taxis full of tourists.

Here admiring a large panorama over Rio.

In this panorama, you may see on the left the Pao do Azucar, and on the right, on top of the hill, the corcovado. It may seem small from here, but the statue is about 40m tall..

Night in Lapa

2012-01-02T17:49:00.000-06:00

Indeed, the 2nd of January was a rainy day. Yet, we went to visit quite a few neighborhoods, starting with the must-do Ipanema beach (but we havent seen the famous girl). Two clues would make the famous Photoshop turning-the-sky-to-blue feature inefficient: Arnaud and I are wearing shoes and the beach is empty...

This is still a good situation to show how well the typical sand art pieces resist to rain

Evening started with the visit of Escadaria Selaron in Lapa, an original fresco with stairs and walls filled with tiles sent from around the world.

Arnaud cannot believe what he sees...

The visit was followed by a banquet dinner made with the local dishes: grilled chicken, rice, feijao (black bean in sauce), farofa (Manioc - dry - flour, Sevag's favourite), and salad. We were served incredible portions and our three wide-spread stomachs won through a 2-people portions not without difficulty...Arnaud, again, does not believe what is happening.

Another lucky pleasure offered by the restaurant was the broadcasting of a local telenova, featuring a great variety of situations and characters, including this one...

Lapa is the place to be at night to be at the heart of Brazilian music, with live music at every corner, including on its walls.

There, we ended up fairly late in a jazz bar, with an excellent concert.

Rio de Janeiro, New Year's Eve

2011-12-31T06:11:00.000-06:00

Before the big event on Copacabana beach, we shared a few home and quality-made Caipirinhas with our great hosts from the first night, Claude and Iveth, in their flat at 200 m from the beach.

We then went to the beach, where every year the dress-code is white. Thank you Arnaud for respecting the tradition!

Every year this event gathers 2 000 000 + people from all around the world. This picture shows the crowd but also the great weather we had...

...and so does this one!

13 minutes and 6 seconds (True story!) of fireworks...

...after which our national David Guetta made the show!!! Woof!

After a short night of sleep (and a quite adventurous 2h-ish journey back to the hostel), we went around the center and Ipanema.

Here is the quite surprising Metropolitan Cathedral, 60m high of pure concrete...

Paraty & Trindade

2011-12-30T13:04:00.018-06:00

After a short time in Rio (the one and only sunny hours of the end of the year), we went straight to Paraty.

On the first day, we went on a kayak tour of the mangroves. Unfortunately, the camera remained in the waterproof box...

For lunch we had fresh fish (considering the time they needed to serve us, I would say they went fishing right after the order)

On our second day in Paraty, we went to Trindade, after a nice breakfast on the beach (with croques monsieur!)

In Trindade, one of the famous spots is the Pedra que engole (the rock that swallows). Here at work with Sevag

All thats left of him:

Do not worry, he did come out eventually, right on time to enjoy a few hours on the beach.

Cahuita

2011-01-21T19:06:00.000-06:00

Yesterday we left Puerto Viejo to go to Cahuita, only one hour away by bus (probably meaning no more than 30kms). We went to have red-snapper in a rasta bar, just infront of la Playa Negra (not to be confused with black beach, La Jolla. Some know why.).

Anyway, the point is still that the sand is black...

Going to the other side of town, one can find beautiful white-sand beaches, and a national park (including the beach). There we went with a guide early this morning and spotted lots of wildlife, as this slow sloth...

The next one is taken from less than 100m away!

Another sloth trying to reach the next tree (it took him about five minutes to figure out he was too short by about one meter).

The same snake as the other day, on flash needed this time.

And tons tons of monkeys... Here is one with its baby.

After a 6-hour walk, we chilled on the beach, and were surrounded by many others (videos to come).

Cyber is closing, we'll have to write more later. But we are flying back tomorrow night!

Puerto Viejo de Talamanca

2011-01-21T18:20:00.004-06:00

We crossed the whole country of Costa Rica from the Pacific Ocean to the Carribean Sea on the day. We managed to arrive by 6.30 pm in Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, a rasta and surf town at the extreme north-east of the country.

Total change of environment over here : the population is mainly black, since the first inhabitants were former slaves from the West Indies (Jamaica...) that decided to settle in Costa Rica to fish for sea turtles.

Here is a view of our hostel, owned by a former hardcore surfer from the Netherlands, and where obviously plenty of surfers are staying :

So what´s the difference between the Pacific coast and the Carribean coast ?
At the first sight, there are much more palmtrees and coconut trees than in Montezuma...

And how is the surfing over there ?
That´s how it looks from far away...

And that´s the way Rasta-man does it !

After a fair bit of walking and cruiser-cycling (on these cool ¨cruiser¨bikes that come from California)...

.. we made it to Punta Uva, another great beach surrounded by the jungle :

You might say, that´s a bit too much of beaches, what about culture ?
That will be the point of our next day, since we are heading to Cahuita National Park...

Isla Tortuga

2011-01-17T18:02:00.000-06:00

Another busy day... We went by boat to Tortuga island, about one hour from Montezuma. We got really lucky as we went only 5 people on the boat - to be compared to the usual 25 on the other boats...

On the way there, we saw dolphins, lots of pelicans, and even a mama whale with its baby (already the size of our boat though).

We also stopped twice on the way to go snorkelling, close to the corral.

Eventuallly we made it to the perfect white-sand beaches of the Tortuga island. There we had fish for lunch, and lots of time to chill (without getting too much sunburnt, yipee).

The way back was really bumpy as waves grew bigger, but the day was definitely worth it.

Tomorrow at 9.30 we are taking the boat to Jaco. The idea is to be on the caribean coast by tomorrow night, but we are not really sure we will make it, so maybe we'll have to stop on the way. We'll try to enjoy every day until next Saturday!

Montezuma

2011-01-16T16:03:00.000-06:00

After leaving Sevag go back to the airport, we headed to the Pacific coast. A 3-hour chaotic bus ride took us to Puntarenas, where we had to hours to see the city, before taking the ferry to cross the bay.

Again, we got lucky and managed to get a room with views to the ocean (this one is taken from the room!). Prices went steeply up since we left Nicaragua, but it is still affordable...

The ambience here is very chill. Not too many tourists, quite laid-back. Around town, a large forest, with many monkeys, frequently coming downtown.

On the next photo, we see the hostel where we are staying, right on the beach.

And close by is a nice but dangerous waterfall, where people seem to compete for the darwin awards...

Also, we just received a message from Sevag, who safely made it back to Paris. Good luck for tomorrow!

Santa Elena, Monteverde

2011-01-14T17:07:00.000-06:00

Yesterday afternoon we arrived to Santa Elena, close by the Monteverde National Park. The second cloud forest of our trip. The particularity of this park is twofold : the forest was never touched (primary forest), and most importantly it looks very much as Tarzan's forest. Ficus there are huge, with complex shapes...

Here is Tarzan's playground...

One of the multiple small colorful birds (and hard to photograph!). We also saw some colibris, famous for their ability to stationary flight.

We also took a night walk in the forest, to observe the nocturnal activity. This is a hard to see sleeping sloth (paresseux). It is hard to see because it usually takes a 15-hour nap after any short physical activity (mainly eating untouched leaves).

Now this is more scary : a highly poisonous snake (which name I forgot, let's just call it the deadly snake). In the picture, it is in position to attack - probably because Arnaud took a picture with the flash :-).

A "small" tarentula - that looked big enough to me (about my hand's size, but more hairy).

Tomorrow we are splitting the group. Sadly Sevag is flying back to France on Saturday night (red-eye flight, as we apparently say). We on the other hand will keep on going for another week.

The original plan awas to go to the caribbean coast, from north to south, and then back to San Jose for our flight next Saturday, but bad weather conditions there are making us change our minds. We will head tomorrow to Montezuma, beach town on the pacific side, and the head down to el parque nacional del Corcovado (which holds itself a 2,5% of the earth's entire biodiversity if I understood properly...). Many more pictures to come !

Cañas and the Río Corobici

2011-01-13T16:12:00.005-06:00

During our stop in the city of Cañas, we decided to go on a wildlife watching rafting tour on the nearby Río Corobici.
The river looked rather normal at the first sight : just water, rocks and trees...

Then we saw some capucinos (white headed monkeys), that we had already spotted on Ometepe island :

But there was way more than that. We saw plenty of big iguanas : the big orange males, and the smaller but still impressive green females...

We also saw a lot of Jesus Christ lizards : these 20cm long reptiles run on their back legs, which really makes them look like small dinosaurs from Jurassic Park... And their name simply comes from the fact that they run on water ! They actually were so fast that we couldn t get any on a picture, so here is one from Google :

The river looked really nice, but we didn´t really feel like swimming...
The local "cocodrilos" were already having a pretty good time on their own !

This rafting tour was our first step into the wild of Costa Rica...
And much more is to come in the Monteverde National Reserve where we will be heading tonight !

The island of Ometepe...

2011-01-11T19:48:00.002-06:00

Once we finally decided to move on, and leave the wonderful beach of Las Maderas, we crossed the Rivas province from part to part to go from the Pacific ocean to the Ometepe island within the huge Lago de Nicaragua. This trip involved a combination of a truck ride, a chicken-bus ride, a taxi ride, a lancha boat ride, and finally another two and a half hour chicken-bus ride... We left at 10am and got there at 6.30pm, yeepaw !

We stayed at Finca Magdalena, the farm of a former coffee plantation on the side of the Maderas volcano. This was our starting point for the 3-hour hike all the way to the top of the volcano !

The volcano is covered up with "cloud forest" : the following pictures are the best explanation for this kind of very wet and foggy forest !

It took us 3 very wet hours to get to the top, hiking through a trail turned into a narrow and muddy river... "Normal conditions", as a local guide would tell us...

Actually, in a way the conditions looked like a "Tahiti douche" TV commercial... Pierre definitely noticed that :

Obviously, there was absolutely no view from the top nor from the inner crater lake, but the atmosphere was just mystic !

The sky cleared up on the way down, so that we could have a nice view of the Ometepe double-volcano island :

And this is the sunset view from La Finca Magdalena, where we stayed for 2 nights :

We left at 7am this morning in order to be able to get on a chicken bus, catch a boat, get a cab and hop on a bus and reach the border with Costa Rica as early as possible.

After two and a half hours queueing to get our exit and entry stamps, we finally made it to Costa Rica !

We then made a first stop in Liberia, before eventually reaching Canas, where we ll spend the night.

Tomorrow morning we are going on a wildlife boat tour on Rio Corobici, and then we ll head to the Monteverde National Park to get some more wildlife watching !

Playa Madera, San Juan del Sur

2011-01-08T20:36:00.008-06:00

Due to a really bad connection, which made it almost impossible to upload pictures, I'll make quick comments about these ones : We stayed two full days at a hard-to-reach beach. We got there late at night, so we could not see the view, but here is the view once the dorm room is open (true!)

My fat toes sunbathing....

first sunset

Arnaud going for his sunset swim!

Another view from the dorm room.

Last sunset (sunday night).

We had to walk to another beach to get a ride from a pickup to San Juan del Sur, and then to Omotepe island!!

Granada

2011-01-06T19:41:00.011-06:00

After our morning visit of Managua, we headed south to Granada. The feeling there is very, very different. Many beautiful old colonial buildings are still present in the center, making it a primary touristic spot in Nicaragua (which is not necessarily a good thing...).

We stayed in a nice hostel, cheap, with hammocks around the swimming pool, and a good party on Wednesday.

And in the lost&found category :

Managua

2011-01-05T12:33:00.000-06:00

So we spent a night in Managua... (Just to follow the "dont stay in capitals advice"). Thing is, the bus got late again... There are very few tourists in Managua, but it is very different from Tegucigalpa. There's much more space between buildings, and the feeling of insecurity is much lesser. Revolution is all over the place, as proves the next picture (does that look like christmas spirit to you?)

Just as Tegucigalpa, the last earthquake (1972) has left strong marks. The clock of this chuch is still stuck on the time of the earthquake.

The government is trying as hard as it can apparently. On the 5th, all kids were invited to the capital for partying. Free transportation, free food, free rollercoasters for everyone! ( I would not go on one of the rollercoasters we saw though...)

Extra stop : Tegucigalpa

2011-01-04T10:07:00.000-06:00

Today, we tried to make it from Copán to Managua in a day... With a stop in Tegucigalpa. We had not anticipated that the bus from Tegucigalpa to Managua would be full (only 2 seats left, not enough...). So here we are, in Tegucigalpa for 24 hours. The first impressions came from a so-called Charlie :

Welcome to Honduras!

Where are you from?

Do you have 5 dollars?

We'll be on the bus to Managua tomorrow, we want to avoid staying too long here, as there's not much to see and the safety record is not optimal...
Pictures are coming up sooooon....

Ok, that was actually yesterday, but we're safe in Managua now, so no worries :-P

Copán Ruinas, Honduras

2011-01-02T17:50:00.004-06:00

After the great New Year´s Eve party that we had in Antigua, it was time to get to the next step of our trip : Honduras !
We had another 6-hour shuttle bus drive to reach the border.

After a great night of sleep in La Manzana Verde hostel, we went for a visit of the famous Copán Ruinas :

This former kingdom-city used to be the so-called "Paris of the Mayas", due to its rich sculptures and culture, until it suddenly collapsed in the 8th century DC...

On the way back we got to see some beautiful macaws (aras en francais) :

After the visit, we spent a great night in Copán Ruinas (new city) with some British, American, Austrian, Australian and Lettonian backpapers that we met on the bus and at the hostel.
Unfortunately, this remote city was not that active at night and we had to wake up at 4am the following day to catch a bus to Tegucigalpa, so we decided to give Pierre a joker birthday night in the next city with a decent night life !

Happy New Year...

2011-01-01T11:31:00.000-06:00

We'll have to write more about the 22-hour day we had yesterday, as we have a bus to Honduras this afternoon... Let's just wish everybody a very happy new year!

We should sleep in Copán, Honduras tonight (hopefully a long night, as there might be another party tomorrow :-) ).

cheers.

Lago de Atitlán..

2010-12-31T05:07:00.005-06:00

Awakening at 6am to catch a shuttle bus to Lago de Atitlán : a 3-hour ride through the mountains that brought us to an amazing lake surrounded by volcanoes...

What about starting the day trip by a nice breakfast on the lakeside ?
You´ll notice the extra instant coffee powder on the table, kindly given by the waiter after we asked him why the ´cafe negro´ was so clear... ;-)
(and of course the Central America lonely planet guide)

Tough beginning of the day actually...

After the breakfast, we went for a nice hike along the lake, in order to reach the next village, Santa Catarina Palopo :

There we had a great meal in a small local comedoria. Our cook and waiters were the 12-14 years-old son and daughter of the owners, as their parents was out during the day !

On the way back to Antigua, the shuttle bus driver gave us a dramatic scenic ride through the mountains, showing us the damage caused to the roads by the last wet season´s landslides... We even had to drive through the river since the bridge was gone...

Mercado de Chichicastenango

2010-12-30T11:28:00.000-06:00

Today we took a bus to Chichicastenango, as Thursday is market day. The town is absolutely different from Antigua, which is all clean and touristy! This one is very crowded (with local people this time :-) ), and somewhat more dirty...

After a couple of hours wandering around the market, we went for local market cuisine. Let's hope our intestines are ready to take it after only two days here... We were told by the owner that only Europeans venture there, Americans being too afraid of getting sick (it is excellent food though, and 4 times cheaper than anywhere else...)

Yes, the food IS delicious (petage de bide en regle, as would say Moliere). I know Sevag agrees...

Yet another delicious coffee break...

And in the special category, I like that ideally placed No parking sign...

This last picture is actually from yesterday: Antigua's cathedral by night... That was just minutes before attending a memorable local concert. The video will have to wait!

Let's get started - Antigua, Guatemala.

2010-12-29T16:42:00.002-06:00

Avant toute chose, parlons langues :-). Je reçois régulièrement des plaintes de défenseurs de la langue française - dont je suis pourtant un piètre ambassadeur - concernant la langue de rédaction du blog. Pour régler ça à la régulière, je compterai les commentaires des prochains jours. Si il y en a plus en français, on repassera au français (oui monsieur). Sinon, sinon......

Before anything, let's talk business... Since we are French all three (baguette!), we have not really decided yet on the language for the following posts. More english comments will mean posts in english. If french comments win, we'll switch soon. spanish and swedish are off the game (indeed :-P)...

So the trip really starts on Monday, 0am, time to checkin in order to get the emergency exit seats (check :-) ).

Arnaud, Sevag and me all met in Madrid on Monday night, eventually ending our scare of flight disruptions.

We had some time to read the guide brought by Arnaud over the 12-hour flight, direct to Guatemala city, with a quite surprising route over Halifax, New York, Florida,... Landing eventually arrived - for the record, an hour delay on a 12-hour flight is much more confortable than the 8-hour delay I had on the 50-minute flight from Toulouse to Madrid last week. After a short time of bargaining, we got on a cab to Antigua, which used to be the capital of Guatemala until a terrible earthquake teared it down in 1773 if my memory is correct (and the Lonely Planet's).

The city is surrounded with three massive volcanoes. But we probably wont climb any of these, we will wait for smaller ones further south (still digesting Christmas).

And here is a picture to prove that we all got here alive...

I will try to keep the map to the right updated, with as usual the blue flag showing our position, and the different planned stops. Red pins are the places we will go to, whereas blue pins are only ideas so far (and might remain that way)...

New trip - new blog...

2010-11-29T10:33:00.000-06:00

I've had some technical problems with the previous layout, the server with the jeans broke down :-(. So here we are, introducing the new style... Any comment is welcome (well, maybe not ANY).

As some of you know, a new trip is planned this winter. As it is, no real plan. Arnaud, Sevag and I have booked flights to Guatemala on Dec28, and back on Jan 22 (Jan 15 for Sevag), from Costa Rica.

As of now, we are simply looking for a nice place to spend new year's eve (we dont want to re-iterate last year's fail with the missed fullmoon party). Also, if you have been there, and have some advices on which place to go to, please let us know... As usual, we'll fill the map in the right panel as much as possible.

Any idea for new year's eve?? Maybe in Antigua?

Afterwork in three steps... (Del Mar beach)

2010-08-25T13:52:00.003-06:00

San Francisco

2010-08-24T13:44:00.000-06:00

After about 10 months avoiding each other, we eventually managed to arrange a week-end... And since Paris did not work too good for us, San Francisco appeared to be en excellent option, as it was their summer roadtrip last stop (have a look at their nice blog...). For me, it was a nice 3-day break in my summer research at UCSD. I flew in Friday, and out Monday night...

On Saturday morning, we went for a walk between the Golden Gate bridge and Cliff's house, where we had lunch, american style....

Despite all recommendations, I went to SF without a jacket, wearing a light sweater. (Which by the way ended up being a good choice, as we had an amazing weather all three days).

In the afternoon, we visited the Golden Gate park - which is by the way not close at all of the bridge :-S.

On Saturday night, another nice restaurant, with nice people, followed by a jazz lounge, around Japan town.

San Francisco has to be one of my favorite cities on this side of the atlantic. Its ambient is absolutely amazing. On Sunday we went to see some of the highlights : Fisherman's wharf, chinatown, Lombard St, some more Golden Gate bridge...

And to the museum of modern art on Monday morning (note that it is at least the second reference to a museum on this blog, I am getting literate...).

If you dont have enough, I think there is another nice one on J&C's blog...

And here are some pictures I took on the flight back. The first one does not need caption I guess...

This is UCSD from right above (bottom left is the Geisel library, and close to the center is the building where I "work").

And back to downtown San Diego...

San Diego

2010-08-15T20:31:00.001-06:00

I eventually made it to San Diego... Luckily enough I managed again to get an emergency exit seat :-).

After a long flight from Beijing to San Francisco, here is the first contact I got with the US... An apple juice can (how sad...). Note that I am getting healthier, as my first post last year was about beer.

The thing is, I still wonder what 100% apple juice mean... Especially as it specifies just below that it is apple concentrate, with "added ingredient". I am guessing they are trying to keep it secret. shhhhhhh.

It took me a couple days to adjust from the 15h jetlag. I even woke up at 8.30am this morning, which is not very usual for me on a Sunday.

I was glad to see Teddy again. I actually see him everyday, as they serve the best coffee there.

Tsinghua University

2010-08-06T03:38:00.002-06:00

Here are some pictures of this week... On Tuesday, the cultural event of the Symposium : Tsinghua University's orchestra. The program consisted of both chinese and european classical music. For some surprising reason I enjoyed more the chinese part, but I think that mostly had to do with the interpretation of Berlioz and Tchaikovski...

I did not go to the small Great Wall excursion (900 scientists, 20 buses, bad weather...). There are already some nice pictures of it on this blog :-D. Yesterday was the banquet, in the "small" ballroom of Beijing grand hotel.

Unfortunately I had my talk in the next morning, so I could not abuse of the wine. It was not too hard, as I had never had such a bad wine (I might be exagerating a bit). And they said it was French. I would say it was a cheap copy...

And this picture is for the best readers of the blog... I took it 30 min before my talk, that went well btw.

I'll try to publish some more pictures this weekend, now is time for celebration, I am staying here until Sunday!!

Beijing

2010-07-31T22:49:00.001-06:00

And back on the blog... After a couple months without writing anything, I'll try to make it up.

I arrived in Beijing yesterday, after a pointless flight, and a stopover in Frankfurt.

It was surprisingly very productive day : I got to my hotel around 10.30 am, showered, took a one hour nap, went to another hotel meet a colleague, had two 3-euro coffees in a fancy hotel with the boss of combustion, then went for a 4-hour walk downtown... To end up attending the excellent "most alternative dance show in Beijing", in a no less alternative theater. We then had an excellent dinner in a chinese restaurant despite the fact that there was no comprehension whatsoever between the waiter and us...

Here is a suggestion to Madrid, where bike lanes are (almost) inexistant. Take this example :-)

Tenerife - Puerta de la Cruz

2010-06-20T00:59:00.002-06:00

Tenerife has an amazing potential for hiking, biking, windsurfing,.... all sorts of things I really like. Unfortunately, I'll have to go back to fully enjoy this potential, so I put it on my top list of next places to go (back) to.

The 3800m high volcano makes it the highest point in Spain, the best to has an observatory.

Landscapes are varying every 10kms...

This restaurant had the best view AND the best fish in town. White wine is also excellent.

I was wrong, this has to be the best view...

Hafengeburtstag - Hamburg

2010-05-09T01:26:00.000-06:00

I spent the weekend at Jacques' in Hamburg, for Harbor day - la fête du por(t/c). I liked the variety of boat you could get into a single picture... Check these ones out.

The boat on the left is exclusively solar-powered, it was presented there for the first time (or so I was told)...

This is the boat from the famous Thalassa TV-show... Look at the black smoke at the exhaust (!¡!). A shame for an environmentalist show.

This is the largest model railway in the world. It's german, and on this picture, you can only see a 5% of it (I'd say even less...). It is more than 1500 m2, and has over 15kms of tracks... It is actually quite impressive a must-see in Hamburg.

Luang Prabang Part 2 + Vientiane

2010-01-21T04:47:00.003-06:00

Apres les deux jours de trekking+kayak, nous avions choisi de faire une journee plus tranquille... Destination Kuangsi, un parc dans lequel on trouve plusieurs cascades et des piscines naturelles : on ne savait pas a quoi s attendre, on a adore !

Voici quelques illustrations...

On en a profite pour faire quelques seances de saut acrobatique :

Hier, nous avons eu 10h de bus a travers les montagnes pour rejoindre Vientiane, la capitale : superbes paysages, particulierement sauvages ! (surement qq sauvages egalement dans la region puisque l un des employes du bus portait un fusil d assaut...)

Et aujourd hui, retour a Kuala Lumpur par Air Asia, compagnie low cost "Number one in the world"! Ce soir, on va essayer de profiter de Kuala Lumpur by night afin de commencer notre decalage horaire...

Luang Prabang

2010-01-18T06:07:00.003-06:00

Arrivee a Luang Prabang, au Nord du Laos, le 16 janvier : au passage, nous avons ajoute a notre passeport un nouveau visa plutot sympa...

Nous avons decide de partir en trek quelques jours pour decouvrir le Laos autrement que par les grandes villes. Nous voila donc embarques avec un suisse, un australien, 2 norvegiens et 2 guides Laotiens tres agreables pour une viree de 2 jours melant trekking, nuit en basse montagne dans un village Hmong et retour en kayak. Beau programme !

Les paysans Laotiens pratiquent une agriculture de brulis : chaque parcelle exploitee une annee est ensuite laissee vierge pendant 2 ans. Pour cette raison, il ne reste pas beaucoup de jungle autour des villages, mais plutot un "bush" plus ou moins dense :

Apres 5 heures de marche (selon l horloge laotienne, la notre indiquant plutot 3), nous arrivons dans le village Hmong ou nous allons passer la nuit :

Les Hmong sont une des 3 tribus qui constituent la population du Laos. Originaires de Mongolie, ils vivent d agriculture, cueillette et elevage :

Les villageois vivent de maniere tres simple : ni eau, ni electricite, toilette et lessive se faisant a la source toute proche... L ambiance est tres detendue et les enfants respirent la joie de vivre !

Apres une longue nuit reparatrice (aidee par l absence de lumiere et d activite apres 18h...), nous voila repartis vers la vallee pour y recuperer nos kayaks en vue de notre retour vers Luang Prabang.

technical problems

2010-01-15T06:53:00.003-06:00

I hear there are some problems with the blog template, which I had not noticed since I have a feed reader... Greg is in charge to solve the problem, at least with a temporary solution until I'm back :-).
Thank youuuuuuuuuuuuu....

Balade dans la campagne cambodgienne : de Siem Reap a Kbal Spean...

2010-01-15T06:48:00.004-06:00

Aujourd hui, balade en Tuk-tuk dans la campagne autour de Siem Reap...
N ayant apercu que quelques macaques lors de nos passages dans la jungle (pendant la visite des temples d Angkor), nous avons decide d aller visiter "the Angkor Center for Conservation of Biodiversity" pour en savoir plus sur la faune locale... Pour y aller, 50km en tuk-tuk (mobylette a remorque), soit pas moins de 1h30 de promenade !

En cours de trajet, on a pu se rendre compte que les camions et autres remorques n ont finalement pas grand interet au Cambodge : pourquoi s encombrer avec si gros quand on peut en mettre autant sur une mobylette ou un velo ?

En sortant de la ville, on voit immediatement que l argent du tourisme ne profite qu a peu de gens : ici, les cambodgiens vivent dans des huttes en bois sans eau ni electricite, quand au meme moment de nombreux cambodgiens en ville roulent en Range Rover flambant neuf... Comme nous l expliquait notre guide, les millions de dollars des visiteurs d Angkor (20$ de droit d entree par jour et par personne) vont directement dans les poches des "high officials" - sans meme servir a la restauration des temples... Corruption quand tu nous tiens...

Une fois arrives au parc naturel, nous avons eu droit a une visite guidee dans le centre ou sont pris en charge les animaux rescapes du braconnage : singes, aigles, marabouts (ou plutot l equivalent asiatique), serpents et tortues... Ainsi que le fameux pangolin, ce fourmilier a carapace dont les chinois sont tres friands (1200$/kg, quand un professeur a un salaire mensuel de 30 a 40$ par mois...).

Le marabout asiatique (superbe charognard dont la tete ressemble a un cadavre... Espece menacee en Asie mais bien presente en Afrique) :

Le gibbon :

Et un paon, moins original mais toujours aussi impressionnant :

Sur le trajet du retour, nous nous sommes arretes au Musee des mines antipersonnelles : une presentation tres emouvante du malheur subi par les cambodgiens, pendant la guerre du Vietnam puis pendant les annees noires des Khmers Rouges, qui n ont pris fin qu en 1997... Et malgre cela, on ne voit que sourires et joie de vivre chez tous ceux que l on croise...

Temples d'Angkor

2010-01-14T06:34:00.003-06:00

Aujourd'hui, grosse journee : reveil a 4h15, pour aller voir le lever du soleil sur Angkor Wat, principal temple d'Angkor (on n etait pas les seuls a avoir eu l'idee). Ensuite, accompagne d'un guide a l'anglais un peu approximatif, mais tres cale dans le domaine, nous avons visite plusieurs temples de la zone. Evidemment, apres avoir vu le temple principal, ca parait un peu petit, mais tres interessant...

Un des temples est connu pour avoir accueilli Tomb Raider alias Angelina Jolie (triste culture...).
Il s'agit d'un temple qui a ete abandonne pendant 2 siecles, a la mercie de la jungle. Aujourd'hui, il est impossible de degager certains arbres.
Notons tout de meme qu'Arnaud a entendu deux americaines demander a leur guide : "Mais pourquoi ils ont plante tous ces arbres ici????
Retour a l'auberge a 16h, epuises... Du coup, un excellent "all-you-can-eat" cambodgien - 3$ :-) - de legumes, poisson, crevettes, et autres crustaces.

Phnom Penh

2010-01-11T23:35:00.004-06:00

Nous sommes arrives hier apres-midi a Phnom Penh, capitale du cambodge, et ancienne ville coloniale francaise (on a meme pu avoir de la baguette pour le petit-dej ce matin...).
On est dans une petite auberge bien sympa a 3$ la nuit, avec plein de jeunes, et dans le quartier anime des ONG.
On a aussi eu le temps de faire un premier tour dans la ville, pour voir la place de l'independance (au dessus), l'institut du bouddhisme (en dessous :-) ).

Mais aussi quelques batiments du palais royal, avec en bonus un beau coucher du soleil.

Le batiment principal du palais royal :

Et la, c'est le musee national du Cambodge... Pas mal aussi!
Apres une courte grasse matinee ce matin (bien meritee, c'est qu'on avance a bon rythme...), une reservation de bus pour Siem Reap, et du vol pour Luang Prabang, nous partons maintenant visiter le palais... Et demain, direction Siam Reap et les temples d'Angkor!

Krong Koh Kong

2010-01-10T23:48:00.002-06:00

En route pour le Cambodge, via la petite ville de Krong Koh Kong et ses mangroves.
Malgre les avertissements que nous avions recus sur les arnaques lors des visas d entree au Cambodge, tout s est bien passe, avec le sourire !
Nous avons pris des moto-taxis pour rejoindre la ville de Krong Koh Kong :

Puis nous avons pu enchainer sur un coucher de soleil depuis un bateau au milieu des mangroves : superbe !

Le lendemain matin, depart pour Phnom Penh en bus local (tout confort, selon les criteres locaux neanmoins)...

Bangkok !

2010-01-09T06:14:00.003-06:00

Apres une nuit en train couchettes 2eme classe thailandais, nous sommes arrives a Bangkok le 09 janvier a 6h : ambiance hopital dans le train grace aux superbes rideaux verts :

Ayant depose nos sacs a l auberge,decouvert notre chambre (voir photo ci avant) et pris un bon petit dejeuner, nous sommes partis a la decouverte du centre ville de Bangkok, avec sa multitude de temples bouddhistes de styles differents (type pagode ou type pyramide khmer) :

Internet est vraiment trop lent ici... Ce sera tout pour les photos !

Ko Tao - les poissons !

2010-01-06T07:09:00.005-06:00

Suite a une demande, voici une selection des poissons que nous avons pu voir sur Ko Tao avec nos masques et tubas :

- une raie a points bleus :

- un "starry pufferfish" (tres peureux, en version degonflee):

Question a deux sesterces : quel est le nom francais de ce poisson ?

- plusieurs "bannerfishs" :

Koh Tao

2010-01-05T04:22:00.008-06:00

Hier et aujourd'hui nous avons fait le tour de l'ile:

hier par l'exterieur, en bateau, et aujourd'hui par l'interieur en scooter.

A chaque plage, un spot de plongee. On a vraiment l'impression de plonger dans un aquarium, mais en plus grand, et beaucoup plus de poissons. Malheureusement, nous n'avons pas pu prendre de photos sous-marine (cf un apercu dans le post d'Arnaud).

A la place, voici quelques photos prises a la surface, entre deux plongees.

Koh Samui

2010-01-02T23:13:00.003-06:00

Aujourd'hui nous sommes alles faire le tour de l'ile de Koh Samui. Comme tout ile touristique, il y a des tres grosses disparites.

Petite attraction touristique : comment les singes dresses vont chercher les noix de coco... Ils les font tourner jusqu'a ce qu'elles tombent (attention la tete TIMBEEEER). De memoire, ils ont dit que les hommes en descendaient jusqu a 200 par heure, alors que les singes arrivent a 500... (Mais apres reflexion, ca me parait enorme, avec le temps de grimper les 10m de cocotier)

Ensuite, nous avons aussi vu quelques temples, vraiment tres jolis. J ai plein de photos, mais regardez la taille de ce Boudha.

Ca c'est une petite ville de pecheurs, de l'autre cote de l'ile.

Et enfin, une cascade ou le roi lui-meme est passe! (il y a pas mal d'annees deja...)

Cet apres-midi, nous nous dirigeons vers l'ile de Koh Tao, ou nous resterons jusqu'au 7 au matin, pour nous diriger ensuite vers la capitale, Bangkok, ou nous passerons le weekend.

Sawadee Pee Mai !

2009-12-31T14:27:00.004-06:00

Sawadee Pee Mai ! (Bonne annee en Thai....)

Apres une soiree de Nouvel An inoubliable au milieu des Thailandais de Phuket Town, avec ses lanternes volantes, son marche et ses chants locaux, nous vous souhaitons plein de bonheur et plein de bonnes choses pour 2010 !

Nous aurons donc passe le Nouvel An 2010 en compagnie de 2 allemands, une allemande et une americaine rencontres sur place, au milieu d'une population exclusivement thailandaise (aucun etranger dans cette ville, tous les touristes ayant prefere se retrouver sur la plage de Patong pour une soiree a l occidentale). Awesome experience !

Ko Phi Phi

2009-12-31T06:32:00.003-06:00

Aujourd'hui, nous avons visite l ile de Ko Phi Phi, rendue celebre pour le film The Beach (ca tombe bien, on ne l'a pas vu), avec option "tourisme de masse"...
Nous avons donc rejoint une croisiere organisee sur la journee, avec le programme suivant :
minibus, gros bateau a touristes, plongee au tuba au milieu des bateaux et des chinois en gilet de sauvetage et masque et tuba (toujours la grande classe, ces chinois) - et avec aussi une quantite de jolis poissons multicolores, puis repas et temps sur l ile de Ko Phi Phi (superbe) avant un retour sur Phuket dans l apres midi.
Au final une tres bonne journee, avec des paysages splendides, mais surtout avec le merveilleux sentiment de faire partie de la grande famille des touristes de masse ! Parce qu on le vaut bien...

Phukhet

2009-12-30T10:37:00.006-06:00

Nous sommes finalement arrives hier soir a Phuket. Au programme d'aujourd'hui, lever 10h pour recuperer du decalage horaire, bus locaux (une vraie aventure), plage, marche, plage, plage, plage, coucher du soleil... Et ce soir, petite soiree - courte - a Patong, histoire de voir a quoi ca ressemble (un genre de veni vidi vici quoi... On y retournera pas).

et le coucher du soleil...

Demain, lever 7h, et on va a Ko Phi Phi, sur la journee. Le soir, reveillon a Phuket town. On pensera bien fort a vous tous. Bonne annee a tous. On espere tenir jusque minuit heure francaise :-).
Ensuite, le 1er, nous fuirons Phuket, direction Ko Samui...

Bien arrives...

2009-12-28T23:32:00.004-06:00

Because most of our readers can read french, and after receiving several complaints, we decided to write in french. However, enough complaints of english aficionados could incent us to reconsider....

Voila, nous sommes bien arrives a Kuala Lumpur ce matin apres 12h de vol... Et il fait chaud!
Ce soir nous prenons l'avion pour Phukhet, on n'est pas encore sur du programme pour la suite.

Evidemment, c'est le premier cyber cafe, donc j'ai oublie l'adaptateur pour uploader quelques photos, ce sera pour demain.

En gros, on ne sait pas encore dans quel coin on va passer le nouvel an, l'opinion generale semble recommander d'eviter Phukhet autant que possible. Il reste beaucoup d'iles cote Phukhet (soit proche de Phukhet, soit de l'autre cote de la peninsule).

South-East Asia trip, D-3

2009-12-25T13:14:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas to all of you........

Lisboa

2009-12-10T17:37:00.003-06:00

Just some pictures from Lisboa, before I go to bed... I'll post maybe a couple more tomorrow, before going to Amsterdam :-).

Lisboa downtown....

Now that I remember, the next picture was taken on the way back to Madrid, en el Parque Nacional de Monfragüe...

This one was taken not too far from Cabo de Roca, westernmost point of mainland Europe :-).

Lisboa again...

New trip, new milestones!

2009-11-25T09:29:00.003-06:00

Some already know, we - my cousin and I - are going on a 4-week trip to South-east asia...
So far we dont really know where we are going.
What we do know is that we are flying in Kuala Lumpur, on dec28, and out on Jan22 (next year!).

Just like the south-american trip, I'm open to (most) propositions about where to go!
Lars, Lionel, Otarie, onk & co, I'm waiting for your comments...

Fall - Madrid

2009-11-03T09:32:00.003-06:00

Fall eventually made it to Madrid, bye bye summer....
Don't you worry though, we still have a steady and sunny 20C every afternoon!

Cambridge

2009-09-24T09:33:00.001-06:00

Here I post a couple pictures I took in the center of Cambridge (I shall spell it centre, not to be too rude). I had forgotten my umbrellllllla, but did not need it once (si si, c'est vrai...)

Check out the lawn.... (Unfortunately, no sunbathing permitted)

And that's a picture taken in the College I stayed at for the courses and presentation.

Here is a proof that I was actually working there... Indeed, it might be the only one...

And this last picture was taken on the way back, in London Stansted, HQ of Ryanair.... And by far the worst airport I've been up to now! But very conveniently located when going to Cambridge. It's a bit like Paris-Beauvais, but instead of having 2-3 aircraft at time (ie. about 400 passengers), there are about 40, for the same number of seats in the main hall (do the maths). Dont worry, there are plenty of "duty free" shops where you can spend your money instead of losing your time (not) finding a seat.

OC-style week-end

2009-08-16T23:21:00.004-06:00

This weekend, I went to UC Irvine visit Kameel.

OC-style party, swimming pool, boston lagers, bikinis (censored)...

And to finish, I d like to show a big advantage of the usa. For careful readers, it is to be related to an adventure in Peru (after the Misti climb...). The shoe is size 20 (I am a 12... or 47 european).

I am still unsure of next weekend's plan. Most probably some wine road around Santa Barbara, or Las Vegas...

Canoe sex / American beers

2009-08-06T10:21:00.003-06:00

I arrived at UCSD on monday... Everything fell in place, work is going fine, workout after hours.

Just a small anecdote though :

Yesterday I went to the mall, buy some groceries, for breakfast, my daily salad, etc etc.

Indeed, I was going to buy a 6-pack of american beer.

(Not this one, but Samuel Adams, which is better...). There I come, at the counter. Indeed, the cashier asks for my ID. I show him my French ID.

- Oh, sorry, we dont take this...

- Really? - OK, here s my driving license...

- Still not valid...

- I am not supposed to walk around all the time with my passport, am I?

- I am afraid that would not be sufficient : we do not accept foreign ids. Any.

- So... how does that work, I cant have a beer with my friends?

- You're supposed to ask for a temporary id.

- for three weeks?

- I am afraid so...

- damn...............

*beers stayed there...

Now I have to ask my recently turned 21 flatmate to buy beer for me... What a beautiful country. I am just hoping that they will let me in a bar tonight!

cheers.

Mallorca !

2009-07-26T10:26:00.002-06:00

This weekend I went with Camille to Mallorca, visiting Miguel (see the last posts from Argentina).
He lives in a lovely farm in the middle of nowhere (we barely saw a single german!!!)

Corrida

2009-06-21T04:08:00.003-06:00

This Sunday, I went with one of my roommate to a corrida... I know, i know, it was awful... But I had to go, right?
Next June 21st, Ill go to some concert instead of some slaughter game, I promise.

Ajaccio

2009-06-10T04:07:00.002-06:00

Some pictures of the national park "Scandola", and Ajaccio's surroundings... who s in?

The last picture is a metaphor for heaven, as I see it anyway. I had saved some chocolate from Zurich...

Zurich

2009-05-20T03:00:00.006-06:00

Here are a couple of pictures I've been willing to upload for a while...
For those familiar with Le Grand Bornand, I am sure you'll recognize La Pointe Percee, le col des aravis,etc etc... :-) Et bien sûr le Mont Blanc.

Here is a special picture, I see it as the Swiss version of the famous toilets scene in Trainspotting.
And that's how you surf a couch...

Map!

2009-03-05T14:05:00.012-06:00

South-America trip Map

2008-12-25T09:15:00.000-06:00

View Gustav & Pierre Trip in a larger map

We're back... alive.

2008-12-22T09:42:00.002-06:00

We're back on the right side of the ocean... We flew with two different airlines, Gustav had some troubles with Air India (apparently they wanted him to go to London for some reason). He'll fly tomorrow to the mooses' country... By then, we are sorting some pictures, and will try to make a selection small enough not to bore our most careful readers.
The jet lag is not too bad so far, but I guess the most difficult part is yet to come.

The Big Apple - Part 2...

2008-12-18T16:27:00.004-06:00

We are following your advices, so you can keep suggesting visits!!!

These two pictures were taken at the UN... (It adds an extra country to this trip, the land are not the property of the USA).

I went today to Brooklyn Heights, while Gustav went to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island (I went there ages ago...).

Oh, and yesterday we went to another jazz concert (this time in a place way cheaper than the Blue Note...). As you can see, I could not have a better se

The Big Apple - Part 1...

2008-12-15T16:49:00.006-06:00

We've been in New York for almost a week now... The weather has been very bad for the first three days. Here is the best shot I got from the Statue of Liberty during this period of time.

We walked a lot this week, believe me Manhattan is way bigger than it looks like. The weather got much better this weekend, so we walked even more... We went on the ferry to Staten Island at sunset time (or should I say right after sunset).

Here is a picture of Gustav on the top of the Rock (the Rockefeller center), which gives a good view on the Empire State building, and the financial district in the background.

We also went to Central Park yesterday with Vincent, before going to see the last movie of Clint Eastwood "Gran Torino" on Times Square - we highly recommend this movie.

Some more pictures of Central Park...

I obviously had to go to the Blue Note once, so we did that too, for the 70th birthday of McCoy (check that out...). For these who dont know, most of the jazz you can hear at my place have been recorded live in this bar :-).

Hum.... During the rainy days, we went to the Museum Of Modern Art (MoMA). Here are some of our favorite masterpieces.

We also saw Little Italy, ChinaTown, Greenwich village,Times Square, the 5th avenue (and the apple store). We are waiting for your suggestions for this week. On the next rainy day, we'll try to visit the Met, and eventually do the christmas shopping.

The Everglades

2008-12-08T10:10:00.003-06:00

Yesterday we went to the everglades. It is a national park only an hour-drive away from Miami. We went there with two other French met at the hostel. The park is basically a very large swamp infested with alligators (not to be approached, Gustav...).
We rented bikes for an hour to get a closer look of the incredible fauna.
I really felt like swimming, because it was a good warm day, but I had to reconsider when I saw this.

Tomorrow morning, we'll be flying to NYC. We'll try to enjoy the last day at the beach as much as possible!!!

Miami Beach

2008-12-06T16:29:00.006-06:00

A relaxed day at the beach! Plenty of sun, palmtrees and sand. After seeing town yesterday we deserved a little rest, lying around suntanning and waching some guy doing some strange sort of paddling/surfing/whatever without any waves.

Miami Downtown...

2008-12-05T16:31:00.000-06:00

On Friday, we went for a long walk downtown Miami. Nothing really special, but the skyscrapers are quite nice. There is water everywhere, which makes it look nice (even nicer with the yachts...). There are also Mc Donalds (but not as many as we would have expected).

Views of Downtown Miami... (lack of inspiration)

Christmas is already everywhere, but it looks slightly out of place, with 30 degrees in the sun, and the palm trees.

And this is the front door of our youth hostel... I like the reflexion :-).

Miami... at last!

2008-12-03T17:27:00.007-06:00

We are now in Miami, but the trip here was not an easy one. It all started out "well", we got up at oh four oh oh (oh oh oh... I was so tired) in the morning and got a taxi to the airport. We get there with lots of margin and we go to our gate just in time for a marvelous sunrise. We sit around for a while, time goes by, and all of a sudden its gotten really late without any of us noticing. Just then someone is walking by calling (i.e. mumbling) our names. It turns out our flight has left, from a different gate.

ok, it's not our plane, but we did see the aircraft moving backwards from the boarding gate (just like in so many movies - or in HIMYM, for the fans).

So we go out through security, which is quite a process that does not include being officially cleared into the country, and go talk to our airline. It turns out we'll be on standby until 15.00, then until 15.20, then until "un momentito" (an expression that can mean ANYTHING, but usually implies quite a lot of time) and finally they give us new tickets to Lima. From there on everything went smooth, we had no trouble changing our tickets in Lima and we even had time for one last Cusquena beer before taking off for Miami.

You have to admit that the sunrise at BA airport was quite captivating... the best explanation to our stupidity we found so far (although it might have been that subconsciously I (P) really really wanted to see my sister, who was flying a couple hours later from BA).

So far we have been walking around town a bit, seen the sunrise on the beach and slept a few hours as we didn't get to sleep much on our flights.

Everything in here have been sooooo cliche until now... We miss South America!!!

Good Bye South America!

2008-12-01T16:04:00.004-06:00

We are done with the first continent for this trip. Early (VERY early) tomorrow morning we are flying to Miami, via Lima. I guess this is the time to get buhuhu-nostalgic and the like, but I am a bit to tired for that, so those of you who like nostalgia can go back and read some of our older posts. Next time we´ll be writing from the USA (unless the current flooding and massive rainfalls here in Buenos Aires stops us!).

This is the end... of the World - Ushuaia

2008-11-26T06:00:00.000-06:00

Getting to the end of the world by road is quite tricky... First, looking at the map, you'll see that the borders are such that you need to do several border crossing if you want to drive from Argentina to Ushuaia (still in Argentina...).
There is no bridge to cross the Magellan strait (shown in the next couple pictures).

The boat transporting the bus does not look as new as the ones in Stockholm's archipelago, which is a bit crazy, but at least, there was an entire team of dolphins following us, apparently ready for a rescue operation...

The last 400kms are quite painful since there is no asphalt road (eventhough I was getting used to it...). But the landscapes of "Tierra del Fuego" are breathtaking.
Ushuaia has about 50 000 inhabitants, and live mostly of tourism (id est : it is a totally overpriced town). For only 4000 us$, I could buy a last minute ticket for a 10 days-cruise to Antarctica, but I did not (only because I have my plane tomorrow...).
It is situated right on the Beagle Channel, which is the number one attraction here (there is also some skiing, but now is off-season).

On the Beagle Channel...

Onk onk onk...
Some Cormorans :-)

The very famous lighthouse on the Beagle canal...

Today, the weather is not so nice, and Miguel just got his flight back to Buenos Aires, so I'll just chill, reading my spanish book, and drinking hot coffee. Tomorrow I'll fly as well to Buenos Aires, where I should meet Gustav.

Puerto Natales

2008-11-24T18:00:00.000-06:00

After the trek, I was quite exhausted, so I slept the two hours on the bus ride back to Puerto Natales. Unfortunately, we did not have much time in Puerto Natales because the bus to Ushuaia was booked for the next day, first thing in the morning. Puerto Natales is a lovely town, in the Chilean fjords.

News express

2008-11-24T17:05:00.003-06:00

Just to let you know that I am alive... I am just coming back from a 3days and three nights trek in Torres del Paine.
I am still in Puerto Natales (Chile) tonight, but I'll hop on the first bus tomorrow to Ushuaia, my last stop in Patagonia!
Pictures to come when I get there... (if I get there...)
So the next posts will be about snow storms, avalanches, heavy rain and cold nights...

Torres del Paine - day 3 - Summer

2008-11-24T06:00:00.000-06:00

At last... A day with a really nice weather. We got up at 4am to do the 1 hour climb to the Mirador before sunrise. Unfortnuately, it was a little bit cloudy still, so we did not see the pink color on the Torres, but we still have a nice sunrise. The Torres are really spectacular.
The next picture was taken from the mirador de las Torres (which have very inventive names, such as Torre central, Torre Norte, and Torre Sur...). I particularly like the mirror image in the lake.

We then went back to the camp, packed everything, and made it to the 14.30 bus. Obviously, this last day was like summer, which made it really difficult to leave...

We had been warned that it is quite common to encounter the four seasons within a single day in Torres del Paine... Well, in my experience, it has been four seasons in four days, but this experience was definitely worth it!!!
Oh, and you can't even imagine how good was the shower back in Puerto Natales...

Torres del Paine - day 2 - Spring

2008-11-23T06:00:00.000-06:00

At breakfast, there was only one subject of conversation... How damn cold was the night. It was snowing in the morning at the camp. Thank you again to my sleeping bag, I slept non-stop from 9pm to 8am.

This day has been the longest one of all. Mainly because we did not have so much time to do the circuit. We walked about 9 hours (with the bags, this time)... and eventually made it to the last campground around 7pm. The weather was extremely windy, and still a bit cold, but way better than the day before.
The sceneries along the lake are breathtaking.

The base camp is the highest in altitude, which is perfect to get early to the "Mirador de las Torres", the most popular trek in the area (which can be done in one day as well).

For those who were wondering how we made it without water...

Torres del Paine - day 1 - Winter

2008-11-22T09:05:00.000-06:00

You may have noticed on the previous pictures, the first night's sky did not look so good for the next day... So indeed, we woke up this morning with a tent absolutely soaked with water (it would not have been so much fun otherwise...). The night was also quite cold, I am glad I had taken my new sleeping bag. After a good hot coffee, we went to the next base camp. Two hours of walkin' in the rain later (singin', not so much), we made it to the second camp. Luckily, we had one hour without rain for lunch, and setting camp.

We then went without the bags for a 6-hour trek up the "Valle del Frances". About 100 vertical meters later, the rain had turned into snow (and obviously I was still wearing shorts, it dries way faster :-) ).

I saw countless avalanches, a couple of them really massive. (the next picture is from Miguel...)

At about 19h, we had a really good dinner (pasta for 4, just like the day before).

Torres del Paine - day 0 - Fall

2008-11-21T08:35:00.000-06:00

So, Yesterday, we left El Calafate and arrived in Puerto Natales quite late. We then woke up at 7am this morning to pack a few things, rent some equipment, book bus tickets, buy food... The idea of the next couple days is to do the world famous "W circuit" in Torres del Paine. It is very common to leave with needlessly heavy bags since the weather can change very fast (About 18kgs each, for three nights, without water).
At 14.30, we took the bus to the entrance of the park, and at 17h30, a catamaran to the first base camp.

After having set camp, we went to the mirador of glaciar Grey. The weather was very Fall-like. Big clouds, but not really raining... yet.

We came back to the camp at 22h, cooked, had a glass of wine and went to bed (then I realized that the tent was not more than 1m80 long)...

El Calafate, Glaciar del Perito Moreno

2008-11-19T15:35:00.003-06:00

Soooo... Today I went to el Parque Nacional de los Glaciares again (Oh, no...). I saw the only non-recessing glacier. It is a wall of ice (50 to 60 meters, believe it or not...) falling into a river. Did anybody see the last opus of Ice Age by the way? It is also te glaciar moving the fastest (the speed is 1 to 2 meters said the guide, but it might be carrots, cows or whatever - stupid engineers...). Thanks to that, it is quite common to see massive parts falling into the water, splashing everything in a 50-meters radius.

Tomorrow in the afternoon, I'll hop on a bus to Puerto Natales, Chile. From there I plan on doing a 3-days trek into "Torres del Paine"... Don't worry, I won't go alone since it is forbidden. I'll probably need Friday to rent a tent, pack the necessary food and equipment for the 3-4 days. Hopefully, the water is drinkable pertty much everywhere here, so I will not need to carry 10 liters!

Pffff.... After 2 hours and 20 pesos, this blog is eventually up to date!

El Chalten, Parque Nacional de los Glaciares

2008-11-18T15:00:00.004-06:00

After the two-day journey along Ruta 40, I stopped two days in El Chalten. There is basically nothing to do in Chalten apart from trekking! I went the first day trekking with two girls, scottish and british, and a spanish guy (with whom I'll trek in Chile a couple days). We left at 9am to see "El Fitz Roy", a really beautiful mountain (but the top is quite hard to reach!). After lunch, we split because we guys wanted to walk more, and we went back to town at 8pm. It was really exhausting, but great!.

El Fitz Roy

The second day, I went alone for a 5-hour trek to another glaciar (alone because it was supposed to be an 8-hour trek and I only had 6 :-) ).

El Glaciar y el Lago Torre

I made it in time to take my evening bus to El Calafate. Then again, sunset (picture taken from the bus)...

Ruta 40

2008-11-16T14:36:00.004-06:00

At last I got on the bus at 6.45am yesterday morning... The trip was two day long (yes, on the bus). The landscape was not as boring as I would have thought (I had been told several time "Patagonia is the same all the way long, steppa, and some rabbits or flamingos"). It was also a real adventure since the road is unpaved most of the way. A rock literraly destroyed one of the bus window after 6 hours on the first day (so we had to stop about 30 minutes to tape the whole thing).

A couple hours after that, the petrol tank fell on the ground (which meant another hour stopped on the side of ruta 40). The number of cars we saw passing during this hour would fit on the fingers of one hand!

The good thing about this second stop is that it occured right during sunset! We then arrived at the hostel in Perito Moreno, Santa Cruz at 11pm.

After a really good night of sleep, we left at 10am for the another 700kms offtracks... The scenery was changing a lot. To the fans of beep beep : I DID see roadrunners!!!

The arrival on El Chalten was fantastic : another wonderful sunset, this time with mountains in the background....

PS : I am writing all this from El Calafate, and my computer is really bad, so I just picked up randomly some pictures (the preview is worse than the one on the mini-screen of my camera!).

Bariloche, last day...

2008-11-14T14:19:00.004-06:00

I stayed longer than I would have thought in Bariloche because I wanted to wait for the first bus going down "la Ruta 40"... The last day I went trekking to "El Refugio Lopez". The scenery was very different from the one I saw two days ago from Refugio Frey, but was as great... Here are a couple pictures taken from the top.

I cant wait to head South tomorrow, although these last couple days were le-gen......

Some more chilling in Bariloche...

2008-11-13T11:10:00.004-06:00

I really hope Gustav is getting better in Mendoza (but I have to admit that I have very limited information... I decided to stay longer in Bariloche because the place is very nice and I met incredible people here. On Tuesday I went for some class III/IV rafting. It was - too short - but great since the snow melting makes the river really big. For safety reasons I did not take any picture, but I now it's printed somewhere in there!

Yesterday I woke up at 7am to go trekking with three girls met on the way (dont worry Gustav, I have good company). I was warned at the guides office that it was a really hard trek - at least 5 hours for the climbing part - and that there was snow blablabla... The four of us made it in 3hours something :-). The scenery was spectacular.

This is the place where we ate a small picnic before going down an alternative trail (way longer, but we made it to the 6.45pm bus...).

I just love trekking... Today I was feeling a bit tired (maybe the party yesterday did not help), so I will just chill on the beach next to the lake. Tomorrow I will go trekking with two british girls this time (dont tell the second one she's british cause she's actually scottish...). The scenery is supposed to be even nicer, but the trek is shorter :-(.

I stayed here quite a while because I wanted to take a bus down "Ruta 40", but the first one was going on Saturday, so I had to wait. I have booked all my buses down to El Calafate where I should be by Tuesday night. With some luck, Gustav will feel better by then and will meet me there. On the way there, I'll stop in El Bolson (a nice national park), sleep in Perito Moreno (the city - not the glacier next to El Calafate). I should then stay a couple days in El Chalten...

When planning this trip I thought I would have a lot of time, and until now I thought so, but the closer I am to Ushuaia, the more carefully I need to plan!

Another temporary split up

2008-11-11T14:10:00.003-06:00

So I have given up, my stomach is not getting any better. Thus I am now in Mendoza (civilisation) hoping to find a decent medic and get well again. Pierre will have to do the waching of glaciers etc. for now!!

San Carlos de Bariloche

2008-11-08T17:06:00.001-06:00

Today we went to "el Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi"... It is very close to Bariloche (about one hour bus ride). It is the first national parc in Argentina - and believe it or not - it is really nice!

We trekked in three different places in the parc : the first trek was about one hour walk to this very nice waterfall. Okay, it is not as big as Iguazu, but once you know that the trees in ths parc are about 30-40m high, you realize it is not that small afterall...

The landscapes reminded very much of the French Alps (home sweet home...). The mountains are relatively low (2500-3500m). Just like anywhere else, the glaciers are recessing (apart from one glacier that we'll see further South). The U-shaped valley shows the extent of the former glaciers.

The main attraction of this national parc is the black glacier. It is visible on the right of the next picture. The huge rock in the middle of the picture is in fact ice. Since this glacier is on a volcan, the ice gets very dirty along its path, due to the contact with basaltic ashes.

And now the 100-dollar question... Why is the color of the two rivers soooo different? I think all the necessary elements are in this post!

Punta Loma

2008-11-06T14:17:00.004-06:00

For our last day here in Puerto Madrin we went biking to "Punta Loma", a colony of sealinons some 15 km from here. The sandy road and the wind in our faces made it seem more like 150 km, but eventually we arrived. The place was quite impressive, a beach packed with sealions, to move they had to crawl over one another!
On the way back (being more like 5 km, with the wind in our backs) we took a little break on the beach. After a few minutes of watching the kitesurfers we saw a strange black object moving in the water. At first we thought it was a windsurfer trying to raise its sail or a buoy, but when it started spraying water there was no longer any doubt, it was a whale. Soon it was joined by 5 more and (this is actually true!!!) a bunch of flamingos flying back and forth over it!
Unfortunately we where to amazed to think about taking out our cameras before it was too late, however pictures of the flamingos and whales (though unfortunately not together) will be up tomorrow, when and if we find a good connection AND remember cables and the like!

Peninsula Valdes....

2008-11-05T16:14:00.006-06:00

Since most of you voted for the whales' pictures, Here there are...
Today we went on a tour to Peninsula Valdes. Gustav did not sleep last night because he was afraid not to see any whale today (clap clap, he was tired all day), but he was wrong... There are 2000 whales in this small bay, they all come there for reproduction. This bay is simply infested with whales :-p... The main problem is that it is really hard to take good pictures (you never know when or where they come off), so I mainly enjoyed the show...

I hesitated between this picture and the one showing a majesteous whale's tail... But there you go...

One of the numerous jumps... Quite impressive when you think that this specie of whale weighs 30-50tons for up to 20meters... We were also explained the way the way the whale copulates, which will be censored here (you can put your guess in the comments - not anonymously - but I doubt you'll quite get there...).

I like this one too....

After one 1h30 spent on the boat, we went back to the harbour for lunch, then drove toa beach reserved exclusively to Elephant Seals.

You cant really guess from the picture, but these two males are about 4meters long, 4tons... It really looks huge in real life, especially compared to the female, which only weighs 700kgs (then again, you dont want to know how the reproduction works...).

And this picture is dedicated to Gregoire... and Pole nord (or to his poll suggestion, your choice!).

All these animals seemed fairly happy to know about Obama's election...

Your opinion is important to us...

2008-11-04T15:43:00.001-06:00

I just added a new feature to the blog... You can now vote in the right panel of it. (Yes, I am in Patagonia, and I had nothing better to do...).
Gustav is feeling better, Tomorrow is the whales' day.
You can indeed email me suggestions for the poll.

Buenos Aires - part 2...

2008-11-01T12:52:00.003-06:00

After our short excursion into Uruguay, we went back to Bs As to spend the weekend... John hosted us for a couple days in the Palermo district. We really had fun here, Bs As is a great city. We are heading to Puerto Madryn tomorrow (ouch, it's a 20 hour bus ride...).

Pictures to come - I forgot the camera cable :-p

Montevideo!

2008-10-28T12:24:00.005-06:00

We are leaving Montevideo today, even though we just came! Well, we´ve seen plenty of it by now after two days of walking through its streets, plazas and beaches. Yesterday we visited the center and the plaza de armas. The town is a strange mix of beautiful and extremely ugly buildings, making it dificult to take good pictures, there`s always something that gets in the way! The city also has a huge harbour providing a bit of change to the long and (mostly) white beaches!
Today we have walked along the beach, looking at the palmtrees, the ocean (having a strange grey-brownish colour) and lots of freighter ships going up and down de Rio de la plata.
Soon we´ll be heading back to Buenos Aires where we still have lots to see! Tiem is getting short and there is still plenty of continent left beore Ushuaia!
(pictures will be up as soon as possible!)

Colonia, Uruguay

2008-10-26T13:43:00.003-06:00

Yesterday night, we realized we were really exhausted (too much to go out, even...), so we decided to go rest a little while on the Uruguayan side of Rio del Plata. Colonia is a very nice city, only 3 hours from Bs As by boat, which makes it a major tourist attraction for Argentines. Indeed, now is off season, so it is super nice, and there is not much people.
Unfortunately, Gustav is feeling sick today, but let's hope he'll feel better when we go to Montevideo tomorrow. Do not worry, we are going back to Bs As's nightlife this weekend. And after that, we'll be heading south, there is still more than 3000kms to go!

Lighthouse (lack of inspiration...)

Buenos Aires, part 1

2008-10-25T13:20:00.001-06:00

And we're back!!! We met on Friday night in Buenos Aires. So far, so good, the city is great. Gustav enjoyed his time in Santiago, and I in Rosario (I was even willing to stay longer there...). on Saturday we took a long walk in the city. The streets were deserted in the middle of the afternoon because David Coulthard was driving his F1 on the main avenue (which is said to be the largest in the world...). 100 000 p went there (we did not...).
*Happy Birthday Gregoire.*

the deserted subway... (note that everything is wood, and that the doors open manually)

The presidential palace

Flag :-)

Rosario

2008-10-23T09:04:00.002-06:00

I ll be staying an extra day in Rosario after all... The partying here is craaaazyyyy (and there is no wind => no windsurf). I'll meet Gustav tomorrow in Buenos Aires. More news when I get there!

Cataratas de Iguacu - part 2!

2008-10-14T15:54:00.014-06:00

So, now we have seen both sides of the fall, Brazil and Argentina though we still cannot choose wich was the best, and probably we never will! Both sides were amazing!

Panoramic view of falls on the Argentinian side.

"Devils throat" (and us)

I dont know how to write "oohhh" and "ahhh" in portuguese, so you´ll have to imagine!
(and no, I wont translate it, my portuguese is quite bad!)

Well, what can I say, you probably realized by now that you have to come here and see for yourselves!! It´s just marvelous!!!

"Two sisters waterfall"

Itaipu dam

2008-10-13T15:44:00.004-06:00

Today we visited the 2nd biggest dam, which is also one of the 7 engineering wonders. It is a neutral area between Brazil and Paraguay.

Each of the 20 forced ducts leads to a 700MW generator (these white thingies...). Each one has a permanent debit corresponding to half the Iguacu falls... The guide claimed that his dam will remain the most powerful of all because the flow rate of the river Yang Tse (Yannick, please correct me if Im wrong...).

The reservoir is fairly small, (190x7 kms), but because of the important flowrate, it can be filled in 90 days, or 14 in rainy season...
Artist view of the reservoir...

One of the three spill channel... In the rainy season, the three are open, which corresponds - to use your favorite unit - 40 times the average Iguacu falls flowrate.

Tomorrow we'll be on the argentine side.

PS : Yesterday, I forgot to mention something funny : entering the park, Gustav started taking a couple of useless pictures. Once on the boat's engine started - or maybe 5 minutes after, I dont want to be rude - Gustav's camera ran out of battery... Indeed, we saw the falls for the very first time way after that...

Cataratas do Iguaçu - part 1

2008-10-12T16:43:00.006-06:00

There has been a change in plans, we went to the Iguaçu falls first... Iguaçu because we are on the BRAZILIAN side. The other side is not the other side of the postcard, which is usually meant for writing. The other side is ARGENTINA (just like the other side of the Itaipu dam is Paraguay... You follow?). The grass is always greener on the other side... Although it looked pretty green here.

The best way to see the falls is to see it from all the angles. That is exactly what this 400Hp boat is trying to do (ok, it's small, but you get the picture), getting everybody wet. We start with this : it's the close angle....

And a low angle, from the speedboat...

These two pictures were taken before getting wet.

We got very much closer to the falls, but my camera was in a plastic bag. The boat pilot basically drove us under the falls, so everything was really wet (I guess I valued more the camera than the possible picture...).

After having enjoyed such a close look, we took some distance (still in the fall spirit though - my underwear/shorts remained wet all afternoon).

Here are some of the views you can seefrom the trail...

Oooooh...
Aaaaah...
One more?
After all that, we went back to the Youth hostel take a swim in the pool :-).
You cannot believe how hard it was to write the article... I am reaaaally hungry, we just heard that there is a meat 'a volo' buffet two blocks from here. (It's already 9pm, and we did not have a real lunch - and it's less than 5 euros). Hopefully, the internet in Brazil is nowhere close to what we experienced in the neighboring country...

Foz do Iguazu, Brazil!

2008-10-11T18:17:00.003-06:00

So we decided to get here one day early as we were already done with Asunción. So far its been great, the weather is nice, it seems realtively cheap and best of all, they speak portugese wich is really funny!!
Tomorrow we will visit the Itaipu dam, the worlds second largest. Monday and tuesday we will see both sides of the Iguazu waterfalls (Brazil and Argentina). So hopefully we will soon have some nice pictures for you!

happy birthday

2008-10-11T12:28:00.000-06:00

To the bear :-)

Asuncion

2008-10-08T14:14:00.009-06:00

Soo... we are now in Asuncion, where we should stay a couple days. (until this weekend, probably, guess why...). That was the easiest border crossing so far...

I really tried... but the picture upload wont work. Maybe tomorrow...

Even with the 20 points malus given to Yannick (Helene is in not in Malta, Sophie is...), I think he is first this time... Now I have to go to the postoffice...

Salta

2008-10-07T11:15:00.004-06:00

added oct9:
At last.... It was long, but Gustav managed to upload these three pictures (it's not much, but it took a lot of energy...).And hum... There was ont thing we forgot to take for this bike ride... Sunblock. Hopefully, we did not burn (not too badly anyway).

This pass is famous for the color of the surrounding mountains, ranging from green to flashy red, orange, etc etc....
Cafayate is also famous for its wine... Indeed we did make several stops in vineyards on the way back. We even bought a bottle of their nicest wine (that I have to say, was quite nice).

Due to technical problems (no usb, and a slow connection), we wont be able to publish this post now... :-(
We went yesterday to Cafayate, about 3 hours from Salta.
This afternoonm we'll be getting on the night bus to Clorinda, which is on the border of Paraguay. We should be in Asuncion tomorrow morning... And with some luck with a better conection!

Bolivia - day 3

2008-09-30T13:51:00.002-06:00

On the third day, we went to the Salar... Unfortunately, we did not have time to make it to the salar itself for the sunrise (we missed it by about 5 min due to the guide and a slowly-packing person) so we had to stop slightly before. It was still amazing.
The salar de Uyuni is about as big as one third of Belgium... Despite being also flat, there is still a major difference. The salar is all made of (white) salt. A big jeep is therefore needed for all displacements on the salar.
Basically, the salar looks like a sea (or a frozen Swedish archipelago). Gustav was even tempted to check the thickness of the ice layer before stepping. Just like in the archipelago, there are islands as well. On the fisher's island, one can see cactus measuring from a meter to about 12 meters...

And indeed, we spent about two hours taking stupid pictures with the white background...

Want some more??? Click here.

Bolivia, day 1 and 2

2008-09-28T15:08:00.001-06:00

We started out early in the morning, by minibus up to the Andes and the bolivian border. There we switched to jeeps after some 5 minutes of border formalities and stamping of passports. From the first meter the change was very notable as the tarmac turned into rocks and mud and it became obvious why we had left the minibuses. After 20 minutes of bumpy jeepride we reached our first stop was "the white lagoon".

After having seen the marvelous view and taken some photos we continued past the "green" and "red" lagoons, full of flamingos and surrounded by peculiar rock formations. We tried to get close to the flamingos but they kept running away, thus they could be seen as a general pinkish mass, but there were so many of them that the effect was quite impressive!

That night we stayed in a little village called "Villamar" ("Seavillage"), funny name for being in the middle of the dessert, but they clamed that there was river there during rainy season and I guess that for bolivians (who are landlocked since the war opf 1870) that is enough!!

The next morning we went to see the "Llama paradise" where we saw plenty of lamas and a valley deserving the name!

We continued through some other small villages, one of which looked like a classic western town, complete with a railroad from the ninetenth century, a cementary and several abandoned houses!

From there we continued to the brink of the saltflat, where we stayed overnight in a hostel that actually had hot water and a great view of the tremendous flat!

San Pedro de Atacama

2008-09-27T19:10:00.002-06:00

After a long night bus ride, stopped twice by an anti-narcotic control in Chile (apparently it happens all the time, for traffic coming from North), we made it to San Pedro de Atacama...
As the pictures show, the landscape is very different from Arica (although Gustav sees a similarity with the morro - the big rock on which stands proudly a gigantic chilean flag in Arica...).

The rock formation here is very special, and reminds (older) local people of dinosaurs.

"The Three Marias"
"Valle de la luna"
"el atardecer..."

Tomorrow, at 7.45, we'll be going to Bolivia for four days. Don't worry, Uyuni will be the most northern town we'll visit... We should be back to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, by Wednesday afternoon. Unfortunately, we could not book a bus ride to Salta, Argentina earlier than Friday morning, so we'll have some extra time to hang out in this -overpriced - touristy town. Which means plenty of time to upload pictures from Bolivia from this suprinsingly fast Internet place (where they even have 17" flat screen, way better than the usual 15" cathodic one)...