crossroads...

Vue d'en haut

2010-09-27T10:37:00.000+02:00

30 ans ca se fête...pour moi ca s'est fété dans les airs, à 3000 mètres (3 fois la hauteur de la montagne de la table...)
30 secondes de chute libre, vitesse de pointe 250 km/h...
tout va très vite, une pirouette pour sortir de l'avion, le vent qui commence à me taquiner le visage, une vue à 360°, le temps semble s'arrêter, je n'ai plus de repères, je sens juste la pression du vent sur ma poitrine. Tout va très vite. C'est l'heure d'ouvrir le parachute, et de profiter de 5 minutes de descente avec qq figures avant de retoucher terre.
Puis je regarde en l'air, Karis finit sa descente, elle aussi encore sous le coup...
C'était vraiment quelque chose d'unique, une montée d'adrénaline intense...
Je n'ai qu'une envie, le refaire et cette fois, en profiter encore plus.
Ci dessous en image...

Nice

2010-03-04T17:13:00.000+01:00

Quelques jours sur Nice à la Villa pour rejoindre Arno, le fameux "excel/process improvement/marketing" guru. 4 jours à partager de bons moments dans le vieu Nice le soir, à lui donner qq lecons de snowboard la journée...

J'ai pu également profité du festival et de la côte d'azur.

Arno's angels...

Budapest

2010-03-04T16:52:00.000+01:00

Un court séjour à Budapest m'a permis de retrouver Vincent et Flo et leur charmante demeure bourgeoise des beaux quartiers. Il a fait froid, très froid. Mais ca m'a permis de découvrir la ville sous la neige, ce qui était très sympa.

Les frères Lacour

2 Hongrois heureux....Otto, la machine à crotte (débit 10 tonnes/jour) en forme de boulettes.

Paprika land...

Tulbagh

2010-03-04T16:36:00.000+01:00

the weekend before seb went back to wintery france for a holiday, i surprised him with a night away in Tulbagh. marvellous choice as we ended up deciding to get married there.

we rented a cute cottage with wandering views of the surrounding mountains and wine farms. we dined on delicious dishes under the open sky, listening to jazz at pielows - bliss!

Petit wend sur Tulbagh, lieu du futur mariage, avant de rentrer en France. Une petite maison perdu dans la campagne à l'intérieur des terres. Grosses chaleurs, heureusement, il y a les domaines viticoles pour nous rafraichir la gorge...

Giles' farewell

2010-03-04T16:35:00.000+01:00

one of many farewells for Giles at tim and cara's in green point. we arrived late for the braai but in time to mingle with everyone and to decorate the new addition to the harris-williams family: the kitchen blackboard.

DB's farm

2010-03-04T16:15:00.000+01:00

DB's farm is unique in that it dates back from long ago and it is full of little treasure from the past...The main corridor is full of antique photos, animal heads, DB's own horse riding trophees...

There we enjoyed the pool and a great braai with the parents and Jean. but the night did not stop there and @ 2m, DB and Jean decided to take me to do some sort of wild rabbit hunting...off we go with the bakkie in the field, bright lights on, trying to catch of these guys...Jean was the closest to catch one, but even his sprinter legs could not cope with the agility of these natural bouncing creatures...we had some serious laughs though...

our imperial bed -------------------- front of the farm

sunset river sunset --------------------walk on DB's caravan park

Casey and Karis on their truck wheel

the truck drivers -------------- sunset drink

DB the horse boy ----------------------nothing to be jealous of....

happy animals @ DB's farm

The infamous corridor...

Duarte & Marianne's visit...

2010-03-04T15:55:00.000+01:00

Qq souvenirs du passage de Duarte et Marianne debut 2010

Au programme, Kenton on Sea / Cape Town par la route sur 8 jours.

Le moteur de la voiture surchauffe au parc Addo juste a cote des elephants, du coup qq petites frayeurs, notament une famille d'elephant qui se fait un petit tour de la voiture.
On a ensuite rejoint Cape Saint Francis puis on a pu decouvrir la Nature Valley, un petit paradis sur terre. Un domaine naturel immense et de belles ballades le long de l'ocean. Pas d'immeubles, juste des maisons en foret ou en bord de mer. La encore, le moteur a surchauffe au milieu de nul part, ce qui nous permis de decouvrir Rocky's backpacker, une maison perdu dans la campagne dans laquelle on se sent tout de suite chez soi.
Puis on arrive sur Knysna pour une soiree gastronomique apres une visite des 2 tetes.
A Mossel bay, ville de pelerinage pour Duarte puisqu'il y a photographie la replique du bateau de Bartolome Dias avait utilise dans sa quete des Indes, bateau que son grand pere a ramene a Mossel bay depuis le Portugal il y a qq annees.
A Mossel bay, on se quitte car je dois rentrer aider Karis a demenager l'appart pendant que Duarte et Marianne se font la route 44, la fameuse route des vins...

Marianne a faim (Knysna's famous swordfish kebab...) --- la fine equipe

duel de choc chez Rocky (bacpacker dans la Nature valley)--- Arrivee tardive chez Rocky apres les deboires avec la voiture !!

Nature's valley ---------------------Duarte au naturel !!

Un elephant pas content....et une voiture qui ne veut plus demarrer !

Tulbagh directions/accomodation

2010-03-04T14:20:00.000+01:00

Le mariage aura lieu à Tulbagh, à 1h30 au nord/est du Cap.

Depuis le Cap:

Prendre l'autoroute N1 en direction de Paarl.

Prendre la sortie 47 pour Wellington. Puis prendre à gauche sur la R44 vers Ceres.

Continuer à travers le "Nuwekloof pass" (le col Nuwekloof) jusqu'au croisement vers Tulbagh.

A l'intersection en arrivant à Tulbagh, tourner à gauche dans la rue principale Van der Stel street.

A la fin de la rue, au croisement juste après le Spar (magazin), tourner à gauche.

Après 6kms, le bitume devient gravier. Continuer sur 2 kms jusqu'à ce que la route se sépare en deux.

Garder la gauche et au prochain embranchement, prendre à droite.

Suivre les signes vers Roodezand et tourner à droite au poteau "Roodezand"

Passer le bureau sur la gauche et se garer à l'ombre des arbres.

Roodezand est a 10 kms de Tulbagh.

Coordonnées GPS

Latitude - 33 12' 18, 31 Sud

Longitude - 19 06' 51, 94 Est

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The wedding will be in Tulbagh, 1h30 north east of Cape Town.

Directions:

N1 north to Paarl. Exit 47 for Wellington.

Left onto R44 to Ceres. Continue through Nuwekloof pass until turn-off to Tulbagh.

At the T junction coming in to Tulbagh, turn left in the main street, Van der Stel Street.

At the 4 way stop at the end of Van der Stel Street (just past the SPAR), turn left.

After 6 km the road becomes gravel.Keep on for 2 km till the road forks.

Keep to the left and at the following split keep to the right.

Follow signs to Roodezand and turn right at the pillar with ''Roodezand''.

Pass the office on your left and park in front of the pack shed.

Roodezand is 10km from Tulbagh.

GPS coordinates:

Breadth 33 12' 18,31 South

Length 19 06' 51,94 East

Pour se loger, cliquez ici

Engagement party

2010-03-04T14:13:00.000+01:00

some chillax, some on top of their form...

Charlie's angels (Dan & Giles)

MP couple reprensenting .... Karis & Charlie: is it G&T or Champagne or both ?

Us during Pete's speech

The house of festivities...

karis' ladies (lorien, michelle and Julia)

dancing moves ------- mike's special dancing move: the roll

Sarah's disguise ---------------------high tea @ 10 pm: the new trend

dancing queens (casey & mariette) ------- the cupcake queen

smiley people ---------------- cupcake queen 2

The girls ----------------------------- happy happy

Darryn and his women --------------- well behaved gentlemen

the divas ---------------------------- the concert

happy family ---------------- spotted

jen and karis --------------- salmon treats

is it a dolmado ? is it one or is it 20 of them ? julia ? have you seen the dolmados ?

27 Février 2010 - Constantia

Une belle journée pour célébrer nos fiancailles. Pour l'occasion, du fromage arrivé fraichement de France, des baguettes, du saucisson (french biltong), des (truc grec)...

Sans oublier, du vin, et des bières à n'en plus finir...La cérémonie aura laissé qq séquelles à nos hotes, Pete & Margs, qui ont finis la soirée en belle forme...

Au total, cinquante amis sont venus faire la fête. Merci a tous. Une pensée à ma famille et mes potes de l'autre côté de la terre...

Quelques photos souvenir...

a collection of photos from our engagement party in Constantia, Cape Town. what a marvellous way to celebrate the "next step" with friends and family. the frenchies were missed and a glass of south african champagne was drunk to them. seb said a beautiful speech which was left me speechless. a lovely, lovely day spent topped with dancing!

End 2009 in a nutshell

2010-03-02T15:24:00.000+01:00

Quelques souvenirs de l'année 2009, en vrac !

view from lions head, over camps bay

the penguin colony at boulders beach

Celine being lifted by her hair at cape point ------- staring competition btwn gabs and the ostrich

early morning safari drive in Addo elephant park, Eastern Cape. Even in Summer, it was chilly!

the warthog and tortoise were some of the animals viewed

the cottage where Gabs and Bern stayed in Addo, with the elephant not too far

view from the house in Kenton, over the river mouth - the men fishing.
not far from Kenton, is a private game reserve that we drove through. these zebras were not shy of visitors

the ladies on a mid-morning walk at Kenton --- and Celine having intimate conversations with Nemo at the CT Aquarium

Lazy wine tasting at Groot Constantia

the seals at the V&A Waterfront, a little camera shy --- descending Table Mountain

Blouberg beach and the washed up ship with Table mountain in the backdrop

the Sea Point lighthouse at sunset ------------------ CT graphic street art

roses at the government gardens near Parliament and one of the old Victorian buildings that remain the teh CT CBD

the township tour through langa and gugulethu

chillling at the beach

Celines future home which is currently La Petite Ferme restaurant (phenomenal) in Franschhoek

delicious dishes, wines and views of La Petite Ferme

carols by candlelight at Kirstenbosche Gardens (with Norah)

The Lacours conquer Lions Head

View from the Head ------------------------------ Class of 2010 MBA full time

quiver tree forest and giants playground (keetmanshoop)

2009-07-26T18:15:00.000+02:00

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this is truly a spectacular place to admire the exquisite quiver trees AKA kokerbooms and to marvel at the madness of giants playground.

fish river canyon and ai-ais hot springs

2009-07-26T18:01:00.000+02:00

the fish river canyon --------------------------------- nasty looking creature, attempting suicide

our feathered friend taking a liking to a wulff chair

a fish river canyon (hobas side) sunset ------------ our masterpiece fire

leaving the canyon ------------------------------------------ the ai-ais hot springs resort

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after countless hours in the car, almost losing our way (there are so many gravel road to choose from!) and losing half the lower part of the car, we made it to the northern gate of the fish river canyon, hobas.
we did the sturdy tent, incredible mattress, comfy chairs routine and head off to see the canyon. on the way we passed the nastiest looking half-spider, half-cricket attempting to cross the road, a few ostriches with babies and many a suicidal bird (poor soul/s).
looking down at the canyon is truly impressive and walking along its cliffs magnified the sensation.
the following day, we packed up in our smokey, stinky clothes and headed the ai-ais hot springs. on arrival we were greeted by a lush, green passage. the guard said that the natural springs were too hot to bathe in so we had to swim in the lodge. that suited us fine as we were in desperate need of some water relaxation. 30 minutes soaking in the warmed pool and we felt rejuvenated for the long drive home.

luderitz and kolmanskop

2009-07-26T17:48:00.000+02:00

luderitz camp site, in extreme windy conditions

kolmanskop

the luderitz peninsula

flamingos on one of the peninsula beaches ------------- B.Diaz cross. quite a gallavanter he was!

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it is always lovely coming back to the seaside. i would like to say that the wind isn't an issue but unfortunately it is, especially when you battle to walk against it. perhaps the only up-side to it, was its "cooling factor"...and that is an exaggeration!
as per usual, we put up the sturdiest tent (thanks to the moss'), blew up the comfiest blow-up mattress (thanks to thomas), slept in the warmest sleeping bags (thanks to jacus and mariette) and sat in the comfiest chairs (thanks to the wulffs). everything was ideal until the wind picked up (see video).
kolmanskop was a site to behold. it was established around 1908 during the diamond rush and had over 1000 diamonds collected before world war 2. it is an entirely deserted town and has been left to the ruin of sand and nature's forces. we arrived late for the tour (which happens especially when on holiday) and proceded to find a group to latch onto. the first group located at the museum was german which didn't help, the second located on the opposite side of the site, in the bowling alley, were afrikaans. initially, i thought i could wing it and catch a word or two but was smartly put into my place as i understood nada, niks, nothing! the guide then had to change to english which didn't make the 15 oumas and oupas too pleased. seb just shot them a smile and that was that. water under the bridge.
it is strange to see that not much has changed since i was there last, some 15 years ago. maybe they remove some of the sand annually?

keetmanshoop to sossusvlei

2009-07-26T17:14:00.000+02:00

our one night of "luxury" in keetmanshoop ------------------- "we're on the road to nowhere..."

safety in numbers seems to work for birds too

our odd campsite, sheltered from the wind -------------------- the beckoning dunes

wildlife in sossusvlei

l

gale force winds on dune 45

and the view

natures love = a sand storm

deadvlei

a carni dune dweller

the never ending straights
______________________________________________________________________________________________

the song that comes to mind when driving this stretch is "we're on the road to nowhere". indeed, this is how one feels when the GPS one, looong straight line and for as far as the eye can see, with not even a cm of a bend. the tar roads do have speed limits of 120 km/h, the gravel roads do not...not that either make much of a difference. it is easy to suddenly reach 160 (sorry margs) with not a care in the world - one doesn't pass a soul, human or animal.
the surroundings of sossusvlei were spectacular! the bold red dunes beckoned to us from the moment we laid our eyes on them. having set up camp in a rather perculier site, we watched the masses of sand change from brown to orange to brilliant red.
the following day, we faced the gale force wind and tackled dune 45 and attempted to walk 10 kms in a sand storm to deadvlei (nature proved her point, we turned back and ended up catching the taxi). deadvlei consisted of a white basin with a dead tree forest, surrounded by red sand dunes. a weird and almighty sight to behold.

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the orange river

2009-07-26T16:49:00.000+02:00

the one and only remaining mudflap (removed) ----- welcoming words at the border

starting off, with felix unite in the background --------------- campsite #2 with some touch rugby for warmth

day two of canoing, in the rain

campsite #3

the group of us --------------------------------------- Jon owning the biggest rapid of the day

pump it! pump it!

campsite #4

boredom on the looong stretch back in over-sized shoes----a friendly multi-coloured beast friend

imagine floating down the orange river, the divide between south africa and namibia, for four days? i did and did it and it was fantastic. we drove up on the saturday morning, taking a little longer than expected, and being almost the last to arrive. we met the rest of the group - approximately 35 other mba students (including partners) - putting up their tents, having boozers, trying to get inside information from the guides.
out of the four days on the river, only one day was miserable...which is ok. not ideal but ok. many boats had
old brown sherry on hand (literally) so warming up wasn't too much of an issue.
this trip with felix unite was a great introduction to namibia and for the rest of the journey that awaited us.

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a cape tonian autumn

2009-06-07T10:26:00.000+02:00

a bit of welcome mist to start off the day ------------- dressed with nowhere to go

chaka ampt representing gsb in his gear ----------- rebekah and i in chilly conditions

arno, seb, juliet and david, keen for olympia ----------- chilling on the harbour wall in kalk bay

view over cape town from the start of lions head

seb, in party animal mode --------------------------the durbanites, kai and rich, in matching gear

the birthday mba-ers --------------------------------------nor and lorien, looking blue steely

tim and franko ---------------------------

mingling on the balcony --------------------------------kasia

thirsty sebs -------------------------------------------------the ladies

kasia and cara-------------------------------------------mr arno von dem b............

a cape tonian summer is heat, wind and sun, autumn is occasional sun, wind and mist. this explains why the renowned 3 peaks race was postponed twice - the first due to massive storms, the second due to hectically windy and misty conditions on the mountain. as you can see from some of the pics, we were layered and ready to conquer a peak or two. alas, that will have to wait until spring!

another festive event in june was seb's 29th, celebrated in true style - over almost two weeks.
week one: dinner at ginja (unfortunately extremely disappointing), dinner at andiamo (pasta + glass of wine for R100 - bargain!) after going to jason's exhibition, postponed shark cage diving (due to 9m swell) in gansbaai.
week two: une fête française (red wine, cheese and baguettes) at our flat with many a MBA-er and a few nons, dinner at HQ - a more than meaty restaurant (although they do have a veg option) and one of the last braais of the season with the family - the sun kindly made an appearance after a week of torrential rain.

stillbay

2009-05-02T15:04:00.000+02:00

the lovely little town of stillbay

when the tide was out ------------- 10 pts to the clever soul who can work out what this danger is

lorien and rich ----------------------------------

tim amazed at cara's thirst ----------------------------- keith and cara-the almost scrabble winners

the initial scrabble participants ------ tim, lor and rohan looking pretty in the kombuis (cuisine)

our rented house for the long weekend

our friendly feathered friends who joined us for meals ------ giles keeping tidy

about four to six hours (traffic depending) away from cape town is a rather sweet town of stillbay, known by the locals as stillbaai. norah and mike managed to find this awesome house for us to rent one road from the beach (the birds are blocking the view in the above pic). this is where we spent three fun-filled nights with the occasional wet day. whether it was stretching our legs along the vast coastline, or playing endless games of scrabble with a trusty g+t nearby (thanks bombay and gordan), or surfing the spot just in front of the house, we were braaiing and socialising...everything we do best with ten souls in the house!

a long weekend well spent!

home is cape town

2009-04-18T16:18:00.003+02:00

bird-sitting billy joe in our flat ------------------ seb's new best friend

feeding the beast

sunset from our flat on different occassions

sundowners at clifton beach

seb and tim talking mba --------------- hartaj being merry on our balcony

pete and margs after a wednesday night sail in false bay ------ our whale movie star

celebratory drinks at caveau in newlands -------- the norah/marilyn pose

lorien and i supporting the sharks ------------- the shakes annihilating the stormers at newlands

red befriending my uct "water" bottle -------nor, mike and red in action

a few of the neater rooms in our flat---------------------------------------------------------------

after seven months living out of a backpack, two weeks out of a messy parisian cupboard, we moved somewhere more 'permanent'...or at least for the meantime.
i found a great flat in sea point, not far from the centre-centre of cape town which even has a view of the sea (if you turn your neck far enough around the corner). it is probably easier just to walk down to the beach, which is situated three roads down. now that sounds way easier!!
the moment seb arrived, he launched straight into his MBA at the waterfront UCT campus. not a bad place to study at all - clearly, the location is geared to the foreigners of the course. it's ideal! it is no wonder the "one & only" resorts are opposite their campus!!
after much hesitation, i enrolled at UCT and am doing honours (4th year) in french literature and language (translation). so far so good ---
so we have been living here for just over three months and it has literally flown by. week days are spent gaining knowledge, weekends are usually comprised of an early surf at a small break called muizenburg. one never lasts too long in the water due to either frozen fingers or feet. i think gloves and booties might be an option...
watching the odd rugby game (where the sharks usually nail their opponents. nice!!) and socialising with long, lost friends. when the sun was setting after seven, it would take place at clifton second beach. imagine whiter than white sand, ice blue water and large, sandy boulders - it sounds like paradise, thats because it is! sundowners, snacks and this view - noone could ask for more.
now that the sun is getting stubborn on us, we are left to braaing over the weekends. for meat-eaters, this is bliss, for veges, its more the vibe that counts. it goes without saying that the salads have to be damn good too.

retour sur paris

2009-01-13T16:50:00.005+01:00

et finalement, qq photos de retour..

arrivée sur l'espagne

l'amazone lors du survol du brésil

en tongues à Paris

Et voilà, après 7 mois de vadrouille, c'est le grand retour. Je suis content de retrouver la famille , de profiter des bons repas de maman et du bon feu de cheminée du salon mais mon esprit est ailleurs....

Ce voyage m'aura permis de découvrir des endroits magiques un peu partout dans le monde, des cultures vraiment différentes mais surtout des amis d'un peu partout. Que ce soit en attendant un bus, en faisant du stop sur la route, lors d'une excursion ou enfin dans une galère imprévue, toutes les occasions étaient bonne pour partager un moment, soit avec des locaux mais plus souvent avec d'autres voyageurs en quète d'aventure. Et un regard suffisait pour nouer une discussion. Lors d'un tel voyage, il n'y a aucune attente de l'autre, chacun suit son chemin selon son désir, chacun vit selon ses envies et ainsi les relations sont très simples.

L'important c'est de continuer a vivre cette liberté au jour le jour, sans penser au lendemain.

Pour moi, demain c'est l'afrique du sud et le master donc l'aventure continue en quelque sorte même si je remplacerai le siège du bus par le siège de classe. Enfin, il devrait y avoir moyen de s'évader en regardant par la fenêtre de temps à autre......

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surprisingly enough, i wasn't as perturbed about coming back that i thought i would. i think it may have been the excitement of seeing family, friends and of course, the snow! it's strange how no matter how many times you see it, it is always as beautiful and as mesmorising as ever. then again, maybe that's only an african point of view? who knows.

after seven months or so perusing the four continents, we have met so many different people and experienced so many cultures and all of it has been so worth while, even if we were robbed on the odd occasion. it's all part of the adventure, right?!

so home we are, and home we will be. france for ten days and south africa for the rest. so perhaps the next blog post you'll see will be from there...

valparaiso

2009-01-12T19:57:00.015+01:00

art de rue -------------------- notre auberge Luna Sonrisa


------- plage de vina del mar


toujours vina del mar -------------------------art de rue


petit marché de rue -----------------


nouveau concept de maison --------------------le banc en S


la sebastiana (maison de Pablo Neruda) et sa terrasse avec vue sur la baie


les funiculaires de valpo (si si ca devrait tenir)


maison coloniale






fish and wine = happy karis ----- intricate house arrangement on the hill




one of those really steep streets w view on the bay


colorful streets ------------everyone can fly


-----------karis sur le départ (retour à la maison)

after the mammoth bus trip from buenos aires, we were more than ectatic to reach the coast again. we had heard such great thing about valparaiso, so we just had to check it out...save the best for last kind of thing -

we stayed in a wonderful hostal (which i would definately recommend) called luna sonrisa; an old converted home, with wooden floors and high ceilings. oh! and the best breakfasts in the world. at last, not (hard) bread and powdered coffee!! rye and white FRESH bread, salted butter, homemade jams, real filter coffee and fruit. aaaah. this is a great way to end it!!!!

we perused the streets taking photos of the many artistic squares in the steep streets, the multicoloured homes and the spectacular sea views. a downside to this town is that there is no real beach nearby. the first one we came across had tankers perched not too far from the odd (and must be local) brave bather.

we skipped the idea of being caked in oil and other lovely substances and took the metro-train to vina del mar - quite an upmarket town with a nicer beach, which was absolutely packed with people.

so whilst we played our last game of bat and ball, ate our last oily empenada and babbled off in spanish, hopefully not for the last time, our last day around the world came to the end.

like i said before, a great way to end it all...until our next "tour du monde", that is -

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Quelle bonne suprise en arrivant sur Valparaiso (valpo) avec le coucher de soleil. C'est notre dernière destination et la ville est accueillante, les gens vraiment relax et surtout on peut sentir l'air de la mer (qui nous a bien manqué à Buenos Aires).

La ville est très artistique, avec des fresques murales à chaque coin de rue. C'est ici qu'a résidé Pablo Neruda dont la maison 'la sebastiana' avec vue sur toute la baie doit faire des envieux. La ville est construite sur les montagnes et les rues sont donc très pentues, si bien qu'il faut souvent utiliser les funiculaires d'époque pour s'éviter une pénible remontée. L'aventage, c'est que d'en haut, la vue est magnifique. On peut voir le port, la baie et les plages de vina del mar, la cité balnéaire voisine.

La encore, on aura l'occasion de retrouver un bon ami de voyage Chris rencontré en coup de vent a Nasca au Pérou et qui a fait le déplacement pour nous dire au revoir. Lui continue sa route vers le sud et ses parcs naturels avant de remonter par l'argentine. Ca fait un peu mal au coeur de devoir s'arréter là et de s'imaginer ce qui l'attend en Patagonie...

On profite une dernière fois de l'été et de la plage avant de retrouver le grand froid parisien. Après 7 mois de tongues, short et t-shirt, le retour va etre plus que difficile....

buenos aires

2009-01-12T17:24:00.014+01:00

views from the bus, towards mendoza

a sure sign of boredom

tango at "la ventana" in san telmo

foot move ------ accordeon experts

the main plaza by night ------------------ and day

a strange looking mobile book shop -----------------from our balcony

the market in san telmo ---------------- musicians in the streets. a sunday regular

an antique building in san telmo ---------- seb living it up

la boca area

seb and the boca junior team

thumbs up from maradona (thanks buddy, i hear you)

el caminito area

la recoleta cementary, where evita peron is buried

graves in one of the housetombs

empenadas heaven

nat and her blood sausage -------------- seb and his chunk of beef

puerto madero

some grafitti

the bus trip on the way back to santiago (argentinian pampa)

mendoza wineyards by bus (w andes in the background)-- the argentinian/ chilean border

Cette petite escapade a Buenos Aires valait vraiment le détour. La ville est très étendue et ressemble beaucoup à Paris par certains aspects. Chaque quartier a sa spécificité :

San Telmo avec ses rues pavées, sa vie bohème, ses artistes de rues et ses magasins d'antiquité ressemble a Montmartre.

Palermo avec ses restaurants de parillas (barbecue argentin) excellents et ses bars un peu plus classe, et ses espaces verts

La Boca et son stade mytique jaune et bleu (ou jouent les boca juniors) ainsi que son quartier du caminito (quartier ou les artistes ont repris possession des lieux, les facades sont colorées et du tango est joué partout dans la rue, d'ailleurs le nom du caminito provient d'un célèbre tango!)

Outre les énormes festins essentiellement à base de steaks, on assiste à une représentation de Tango mémorable à la Ventana. Cette danse est vraiment superbe, c'est la grande classe. Les danseurs suivent le rythme des accordéons et les petits pas a grande vitesse, les portés, les envolées sont spectaculaires (cf la petite vidéo)

Enfin, on a pu retrouver nos deux amis belges Nat et Morgan, eux aussi en tour du monde, et qu'on avait rencontré en Bolivie et avec qui on a partagé plusieurs apéros dinatoires dans la ville.

petite démonstration de tango...la grande classe:

et aussi, petit numéro de boules de cire sur fond musical péruvien:

what a wonderful city buenos aires is...and especially after 20 hours of bus...and no wonder!! i think arriving on a sunday was a good idea too (not that we had much of a choice considering the amount of time we had left) as there was the weekly antique street market in the area of san telmo. for me, it was absolutely wonderful although seb, i felt, was dying a slow death so i had to speed up the dwarling process to the maximum.

we explored the surrounding areas which was nice as each was really different. la boca was a favourite, along with san telmo (of course), as even though it was a tad too touristy, there was a vibe. the houses were painted bright colours and the tango was being played and danced in front of almost every restaurant. unfortunately, it was not all hunky dory as on our way back to the centre of town, we were stopped by a three-year old warning us not to walk any further as we would get robbed if we did. not really listening to the kid, we continued walking until the mother, we presume, bellowed from her window for us to turn back. with that said, we walked extremely fast to the closest bus stop. as luck would have it, we could only pay for our tickets by a machine that took only coins and of course, we didn't have any... a long story short, we rode for free -

we also met up with the morgan and nat, with whom we spent a few days on the salt flats in bolivia which was mighty festive. we had apéros on our balcony and dinners in many a meaty restaurant (i was lucky enough to find meatless gnocchi almost everywhere).

on our last evening there, we treated ourselves to a live tango show at la ventana which was worth every dollar (indeed, it was somewhat pricey). whilst we sipped play-play champagne (we all know where the real macoy is produced), we watched the dancers do their stuff.

just as quickly as we'd arrived, we were off again - back to chile but this time, valparaiso. one of the most beautiful cities in chile.

santiago

2009-01-12T16:38:00.013+01:00

an arb home in the brazil area ----------- seb at the concho y toro fountain

some street art along the way to the metro

las vacas gordas (the fat cows...which are eaten) restaurant --- an abandoned home

the cerro san cristobal ----------------- and the view

we didn't really know what to expect of santiago, and what we encountered was great. capital cities can sometimes be rather disappointing but this one was positive. we arrived midday-ish on the 1st day of 2009 with hardly a soul in the hectically littered streets. it was pretty clear that quite a party was had in this town!

we opted to stay in the brazil quarter which was recommended in the guide books, and seeing that those are like the bible to us, we followed it's advice. having not too much time to waste, we walked the city flat (taking advantage of it's calmness whilst everyone else was recovering) to the cerro san cristobal, which offers a lovely viewpoint over the entire city and surrounding areas.

the second day we visited the concho y toro wine estate which was magnificant...for the price, one would expect so. it is really quite a business with an introductory video of the estate and the wine making process, followed by a tour to the once-home of the melchor family, nearby vines and to the cellar, where we were told a story behind one of their most famous wines - casillero del diablo. i can't forget the wine tasting which took place in two different locations on site; on a shaded balcony for the chardonnay and in the chilly cellar for the cabernet savignon. ot too kak, at all. in the evenings we apéro-ed and dined on the plaza brasil which was lovely.

just as soon as we arrived, we decided to take a little trip (of 20 hours) to buenos aires. why not, right!

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Un petit séjour par Santiago afin de régler les pbs de carte de séjour de Karis nous permet de découvrir cette ville sympatique malgré sa réputation. La ville a beau etre polluée, les rues sont larges et les belles batisses coloniales lui donnent un certain charme. On a l'occasion d'aller sur le cerro san christobal d'ou le pape a béni la ville alors que la ville était en protestation contre le régime politique. De la haut, on apercoit qu'effectivement, on peut apercevoir la cordillère des andes et ses cimes enneigées.

On visite également le domaine viticole de Concha et Toro, une superbe propriété aux alentours de Santiago et des hectares et des hectares de vignes. C'est ici que se fabrique le fameux casillera del diablo, ce vin chilien qu'on trouve partout dans le monde.

Enfin, on profite de la ville pour retrouver qq bons restaurants (notament pour moi le fameux restaurant "la grosse vache" ou les steaks sont délicieux) et qq apéros dans des cafés sympas.

On se motive aussi pour une dernière folie: une escapade de 3 jours à Buenos Aires (20h de bus) ou l'on va retrouver nos amis belges rencontrés au salar d'uyuni en Bolivie, Morgan et Natarcia...

pichelimu

2009-01-02T23:50:00.013+01:00

"home" for five days ----------------- contemplation

the buying of fish and seafood --------------------- the feeding of the pelican

pichelimu beach -------------------------------- and sunset

sundowners with marie and ludo

punta de lobos (great surfing spot)

our christmas eve apero on the balcony ------------ the first fireworks of 2009

what a great spot to land up in after endless days of travelling! it made it all worth while. pichelimu is a quaint fishing village where one is able to buy fresh fish and, or seafood off the boats that perch themselves in the sand. we aren't the only visitors as there were numerous dogs (as per usual in chile), seagulls and pelicans who try to chance their luck.

we witnessed a rather tame peli getting fed by a fisherman which was awesome. almost at the same moment, a dog also tried to get a treat which unfortunately ended the show. good bye peli and salty snack for the dog too.

ludo, marie, seb and i rented a little flat one road from the beach with a kitchen, which was ideal for the five days that we would spend there. marie treated us to a few cakes (good pastries are hard to come by in this hood). unfort. they left on the 31st (and partied into the new year with airfrance) and we stayed on to share the pichelimese festivities.

these were quite...different. plastic clown hats, colourful masks and lumo flashing tubes. oh and i can't forget the bottle of "champagne" (we all know that only the REAL champagne comes from france) in hand. unfortunately, there was no countdown and not having a watch, we decided to celebrate a few times. why not, right?! to make up for it, there was a fireworks display that was pretty impressive. that is when we discovered where all the people had got it - the beach was lit up with each explosion and there were thousands of folk in their plastic hats and champagne bottles (empty mostly).

an unique new years eve, just the two of us. that reminds me of a song...that i won't sing or attach as a video. lucky you!

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Pichelimu est un petit village de surfer sur la cote chilienne; un endroit parfait pour terminer les vacances de Ludo et Marie tranquillement apres ces 3 jours de route. On loue un petit appart en bord de mer et on passe les journées a la plage ou alors a manger les délicieux gateaux préparés par Marie.

Pour le nouvel an, on assiste avec Karis en solo (Ludo et Marie nous ont quitté, préférant passer le nouvel an dans l'avion, leur spécialité) au feu d'artifice sur la plage puis on va se méler à la foule qui célèbre ce nouvel an avec champagne et chapeaux de clown. Un nouvel an spécial donc mais vraiment sympa et différent des autres années.

san pedro / pichelimu road trip

2009-01-02T23:07:00.024+01:00

outdoor camping experience #1 ----------------- where we woke up. nice surprise, indeed!

a fishing boat in portofino ---------------------- some washed up beauties

the second "camping sauvage" - not as nice ------------- sunset on the road

On part donc de san pedro de nuit pour rejoindre le sud. La route s'avére longue, trés longue et il nous faut pas moins de 3 jours de route entiers pour rejoindre le petit village de Pichelimu et sa gauche magique (pour nos amis surfeurs).

Une premiere étape nous emmene a Portofino, spot de surf réputé du nord du pays. On y arrive vers les 2h du mat, il fait nuit noir et on décide de planter la tente sur le parking. Heureusement, Ludo et Marie ont opté pour la deux secondes et ils savent la manier (cf le petit film..) On passe ainsi la nuit tous les 4 dans la tente 2 places, plutót serrés mais bien content de dormir au chaud.

Au matin, c'est une belle surprise de retrouver la mer que nous avions quitté depuis le Belize. Malheureusement, toujours pas de vagues (ludo etait venu au chili principalement pour ses vagues, vagues qu'il cherche encore apres 3 semaines de voyages...) donc on continue le long de la cote.

Baya inglesa nous offre l'occasion de déguster les poissons de roche (déconseillé) en bord de mer. Marie sent la brise se lever et decide de se mettre a l'eau en kitesurf pour nous offrir une belle démonstration.

Le soir, quand il fait un peu moins chaud, on repart sur la route sur fond musical de rolling stone (la version bachetienne de angie vaut le coup d'oreille) et d'edith piaf (apres 3 jours ca casse un peu les oreilles quand meme). On arrive les minuit et cette fois, on décide de se mettre dans un champ que l'on croit pres de la plage et plutot isolé. Erreur, a peine allongé, on entend deux gars de faire un petit karaoke a 100m. Finalement, apres 10 minutes, tout le monde s'endort de fatigue mais les filles ne se sentent pas rassuré. 1h plus tard, une voiture passe a cote de la tente et klaxonne. J'ouvre la tente pour voir ce qui se passe et s'en suit un petit quadrilogue mémorable que je voudrais partager :

Seb : c'est quoi ce bordel (ouverture de tente)
Karis, juste réveillée en panique : ils arrivent, ils viennent nous chercher (on se demande encore si ils référe á la police, aux extra-terrestres ou alors aux monstres chilien du terrain vague)
Marie, qui vient de conduire pendant deux jours non stop et qui a seulement dormi 1 h jusque la:
c'est bon, on se casse. je peux conduire, je suis en forme, faut pas trainer !
Enfin, Ludo, royal et ferme qui sait gérer les situations de panique (peut etre son passe de mns vieu boucalien...) :
Les filles, on se calme, je suis crevé, on se rendort et on se tait.

Ainsi se termine la session panique en pleine nuit et sur ces mots, tout le monde se rendort jusqu'au petit matin. Toujours pas de vague (ludo commence vraiment a etre exaspéré) et on continue vers le sud, cette fois, bien motivé pour mettre un terme a ce voyage sans fin de plus de 2000 kms.

On se pose pour un petit dej a Reñaca avant de rejoindre le spot de surf de viña del mar ou Ludo va mettre d'accord les surfeurs locaux. En fin de journée, on rejoint enfin Pichelimu juste a temps pour une petite session avant la nuit sur la fameuse vague qui ne casse jamais. On se loue un appart pour quatre avec cuisine et salon : une vraie petite maison en bord de mer. Bref, le bonheur apres 3 jours de voiture non stop et 2 nuits a 4 en tente deux secondes.

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what can i tell you ...three days in the car driving almost non-stop is a lot more tiring that one might imagine. it is no wonder chile is known as the thin country as it just goes on and on and on and on...forever!

we did have some good moments, such as camping in the wild (both nights), ludo's singing lesson to "the rolling stones - angie" and the visitors we had on the final evening/ morning. oh, and i can't forget the extracts read out of a certain french guidebook which provided endless giggles.

let me begin with explaining the camping expedition. so ludo and marie bought along their "2 second" tent, meant for 2 maximum 3 people. i don't think the people at quechua ever imagined that 4 grown people might fit and actually manage to sleep in such a small space. well, i can honestly say that we did it. personally, i think it was due to the extent of our exhaustion that granted us this pleasure.
on our final night out in the wild, we were briefly visited by a few local boozers in a 4x4. the tale is thus:

the arrival of the boozers in full force.
seb : what the "bleep" is going on (in french of course)?
me : (in an absolute panic) oh no! they have arrived!!!! quickly, close the tent!! (i don't know who on earth i was thinking of...that's what you get for sleeping out in the wild in a tent too small for too many nights in a row)
marie : oh no! oh no! i'm ok to drive guys. let's go! (i must add that marie had just driven 8 hours straight and had slept not even two hours)
ludo : (hearing absolutely non of it) that's crazy. girls calm down. i'm going to sleep...

looking back at this momentous experience, i have to laugh out loud! the things one does and thinks at 4am. glad to say, i was not the only one - thanks marie ;)

this provided much laughters all the way until breakfast (of fresh raspberries) in renaca, a lovely town on the coast. at last, we were getting closer to our destination hence a little surf stop over in vina del mer then - drum roll - pichelimu.

ludo mastering the art of opening the "two-second" tent in the middle of nowhere at an ungodly hour:

san pedro

2008-12-23T19:42:00.020+01:00

the town church ------------------------ happy birthday to marie

the christmas eve apero -------------------- the christmas day bravery

a sign of life! -------------------------------------------- moon valley

dune boarding at 40°C ---------------------christian, seb and ludo claiming it

another way to explore the dunes -------------------- rock formation in moon valley

and some more ---------------------------------- the road through death valley

seb and christian, still fresh as flowers

it is hot. it is the desert. welcome to san pedro de atacama in chile.

it is here where we met up with ludo and marie and where we spent christmas, sweating buckets. luckily, there was often a slight desert breeze to cool us down, partially. we stayed in quite a nice hostal with a tiny kitchen, meant for all of the guests to use. so, needless to say, there was often a serious train smash...

san pedro itself is really, really small and it`s quite easy to do the tour of the village in a tenth of a day. the streets are dusty, the walls look like they are made out of mud and there are bars and restuarants for as far as the eye can see. don`t get me wrong. it is a quaint place -

so once we had, had our fair share of perusing the town, we explored its surrounding areas ie: the ruins of pukara de quitor (which really was not anything special). they are situated about 3 kms outside of san pedro. strangely enough, it felt as though we were actually in a traditional african village. even the murals, on the non-ruins, were similar!

so already we were given a little introduction to returning home; the heat and landscapes that resembled africa and the prices that looked very similar to those of europe. tough as it was to adapt, we (or rather i) were happy to leave bolivia - tut tut tut!

christmas day was unlike any we have spent; the boys (seb, ludo and christian) hired bicycles and cycled (yes, in the intense midday heat) to moon and death (another one!) valley. marie and i decided to take it easy and took the car...unfortunately getting into a spot of trouble with the sand just before the dunes of death valley. luckily, the boys were not too far behind and with a show of muscles, pushed us out of the sand.

check out the video below for some amusement ;)

we also visited a french astronomer, alain (see seb`s link) who explained the stars and the sky in a really comical way. who would have thought that one could actually laugh at the constellations? well, alain made us and the ¨tour¨was well worth it...until ¨q&a¨time when things got a little too technical...and a brief doze was needed...

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On finit le tour du salar d'uyuni a la frontiere chilienne. De la, un bus nous emmene a San Pedro d'atacama, petit pueblo construit sur une oasis au milieu du désert atacamenien. Le village est sympa, tout de blanc construit et essentiellement axé autour du tourisme. Il fait bon retrouver qq restaurants présentant sur leur carte autre chose que pomme de terre, frite, riz ou pates...

Ce village nous permettra de nous reposer un peu pendant les fetes et surtout de retrouver Ludo et Marie, qui n'ont fait que 3000 kms de desert depuis la Serena pour venir passer noel en famille : c'est beau l'amitié....

On aura l'occasion d'assister a la conférence d'alain, un astronome francais qui s'est installe une dizaine de téléscope dans son jardin en pein désert. Il nous explique les étoiles ainsi que la formation de l'univers. Je le remercie par ailleurs d'avoir bien calmé le vieu israélien relou qui voulait faire le malin en parlant de trou noir et d'expansion de l'univers a minuit : en 10 minutes il nous a expliqué simplement et clairement la création de l'univers et tutti quanti...autant dire que karis s'est endormie et que je ne me souviens de rien meme si j'ai vraiment eu l'impression de tout comprendre pendant 10 minutes...

Enfin, dans un souci de changer la tradition du 25 decembre (qui normalement implique un énorme repas que l'on met 10 jours a digérer), on se motive pour se faire une randonnée en vélo dans le désert (vallee de la lune) sans eau a 11h du mat. Comme si cela ne suffisait pas, on loue en plus des sandboard pour descendre les dunes de la vallée de la mort.

Meme si les paysages etaient grandioses (sol lunaire et dunes de sable majestueuses), l'épreuve nous a réellement épuisée et on en garde un souvenir mytigé...surtout que le soir même, une longue route vers la cote nous attend.

the dune boarding kings

Salar d´Uyuni

2008-12-23T18:56:00.027+01:00

the magnificant train cemetary ----------------- and it´s conductors

mmm, left or right?! ----------------------------- a tiny village where they cultivate salt

the salt hotel warning sign ------------- from the kitchen side, not the most attractive side

the salt princess ---------------------- fish island and ´salt bay´

who´s taller? ------------------------- and larger?

mouldy rocks with volcano--------------who´s the man?!

the crew --------------------------------------flamingos, flamingos everywhere

lady in pink ------------------------- the tree rock

laguna colorada

mmm pastries

the undercover san juan basketball pro

san juan cemetary

san juan choirs

geysers at sunrise

basking in warm sunshine btwn visits

hot springs

laguna azul ------------------------------------- christian`s swedish stance

Apres Sucre, on part en direction du chili tout en faisant une étape a Potosi. Cette étape nous aura permis de nous faire voler 300 bolivianos par la tenante de 60 ans de l'auberge Georges 5, comme quoi, il n'y a pas d'age pour se faire plaisir....toujours est il que ca nous embete pas mal etant donné qu'on avait tiré juste assez pour le reste du séjour....
Ensuite, le trajet en bus se révèle désastreux : départ retardé, crevaison de pneu, comfort misérable, et arrivée avec 2 h de retard...
En résumé, une bonne journée de merde comme on en veut le moins possible.

Le lendemain, après de nombreuses hésitations et une négociation acharnée, on finit par réserver notre tour du salar : 3 jours/2 nuits en jeep pour traverser le désert et nous amener à San Pedro d'atacama au Chili.
Cette fois, la chance est avec nous puisque l'on se trouve avec un groupe de jeunes bien sympatiques multi ethnique (suede, colombie, belgique) et notre guide tres cultivé mais pas très vif sur l'accélérateur Abel.

Le premier jour nous emmène tout d'abord au cimetière de train. En effet, jusqu'en 1990, Uyuni était célèbre pour sa station de réparation des trains transportant les mineraux de Bolivie jusqu'au port d'Antafagosta au Chili. Puis elle a été abandonnée mais il reste qq cadavres de trains perdus au milieu du désert. Ensuite, on entre dans le salar, ce fantastique désert de sel tout blanc qui s'etend a l'infini a 4000m d'altitude. En fait, il y a bien longtemps, l'altiplano n'était qu'un énorme lac duquel ne reste maintenant plus que qq lacs comme celui du titicaca. Le salar faisait parti de ce lac mais s'est asséché au fil des années si bien qu'il ne reste plus que cette fine couche de sel qui se régénère naturellement dès qu'il y a une grosse pluie. A l'intérieur de ce salar, on trouve quand meme qq iles ou la végétation pousse, l'ile du poisson et ses cactus en fait partie.

La, il n'est pas rare que les gens experiementent quelque chose de très étrange. En effet, au salar tout devient possible, les gens changent de taille et meme karis se prend au jeu. Ainsi, non seulement elle peut tenir la jeep dans sa main, mais elle peut aussi souffler le petit seb qui l'embète depuis maintenant 7 mois quotidiennement (elle n´hésitera pas a l'enfermer dans une casserole d'ailleurs), et enfin elle peut tenir en équilibre sur une banance, oui monsieur, une banane !!!

Ensuite, on a l'occasion de voir plusieurs lagunes aux couleurs incroyables (vert, multicolore, rose) et leur flamans roses.
Le désert s'étend a perte de vue, et les seules animaux que l'on croise sont les llamas, les vicuñas et les jeeps des autres tours opérateurs.

Pour finir, un lever matinal la derniere journee nous permet d'observer les geysers naturels. De l'eau bouillante d'origine volcanique qui se transforme en vapeur au contact de l'air frais. C'est magnifique et les différents minéraux présents donnent aux geysers des couleurs différentes (blanc, rouge, vert,...). Puis c'est l'occasion de se baigner dans les bains chauds alors qu'il fait vraiment froid dehors. La encore super sensation, non seulement parce que c'est la premiere douche en 3 jours mais aussi parce que c'est super de se relaxer dans cette marre de chaleur au milieu de cet environnement si hostile.

On arrive fatigué mais vraiment content et émreveillé a San Pedro d'atacama au Chili ou on va retrouver ludo et marie pour noel. Le changement entre le chili et la bolivie est radical, car les infrastructures et le comfort chilien sont vraiment appréciables meme s'ils ont un coût...

Au final, la Bolivie pour moi aura été l'occasion de véritables épreuves physiques. L'altitude ne m'aura pas épargné au Hyana Potosi mais elle aura aussi eu une incidence non négligeable sur ma digestion si bien que celle-ci, agrémenté de la nourriture bolivienne, sera a l' origine de flatulences non désirables aux odeurs plutot désagréables....soucieux de ne pas déranger, une enquète discrètes auprès de compères males de differentes nationalites me révélera que je ne suis pas un cas isolé...ouf !

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uyuni town itself was pretty dreadful although the 3 day/ 2 night tour was phenomenal! it kind of made up for the bad feeling. we ended up going with esmeralda tours (we had been researching agencies since we arrived) and it was a good decision.

we were a group of 6 with 2 belges, 1 columbian and a swede and of course, abel our bolivian driver/ guide.

the first day we visited the train cemetary, which was exactly that. a collection of old trains that were rusting to high heaven. indeed, this is a tourist destination in bolivia! one is always surprised in this dear country...

this was our introduction to the salt flats. the desert was brilliant white and sunglasses were indispensable. we spent much of the afternoon ignoring the heat and experimenting with various utensils in order to take the coolest photo...see above (the banana is quite a goodie. thanks to christian -the swede - who mastered taking them) -

when we weren`t messing around, we visited fish island (which is meant to be shaped like a fish but unfortunately, when naming the two islands, the people made a mistake and called the one that is not at all shaped liked one, fish island! voila, now you know it all). the island was covered in cactus, some of which that were in flower. all the different sizes and shapes proved to be quite entertaining for seb and morgan. boys will be boys -

the first night we slept in a tiny village called san juan, where llamas outnumbered inhabitants. we tried to befriend them but you know how the bolivians are, not the friendliest.

so it was just us - the six foreigners - hanging out until 9:30pm, as lights were out not a minute late! so it was the six of us and the billions of perfectly clear stars, hanging out in complete darkness.

day two was a little less interesting with a whole lot more driving and a dash of bolivian belly...just to make things interesting, you know how it goes. to sum up the second day, it was lagoons and flamingos and of course, desert. lagoons of various colours which was really magical. i didn`t expect to see so many colours in one lagoon! the colours were intensified by the pomping ;) wind. it was also so beautiful to see the flamingos, apparently three different species. not being experts on the various breeds of birds, we weren`t too able to distinguish the difference. that`s ok as they were pretty in/ and pink.

the second night we slept in a kind of refuge where all the agencies put their clients together...like sheep. our group slept together in a dorm of 6 beds which was perfect. seeing that i was not on top of the weather, i was in bed before lights out (at 9pm). thank you bolivia.

day three started with an extremely early start. 5am we were up and at `em. the fuming geysers at sunrise were a marvellously strange site with various potholes bubbling, multicoloured mud (?). seeing that we were at such a high altitude, it was not warm at all! and hot springs were exactly what the doctor ordered. we were dropped off like kids at the pool (hee hee) and into the water we ran. it was sooo good to be warm again although we couldn`t spend more than 30 minutes in there as it was too hot. imagine sweating in water? in the indian ocean, perhaps it`s possible but here, at 4000m+ it`s not even imaginable.

last stop was the green lagoon. strangely light coloured and unfortunately, hectically chemical. it was a perfect spot to end the trip. this is where we seperated; the belges and columbian back to uyuni and christian and us onto san pedro de atacama. buenos dias chile!!

sucre

2008-12-19T01:42:00.009+01:00

one of the many beautiful buildings in the capital ------ the universities museum

buildings around the main square

an official building of sorts ----------------- the fab cinema

fruit, glorious fruit ------------------------------------- and veg, and baskets

seb and the multi coloured breakie ------------- at last, veg soup!

entrance gate to one of the many churches

sucre is the capital of la paz (surprise!) since 1559 and must be one of the most beautiful cities - i know, i tend to say that a lot - with it´s baroque style buildings and culturally wealthy feel. it´s no wonder that it is called the ¨jewel of latin american baroque art´!

we did a little mini-trip to visit the ¨white city¨ and man, weren´t we pleased when we arrived! the sun was shining actual warm rays and we managed to find the best hostal (named pachamama for those interested). it was almost as though we were no longer in bolivia (i will refrain from dwelling on this point for too long)!

whilst we were there we endulged (of course, what would the karis&seb trip be without some) in wonderfully delicious market food; breakfasts of corn drinks (yellow and purple - mmm) with deep fried goodies and to make up for it, huge fruit salads with all the fruit you could possibly imagine. yes, i was in heaven. lunch was not for me but definately for seb with meaty sandwhiches which i heard were the best. i do manage to find a great vegetarian restaurant that made me a happy soul until the next meal.

so it was not all eating, we did visit a museum - the universities museum which dealt with paintings from various eras and the ethnographical section which looked more at the history and the remains of past civilisations. the building was magnificant, built in the 17th century with a fountain in the middle and arches lining the courtyard.

in the evening, when we were all cultured-out we took a trip to the movies. now that was quite an experience as the cinema was older that we are, i believe. the chairs had numbers painted on them in white, the seats wooden with springy cushions (to ensure that noone fell asleep, no doubt) and a lady selling (microwave - a new invention to this scene) popcorn. half way through the movie, a guy had to change the reel and we saw the 5-4-3-2-1 countdown before it restarted.

the joys of travel never seem to fail-

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Sucre nous a permis de respirer un peu apres la pollution de la paz et de potosi. Rien de spécial a y faire si ce n'est profiter du soleil sur la plazza 25 de mayo, des rues bordées de maisons coloniales, et des spécialités locales du marché.

Un passage éclair au musée des universités n0us a permis de satisfaire notre quota culturel. Puis on s'est simplement reposé. On a profité du cinéma 'antique' de la ville pour regarder le dernier film de ridley scott assis sur des chaises molletonées avec petite pause au milieu de la séance pour changer la bobine.

Enfin, le marché nous a permis degouter le jus de maiz jaune sucré avec ses beignets au ptit déj et surtout les délicieux sandwichs au chorizo le midi...

En résumé, Sucre aura été un bref interlude au soleil le temps d'une journée avant de rejoindre le désert d'Uyuni.

potosi

2008-12-16T19:20:00.013+01:00

the necessities to be a miner in potosi (coca leaves, cigaros, dynamite and alcohol @ 96%)

Cerro rico mines entrance -------railway for the minerals

real miner @ work

coca (not the drink) break inside the gallery ----------el tio, the god of the miners

the house of money museum

eggs in all shapes and sizes ----------------- the fruit section of a market

view of the city from the church top

plazza de armas

an antique front door ------------------ what a welcome in the entrance

potosi by night

an overnight bus from la paz is potosi. a city that has hot water only at certain hours of the day (in our hostal is from 7:30 - 12) so it´s early to shower [with that said, it must be the hottest water i have had and probably the BEST shower i have had in the last i don´t know how many months]. a city that is the highest in the world with more than 100 000 inhabitants (sorry for you lhassa). a city that was even more important than london and paris back in it´s heyday, in the 17th century.

potosi was one of the wealthiest cities in the world, thanks to the mining industry. alas, mininy is not doing all that well thesedays. so they offer tours into the mines that show how they did and still do mine minerals from the mountain that is called ¨the most beautiful - the cerro rico¨. to keep the miners going, they endulge in 1) coca leaves that they chew until a pulp and store in their cheeks 2) 96% alcohol that they take shots of at a regular basis and 3) cigarettes made of coca leaves and tobacco. healthy souls these ones...

so back to the money - the city´s wealth is ever-so clear in the buildings that line the main square (plaza 10 de noviembre) and some of the old monasteries, now turned hostals. we visited the house of money museum which is the biggest and most important civil colonial building in all the americas -

from as early as the 18th century, they had been banging away at making money, firstly using antique utensils then mules then steam. it was not only about the money though, and we had a tour of various rooms housing C18 paintings from famous potosino artists.

what would a blog entry be without a little comment on the food? it is hell for a vegetarian who enjoys eating in the market or at night stalls as there is nothing, nada, niks! meat, chicken, who knows what but that´s it. we were lucky enough to stumble across the restaurant ¨la manzana magica¨ (the magic apple) which had some great veg chow which made at least one of us happy...

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A Potosi, on vient avant tout pour la visite des mines du Cerro Rico, cette belle montagne regorgeant de mineraux de toutes sortes. Les mines ont ete decouvertes par hasard par un berger indiens au 16e siecle. Les incas auraient ensuite commence a extraire de l'or du cerro jusqu'a ce qu'une prediction ne leur disent que les mines n'etaient pas faite pour eux mais pour d'autres qui viendraient par la suite. La prediction etait plutot bonne puisque lorsque les espagnols ont decouvert la montagne, ils se sont fait plutot plaisir : plus de 4 siecle d'exploitation du cerro (que ce soit l'or, l'argent, la silice qui tue les poumons des mineurs, le plomb,....tout y passe). Il va de soit que ce sont les indigénes qui ont trinques au debut (ils passaient parfois plus de 10h dans la mine a extraire les mineraux en carburant a la feuille de coca) puis ensuite ce sont les esclaves noirs venus d'afrique qui les ont remplaces (d'ou la population noire des yungas au nord de la bolivie).

Les conditions de travail n'ont pas vraiment changées pour les mineurs et pourtant ils continuent....Comme avant, ils carburent avec 3 ingrédients:

- la feuille de coca qu'ils mastiquent a longueur de journée (ca leur permet de mieux supporter cet enfer...)

- l'alcool de sucre de canne a 96% (attention ca a du retour et ca laisse pas indifférent, surtout a 9h du mat...)

- les cigarettes (mix tabac, coca et je ne sais trop quoi)

Pour les protéger, il y a pachamama (la déesse terre) et surtout El tio (un diable protecteur au membre plutot macho cf photo).

Au cours de la visite, on rentre dans les tunnels, on monte, on descend jusqu'a ne plus savoir ou on est. Les mineurs percent la roche a la perforeuse pour y planter les batons de dynamite puis ils allument la meche et se casse en courant, a l'ancienne quoi.

Les minerais sont extraits par des chariots sur rails pousses par deux mineurs (oui comme dans indiana jones...)Quand la gallerie est bonne (belle veine de mineraux), le mineur gagne jusqu'a 100 bolivianos par jour, ce qui est pas mal par rapport au rmi local (500 B/mois).

Au cerro rico, il y a 40 morts par an et quand les mineurs ne meurent pas a cause de la dynamite (ils ont pas couru assez vite), ils meurent de cancer du poumon (silicose) a cause des gaz toxiques qui se degagent.

Enfin, a Potosi, la dynamite, ca se vend comme les baguettes, ce qui provoque qq petits pbs explosifs par moments...en clair, on cherche pas l'embrouille a Potosi.

On a pu visiter le musée de l'argent ou etaient confectionnees les pieces de monnaie utilisee dans le monde jusqu'au XIXe siecle. La ville etaient une des plus riches du monde a son epoque (plus peuplée que Paris ou Londres au XVIIe) mais a commencée a sombrer lorsque le cours du minerai s'est effondré.

Il fait froid a Potosi (4100m d'altitude) et on décide de s'offrir un petit séjour a Sucre.

la paz

2008-12-16T18:46:00.017+01:00

the hilltops lined with homes ----------------- the main square, with more pigeons than in paris

la paz traffic ------------------------------- view of huayna potosi from afar

from closer ---------------------------------------from the summit

the mountain goat himself ------------------------------ the descent

the art museum ------------------------- the mother hen of the museum

breakfast stop-over location ------------------------ the proof!

san pedro prison

arriving in la paz in the rain in peak hour traffic was not the best introduction to the city, or probably to any city i would think. a ´dilemma´ here though is that the pavements are not too wide and walking with a 15kg backpack strapped on is not quite the best way to introduce oneself to a city especially when people linger on the streets selling stuff.

i spent five days in la paz (whilst seb mastered the 6088m snow-capped huayna potosi mountain with only a slight amount of altitude sickness), in the beginning detesting it and finally quite enjoying the quiet safehavens i found in cafes and restaurants. basically, la paz is like any big city with a combination of architectural structures, in various stage of dilapidation, or not, and with various quarters. we spent a fair amount of time in the touristy area (where tourist shops and agencies line the streets), at the main market (for delicious fruit salads and cheap snacks) and in the business district (where things were a little cleaner and more ´normal´).

la paz is built over a difference of 800m in altitude, from 3200m to 4000m. what is quite interesting is that here the poorer folk live at the top of the city and the wealthier at the bottom. so when one is in the city centre, the monotone, brown coloured homes are evident all the way up the hilltops.

although, this did not stop the christmas spirit from rubbing off on everyone. it was well evident with many walking streets dedicated to stalls (selling christmas lights, plastic christmas trees and decorations, panetones, cakes, clothes, toys, games etc). when the stands weren`t packed with nativity scenes, it was food. and so much of it, noone could go hungry - empenadas, fried chicken (and other meats that i clearly was not interested in), pasta topped with a fried egg, deep fried sweet things and glorious fruit (which we visited on many a visit). what would the whole christmas vibe be without those good ol´carols; english carols boomed-forth from most shops and even local buses. the buildings were also really nicely decorated with flickering lights in the shape of christmas trees and it made the festive season feel all that more real.

unfortunately, it was not all rosey as the pollution is extremely dense and it is difficult to breath, at the best of times. vehicles have two outlets for the fumes, one at the bottom and the other at the top. so just in case you didn´t get a lung-full from the one end, you were guarenteed to get one from the other. what a treat!!

drugs are also quite evident, i fear. on a few occassions i was confronted with people either smoking crack (!!) next to me (in a decent internet cafe) or a woman, with her nose powdered white, inquiring about a lost dog. this little rendez-vous (in the french matter of speaking) took place in the san pedro plaza, where the famous (from the book ¨marching powder¨) prison is located. needless to say, after this encounter, i decided not to enter into the san pedro prison.

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La Paz n'est pas vraiment la ville la plus accueillante qu'il nous ait été donné de voir. En effet, a peine descendu du bus, c'est un nuage de dioxyde de carbon qui nous attend. De plus, il pleut. A 4000 m d'altitude ou l'air est plutot rare, on va dire que notre petite marche pour trouver l'auberge avec le gros sac sur le dos a été plutot fatiguante.

Les gens ne sont pas accueillants et sont meme plutot grossiers, ce qui ne facilite pas l'intégration. Apres cette premiere surprise cependant, on commence a prendre nos marques et on découvre qq quartiers plutot sympa (style colonial) et surtout qq bons restaurants. A cette altitude, le mal de crane devient quotidien et si la journée il est supportable, les nuits sont plus difficiles. L'acclimatation prend du temps....

On part visiter le musée de la coca qui nous apprend beaucoup sur les origines de la plante et son role important dans la culture andine. La coca est analysée sous toutes les coutures, ainsi on apprend qu'elle a un aspect nutritif non négligeable, qu'elle est tres bien adaptée pour les populations vivant a haute altitude, qu'elle permet de retarder le seuil de fatigue dans le cas de travail penible (dans les mines par exemple)..... Seuls les occidentaux l'ont transformée en drogue satanique en extrayant l'alcaloide a effet.

La premiere utilisation de la coca se fait dans le vin de mariani, qui par la suite, sera modifié par un pharmacien d'atlanta pour creer le fameux coca-cola.
Au final, la coca reste tres importante pour les population locale qui continuent de la mastiquer (pas moins de 50 feuilles de coca dans la bouche pour en extraire le jus relaxant) regulierement.

Il ne faut pas moins de 500kg de feuille de coca + kérosène + acide chlorhydrique + autres produits chimiques pour fabriquer un kg de cocaine et le prix de la feuille aura été multiplié par 90000 lors de la transformation...

Autour de La Paz, on peut également apercevoir la cordillére royale et ses montagnes culminant a plus de 6000 m d'altitude. C'est magnifique et je me laisse tenter pour une rando de 2 jours sur le Hyuana Potosi.

La premiere journée du camp de base (4700m) au campo alto (5100m) est assez facile et le mal de crane ne change pas trop de celui de la paz. Durant la rando, je rencontre Laurent et Séverine, deux suisses qui se font un tour d'amérique du sud en combi VW (leur blog). Arrivés au camp a 17h00, on se gave de spaghettis bologneses (ce qui sera une erreur...) avant de partir se coucher a 18h00. Le départ est a minuit et c'est bien simple, je n'ai pas ferme l'oeil de la nuit, j'ai du battre le record du monde de rotation dans le duvet afin de trouver une position comfortable...

A 1h00 du mat, on entamme l'ascension, crampons au pied et piolet en main, sous la nuit étoilée. C'est la pleine lune et la vue est splendide. Mon guide Julio est en forme et il a décidé de se faire plaisir avec son petit francais (les francais ont une bonne reputation en montagne). On grimpe donc sur un sacré rythme si bien que nous nous retrouvons seul après une heure de marche/escalade. Marcher avec les crampons est assez agréable (du moins lorsque l'on monte, pour descendre c'est une autre histoire) et la vue reste splendide. Cependant, peu a peu au cours de l'ascension je commence a payer un peu le rythme élevé du guide et les effets de l'altitude se font sentir : crampes d'estomac (ce qui me vaudra une belle seance toilette en plein air sur la neige a 5800 m d'altitude avec vue sur toute la vallée, je recommende, c'est nickel), mal de crane et qq sensations de vertige. C'est pas grave, on est la pour en chier donc on continue.

Le passage sur l'arete se negocie assez bien et la derniere partie me plait beaucoup. Cette fois, il faut passe qq crevasses et qq passages se sont effondrés récemment, ce qui fait qu'il faut tracer une nouvelle route. On est encordé donc s'il y en a un qui tombe, l'autre a intéret d'assurer et vu que je pese plus lourd que lui, je me demande s'il va pas tomber avec moi.....Enfin bon, on se retrouve ainsi a sauter qq crevasses assez profondes (genre qq 50m pas moins) et assez larges (notament un bon saut de 1m avec planter du piolet pour pas tomber...frissons guarantis). Apres 4h de marche, on atteind le sommet, a temps pour le lever du soleil mais malheureusement les nuages se sont levés, ce qui masque un peu la vue. Il me faut un vrai effort de concentration pour ne pas m'endormir, tellement la fatigue est grande. Il fait froid mais peu a peu la vue se degage et on peut apercevoir le lac titicaca au loin ainsi que l'illimati (l'autre 6000) et la ville de la paz. Tout est blanc, il n'y a pas de bruit, c'est tout simplement magique...

Le retour sera rapide et meme si le mal d'altitude commence a passer (normal on descend), cette fois, c'est les spaghettis de la veille qui remontent. Et ca loupe pas, je dois m'arreter pour une petite session degobillage bien soigné. Autant dire que c'est un véritable challenge a 6000m d'altitude de reprendre son souffle lors du processus. Enfin bon, ca va mieux et je peux redescendre au campo alto. A peine arrivé, je m'écroule de fatigue et je ne me réveille qu'une heure plus tard pour redescendre au camp de base. Une belle expérience donc, assez intense physiquement mais vraiment mémorable. Quand je pense que ce 6000 m est un des plus faciles du monde, je ne peux imaginer ce que reserve les autres....

Enfin, trop fatigué pour faire la route de la mort en vtt, je profite de l'après midi pour aller visiter la prison de San Pedro, la prison la plus corrompue du monde ou les prisonniers vivent avec leur famille dans leur cellule (oui oui a eux puisqu'ils l'ont acheté). Felipe, un portugais attrapé pour traffic de drogue (pas moins de 12kg de coke) et en attente de jugement (il essaye de réunir les 4000 dollars nécessaire pour payer le juge), nous offre une petite visite de la prison. Déjà, il faut dire que je ne faisais pas le malin juste avant la visite quand j'attendais de me faire accoster par un gars devant la prison. Je ne faisais toujours pas le malin quand ils ont ouvert les portes puis les ont refermé derrière moi et que je me suis retrouvé dans une petite pièce de 4 m2 avec 6 autres israéliens.

La prison est en fait divisée en plusieurs quartiers. Chaque quartier a ses lois et ses tarifs. Les guardes ne rentrent a l'intérieur de la prison que pour compter les prisonniers le matin a 7h00 et c'est tout. Chaque quartier possede ses restaurants, sa télé, son babyfoot. Les cellules sont toutes petites et l'odeur peut etre vraiment repoussante. Les familles (femmes et enfants) peuvent entrer et sortir a souhait. La nuit dans la prison, des laboratoires clandestins de fortune s'organise pour fabriquer de la cocaine. Ainsi, la drogue circule partout a l'intérieur de la prison. Parait il que c'est la meilleure du monde car elle est plus ou moins pure... Les prisonniers utilisent ensuite les familles pour la sortir de la prison et la vendre a l'extérieur, je suppose.

Au cours de la visite, j'ai pu voir des gamins jouer dans les couloirs, des drogués complétement shootés trainer dans la cour, des traces de sang sur les murs (il y a qd meme qq bons reglements de compte parfois), et enfin des gens ordinaires en attente. Il parait meme que certains préfèreraient rester car ils se font plus d'argent a l'intérieur qu'a l'extèrieur...tout un programme...On a aussi eu droit a un petit concert de l'eglise evangelique de la prison, assez rythmé.

Ce système parallèle complétement insensé existe donc bien en Bolivie, meme si San Pedro est une exception. A la fin de la visite, il est normal de proposer de la drogue aux touristes en toute impunités puisque les gardes ferment les yeux...

Je conseille de lire le livre ''Marching Powder'' sur l'histoire de thomas mcfadden, un anglais qui y a passé qq années en 98 et qui a commencé le bizness insensé des tours touristiques a l'intérieur des murs.

copacabana

2008-12-11T21:21:00.015+01:00

the blessings of the cars ----------------------- popcorn anyone?

babyfoot on the waters edge ----------- the cathedral

at the view point -------------------------- us waiting for sunset

pigs chilling in isla del sol----------------------- getting friendly with one of the many ´borros´

weed collection? ---------------------------------walking through a field on the way to the south

an incan religious site on the island ------------ our fave - the rocoto chili

the fabulously fresh lake titicaca trout

hi margs! --------------------------------------- ladies carrying water up the hill

and back down they go ----------------- sunrise on the island

the famous boats made of straw -------------------- crossing the lake titicaca

crossing the bolivian border was slighly stressful as i had suddenly discovered that i needed a visa, which cost me a whopping $50. nice surpise that was!! well, if i compare my payment to that of an americans, it's 'mickey mouse' as they have to pay over $130, but then at least they are expecting it!

so to copacabana we went, not even 30 minutes from the border. i know what you are thinking or rather singing "copa - copacabana la la la la la". a little piece of info.: copacabana beach in brazil was actually named after this town, bordering lake titicaca in bolivia. pretty interesting, no?

on arrival, we saw this kind of ¨parade¨ going on in front of the cathedral. there were women ¨installed¨ outside the church selling all kinds of decorations, flowers, booze (not only in front of the house of the lord but also on a sunday. good grief!!!!) and the other normal religious stuff like candles.

we lingered in the park to understand a bit more what was going on and it turned out that the people from the surrounding areas had come to have their cars blessed. you have not read wrong, i can assure you. the cars were adorned in all kind of decorations, plastic or paper and in all colours, with the priest and his holy water making an appearance. whilst he was doing his bit, the owners would drink the booze (for the sake of the blessing, who knows?) and off they would go. so at one time, there may have been at least four or five vehicles (of all conditions i might add) waiting it´s turn to last another day.

whilst we were there, we visited the isla del sol, located about 2 hours away by (an extremely slow) boat. we arrived in the northern part of the island and walked to the south which took us about 3 hours, passing through old incan villages, passed fields with donkeys, alpacas and pigs hanging together. it was beautiful with lovely scenery of the lake, the view of the royal cordillere (at higher than 6000m) and the surrounding land masses aka islands.

we spent the night in a sweet hostal with a room with a view of the village below and the lake...quite rare thesedays. considering the cold, we were in layers for most of the day (and night). so even though the costumes were brought along, they didn`t make an appearance once. pity as there were loads of little creeks that were just waiting to have a visitor.

when we weren´t huddled in a ball, we were endulging in the delicously fresh trout and endless cups of warm coca leaf tea (with no affects).

all in all, we spent about three days in that area before heading to chaotic la paz.

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Notre premiere etape bolivienne est Copacabana (non non nous ne sommes pas sur une plage bresilienne mais bien en bord du titicaca a 4000 m d'altitude, autant dire qu'on peut ranger le maillot de bain).

L'endroit est vraiment tranquille, les gens y viennent en pelerinage pour demander protection a la vierge de copacabana. Ainsi, ils amenent leur voiture devant la cathedrale et la benissent tout en se servant qq rasades de paceña au passage (la biere de la paz). C'est d'ici que s'organisent les excursions sur l'ile du soleil, origine du monde selon les incas. C'est en effet depuis cette ile que le soleil et la lune se seraient envoles vers le ciel et que les incas seraient nes. Le bateau nous depose au nord de l'ile ou nous visitons qq ruines incas et un musee montrant qq pieces incas en or recueillies par le commandant cousteau en 1970 lors de son exploration du lac (a la recherche d 'un tresor incas enfoui dans le lac afin que les espagnols ne le trouvent jamais). Toujours pas de nouvelles du tresor, il faut dire que le lac est immense : 8000 km2.

Il y a peu de monde et on decide de faire la randonnee de 12 kms reliant le nord au sud de l'ile. Au loin, on peut apercevoir la cordillere royale et ses sommets enneiges a plus de 6000 m. L'ile possede ses cultures en terrasses et qq lamas broutent par ci par la. Tout est tranquille et c'est sympa de se retrouver seul dans la nature durant qq heures. Ici, le plat roi, c'est la truite qui se sert sous toutes ses formes et on ne s'en lasse pas...

machu picchu

2008-12-11T21:16:00.012+01:00

one of the numerous 'tree' blocks -------------- playing 'stuck in the mud'

the 'official´road block ---------------- the victims

valley from st teresa to hydro ----------------- walking the rails at hydro

the $8 train from aguas calientes to hydro ----------

machu picchu early morning -----------------------special dedication to kelly.

a royal entrance (earth quake proof)--------------------- once the mist had lifted

temple of the condor -------------------------------the impressive water system

a few abodes with terraces --------- 10 points for guessing that this is a condor!

the incan calender ?? --------------------- wayna picchu in the distance

view of machu picchu from wayna picchu --------- from afar

crumbling temple ----------------------------- with wayna in the background

the glorious hot springs of st teresa ------view from moray

moray ruins (inca terraces) = incan R&D department

las salinas --------------------------------

on the third day of our stay in cusco, we decided to go on a little adventure ; machu picchu solos. we had the connections all planned out until we discovered that the villagers were striking (for numerous reasons that i won´t go into) and that is where the REAL expedition began.

the first trip, from cusco to santa maria, went quite well (if getting stuck in mushy mud is ok)...and thats where it ended. due to the strikes, there were more and more trees, branches, rocks etc blocking the road, so on several occassions the men in the minivan had to get out to displace the debris. our trip ended when there were a group of people standing in front of the barriers. we (and especially the driver) took this as a sure sign that this is where our trip ended!!

santa maria was unvoluntarily home for a few hours. luckily we were not alone. there was a korean and two dutch 'stuck in the mud' with us. we did have a few laughs though which made time pass. for example, the dutch guy asked me if i was an albino. seb proceded to define the meaning of ¨albino¨, in case it was not the same in dutch. indeed it was! as if that was not enough, he then asked if my parents were of colour! we were not too sure if he was kidding or being serious. when he repeated the question, i gathered that we had a fool on our hands. gee wizz, did we laugh!

he was saved by the arrival of a taxi driver offering his services. he announced that he had a car that would take us to santa teresa, but only after 6pm (when the villagers would be in a meeting). it sounded rather dodgy but seb and louis-the-local went to check it out and it seemed ok.

i dont know if you have heard of the most dangerous road near la paz, in bolivia. well, i think the road that we took could compete and more than likely win! combined with the speed that the guy was driving, and sliding out (of course! what kind of an adventure would it be without some skidding on and nearly off a cliff with a drop of a few 100 metres!?), didnt help. needless to say, everyone, even the most uncatholic, said a little prayer and it worked...we made it to santa teresa where we spent the night in a cute hostel (auqui).

the following day, we had a mammoth walk from sta teresa via hydroelectrica (just some spot where taxis occassionally wait) then to aguas calientes. all in all, a 5 1/2 hour walk, which was beautiful in the beginning but agonising in the end as we were walking on railway tracks. i think we wouldve done a better job of it intoxicated!

anyway, we made it to aguas calientes which resembles something of a french village in the alps, without the charm or the snow. completely geared to tourism aka over-priced in every sense. luckily we only spent one night there and woke up early to hike machu picchu (2400m) which was phenomenal! no words could explain how magnificant it was! we had a guide which explained this and that, whch took about two hours. we then proceded to climb wayna picchu (2700m) which was extremely tiring but marvellous as we had a splendid view of macchu picchu and the surrounding valleys. i will let the photos speak for themselves...

luckily, we did not have to do the trip back the same way. we took the ($8 over-priced) train to hydro then a 2 soles (more or less 75 US cents) taxi to sta teresa. the afternoon was spent lazing in the hot springs where our aching legs slowly recovered...

our last night in cusco, we treated ourselves to a wonderful restaurant called "victor victoria" where we endulged in peruvian ceviche (me) and lama steak (seb) with salads galore...mmm, food. a great ending to peru -

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Apres qq jours a Cusco et aux alentours, il etait temps de partir a la conquete du Machu Picchu (vieille montagne en quechua), un des sites incas non decouvert par les espagnols et donc en bon etat de preservation. On reserve notre trek de 5 jours, le Sal Kan Tai, alternative economique du chemin de l'inca. Malheuresement au dernier moment, le tour est annule pour cause de greve des campesinos, ceux ci bloquant les chemins d acces. La greve s etendant sur plusieurs jours, on decide donc de partir nous meme avec les moyens du bord (bus/microbus).

Le chauffeur du minibus nous assure connaitre un chemin permettant d eviter les bloquages des campesinos. Apres 4h de route, on rencontre notre premier obstacle sur la route et le chauffeur decide de prendre un chemin de terre a travers la jungle. Autant dire que le minibus ne possede pas de mode 4*4 et que la route s'annonce plutot difficile. Au cours du trajet, on trouve regulierement des troncs d'arbre ou des pierres entasses au milieu de la route, qu'il faut deplacer a la main. On arrive meme a s'embourber sur un chemin boueux au milieu de nul part, duquel on ne sort qu'apres une heure de travail acharne. Durant cette heure, les gentils moustiques peruviens ne manquent pas de se faire plaisir sur mon visage et mes bras.

Finalement on arrive a un barrage infranchissable ou les campesinos ne veulent rien entendre. On continue donc a pied pendant 1h jusqu'au village de santa maria. La, toute la population du coin est reunie et attend tranquillement le meeting de 19h afin de decider de la suite du mouvement. N'ayant d'autres alternatives qu'attendre 19h pour que se decide quelque chose et que les gens commence a rentrer chez eux (liberant ainsi le passage), on se pose dans un comedor (restaurant local).

Apres 4 h d'attente, je trouve un gars qui veut bien nous emmener sur Santa Teresa le soir meme, a condition de se faire discret a la sortie de la ville et de le rejoindre 500 m plus loin sur la route. On rejoint Santa Teresa a 20h epuise mais content de s etre bien rapproche du but.
Le lendemain, une marche difficile (on marche sur la voie ferree du train qui relie cusco a aguas calientes pour la maudique somme de 50 dollars l'aller...) de 5h nous emmene a Aguas Calientes, le village au pied du machu picchu ou nous passerons la nuit.

A 5h du mat, sous une petite bruine, on entamme l ascension des marches qui mene a l'entree du site. A 6h, on commence la visite dans la brume. Il n'y a pas grand monde et le site parait vraiment magique, gris quand on le regarde du dessous (on ne voit que les pierres formant les terrasses) et vert quand on le regarde d'en haut (on voit l'herbe pousser sur les terrasses). Comme a Pisac, le site se divise en deux parties, les terrasses et les habitations/temples. Le site a ete decouvert par un berger peruvien qui y residait tranquillement jusqu a ce que Bingham, un archeologue americain, ne debarque en 1911 pour rendre le site mondialement connu.
La raison d'existence du site n'est pas tres claire, et plusieurs theses existent: une forteresse incas en cas d'invasion des tribus amazoniennes (les seules jamais conquises par les incas), une capitale religieuse, ou plus probablement, une residence secondaire haut perchee des souverains incas.

La cite aurait heberge 1800 personnes. Outre les terrasses et les differents temples, il y a un observatoire astronomique (fameuse pierre aux formes geometriques bizarres). Durant la visite, la guide aura reussi a nous persuader une bonne vingtaine de fois que l'arrangement des pierres, le choix de la montagne, les jeux d'ombre du soleil sur le calendrier astronomique ne sont pas dus au hasard mais representent bel et bien un lama, un condor, une tete incas ou quoique ce soit incas.... Au final, il faut pas mal d'imagination et une bonne dose de mauvaise foi incas pour apercevoir tout ca, c'est mon point de vue.

En rentrant du Machu Picchu, on aura l'occasion de s'arreter voir deux autres sites incas incroyables : les terrasses de Moray et les salines.
Les terrasses en rond de Moray constituaient une innovation technologique car ce systeme permettait de proteger les cultures du vent et de profiter de la gravite pour l'irrigation; de plus, les plantes ou cereales profitaient mieux de la lumiere du soleil tout au long de la journee.
Les salines surprennent par leur blancheur dans ce paysage de terre rouge. L'eau provient de la terre (eau chaude) et un systeme de terrasses la recupere. Durant la nuit (glaciale a 3500 m d'altitude), l'eau gele et le lendemain les paysans fendent la glace afin de recuperer le sel.

De retour sur Cusco, on decide de se faire plaisir en s'offrant un superbe diner au Victor Victoria : steak de lama pour moi et cheviche (salade de poisson) pour Karis.

C'en est fini de l'aventure peruvienne. A nous la Bolivie...

cuzco

2008-12-06T20:27:00.014+01:00

the alpacas seem to be able to eat everywhere -----one of the many steep lanes

remains of the sun temple in st. domingo monastery ---- the monastery gardens

'la sagrada familia' church in the main square ----- the cathedral, to the right

plaza de armas, at dusk --------------------and at night with the nieghbourhoods on the hilltops

the pisac valley --------------------------------- blom (flower)

valley with ruins --------------------- blom #2

blom #3 (still living, in fact) --------------------------view of homes and terraces

seb in the sneaky inca-built tunnel ---------------temple built into the stone

from afar ---------------------------------------- ´cuy´- a local delicacy

drainage system in pisac village

arriving in cuszo was a ¨different¨ experience. for starters, it´s at 3400m and early morning it is COLD. to add, it is known as ¨the Inca´s Rome¨(pretty impressive, no?!) and the incan foundations are still evident and used to this day. thirdly, one is offered massages, waxes, restaurants, tour information (and drugs on weekends) constantly and finally, the city´s flag is rainbow coloured!

we spent the first two days aclimatising, wandering around the city namely the beautiful san blas quarter and visiting the santa domingo monastery, which was really interesting. the monastery was built on an ancient incan site (the temple of the sun aka coricancha) so the architecture is an interesting mix of incan and spanish colonial style. seeing that cuzco is so inca-rich, we visited pisac, a nearby site.

it is said to be the next best site next to machu picchu. i think i could agree -
built on the top of a hill in the town of pisac are the ruins. we walked up through maize fields, along rivers (actually only one) and up, up, up. on arrival, we were greeted to a mass of ruins, still in fairly good condition, on various levels. the terraces that the incas built, for agricultural reasons, were incredible. circular walls from the bottom to the top and so precise!

we must have spent a few hours climbing ( i say, almost out of breath at the thought) around and of course, up the site until no sun temple could blow us away.

the trip back to cusco was less eventful as school must have just finished. the bus was packed to the brim with school-goers, locals with baskets and the odd dozer, who occassionally used an arm or elbow as a pillow.
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Cuzco était la capitale des incas (nombril du monde en quechua), elle a été plus ou moins détruite par les espagnols puis reconstruite par la suite. Elle garde beaucoup de charme, sa place centrale est entourée d´églises et de veilles batisses coloniales retapées en restaurant. La ville est à 3400 m d´altitude et toutes les ruelles entourant la place centrale montent ou desendent, bref pas de repos pour les jambes a cusco.

Une premiere visite nous emmene au monastère santo domingo, anciennement temple du soleil incas. C´est ici que les incas faisait leur offrandes au dieu donc l´endroit regorgeait d´or. Dans les fondations du monastère, il reste qq traces des structures incas originales. Les incas était en effet assez réputés pour leur savoir faire en terme d´architecture. Pour former les murs, les pierres étaient posées l´une sur l´autre sans joint nécessaire, elles étaient taillées pour s´embirquer parfaitement les unes dans les autres. Les portes étaient toutes construites avec un angle afin de résister aux tremblements de terre...

Puis, on a pu faire une excursion sur le site de Pisac, ruines incas situées à flanc de montagne. 2h d´ascension depuis le village de Pisac et à travers les champs de mais nous permettent d´atteindre les ruines qui se composent en deux parties, les terrasses pour les cultures et les habitations, le tout en haut de la montagne. La, on peut voir le temple du soleil et son calendrier astronomique (sorte de pierre taillée de manière particulière) qui donnait l´époque de l´année grace à l´ombre portée par le soleil lorsqu´il se levait. Ainsi, les incas repéraient les périodes spéciales de l´année telles que les equinoxes et les solstices, périodes propices pour l´ensemencement ou la récolte des cultures.

Enfin, Cuzco aurait été l´endroit idéal pour déguster le cuy al horno (cochon d´inde au four), spécialité du coin mais le fait que mon frère en ait fait son animal de compagnie m´a un peu calmé. Pas de souci, je me suis rattrapé sur un énorme steak d´alpaca....

colca canyon (peru)

2008-11-29T21:23:00.016+01:00

hat festival on the various local buses

chivay barbed wire with flare ............................. local outdoor equipment

weekly supplies from the city ......................................... afternoon chat in chivay main square

caldo blanco (traditional soup)..................................cabanaconde terrace

canyon cactus ............................................. healthy, out of breath hikers in the canyon

oasis paradiso, at the foot of the canyon ...............................posing pet alpaca

the end of the trek at last! ...................................................interesting scene in cabanaconde church

where´s wally? ....................................... bus stop nap

the only condor spotted .................... the ¨vallee del fuego¨garden

pepina-papaya (cucumber-pawpaw) fruit

as you may have guessed it, we are not too fond of crowds and instead of taking a typical tour offered by the hundreds of agencies, we went solos to the colca canyon.

the trip there was enjoyable as we stopped off, after approx 4 hours, in the town of chivay for a few hours. even though it was just under 4000m, the effects of the altitude were evident. the town was nestled in a valley, with a monsterous cross cut in the valley and alpaca´s in the town square with their owner´s in traditional dress (i soon started to become intrigued by their woven hats).

then came the second leg to cabanaconde, which is the last village served by a bus service. it became quite clear about 15 minutes before the bus arrived that we were not the only ones heading in that direction as a queue started in the middle of the bus parking lot.

picture this: an enromous cross on a nearby greener-than-green hill, a dusty parking lot with a row of about 4 families and 6 loners reading the paper, eating etc. then towards the back of the queue, the tourists. clearly not accustomed to such tactics on getting a good spot, or a seat at all!

so the seat situation was not the best as there were many free seats but all with either a bag or a (beautiful) hat preventing us from sitting. now i understand what all the fuss was about (i think that they may be worse than the mexicans getting on the bus or metro)!!

anyway, after much stopping and starting, the quantity of people seemed to diminish as we reached the terminus...thankfully. did i mention that the windows could not open and that does not mean that there was aircon. not at all!!

cabanaconde is probably half the size of chivay and has a lovely, quaint feeling. we stayed in the BEST hostal called ¨vallee del fuego¨owned by the famous pablo. the rooms overlook the crop fields and the canyon and have a little garden that absorbs the sunlight during the day. the restaurant is constucted all out of stone and has a wonderfully warm indoor fire. there are candles on the tables and pablo´s brother mixes some good tunes whilst one eats and drinks merrily. as you may sense, i enjoyed this place immensly -

the reason for our visit to this part of the woods was 1) thanks so sarah who spends about three months in this continent every year and 2) to do a hike to the oasis paradiso.

the hike was not a conventional one; it started downhill, for about 1 1/2hrs, and ended uphill, approx 3hrs. thank goodness, there was a refreshing swimming pool waiting for us at the bottom and the thin, cool air at the top. i didn´t realise the impact a change of a few thousand metres would have. at one stage, it was just (just!) the lack of breath that made me stop.

although it was a mighty strenuous hike, it was well worth it. the views were breath taking and the satisfaction of reaching the top of such a mountain made it.

one thing must be said, that churches in the two villages that we visited were beautiful. they were brightly painted with a little less kitchness than usual.

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Notre petite escapade au cañon de colca nous a permis de nous échapper dans la campagne aréquipénienne. Pas moins de 6 de bus local surchargé ,qui s´arrête toutes les 5 minutes pour récupérer un ou deux campesinos avec la récolte de leur champs (soit deux sacs chacun de 10 kg), pour rejoindre le village de Cabanacondé. Sur la route les paysages sont magnifiques. Les plaines désertiques peuplées de lamas et d´alpacas laissent peu à peu palce au cañon avec ses cultures en terrasse: patates, mais, piments, haricots, puis les fruits dans la vallée.

Enfin, cette escapade nous a permis d´observer quelques beaux habits traditionnels de la région parmi lesquels le chapeau melon et la robe traditionnel.

La cañon est célèbre notament pour ses condors. Une randonnée nous permet de descendre au fond du cañon et de profiter de la piscine de l´auberge ou l´on réside avant d´entamer la difficile remonter vers le village (1000 m de dénivelé a 4000 m d´altitude). C´est notre première expérience avec l´altitude et on a pas trop eu de problème même s´il est vrai que le souffle manque un peu parfois.

Enfin, j´ai eu l´occasion de prendre qq menus de jour à base de caldo blanco (soupe de poulet avec des pates) et steak d´alapaca en sauce (pas mauvais du tout), le tout accompagné de mate de coca.

arequipa

2008-11-25T18:27:00.016+01:00

arequipa cathedral ------------------ menu del dia (soup of moron)

the central market - an array of colours -------- corn and potatoes of all colours and sizes

et la, j ai combien de doigts (how many fingers) ????-sta catalina monastery (the cemetary and washing area)

entrance to the monastery ------------one of the colourful courtyards

view from the rooftop ------------------------------confession bench

entrance to a peruvian bank -------------- church facade

respect! how to be a real nun-------------------- another view of inside

arequipa's balconies view

cooking time ------------------------------ -bon apetit

arequipa is a lovely city, complete with colonial charm and a wonderful ambiance. it is known as the white city as many of its buildings are made of sillar - a white volcanic rock. needless to say, it is situated near a variety of volcanes, namely the ¨el misti¨, a snow capped volcano measuring about 5822m.

one of the many museums, cathedrals etc in the city, we visited the santa catalina monastery which is a cloistered convent and was constructed (out of sillar of course) in 1580 and was later enlarged in the 17th century. at that time, only wealthy spaniards, paying an extravagent dowry of approximately $50 000 thesedays (!), were accepted and they had one to four slaves on hand (!!). it is not as though they were moving into a hotel, as their rooms were cells, so to speak. a lavish cell, shall we call it. it had a kitchen off the main room and some had a fire place. i´m guessing that those were the lucky ones as the rooms mustvé got pretty damn cold with the stone floors.

the colours of the monastery are magnificant with oranges, blues and plants on almost all the window sills. there are three courtyards with beautiful painted arches and some with fruit trees. the monastery still houses about 20 nuns today. not too kak -

¨el museo santuarios andinos¨ is also recommended as it tells the tale of ¨juanita¨, a 500 year old incan girl who was offered to the god´s. she was found only in 1995 in the crater of the ampato volcano (6380m). one is actually able to view this beauty, which is somewhat freakish.

when we were not stimulating ourselves interllectually ;), we went exploring the market (where we bought many a lunch and loads of interesting fruit; the pepino-papaya for example), watching the world go by in the plaza de armas (main square) and hanging out in various spots where locals were congregated.

after being here for quite a few days, i can understand why unesco nominated this city a world heritage site (in 2000).

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Arequipa, la ville blanche, nous a acceuilli pour qq jours. La ville est entourée de volcans a 6000 m, et elle est située a 2000m d´altitude. C'est la roche volcanique qui donne cette couleur blanche a la ville. La cathedrale domine la plazza de arma, rendez vous des pigeons peruviens.

Durant le séjour, on profitera pleinement des marches afin de se concocter qq plats dans la cuisine de l'auberge. Le matin, on va choisir des légumes et quelques patates (le choix est immense, plus de 4000 variétés au Pérou) et le soir, on mange tout ca tranquillement en écoutant la musique, comme a la maison.

La ville possède un monastère de nonne fondé peu après l´arrivée des colons. C´est une véritable ville dans la ville, avec ses propres rues, ses propres maisons et ses jardins, le tout entouré d´une grosse muraille en pierre. Les nonnes qui y residaient avait meme leur femmes de menages. Par contre, afin d atteindre la veritable sagesse et de comprendre le monde, elle devait porter une sorte d armure avec des pics un peu partout, ca devait etre sympa tout ca (cf la photo how to become a real nun)

Le musee santuarios andinos possede la fameuse momie Juanita, trouvee a 6380 m d altitude sur le volcan ampata en 1995. Le volcan etant entre en eruption, la neige du sommet a fondu et la momie, enterree il y a 500 ans par les incas, s est retrouvee mise a jour. Juanita aurait ete sacrifiee afin de soulager la colere des dieux. Ce genre de sacrifice etaient assez courant chez les incas. Des pretres parcouraient les differentes cites afin de trouver les heureux candidats au sacrifice, ceux ci devaient etre noble et ages de moins de 13 ans. L heureux elu se voyait alors recu par l inca meme a Cusco et cheminait ensuite jusqu au lieu de sacrifice. En l occurence la mere Juanita a du marcher 3 bons mois pour rejoindre le sommet de l ampata. L etat de conservation de la momie est vraiment incroyable.

Enfin, a Arequipa, on a pu essayer le fameux pisco sour, cocktail avec du pisco (ceux qui suivent le blog sauront ce que c est) et du blanc d oeuf. Avis aux amateurs, moi, je prefere une bonne arequipeña.

nazca lines

2008-11-24T01:35:00.017+01:00

mummies in chauchilla cemetary

desert around the graves -----------------------nazca line - the hands

nasca line - the tree ---------------------mirador off the panamerican highway

two to three hours from ica, is nazca; famous for its nazca lines. almost every second shop is a tour agency offering flights over the lines. we decided to do it the ¨routard/ backpacker¨way and caught a public bus to the mirador (on the side of the panamerican highway), walked to the ¨natuaral mirador¨AKA a hill where we could apparently see other lines then caught a gas carrier back into town. for sure, we saved a few buckaroos and did it at our own pace. we even made a friend along the way; chris, an american solo traveller, who seemed to have the same brilliant idea as we did.

the nazca lines are a serious of hundreds of geoglyphs scattered over about 500 square kms, thought to have been created by the nazca culture between 200BC and 700AD. one is able to see human, animal figures and many, MANY perfectly straight lines. these are all thought to have a meaning, religious perhaps? unfortunately, there are sooo many theories behind this phenomenom that it is difficult to know what to believe...

we also visited the chauchilla cemetery, about 40 minutes outside of town. it was kind of a scary experience with some of the graves still intact, dating from about 1000AD. unfortunately grave robbers got to the graves first and stole many valuables that were left. we were able to see mummies, wrapped in cotton with their skeletons and hair still well preserved with various offerings for the after life ie: ceramic bowls, necklaces, combs for weaving and some woven articles.

we stayed in a great little hostal called ¨hostal guadaloupe¨ which had a lovely, mellow vibe and was surprisingly filled with frenchies. obviously this address could not have been in ¨the lonely¨! we took delight in eating in cheap eateries where, for less than 10 soles (just over $3), we received a soup and a main meal which left us full to last the day!

i definately cannot forget to mention the cake sellers, who sell pieces of cake for s1,50 on the street corners. i would, without a doubt, recommend the pineapple cake. mmm.

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Nazca est principalement connue pour ses lignes et figures géométriques tracées dans le désert. Ces dessins datent apparement des années 200 a 800 et chacun a sa petite thèse quand a leur signification:

- pour Victoria, l´archéologue en bois qui a repris le travail de maria reiche (l´archéologue allemande qui a rendu les lignes célèbres et qui a passé sa vie sur le site), ces lignes et dessins sont un livre a ciel ouvert que nous transmettent les anciennes civilisations. Ces lignes nous indiqueraient les sources d´eau, chose importante quand on sait que l´endroit est un immense désert. Les dessins eux seraient une sorte de calendrier astronomique, avec chaque dessin pointant sur une ligne qui indiquerait certaines dates importantes de l´année tel que les solstices. Sa théorie est intéressante mais elle contient pas mal de point douteux. En outre, le fait qu´elle soit persuadée de venir du cosmos et d´avoir plus de 3000 ans (elle a également eu le temps d´enterrer ses 18 maris) donne une dimension un peu mystique à ses dires...

- pour d´autre, ce serait juste des dessins artistiques fait par les anciens afin de faire plaisir aux dieux (qui peuvent les voir depuis le ciel)

- enfin, pour ceux qui aiment la fiction, la dernière théorie mettrait en scène les extra terrestres. les lignes seraient les pistes d´atterrissage et le dessin du vieux aux grands yeux serait celui d´un homme vert venu de l´espace.

Pour s´y retrouver, c´est donc assez difficile mais ca rajoute du charme. En fait, comme on va s´en apercevoir plus tard, le Pérou regorge de lieux aux origines plus ou moins inconnues.

Autre visite, celle d´un cimetière de momies datant de l´époque paracas (200-800 je crois) mais qui aurait été pillé au début du siècle. Il n´empeche que les momies sont bien conservées.

Les paysages désertiques sont fascinants et les gens acceuillant. On se régale des menus du jour a 5 soles (1 euro) meme si Karis a du mal a trouver des options végétariennes.

huacachina dunes

2008-11-22T20:19:00.007+01:00

view from our room ------------pisco (local grape alcohol) fermentation jars

huacachina oasis ----------------------sandboarding at sunset

huacachina is an oasis town not far from ica. when i say it´s an oasis, i really mean it. one minute you are cruising along the panamerican ¨highway¨surrounded by sand dunes, the next you stumble across palm trees and a lake. the moment we landed in lima, we got onto a bus this side.

we stayed in the oasis (of course!!) with honey-coloured dunes surrounding us, that we befriended with a sand board. it was loads of fun riding but super tiring climbing back up. we spent a few hours messing around until the sun set and the night chill sent us packing.

believe it or not - there are also wine estates. ok, perhaps ¨estate¨is somewhat of an exaggeration. it was more of a farm, an 150 year old farm that still produces wine and pisco-induced wine, the artisanal way. the tour was extremely interesting and of course the tasting, not too bad either. although we were a tad disappointed that it was pisco that we were tasting and not the wine that the ¨estate¨ was ¨famous¨for...

i did not realise that central and south america would be so different. it does not only concern the landscapes but also the comedors. this must be the only place (so far) where customers actually can order 2.5l of coke, or other sugary soft drink, and drink it in the restaurant! so it is quite the norm to spot an over-sized plastic bottle on the table. not only did this amaze me, but also the price of a meal. often a full-on meal of a starter and main would cost the same as a packet of m&m´s! i´m not kidding!! something must be seriously wrong here...

needless to say, a fantastic introduction to peru!

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A peine arrivé sur Lima, on prend un bus en direction de huacachina, petite oasis perdue au milieu du désert. Quelle surprise en sortant de Lima de découvrir ces grandes étendues désertique le long de la cote pacifique !! De plus, je ne m´attendais vraiment pas a trouver un pays aux infracstructures si développées. En effet, le bus est vraiment comfortable, ce qui nous change radicalement du chicken bus du Guate...

Huacachina est une petite ville construite au milieu d´une oasis. Elle est entourée de dunes de sables et du haut de ces dunes, les désert s´étend sur des kilomètres. Pas grand chose a faire sinon de se reposer, de gouter a la cuisine locale qui s´avère assez différente du Guate : pas mal de fruits de mer, souvent accompagnés d´haricots blancs typique de la région.

Les dunes nous offrent l´occasion de s´adonner au sand boarding. Par contre, par opposition au snow boarding, il n´y a pas de remontées mécaniques, aussi, après deux ou trois remontées, l´enthousiasme initial en prend un coup et la session de sand boarding se transforme rapidement en séance d´observation du désert et du coucher de soleil sur les dunes tout en essayant tant bien que mal de récupérer son souffle.

De plus, on a pu visiter une vieille fabrique artisanale de pisco, alcool local a base de raisin fermenté. Apres la visite, on a meme droit a une degustation des differents types de pisco produits (pisco jeune, pisco vieux, pisco amer). Cette degustation ne me laissera pas indifferent, en effet, a midi sous un soleil de plomb, les effets du pisco sont plus ou moins immédiats, si bien que le reste de la journee consistera principalement en une grosse sieste.

antigua

2008-11-19T00:02:00.012+01:00

convento de la compañia de Jesus : night and day

antigua streets ---------------------------------the arch with the pacaya volcano in the back

central park fountain -------------iglesia de la Merced

inside of the cathedral de Santiago

cafe condesa treat ---------------zoom on the yummy cheese cake

volcano del fuego puffing ------------------------view from the pacaya

early morning freezing hiker -----------------volcano pacaya lava stream (till the bottom)

lava zoom (hot hot hot: check the stick on fire)

antigua has always been one of my favourite cities in the world (next to cape town, chambery and paris - of course!!) and it has not changed as much as one would think over a decade. besides the fact that there are a lot more tourists and my hero - the pupusa lady - no longer occupies the park corner as she once did...

being in antigua does not really feel like being in guatemala as almost everyone speaks english, or can understand it, and cafe lattes and cake come naturally towards the end of the afternoon...much to my/ our enjoyment (as you can see in the pic - the cheesecake at cafe condesa is definately the way forward)!!

so when we were not ¨dwaaling¨ (perusing) the town, we plucked up our courage and climbed the volcano pacaya. well, not much courage was needed as there were more than a few people doing the same stroll as we were. it was pretty mellow until we reached the hill/ sand mountain leading to the lave (yes, the real macoy stuff). from there, the wind blew a gale and we were almost having to hold onto the volcanic rocks to keep our balance. it was all worth it when we arrived at the top, where the lave came oozing out. it was not as hot as one would expect lava to be which could explain why one of the guide´s frolicked precariously on the sides. show off!

alas, all good things must come to an end ie: our stay in antigua and guatemala in general, and off we set for our mammoth trip from guate to peru via mexico.

Incroyable mais vrai, c´est a Antigua, ville la plus touristique du Guate, qu´on a trouvé la bonne affaire en terme de logement (36 Q la nuit, soit 5 dollars), mème s´il est vrai que l´endroit ressemblait plus a une prison qu´a une auberge. L´ancienne capitale coloniale est vraiment charmante avec ses ruelles pavées et ses vieilles batisses aux peintures délavées. Il doit y avoir plus d´églises que d´habitants, toutes dédiées à un saint différent. Antigua, ca a été l´occasion pour nous de s´offrir un ´festival papilles et saveurs´ comme on dit dans l´équipe sécheur de St Gobain engineering. En effet, sous prétexe de dépenser nos derniers quetzals, on s´est autorisé quelques gros écarts sur notre régime quotidient à base de tacos... Café condesa a éte l´occasion d´un énorme cheese cake que karis a dévoré en deux deux, mais surtout le soir j´ai enfin pu déguster un super steak au fondo de la calle real dont je révais depuis quelques mois....

Puis, on a pu escalader le Pacaya, un des volcans surplombant la ville. Il est encore en activité ( je crois qu´il est entré en eruption il y a 10 ans la dernière fois) si bien qu´on a pu admirer de très prés les coulées de lave. La lave etait épaisse et coulait lentement des entrailles du volcan puis en se refroidissant, elle se transformait en pierre et déboulait sur le flanc de la montagne....
Ainsi se termine notre aventure en amérique latine. Cette partie du voyage m´a vraiment plu car on a réussi a partager pas mal de moment avec les locaux, étant capables de parler la langue.

Antonin nous a accueilli comme un roi depuis son duplex de Roma Sur a Mexico et nous a offert un bel apercu des trésors culinaires du mexique (bapteme du feu avec le mezcal, puis les queso fondido, tortas de pulpo, huaraches, sopa de pancita (non merci plus jamais)) . Le périple avec Duarte et Marianne au chiapas puis sur la cote caraibe aura été l´occasion de belles aventures et de jolis apéros en bord de mer...