Les aventures de Flo&Yoyo

grow grOW GROW.....

2010-06-01T11:58:00.000-07:00

Another month gone by.. another ultrasonography taken. This is the most recent one, end of May. More detailed than the other one taken. Lots of measurements and checking of certain growth of the baby. More specific on the measurements it seems compared to the earlier ultrasound taken. This is at 22 weeks and 5 days. According to whatever measurements the doctor did. By now the baby weighs about 500 grams. The total length? I have no idea.. Have to study the statistics table with all the measurements listed.

Measured the eyes, the circumference of the head. The heart and if it is in the right position. The heartbeat at 153 beats per min. The size of the abdomen and the amount of liquid in it..The lips, to ensure that both upper and lower lips are fully formed. The ears. The nose and the length of it. The arms, hands and all its 10 fingers. The legs, feet and all its 10 toes.

Baby has taken alot more of the space available that it is less visible as a whole or so the doctor says.

Baby's head profile, you can see where the eyes would be. Scary looking huh?

Face profile again, he's measuring the nose here. You can see the lips as well.

Here's the feet. Although we cant see it's toes. Baby seems to have long narrow feet. Must be the same as mine. I might be wrong though as it is still growing. Still as long as its thighs apparently :)

The doctor tried to get a 3D shot of the baby but the placenta was blocking the view. Plus the baby kept its hands in front of the face so it was a difficult shot. So no 3D for this time. We saw it but he didnt put it on the print out. Too bad. It would be nice. Next time perhaps.

It is always a pleasure to see the baby through this machine. A peep before we actually see it. The next and the last one will be in end of July I think or early August perhaps.. not too sure..

Yes I can feel the baby's movements more than before as it is growing. It moves often enough. Such an interesting feeling. Weird and wonderful.. What a priviledge and an honor to be a woman :D I feel priviledged and honoured to be able to carry this baby and feel its movements.

It is too bad husbands cant feel them as we do. Although now Johan do feel them when his hands are on my belly. We can even see it move now. A little bump here, a little bump there. Amazing. Although we dont know what part of the body it is.. but the sudden bump is there alright.

Below are some photos, some have already seen via facebook but those who are not in facebook.. this is how I am growing..

Taken 27th April, which makes it just the beginning of the 5th month for me. It is the beginning of the belly growing..

14th of May during a long weekend. We went to the south of France to 'look' for the sun. In Marseille.

20th May, at home after work. As you can see, it is a lot rounder now.

21st of May another day after work.. feeling big

24th of May, the end of my 5th month.. and beginning of 6th month.During the weekend, having a nice lazy day.. internet "work"

A lot more visible now. Cant hide it no more... Even in black clothings it shows now :) Not like I am trying to hide this bump. I am looking pregnant. As you can see all the 3 of us are doing great. Blessed with good health. So far... so good....

Baby growing well...

2010-04-24T15:01:00.000-07:00

The Second Ultrasonography of baby Foray-Chin

This was taken on 15th March to check the actual progress and growth of the baby.

Baby has defintely grown since the last sonography.

From Top to Bottom, Left to Right..

First photo is the brain. Some thought it was the baby's family "jewel" but it's not. At this point we still dont whether our baby is girl or a boy.. That will have to wait for the next sonogrophay.

The the doctor measured the circumference of the baby's head.

Next Row is the thigh bone and the baby's feet.. I think the feet is too cute. Anyways, they are both the same length at this point - 1.1cm. In fact, the feet is slightly longer than the thigh.

Then we have the side profile of the baby and the heart beat rate at 151 beats per minute. Slower than the last few weeks.

The last row is an amazing 3D photo of the baby.

The doctor has decided to take the top half of the body for this shot. Unsure why but he said not to worry, the baby has all 4 limbs. Arms and legs.. hands and feet. :) So baby is all formed.

Here is something we bought for the baby's first attire...

The printing says "Maman + Papa = Moi" I guess it should be self explanatory..

A photo taken earlier April.. The baby bump is growing day by day.. It is alot more visible now. So now you can see how the baby is growing in me and how I am 'growing' too.

Till the next post.....

Johan turned 31

2010-04-15T08:31:00.001-07:00

It has been a month on the 16th March, since we celebrated this young man's birthday ... 31, can you still consider that as young man?? Perhaps a matured man rather.. :) Well, here are some photos to share some photos and this special moment.
We didnt do a big celebration cos you know with maturity.. a calm and quiet moment. Home made choco cup cakes.. no, I didnt make 31 of them.. :) Just enough to make it '31'

It was a weekday so we didnt have his family over.. just the two of us in our apartment. Gently welcoming 31. Although we did have a family get together during the weekend to do a little celebration.

Awww a nice BIG birthday hug from Alex.. well, it was rather a way to 'crack' his back cos Johan was having some backache.. could it be the age??

Blowing another year away...

His father singing a song "Allumez le feu" when we were going to light up the candle.. just means "light the fire". It is a famous song and it actually exist.

A New Year, A New ADDITION to the FORAY-CHIN family...

2010-02-27T14:20:00.000-08:00

About time to post up something new in the blog... although the news is not so new anymore.. :)

The "NEWS" is out and most have already seen the first baby photo :)

Amazing Technology!

This year 2010 will definitely be an interesting year for both Johan and I.

Some changes will be done...Plans for the year have changed too! I planned to have a knee operation this year but that is not going to happen cos of this wonderful miracle of life.. so that knee operation will have to be postponed..

I was meant to have a special xray done but they asked to be sure that I am not pregnant.. cos it will be dangerous if I went through with the xray.. had our doubts and just the day before the xray, we decided to just check.. and there you go...

bought this special home pregnancy test just to be sure.. and to our surprise.. it flashes...

within seconds.. didnt even have to wait for 2 mins.. just shows how pregnant I was..

So we cancelled the xray and also the operation scheduled for April or June..

Then planned to visit home for the summer holidays but that will have to change too.. will have to be patient and wait till when WE can go home to visit the other part of our BIG family.. looking forward!

There you go!!!

WAY TO GO!!!

Definitely a whole new lifelong adventure awaits for both of us.. This adventure will be very interesting and I am sure with lots of challenges too..

THE FLO and YOYO ADVENTURE CONTINUES...........................

SNOWED IN.. such a word exist?

2010-01-05T09:34:00.001-08:00

Yes work has started and it has been SNOWING!! LOTS ... everything covered with PURE WHITE snow.. BEAUTIFUL sight BUT, not great for driving to work and IF we need the public transports as it gets dangerous on the glazed slippery roads.

First I had to FIND my car under all the snow and then get the car started cos the old girl doesnt like the cold either...Scrap OFF all the snow on the windows and lights since it is still dark when I go to work. Then try to get to work without getting into any accident with another car, wall, lamp post or even pedestrians. So everyone was driving really slowly and carefully. I had a moment when my car skidded and I was scared to hit the car next to me. yikes.. managed to avoid an accident. I was driving in 2nd gear almost all the way.. had to be alert all the time.

Here is the faithful car that I take to work covered in snow. This is taken today so there is less snow BUT yesterday.. it was really covered under 20cm of snow and I could only see the gray bits on the bottom so I really didnt recognise the car.

It is snowing so as soon as there is no car driving on the road, the snow is covering all the tracks again.

The buildring where I work. La Maternelle.This building is for all the children from 2 to 6 years.

This is one of the primary classes.

The building just in front of the building where I am working in.

Another one for the primary department. Next to La Maternelle.

This International School consists of lots of Old Mansions and buildings. Very interesting, large area and pretty but some of the buildings are very old but I dont know how old. If interested to know more you can go to its site @ http://www.ombrosa.com/

One more post for the year 2009

2009-12-30T09:24:00.000-08:00

Yes we have been slacking in updating our blogs. TIME TIME... where has it all gone?? Sorry, since I have started work I dont seem to have the time to sit and update. For the moment I shall update the most recent activity ...

Christmas holidays...

Johan and I both have 2 weeks OFF.. yipee!! Just chilling and spending time with the parents at their home. Nothing grand.

For Christmas eve, we had a light dinner and then went to the cinema and watched AVATAR in 3D..

Unfortunately I think the glasses that I used didnt work cos I didnt have the 3D effect.. but didnt think of exchanging it until AFTER the movie. It didnt come to mind that the 3D glasses could be defected. Apparently, Johan could see it in 3D but so silly I didnt even think of trying his glasses to see whether it was just me or my glasses.OH WELL!! Too late.. Movie is over. Interesting film and very colourful.. Very active .. I had a slight headache with the 3D glasses that in the middle of the film I took them off and just watched it like a normal film. .

After the movies, we went back home and waited for midnight to open all the presies!!

Magnetic Photo frames, mittens for the oven, beer glass, clothes, necklaces, shoes, socks, towels... gifts gifts gifts

On Christmas day, we had Grandpa Tanchon and his mum's friend to have lunch together.

Yes, that's right, escargots as apertizers :)
Hmmmm yummy.

After a heavy lunch, we went for a little stroll to get some fresh air and digest a little bit. Another light dinner again cos we were not hungry at all.

Then, Johan and I went over to his sister's place to help prepare for another big family lunch the next day.

On the 26th we had the Aunty's family (Christine, Denis, Marius and Victor) and Grandma Foray on father's side that joined us and Grandpa Tanchon on mum's side. It went really well and everyone was in good spirits.

Alex, Marius and Denis.
Grandma Foray is very camera shy. She hates taking photos. So it is very rare to get her smiling. Here she is trying to hide behind our glasses when she realised that we were taking a photo.

We had so much food and ate so much that we had to take a break and go for a walk before eating the cheese and dessert :)

To digest: Sieste or work it out?? I guess you can do both as Johan has opted for.

Johan and his cousin, Victor slept on the couch for a little while :)

Some push up to work off those extra kilos.

After the Aunty and her family left, we went bowling.

The boys had a little game of babyfoot(table football) while waiting for a bowling lane.

The supporters who waited patiently till we finished our game.

Although we dont have a white christmas, we had some what of a good weather. Couple of nights, we had starry night. it was nice to just look at the stars. I guess it is good that it didnt snow cos it can get pretty dangerous with lots of people driving about going to relative's or friend's home. The weather is still funny.. For a winter season, it is not cold but I shouldn't say too much cos it is only the BEGINNING of Winter... Well, So far so good.

The next posts will definitely be posted next year. Shall try and do a better job in updating. There are lots to update about but just no time.

Anyways, we hope that everyone is well. We wish family and friends who visit this site have a WONDERFUL AND BLESSED YEAR ahead. THANK YOU for all your love, support and moments together in 2009!

See the french monkey!!

2009-06-10T09:20:00.000-07:00

Watch and you will understand why he climbed this tree....

Yes... it was worth it..

A Sunday walk in an area FULL of cherry trees!!!

YUM... At first, we just ate from the tree. Then we continued with our walk... On the way back, before heading home, we decided to pick some more cherries to share it.

SHARING IS CARING

It will be a waste if we dont eat it... It is ripe and it will only last for another week at the max. We collected quite a lot... perhaps, 5 kilos of cherries!!! hehehhe...

See how lovely and ripe it is... it was perfect.. not too ripe and it still has a crunch as you bite into it... cruchy and juicy. Perfect! Johan chose a perfect tree to climb on.. However, before the right tree, we tried a few others but they had lots of thorns around them.. there were lots of jumping and reaching out for those cherries...

Apart from Cherries, there were some lovely insects posing just for me to take a photo of.. They didnt even move.. nice.. again I love the colour contrast..

Say CHEESE insects... Thanks for staying still.. hmm, perhaps they were dead.. :) Nah! They flew off after I took the shot.

The colours of spring

2009-06-05T16:02:00.000-07:00

After Winter... Spring...

the weather gets warmer, the sun shining, the trees and plants are coming alive... the birds are singing and insects are buzzing around...

People are in better moods and are out and about... It is really pleasant to be in this season, spring...

In fact it has been spring since the 21st of March.... so these colours you see below are changing and have changed cos SUMMER is on its way!!! Yes, this blog is long overdue.... :)

BEAUTIFUL COLOURS ALL AROUND.... Enjoy

This is a tree just outside our apartment, and the next 8 shots below are the changes of the same tree..... it is amazing at how fast the leaves starts coming out and changes its form and colour... It was beautiful to watch each day to see what is happening to this living thing...

most of the grassy areas are covered with all these little yellow and white flowers.. I am lousy with names of the flowers, perhaps I should look it up... :) but there are so pretty to see.

daisies?????

spot that white bit next to this yellow plant... that's the MOON ....

this tree is one that I pass by quite often cos it is the way to do my grocery shopping... the shots below are from this same tree... I think it is a cherry blossom cos yesterday when I walked pass it, these beautiful flowers are no longer there but fruits that do look like cherries.... BUT then again I THINK I could be wrong too.. so I am not too sure... :)

love the contrast of these plants next to each other

No, this is not my garden.. I wish :)

tulips?

they come in all sorts of colours...

There you go, a blog after 3 months of silence... there are lots more photos of flowers but I think this will do for this post. Perhaps I will upload it one day.. maybe not.. will see.

The big THREE ZERO

2009-03-19T06:22:00.000-07:00

Yes, this little baby you see in this photo has turned 30 on the 16th of March!!

So we had a little surprise party with family and some friends.

Johan's best friend was coming back to France for business from KL, the famous Olivier International :) He decided to drop by Lyon and we decided to have dinner together. A quiet dinner for 5 turned to a dinner for 10 :)
Yes, Johan didnt know I was busy inviting his family to join us since his best friend was here too.. all a hush hush business that turned out well... no secrets were leaked out before then so all good!
Just as we were busy having appetizers and just chatting.. a knock on the door.. rather few bangings from papy.. (Johan's grandpa) and we have Papy, Alex and Aurelie that joined us followed by his parents much later...

Trying to squeeze 10 people in the living room to eat was a mission :) Do-able and menageable though. The other mission for me was to prepare a meal for 10 people without Johan noticing.

Here are the party people!! :)
Top row L to R : Benjamin (Oliv's brother), Gilbert, Johan, Marie Christine, Papy, Aurelie, Alex.
Bottom Row L to R : Olivier Intrenational, Yves ( Oliv's father) and ME!
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED :)

Below are some before and after photos of the young man.

Johan all buckled up in his 'auto mobile' and his first owned car. She's a real beauty.

Johan on all fours then and now :) He is such a cutie huh?? then more than now I agree :)

His love for wheels!! and adventure.. always had that in him

VROOM VROOM Yes, the real thing!

Already a love for adventure at such a young age! WHEE!!

Wow, how time flies!! That's his 1st birthday and below, we have his 30th.

HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY YOYO!!

Still an Angel :)

Did 2009 come by already?!

2009-02-13T13:35:00.000-08:00

Hello again our dear blog readers...

First and foremost HAPPY NEX YEAR 2009!!!

We apologize for the many months of absense.

Now back to updating the blog.

We are now living in Lyon about 45mins drive away from Johan's parents' home. A very good location.. only about 10-15 mins walk to Johan's Uni and about 10-15mins drive to his work place. Close to the shopping complex with lots of public transport available around. It is also 15mins walk to the park.

This is the flat we're living in. Just parked infront is Johan's faithful lil car. Been very good to us. This is the car that I drove around when I was working with the elderly in August. The apartment is on the first floor with the window shed opened.. The window above the main entrance is our bedroom.

Look at this beautiful car. The stunning fast automobile... I like this car.. I do, It reminds me of my faithful red 'ferari' sigh.. my starlet!

Enter in... Here we have the stairway.... Makes alot of noise. In fact this building is about or over 100 years old.

Welcome to this cute little apartment. Big and spacious enough for both of us. Very comfy. As you open the door, this is what you will see first..

... a store room/closet?? We hang our big/warm jackets and coats here. Shoes and hmmmm, other stuff...

As you enter and to the right, we have the kitchen and cooking area... and the washing machine too. A good spacious kitchen area is really nice.. yes we keep the bicycle there too.

Cupboards that are filled up.

There we have the view from the end of the kitchen and the brown door you see, is the entrance and the exit door...

Moving to the left side of the room...Next to that door is the toilet. As you can see it, a standard size toilet in France. Well more or less... some are slightly bigger.

In front of the toilet is the computer area and thankfully with internet excess.

Next, the living room/TV room.. whatever you want to call it. Furnished and decorated already.

This apartment actually belongs to Johan's friend, Benjamin who decided to join his wife, Claire and work in Paris. Very timely for us as and convinient. So we are renting this place from them. All the furnishing and everything from cooking utensils and plates .. plants too and the decorative stuff inside this place belongs them except for our clothes, bags, shoes; food and little little stuff..

Yes, we are blessed to have a well furnished apartment at a very good location.

Here is the view out of the window. Not too bad of a view.

can keep an eye on our cool automobile :)

Let's continue our apartment visitation...

The shower room with hot water! Thankfully.. imagine showering in winter with no hot water?? Yikes!

A different view and angle from the living room.

Next and last room will be the bedroom. Yes another bike hiding in here..but that's not ours.

Yes again furnished with a bed and cupboards.. although soon the couple will claim their bed and take it to Paris. We will have to find another bed to sleep on then.. but for now we still have a bed :)

Well, hope you had a good visit around the apartment. Thank you for your company. Come by and visit us again... for a drink or makan makan ???? Till the next update.... Sending you all love from Lyon, France.

another year older

2008-09-24T12:15:00.000-07:00

It was meant to be a simple get together dinner on the 12th of September. The parents FORAY were going to go on a week's holiday in Maroco with their friends who slept over that night too. They were leaving the next day. So we had a dinner thing followed by a birthday cake for me. So it was kind of a birthday party I guess. Since they wont be around for my birthday, we celebrated earlier.

My birthdate is also their wedding annivesary so a double celebration. 33 years.

29 years young and not 92.. I just held my cake the wrong way. Opppsss

It was a rasberry pie. Nice.. liked it.

Cake accompanied with champagne!! Salut..TO HEALTH .. Cheers. Everyone seem to be having a good time Next morning the voyagers left for their vacation and left us the house all to ourselves! That was nice. Then Johan had breakfast ready for me.. and for lunch he prepared me some yummy crepes. Ya that is the french pancakes but it is savoury.

My wonderfully made birthday lunch.

Some more champagne?? Nah.. it is apple cider. Pretty good with the crepes. It helps the crepes to slide down better into the digestive system.

I think this one was my favourite.. it was curry chicken with some paris mushroom.
.
Johan being creative and trying to make a house or was it a face?? See the two eyes and nose??

It was a good quiet birthday. Getting too old to party... hehehehhe
He is a real sweetheart. Merci mon amour!!
I am being well treated.. no need to worry about me here.. someone is looking out for me and looking after me.

Camping at the National Park of St. Pierre de Chartreuse

2008-08-19T14:38:00.000-07:00

A few weeks back we decided to go camping. About 80km and roughly1.5hrs drive from the parent's home. Just to do something different. It was during the music festival and where we were going, there will be some open air performance, Live bands. The weather however was not promising for a summer. As shown in the photo below... dark cloudy day....Well we took our chances anyways.

We arrived just in time at the camp site to set up the tent cos there were lots of people coming for this festival. Well, our camp site is a little distance from the town center and it was pretty happening camp area. There were loud music blasting all throughout the day and night!!! Ya, the boom boom kind of music with very powerful speakers.

Here is the tent we used for our weekend camping. It was very easy to set up. The tent actually belongs to his father. It was a father's day gift but I guess we took the opportunity to use and try it out first hand.

All you got to do is, throw it in the air and it just OPENS up like magic!! POOF... VOILA ...no need for more effort. It took a couple of seconds to open up. As you can see behind, there are more tents like this. It is really the fashion to use buy and use this tent.

It is vrey spacious too. Could fit 3 or even 4 people in here. 2 very comfortably. 3 is alright and 4 gets a little too COZY.. Unless it is Winter then, 4 is a good amount to keep warm. hahahaha..

A little effort from me, to nail down the tent.. well, we still have to do some manual labour apart from the magical bit. This is for safety purposes in case a strong wind comes and blows away our tent. Don't want that to happen.

Apparently we set up the tent just in time too cos not long after... THE RAIN came and followed but thunder and lightning... HMMM.. I was pretty scared. The thought that it might strike us or the tree where our tent and then fall on top of us. I kept telling Johan that maybe it will be better if we just slept in the van. Eventually the rain and thunderstorm stopped. Phew, thankfully. We got ourselves ready for the night and went to the town cetre for the main activities.

The Town Council of St. Pierre de Chartreuse with a beautiful rainbow after the storm....

Real pigeons flying away?? Nope, that is a painting on the wall!! Yup, including that little widow.. and the view.. ALL PAINTING!! Beautiful work huh? It looks sooooo real. In France, there are lots of beautifully painted walls. I must take some photos when I get a chance too.
Spot Johan.
The Baba Yaga.. hehehhe

Most of the houses there looks like this cute cottage.
One of the few live bands performing that night. Unfortunately, only got a photo shot of this band. It was nice and there were some people dancing. Children and Adults were enjoying themselves.

The morning after...... Some campers who had a really good time with his friends. We didnt have a good sleep that night with the music playing loudly and then by 5 am there were people talking really loudly and looking for a place to place their tents to sleep.. yup, lots didnt sleep till about that time. We are like the babies that need to sleep really early!!

HMMMMM... BREAKFAST! My favourite meal of the day especially when I have the whole day to have breakfast. Johan and I can have our breakfast for a good 1 - 2 hours. This morning, we bought some fresh bread and had it with peanut butter with jam and butter with jam accompanied with an orange juice.

Then we took a walk around and the music continues...

There still had other activities for the early bird and for those who slept earlier...

Live band in the middle of the market place. They played and sand well. There was a good crowd around to listen to them. A french Stereotype..
The two stand-up comedians managed to draw a good crowd of both children and adults. They were funny. The kids loved them.

After our little walk around, Johan went cycling while I was too lazy to join him.. Ya, I am such a lazy bum. I stayed near the camp area and read my book. Then I took a nap and prepared to go back home. Of course putting away the tent was not as easy as it came open like magic. There were some people who were packing up and trying to twist and turn the tent to pack it. It was funny to watch. We never tried it before so Johan and I observed them closely so we could learn from them the techniques to pack the tent. A guy next to us even tried lying and putting his body weight on the tent to twist and turn the tent.. SO FUNNY to watch. I should have video it.

We only left towards the end of the day so we could enjoy being outdoor in the woods. There were not too many people left and I decided to take on the challenge to pack away the tent.. Since not too many people, I cant make a fool of myself trying to twist and turn the tent. Surprisingly, it was not as difficult as how some of them made it to be. Just got to let the tent fold in by itself and then twist it accordingly and VOILA.. under a minute!

Either it was easy or I am just TOO SMART!! HAH

Well, that was it.. It was a good and relaxing weekend out of the house. Relaxing for me at least cos I didnt go cycling.. I just lazed around!

My current work

2008-08-10T08:22:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

Most of you are aware of what I do.

Just a brief note in case some have missed out on that particular information.

I am currently working for a company that deals with helping eldely people or disabled people to do things that they are unable to do for themselves. I go to their individual homes and help them in the daily chores such as general house cleaning, laundry, ironing, shopping, driving them around for their doctor's appointments and some certain cases I help them to take their shower and go to the toilet.

Some photos of those I was working for during my first week of work. This is temporary work until I am able to find something else. The job is interesting, tiring and some days it can be difficult.This experince is very enriching and has taught me alot personally on humility and patience.

It reminds me the importance of health, loved ones and how fortunate I am be healthy and have people that loves me. Some of the people I am working with are very Lonely who are finding it had to continue of living. Some days it brings tears to my eyes to hear what they have to say about their own personal experience.

I wish you all well and good health. Take good care of yourself and remember your loved ones.

Lunch with Papy

2008-08-05T10:14:00.000-07:00

Johan's grandpa (papy) invited us for lunch a few Sundays ago.

We ate in a restaurant with a park near a big big pond with swans, geeses and ducks..

(How Johan might look like after 60 years!! hehhehe)

Deciding what we should eat. Difficult choice.

Finnally we chose and ordered SALAD, FROG'S LEGS cooked in butter and garlic and MUSSEL in Garlic sauce!! Yummy.

Getting ready for the big meal!
Mussel.

Frog's legs. In actual fact, it was the whole frog just without the head. It was really tasty. Very buttery and full of cholesterol.

After a full meal to finish we had dessert!! OF COURSE! For a matter of fact, we couldnt eat another bite BUT papy wouldnt hear of it. We HAD to order cos if not he will get upset. Sooooo......

A little mouse that took a bite off our bread when we left it on the side. Can you see it?? Cute eh?

After lunch we took a walk around the park to digest. Then with the bread that we had left we took it to feed the swans and geese... the ducks if they were lucky they will manage to get some but the swans and geese are a lot bigger and faster too.

For those who are worried that I might lose too much weight..you don't need to worry any longer, as you can clearly see.. I am eating well and I still have those FULL thighs - It is really in my genes i cant seem to get rid of them. Hmmmm.. perhaps the butter deep fried frog's legs doesnt help either eh??

MERCI PAPY!!

DJ Bruno came by to visit us!!

2008-08-03T09:30:00.000-07:00

Our dear friend whom we knew from Brunei came by to visit us before heading back to South East Asia.. LUCKY MAN!!! Bruno stayed for the weekend and we went to the Medieval Village about 30hrs ride from parent's home. Enjoy the photos!!

It is the spinning wheel from Sleeping Beauty.

I am trying to go pass the chimney to follow Sleeping Beauty up the stairs. Stop her from pricking her fingers and from eternity sleep. Hah!I love that cartoon!!!!

Just having fun with the cooking tools.. hehhehe

Yummy soupy soup!!! Corn soup???!!!!

Johan trying to figure out how to use this utensil.

Thanks for visitng us Bruno. It was nice to see you again. Hope you are enjoying your time in South East Asia. Maybe we'll meet again.

14th July, France Ntaional Day

2008-07-20T07:11:00.000-07:00

It was a public holiday in France and we had the day off!
Yea! The party have already started the day before with musicians playing outdoor at each individual town square followed by a beautiful display of fireworks accompanied by music. We had a good evening and the next day we all went to a lake to have a picnic and to enjoy the outdoor concert.

Lac des Sapins Pine Lake

The weather was rather cloudy and windy. Sometime the sun comes out and it was nice and sunny. Rare occassion. We brought our swimming suits but no courage to enter into the lake.. TOO COLD.. They are some daring people who seems to be enjoying themselves in the lake.. There are also children playing and building sand castles.

The temperature is rising... getting into the mood for the concert. Good music playing... Here Johan and his dad is doing a dance demo to the tektonic music. Not bad... shake it baby!!

We found a cozy place, had our picnic and waited for the singers to arrive. Relaxing in the grass while some are trying to find a place to get a better view and a closer look at the stars........

such as climbing a sign posts..

This is not too bad for a good view. Although eventually they were told to get down for security reasons... and as soon as they came down from the cli,bing frame, others climb on and the cycle continues...

The poor kids have no place to play now cos all the adults have taken over!!

Why not on the trash can.. pretty stable but need to hold on to each other for support.

Finally the stars arrived and i manage to find a little spot where i could get a glipmse of them with mum in law.. we were among the crowd. Some pushing and shoving around as the concert begins. Gets a little bit annoying after awhile.. especially when they decide to stand right infront of you!

Some screaming in the ear as the stars appear on stage. I think if they walk by me in the street, i wont even know who they are..

They sang well though. It was good fun. After awhile, the crowd was increasing and people are still trying to find a better view... so some more shoving and pushing. There were also two ladies who almost got into a fight for this just infront of us. Rude remarks being exchanged.. a few mins later, Marie Christine(mum in law) feels giddy and almost fainted... We headed out of the crowd and join the boys.. get some fresh air. Just in time i think.. She was alright after that.

The singers did their little rounds to shake hands with the fans and do some signature signing... I managed to get close enough!! As you can see : )

Here is a famous song in France now. People are enjoying this particular song that makes them move and shake the booty!!

It was an enjoyable and relaxing day.. A good family day out!

A little Flash back..

2008-06-28T12:53:00.000-07:00

Our honeymoon trip went by fairly smoothly, almost perfect. We arrived in Peru on the 9th October 2007 till the 14th May 2008.

Our last dinner at a restaurant.. went to a chinese restaurant to hve dimsum and there were some sushi too. I was craving for both Japenses and Chinese. We chose this cos in France it will be TOO pricey to eat out. Enjoy while we can.

The hiccup of our almost perfect journey happened in Lima on the day we were leaving. On Thursday 14th May we went to my friend's home to collect the rest of our belongings cos we left it while we went to Pisco where we stayed a month to help reconstruct homes and people there from the earthquake. We arrived at their home near 9am and we had to leave by 3pm for the airport. We had breakfast and had enough time to repack our bags and got ready. It was a pretty tough job trying to pack everything and I seriously thought we wouldnt have enough space but fortunately a little squeeze here and there... the job was done by 1pm and we had a good lunch, followed by a nice bath before taking off. We even got a taxi to pick us up at a reasonably price. It was the same taxi that took us to our friends place. We were happy and please that we were well organised.

this is just an example of one of our packing days.. but there are LOTS more than this.

We got in the taxi, relax and getting our mind ready to leave our holiday behind us..it was a mixed feeling of sad to leave but happy to start something new in France.. anxious too. Anyways, we arrived at the airport everything going smoothly, too smoothly. The whole entire trip in South America was great. We never got mugged, no assaults and nothing was stolen. We never felt in great danger by the people..We were careful though. . Wow.. we were very happy. We were pretty happy by the end of our trip.We got the things out of the car. We got the trolleys packed with our 4 check in luggage. We were allowed 40kilos for each of us.. soooo, our bags are well packed and within the limit. 4 check in bags, 3 hand carry bags, 1 laptop, 1 guitar. OK... now you can imagine how many bags we got. TOO MUCH!!!!

another photo to show some of our bags.. missing 3 big ones here. Otherwise TOO MUCH. Here we were waiting for a bus to go into Argentina. I am holding the orange/grey bag that we forgot in the taxi.

So bags out, paid the taxi man, waved goodbye and looked at each other with a look of satisfaction and THEN.... Johan asked me, "We got all the bags??" I replied "AHA, YUP" then he looked at the two trolleys with all our bags and said "where is the other little orange and gray bag?" ( that is our hand carry bag) We realised it was still in the backseat; He truned to me and asked " is there anything important in the bag" I was a little dazed by the situation and gave blank look with a slight nod. Without thinking if anything was really important. I was just saying yes.Then he just took off and ran after the taxi car!! Looking for the taxi car more likely. Of course all this conversation was within seconds after the taxi man left us. Johan ran and ran. I was like oh no... then I started thinking of what was valuable in that bag.

I took out the taxi man card with his number on it. I was looking around if I could ask someone for help and call the guy before he got TOO FAR away but unfortunately no one close by and I couldnt leave the bags unattended to. So I just waited for Johan and had the number ready and thought about the things in the bag. Fortunately I had the passports and the money, credit cards with me in my "kangaroo pouch". Hmmmm, lets see the things in the bag? Water while we wait, the travelling pilows, books, chips, sweets, some handmade jewellery-gifts from the girls at the children's home... thinking about other things.. Nothing too important after all but what a shame to lose the bag now!! At the end of our trip. hmmm waiting for johan to come back.

A man walking pass me and I took my courage to ask him for help( in spanish mind you) He was like money.. and he will help to call. I was saying i dont have cos johan had the coin wallet. Just as I said that johan came back, and i gave him the number. The guy took Johan to a phone booth. Oh dear.. he couldnt get to a phone and he came back with 2 men we knew from Pisco. We didnt know they were coming to bid us farewell.

Johan informed Keny and Jan our situation and Keny started calling and calling the guy. No chance, the guy never picked up his phone and couldnt get hold of him. Time was running and we had to check in. Still nothing. So we said we will check in first while Keny will continue to call the taxi man. We still had a little less than 3 hours before take off. So Johan and I went to a Q and it was a long Q for check in; Like Air Asia's Q.

Anyways, we stood in the line thinking about the bag and saying... "well at least we have a story to tell about lost bag. Since everyone we know seems to get something stolen." Then we were both regretting how we both saw that bag in the taxi but didnt take it out as soon as we saw it. We delayed our action and that was the case...we both thought the other one had taken it out and we didnt think of checking one last time in the taxi. We both were sighing and thinking "IF ONLY.." you know it doesnt help.

Then I went through the things in the bag with him. To say that it's ok. Nothing too serious lost. The most valuable thing for me was the novel I was going to read. Heard it was a good one "the kite runner" I was going to read that on flight.

THEN it struck me! Yes; like a lightning bolt . OH NO! WE MUST GET THE BAG BACK I said to Johan. OUR WEDDING RINGS are in there!! YUP!! I was thinking about the book that related me to my reading glasses and the glasses case where i put the wedding rings, engagement ring, bracelet from my mum, necklace from sis in law.. OH MAN!!! it gets worst, my 21st bday ring from my beloved grandma!!!! OH NO OH NO!! I was suddenly so sad and really wanted the bag now. I kept that in there before for safe keeping and was putting it off to put it back on our fingers. SIGH what can be done??? just wait and see if Kenny gets hold of the man or not. IT is a very rare case that we will get it back. I mean he is a taxi driver, he could pick up another passenger who could have taken the bag with him/her.. Who knows, the taxi man could even take the bag saying that someone else took it. Who to believe right?? That was our scenario in our heads. So sad for the rings and all the jewels. My heart sank. Then we tried looking on the bright side and said to each other, "at least we both lost our wedding bands at the same time. but still...."

Finally checked in and rejoined Keny and Jan. They were still trying to get hold of the man. We told Kenny about the rings and he was so upset too and really wanted us to get our bags for that. He was even willing to drive to meet the driver and get it back. Keny kept leaving messeges on the phone but still nothing. Suddenly by 6pm the phone rang.. it was the driver!! Hooray! Then he still has the bag! DOUBLE HOORAY!! He said he was sleeping and he would be at the airport in 30mins with the bag. OUF. RELIEFED!

To celebrate, we went to drink coffee with Kenny and Jan. Our boarding time was stated 6.20pm but we were only flying by 7.55. So we said that we still would have time. SIGH. What an evening. By 6.30pm, the taxi driver came with our bag!! Miracle. we got everything back!

A BIG BIG THANKS to KENY and JAN for helping us to get our valuables and staying on till the end!! We truly apprecaite your friendship and kindness.

We said our goodbye to our friends and had to board.

How happy we were to get back our things . Of course after that we kept an eye on our hand carry. It was easier now to see cos the rest of the bags were checked in. We put on our rings and my bracelet and necklace too. Now we can breathe and relax and enjoy the flight. Hoping that our bags will arrive in one piece.

We are still alive and kicking!!

2008-06-27T13:57:00.000-07:00

Well a quick update to those that still checks out our blog.. sorry we have not been updating. Our motivation and inspiration to update the blog stayed in South America when we left our adventures. The honeymooning time is officially over.. so those who were green with envy with our long holiday can now return to their normal colour..

We have touchdown in the reality world!!! As we arrived in France we had to deal with a whole lot of paperwork for me, for Johan and sending our applications for jobs. We managed to settle and do whatever need to be done in time especially for me. Now I am legal in France. Got all the necessary things done and I have my residency card (finally). I can travel without the immigration officers giving me funny looks.
When we were entering Europe, we had to go via Spain. They gave us some hard time and took us aside to check whether I can enter into Europe.. aiyah.. but we were cool cos we know that i can enter Europe as a tourist for 3 months without a visa. Some more hassling and checking and finally let us pass through.

Well we have been busy. Currently staying at Johan's parents home. Dont worry folks, we are planning to get our own place when Johan has job somewhere..

See??? We are still healthy and smiling away... Johan has got his hair back. I have cut my hair and got rid of my curly locks.. hehehhe

till the next update...

Punta Hermosa...la station balneaire des Limenos desertee

2008-05-13T17:00:00.000-07:00

After a week at the children's home, we went to visit a friend we got to know from Pisco. Paul. He lives near Lima and right next to a beach too!! He has kindly offered us to stay at his appartment and go surfing which Johan would love to master one day. :-)

Paul picking us up to take us to his appartment

Johan gearing up and trying to psych himself into going into the water cos it was a cold day, fairly windy and the water hmmmm... cold and pretty choppy. I decided not to try, not daring enough and didnt want to injure my knee soooo.. good excuse for me not to enter cold water. For some people the water is not even cold but to me, it is freezing. Depending where you are brought up. BBBRRRRRRR
All ready to go!!
Johan "talking" and caressing the surf board with wax and asking it to be kind and carry him on those waves. hahaha
The coast just a few meters away. Like a pro carrying the board. Need to ride those waaaaavvvveeeessssss.......

a little re-cap lesson before heading into the water.

Once in the water, you forget that the water is cold after "fighting" to get pass the waves to go deeper.

A little helping hand, a little push and OFF he goes...
aha.. first stage.. trying to get into the right position..Good attempt to get up. He got his knees up.. almost there...He is UP!! He did it but oooooo... not for long... he is down in the water.. GOOD TRY though.........

After a few tries time to get out. The waves were becoming worst and ouf.. it was tiring.

After a sportive afternoon, a good drink is always welcome. Clean up, showered and Paul prepared us Caipirina. We had a drink at the balcony, looking out to the ocean and the sound of the waves... so relaxing and calm.

Hmmmmm, Johan is wondering if he will he surf again?? Maybe he is looking out for dolphins??
Ah look hard at this photo.. and can you see a black dote in the middle??? Yes there they are.. The dophins of course! That is their fins. The next day we had breakfast with Paul and Paula and Johan looked out into the ocean and he spotted them. Such beautiful animal. They were there the WHOLE DAY!! Yup, morning till the evening. We saw them. They were fishing, playing, jumping.. what a sight! Johan and I were both very tempted to put on the wet suit and surf boards to swim out into the water to play with the dolphins. We didnt though. We thought if we swam towards them, they will surely go away so we left it at that and enjoyed them from a good distance.

We had a good time. Thank you Paul and Paula for letting us stay in their appartment.

A french song that Paul learnt when he was little and never forgot it. Incredible what we could remember when we were young. Paula also shared us a french song she learnt.Thanks for sharing the songs with us. hehehhe

A la découverte de LIMA / Discovering Lima

2008-05-10T07:38:00.000-07:00

Non, non, c'est une blague! Nous ne sommes pas reparti en voyage. Nous sommes bel et bien rentrés en France ou nous essayons de reprendre une vie "normale"Cette photo n'est pas de nous!!!Nous ne sommes pas encore allés en Jordanie (si je ne me trompes pas). C'était l'expo photo "Vues du ciel" à Miraflores dans les quartiers chics de LIMA...une magnifique expo photo...
No, don't worry the photo is only a joke. We didn't go for another adventure. We are in France at the moment. We are trying to get back into the "normal" life. This photo was taken from a photo exhibition in Lima. It is a historical place in Jordan. We might go there one day, we never know but for now we will try to stay put in France.

Nous voila en fin de séjour!

Voila, the end of our vacation!

Enfin, après 7 mois à bourlinguer au Pérou et en Amérique du Sud, on décide de prendre quelques jours pour visiter la plus folle des capitales du continent sud américain: LIMA et nous ne le regretterons pas malgré l'hiver et la grisaille qui vient tout juste de remplacer les belles journées ensoleillés d'été...d'un côté ca nous arrange car cela nous permet de visiter le centre ville avec des températures clémentes!
Finally after 7 months of moving around in Peru and South America, we decided to visit the craziest (or so we heard) capital in the continent of South America: Lima. We are glad we did despite winter and the overcasted days. It is cooler which makes it easier for sight seeing.

Pizzaro, le conquistador espagnol qui a pillé et fondé le Pérou moderne et qui a fait de Lima sa capitale

Lima c'est un concentré de plein de choses: l'océan avec ses magnifiques falaises, ses vagues, ses surfeurs et ses pélicans. LIMA c'est aussi un traffic monstrueux et un réseau de transport en commun totalement anarchique, toutefois efficaces...pas besoin de courir après son bus car c'est lui qui vous court après et qui vous harcèle à longueur de journée. Une fois le bus arrêté, le jeune homme responsable des tickets vous demande de monter le plus rapidement possible puis lors de la descente, il vous met une pression pas possible "Descend, descend, descend" répète t-il....et si vous êtes trop lent, tant pis pour vous il vous faudra sauter du bus!!!
Lima has so much variety and all concentrated in one area, the ocean with it's magnificent cliffs, the waves, the surfers, the pelicans. Lima's is also full of transport and traffic jams. The local transport, bus and mini-vans is something we need to experience. It is so happening and you have to be quick to get on and get off. Quite a sportive event. However there is always transport so we dont really have to wait for the bus for too long.

LIMA c'est aussi la ville des rois, une architecture coloniale de type espagnole assez bien conservé autour de quoi de nombreux parcs et espaces verts ont été aménagés. .

This city has some beautiful colonial architectures which hs been well preserved with green area and parks

LIMA c'est la capitale de la Gastronomie: pour 1,50€ vous mangez un repas avec entréé, plat, dessert et boisson tres correct...ou vous allez manger un POULET FRITES qu'on retrouve de partout au Pérou mais encore plus a LIMA...et c'est DELICIEUX meme s'il ne faut pas penser à l'élevage intensif de poulet derrière! Pour un petit peu plus vous vous pétez la panse....comme notre dernier soir chez les Chinois ou nous avons dégusté un excellent BUFFET pour 7€/personne, notre repas le plus CHER de tout notre périple!!!

Lima the capital of gastronomy, for 3BND we can get a complete meal with an entry, a main course and usually with a drink or dessert. Well-served too that usually Johan and I would share a meal. Good price huh? If not, we can always go for roasted chicken and fries. YUM YUM. You can find this almost everywhere in the center. For our last dinner in Peru, we had chinese buffet with dim-sum and sushi. What a meal! I was so happy! This was the most expensive meal we ever had, 15BND each.

LIMA c'est aussi la fête de partout! Ville très animée mais nous on n'aime pas trop cela, donc on regarde les autres qui ont l'air d'avoir la gueule de bois...eh oui, l'alcool n'est pas cher!!! Lima a city full of parties and booze.

LIMA, c'est aussi, paraît-il une des villes les plus dangereuses d'Amérique du Sud! Le taux de criminalité y est très élevé et on en a entendu des vertes et des pas mûres!
Donc, c'est une ville et un pays en général tres très policé ou la police est toujours fortement armée prête à intervenir a tout moment
Lima one of the most dangerous capital in South America with high criminal rates. We have heard stories from people that is pretty unpleasant. So the town is full of police and military around who are prepared to intervene when problem arises.

Et puis Lima, comme bien des capitales, c'est le lieu de l'exubérence, de l'originalité....ce n'est quand meme pas Londres ou San Francisco, je pense mais on elle en prend doucement le chemin
ahhh, a fashion victim. Like any big capital there are full of colours and interesting people to see.

HOGAR DE NINOS en Lima... de l'espoir, de l'amour et beaucoup de travail....Hopes, love annd lot of work

2008-05-07T08:00:00.000-07:00

Here is where we´re volunteering at the present moment. We heard of this place through Pastor Keny, our new found friend we met in Pisco. He help us to get into this home. This is part of the Camino de Vida church. Since this is what we wanted to do when we came to South America and apparently couldn´t find one that suits us and our time. We decided to see this Home for Children. They were very welcoming and have allowed us to stay with them for the short period of time we have left.

Voila notre petit coin de paradis dans l'immense jungle de Lima.
Our little paradise in Lima

Pollution, bruit, circulation, bus bondés, brume cotiere, des gens qui courent et qui crient de partout: voila le quotidien des habitants de Lima. Mais nous, nous avons atteri dans cet orphelinat ou plutot cette maison pour enfants a Chacalcayo a 45min/1h30 (si traffic) a l'est de Lima ou regne tranquilité et sérénité.
Ici ca ressemblerait presque a un camp de vacances ou un centre aéré si ces 38 enfants de 5 a 19ans avaient des parents comme nous autres.
60% de ces enfants sont orphelins, les autres 40% ont des parents qui soient ne peuvent pas s'occuper d´eux (argent, sante, prison, drogue, etc..) soient qui ne veulent pas de leur progenitures.
Souvent les enfants entrent tres jeunes dans ce lieu et n'en sorte qu a leur majorité...

Cette maison a ete créee, et est financée par l'eglise evangelique CAMINO DE VIDA (http://www.caminodevida.com/) une eglise jeune, dynamique, regroupant 10 000 membres dans le Peou se reunissant chaque Dimanche dans leur temple qui est en fait un gymase sportif pour une grande fête collective. Le pasteur principal et fondateur de cette eglise est un americain du nom de Robert Barriger (http://www.robertbarriger.com/) . En 17ans, il a donné a cette eglise un place tres importante dans la societe péruvienne. Plus de 50 differents ministères: orphelinat a Lima et Cusco, maison pour jeunes femmes droguées, écoles, crèches, aide aux communautes les plus reculées, aide aux victimes du tremblement de terre, lutte contre la pauvreté, violence et maltraitance..
Il a été lui même nommé par le Président de la République du Pérou pour prendre part dans la commission gouvernementale de lutte contre la pauvreté. Son service du Dimanche passe même sur une cahîne de TV nationale en direct !!!!
Bref, une tonne de bonnes choses qui permette d'ameliorer la societe peruvienne...Bien sur, derrière il y a toujours cette idée d'evangeliser les gens, d'agrandir son eglise...mais apres tout qu'importe si on rend les gens heureux, plus fort et qu´on donne un sens a leur vie.

En plus d'avoir des services religieux tres amusant et tres moderne (Chant, musique, danse, Karaoke, Ceremoie des Oscars pour les meilleurs bénévoles, etc..), on sait et on voit ou vont nos offrandes et donations...elles sont surement mieux utilisées que les impots que donnent les peruviens a leur gouvernement!

Revenons a nos enfants! Voila la routine des enfants lors de la periode scolaire.
La grande majorité des enfants vont dans une ecole privée religieuse a 45min de route de la maison.

Réveil a 5h du matin

5h a 6h: Grand menage de toute la maison (chacun sa tache)

6h: Douche

6h15-6h45: Petit Dejeuner

6h45: Depart pour l'ecole

Nous, volontaires faisant pleins de petits trvux pendant que les monstres augmenent leurs cellules grises

15h00: Retour des eleves

15h15-15h45: Dejeuner

16h00-18h30: Etudes, devoirs

18h30: Douche

19h00: Diner

20h30: Coucher

Voila l'emploi du temps de nos petits peruviens! et donc nous devons nous pliera ces regles! Pas le temps de chomer!
Tous travaillent sans ronchonner, sans jamais se plaindre. Il regne dans cette maison une atmosphere de paix, de bien etre, de serieux et d'amour.
Nous apres le petit dej, on se met aux petits travaux et on participe a la vie quotidienne de la maison. De 4 a 6h, on fait de l'aide aux devoirs puis on prepare une activite pour apres le diner!

Après tant de choses malheureuses vues au Perou, apres notre experience a Cusco, notre passage a Pisco. Ce lieu et cette eglise nous ont redonne beaucoup d'espoir. De voir comment cet endroit a transforme ces enfants dans le bon sens, voir la gentillesse et la dedication (ca se dit ca?) des educateurs peruviens, observer le fonctionnement general de l'eglise et de cette maison nous prouve que ce pays a les capacites de s'ameliorer...
Jesus et Marisol, mari et femme et educateurs depuis 17ans, depuis la creation...FELICITATIONS
Yoyo qui aide Wilmer a faire la vaiselle
Jesus, fan de cafe, me fait gouter son cafe bio dont les grains ont été soigneusement selectionnes, toastés puis moulinés par lui même. Il pense a planter et faire du café bio pour augmenter les ressources de l'orphelinat...Bonne idée..En avnt Jesus!
Davis aide a la cuisine

Flo ne peut pas resister au bébé. Celui la. c'est Zoé, 4mois, fille d'une ancienne de la maison qui maintenant y vit et travaille
Ca, c'est Lesmes, l'autre educateur avec ses 2 petits clones regardant un DVD
Voila Andrée le chanteur...Il est très doué
CA c'est le Diner a la table des ados
La corvée du matin...

Ce magnifique endroit a besoin devous: besoin d'argent, besoin d'idées, besoin de vetements, de nourritures, de livres et de VOLONTAIRES etc...

Si vous souhaitez aider d'une maniere ou d'une autre, ou si vous avez des idées vous pouvez me contacter via ce blog ou contacter directement http://www.caminodevida.com/ et si un jour vous etes a Lima, faites un detour par la et aussi par l'eglise...ca vaut le détour et vous vous ferez des amis...

Merci a notre ami KENY de nous avoir peris de connaitre tout ca. Merci a Marisol, Karla, Jesus, Lesmes, les éducateurs et le Pasteur Christian, directeur des orphelinats pour nous avoir si bien accueilli dans leur grande famille et surtout MERCI aux enfants pour ce qu'ils sont et BON COURAGE a eux...

A Day of fun with the kids

2008-05-06T06:13:00.000-07:00

No school for the kids today (SUNDAY)!! Yippeee--- Good weather and lots of time to spare. So Johan and I decided to have some fun with them. We organised some games to help with team building and working together. The kids were really good and very co-operative.Makes it easier for us to work with them.
Johan is starting the day with some brain storming sessions the importance of team work and what qualities are required to work in a team. They actually participated in this little session.

Here the game begins.. hahahaha Not easy trying to get everyone to co-operate. The game was to form the letters of the Alphabet. They had to try to get everyone in the letter form and the fastest wins. Then an extra point for the nicest letter formed.
Finally managed to get everyone in position.. hands up...One of the beautiful foramtion of the letter V... VVVVVV
As you can see some are lying down, some sitting, some standing... they were also imaginative.

After a while they got the hang of it and really got into trying to make a better looking letter than the other teams..

After the alphabet game we did `All aboard´ where the teams had to try and get everyone in a space given to them. No one is left behind. We started with a big circle and made it smaller and smaller... Squeez...hanging on to each other.

A game of listening, guiding and following instructions... this was a little more challenging as they were blind folded and only guided with the voice of their partner going through some obstacle.
Around the bucket
walk towards the chair
Over the chair..
Under the rope

Then return back to base... over the rope...

Showing the strength of unity... They are trying to catch them...

Here, the task was to write something nice about the person. Something positive. We were ending our session of games.

After a good run and activities.. the kids did whatever they wanted...
baby foot...

some cup game Johan learn.. pretty interesting..
all tired out.... IT was a good day. The activities went well and the kids enjoyed it.. Soo we all had FUN.

Volunteers in Pisco exchanging skills with locals

2008-04-29T08:15:00.001-07:00

L'Intercambio a ete cree pour que les volontaires (les gringos) et les locaux puissent echanger et apprendre l'un de l'autre. Au debut, c'etait surtout des cours d'angalis pour les habitants de Pisco. Avec le temps, cela s'est transforme et il y a un peu de tout.

L'Intercambio se deroule tous les soirs a partir de 19h, 19h30.
Programme semanal de l'IntercambioCours de danse peruvienne, La Minheira, une sorte de country peruvienne enseignee par Herman, 12 ans! Chapeau Herman pour ta presence, ton carisme et ton enthousiasme. Ce garcon promet...
Flo, le champignon dansant
Yoyo en plein dans le bon tempo!!!
Garde a vous! Herman se fait respecter
Les fans de l'Intercambio

Cours de Salsa et mise en situation avec Lisa, l'irlandaise et Jesus le pisqueno

Cours de Salsa avec Victor

Le yoyo est en train de se qualifier pour la finale grace a sa charmante partenaire irlandaise Aimée
Cours de Gym, abdo-fessiers et etirements par Prof Yoyo
Apres 8h de dur labeur, ils en veulent encore..Ils sont FOUS ces Gringos
Prof Yoyo enseignant le Tai Chi

La, c'est un cours sur l'Histoire du Perou dispense par Martin, 15ans..Yoyo s'essaye a la traduction pour l'occasion (pas si facile...)
Un peu de calme...Cours d'anglais...

En plus de cela, nous avons eu des cours de Capoeira bresilienne, des cours de francais, d'Irlandais. Temoignage des gens racontant leur vecu et leur experience du tremblement de terre, etc..

Desormais l'Intercambio a ete reamenage pour lui redonner un nouveu souffle. Il s'organise de la maniere suivante:

Lundi: activite libre

Mardi et Jeudi: Cours anglais/Espagnol

Mercredi: Reunion pour les Pisco Power*

Vendredi: sport

*Pisco Power est un association de jeunes pisquenos qui travaillent avec nous de temps en temps. Leurs objectifs est de continuer a reconstruire et ameliorer leur village. Nos avons donc decide d'organiser une reunion chque mercredi entre nous et eux pour les guider dans la gestion et le developpement de leur organisation. Ils sont encore tres jeunes et tres disperses donc nous essayons de leur donner les outils pour qu ils soient prets au depart de l'organisation.

Mercredi soir pour notre depart, ils ont organiser leur premiere fete dans le but de recolleter des fonds. Pari reussi, la soiree fut reussi et ils ont fait 400soles de benefices qui leur serviront de fonds de roulement.

Jeudi 1er Mai, fete du travail, nous avons quitte Pisco apres 5 semaines de travail, de fetes et de nouvelles connaissances. Nous avons atteri dans la large banlieue de Lima dans une maison pour enfants tres sympa...

Chincha l'africaine

2008-04-28T20:02:00.000-07:00

CHINCHA se trouve a 45min de Pisco, c'est la capitale de la culture afro-peruvienne!

Pour notre dernier Week end dans les environs de Pisco, nous decidons donc de se rendre a Chincha pour decouvrir cette culture africaine qui a survecu et qui a su se fondre dans la culture latine.

Nous partons avec notre nouvel ami peruvien KENY avec lequel nous travaillons en commun sur la construction d'un "Comedor", un endroit ou les enfants pauvres recevront des repas gratuits et ou les parents beneficieront de cours. Keny vient de la jungle peruvienne, IQUITOS. Il a ete envoye par une eglise evangelique pour gerer les camps provisoires de Pisco suite au seisme. Maintenant, il a pour mission de financer des projets qui vont servir la communaute de Pisco. Il coordonne et supervise la construction de differents edifices a Pisco (ecoles, comedor, centre communautaire, etc...)

Nous commencons par chercher la plage! On nous prend pour des extra terrestres. Les gens nous regardent avec de grands yeux...La plage??? nous demandent-ils?

On finit par en trouver une a cote d'une usine qui fabrique de l'huile de poisson! SUPER ODEUR!!! ce qui explique sa tranquillite! Il n'y a PERSONNE, encore moins de monde que sur une plage du Brunei! L'eau un peu trop froide a notre gout!

Les pelicans fuient l'odeur insoutenable

En repartant, mes yeux supersoniques apercoivent des nageoires, j'en suis sur, ce sont les DAUPHINS que nous traquons depuis 1 mois! En effet, depuis que nous sommes arrives a Pisco, chaque Week end, nous avions espoir de voir des dauphins. Nous avions abandonne notre recherche et les voici, jouant, passant et repassant juste devant nos yeux a cote de cette usine qui sent le poisson pourri!

mais pas les dauphins qui nous font le show (agrandir la photo en cliquant dessus pour voir l'aileron dorsal)

On en verra meme un faire 5 ou 6 sauts ou son corps entier sortait de l'eau a 100m de la plage. Ils resteront dans les environs pendant 1h...ce fut le grand moment de notre Week end!

En repartant, nous cherchions les ruines de l'ancien Empire Chincha et nous tombons sur un spectacle de musique afro-peruvien ou les enfants jouent du djembe et dansent au rythme des percussions...Nous monterons aux ruines pour faire la pub des Burners (voire photos) avec nos nouveaux T-Shirt et admirer le coucher de soleil

Photo pour le recrutement de volontaires a Pisco, Perou

Les droles de volontaires
Coucher de soleil sur la cote pacifique peruvienne

Au retour nous nous arretons sur la place pour constater les degats du tremblement de terre sur l'eglise. Keny nous temoignait qu'il est venu ici 2jours apres le seisme pour distribuer des vivres, de l'eau et des vetements et qu'ils ont ete obliges de fuir sous escorte militaire car les gens etaient trop violents...

Le gardien de l'eglise de Chincha...Il a perdu ses mains lors du seisme

La tour de l'eglise endommagee

Le fond de l'eglise ravage

Plus tard, nous avons RDV avec Andy, un volontaire de Burners qui est responsable de la construction d'une ecole a Chincha. Ensemble, nous rencontrons ses amis qui vont organiser un dejeuner pour collecter de l'argent pour une femme atteinte d'un cancer. Elle a besoin d'argent pour se payer le diagnostic qui servira a decider du traitement a suivre...

Reunion avec les amis d'Andy, le barbu

Puis nous irons diner dans un resto chinois, un "CHIFA", sans etre exceptionnelle, c'est de loin, le meilleur chinois que nous ayons jamais mange au Perou (selon Flo), et aussi le plus cher.

Puis, nous nous dirigeons dans le village El Carmen qui est le normalement le centre des danses afro-peruviennes. Malheureusement, le tremblement de terre a fait cesser toutes les activites et nous ne trouverons rien d'autres que des fetes locales ou la Salsa et la biere coulaient a flot...Nous rentrerons donc plus tot que prevu sans avoir vu de spectacles afro....

Nous passerons la nuit dans la maison des Burners a Chincha qui est en fait une retraite religieuse! Il y a comme 20 lits dans un dortoir

Le Dimanche a midi, nous retournons a El Carmen ou nous dejeunerons dans un resto creole en plein milieu de la communaute noire, seul endroit ou nous avons peut etre une chance de voir des danses afros...par les enfants des environs...

Danse afro...trop mignon

Nous passerons l'apres midi sur la plage, une un peu plus jolie que celle de la veille...ou encore une fois les dauphins nous attendaient...et ou Flo pratiqura son sport favori, LA SIESTA

La playa....

Je crois que cette fois-ci, ce sont eux qui nous cherchaient...

Un Week end sympathique sans grand eclat ou nous avons pris un bain de culture peruvienne et ou nous nous sommes bien reposes et fait un vrai ami...

Attention les secousses....celle la ne tombera pas....

another comedor..

2008-04-28T16:47:00.000-07:00

Kenny´s Comedor we call it.. This is the Evangelic Church, about 1km away from the Catholic church. This Comedor is financed by a church (Camino de Vida) in Lima.
We work alongside with local contactors and supervisors.
We are told what we need to do.
The initial stage would be DIGGING again... I think Burners is famous for their digging skills.. :)
To make digging more challenging, this trenches fills up with sea water. The area we´re building on is near the beach and apparently some of the land just fills up with water. Sooo... as soon as we take some mud out.. it sort of just fills up. Eventually we manage to get the right depth though. It took some time but we managed..

Eleanora Sun bathing and mud bathing in the sun. Lots of good minerals for the skin.. ahhhh a good way to spend the holidays!

Sammy and I trying to empty the trenches... hmmm it seems like it is mission impossible...
Gurp is getting in there with the spade... only a few centimetres more to reach the target!!
Next task was to bend iron bars... hmmmm... with a special technique too.. requires some sort of strength. The pastor of the church helps us out too and he is showing the guys what needs to be done and how to use the tools..
Here are the bending tools... the pastor made it look easy but it isn´t as easy as it looks.

Here are the result.. not too bad after a few tries and change of techniques...
The boys are stretching after the hard work of bending STEEL..It really works on the back.
Here I am doing something easy while the boys are working the muscle bending iron,I am cutting them.. It was fun to work with the machine. Yes got my protective glasses on..

With all the iron and steel that we were bending and cutting.. this is what the other local workers were doing...

We have done things that we would never have done in our lives and it is such a good experience to be on a construction site to see how to build. I don´t think we could be expert when we´re done but... we will know a little bit more.

Busy bees...

2008-04-27T09:09:00.000-07:00

Here is San Andreas school. They build this from scratch... and now we are doing the final touches.. painting, tiling.... doesn´t require as much strength as digging trenches but... it is still work. Someone´s got to do it..
The ladies laying out paper for our ceiling painting sessions..
Very skillful people we have at Burners... overnight, we are painters.. hehehhe.. yes, painting requires attention too... it´s not as easy as we think.. we got to be careful not to get paint everywhere. Well, except on us.
Still some manual work to do...

Yes they are still work to do...

and... lots more painting to be done. ...

Apart from being painters, we also do gardening!!!

This little garden is next to the Banderas school where we were working with earlier.

We were helping the locals to tidy up this nice little place, it is owned by the govt but not for public use. From what I understand it is used to grow plants to be replanted at another place. Not too clear about it but ya we helped out with the gardening....

Taking out the weeds, and raking them... cleaning up... and making it look nicer.
Sandra standing next to a cactus. She really wanted to make this little garden a public area but unfortunately she had to go home so she couldn´t see to this project. It takes a lot of time to make that happen. Perhaps someday someone will do something about it..

Yes... we are still working, not just holidaying..

2008-04-25T07:38:00.000-07:00

This is Comedor 64, Johan has been assigned as Project Manager 2 to assist Ron Connor. Comedor 64 is sponsored by this adjoining church. A cute bamboo church. It will serve to feed the children in the community.

Front of the church
Inside of the church Ron Connor, twisitng wires for the columns, for better resistance against the earthquake as seen below sticking out of the ground...
The building site of Comedor 64
THE machine... aka the hungry monster... only a few are allowed near this machine. Very precious.

Feeding the monster...

Mixing the cement... and cleaning up after that is great fun...

Part of cement pouring... somehow this job is very popular and people are more than happy to do this. They are always more than enough people willing to pour cement. Strange.. no idea why they LOVE this task...
Johan filling up the trenches with cement.
Have to be careful not to spill the precious cement out of the form boards...
Waiting in line...
Here is the maestro (master) laying bricks and building the wall. Here we are working alongside with local contractors and we are being supervised on what we do. We just lending a hand to build.

Brick transportor.. :)

Moving bricks... and building a pyramid. It is a new challenging game... :)

So if anyone out there.. have got some extra time and passing through Pisco.. stop by at Jose Balta, near Pisco Playa.. you´ll see Burners center camp.. Any sort of help is more than welcome... JOIN IN THE FUN..

OASIS OASIS, c'est BON c'est BON

2008-04-22T14:31:00.000-07:00

Cette fin de semaine, nous nous sommes enfin decide a rejoindre tous les autres volontaires a HUACACHINA, un oasis entoure de dunes de sables magnifiques a 5minutes de la ville d'Ica ou les activites principales sont FETES, PISCINE et SANDBOARDING (surf sur le sable).

This weekend, we finally decided to go with the crowd toooooo Huacachina. Almost all the volunteers were going there to relax and have a weekend away from Pisco. It is an oasis surrounded with sand dunes all around. 5 mins from Ica town and it is a nice place to have parties, sit by the swimming pool and sandboarding.

Pour se rendre dans ce lieu, il faut tout d'abord prendre a transport de Pisco jusqu'a la route Panamericaine (6kms) car depuis le tremblement de terre, plus aucun bus ne rentre dans Pisco (trop[ dangereux). La, sur le bord d'autoroute ou regne une activite debordante, il faut jouer des coudes pour sauter dans le bus LIMA-ICA. C'est la loi du plus fort, les places sont limitees donc premiers montes, premier servis..il vaut mieux etre en forme. Ensuite on se rend a Ica ou l'on prend un taxi pour Huacachina. Tout cela doit vous prendre en temps normal 1h30. Nous on a mis 3h! D'une part car on ne trouvait pas de transport pour sortir de Pisco car Samedi apres midi, ensuite, comme nous n'avions pas bien compris la loi de ''pousse toi de la, c'est moi le plus fort'', 2 bus nous sont passes sous le nez puis en arrivant a Ica, on s'est arrete acheter une boisson de 4soles. Flo voulant arriver a l'oasis avec de la monnaie a donne son billet de 100soles. La vendeuse s'est enerve et lui a rendu 96soles en pieces de 50centimes.....en les comptant 1 par une! Du coup notre week end commencait Samedi soir a 18h00...

To get to this wonderful Oasis, we need to take a taxi to the main highway (Panamericana) which is roughly about 6 kms away. After the earthquake, the roads to enter Pisco were getting dangerous and lots of hijackers around. So, no bus company want to take any risk. Then on the highway, we need to `fight´ to get on the bus going to Ica from Lima. There are oly limited seats and it is first come first serve basis. So... people are rushing as soon as the bus is slowing down.. the crowd rush to the door and squeeze our way through. Quite an interesting experience. Then at Ica we need to take another taxi to go to the Oasis. Usually it should take about 1h30mins but it took us about 3 hours. First cos we had a hard time trying to find transport to take us out of Pisco, then we had to do a pushing competition to get on the bus (the strongest wins) Then as we arrived in Ica, before going to Huacachina, we went to get some drinks which cost 4 soles. I wanted to get some smaller change for the 100 soles note. The shop lady didn´t have change and things got abit out of hand.We (the lady and I) got upset with each other. THEN... she gave me some change alright.. 96soles in 50 cents coins!!! YUP... I was standing there like a fool waiting for my CHANGE, we counted them one by one... so that took some time and what a good start to our weekend! We missed the sunset.. oh well...

Apres avoir examine les lieux, on juge qu'il n'y a pas de probleme pour camper donc on installe notre tente dans le desert, au bas d'une dune puis on monte la dune pour voir le coucher de soleil que bien sur, on ratera...a la place on trouvera une belle PLEINE LUNE avec un ciel etoile...

After checking out the place and area, we concluded that it will be safe enough to camp in the desert. In exchage for our sunset, we had our FULL moon and stars to accompany our night out.

On redescend pour rejoindre nos amis volontaires autour d'un feu de camp. Puis la faim nous prend et nous partons a la recherche de quelque chose a manger. Nous rencontrons 2 peruviens tres sympas qui se declarent gays (ils n'avaient pas besoin de le dire). Ils nous paient a boire et nous offrent quelques chips et nous invitenta sortir avec eux. Ils etaient si droles et si enthousiastes que nous decidons de les accompagner!

After setting up our campsite and taking a little rest, we join the rest of the Burners team at a nice Bamboo cafe, sitting around the camp fire. Just chilling out. Then we got hungry and decide to hunt for food. That is around 11.30pm and there were no restaurants open but we manage to get 2 bread rolls and crisps for dinner. While we were eating our `dinner´we met 2 sweet peruvians who proudly declared that they were gay (of course we already guess that.. can´t miss it) Then we continues chatting with them and their friends. They paid for our drinks and bought some more crisps for us to eat. hehehehe... They invited us to join them to go disco and since they were so nice and funny, we decide to amuse ourselves..

Nous voila qui debarquons dans une boite GAY dans laquelle je rentre avec une bouteille de vin sous le manteau! La deco etait tres tres rustique! La musique assez peruvienne et les gens assez gays! Flo se fera brancher dans les toilettes par une fille alors que nos 2 amis, l'alcool aidant se frottait de plus en plus a moi...Apres une bonne heure et une demonstartion de dance de travestis, nous nous echappons pour se refugier dans la tranquilite de nos dunes desertiques! Il est 3h30 du matin!

So OFF we went to the GAY disco/bar where Johan had to smuggle a bottle of wine in his jacket.. hmmm, good start. The decorations was very rustique, raw. The music was quite local and the people were very GAY and GAY.... I thought I will be `safe´here cos all the men were gay.. but I forgot about the women... hmmmm, one tried to chat me up and invited me to dance with her.. how .. hmmmmm, how flattering for me. hehehehe.... Whereas the other two gay men with their drinking was getting very cozy with Johan.. After a good hour of being there and dancing with them we had a tranverstite show. WOW.. that was really good dancing and so flexible to. I was impressed. They were dancing above the bar area. Unfortunately we didn´t take any photo shots. It was already 3h30am by the time we decide to escape back to our calm and wonderful campsite by the dunes in the desert.

7h30, le soleil brille et la chaleur commence a se faire sentir! On decide de monter en haut d'une dune pour prendre quelques photos et faire un peu d'exercices matinales.

By 7.30am, we were starting to sweat in our tent with the heat. So we decide to get up and get out.. took a walk up the dune and took some pictures..

On passera le reste de la journee au bord de la piscine d'un hotel avec vue sur les dunes avant de remonter au sommet de la dune pour le coucher de soleil.

We spent the rest of the day by the swimming pool at a hotel with a spectacular view of the sand dunes.. In the late evening when it gets cooler, we walked back up the dunes to catch the sun set we missed the day before.

Je pensais faire du surf des sables mais finalemet je me suis demotive alors j'ai fait du "Roule Boule" des sables, une activite tres peu commercialisee mais tres divertissante (voire video)

Johan wanted to do the sand boarding but finally got demotivated and did a crazy rolling downhill stunts instead.. He really enjoyed himself. This is just a short film of it.. but he did a LOT more than that. It was SOOOO funny!!!

Voila encore un Week End tres interessant et tres relaxant...nous aurions bien passer un peu plus de temps dans ce bel oasis mais le travail nous attendait a Pisco...

So that was our lovely weekend. Would have like to stay longer but work awaits in Pisco.

Nous voila en route pour notre derniere semaine de travaux forces a Pisco...avant de prendre la route du Nord du Perou

Another week of hard work and play in Pisco before heading off to the North of Peru to do some more visiting....

Camping dans la Reserve National de Paracas...Un vrai paradis desertique

2008-04-15T08:46:00.000-07:00

Pret pour le depart devant la maison des volontaires a Pisco Ready for our weekend camping. Infront of Center Camp

Nous continuons de profiter de nos derniers Week End en Amerique du Sud. Au programme de ce WE, un nuit en camping dans la reserve desertique de Paracas qui se situe a 30kms de notre lieu de travail!
Another weekend to appreciate and relax in South America... On our programme for this weekend... A night Camping in the Paracas Desert reserve, 30km north of Pisco.

Nous voila en plein milieu du desert face a l'Ocean Pacifique. L'eau est d'un bleu superbe, les falaises impressionantes, les oiseaux continuent leurs vies sans se preocupper de nous, la brise marine nous fait oublier la chaleur du desert....Bref, nous sommes dans un petit paradis ou nous
passerons 2 jours de reve.
Voila.. we arrived in the middle of the desert next to the Pacific Ocean. The wonderful breeze cooling us. The water was so blue, the cliffs were impressive, the birds flying freely, the vultures checking us out.. whether we were a nice bunch of meat for their dinner.. :) We were so excited and happy to be out here in the wild. Just us and nature for 2 days...
Ca fait vraiment du bien d'etre en liberte, de respirer le bon air, loin de la poussiere et des decombres de Pisco et de ne pas a avoir se soucier de l'insecurite...
It is such a wonderful feeling of being FREE, to breath fresh air, far from dust and dirt... free from insecurity of Pisco... aaaaaahhhhhhhh..... the feeling of walking on the beach and not worrying... the sound of waves splashing against the sand and rocky cliffs... music to our ears..
Je vous laisse avec quelques photos en attendant de les commenter...
Photos and some comments on what we did...

Jon et Heather sont en train de preparer le San Pedro, une boisson a base de cactus qui a un pouvoir hallucinogene, sous la surveillance de Flo! Jon and Heather preparing the cactus plant for San Pedro drink.. a drink based on Cactus plant for some special effects for the evening..
L'arrivee dans le Parc National...On est surpris par la fraiche brise et la tranquilite du site YAY... we arrived at our destination...

La dream team des volontaires THE DREAM TEAM.. hahhaha

Flo, la reine de la logistique...elle pense a tout...Un conseil, n'oubliez pas votre Flo pour partir en vacances ou en camping

Installation du camp face a la mer Setting up the tent with a spectacular view of the ocean... ahhh...
Meditation! Enfin la mer, le sable, la plage sans soucis...A pisco ou l'on travaille, la mer se trouve a 100m de chez nous mais elle nous est interdite d'acces car c'est le lieu ou il y a le plus de crimes et ou la Police ne va pas!
Meditaion time... finally the sea, the sand, the beach with no worries... In pisco where we work, we are only 100mtr walk away for center camp BUT we are no allowed to go cos the crime rate is too high there and the police don´t even enter this place.. sssssooo

Vautour en attente de decollage Vulture waiting for take off..
A la recherche de crabes pour la peche... bizarre, nous on ne voit rien mais les oiseaux autour de nous se regalent et se moquent de nos pauvres performances Johan and Alex in search of crabs for their bait.. for fishing.. They found it wierd that they can´t seem to find anything BUT the birds around seems to be having a good catch as they dive in the water.. seems like they were making fun of Johan and Alex´s crab searching skill..
Apres l'installation du camp, c'est l'heure de l'apero After the camp has been set... time for apperative... Rum on the rock!
Entre amis,pour feter notre beau Week end Spending time with new friends we met here in Pisco. CHEERS to new friendships...
Jon explore les falaises et se prepare psychologiquement pour le San Pedro.. Jon is exploring the cliffs to prepare his mind and soul mentally for the San Pedro drink.. heheheh
Cracks from the recent Earthquake... yikes..
Sarah essaye de faire tomber la falaise Sarah is trying to break off this cliff.
QUELLE FORCE!!! ELLE A REUSSI!!! Enfin Sarah, faudrait manger un peu moins! En fait, cela est surement du au tremblement de terre d'Aout dernier.. wow.. what strength! She did it! She´ll have to eat a little less now. The truth.. it was due to the earthquake in August... it was that strong.

Nos compagnons de camping!!! Our little camping company
Les filles en promenade sur les falaises Taking some risks in life... walking on the edge..
Sarah examinant la carcasse d'une otarie echouee sur la plage Sarah is being brave as she examines the dead sea lion or Otter.. I am not too sure cos I couldn´t bear to smell dead animals..
Paysages somptueux Our view..
Ce rocher fut surnomme la CATHEDRALE mais le seisme l'a quelque peu transorme, avant: photo de droite et apres: photo de gauche This rock was named The Cathedral due to the foramtion but unfortunately, it crumbled when the earthquake happened.
Les cuisinieres The cooks.. :) preparing a scrumptous dinner.. yum
et les drogues!!! Apres l'etape de la collecte du cactus, il faut lui enlever les epines et ensuite l'eplucher afin d'obtenir le bon ingredient Heather preparing THE DRINK ... Only certain part of the cactus is being used.
et les sportifs qui ont ramene les proteines pour le diner The sportive went on a journey to catch the FISH OF THE DAY!!
Ensuite il faut bouillir le tout entre 3 et 4h
Bon courage les amis car c'est vraiment pas bon!

Nous on prefere notre baleine

Lendemain de San Pedro!!!
Le camp au reveil, il est 7h30 du mat
Petit dej avant la randonnee du matin
Alex, le quebecois, vente les merites de sa creme solaire..."elle rend plus belle a chaque instant"
Dans un autre style, Flo fait la pub pourle beurre de cacahuete...Merci Sarah pour partager cela avec nous (c'est tres cher au Perou)
Et c'est parti pour un rando dont on ne sait pas vraiment ni la duree, ni le chemin exact...
Mer...credi, il y a 2 chemin, que faisons-nous? Pourvu qu on ne se perde pas dans le desert!
Flo prete pour le marathon du desert

Pelican en plein volL'armee de l'air des Pelicans

Working Hard..in Pisco

2008-04-08T08:26:00.000-07:00

Hi all... Some photos of what we do here... We will comment and write more on it when we have more time. Work is keeping us really busy and then too tired to update the blog.. :) We are having lots of FUN though working with Burners without Borders.

Ok... got some time to explain better. So Burners have a few projects that is ongoing at the same moment. Depending on what you are capable of and what you like to do. If you have specific skills in construction, pumbling well any sort of specific skills... they will put you where they really need your skills. If you just have time and a heart to help out.. THAT is great too.. cos there are lots of other things to do.. Everyone sort of find their way and find some sort of project they can get busy with. So EVERYONE will feel useful and helpful at the end of their stay here with Burners. One way or the other.. ALWAYS have some important role for you to do.. EVEN volunteering to clean the Center Camp and Bruners House is an IMPORTANT role. After working with UNICEF, packing bags full of school things. Johan and I did different projects... Here is one that I helped out with one of the mornings. Painting the playground equipment!! This is Jorge Chavez School. There are LOTS of kids running around here. So we had to build this "fence" to keep them out. Apparently that didn´t really work. There were still some very cheeky kids that try their luck to come in and touch the wet paint. While we were painting it is not too bad but as soon as we turn our backs and leave... hmmmm... cheeky monkeys decide to play. Sooo.. you can see their prints on the freshly painted equipment. OH WELL... can´t stop kids from playing. We did what we could.
Another project was to paint their walls and put some important messages for them.

This one is about conserving water and keeping it clean.

Here is informs the kids that this water is portable and to ration it well. Not to waste it and to value the water.

They also did the beautiful tiling for the sink area.

This is a project by the beach Johan was involved in while I was painting and shovelling. Building steps at the Malecon Beach so it will be safer for the public to use and for an easier acces to the beach. I couldn´t get a photo of them in action cos it was not advisable to bring the camera or any important belongings on the beach. They had to build that platform you see from scratch.. so yea.. Johan is learning to be the Handy man.. hehehe..

This is Las Banderas College. Well, after the earthquake, they had this temporary made up classes so that the students are able to continue with their education. Then they put up a little more solid modules for the girls. It is only about 2 mins walk from Jorge Chavez school. They want to clear this area to put more of the same modules up to replace those bamboo made classes. They are moving classes around cos they are constructing a new one.

When I decided to help out here, the project was to clear out stones and pebbles from this lot of land next to those more solid modules and put them in a pile. We had to rake the ground, shovel the pebbles and stones and wheel barrow them here with this pile. Can get pretty tiring after a few shovelling and pushing a filled up barrow. We did that for about 2 days and then a truck load of sand came to PILE it on top of where we were cleaning up.

Next step of this project was to fill up the spaces with this soil and LEVEL the ground. So SOME more SHOVELLING.. Johan came and joined us for this part of our project.

We were mostly ladies who were doing this job. Once in a while when the men are available they come to help us. It is a good workout. Although it can be bad for the back. It does help to build muscles though. Good workout.

Taking a little break is a good idea. We sometimes forget to drink water when we´re in our work. Some more shovelling in action.
Then we need to rake them out to level the sand. At times we find MORE rocks in the pile of sand.

After a day of hard work.. some of the girls got curious of what we were doing (They must think we´re crazy) They started chatting with us. Then they decided to give us a hand and eventually TOOK over our shovels and our work.. They were really into it.. we couldn´t stop them. Well, they didn´t have class so it was free time for them and they rather help us then relax and chat around with their other girlfriends. It was funny to see.

They did a pretty good job cos they were FULL of energy .
Here we had one of our team member that went in the classroom and taught them some english to keep them busy. That was one of the few problems as well.. lack of teachers and sometimes the teachers don´t show up for the classes. So these girls, they are just hanging around. They can get pretty noisy too and it can be quite disturbing for the other classes in session.

Another project was to paint the murals. Apparently Sandra (the lady in this photo) has already cleaned and scraped a huge mural where she found out later that she couldn´t paint on it. After all the hard work of cleaning the mural she was still determined to do at least a part of the mural as a remembrance and something nice for the students and public to see. So the diretor of the school showed her this wall to work on. So off they went scraping and clreaning again. I have yet to see the finished painted wall. Will do and will take a photo of it.

(Note behind this wall there is a garden which we also helped clean up. )

GROUP PHOTO..

Aldo´s house is a special project where there are only the volunteers helping to build from SCRATCH! Aldo is a man who has helped during the earthquake and in return the volunteer decided to help him and his family to build His house so they will have a good home to live in. He does construction himself so he knows what to do. He supervises the team. This project is always full and have their own team. I was fortunate to see it and work in it for a day.
The task was to dig a trench for the sewage system. So there we are digging with all sorts of tools. We have people with the sledge hammer, sledging away on the concrete, pick axes, spades to dig our way through. We did a pretty good job that day.

It is a good way for anger management I think. If you have any anger issues.. This is a good outlet..

Then we also did some cement mixing, carrying and pouring.... tough job!

BRICK laying too... Yup, you learn how to do these things even if you don´t know.. someone will teach you. Would have like to do that but only limited amound of people require sooo...... Perhaps next time I´ll get a turn to learn how to do it. Looks easy but.... there are so many little details that we need to take into account it seems. Can´t have a crooked and bend wall... :)

So, there you go.. this is only a FEW things that is going on.. there are more to come.. next post!!.. :)

Les iles Ballestas, les Galapagos du Pauvre

2008-03-30T16:14:00.001-07:00

Tout d'abord, nous souhaitons nous "excuser" pour notre abscence sur le net mais notre volontariat nous prend beaucoup de temps et d'energie. Nous bossons de Lundi au Vendredi de 8h a 5h30 et le samedi matin. Les soirs, nous avons souvent des reunions sur differents themes, ce qui nous laisse peu de temps pour nous mettre a jour avec nos emails et notre blog!

Pour nous pardonner, nous allons vous montrer de tres belles photos.

Juste a cote de Pisco ou nous travaillons se trouve la reserve national de Paracas et ses iles Ballestas que l'on nomme parfois "Les Galapagos du Pauvre"

Dimanche dernier, nous en avons donc profiter pour prendre le grand air et enfin s'approcher de la mer (chose interdite a Pisco car trop dangereux)!

Ces iles sont tout d'abord d'une beaute impressionnante mais aussi et surtout un vrai paradis pour les animaux et oiseaux marins!

Apres 30min de bateau, on se trouve nez a nez avec des pingouins, des otaris et des millions d'oiseaux: Pelicans, mouettes, fou de bassens, 3 differentes sortes de Cormorans, vautours et autres! Tous cela vole sans arret au dessus de vos tetes vous envoyant quelques jolis missiles qu'il faut eviter!!! En language scientifique ca s'appelle du Guano! Moi j'appelle ca de la merde! mais le guano fut une vrai source de richesse pour Pisco. Il y a encore quelques annees, avant l'arrivee des engrais chimiques, le Guano servait d'engrais pour l'agriculture et se vendait dans le monde entier. Maintenat, il n'est collecté qu'une fois tous les 5 ans et n'a plus beaucoup de valeur malgre sa richesse!

Pelican sur la plage

A table les oiseaux
Dessin d'un chandelier dans le desert de la cote...Beaucoup de theories differentes sur ce beau dessin de plus de 180m de hauteur (ca represente un cactus qui nous une boisson hallucinogene ou un repere pour les marins espagnoles ou encore il est lié avec les lignes de Nasca a 4h au Sud)
Il est si bien conserve car les pluies annuelles sont de 1.9mm!!! soit rien du tout

Voila les Iles Ballestas de loin
et maintenant d'un peu plus pres
On nous avait beucoup parle de ces iles et je m'attendais a etre decu!
mais pas du tout, elles sont tres tres belles

et tres tres riches en vie animale. Regardez les points noirs sur la falaise au loin, ce sont des milliers d'oiseaux

Attention la tete!! Ne pas oubliez de sortir couvert

Fous, Pingouins, Cormorans et autres....

Tous les oiseaux de l'ile sont representés ici

Voila les Cormorans guaraniques, les producteurs de BON Guano

D'autres oiseaux tres jolis dont j'ai oublie le nom

Les fous de bassens au repos

Fou en action

Et voila les Pingouins de Humbolt (un des plus petits au monde)

Et ca, ce sont les otaris sur la plage de la maternitede Decembre a Mars, les petits grandissent ici en famille

Ces otaris vivent en groupe. En general, 1 mal pour une dizaine de femelles, le reve!!!

Eux, font la bronzette sur les rochers

Lui n'aime pas les touristes

De retour au PEROU pour une mission a PISCO

2008-03-28T16:31:00.000-07:00

Apres avoir passe quelques jours de repos a Cusco, nous avons pris la direction de Lima ou nous avons decouvert ses belles cotes et ses super endroits pour s'essayer au surf (ce que je n'ai pas manque). Nous avons ete tres agreablement surpris par Lima, nous nous attendions au pire et nous avons eu le meilleur du Perou (plages, gens super sympas, super restos, promenade sur le front de mer, super beau temps...bref le paradis dans cette ville a la mauvaise reputation justifiee)...

Maintenant nous sommes a Pisco, sur la cote est du Perou, a 4h au sud de Lima, l'epicentre du tremblement de terre d'Aout dernier. Nous travaillons avec une ONG americaine qui s'appelle BURNERS WITHOUT BORDERS (http://www.burnerswithoutborders.org/)! C'est une toute nouvelle ONG qui a ete cree suite a l'ouragan Katrina a la Nouvelle Orleans. Pisco est sa premiere misson a l'etranger! Elle a pris la releve de HANDS ON, autre ONG specialisee dans les situations d'urgence apres catastrophe naturelle.

Maison des volontaires a Pisco (5 etoiles)La salle a manger et lieu de vie

La salle de reunion (tous les matins a 8h00)

Les douches (attention au coup de vent)! On a meme de l'eau chaude une fois qu'on a compris comment ca marche (il faut prealablement allumer le gaz a gauche pour faire demarrer la chaudiere)

La cuisine avec nos belles cuisinieres

Notre chambre

L'ambiance est bonne et les projets interessants! La ville est encore ravagee! Des gens vivent encore dans les tentes et la poussiere!

LA VILLE de PISCO

L'eglise detruite par le seisme

Encore de nombreuses familles vivent dans les tentes dans des conditions deplorables (tentes en plein milieu de l'avenue principale)

Nous nous faisons recruter par des locaux en train de construire une maison de bois (offerte par le gouvernement sous certaine condition)pour ameliorer temporairement le lieu de vie des familles

Maison temporaire sans l'attente de mieux!!! Esperons qu'il n'y aura pas de tempete de vent car c'est pas du solide (heureusement que nous sommes dans le desert et qu'il ne pleut presque jamais)

LA MISSION

Des notre arrivee on m'a mis a la direction d'un nouveau projet! En cette periode de rentree scolaire, l'UNICEF a envoye des milliers de fournitures scolaires pour les enfants de Pisco! La mission est assez simple, il faut faire un sac de fournitures scolaires pour chaque etudiant...donc on met en place une chaine de travail...comme a l'usine...Il y en a 14 000 a faire!!!

Mon equipe de travail (bon recrutement, non?)

Le 10 000eme sac enfin pret...

Au bout du 3eme jour nous avons besoin de carburant Mr le Directeur

Et voila qui nous sort de son bureau:

Le PISCO: boisson typique du Perou (source de conflit avec le chili qui affirme que c'est lui, l'inventeur du Pisco et qui l'exporte beaucoup plus que le Perou). C'est une liqueur de raisin tres forte (42%) qui se boit cul sec ici, avec un seul verre pour tout le monde qu'on fait passer!

En route pour le boulot les volontaires

Et voila LILI! Lili est une habitante de Pisco que nous avons connu lors de l'ECHANGE INTERCUTURELLE qui se deroule chaque soir a 7h! Chaque soir, un volontaire va organiser un cours ou simplement un echange entre volontaires et locaux. Lili vient de se marier avec un francais et va bientot rejoindre son mari en France. Elle vient tous les soirs dans l'espoir d'apprendre francais ou anglais! Vendredi soir j'ai donc remis ma chemise de prof et fait un cour de francais! C'est un moment sympa, relax, detendu ou volontaires et locaux echangent, tissent des liens, apprennent un peu et rigolent beaucoup!!!

LILI est une fille tres sympa qui vient nous aider avec le projet de l'UNICEF ou elle me raconte les traumatismes laisses par le tremblement de terre. Elle travaillait sur la place principale pendant les secousses! Pensant a une petite secousse commes ouvent, elle n'est pas sorti tout des suite. Voyeant que cela durait plus longtemps que d'habitude, elle decide de sortir! Quelques instants plus tard, son agence s'ecroulera! Sa meilleure amie travaillant dnas l'agence d'a cote, elle n'est pas sortie...

yummy in the tummy.. CUY/ El CUY mais ou est passé mon cochon d'Inde???

2008-03-27T15:46:00.000-07:00

En revenant de Bolivie, nous sommes repasses par Cusco recuperer nos affaires et preparer la suite de notre voyage.

Nous ne sommes pas partis sans gouter le met des Andes, a savoir le CUY, autrement dit, le cochon d'Inde! Vous vous rappelez, ce joli petit animal de compagnie qu'on gardait dans nos maisons!

Dans les Andes, manger le Cuy est une tradition bien ancree. Pour ce faire, nous avons pris un bus pour se rendre a la mecque du Cuy, le village de TIPON sur la route entre Cusco et Puno, a 45 min de Cusco.

Nous nous etions bien prepares psychologiquement a cet evenement! Impossible de reculer une fois la bas!
Nous voila devant le restaurant (avec le sceau pour vomir)

Maintenant, il nous suffit de choisir notre CUY (ca se prononce COUILLE)

Le voila qu'il arrive dans notre assiette...Ca ressemble a un rat...Le mangerons-nous???
Belle gueule l'ami???

Lui aussi il veut manger
La farce!!!

Pauvre bete, je continue de la torturer

Fini la comedie, on y va!!! A l'attaque
On commence par les pattes
Voila notre ami Martin qui, malgre son sourire, n'etait pas aussi prepare que nous a mange son animal de compagnie
Il a eu beaucoup de mal...(surtout que le sien n'avait pas ete aussi bien tue que le notre et etait donc assez saignant)

Et alors, est-ce que c'est bon? quel gout cela a?

Je dirais que ce n'est pas mauvais mais pas de quoi sauter au plafond! En fait, il n'y a pas grand chose a manger! C'est assez maigre cette bete. Une fois qu'on lui a eplucher les poils, il ne reste pas grand chose. Le gout se situe entre le poulet et le mouton (pour moi).
Toutefois, nutritivement, il parait que c'est une des meilleures viandes si l'on considere le rapport graisse/proteines. Beaucoup de proteines pour peu de gras et donc peu de cholesterol!
Content d'avoir experimente ce met andin mais je n'en remangerai point surtout que ce n'est pas donné et que la cuisine peruvienne propose bien d'autres choses de meilleures qualités!!!

Objectif 6000m: Vaincu par la tempete de neige et le brouillard

2008-03-17T14:54:00.000-07:00

NOUVELLE EXPERIENCE POUR LES JEUNES MARIES
A NEW EXPERIENCE FOR THE YOUNG MARRIED COUPLE
Ice Axes

snow shoes attached to crampons

A La Paz en Bolivie, nous en avons profite pour s'attaquer a la Haute Montagne! La Paz est entouree de hauts sommets dont le Huayna Potosi, situe a plus de 6000m et qui peut se faire sans experience...Nous nous sommes donc lance ce defi..
In La Paz, Bolivia we had a go at the High Mountaineering.. (is there any such word as that?) Anyways, La Paz is surrounded with mountains, the ANDES. Huayna Potosi is about 6000m and we were told it can be done with no experience required. So, WHY NOT.... right? We only live once and there are no big danger to it..

all geared up and equipped to do the climb.. feels like I'm in a movie.....

Ci dessous, un mail envoye a ma famille a notre retour: an email written to Johan's family after the climb

"Nous sommes revenus de notre tentative de gravir les 6000m!
Malheureusement, le temps ne nous l'a pas permis! le guide et moi nous sommes perdus dans le brouillard a 4h du matin a 5700m d'altitude par -15 ou -20degres. Alors on a attendu une bonne demi heure pour attendre que le temps s'éclaircisse (seul nos corps se sont refroidis!). Flo essayait de trouver le sommeil (inquiète pour son jeune mari) au refuge a 5100m -il était prévu qu'elle ne tente pas cette aventure car la veille elle n'avait pas supporte notre acclimatisation a 5400m-. Tous les autres alpinistes (y en avait que 4 en tout avec leur guide) avaient déjà fait demi tour! Le guide voulait continuer davantage mais très sagement je lui ai dit qu'il valait mieux faire demi tour car cela devenait de plus en plus dangereux et la neige commençait a recouvrir rapidement nos empreintes! On est rentrés au refuge juste pour le lever du jour a 6h30 du mat après 6h de marche dans la nuit et la neige fraiche avec crampons et piolets! Je suis très content de cette expérience même si la tempête et le brouillard nous a vaincu cette fois ci. Avec le beau temps, je pense que j'aurais réussi. Je me sentais bien, même si la veille, je pensais que je n'y arriverai pas!
Alors que tout le refuge prenait des forces pendant le diner pour le lendemain, moi je me collais un mal de tête a devenir fou! Je suis monté me coucher pensant que l'aventure s'arrêterait la pour moi! Je ne pouvais meme pas fermer les yeux car cela amplifiait le mal de tete!
Ce mal de tete avait plusieurs raisons : l'altitude surement, la fatigue sans aucun doute car d'habitude ce tour se fait en 3jours, et nous pour des raisons financieres on l’a fait en 2j. Je n'avais pas non plus prévu tout l'équipement d'alpiniste a porter! Ca fait lourd surtout a 4700m et quand ca monte a 40 ou 50degres! Plus, je n'avais pas réussi a bien dormir les 2jours précédent car j'étais trop excité par cette nouvelle expérience! Puis, comme si ce n'était pas assez, on avait demande a faire de la pratique sur glacier avant de monter au refuge donc on s'est tapé de l'escalade sur glace sur des murs a 95 degrés! J'y ai tout laisse!
La suite fut la montée, du glacier a 4800 au refuge a 5100 fut un vrai calvaire, plus de 2h pour faire ces 300m de dénivelé. Flo elle se sentait un peu mieux que la veille!
MIRACLE, vers 20h,20h30 après avoir pris un Ibuprofene, mon mal de tête disparaît. Je me réveille a Minuit, frais comme un cardon, prêt a chausser les crampons! A 1h du matin, nous voila dans la neige jusqu’au genou.

De retour au refuge, j’ai retrouve Flo qui guettait mon retour (tous les autres étaient déjà rentres) et nous nous sommes rendormis jusqu’ a 9h! A 10h, on attaque la descente! ce fut le pire! La neige avait recouvert les rochers, le "sentier" était SUPER glissant et super pentu (une chute et on était sur de se blesser très sérieusement) et on ne voyait pas a plus de 10m (l'agence qui m'a vendu le tour m'avait promis qu'il ferait soleil le matin)! On a mis presque plus de temps a descendre qu'a monter! Enfin, on arrive au refuge a 4700 ou notre taxi nous attendait pour retourner a La Paz! A La Paz, après un bon repas et une bonne douche, je me suis mis au lit a 16h30, pour me levé seulement a 8h30 du mat...je crois que je n'ai jamais dormi aussi longtemps de ma vie! Cette experience m'a prouve a quel point l'alpinisme peut etre dangereux et quand perdu a 5700, on pense a tous les gens qui nous importe dans la vie et avec qui on a encore envie de construire.."

LE DEPART
The START

Le Premier refuge a 4700m ou le taxi nous depose
The taxi dropped us off at The first refuge at 4700m
Paysage andin The landscape around

Et c'est parti pour la grande aventure
We're off on our big adventure
les derniers sourires The last smiles

LE GLACIER The GLYSERS

Le glacier qui retrecit quotidiennement
The Glysers is daily reducing in size, that's too bad cos one day it means it will disappear.
A la decouverte du glacier Discovering the glysers
sur une autre planete....in another planet

repos entre 2 escalades
taking a rest in between climbs
elle est pas belle deguisee en Alpiniste me in my Alpinist attire

ca ne rigole plus...we've stopped laughing
pas tres a l'aise dans la descente
not at ease going downhil
mais beacoup plus a la montee but better at climbing up
la reine de l'escalade...prete pour l'Everest
made it to the top... ready for the Everest.. NOT
dur dur ce nouveau sport It's a tough sport
il faut bien planter les crampons pour eviter la chute
Got to really get those crampons (foot thingy) into the ice to avoid from falling
pour la descente, pas de probleme
Going down was no problem, just let go...

LA MONTEE AU REFUGE The climb to the next refuge
Il se fait tard, il faut monter au refuge avant la nuit Getting late and we got to reach before nightfalls
A 4800, pas question de courir...
At 4800, there are no questions for running or rushing.. all has to be taken at a slow pace... breathe, taking as much air and suck in whatever oxygen that is available at that altitude
Il y a encore un chemin, ca ne durera pas...
still a long way to go....
On attaque les rochers, ca devient de plus en plus difficile Start to climb rubbles and rocks which is very tiring and gets difficult...
Flo n'ose plus leve la tete
Can't even lift my head up no more.... my shoulders don't hold upright, so tired that I am slouching...
Yoyo au bord du precipice!!! Yoyo resting....
Enfin, le sourire revient a la vue du refuge
Finally a little weak smile at the sight of the refuge!

LE REFUGE THE REFUGE
Refuge ou nous nous reposerons qqes heures
The Refuge where we slept and rested for the "night"
Temperature exterieure a 17h00, -5 degres C
Temp by 5pm
Un vrai plaisir d'aller aux toilettes...
A real pleasure to go to the toilet.. YIKES..... outdoor, no rooftop... most times you can feel the slight wind blowing. Got to be careful where you place your footing cos it's just a hole...

Rien de tel qu'un bon chocolat chaud
HOT DRINKS.. to keep warm. AAAAAHHHHHHH

La chambre!!! Qu'il fait froid (pas loin de 0 degres dans la nuit! Les pieds sont geles) That's our room. Shared it with other climbers. It was STILL COLD.. FREEZING... not far from 0 degrees C. Our feet were like ICE. Couldn't seem to get them warm. BBBBRRRRR...
Vue depuis le refuge
Fantastic view from the refuge. Beautiful... so sigh.......

CE qui m'attend le lendemain
Waiting to be climbed in the early morning...
On apercoit le sommet The submit awaiting
A demain... See you tomorrow

LE SOMMET The CLIMB
Notre ennemi...The enemy (you can see their footprints on the snow... )
En pleine forme a 4h du mat...attendant un eclairci, en vain In tip top shape at 4am.. waiting for the weather to ger better...
Derniere photo au point le plus haut 5700m avant la descente Last photo shot at my highest point 5700m, before heading back down....

LE RETOUR THE RETURN
Le calvaire du retour...on ne voit jamais la fin Couldn't see the end of it...

On n'a pas dit notre dernier mot

The attempt to climb went pretty well. Due to bad weather, Johan unfortunately couldn't make it to the submit. I didn't even try to do it cos I knew I wouldn't and couldn't make it. (We did a little test the day before at 5300m. Took a day trip to a mountain top and the van dropped us off at 5200. We walked up to the refuge at 5300m. IT wasn't too bad. Then from the refuge there was another little slope.. only 100m more to climb up till the submit but unfortunately I was so OUT of breath.. I couldn't make it to the top. After 25 steps, I was totally out of air.. could feel my chest constricting... when I look around, it seems to be spinning.. I went only halfway, 50m and waited halfway till the rest of the people climb back down. The funy thing is when I stop walking, just sitting down, I had NO problem.. It was just when I do an effort. Wierd feeling. You feel ok but then not at the same time. So that was our little test and Johan made it up the 100m more with no problem.No altitude sickness, no earache. That made us decided that I will only go up till so high and no more... )So paid a little less and stayed in the refuge waiting for my hubby to return. I was worried at one point cos when I went out to see their little headlights... it was windy and seems like a snow storm coming. I woke up at midnight with the rest of the climbers and their guides. Took "breakfast" with them and sent Johan off into the dark night... it was already snowing then at 1am when they left... I stayed up with the guardian in the refuge, a little warmer than outside with a hot cup of tea in my hands.. trying to keep them warm. After a couple of hours, I went back to my sleeping bag and tried to sleep which I couldn't and so I stayed up reading under the covers. In my cacoon. I managed to get some shut eyes and was awaken by a climber who returned by 6am.. I thought it was Johan and peeped out of my sleeping bag to see.. aaaahhh, not him. Then not long after another two returned.. Then I got myself all dress and covered up again and went down to go to the toilet and relieve myself and also to see if I could see Johan in the mountain somewhere. But I couldn't.. returned back to my sleeping bag and by 6.30am I heard Johan's voice and was glad he had returned safe and sound.. all in one piece and alive.. Still in shape.. so that is a good sign since he wasn't feeling well the day before. He had a very bad headache due to fatigue, altitude and not enough energy possibly since what we were doing is supposedly to be a 3 days and 2 nights trekking. We did it in 2 days and a night. The pricing is slightly cheaper for 2 days. Although none of us made it to the top of the top submit.... We were pretty happy to do this little trip. Although very tiring and so much effort was given, I think it was worth the effort. The view, the ice climbing experience was great.... We had "FUN"... if you can call torture fun.. heheheh...

Potosi town: hotspring and mines at 4000m high

2008-03-15T13:19:00.000-07:00

Potosi, une ville sortie de nulle part dominée par cette montagne (Cierro Rico) qui a fait toute l’histoire de cette petite ville coloniale. Most of this little colonial village's history is based on this mountain (Cierro Rico).

Le Cierro Rico qui surplomble la ville

La route s’asphalte que 10 minutes avant de rentrer dans la ville. Nous sommes surpris d’arriver. Nous nous attendions a autres choses ! CA grouille de monde, il fait gris, la pluie menace…Pour rejoindre le centre, il nous faut se taper une pente de 200metres super raides avec les gros sacs, et le tout a plus de 4000m d’altitude ! Gros coup de chaud !

We had tar road just 10 mins before entering the village. We were pretty surprised to see what was in store for us in this little town. We didn't expect what we saw. From where we were dropped off by bus, we had to walk about 200mtr UPHILL at 4000m in altitude. Quite an exercise.. huffing and puffing. Well at least it kept us warm for the moment since it's cold, grey and drizzling.

On s’installe dans un petit hôtel sympa et on part a la découverte de la ville ! Encore une surprise de découvrir tous cette architecture coloniale, ces rues piétonnes. Le centre ville est très agréable et assez beau (contraste avec le bas de la ville ou nous sommes arrivées). We managed to find a hotel not too far from the center or from the bus station. We visited the center and another different world from where we were dropped off. There were colonial architectures, churches, plazas and paved padestrian streets. It was a nice surprise.

Facade Eglise

Rue du centre de Potosi

Casa de la Moneda, lieu ou on creait la monnaie

Theatre

Place principale

Nous souhaitions visiter les fameuses mines de Potosi mais on nous apprend que le Dimanche, il n’y a pas de mineurs dans les mines alors on décide d’attendre un jour de plus. A la place, nous visitons les marches locaux. We were hoping to visit the famous mines of Potosi but we were told that there were no miners working on Sundays so we waited another day before visiting the mine. Then we visit the local market instead.

POTOSI, capitale des feuilles de Coca

It is the capital of Coca Leaves

Boucherie sur le marche, juste a cote de la ou on prend notre petit dej! The meat section of the market just next to where we were taking our breakfast. Hmmm, how appetizing..

Petit dej sur le marche de Potosi Taking our breakfast

Traduction de ce signe sur le marche ou on prend notre petit dej: "Eviter que les mouches, les cafards et autres insectes entrent en contact avec les aliments" BON APPETIT les amis Here is an interesting sign above where they were serving breakfast/teatime.. "The alimentaion needs to be protected from any contact with the flies, cocroaches and other insects" hmmmm... enjoy your meal.

Le dimanche, nous partons a la recherche des sources d’eau chaude.
On Sunday we went to visit a natural Hot Spring.

Entre averses et soleil, on ne trouve que des « piscines » privées couvertes qui utilisent les sources ! Il nous faut faire une petite marche de 45min pour enfin trouver la lagune !

In between showers of rain and sun, we found some private "swimming pools" that uses the hot water from the hot srpings. It took us a good 45 mins before actually finding the lagoon!!! We even walked in the wrong direction totally opposite.

Elle n’invite pas trop a la baignade (eau boueuse et il n’y a pas pied) surtout qu’il commence a tomber des gouttes ! Bon, on n’a pas fait 1h de route + 45min de marche pour rien, alors allons-y ! On est a plus de 4000m dans une eau a 30degres entourées de montagnes colorées…

The lagoon wasn't inviting to swim in (murky colour water, it is very deep as well) especially since the weather was turning bad, windy and rainy.. Well after an hour drive and 45mins of walk we decided ok, we'll enter. We are at 4000mtr and the water was at a good 30degrees celcius... surrounded by mountains.. It was nice to be in the water when it is cold.

Le plus dur, c’est de se mettre en maillot car il doit faire 5degres et il ne faut surtout pas penser a la sortie ! The hardest part was the get into our swim wear and before entering the lagoon cos it is 5degrees outside.. it was also hard to get out of the water...
Bon on se met a l’eau et nous le regrettons pas. Le soleil se joint a nous et nous passerons une bonne heure a se relaxer dans cette eau pleine de vertus (soi disant). On apprendra par la suite que la profondeur de la lagune reste inconnu car c’est en fait un volcan, et que la baignade est dangereuse due aux siphons !

So we went into the lagoon and we didn't regret it. The sun started shining again and the clouds went away.. we spent a good hour relaxing in the hotspring with lots of natural vitamins. We later found out no one knew the exact depth of this lagoon cos it is an actual volcano and apparently dangerous cos of whirlpools that could occur.. hmmmmm.....
Par la même occasion, nous ferons la connaissance de 2 péruviennes d’Arequipa (Gabriella y Jenny) très sympas avec qui nous passerons la fin de la journée ! During this little visit we met 2 lovely (single and available.... hehehehhe) ladies from Peru, Arequipa and spent our day chatting with them. Us in the lagoon and them freezing outside.. hehehe

Enfin, nous nous sommes baignes dans de l’eau chaude, ca faisait longtemps ! Finally we soaked ourselves in nice warm/hot water... It was SSSSSSOOOOOO good.. it has been TOO LONG.

LES MINES ! The MINE

Lundi matin, on part chercher du boulot a la mine a quelques minutes de Potosi ! Avant de rejoindre la mine, on s’arrête au marche des mineurs ou on peut acheter feuilles de coca, alcool (pour nourrir la terre mère : Pachamama) et de la dynamite en vente libre (pour moins d’1€). On achète quelques cadeaux pour offrir aux mineurs que nous rencontrerons !

Monday morning we went find work for us at the mines, few minutes away from Potosi. Before going into the mine, we stopped to do some essential 'shopping' at the market where we can buy coca leaves, alcohol and dynamite (sold freely). We bought some drinks and coca leaves as gifts for the miners that we meet in the mines.

Ensuite on met l’équipement du mineur. After our little market trip, we went to get our equipment.

Avant de pénétrer dans les mines, on fait un stop pour la vue ou l’on apprend que depuis la découverte de Potosi et de sa montagne par les espagnols, la montagne a perdu 300m de hauteur a cause de sa surexploitation (de 5100 a 4800m) !!! Before the entrance, we stropped for a view and were informed that since the Spanish exploited the mines, the mountain used to be at 5100m and now lost 300m and is at 4800m in altitude.

Cette montagne est un vrai gruyère suisse, plein de trous, qui menace de s’effondrer a tout moment! This mountain seems like a Swiss Cheese with lots of holes in it and can collapse at any moment.
Avant de rentrer, on s’arrête a nouveau pour un point de vue sur la ville et c’est parti !

Mines d'argent et de Zinc 4262m d'altitude Zinc Mine at 4262m in altitude

Apres les premiers mètres, les claustros font demi-tour. Il fait de plus en plus noir et les passages deviennent de plus en plus étroits ! Il faut se mettre a 4 pattes ! Les tunnels sont plein de rafistolage, on se demande comment cela tient encore. After the first few metres, a clautrophobic turned around and went out of the mine. It became darker and darker and smaller. Somepoints we're on all 4s to walk into through the tunnels.

Alors qu’on rampe, on entend une énorme explosion ! AIE, ce n’est pas de la fausse dynamite qui vende au marche ! et ce n’est pas des faux mineurs ! As we were inside, we heard an explosion.. yikes, it is not false dynamite that they are selling at the market and it's all real miners in this place.
On rencontre quelques mineurs en chemin tout timides qui nous attendent pour obtenir leurs petits cadeaux (je trouve la méthode discutable). Met some miners along the way and we gave them the gifts we bought.

Le guide ne cesse de nous rappeler les conditions de travail déplorables, similaires a celles du 16eme siècle. Apres avoir passe 1h30 a ramper et escalader dans cette mine, nous revoyons le jour ou la on a le droit a un cours d’économie politique (privatisation des mines, exportations des minéraux, salaire des mineurs, etc…). C’est un cours très intéressant qui permet de comprendre mieux le pays, ses richesses et ses problèmes…Je vous dispense de ce cours mais pour ceux que cela intéresse, nous pouvons en parler un peu plus, etc…

Our guide is always reminding us of the miserable conditions the workers are in and how they are not treated well. So she explained along the way as we climb up and down, in and out of tunnels... Finally after 1h30mins in the mine, we went to see the other processes of the rocks... where the rocks were transported next, the woman who works there to crush rocks to see if there are any zinc or other worthwhile minerals in it.

Enfant de mineur dans les debris de la mine

Voila, on quitte Potosi, la ville minière par le bus de nuit pour rejoindre La Paz (11h de bus).

There you go... so after our little mine village we left Potosi to go to La Paz (11h bus ride)

Le desert de sel de Uyuni (Sud de la Bolivie) Salt Desert

2008-03-14T10:17:00.000-07:00

Nous voila de retour en Bolivie! Le choc des frontieres est saisissant ! 50m apres la sortie d’Argentine, nous nous retrouvons en pleine Bolivie. Les vendeurs ambulants, la bouffe bizarre (plein de graines style popcorn mais en moins bon), vetements typiques, boutiques d’artisanat, gens moins sympathiques et moins patients et l’heure qui recule de 2h.

So here we are sad to leave Argentina and returning back into Bolivia. It was such a shocking change from just being at the both borders. The amount of of hawkers selling food, ice cream in the streets. More people wearing their typical and traditional clothes, the people as well are different(less friendly, impatient.. almost as if they were rude but it is just how they are)and 2 hours in advance before Argentina.

Apres 3h d’attente a la gare, nous montons dans le train ! After 3 hours of waiting, we hop onto the train.

Nous n’avons pu obtenir que des places dans les wagons populaires ! On s’attend au pire mais en entrant dans le train on se dit que finalement ce n’est pas si mal avant de voir nos sieges ! Ce qu’on pensait etre pour 2 etait en fait pour 3 personnes ! Les premieres heures se pssent bien, peu de monde dans le train et des paysages extraordinaires : des montagnes de toutes les couleurs, des cactus a perte de vue, une riviere rouge qui coule au milieu de tout ca et le train qui zig zag entre les montagnes, passe dans des tunnels, etc…

IT was quite busy but we managed to get 2 seats on the train (in the popular wagon - the cheapest) Since it was meant to be the most economical we were waiting for the worst. Thinking it will be full and tons of locals with wierd things with them and certain smell. As we went into the wagon we thought ahhhh, it is not to bad after all. There is space for 2. AHHH.. we were fooled... it was a space for 3 and our seats was like for a person and a half. Got to squeezed. Well, the first few hours went pretty well actually cos there were only a few people on board and therefore we had other seats available and could stretch out and enjoy our space for a few hours.. The landscape were very beautiful, passing through the mountains of all colours, cactus plant everywhere, the rivers and going through tunnels...

Par contre lors d’un arret, le train se remplit soudainement et nous voila dans une boite a sardine..Il nous reste 7h de train, il fait nuit et il commence a faire froid vu qu’on est a plus de 3000m d’altitude

After a nice tranquil spacious ride, the train stopped and suddenly the train was fill up!! Like sardines in a tin can, we had to go back to our seat. We still have 7 more hours of travelling. Night was falling and it was getting cold since we were at 3000m in altitude.

A 2h du matin, on arrive dans la petite ville d’Uyuni par un froid glacial ! Les premiers hotels sont soient trop chers, soient complets, il nous faudra 30min avant de trouver 2 lits dans un grand dortoir ! 3h du matin, nous nous endormons avec tous nos vetements !
2 am we finally arrived in a little village, UYUNI. Cold and tired from the sardine ride. We had to look for a hostel and a room to sleep in. The first few were too pricey and out of the budget, the others around were FULL (on top of other tourist and people from the train searching as well) After 30 mins of walking around and asking we finally found 2 beds in a dormitary room. By 3am, we finally crept into our cold bed with our cloths on.

Briques de sel pour construire les hotels touristiques Brick made of Salt for building, the hotel... WE tasted it and it was REALLY salty

Le lendemain matin, nous avons rendez vous avec Yann le suisse et Ignacio l’argentin pour negocier les prix d’un tour dans le desert de sel ! Apres 1h de shopping, nous voila embarquer dans un 4x4 ! 30min apres, nous arrivons a l’entree du desert dans un tout petit village ou il y a un hotel, quelques maisons et des sculptures de sel…
Next morning, a beautiful sunny day...we met up with people who were on the train, Yan from Switzerland and Ignacio from Argentina, to negotiate a better price to visit the salt desert. After an hour of looking for the best price we went on a 4x4 jeep and went on our tour. 30mins, we arrived in the salt desert village where there was a hotel where you can stay in, sculptures and a house made of salt.. pure salt!!

Exemple d'une maison de sel House made from Salt

Une des nombreuses sculpture de sel One of the few Sculpture

Le resto dans l'hotel de sel Tables and chairs made of salt (the restaurant in the hotel)

Flo sur un lit de sel Me on a bed of salt (pretty comfortable)
Puis nous entrons dans le desert, la MAGIE commence. On a l’impression d’etre sur la banquise en plein Antarctique: de l’eau d’un bleu limpide ou se reflete nuages et montagnes puis du blanc et encore du blanc qui ressemble a de la glace ! On a beau etre prepare a ce spectacle, cela reste un instant memorable.
Then continued in the jeep for a few more minutes and the MAGICAL moment unfolds... We arrived at the wide area space of just PLAIN WHITE... where it looks like ICE and snow.. The water around blue as the sky as it refelcts the colours of the sky, it reflects the mountains and clouds... just like a mirror. We felt as if we were in Antartica (although we never been there but....) WOW... Spectacular.. It is so beautiful, seen nothing like it.. that it stays implanted in our memory.

Le desert de sel est un phenomene naturel qui s'est produit il y a des millions d'annees. Suite aux mouvements des 2 plaques terrestres (atlantique et pacifique), la mer serait reste coincee entre des volcans et se serait petit a petit transformee en desert de sel. Ce desert grandi chaque annee en epaisseur et en largeur. Les pluies tombent sur les volcans alentours qui sont eux memes charges de sel, l'eau ruisselle jusqu'au desert et se transforme en sel.
corals in the sea??

This desert of Salt is a natural phenomena which has been reproducing and increasing in size after millions and millions of years. I am not too sure of how it happened.. but I will try to translate what Johan has explained above. Apparently, the movement of 2 plates in the earth (the Atlantic and Pacific) has made the sea stucked in between the volcanoes which then slowly transformed itself into this Desert of Salt. Each year, it increases in depth and width. The rain falls and the water from the mountains also carries some salt and other minerals which forms around the desert will eventually dries up and adds onto the quantity of the salt desert.

Le 4x4 se lance sur le sel, c’est blanc de partout avec les montagnes tout autour.
Nous avons eu de la chance car nous sommes arrives a la fin des grosses pluies. Nous avons donc pu profiter de paysages magnifiques ou sel et eau se melangeait (en saison des pluies, il est impossibe d'entrer dans le desert, trop d'eau; et en saison seche, tout est blanc).

En sechant, le sel forme des hexagones When it starts to dry up, there is a hexagon formation. somehow it just dries up like that.

We were fortunate cos it is the end of the big rainy season so we could see the best of both wet and dry season. Apparently when it is the big rainy season, the desert is covered with water all around and no one will be able to walk out on the desert of salt (too much water) The landscape is different cos with the water it will have like a mirror reflection of the sky. Which we saw some parts of our visit. Then during the dry season, everything is WHITE.... ALLL BRIGHT and WHITE.... just like in some of our photos... incredibly beautiful.

On s’arrete a un autre hotel de sel en plein milieu du desert. De la, on se sent seul au monde, il n’y a plus de bruit, plus de vie, ni humaine, ni animale, seulement nous qui marchons sur le sel !

We went to another hotel in the middle of the desert. WOW.. here.. you are just walking right in the middle and all you can see is WHITE... salt. No living things... no trees, no animals.. not even a bird .... just us... SILENCE...

Au retour, on s’arrete voir les pyramides de sel. Elles sont realisees par les hommes afin de le faire secher avant de le charger dans les camions en direction de l’usine de transformation pour en faire du sel de table pour les marches sud americains.

Then when we return back , we stopped to see the salt pyramid. Made with human hands of course. It is done after they work to dry up the salt and gather them together before loading them onto the truck to be taken to a factory where it will be transformed and cleaned... well whatever that is they do before selling it.
Le transport du sel

Derniere etape, on fait un stop au cimetiere des trains…pas tres glorieux…ce sont tous les vieux trains qui servaient pour le transport des mineraux !

Last stage of our visit was to the railway graveyard. Not very pretty site and such a dump. It´s just old trains that they used sometime ago to trasport all the minerals. It is sad to see so much wasted iron and steel. Maybe they will use to recycle more of the steel.
Forme originale de recycler la feraille des trains Well here is one way to recyle the wasted steel... interesting.

Voila, malheureusement c’est deja fini ! On aurait bien fait le circuit de 3jours avec la visite des lagunes colorees (vertes, rouges) infestees de flamands roses avec la baignade dans les sources d’eau chaude mais c’etait beaucoup trop honereux pour nous !

So that was our short one day visit to the salt desert, the village, the hotels made of salt and the train graveyard. We could have visited more and did a 3 days visit and stopping at other villages, and visiting other lakes where it is FULL of Flamingo birds and a hot spring but it would have been too much and too long of a ride for us... so as you can see we did it only a day. However it was still a beautiful day.

Apres cette journee de plein air, nous sommes bien creves et nous avons une faim de loup. On decide de multiplie les petits repas dans differents endroits, d’abord, des patates sautees avec de la viande et du mais, puis un cafe avec des « beignets ».

After our little visit, we were ssssssooooooooo HUNGRY, we decided to have our meals in various places.... .

Petit resto de rue Our first stop was this little shop by the roadside, flied sliced merinated meat (pork) with corn kennels and potatoes.

Le dessert Followed by a little stop for coffee and some sort of dessert... hmmmmm, like curry puff pastry but BIGGER and nothing in it... just the fried pastry with sugar coating. YUMMY...

C'est la ou on a pris le dessert That where we took dessert.. YES.. in the middle of the road.

La nuit tombante, on retournera dans notre grand dortoir se mettre au chaud sous les couvertures de lama en attendant notre bus du lendemain pour Potosi. As night falls, the weather gets colder and the wind starts blowing.... we were tired as well from the visit and sun. We had such a lovely weather. We went back to our big dormitory room where it was just for us... there were 8 beds in the dorm. Went under our covers made of llama and try to keep ourselves warm. Slept and got ready for the bus next day to go to Potosi.

Boire un petit coup c'est agreable....

2008-03-03T13:36:00.000-08:00

Nous nous sommes rendus a Cafayate, a 3h de route de Salta pour 3 choses:

1. Pour aller sauter a l'elastique (c'etait sur le chemin)

2. Pour admirer de fabuleux paysages...roches taillees par l'erosion qui produit des formes magiques (photos a venir)

3. Pour boire un petit coup! Avec Flo, nous avons loue des velos (Flo est une pro maintenant) sans vitesse (heureusement, c'etait assez plat) pour faire le tour des bodegas ( producteurs de vins) ou il ya a visite et surtout DEGUSTATION GRATUITE! Heureusement, nous avons commence un peu tard et nous en avons viste QUE 3! Le vin est rres bon! Flo arrive a la troisieme a bandonne, elle etait devenu ROUGE TOMATE...
On a bien rigole pour le retour en velo, surtout que j'avais le pneu avant creve!

Une journee en famille a Salta...

2008-03-02T17:23:00.001-08:00

Tout commence un Lundi dans le bus Cordoba-Salta, nous discutons avec une autre touriste israelienne quand une jeune argentinienne , Lucianna, assise pres de nous entre dans la conversation et nous parle de sa vie, de sa region, de son pays, puis son fils s'en mele aussi et nous raconte que son reve est de vivre au Japon avec les Samourais (il etait tres impressionne par les yeux de Flo) puis nous questionne sur les dessins animes...

Elle nous donne son no de tel pour qu'on l'appelle si on a besoin de quelque chose durant notre sejour a Salta, puis nous offre de partager avec sa famille le traditionnel ASADO (BBQ) du dimanche apres-midi!!!

Flo en revait, un vrai BBQ authentique, alors nous nous sommes occupes pour rester jusqu'au Dimanche pour gouter a cet ASADO si repute en Argentine...

Apres 45min de bus, nous arrivons dans la banlieue de Salta ou Lucianna, Xavi et Geronimo (et la chienne) vivent tranquillement dans une petite maison avec un tres grand jardin...

Xavi avait commence a preparer le BBQ et deja les odeurs nous chatouillaient le nez...

En apero, c'est boudin froid avec vin rouge

Puis a 15h, on attaque la viande! C'est tres simple, pas de choses compliquees, de la viande au BBQ, des tomates, des carottes rapees et des patates a l'eau sur un plat en bois mais c'est tres goutu...

Enfin Flo peut apprecier cette viande tant attendue (je ne vous cache pas que mpoi aussi, j'attendais cet instant bien que petit mangeur de viande)

LE MATE
L'asado et le mate font partie integrante de la culture argentine. L'argentin ne peut pas vivre sans ces 2 ingredients!
L'asado, vous savez ce que sait, mais le Mate, qu'est-ce donc? Le mot mate en Amerique du Sud veut dire The ou infusion mais en Argentine, c'est un peu different!
A Cusco, nous avions deja remarque que TOUS les argentins voyageaient avec un thermo et une tasse particuliere!
En arrivantdans le Nord Ouest (region productrice de l'herbe mate), nous fumes vraiment choques de voir que quasiment tout le monde dans les rues se deplacaient avec son thermo dans une main et le mate dans l'autre! Parfois, le bebe dans un bras, le thermo et le mate dans l'autre...
En fait, le mate c'est une herbe. On la met dans cette tasse speciale (il en existe de toute sorte, de toute forme, detout materiel...on en a meme vue fait avec des cornes de vaches et d'autres dans des pieds de cochons) puis on verse de l'eau chaude par dessus. Certains rajoutent du sucre. Puis avec un pipe/paille, on aspire ce melange qui a un gout tres fort entre le the et le tabac (pour moi). Maintenant, il existe differents gouts et saveurs! C'est une tradition qui provient des indiens GUARANI (jungle du Nord Ouest de l'Argentine). Il utilisait ces herbes pour endormir la soif, la faim et la fatigue comme dans les Andes on utilise les feuilles de coca! Le missionnaires jesuites en ont transformes quelque peu la maniere de la consommer et c'est depuis devenu une INSTITUTION en Argentine ( mais aussi en Uruguay et au Paraguay)! Des l'age de 3 ans, ils en consomment deja!!! Selon eux, cela aide a digerer, a ne pas sentir ni la faim, ni la fatigue...Beaucoup ne dejeune que ca le matin!!!

Puis apres cela, nous sommes partis faire une petite partie de foot en compagnie de leur fils et d'un de ses copains pour digerer ce bon repas...

GRACIAS A XAVIER, LUCIANA Y GERONIMO PARA COMPARTIR ESTE DIA CON ELLOS Y HACERNOS PROBAR UN VERDAD ASADO ARGENTINO...

En remontant vers la Bolivie

2008-02-27T17:46:00.000-08:00

Comme vous le savez, les visas de Flo nous embetent un peu alors comme les 30jours autorises par l'Argentine touchent a leur fin, nous devons remonter le pays...

De Bariloche en Patagonie, nous nous rendons a Cordoba au Nord de Buenos Aires, un nouveau trajet de 20h dans un bus convenable qui a passer pas moins de 7 films...

Flo s'habitue aux nuits dans le bus

De la fraicheur de la Patagonie, on passe a la fournaise de Cordoba (35 degres)...alors on decide de s'eloigner de la ville pour se rendre dans les environs (Cuesta Blanca) selon les argentins ( 2h pour les argentins represente 30min pour nous), belle riviere au mileiu des montagnes. Malheureusement, le temps se couvrira a notre arrivee...L'eau est GELEE (18degres) mais vu qu'on se fait 4h de bus A/R, nous decidons de nous mettre a l'eau( on n'a pas fait les malins!)...Au retour, nous nous rechaufferons avec une bonne glace (notre favori) et une pizza

DE Cordoba, nous reprenons un bus de nuit pour se rendre a Salta, c'est la derniere ville "europeenne" au Nord avant les Andes!

Petit lac au milieu de la ville de Salta ou l'on peut louer un pedalo mais vaut mieux eviter de tomber a l'eau (c'est bien marron!)

Malheureusement a Salta, l'ete, il pleut 4jours/5!!! mais nous en profiterons pour danser une derniere fois le Tango, visiter la ville, faire un peu de sport et surtout se rendre a Cafayate (a 2h de route) en passant par la fameuse route ou les montagnes ressemblent a des monstres!

Salta, c'est le debut de la region a Cactus et dans cette galerie commerciale, il y a une expo de ses oeuvres (a vendre)...Belle deco, non?

Eglise etonnante par ses couleurs (rouge et jaune) et son architecture...Ca ressmeble plus a un theatre qu'un lieu de culte, a Salta...

A Salta, comme dans bien d'autres endroits en Argentine (excepte Buenos Aires), il vaut mieux se mettre a la sieste...

Salta c'est aussi le folklore du Nord-Est ou les gauchos (cow-boys argentins) font la loi avec leurs chevaux

mais Salta c'est aussi le debut des Andes! Pour la premiere fois en Argentine, nous voyons les vendeurs de rue, chose assez inhabituelle en Argentine. Cela nous rappelle que la Bolivie n'est plus qu'a quelques heures...

TRANSPORT DE LUXE en ARGENTINE

2008-02-26T16:40:00.001-08:00

Chers amis, si vous voyagez en Argentine, nous vous recommendons vivement de voyager en BUS! Meme si les distances sont ENORMES, c'est aussi bien, voire mieux que l'avion!

Je vais vous decrire notre trajet BUENOS-AIRES-BARILOCHE en Patagonie! Au depart, nous n'etions pas tres heureux de s'embarquer pour un nouveau parcours de 20h de bus mais des que nous avons mis les pieds dans le bus, nous nous sommes consoles!

Les sieges super larges (l'equivalent d'une 1ere classe en avion) puis, a notre place nous attendait une belle couverture bien douce avec un oreiller tout moelleux! Ca commencait bien...On s'insalle confortablement et le film commence... nous verrons un excellent film bresilien...(parfois c'est ecran plat dans les bus. Il y a environ un ecran pour 4/6 passagers)

Puis, le stewart nous pose un plateau sur les jambes! C'est l'heure du diner! Miam, c tres bon! A la resa, il m'avait demande quel repas je voulais, j'avais demande vegetarien et mon souhait fut excauce de tres belle maniere! Avec ca, le repas fut accompagne d'un verre de vin...
Apres le repas (vers les 22h00), le stewart oblige tout le monde a ferme les rideaux la nuit!
Nous passerons notre MEILLEUR NUIT dans le bus...AU petit matin, cafe-croissant puis encore un bon repas a l'heure du dejeuner accompagne de bons films!

Entre-temps, nous ferons une pause ou tout le monde descendra du bus! Le bus revient 15min apres tout propre, tout lave!

Nous arriverons en Patagonie presque frais sans avoir vu le temps passe!
Ca change des transports peruviens et boliviens!

Bon, ce n'est pas tout le temps comme ca, mais en general, on voyage bien en Argentine (surtout dans le Sud) ...

LA PATAGONIE...

2008-02-26T15:53:00.000-08:00

La Patagonie, situee au Sud de l'Argentine est une region immense tres peu peuplee et dotee d'une nature et de paysages somptueux...
The Pantagonia is situated in South of Argentina. A huge region but not populated and is rich in nature and beautiful landscapes.
Janvier-Fevrier correspond a l'ete en Patagonie donc beneficions d'un beau ciel bleu et de journee hyper longue! Le soleil ne se couche que vers 22h! Nous ne dinions pas avant 23h, reveil a 11h et on attque nos journee a 14h sans soucis...
January- February is the summer in Pantagonia so we benefit the blue sky and the super long daylight. The sun sets only by 11pm and we have our dinner only after 11pm, wake up by 11am.. take our time and have breakfast at noon and then go out and enjoy the day by 2pm..
Ci dessous, quelques paysages de la region des lacs de Bariloche (frontiere avec le Chili) avec une belle photo de Flo qui en a marre de marcher pour de simples vues (elle me repete souvent: pourquoi on marche, on a deja vu ca et puis il y a les memes vues en France...en fait le grand air nous fatiguait pas mal...ca faisait longtemps qu'on avait pas fait des activites physiques...)
Below are photos of the region, Bariloche (frontier with Chile).. lakes and mountains where we walked for hours. There is a photo of me where I am really tired..

LA Patagonie, c'est un endroit ideal pour se reposer et respirer de l'air pur

Flo se montre courageuse et plonge dans ce lac a 22/23degres alors que moi, j'opte pour la bronzette en attendant de reprendre les velos...

La Patagonie, c'est des forets de pins geants mais aussi de belles forets de bambou...

Bariloche est surnommee la "Petite Suisse" par son architecture

et pour son chocolat...( nous nous sommes bien laches avec Flo. Pates toute la journee mais tous les jours chocolats)

Le Sud, c'est aussi des rencontres sympas comme ses jeunes soeurs jouant de la guitare au bord du Lac ou Tika et Marcela, les jeunes proprietaires de l'auberge dans laquelle on restait...nous pensions passer 2 nuits, on en a passer 4! Hostal San Antonio resteun excellent souvenir..proprete impeccable, super ambiance, super renseignements touristiques et bon marche. Dynamisme, honnetete, intelligence, gentillesse sont quelques adjectifs pour qualifies ce jeune couple tres sympathique...

A Bariloche, le bois est un ART de vivre et quelques artistes font des choses assez remarquables

Pour visiter la Patagonie, il faut beaucoup de temps (car distance enorme) et pas mal d'argent (tout etant plus cher que dans le Nord), nous aurions aime passer plus de temps dans cette belle region...ce sera pur une prochaine fois...Nous reprenons la direction du Nord (en route pour la Bolivie) car le visa de Flo arrive a son terme et notre porte monnaie devient de plus en plus leger!

LE GRAND SAUT en live

2008-02-26T15:15:00.000-08:00

Il etait une fois au bord d'un lac dans le nord de l'Argentine, un pont avec un fil suspendu...ca avait l'air drole...alors Flo et moi avons decide d'essayer

RESULTAT: un fros flip avant de sauter mais l'elastique vous tirant vers le bas, vous ne pouvez plus rigoler!
La tronche sous l'eau apres un saut de 30m vous remplit les cellules grises d'eau!
Le lendemain, des courbatures "inexpliquees" a ne plus pouvoir bouger

Voila l'histoire d'une poussée d'adrenaline pour les jeunes maries en quete de sensations et d'aventures...

We were just visiting an artificial lake 80km from Salta. North of Argentina where the bus dropped us off near the bridge where we saw suspended ropes and we thought... hmmmmm, that would be interesting. So we thought hey why not do that... The price was reasonable compared to what we would have paid if we did it in France. It was not too high (30mtrs max)as well, plus we are still young to do this. We decided WHY NOT... cos it seems that fear of doing something crazy like this increases as we grow older.

So we got geared up and had to be weighed, I guess to adjust the ropes. Johan went first. Then me.... unfortunately if you look in the little film we took... I did not get to reach the water. I was a little dissapointed. When I jumped, I was expecting to reach the water.. but I didnt cos Johan went head in! Although when I joined him after he said it was better not to touch the water cos the water enters the nose and then gives you almost like a brain freeze... He talked funny after cos of the water in his nose. Sounds as if he has the flu. I was still sad I didnt touch the water cos I really wanted to. According to Johan perhaps I was too light. MAYBE... not too sure.

It was a good experience but I wont do it again... the next day, my muscles were sprained and aching in my abs and neck due to the jump. I must have tensed my muscles and with the shock and all the body chemicals happening in me... the next day it seemed as if I did like 100 sit ups.

It was a really quick sensation that I cant even remember how it feels like. The only moment that was really sensational was JUST BEFORE the jump. You can feel the elastic band pulling at your feet. You see the water below.. the height. You look at the rest of the people. You let go off the railings, you feel the ropes getting heavier below, you lift your hands up... NOW that part was scary.. THEN YOU JUMP!!! You scream and it is over... hehhehehe...

I think you can feel more if you dont scream at all but it is pretty difficult to do. Although there was a girl who did that after us. We thought she fainted.. no sound at all. Scary. Finally she did say something like "I will difinitely not commit suicide"

So that was the BIG JUMP!!