Jour 5/Day 5 Premier tremblement de terre/First earthquake

Alors que nous faisons tranquillement la vaisselle du petit dej, nous entendons et voyons le toit tremblé. Je pense a un camion qui passe dans la rue voisine mais maintenant la terre tremble et ca dure 30secondes....Je rentre me mettre a l'abri au cas ou les secousses continuent et voila c'est fini!

So we were washing the dishes, talking and then suddenly we heard a noise which actually seemed like a lorry has passed by but louder and we saw the roof shaking. We just thought it´s a lorry.. Johan and I looked at each other.. and then decided hmmmm, maybe we should go into the house.. which we did... The sound didn´t scare us that much.. it was the roof shaking that scared us.. As we enter the house, it stopped.. that lasted for about 30 seconds..

Seulement 3 jours apres notre arrivée, nous voila baptisé! Nous avons vécu le premier tremblement de terre de notre vie.
Only 3 days since we arrived and we lived our very first earthquake in our entire life.


Ici, les gens sont habitues et la vie ne s'est pas arrêtée pour si peu. Mieux vaut pleins de petites secousses de ce genre quún long silence de la terre qui annoncerait une grosse secousse!
Here everyone is used to it that everyone was doing their daily routine.. nothing stopped. They said it is better to have lots of little earth moving shaking business happening rather than a long silence and then BOOM.. a big earthquake... soooo..


Apres cela, nous sommes retournes a l'école pour commencer la peinture!
After that, we went back to the school to start with our painting mission.

Nous avons commencé par gratter les fenetres pour enlever le ciment...la peinture ne sera pas pour aujourd'hui car les touristes arrivent cet apres midi.... Well we started to scrap off whatever cement that was attached to the windows first before we could paint them.. once again, we won´t be able to paint because today the tourist will be arriving that afternoon.


PS: a la minute ou j'ecris, la France vient se faire eliminer par les anglais....quelle tristesse....
At the moment that I´m writing this.. i've learnt that French has been eliminated by the English in The Rugby WorldCup. How sad...

Jour 3, 4/Day 3,4. Le Marathon des premiers

Pour ceux qui n'ont pas tout suivi. Nous sommes a Nasca, au Perou (a 8h de bus au Sud de Lima la capitale en plein desert) pour faire quelques mois de volontariat. L'objectif etant d'ouvrir et de developper un centre de langues.... mais il y a quelques retard sur les dates et des imprevus....

Just to inform that we're now in Nazca, in Peru (8hrs south of the capital of Peru, Lima) to do a few months of volunteer work. The objective is to open and develop a center for Languages. We're a bit late and there are some surprises along the way....

Premier jour a Nazca, 1ere visite, 1er jus de fruit, 1er restaurant et 1eres courses !!!
1st day at Nasca, 1st visit, 1st fruit juice, 1st restaurant and 1st shopping !!

Les journées commencent tôt à Nazca, 5h30 et le soleil montre ses premiers rayons. A 6h00 les premiers marchands ambulants sortent le haut parleur pour vendre leurs fruits puis vient les coups de POUETTE POUETTE pour le pain ou encore la laitiere. C'est en fait tout le supermarche qui passe devant chez nous tous les matins. Enfin, a 7h30, nous émergeons, toujours encore un peu assommes par le décalage horaire, les heures de voyage et la nuit qui a ressemblé a un match de rugby a cause du sifflet du garde.
The days starts really early in Nasca, 5h30 the sun rays are already passing the horizon. 6h00 the street hawkers shouting and selling their fruits and whatever other things that they sell.. then the BEEP BEEP sound for the bread. 7h30 you’re awake with all that is happening around.


L'école




En route pour l'école The road to the school


A 9h00, nous sortons sous un grand ciel bleu, un beau soleil mais il fait encore un peu frais. Nous traversons une grande carrière de pierre, puis un bidonville. Nous découvrons l’école plantée la, au beau milieu d’une carrière de pierre et de poussière a 2 pas du cimetière!!! Le gros du boulot est fait, le toit en bambou et plumes de poulet est pose, les murs ont résiste au dernier tremblement de terre. Reste à finir les carrelages, mettre les portes, les fenêtres et surtout obtenir l’électricité promise depuis des mois par le Maire pour pouvoir inaugurer le centre de langues.
Dernier petit soucis, c’est qu’on n’a pas l’autorisation des ‘inspecteurs de l’éducation’ pour ouvrir comme Centre de langues et qu’il faudrait une année entière pour l’obtenir (car cela n’a encore jamais été fait ici dont la ville ne sait pas gérer ce dossier)!!! Au Pérou comme souvent dans de tels pays, il y a une loi mais il y a toujours moyen de la détourner. En fait, nous pourrions donner des cours sans s’appeler Centre de langues ! Le problème, c’est pour notre pub car elle avait été commence comme Centre de langues et qu’avec ce nouveau statut, nous devons faire profil bas !!!

La croix qui protege l'ecole Notre chambre









La cour interieure

Tout ca reporte donc l’ouverture officielle de l’école au 29octobre (ouf, encore quelques jours pour se préparer). 9h00 we are welcome with CLEAR BLUE sky, the sun is shining brightly but it is still a little fresh. We crossed a big piece of unlevel, rocky land(almost like a valley) and a village where quite a few of the houses are made of Bamboo/Rattan. Then just before arriving a cemmetry we reached the school where we would be teaching soon. The school is situated in between the rocky valley and the cemmetry. Well, the biggest construction is done for the school. The roof tops are made out of bamboo and a mixed of some mixture with chicken feathers… ( ???) , the walls that has survived the last earthquake (good news) They just have to finish placing the tiles, putting up the windows, the doors and most iportantly ELECTRICITY which have been promised by the mayor but it’s not been done.
That is the main obstruction for us to start the school at the moment…the official opening of the school is postponed to 29th October (phew, a few days for us to prepare

Et ca c'est l'emplacement de notre future maison This is where our future home would be

A 11h, nous descendons en ville avec un ‘taxi’ (ici, tout le monde fait taxi) et nous arrivons en centre ville ou il y a une sage agitation. On commence par gouter le fruit du cactus vendu par une péruvienne a la tenue vestimentaire caricaturale (longue robe très colore en laine, grand chapeau d’où sort une longue natte), on enchaine avec un excellent jus de fruit frais servi dans une carafe qu’on boit a la paille.
11h, we went to town with the taxi (here everyone who owns a car is a taxi) et we started with the tasting of the cactus fruit sold by a typical Peruvian (as you see in the photo of Day 1) followed by an excellent fruit juice served in a jug.



Puis, les choses sérieuses commencent, nous devons changer de l’argent. Direction la banque, mais pas dedans, on négocie son taux devant avec plusieurs individus qui se promène avec des dollars US. Apres 3 négociations, nous changeons notre argent dans la rue. Maintenant, nous pouvons faire nos commissions dans le Supermarché de la ville ! Le choix n’est pas large mais on trouve les denrées de bases. Nous continuons par le marché!!! Then to more serious matters, we had to change money. Towards the bank’s direction but not inside. We negotiate the exchange rates infront of the bank with a few money exchange people. After about 3 negotiations, we changed our money along the street. Now we can go Shopping. Not much choices but we find the basic necessities.





A voir et sentir la viande, je crois que je vais devenir vraiment VEGETARIEN au Perou...Qouique jái quelques soutes sur le Maïs aussi...
After smelling the meat, I thing I will become vegetarian in Peru.. but then again seeing the black Maiz

Nous rentrons à la maison en ‘taxi’ avant d’aller tester notre premier restaurant ! En fait, on va chez quelqu’un qui nous fait à manger. Même menu pour tout le monde. Tomates en entrée, soupe de pates avec une tranche de pain et un œuf au plat par-dessus qui fait couler le pain dans la soupe ! Puis vient la grande assiette de riz frit de couleur rouge-rose ou quelques carottes et petits pois se promènent et 2 petits bout de viande qui s’y perdent.
Le tout accompagné, soit par la boisson traditionnel « le Inca Kola » (boisson gazeuse jaune au gout de banane ou je ne sais quoi) soit par le vrai Coca cola ! Le tout pour 1€.
We returned home with the ‘taxi’ before having our first restaurant meal which is in fact in someone’s home.. Same menu for everyone. No choices there. Tomatoes as appetizers, followed by noodle soup with a slice of bread in it plus a fried sunny side up egg of top of it. That’s like a meal all by itself.. It’s not over yet… Then we had fried rice ( some vegies and a few pieces of meat. All that is accompanied with a drink, either Coca cola or Inka Kola (that’s like Kikapoo.. a yellowish gassy drink) Everything for about 1€/2.50BND. Not bad huh ?

De Retour a la maison pour le café Monaco (sorte de Nescafé) et notre premier cours d’espagnol ! A 16h00, nous partons à pied voir le Maire de Vista Allègre pour se présenter mais la Mairie semble fermée. Alors, nous découvrons la place du village, très belle, très verte en contraste avec les paysages désertiques environnants. Les lignes de Nazca y sont représentées en miniature et nous les découvrons pour la première fois. Nous voyons des gens rentres dans la Mairie, nous tentons notre chance, en vain, le Maire n’est pas la on réessayera demain. Nous retournons sur la place ou nous faisons les péruviens, c'est-à-dire, RIEN. On déguste un très bon riz au lait vendu par une charmante dame et nous prenons le chemin du retour ca l’air commence à se rafraichir.
We returned home for coffee and our first Spanish course. At 16h00 we went to see the Mayor of Vista Allegre to introduce ourselves but as we reached the Mairie it was closed so we went the litle park next to it. It is very nice and green a contrast with the desertique environment. It’s a park that is dedicated to a women who did research on the Lines of Nasca so there were pictures of the lines of nasca with its descriptions. Then, we saw some people entering the Mairie and we tried our luck again but to our disappointment he wasn’t there. So we went back to the park where there’s also a fountain and we had our little sweet dessert rice with milk sold by a very charming sweet lady. You can’t say no to her.. J Then we went back home as i twas getting cold when night falls.

Pour le jour 4, il etait prévu qu’on aille peindre les fenêtres de l’école (on y a été mais le Maestro, chef de chantier, n’était pas la, donc on a rien pu faire car nous n’avons pas trouve les outils) For Day 4, we are told that we will be painting the school windows and go back to see the Mayor. (When we went, the head for the construction work was not there.. so we couldn´t do anything as we didn´t know where the stuff were.



Donc nous avons eu une apres midi de libre. . Moi j'en profite pour lire au soleil dans notre belle cour! et l'autres vont sur le net a cote de chez nous
So we're free for the afternoon. So I decided to take advantage of the sun rays and read in the 'garden' and the others went to the internet next door

A 16h, il fallait coince le maire! Drole d'aventure! Ici, connaisse pas les RDV donc on se pointe et le Maire a une reunion avec tout le village. On attend plus d'une heure devant le portail mettant en place une strategie pour le bloquer a sa sortie. En attendant sa sortie, on met au point un plan dáttaque! On l'invitera a manger chez nous pour pouvoir enfin lui parler et essayer d'obtenir ce qu'on souhaite; a savoir l'electricité en priorité! IL sort, on fait bloc a 4 et on lémpeche de se faufiler. En nous voyant, il fait un sourire mais remet le nez dans ses papiers. Cet homme semble tres occupé et tres populaire MAIS ON A REUSSI, LUNDI il viendra manger et on sacrifiera une poule pour cette occas!!!!
At 4pm, we had to go and try to catch hold of the Mayor.. AGAIN.. It was a funny moment. Here they don´t go for pre-made appointment.. seems like that doesn´t exist. The Mayor is having a meeting with the villagers so we had to wait for about 1hr infront of the gate. Using this strategy to CATCH a moment with the Mayor... While waiting for him to leave the building, we stayed in position and as he exits.. we 'jumped' on him and invited him for lunch on Monday. It was difficult to get his attention as they are always lots of people around him asking him to sign papers and talking to him. He seemed really occupied and looking in his stack of papers. Eventually he saw us and smiled and finally got him to agree to have lunch with us on Monday. This lunch appointment is to try and talk 'business' with him and especially to try and get electricity for the school.



Pour notre premier weekend end, nous allons faire les guides car nous accueillons un groupe de touristes français avec lesquelles nous allons découvrir quelques sites aux alentours de Nazca dont une mine d’or. For our first weekend here, we will be going on a little trip as Marie Therese will be a tour guide for a group of tourist coming from France. So we’re tagging along to discover a few interesting sites that is around Nasca and the GOLD mine !

Jour 2 / Day 2 Le marathon des sables/ the Sand marathon

8h30, nous arrivons à la gare routière ! Nous rigolons un bon coup en commandant les billets lorsque j’épèle nos noms et prénoms. Je réalise que mon espagnol n’est pas aussi bon que je l’avais imagine ! Il y a du travail…
(8h30 We arrived at the bus station! We had a good laugh when we were making reservation and paying for our bus tickets cos we had to spell our names and give our passport number in Spanish! We realise Johan´s spanish isn´t as good as we have imagined. Of course I tried to help but I have a LOT to work on. There is still room for improvement :-P )


A 9h30, nous prenons la route dans un bus très confortable sous un ciel très nuageux.
Nous sortons de Lima sans trop de difficultés et l’aventure commence. Nous voila sur la route panaméricaine (route traversant toute l’Amériques du Sud) Nous réalisons que nous sommes vraiment dans un DESERT de sable. Sur les 100 premiers kms, les dunes du désert caressent les vagues de l’océan pacifique. Saviez vous que cette region est la deuxieme region la plus aride du monde apres le Sahara!!!? et Lima la deuxieme plus grande ville du monde construite sur le desert?

( 9h30 our journey began to Nazca. We had a very comfortable bus.. lots of room for legs. No other complications or problems as we left Lima. Fortunately. We were on the Pan American Road that traverse across the whole of South America. We were really in the desert crossed about 550kms of it. Did you know that Lima is the second largest town built on a desert??!!! )

Puis vient l’heure de découvrir les dégâts des villes de Pisco et d’Ica ravagées par le tremblement de terre du 15 Aout dernier ou des familles entieres vivent encoree sous les tentes.

Puis, de moins en moins de ville, nous plongeons dans un paysage jaunâtre, des dunes de sable de chaque cote de la route. Puis, les dunes s’effacent lentement pour laisser place aux montagnes et les nuages laissent place au grand ciel bleu, nous apercevons les pré-Andes.

(We passed by the villages, Pisco and Ica where the earthquake hit the hardest on the 15th of August. There are lots of tents where the people live in now as they are rebuilding their homes. However, there are still some houses that are still standing. The roads are still in good condition. As we continued our journey towards Nazca, the sand dunes on both side of the roads were soon replaced by mountains and the sky starts to clear up as there are less pollution. We are approaching the Andes)


8h de bus au travers le desert et nous entrons dans Nazca, destination ‘finale’ de notre long voyage. J'ai la boule au ventre, embarque dans une aventure dont nous ne connaissons pas grand chose. Nous sommes accueillis par Marie-Thérèse, la responsable de l’Association, son fils adoptif de 5ans, Alvaro et Nelly une autre volontaire.
(8hrs later, after a long journey we have finally arrived at our final destination, Nazca. We were welcomed by Marie-Therese, the head of the Association, her 5 years old adopted son, Alvaro and another volunteer worker, Nelly.)
Nous montons dans une vieille carcasse qui a du mal à bouger nos 60kg de bagages !
Cinq minutes plus tard, nous arrivons dans la maison louée par Marie Thérèse (MT). La, c’est le CHOC, fini notre confort des dernières années nous comprenons de suite ce qui nous attend !!!
La maison est toute petite, toute en long, il n’y a que le strict minimum ! Nous serons 5 a vivre dedans pendant quelques temps.
(We loaded our 60kg bags and cramped ourselves in an old wreck(car). 5 mins later we arrived at Marie-Therese's (MT) rented home. Here we fell from the comfortable clouds and hit hard onto earth. We have past the Comfort zone from our previous years. It's a small house with the minumum requirement to live in and there are 5 of us to share and live together for a while.)


LES BONNES NOUVELLES :
Nous avons un toit pour nous loger !
La maison devrait tenir en cas de tremblement de terre dixit les proprios de la maison (car elle a été reconstruite après un tremblement de terre qui avait détruit toute la ville)
Il y a l’électricité
Nous avons une chambre, des lits et des matelas et une TV avec lecteur de DVD !
Pas de moustique, très peu d’insectes
Il y a un vigile qui gardent les maisons du quartier la nuit. Nous sommes les seuls étrangers qui habitent dans la ville/la région
Il ne pleut JAMAIS
Internet et une petite épicerie comme voisins

LES MAUVAISES NOUVELLES

De l’eau qu’ 1h30 tous les 2 jours donc quand l’eau arrive, c’est le branle bas de combat pour remplir tous les seaux et bassines qui serviront à cuisiner, a se doucher, a faire la vaisselle, a tirer la chasse d’eau, etc.…
Pas d’eau chaude
Pas d’eau dans les toilettes. On se lave et on se douche avec un seau
Des chiens qui trainent de partout dans les rues
Pas encore de gaz pour cuisiner
Il y a un vigile ! qui en plus, mets des grands coups de sifflet toute a nuit pour nous confirmer sa présence.
La terre tremble souvent mais notre maison et le quartier semble assez solide
Il y a de la poussière partout

The Good News:


We have a roof over our head.

The house should be Earthquake proof - according to the owner of the house (it was rebuilt after an earthquake that had destroyed the whole village.)


There is electricity.
We have our own room, beds, mattresses.


There's a TV and DVD player.


No mosquitoes, very little insects.


There is a guard that keeps watch at night around this area. We are the only foreigners here.

It NEVER rains (can you believe it... unbelievable but it's a true fact)


We have a little shop and an internet corner as our neighbour.

The bad news:

There is water supply that only runs for 1h30min every alternate days. So when the water runs, we are busy trying to fill up all the barrels, buckets and tanks which we use for cooking, washing, showering, flushing the toilet etc..

No hot water.

No flushing system for the toilet and no shower heads... we got to use the bucket. Kampung style.

Lots of stray dogs on the road... hopefully none of them have rabies..

Still no gas for cooking.

We've got a constant whistling thing happening at night from our dear guard.

There's a constant earth shake (little/baby earthquakes).. and you can feel a little shake once in a while... This happpens often (we heard it´s normal)

There´s dust EVERYWHERE!

Jour 1 / Day 1 Le Marathon des airs

Voila, comme promis, nous sommes arrivées au Pérou et je commence le blog en langue française. Sorry for the non French speakers (or readers) but I promised my friends in France to write in French while we are in Perou but don’t worry, we haven´t forget you, Flo will do it in English…

Enfin, c’est le PEROU! Pari réussi, non sans quelques frayeurs car le passeport brunéien de Florence attire toujours bien des curiosités et interrogations. Aussi car, pour ceux qui n’ont pas suivi nos histoires, nous n’étions pas sur de pouvoir partir car Flo n’avait pas encore obtenu sa carte de séjour française (voir chapitre sur la Sicile pour détails)!
(Finally arrived in Peru. We won the bet and made it safe and sound. Although we were still worried about my Flo´s passport. It is always making the immigration officers a little bit suspicious. They've never seen such a beautiful passport before.. hahaha.. No, it's very rare that Bruneians travel this end of the world I guess. Plus we haven't settled our problem with the green card in France)

Bref, tout commence a LYON a 5h30 du matin, nous réussissons à obtenir les billets jusqu'à LIMA, nous étions très contents mais pas encore rassurés a 100% ! Après avoir circulé dans le labyrinthe de l’aéroport de Madrid, nous arrivons a la douane ou il y a plus de 100m de queue !
YES !!! On passe sans trop de problèmes, le plus dur est fait, pensons nous ! En route pour le Pérou, à 13h00, on s’envole donc pour Lima avec la compagnie espagnole IBERIA ! Ca sent le vol ennuyeux car pas d’écran perso !

(Anyways, we started out adventure at Lyon, 5h30 am. We managed to get out tickets until Lima. Yes! We were relieved but we were still unsure. We still have Spain to pass through as it's still Europe. After arriving in Madrid.. had a couple of hours to kill and we went around the airport trying to find our departure gate.. like a maze. We found it but first we have to pass through the immigration control.. yikes , our heart starts to pace faster as we were still unsure if theý'll let Flo leave the territory. What makes it worst is that we were in a 100m queue. Waiting with anticipation. Our turn... YES a STAMP to exit Madrid, Spain with no problem or hesitation. Ouf a relief. So, we’re free to FLY and 13 hours ahead of us before we reach Lima. The capital of Peru. We flew with IBERIA, and it was a pretty long flight. We got bored as we didn’t have the luxury of having a personal touch screen monitor in front of us.. Just like the flight we had when we were going to France (Emirates)

A 17h30, heure péruvienne, 2h30 heure française, nous atterrissons à Lima ! En effet, on a déjà eu meilleurs vols. Nous retrouvons la douane ou nous pensions, pour une fois, ne pas avoir de problèmes car Flo et moi devaient bénéficier de 90 jours dans le pays sans besoin de Visa ! L’officier part avec le passeport de Flo voir son chef ! Apres 15 minutes de discussion, elle revient, nous craignions le pire mais finalement elle tamponne. Seul petit hic, c’est que nous avons un tampon de 30jours seulement (on verra ca avec l’assoc) ! On récupère les bagages et on sort en vitesse ! Ca y est, nous y sommes ! Difficile à croire !!!
We arrived at Lima at 17h30, local Peru time (-6hrs French time and -13hrs Brunei time) For once we thought we shouldn’t have any problems with the immigration and we should have 90 days stay without visa. The officer went off with Flo’s passport.. again… to see her supervisor, we presume. After 15 mins, she returned and we thought of the worst but instead she stamped our passport. The only thing is that we only have 30 days. Anyways, we collected our bags.. AND the good news we got ALL of them.. Heard some rumours that lost baggages is something that happens fairly often.. sooo.. It’s hard to believe BUT we are HERE in Peru.

LIMA, 18h, il fait 15 degrés et la nuit commence à tomber ! Une odeur de crame règne sur la ville, bienvenu dans Lima avec ses 9 millions d’habitants et toute sa pollution !!!
Un taxi devait nous attendre a notre sortie pour nous mener jusqu'à la maison d’une amie d’une ancienne étudiante de Flo ! Nous sommes accueillis par un service de sécurité, homme en costard, téléphone portable collé a l’oreille. Il me dit que notre taxi est reparti car il n’avait pas vu notre avion dans la liste des arrivées ! Je comprends qu’une camionnette nous attend mais nous devons attendre quelques instants. C’est l’ami en question, Judith qui arrive en compagnie de toute sa famille.
Lima, 18h ..it is about 15 degres and the sun has already set. There is a strong burnt ordeur that covers the city, welcome to Lima, a population of 9 millions habitants.
At the exit, a taxi should be waiting for us to take us to a friend of a friend’s house. Dana whom I was teaching Malay has a friend, Judith in Lima and I was given her contact. Anyways we looked around for someone with our name. Saw this big, tall man wearing a suit (he looks more like in a security service), talking on a mobile phone holding our family name (FORAY).. so we went to him and said.. that’s US.. Then he explained that our taxi has left cos he didn’t see our flight on the arrival list. Anyways, we were brought to a Van and then he said that we needed to wait a few minutes for Judith and her family. Apparently, they went on holiday and they arrived at the same time as us too.. soi t all worked out well.. Fortunately.

Nous voila dans les embouteillages de Lima, 2h nous sera nécessaire pour faire 15 ou 20kms ! On découvre les énormes camions a l’américaine et les vieilles voitures du genre Mustang, coccinelle, etc. C’est pas le salon de l’auto mais plutôt celui des voitures antiques qui détiennent des records de pollution ! Cela nous permet de mieux faire connaissance avec nos hôtes d’un soir. Nous arrivons enfin a destination, il est 20h (donc 3h du mat en France, ca fait 23h qu’on voyage sans dormir). Nous sommes interdit de nous occuper de nos bagages et nous assistons a un défile de domestiques et autres agent de securite qui accourent a notre rencontre. Nous entrons dans un palais de 1200m2, c’est immense et la taille de notre chambre équivaut à un F2 en France.
Then we were stuck in a traffic jam for about 2 hours and we were only about 15-20kms away. Being stuck in the traffic, gave us the oppotunity to meet and speak to Judith and her family.. who kindly opened their home for us to stay a night. We finally reached our their home , it is 20h (3am France which means it has been 23hours since we started our travel and without sleep – ok, except for Flo.. She managed to doze off once in a while.) As we arrived, we didn’t have to worry about our bags, then we were ‘welcomed’ with some more security men and house maids. We enter this huge mansion… we were shown to the guest room which was very spacious.

Le lendemain matin, nous nous réveillons. Le drapeau de l’Union Européenne flotte devant la maison, un chauffeur en Mercedes et un garde du corps attendent pour accompagner Monsieur l’AMBASSADEUR de l’UE au travail et nous a la station de bus des pauvres !!!
Next morning, we woke up and looked out of the window.. we saw the European Union flag flying in front of the house, a chauffeur in a Mercedes and a bodyguard waiting for us to join the Ambassador of EU to send him to work and to send us to the Bus station. We had a good breakfast with the Ambassador too…I felt pretty out of place actually I don’t know how Johan felt.

Cette luxueuse arrivée nous a permis de recharger les batteries avant d’attaquer le JOUR 2 …

This luxurious arrival has allowed us to recharge our batterries and READY to start DAY 2

We're leaving on a jet plane....

All our bags are packed and we're ready to go....

All buckled up ... heading for a new adventure...

Surfing into the new horizon.....

Peru here we come!!! (fingers crossed)

Ok... welll... we hope everything goes well at the airport tomorrow morning.

You know the wind might be blowing in a different direction. Plans could change.

Do you remember the problems we had going to Sicily?? Passport and paper problems? Well, it's not solved yet... soooooo..... I might now be allowed to leave the country.

Just have to wait and see what happens tomorrow at the airport. Yes we have packed our bags and we're ready to go. Got to wake up early tomorrow morning by 4am and leave by 5am.. yikes..

So just to let everyone know that we MIGHT be absent from the INTERNET WORLD the next couple of weeks. THAT is IF everythig goes according to plan..

So if you don't hear from us don't worry we'll find a way to communicate..

The Baby foot Challenge in Sicily!

This is one of the big challenge for our trip in Sicily.. Johan's challenge to be exact.. :)

We were about to have dinner but we were not hungry yet so we went for a little walk and decided to enter this bar... Cool bar ya? Very nicely decorated. In this bar, there are also video games and baby foot table. The 'thing' is that Tiziana is a Champion in Baby Foot and a 'girl' who has talents in baby foot is rare. In the beginning we played together and I was TERRIBLE at this game.. I just can react fast enough and I can seem to get the ball to roll any faster... ya so I'm really lousy at this game.. Of course whoever played with my lost badly... (Not a good babyfoot partner. Need training! ) So I felt really bad..

After a few double team games, the best of the best decides to challenge each other.. So here they are in action. As you can see they are really into their game.. A very quick game, fast and furious... you can hear the ball moving.. They were playing really well that once in a while we had spectators. hahahah..kids came to watch two grown adult really playing and challenging. :)
Check out Johan's fiery eyes.. Really got them fixed on the ball. Head in the game. It was a very close game.. however Yoyo lost this match due to few reasons.

Main reason is that Italian's babyfoot table is made of different materials compared to French babyfoot table which therefore makes the game very VERY fast. No time to see where the ball went.

Another reason is that the rules are totally different between what HE plays and what SHE plays. We were playing HER rules cos it's in their country.. fair enough. Some of Italian rules are not allowed in French rules and Viceversa. So Yoyo is taken off guard a lot of time. Things that he is usually not allowed to do in his game, She does it. Since we're playing on Italy's ground we play according to their rules and regulations... :)

The WAR is on!

Another challenge after a couple of days...

Yoyo has worked it all in his head..

the techniques are changed,

the rules are changed.

He's ready for another challenge!

Just before having dinner (to work up the appetite) at her parent's home. The table was at her sister's place (parent's neighbour - how convenient)

Another tough game but seems like Yoyo is getting the hang of things and playing with the Italian rules... He gives it his best... So is She.. They are playing their very best as both of them are WINNERS at heart!

Finally after a few rounds and challenge after challenge.... YOYO has WON!!! He is the CHAMPION.. YAY! (The crowd's cheer) It was a good game and Tiziana was impressed. Both were very sporting and played fair and well. (now Yoyo can sleep well at night! ;0) )

AFTER DINNER

They decided to have another match.. Double team. Since I was really lousy at it.. I didn't want to play (sore loser, I know) So Johan had to have a new partner. Not too bad.

Very fast game as this time it's double team.. so the ball and the game is double the speed. Can't even see the ball. Before we know it, it's a score of either team. It eventually started as just a game to play BUT....................

BUT...................................

It got HOT and the GAME begins.. ANOTHER challenge.. hahahaha.. it never ends!

The guys were really into the game that they got too hot and decided to take their shirts of. At one point we were shouting and screaming, her father had to ask us to keep it down.. opppsss...

Here, the teams played a good tough game. However there has to be a winner... Guess who?????

?

?

?

?

???????

Yoyo and his partner won!

Johan played so hard that he had blisters and wrist sprain after the game!!!!

A battle worth fighting for!

Just about 5 mins before boarding the plane to go to Sicily, Italy and we're still not checked in yet!!!

No, it's not because we were late... on contrary we were 2 hours ahead and we were very excited to go to a different country and to FLY for a change.

We've got our passports, tickets.. luggage are all in the size and weight requirement.. shouldn't have any problem..

We were ready to go.

Unfortunately, we did have a little-big issue.. not his.. MINE

Yes.. here I'm holding in my hands.. the cause of our little-big problem. (nope, I don't look happy there)

Can you imagine going to the check-in counter and happy as can be to have them to say to you.. "Sorry you can't fly. He can go but you can't" HUH?! WHAT?! and WHY?! So they explained that I can't leave this country without my carte de sejour (like the green IC) cos in my passport, I've got a visa that is expired. Well, I have a receipt to show that my carte is in process but that won't do. GREAT.. WHAT NOW?!

They are being fussy cos it's in the airline company rules.

So Johan made lots of calls to immigration offices and all those concerning my carte to see if they can send a fax saying that it's OK for me to fly.. ZERO help.. ALL very negative and the hope of flying was almost gone.. Johan was on the phone for as long over an hour trying to work out something. (poor him)

Then we tried to negotiate with the employees of the airline. Finally, using a different strategy and solution... without concerning my carte de sejour.. Using the case that I am LEGAL to fly to Italy and that I have an arrival stamp from Paris that should allow me to visit other European countries withing the 3 months since my arrival. What a battle.

Eventually they bought our strategy and we managed to fly to Sicily. OUF.. what a relief! I would be really sad. Would have done other things but that would be a waste of air ticket (non-refundable) Then we would have missed the wonderful people we met and the other beautiful sites of Sicily.

Sicily is an island down South of Italy. It's an island full of life, histories, beautiful scenery and monuments. It's an island rich in its natural resources. It has a wonderful climate and fertile land.. It is also well located in the world for 'business' and it was a good stopover for travellers. Due to all these qualities, this island was invaded by so many cultures, people from many different parts of this world and all the different empires.(to name a few, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normandy and of course there were lots more)

Some of the places and sites can be dated back to the 3rd century before JC! Can you imagine that.. Above and below are photos of the Greek temples. Below is one of the many lovely days that we went to swim, snorkeling and just sun bathing. Enjoying the sun cos in France, the summer was too shy. Summer just stayed down South of Europe while the rest of is stayed COLD. Not a pleasant feeling to be cold. So here we are sunny and WARM.. aaahhhhhh... Another good reason why we came to Sicily... FFFFFOOOOODDDDD Italian Food! Yummy yummy in the tummy. Their main dish PASTA!!!! Always PASTA.. ALL SORTS of Pasta.. not just spaghetti bolognaise.. so much variety here and all sorts of sauce and things you can mix the pasta with..
OF COURSE PIZZA is another famous Italian signature food! TOO MUCH variety.. You won't be able to make up your mind which pizza topping you want to eat. So DELICIOUS!!!!
These two lovely people that you see with us above are two very lovely friends (Tiziana and Sergio) whom we visited in Sicily.. If it's not for them, we won't be visiting this beautiful island! They have been really wonderful to share their "world" with us. To host us in their lovely apartment and to bring us around.
Here is their family who so openly invited us to their home to share dinner with them. NOW here we have the best of the best Italian food.. MAMA's COOKING!!!

It was VERY good and VERY delicious. We ate really well in Sicily. Fortunately with all the walking, visit and swimming.. we managed not to put on weight.

So there you go... it was worth "battling" to go to Sicily.. don't you think??

To see more photos of us in Sicily... click on this link http://lesaventuresdeyoyo.spaces.live.com/

Back from Sicily

Did you miss us? The Italian Mafia kidnapped us for a couple of days! and I experienced the Medieval torture in a Greek city (head down for hours) ! No lah we were busy trying to cultivate ourselves and learn more about all these Greeks God and Goddess! That's why we have been away from the blog for a while!

We just got back from our trip to Sicily and soon, we will tell you more about our Honey Moon!

See you soon on the blog for our Sicilian adventures...