Cooopa, Copacabaaanaaaaa

Hello Folks,

And here we go, I´m back to Brasiiiilll!! And arrived in Sao Paulo, I´m not alone!! (well,I started to think so when I was not able to find Michael for 2 hours in the airport). After a public announcement in the airport: "Micaeul Novailoine (which actually means Mickael Nouvellon in Portuguese...!) is called at the Tourist Information desk" and going on the Internet to communicate with my friend who was not more than 200 meters from me, we eventually found each other (I won´t say who is responsible for this delay, because I still have arguments for my defense). After an afternoon and an evening spent in Sao Paulo (and I won´t go into the details, starting right in the bus from the airport to Sao Paulo... :)), we took a plane to Salvador at the Congonhas airport (where the TAM Boeing 737 crashed few days after...). After a long walk in Salvador, and checking in the hostel, we had to find Amance. We started visiting around, having some "sucos" to celebrate our arrival. When being back at the hostel, we eventually discovered that Amance had been there all this time, but not precisely in the room or in the lounge downstair. No, to find him, one had to open-up the hammock suspended in the lounge to discover a black floating piece of the hammock that turned out to be... Amance´s hair!!! :).

That was it, a new adventure was about to start, with a third travel mate accompanying us for almost 2 weeks!

Alright, so we were ready to experience what so many people told us about... the Salvador beaches and nightlife! Well... we may have forgotten few things here... It´s winter time, the beginning of the week and the weather is not that great... So, when we went to the most famous beach, we were a bit surprise to see... nobody!! Fortunately, we had a quick trip back home (around 2 hours when a normal trip is just 45min). And when we hanged out at night for the crazy parties, we saw... almost nobody! Well, we may have found a girl who brought us to this Samba/Salsa club, but the way she was seeing things was not really the way we were seeing it, so... we left!! But we still had another opportunity to know Salvador´s nightlife. We were fortunate, because on Tuesdays, we still don´t know why, people are actually going out. There are concerts in the streets, people are dancing Samba in the street and so on and so forth. That was really really nice. And on top of that, we found girls very open minded (maybe a bit too much) who came to us and ask us to have drinks with them.

Well, why not... until we found out an hour later that... to go in a motel with them is very cheap! Wwow, we got a special price!! so lucky! But when they heared that we were not into that, then they started asking for money! Because they "lost their time with you" and they needed to pay the taxi back home. They wouldn´t let you go! Even in front of your hostel (where you can enter but not her), they blocked you the way and take their shoe off ready to kick you if you didn´t give them the money!! And worse, they started telling you that they know everybody in the streets, that it´s like a mafia there, all the cops are corrupted, and they threatened you to talk to the policemen in front of you and to tell them crazy things (you can´t say anything as you don´t speak But, still, we understood the potential this city could have during summer.
We then headed to Morro de Sao Paulo, an island some 70 kms away from Salvador. Despite some rain during the 3 days spent there, we enjoyed the beach, the Acai! (fruit from which they make a kind of frozen juice, mixed with cereals and bananas). We had our tradition there: at around 5, it was time for snacks, so we had from Acai or Brazilian empanadas (very different from the delicious Argentinian ones), "all you can eat" pizzas to hamburgers! We also enjoyed the delicious Capirihna and juices on the beach at night after eating too much at the Churrascaria (a "all you can eat meat" restaurant :)). Michael and me had to re-teach Amance how to eat as he was hardly eating anything and we got the impression to be reduced to 2 big stomachs with legs, looking for food all the time! So, as part of this teaching, we had to go back to this place the day after!

I need to say, in order to justify some people´s tan, that the sun was not really friendly even in Morro de Sao Paulo, and that the impressive golden brown color you might see, on Mickael´s skin no to mention it, is purely due to the Brazilian sun, and not from some artificial UV rays as some people could think :).
As Mickael was with us, we had to give him a glimpse of the hard trekks we did during our trip. We therefore headed to the Fonte de Ceu, waterfalls in the island, a must see attraction. Unfortunately, the map we had was not precise enough, so we made a bit more time than expected to get there. After an hour walk, under the burning sun, and surviving the mini-favelas we crossed, we made it to this wonderfull waterfall, that was really worth all this pain. A good appetizer before going to the famous biggest waterfalls of the world, in Iguazu. But then, after so much effort and courage, it was too much for Amance who unfortunately could´nt go into the cold water (Has he been to much used to his really nice surfing suit that protected him from cold in Jeri??). Anyway, just the strongest made it :).

Last destination all together, but not least... Rio de Janeiiiiroooo!!! After meeting 3 Israeli girls on the boat back to Salvador and having decided to go together at Rio, we spent a night at the Salvador airport before taking of at 5am to Riooo. Wow, the famous city, capital of beaches, nightlife, beautiful girls (we have a good example below :)), etc etc. Few minutes before landing, I opened slightly my eyes and looked through the window. I thought I was still half dreaming, or my lashes were still covering my eyes as I was still seeing a kind of.. deep gray. And no... I had to convince my mind, the sun had some troubles again to go through the clouds...
But fortunately, it improved and we could discover Copacabana with a beautiful view on all the beach, the Pao de Azucar (Sugar Loaf) as well as the Christ the redeemer. After walking for a long time discovering the Copacabana and Ipanema area (which has a beautiful and more posh beach), we decided to go on top on the Pao de Azucar. But we had to be quick to be there at sunset (even though there were clouds hidding the sun at the horizon..). So, we started to rush and walked fast for almost an hour to eventually arrive at the cable car transporting people to the top of the Sugar Loaf. Until we found out that... we didn't have enough money to go up!!! Well, Amance and me can find excuses (yeah, you know, we are tired from our trip, we need to rest etc etc), but Mickael! hum... any valid excuse? well, I know I'll pay for what I just said in a very soon Mick's comment... but as he always said, I don't have any surviving instinct!
But eventually, we made it the next day, with beautiful pictures thanks to Mick's very creative mind (see the pics :)). As for the nightlife, we won't say much (there's both nothing and too much to say ;)), but something is sure, there must a great potential in the summer...

Then, after 3 days spent in Rio, one of us unfortunately had to leave... So we had to say goodbye to our professional photographer (most of the pictures you'll see are from him and his high quality camera, although we had to take some of our pictures from the Sugar Loaf as our camera does a much better job at night ;)). Mick was indeed leaving after a too short stay in Brazil, despite several attempts to postpone his flight. Miiick, come baaack!!!!

We then tried to forget our sadness around some coconut milk, a Rio Panamerican 2007 beach volley game (which made us realize to what extent Brazilians are bad losers and not fair-play fans) and drinks at night on Thursday and Friday (when we had a brief overview of the Rio's nightlife, still not meeting our expectations..:().
The day after, we were heading to Sao Paulo where we just stayed overnight before going to the Iguazu falls. We went to the Italian Areas where we ate again so much (imagine all you can eat italian food....) and got to know the Sao Paulo nightlife, better than what we experienced in Rio... Who would imagine that!!?
And that's it, we made it to Iguazu, after knowing 2 more Israeli girls (yes, they are everywhere!!), with whom we went to the falls on the Brazilian side. These falls are just amazing, not only for their heights (as high as 100m) and their numbers (270 exactly), and not to mention the incredible peak flow (6.5 millions liters per second, when Niagara's falls is just 2.5 millions) but also for its beautiful rainbows rising from the falls, thanks to... the sun (we thought it wasn't existing in Brazil, we got it wrong :)). But the most impressive side was from Argentina, where we could stand right over the most famous fall: La "Garganta del Diablo". We can also get closer to other falls, where you get a serious idea of the power generated by even the smallest ones.

But all good things have an end, and we had to take the bus to Buenos Aires to take our flight today for Santiago, from where we'll have another flight to ... the famous Isla de Pasqua (Easter Island)!!, the last unknown place we will visit before... going back :(((

That's all folks!! this is our next to last comment on this blog... I already feel some tears coming into my eyes...

M.

Re-bonjour a tous,

J’ai donc retrouve avec grand plaisir Mickael et Matthias a Salvador, apres cette parenthese solitaire plutot memorable, de rencontres en rencontres, de surprises en surprises...L’emploi du temps fut l’espace de trois semaines plus que jamais flexible, l’ensemble des lieux que je pensais visiter s’etant reduit a quelques elements...Autant dire qu’il y a de la matiere pour un eventuel retour dans la region du Nordeste!!!

Et les aventures continuent a Salvador!! Entre Matthias et son nouveau reseau de poules, Mickael et ses nouveaux reseaux de traficants bretons... Quand je vous disais que le Nordeste etait “craignos”, ils ne s’attendaient pas a recevoir Jessy James et Billy the Kid en personne, les terreurs de la nuit!!!

Apres quelques soirees rythmees et un apercu rapide des coiffures, de la faune et de la gatronomie locale, Salvador nous repousse litteralement au large sur l’Ile de Tinhare, reputee pour ses cocotiers, son soleil et ses plages de sable blanc... Le temps pour Mickael de se faire un bronzage impeccable, un jour sur deux par contre car l’hiver nous guette et, chose inattendue, il pleut de temps en temps...Heureusement il y a une liste consequente de cocktails a deguster et je peux vous dire que ca prend un temps fou ces choses-la!!

S’etant attardes dans la region de Bahia, on se decide pour voler jusqu’a Rio avec une partie du groupe israelien rencontre a Pipa (Je vais finir par etre billingue comme Matthias si ca continue, yalaaaaaaaaa!..). L’occassion de jouer aux cartes toute la nuit dans l’aeroport de Salvador et de faire une n-ieme fois les laisses pour compte en dormant sur les bancs...

But we’re going to Rio....De Janeeeeeeiiiirooooo....Rio est vraiment tres belle, les plages de Copabacana et Ipanema sont a la hauteur de leur legende, la vue du Christ et du Pao de Azucar sont tout aussi renversantes. Il n’y a pas a dire, c’est beau, “a Cidade Marvilhosa” comme ils le disent et le repetent la-bas... Ils n’ont pas tort meme si on decouvre le penchant extreme des bresiliens pour le chauvinisme a travers les XVeme jeux panamericains qui se deroulent a Rio. Ils refusent de donner les scores des matchs ou le Bresil a perdu, dans les arenes de Beach Volley, ca siffle a tout va les equipes adverses, quitte a les enfoncer dans le sable...Tres peu fairplay les peperes...
Ceci dit, grande decouverte de bonnes vraies churrasqueria, restaurant de viande a la broche et...a volonte!!! Autant dire qu’on s’est bien fait peter le ventre!!! A noter cependant l’echec, il faut bien l’avouer, au niveau de la vie la nuit (ou “nightlife”, mot que je n’ai jamais autant entendu depuis que Matthais est revenu, je me croirais de retour a Sup de Co!!!). Il paraitrait que c’est a cause de l’hiver que les cariocas ne sortent pas tous les soirs, comme il est coutume le reste de l’annee. Il va donc falloir revenir la encore!!! A se demander si on ne ferait pas mieux de prendre les billets tout de suite...

Sur ce Mickael nous quitte, sur Copacabana s’il vous plait, laissant le duo infernal boucler la boucle. Rapide passage a Sao Paulo, le temps de se faire exploser une nouvelle fois les boyaux dans Bixiga, le quartier italien de la ville, puis direction les chutes d’Iguazu, aussi impressionantes du cote bresilien qu’argentin. Houdini n’aurait pas fait mieux ici...

Nous venons donc tout juste de retrouver notre chere Argentine: son ambiance, son bife de lomo, son vin, son dulce de leche et son accent...Nous sommes a nouveau charmes des le passage de la frontiere. Nous avons deja retrouve nos endroits fetiches de Buenos Aires avant d’entamer l’ultime fin finale du voyage a partir de demain direction...une partie tres “ouest” du Chili...

On sent d’ailleurs arriver tout doucement la fin du voyage et un doux spleen s’installe avant le retour...Surtout qu’on est bientot la pour tout vous raconter les enfants!!!

Un enorme abrazo a todos y hasta la vista!!!

Amancio De Calle Florida

Before and during the separation...

Hello Everybody!

And yeees, we are back!! both in South America, both in Brazil, and together again!

A lot happened during the 2 weeks we were separated! (As you can see in the long long previous post!), and hum... since then as well!!!Alright, so, let´s start from the beginning!

From Santa Cruz (old Capital of Bolivia that actually really surprised us by its wealth and by the mentality of its people, who are much more "European" than on the west), we took a 16 hours train to the Brasilian border from where we entered the Pantanal: i the world’s largest wetland area, a flat landscape, with gently sloping and meandering rivers.

We stayed in a Pousada in the middle of the Pantanal from where we went to a safari, a boat trip and some Piranhas fishing (yes, again!!). The safari was more like a alligator tour, as we saw these very cute reptiles with all sizes, all shapes, all positions, all colors along our way. But that was not it, we saw again plenty of them during the boat trip, as well as many beautiful birds, including the Tuiuiú, the mascot of the Pantanal. We came back almost at night, with one of the most beautiful sunset we ever seen (like in the movies, a huge oval sun vanishing behind the wetland trees, the birds flying in between...).

Oh, and most of all, we acted like Darwin by starting to study closely some species. The one we will decide to talk about in public before publishing our next book will be the Capybara. We saw lots of them. Why choosing this animal? because it looks like the simplest animal to analyse we could find. First, it´s really easy to see that it´s a very stupid animal. Well, at least, something´s wrong in its neural connections, considering the time it needs to realize that something´s going on, like a car heading straight and very fast to him. We had to stop several times waiting for the information to get to its brain. But that´s not it! Look at this animal, it has the simplest shape a four-legged could have, with no tail, a rectangular body, and most surprisingly, a perfect rectangular head... That may be a revolutionary proof that invalidate the famous Darwin´s theory of Evolution! It´s unthinkable this species could have survived through time!!!!Ok ok, I´m spending to much time on the Pantanal. We then headed to Campo Grande where occurred this moment we feared the most... the separation!

That was it, I was going straight to Sao Paulo to take my flight and Amance was going to Brasilia. I won´t comment to much on my trip to Israel (I was not called a Gringo there, so it´s not included in the countries we are suppose to visit :)), but will just say that the 2 weeks there have just been amazing. From the Bachelor Party of my friend in Mikonos, his Wedding (the best party I ever attended to), the time spent with the new husband and wife´s families and friends, to time (too short...) I spent with my family. Here are some pictures from Eilat (more will come later) with my sister, my cousin and my best American friend.

See you soon for the latest news since we found each other in Salvador, with a new member accompanying us!

Matias

Bom dia a todos! Beleza?

Tant de temps et d’evenements depuis le dernier article...Nous presentons donc nos plus plates excuses a nos lecteurs assidus, et nous leur vouons de ce fait une bonne tartine!!! Bonne lecture...

Nous en etions donc a Sucre, en Bolivie, je crois...C´etait bien Sucre…Mais il fallait bien en repartir apres ce repos force par trois mois de voyage intenses. Cela nous aura au moins permis de voir d´authentiques traces de dinosaures de plusieurs dizaines de tonnes incrustees sur le fond d’un lac...vertical!!! Autant dire que le guide a eu du mal a nous expliquer tout ca...Nous avons pu egalement assister au depart DU rallye bolivien de Sucre en regardant la finale de Roland Garros soit un week end des plus sportifs. Nous sommes aussi passes chez un authentique barbier, avec le flingue dans la main droite bien entendu, comme Henry Fonda dans "My Name´s Nobody". Un mois et demi de barbe, un record donc, et ca fait du bien de retrouver des joues facon "cul de bebe", en guise de signe de retour a la civilisation!!!

Ainsi arriva soudainement le moment du depart pour le grand Est et la plaine: Santra Cruz De La Sierra, seconde ville bolivienne, grande concurrente politique de LaPaz, on est aux limites de la guerre civile a ce stade du voyage!!! On pense enchainer directement sur le train pour le Bresil mais celui-ci etant plein, nous nous retrouvons contraints et forces de passer la nuit dans cette ville, ma sympathique vu qu´il y fait enfin chaud !! On se fait malencontreusement abordes par trois etudiantes en Histoire qui nous ont davantage explique, avec passion, le clivage est/ouest du pays. Deux mondes.Vous vous doutez bien qu´on a ecoute avec beaucoup d´attention cette conference "civilisation" personnalisee, l´accent de Santa Cruz etant de surcroit si charmant…

Le lendemain il nous faut prendre le train et quitter notre auberge aux"toucans" (sales betes…). Ce ne fut pas une epreuve si terrible que ca de traverser la moitie de la Bolivie dans "el tren de la muerte", meme si les rails etaient a peu pres de la meme qualite que dans les mines de Potosi…Nous passons sans encombre la frontiere bresilienne a Corumbá, sans bagschischs, ni controle de vaccination...C’est carnaval!!! On enchaine directement avec la visite de la region du Pantanal reputee pour sa faune et sa flore exceptionnelles. Apres ces quelques derniers jours sauvages dans la brousse et au milieu des animaux, c’est le moment de faire cavaliers seuls : Matthias part pour São Paulo ou son avion pour l’Europe l’attend, et je parviens a avoir un ticket de bus a destination de Brasília. Nos vemos!!

Apres cette dechirante separation, je me reveille a Goiania, ville de ma correspondance, ou j’ai fait attendre a moi tout seul un bus de cinquante personnes, n’ayant pas calcule le decalage horaire...Autant vous dire que j’ai ete applaudi en rentrant dans le bus avec mon charango et mon petit dej´ que j’avais pris le temps de choisir soigneusement dans la grande surface attenante. Un champion du monde je vous dit, PAPA, tu peux etre fier de moi!! Le temps d’apaiser la fougue de mes nouveaux admirateurs, j’arrive ala gare routiere de Brasília. J’avoue que je me demandai ce que je faisais en pleine campagne... Puis la ville se decouvre a moi en remontant en Eixo monumental, le long duquel s´etalent la plupart des edifices batis de1956 a 1960 a l´initiave du president Kubitschek. Brasília, mon reve, je me croyais Bebel recherchant Agnes dans"L´homme de Rio". Je n’ai pas retrouve Agnes, mais j´ai bien pense a toi BAPTISTE, je te ramene des photos!!! Apres deux jours de franche randonnee dans cette ville (quand ils disent Eixo Monumental, il est vraiment MONUMENTAL, sur plus de 6km!!!) Je m’envole vers São Luis, avec vue du ciel sur l’agencement en forme de volatile de la nouvelle capitale...

Atterissage a São Luis de Maranhao en pleine fete de la Saint-Jean. J’ai change de pays. Ambiance caraibes, chaleur equatoriale, non chalanc egeneralisee et envoutante...Les soirees furent rythmees par des airs de bossa, de forro, pour la Saint'Jean, fete ou toute la ville est literallement dans les rues, en transe sur les rythmes afro et les danses centenaires des esclaves transferes ici bien malgre eux. Le temps de franchir le point nord du voyage a Alcântara avec Frans, backpaper israelo-hollandais polyglotte quasi cinquantenaire, et plus que tout persuade de ma double nationalite franco-israelienne. Il m’a teste deux jours durant, et en hebreux s’il vous plait, pour voir si je n’etais pas un agent secret du Mossad, m’apprenant au passage quelques mots de hollandais incontournables qu’il ne vaut mieux pas citer ici. A noter que Frans a consacre une partie de son blog facon "saga", sur "the secret agent".

Je me decale ensuite vers l’Est direction Barreirinhas et "O parque dos lençóis Marahnenses", soit literallement le "parc des draps de l’Etat bresilien de Maranhao", ou je suis amene a rester qqs jours "coince" par la Saint-Jean qui dure, qui dure... L’occasion de renconter un groupe de brillantes fonctionnaires de Brasília, me decortiquant les aspects de leur cher pays et leurs privileges de bureaucrates, le tout au milieu de paysages parmi les plus beaux qui se soient offerts a mes yeux. Des dunes de sable blanc a perte de vue aux pieds baignes dans des eaux bleues azur...J’arrive cependant a trouver en fin de week end un 4x4 en partance pour Jericoacoara avec un groupe de "gringos" aux experiences varies mais qui partagent cependant ma condition et mon incomprehension des transports em commun dans le nord du pays... Celine et Laurent, un couple de jeunes francais specialistes des aventures insolites (au compteur plus d’un mois d’immersion dans la culture bahienne a Salvador, plus d’une semaine quasiment a dos de mules en plein coeur du Nordeste...). Kate et Holly, deux anglaises de 19 ans en tournée autour du monde apres leur bac, comme ca pouf pouf, etonnantes de sang-froid et de maturite.Apres un enchainement de 4x4 et de camions en tous genres, il nous a pris pas moins de deux jours pour aller de Barreirinhas a Jericoacoara ou l’ambiance du village nous a saisis d’entree. La-bas tu vis en short deplage et en tongue, t’ecoutes de la musique de hippie (de John Kongos aMorcheeba en passant par Deep Purple et The Who), de la Bossa Nova et de la MPB "ao vivo", tu joues au beach volley tous les soirs, tu te fais des soirees gratte au coin du feu sur la plage... Le paradis, sans compter qu’une nouvelle passion m’est nee, le windsurf: apres avoir timidement attaque mes lecons de debutant, je me vois propose de bons tarifs en echange de cours de guitare... comment aurais-je pu refuser?? Bref plus d’une semaine dans la vue a trainer dans ce village de pecheurs, avec l’irresistible envie d’y retourner un jour (s’il n’a pas ete deja transforme en usine a touristes...) et de remonter sur une planche des mon retour enFrance: PASCAL fais chauffer le matos, j’arrive!! Um tour du monde a la planche a voile et sans assistance stp, ca se prepare!! ÁLVARO, aqui esta un’ dedicatória par vosotros: puedes ver que he adicionado el "link" de tu website a la derecha de esta pagina...De todas maneras, me voy pronto a volver dentro de unos anos con mis amigos y mi próprio equipamento para dar la "French touch" a este website :)) !!

Bref autant vous dire que je m’arrache difficilement a ce paradis terrestre, plein de trucs et de trocs, ou on aurait pu vivre des millions d’annees et toujours en ete, et ce pour un long transfert de trois jours a travers le Nordeste du Bresil, ses inegalites, ses bidons villes, sa misere, sa violence....Je suis vite redescendu de mon petit nuage "Jeri". Je retrouve cependant Praia da Pipa, un endroit paradisiaque et mes deux "travel mates"d’outre manche pour quelques jours de vagues dans cette station balneaire aux airs de Saint Trop’!! Cocktails prepares de main de maitre par notre hote Eddy, soirées "cuisine" avec la langouste pré-cuite a 30 Reals le kilo(FABIEN, de quoi faire peter tes costs, viens te fournir ici je te dis moi), fins de soirée a la "Capeta" (on pourrait l’appeler "carpette" en France,c’est pareil), FABIEN faut que je t’apprenne ce cocktail avant ton mariage...)

Mais le temps passe, j’ai tout juste le temps de rejoindre et de visiter"Olinda", plutot "Ofea" sous la pluie et avec sa faune locale, avant de rejoindre mon accolyte et son pote Mickael a Salvador de Bahia, ville tout aussi stupefiante de contrastes, decryptee au petit dejeuner par Yvo le terrible, un breton d’une soixantaine d’annee, implante ici depuis dix ans.

La suite au prochain episode...

A demain!!!!

Amancinho Do Brasil

Escaping the altiplano :))

Buenos Dias a todos!!!
Back from the wild wild jungle, we had to go back to civilization…Thus we went to the archeological site of Tihuanacu (Pre-Inca civilizations); one of the first places the native Bolivian President Evo Morales visited when he was elected in 2005. Back to La Paz again, we attended the “El Gran Poder” festival and its huge, colorful and noisy parades, before leaving eventually the city.

That’s how we got into a dreadful night from La Paz to Uyuni, with crowds of people, hens on their knees, fat and stinky Bolivian traditional “altiplanic” mamas seating next to us overnight (mmmh sexy…), people sleeping in the central path, dust roads, freezing cold…Nice experience of a lifetime…We actually arrived in Uyuni at 3.30am, and we can certify it was cold, very cold...After sleeping a few hours on the ground of a bus ticket office and then in a basic hostel, we went straight to the splendid Salar of Uyuni, fabulous playground, in a company of a very nice group of gringos. We headed then south to the Chilean border (which you must already have seen in our previous pics, but from Chile) to observe a wonderful wildlife and “lacustre” landscapes, with lakes turning from white or blue to red or yellow color in a few hours…Estupendo!!!! We headed then to Potosi, cumulating kilometers. Except visiting the nice colonial center of this once wealthiest city of South America, the main attraction remains its silver mines: (very) basic security rules, cool-headed miners, solidarity, humidity, dark, dust, narrow tunnels…and coca leaves as a stimulant!! That was certainly one of the most intense experience so far to share their condition, and just imagine a few hours the way of life miners have or had anywhere in the world from Potosi to St Etienne or Longwy to South Africa...We found and read THE extra missing page of Zola’s Germinal !!
A few figures, socially speaking: more than 8 million people died in the extraction of minerals since the colonial era, one man dies a day because of diseases he contracted in the mine (such as silicosis, or toxic gas breathing…there is no methane, and thus no explosion in these mines, hopefully for them…) , a perforator (the guy who makes holes in the rocks to insert dynamite in them) as a 10-year-long life expectancy since he has started perforating, if perforating remains it’s only activity in the mine…

After this strong experience, we went back on Bolivian roads to rest in a nice residential in Sucre. This city is definitely our “Coup de Coeur” in Bolivia: a nice colonial town, which has been the heart of Bolivia’s independence and constituent assembly, with good restaurants, bars broadcasting Roland Garros tennis open, cinema…The nicest place ever to wait for Brazziiiiil!!! Where we should split in a few days after advising our readers of course!!!

A brand new thing in the blog, let’s play a GAME!!! WOUHOU!! Let’s guess the occupant of each bed on the picture…We found it funny coming back at night!!
(You’ll find the answer in the picasa web albums of Bolivia.)

Hasta pronto todos!!!
Bacioni

Amancio

Hello les Asticots!

Nous etions a La Paz aux dernieres infos, nous y sommes restes encore 3 jours. Et ce n est pas sans multiples tentatives d evasion... Mais nous avions encore a faire.

En particulier l ancienne capitale indigene de Tiwanaku. La particularite de cette ancienne cite reside dans la pluri-culture de ses habitants. Une multitude de communautes indigenes s y retrouvaient pour exercer leur culte, jusqu a que les Incas les detronent... C est la que nous avons pu decouvrir la fameuse Puerta del Sol, que nous recherchions depuis tant de temps (honteux, on ne l avait peut etre pas mentione auparavant, mais nous avons cherche cette porte sur toute l Isla del Sol sur le lac Titicaca, croyant qu elle se trouvait la bas, avant que la seule personne que l on croise sur notre chemin nous defasse de nos illusions. On y serait peut etre toujours a cette heure la sinon...).
Nous avons eu aussi le priviliege d assister a une des plus grandes fiestas se deroulant a La Paz chaque annee: el Gran Poder, fete partagee par tout le monde, que l on parle espagnol, Quechua ou Aymara. Une journee entiere de defile dansant avec des accoutrements plus que surprenants! Au total, plus de 40 delegations composees chacune de plusieurs centaines, voire milliers de personnes ont affiche leurs couleurs et leur danse folklorique.

Apres plus d un mois de voyage au Perou et en Bolivie, nous voila de retour tout pres du Chili, et en particulier de San Pedro de Atacama (ou on a de si bon souvenir, hein Julien!!!). En route pour le celebre Salar de Uyuni, fameux non seulement pour son immensite (8000km carres), mais aussi par sa configuration extra plate, ses iles decorees des plus grand cactus du monde, et surtout... de la magie environnante qui a une tendance surprenante a reduire les gringos inattentifs... Nous nous sommes crus malins, jusqu au moment ou nous vimes ces grandes dunes orange et verte qui n etaient autre qu une pomme et une orange...

Ce desert nous a aussi fait comprendre le mysterieux cycle de la vie. Quand on nous disait plus petit que les garcons naissaient dans les choux et les filles ans les roses, je n y croyais pas, mais quelque chose me disait qu on etait pas tres loin de la verite. Apres s etre longuement trompe dans notre voyage sur les traces de Darwin dans notre periple, la verite sur nos origines a enfin eclatee... :

Cette revelation a ete suivie de la decouverte d une etonnante lagune a 4300m d altitude, la laguna colorada, dont la couleur rouge nous donnent quelques hesitations avant de plonger la tete dans l eau, de peur de faire des mauvaises rencontres... Paysages splendides toutefois, ses formations de boue salees, et le magnifique couche de soleil surplombant les montagnes, la lagune ainsi que ses magnifiques occupants. Nous avons a cette occasion eu le privilege d assister au spectacle tant visuel que sonore (a notre grande surprise) d un flamant nourrissant son rejeton. Il est aussi remarquable que de si belles creatures puissent vivre dans des conditions si rudes et hostiles. Outre la nourriture que nous avions emportee, nous avions fait le choix judicieux d emporter les duvets, les 3 epaisses couvertures ne suffisant pas a nous rechauffer...
Nous nous sommes ensuite rendus au laguna verde, surplombe par le magnifique volcan Licancabur.

Pendant cevoyage de 3 jours, nous avons aussi fait la connaissance de grand voyageurs (encore plus grand que nous) vraiment tres sympas, parmi lesquels un flamant et un maltais tiennent des blogs tres interessants, que nous vous invitons a visiter (pas besoin de parler flamant ou anglais, les photos parlent d elles memes...). Petite (et derniere) pensee aussi a notre cher conducteur et guide Viktor, qui doit encore nous prouver son deuxieme titre...

A peine revenu de ce periple que nous nous rendions a Potosi, jadis ville la plus peuplee au monde (vers le 17e siecle), pour sa richesse toujours exploitee a ce jour: l argent. Les milliers de mines reparties sur le Cerro Rico sont issues de plusieurs siecles d exploitation, et malheureusement d une grande tragedie. Les espagnols, en voulant se garder de faire le travail, ont utilise des esclaves africains, parce qu ils etaient forts et pouvaient supporter des charges quasi insurmontables de travail. Mais les pauvres, non accoutumes a l altitude de la plus haute ville du monde (4300m) ont tous succombes. En ajoutant a cela les conditions de travail tres dures, les emissions gaseuses lors du creusement, on estime a plus de 9 millions les pertes humaines dues a l exploitation de ces mines, qui ont fait la richesse de tant de compagnies d exploitations. Nous sommes donc alle voir de nos propres yeux ces mines au lourd passe pour prendre conscience des difficultes et du danger du travail. Chaque membre du goupe actuel des 15.000 mineurs ont une joue gonflee, avec les feuilles de Coca qu ils gardent en permanence pour resister a la fatigue.

Nous nous sommes ensuite rendu a Sucre, ancienne capitale bolivienne. Une des plus grandes villes apres La Paz, tres coloniale, appellee aussi ville blanche de Bolivie, qui n arrete pas de nous surprendre. Tant par son architecture, sa richesse, que par son bon vivre et ses habitants, tres differents de leur confrere de l altiplano. Les "Sucriers??" sont beaucoup moins types, car issus de croisements avec les espagnols, lesquels s etaient implante massivement a Sucre, plus proche ville de Potosi "vivable" car seulement a 2900m d altitude...

Nous avons donc profite ces 3 derniers jours des charmes de cette ville, de la tres bonne nourriture (enfin!!!!) et de... Roland Garros!! Ba euh... oui! rien n est excuse a manquer les finales des Internationaux de France quand meme ;).

Demain, en route pour Santa Cruz d ou nous prendrons le "train de la mort" pour arriver a la frontiere bresilienne. Non pas parce qu il est dangereux, mais parce que le voyage est un des plus... ennuyant au moooonnnddeeeee!!!!

Nooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.

J en peux plus!!!!

Assez des bus ou on est les uns sur les autres, avec odeurs et bruits a la cle (et ou on rencontre des voyageurs quelques peu copieurs de notre style...).

Surtout quand on a mal digere le precedent repas et qu on peut pas s extraire du bus!!!! Alors ca va pas recommencer avec le traiiiiiiiiiiin!!!!??

Euh.. revenons a nos moutons... Je disais donc, destination Brasiiiill!!!!!!! On va reprendre un peu un rythme de fou. On doit aussi faire le Pantanal, pampa bresilienne regorgeant d animaux, parait-il encore plus impressionante que ce que nous avons vu en Bolivie. A ver... Avant que l on se separe pour 2 semaines et que je prenne l avion le 19 juin de Sao Paulo!

Des mon retour, A nous les vacances de vacances!!
Beijos! (et oui, il faut se mettre au portugais maintenant!!

Matiaas

El Livro de la selva...

Again, we survived after 7 extremely dangerous days....
First, the most dangerous road of the world. A bike ride (we were not crazy enough to do it by bus, though we may have had even more adrenaline...) from 4700m to 1100m. Just downhill. Fortunately, we had a guide to tell us about what happened previously at the different places: an italian guy went out of the road and killed himself 1 month ago there, a bus missed a turn so on and so forth...). If only I had a parachute... I could have been even more crazy on the road... but destiny doesn´t want me to jump in South America apparently... Well, I´ll try again in Brazil :)

After avoiding death few times, we finally made it from La Paz to Coroico, a small village with very very nice hostel (saunas, swimming pool etc). All we needed before the real adventure starts in the jungle. We then headed to Rurrenabaque, a bolivian city in middle of the jungle. That was maybe the most horrible bus trip we ever had. First, we almost died when a big explosion occured maybe one meter from us, as we were standing close to the tire. Our hears needed few minutes to recover. It was just a tire bursting, but it was not reassuring before going on one of the most dangerous road of the world... We actually met several people who took the plane after being strongly advised not to take the bus. Well, we are still alive!.. for now :)

From Rurrenabaque, there were two main destinations:
The pampa, a region filled with water with some pieces of lands around. We just use the boat along canals, in the middle of trees and tropical vegetation where birds are hiding, and fly away at the last moment when the boat is approaching. We could see toucans, parrots, huge other birds that I couldn´t name. We were completely lost.. so many big animals everywhere. From enormous red and yellow spiders, piranhas (well, we got our revenge by fishing them and eating them :)) to gigantic ants.... Fortunately, I manage to remember the tricks used in "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" to survive the beasts.
We also looked for Anancondas but the weather was not good and they hide very well. We also swam with ... dolphins! well, a bit different from what you can expect. They are pink river dolphins, maybe as big as ocean ones with a more... weird shape I would say. We could touch them, and they were doing so as well... a bit too hard though! Our feet still remember them... And to our surprise, we found out that alligators are very very lazy animals... they need ages to move! the one we were studying closely still had the rice we put on his nose 30 minutes before! As for the monkeys, the ones we saw were relatively small. I actually recognised a bit of myself in them when we were giving them bananas from the craft: they are ready to risk their lives for food :). They don´t know how to swim, but were sometimes hanging on very weak branches just with one arm to grab the food!

As if we didn´t have enough, we looked for more adventure, more danger, so we headed to the jungle, sleeping in a small camp, in the middle of nowhere, but of this huge trees, with creepers all over the place. We did several trekks with different themes. One being the trees and creepers and their medicinal properties. Have you ever thought of the jungle as a huge hospital? Well, it turns out that the trees and creepers can cure a lot of things... but they can hurt as well. Some creepers are very toxic and are used as poison on arrows to kill animals.
The second theme was: "how to survive in the jungle", by eating el corazon de palmeras, drinking water out of a creeper and so on... We also went out twice at night and saw small tarentulas, but survived luckily after encountering the geant ants who strongly bit us, avoiding anawares webs of colourful and scary spiders and snakes on small branches ahead of us...
Well, you must be wondering: but how did they make it after all that? Well, look at our face! We haven´t shaved for almost a month, we are dressed like adventurers, we had also a big anti-spiders web with Amance´s hair... all the ingredients were gathered to come back alive! Oh, and we had a impressive guide as well. He grew up in the jungle and knew everything, from the birds that we were hearing in the forest, to the merest risk an insect could be.

We also a visited small village in the jungle with no electricity. The pueblo is living from agriculture and poultry farming. It was very interesting to see how they live, how they build houses, how they get water (they actually drink the water of the big river that we used to get to the jungle from Rurrenabaque).

We then spent maybe one of the most boring day in Rurrenabaque after our flight was cancelled because of the weather. Fortunately, we have our new playing cards, that prevent us from writing our travel notebook (even if we are more than 3 weeks late...) :).

And we are eventually back to La Paz. After seeing the Puerta del Sol, we will head to the very famous Salar de Uyuni, the Potossi mines, Sucre before crossing the Brazilian border, and before we... break up for 2 weeks! Will the separated couple survive this new adventure?... you´ll know soon enough in the next bulletin of "Amancio y Matiaso en America del Sur". As our kind jungle guide jungle said: "Todo es possible pero nada es seguro..."

Matthias

Une rapide mise a jour du blog apres notre sejour dans la jungle...En gros on est descendus en velo sur la route “de la muerte”, puis on a enchaine avec, sans conteste, le trajet de nuit le plus inconfortable du voyage jusqu’a Rurrenabaque, porte de l’Amazonie bolivienne. On s’est promenes pendant six jours dans les mangroves puis dans la foret et on a vu des animaux et c’etait beau.

On pourrait s’arreter la... Mais bon pour le blog de Matthias et si on veut etre un peu plus precis, dans la vie il y a deux types de gens: celles qui sont allees dans la jungle et celles qui n’y sont pas allees. Fort de ce postulat de base, la jungle c’est une sensation, une emotion, ca se vit finalement…Nous pouvons cependant tenter de la rapprocher de certaines references communes. C’est un peu comme le Christophe Colomb de Ridley Scott, debarquant dans la jungle des premieres antilles remontant doucement la riviere a la rencontre des autochtones, comme un reportage de Frederic Rossif avec des plans pris au ras de l’eau a partir d’une barque amazonienne, comme le Robinson de Michel Tournier se laissant finalement conquerir par la “selva”…Ou mieux encore, les 4 premieres planches du premier album du Marsupilami, sorties tout droit du cerveau degeante de Franquin, ou l’on voit une foret de “Palombie” en apparence tres sereine, mais qui se revele un veritable enfer vert si on s’y penche un tantinet, chaque etre vivant organisant son auto defense, sa survie…

Plus serieusement, nous avons vu la jungle sous deux aspects differents. Une jungle des mangroves et des marais, ou les animaux sont tres concentes car isoles sur des parcelles de terre ou dans des champs de hautes herbes (dont l’indebuscable anaconda). Puis une jungle des forets, ou l’observation de la flore prend davantage d’importance, la faune fuyant les randonneurs, sauf la nuit…Pour resumer, nous avons vu myriade de singes, alligators, kapibaras, insectes, on a meme nage avec des dauphins roses d’Amazonie (qui sont tres joueurs, cools mais pas trop vus qu’ils aiment bien gniaker du “Frances”. Nos pieds s’en souviennent et je peux meme vous dire avec une infime precision le nombre de millimetres separant deux dents de dauphins roses d’Amazonie…)… Du cote foret, on a plutot rencontre des arbres, beaucoup d’arbres, mais aux frontieres de la condition animale!! Ils sont capables de synthetiser des odeurs&substances chimiques toxiques comme therapeutiques, reproduire des formes&couleurs, developper des racines hors du sol pour pouvoir se mouvoir ou encore des piques pour se proteger des aggressions exterieures…Et j’en passe...

Bref on ajoute a cela un bon anti-insecte, deux guides boliviens autochtones, aussi competent, gentil et serein l’un que l’autre, le cocktail fut parfait!! Nous avons beaucoup appris aux cotes des guides, de leur patience a leur rythme de vie, en passant plus concretement par les plantes medicinales et globalement comment survivre dans la jungle: comment trouver de l’eau dans une liane, recolter des coeurs de palmiers… Plutot instructif pour nous autres culitos blancos nes avec des chaussures au pied…

Ed ecco!! Nous venons de regagner notre cher Altiplano a La Paz pour la deniere fois destination Uyuni, Potosí puis Sucre avant de redescendre definitivement sur Santa Cruz puis Braziiiiiiiil. C’est qu’il ne nous reste plus que deux mois mas o menos!! Surtout qu’on a eu quelques legers imprevus: nous avons du attendre quelques jours notre avion pour La Paz a Rurrenabaque et ce pour cause de mauvais temps. Mais cela valait le detour du survol de la jungla a celui de la Paz, capitale literallement incrustee dans un canyon, je le dis et le repete, cette ville ne finira pas de m’etonner…

Hasta luego todos!! (On commence a se mettre au portugais pour dans quinze jours, promis ;))

Amancio

El camino del Inca

Buenos Dias everyone!!

Here is one of the highest points of our trip since we were about to leave to Macchu Picchu last time you read us. Let’s say we had a very dense 10 days period, that’s to say around 1.1 gigabytes, “picturely” speaking…Hum...

So we headed to Machu Picchu through a four days trek. Day 1: downhill biking from 2700m to 1400m in two hours. Still have some flies remaining stuck on my teeth!! Day 2: hiking in pre-jungle and former “caminos Inca” between1000m and 1500m: banana trees and a warm welcome from mosquitoes: they are so small, quite efficient to find food and definitely seem to like the so called “culitos blancos”. Hopefully we recovered in Santa Teresa’s hot springs until nightfall. No comments regarding Santa Teresa’s nightlife. Day 3: hiking uphill to Aguas Calientes, the ultimate village before Machu Picchu. Day 4: ‘woke up at 4am to climb up the last but sharp Machu Picchu (2000m to 2400m in one hour) in the dark and the rain…Hopefully the clouds were just slowly floating away and we had a chance to see some old stones after four days hiking !! It added in fact a touch of mystery among the stones…We’ll let you admire our now well-known works of art around the theme “the Inca stones through ages and clouds”.

Then we had to say goodbye to Cusco and the friends we had there. We stayed one week in Cusco, let’s say we were almost at home…We said goodbye to Peruvian Inca stones as well, walking one day through the ruins of the sacred valley with our brand new CHE like road mate Charles de Normandie.

We headed then to the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca (thanks for your pronouncing it right: Titijaja, “jota sound”). We visited Puno and the surrounding islands with a dangerous gang of noisy French men we met on the boat. They were not that unknown as far as we are concerned, and we are waiting for there comments on the blog, once their identity will be uncovered. Floating islands, one night in Amantani Island in a matriarchal family (without any electricity), unforgettable traditional dance session at night, hiking in Taquile Island… Nice introduction to this deep blue lake…

We left next to the Bolivian side, doing our first stop in the nice town of Copacabana. We already felt the difference between Peruvian and Bolivian spirits…So cooler…We went on our own from Copacabana to Isla del Sol, the place Manco Capac, the first Inca, was born. We had a chance to visit the ruins very early (6.30am) before the tourist wave happens to show its nose on the island. We left when they arrived actually; keeping with us the sweet dream the Island belonged to us a few hours. That’s why we kept and that we’ll keep on waking up that early in future…

Then it was time to go and discover the inside Bolivia. We went from Copacabana to La Paz travelling on a gorgeous road. The atmosphere was not that joyful crossing the poverty struck suburb of El Alto, 400m above La Paz (which remains the highest capital city in the world with its 3600m altitude). It reminded me of some Chinese towns and districts, and made us realize again the comfort we have in our sooo posh countries.

We currently visit this so special city, purchase our remedies and potions in the witch market…We think of celebrating our “halftrip” tonight, before heading to a seven days trip in the jungle, and a 4700m to 1400m downhill in mountain bike, since we did not have enough last time…WABE, we think of you!!
Ciao a tutti, and we are still waiting for more comments!!

Amancio

Hello Amigos!

Et voila plus de 15 jours depuis notre dernier signe de vie! beaucoup s est passe entre temps, de la decouverte de la mysterieuse cite de Machu Picchu aux splendides paysages surplombant le lac Titikaka, avant d etre projete de facon tres innatendue sur les ecrans tele de toute la Bolivie...

Apres s'etre un peu repose a Cusco, et s etre acclimate a l altitude (Cusco reside a plus de 3500m d'altitude), nous voila partis sur les traces des Incas. Pas tout a fait a leur maniere cependant... Afin de rejoindre Machu Picchu, il a fallu une multitude techniques, qui il me semble n etaient pas tres utilises par ces ancetres peruviens. Tout d'abord, il a fallu etre transporte a 2700m d'altitude dans la semi-jungle pour descendre plus de 1000m en... VTT! Bon, rien de tres mechant puisque ce n etait que de la descente... Le lendemain matin, on entame un trekk de 3 jours sur un des 7 chemins incas conduisant au Machu Picchu. Apres avoir rencontre Araignees geantes, lamas enrages, moustiques affames, bananiers (bon, je vois pas ce qu'ils viennent faire la eux), les esprits Incas stupefaits qu'on ose meme entreprendre une petite viree chez eux, apres avoir suivi les rails de l'enfer, affronte un climat tropical impitoyable, nous arrivons enfin sur le site mystique du Machu Picchu. Ville mystique residant a 2500m d alitude sur un tout petit plateau a 4 jours de marches de la moindre civilisation. Les constructions sont impressionantes, des terrasses agricoles au centre astronomique en passant par leur lieu de culte ou ils sacrifiaient un lama par an. Les Incas auront lutte jusqu au bout en nous envoyant cette brume opaque qui n'aura pas reussi a avoir raison de nous. Enfin... ils m'auront laisse une bonne fievre apres etre reste trempe pendant une journee entiere, du Machu Picchu jusqu au retour a Cusco.

On ne pouvait pas partir de Cusco avant d'avoir visite la valle sacree des Incas, avec les surprenantes ruines de Pisac, presque aussi impressionante que Machu Picchu, bien que beaucoup moins rocambolesque.

Et nous voila ensuite en direction du lac Titikaka, une petite etendue d'eau pouvant ingurgiter 17 fois le lac Leman, a une hauteur de 3800m. Notre fierte "orientale" en prend un coup. Pensant avoir invente les meilleurs systemes de navigation, avait on pense a construire nos maisons sur de veritables iles flottantes, pouvant etre deplacees au bon gre de leur habitants. Mais nos yeux restant remplis de curiosite, nous avons loge chez l habitant (je devrais dire les habitantes) sur l ile d'Amantani. De la nourriture a la fete folklorique du dimanche soir, tout etait present pour un grand brin de depaysement. Je me demande encore comment les petites peruviennes ont pu resister devant le charme d'Amance tout mignon dans son petit costume de danse folklorique...

Mais ce n'etait pas suffisant, il fallait encore decouvrir l'Isla del Sol du cote Bolivien, au large de la petite ville de Copacabana. La bolivie est sans doute encore plus depaysant. Pas de rabotteurs a chaque metre pour te faire entre dans son magasin ou restaurant, les femmes assises dans la rue vendant leur confections artisanales ou 'verduras' locales. Mais acceder a cet fameuse Isla del Sol pres de laquelle les Incas pensaient que le soleil s'etait leve (la toute premiere fois), sur le lac... ne pouvait pas se faire avec des bateaux touristiques. Nous avons donc merite notre ile avec 20km de marches et 30 minutes de petite barque pour y acceder. Il a aussi fallu se lever avec le soleil (le moindre que l'on puisse faire pour lui rendre hommage) pour traverser l'ile afin de se rendre au 'roca del puma' qui a donne son nom au lac.

Nous nous sommes tellement epris de cette ile mystique que nous en avons oublie les rudiments du voyage... avoir un peu d argent sur soi pour... rentrer! Apres negociations des prix et restriction alimentaire, nous sommes parvenus a rentrer vivants.

Nous avons donc bien merite un peu de repos a La Paz, avec sa pollution et ses odeurs bizarres dans les rues (serait ce du aux foetus de Lamas qu'on retrouve a chaque coin de rue??).

Prochaine destination, la route la plus dangereuse du monde puis un petit sejour en pleine pampa et jungle. Amance, t'as pas interet a me laisser tomber. Je sais que tu vas retrouver plein d'amis dans la jungle, mais si tu veux, moi aussi je peux me faire pousser les cheveux ;)

Mais tout ca, ce sera pour la prochaine fois sur le blog!

Matias

Already 2 months...

Here we go, today is the second month of our trip. We don´t know yet how we´ll celebrate it, but we are in a city having one of the best nightlife of Peru and it´s saturday, so...

Since last time, we went from Arequipa in Canyon del Colca. One of the deepest canyon of the world with 1200 from the bottom to the top. To appreciate it fully, we went for a 3-day trek. From 3500m to 1300m, sleeping in the valley where villages are 5 hours away from any road... After spending to much time enjoying the wonderfull views of the canyon, we got a bit late and had to do the last part of the first day by night. Well, it turned out that the moon, even with a cloudy sky was of a greater help than our night lights (it´s funny not to always know where we put our feet, it adds a bit of risk to our adventure :). The day after, we reached a village full of natural swimming pools where we enjoyed resting before starting the long long way up to our bed for the night. People on the way have been all very nice with us. We are still appreciating the kindness of the Peruvians. nd last, but not least, we enjoyed the next morning the peaceful and impressive Cruz del Condor mirador, where we saw massive condors (as large as 2.8m) flying over our heads and following the moutain streams to get higher in the sky.

But as if we were not even exhausted after this trek, we took the same evening a night bus to Nasza. After a tough sleep (I love babies, but I won´t tell you the morbid ideas that come into my mind sometimes...), we found ourselves in this city at 6am with 3 guys screaming at the same time, suggesting us (well, they call that suggestions!!) to use their company to fly over the mysterious Nazca Lines. These represents very large shapes, from an astronaut to a condor. They still remains a secret for most scientists: how did the Nascas to build so huge and perfect figures only observable from... the sky! So we flew over them in a small Cessna. But another question is raising out of my mind... where is coming from this magic there? Indeed, the first thing Amance told me when getting out of this tiny little plane was:
¨It was awesome. And I don´t know why, but I felt like I wanted to jump out of the plane during all the trip".
What!!!!? You justed needed to be in a small plane to feel that? You couldn´t have done that before so that I hadn´t lost so much energy to convince you!!?
At 11am, we headed straight to Ica, or to his close neightbourhood: Huacachinna, an Oasis surrounded by huge dunes, filled of sandboarders. And I eventually got reassured. After having met so many Israliens in Patagonia and no one since, we eventually found them back!
A night there to enjoy the swimming pool of the hostel and a micro-trek at the top of a dune, and we were already going to Lima. This was the first big change of scene since we arrived in Peru. The capital reminded us the streets of Shangai, with small stores everywhere, a amazing mess in the streets, with cars honking all over the place and a .5 probability to arrive safely at destination by cab. Taken in this fast moving stream since we are in Peru and also following a tight schedule (we need to be in Brazil in a month and half, from where I´ll go to Israel for 2 weeks), we just stayed a day and a half in Lima. We cannot do everything, which in a way is a good thing in that trip. We realize that we´ll have to come back here later!

And after waking up at 3.45am (absolute record so far), we took a flight to Cusco (ancient capital of the Inkas, 3500m high) . This city is really cute, with is colonial architecture everywhere, from the main plaza to the small and charmful pedestrian streets. It is also the Peru nightlife capital. After having danced salsa all friday night, we are very curious to see what´s going to happen tonight...!

Tomorrow, new destination: Machu Picchu that we´ll deserved after the 4 days trek to get there! So, in the middle of the pampa for 4 days, does anyone have any idea of how to communicate us the results of the elections??

¡¡Hasta prompto para las nuevas aventuras!!
Matias

Nous voila donc au Perou…Comme on avait deja pu vous le signifier, nous avons franchi une frontiere, mais aussi tout un monde, tant le contraste avec le Chili est saisissant!!

Apres quelques jours dans le ville coloniale d’Arequipa, pleine de caractere, nous sommes partis pour le canyon de Colca, un des plus profonds, si ce n‘est le plus profond, au monde. La question est toujours sujette a debat…La vallee qui y mene s’est ouverte a nous telle un manuel de geographie, ou le bouquin de Yann Arthus Bertrand (mais vu du sol): cultures en terrasses, monts abruptes et verdoyants, autochtones en costumes traditionnels, majestueux vols de condors (moi qui croyait qu’ils etaient en voie d’extinction, ils sont au moins aussi communs et nombreux que les pigeons sur la place des Terreaux!!! Ceci dit il y a carrement plus a manger que sur un pigeon…A considerer pour la volaille de Noel prochain…). La descente dans le Canyon s’est averee splendide, la nuit passee au fond du Canyon dans un village approvisionne par des anes nous a confirme une nouvelle fois la relativite du temps. A noter ceci dit que chaque conducteur d’ane a son “ane-radio” portable crachant du reggaeton a plein volume!! La remontee fut eprouvante malgre une bonne performance, saluee humblement par les locaux, qui nous ont cependant avoue qu’ils bouclaient la meme ascension en une heure de moins…Ca calme…

Nous avons ensuite fait route pour Lima avec une petite halte a Nazca, le temps de prendre un Cessna et d’admirer les geoglyphes qu’a pu nous laisser la mysterieuse civilisation Nasca, avant d’etre fondue dans l’empire Inca. Il s’agirait d’une cartographie celeste a grande echelle, si magique vue d’avion, les sensations aidant dans notre boite a oeuf volante!! Apres une derniere escale a Huacachina, petit oasis entoure de dunes geantes, soit un des temples mondiaux du surf des sables, nous arrivons a Lima. Sans dire ouvertement que c’est le foutoir integral, qu’est-ce que cette capitale peut paraitre Latina!! Malgre son “smog” quasi permanent, l’activite et le trafic de la ville sont impressionnants, ses musees riches en enseignements pour comprendre le passe mais aussi l’actualite des 20 dernieres annees du pays, exactions du sentier lumineux oblige…

Nous vous ecrivons actuellement de Cuzco, ancienne capitale Inca. Ses rues pavees, ses pentes, ses eglises coloniales, ses UV et son manque d’oxygene!!! Le temps de s’adapater a l’altitude, qui peut avoir l’effet d’un gros petard (jamais je n’ai autant ri dans une creperie…) ou d’un bon gros coup de massue, nous avons retrouve le “fantome” de notre voyage, on ne vous la presente plus: The Ball!!! Ici pour donner de son temps a un projet d’encadrement d’enfants peruviens, notre dorenavant accolyte d’aventure nous a offert le privilege d’un apres-midi en compagnie de sa troupe. Un grand bol de spontaneite, de rires et de souvenirs d’ecole. Il y a fort heureusement des evenements qui ne sont pas couverts par notre appareil photo, mais les images de cet apres midi nous resteront.

Demain, c’est le grand depart pour le Macchu Picchu, un des incontournables de notre periple, meme si nous sommes tres loins d’etre les seuls sur le coup cette fois-ci!!!

Hasta luego!!
Amancio

From Chile to... Peru!

We have a new format!
On change de format!
English/ Francais

So as both camps keep complaining about the language we use in the blog, we will inaugurate today a new kind of article. "Un chico, un idioma": that'sthe deal. I'll try to sum up the five last days in ten minutes since Matthias has kept praying me the last half day...(I like being prayed anyway).
We did finish our trip with Julien in San Pedro de Atacama: "picturesque"northern chilean village with a mix of surfer-hippie-underground atmosphere and dust streets. Cooooooooooool buddy!!!
We enjoyed some wonderful landscapes as you'll see through our pics: sand dunes, bigger salt flats, altitude lakes, geysers, night sky in the Southern hemisphere...We've been totally charmed by this area and activities around:from sand surfing to lazing in a natural hot water whirlpool bath...
Anyway we had to leave to the North...Our trip mate Juliano too...We know he had a "few" hours delay on his way back. Are you back in London now??Great...Do not forget your comments!!!We "had" to go North so: after two "relaxed" month, we now have to make some choices to keep travelling "relaxed"...We knew South America was large. It's even larger though!!!
We are presently in colonial city Arequipa, Peru, the so called "white city"due to the stone used to build the city. Peru is the third country we visit, and it is the third atmosphere we meet to, we'll let you know about our feelings in the next articles!!

It's Matthias time know, in French please!!!

Amancio (it's definetely my new name here, so that people can understand it at first time)

Et oui, on vient tout juste de battre un nouveau record. Le dernier message etait il y a tout juste 5 jours! Bon, faut pas que ca devienne une habitude quand meme.

San Pedro de Atacama... un petit village tres attendrissant, avec une petite rue principale regorgeant de restaurants et bars; la plupart decouverts (il pleut que 4 jours par an, avec une duree moyenne de 30min de precipitations...) et agrementes d un petit feu de cheminee le soir quand arrive la fraicheur. Mais ce n est pas encore son plus grand charme...
C est aussi:
Une ville sportive: avec du surf des sables sur des dunes geantes dans la vallee de la mort
Une ville romantique: avec un couche de soleil magnifique sur la vallee de la lune, petite recif de pics montagneux tout rouges, ressemblant etrangement aux montagne jaunes de Chine. Et pour son ciel magnifique que l´on observe de tres pres...
Une ville salee: la magnifique desert de sel de Atacama, siege de plusieurs milliers de flamants roses, et aussi de petits lezards qui, on ne sait pourquoi, font l objet de tant de photos!
Une ville dominante: a 2700m d altitude, elle nous ouvre l acces a des magnifiques lagons sales a plus de 4500m, avec une faune unique, et des substances liquides uniques aussi (mes chaussures ont ete repeintes gratuitement en... tout noir :(().
Une ville energique: (un peu trop...) avec ses plus hauts geysers du monde. Il faut quand meme se lever a 4h du matin pour arriver sur les lieux au lever du soleil... Ce n est pas trop le 4h du matin que je redoutais, mais l humeur d Amance au reveil!!! Plus de peur que de mal. Heureusement qu il y avait Julien, reputation oblige! (Julien, revient!!).
On est en train de marquer un grand tournant dans ce voyage... On assiste au un triste depart de Julien, realise qu´on vient de franchir le cap du tiers du voyage, et qu on part pour une nouvelle aventure.... apres Argentine et Chili, a nous le Perou!!

Avant de se diriger vers la frontiere peruvienne, nous avons aussi visite la plus grande mine de cuivre au monde de Calama, d une profondeur de plus de 1km, et munie de systemes de transports impressionants (meme moi, je faisais a peine plus de la moitie de la roue des camions qu´ils utilisent :)). On a ensuite passer la frontiere sans trop de probleme, mis a part que les douaniers voulaient passer Amance au scanner de peur qu ils cachent des trucs dans ses cheveux :).
La premiere journee a Arequipa suffit a bien nous depayser. Les conducteurs de taxi sont encore plus fous qu a Buenos Aires, les gens sont tres accueillants et... les Incas devaient etre beaucoup plus beaux que les tribus indigenes du Chili!!!

Oh, oups, et j ai oublie... Amance, je te dois toutes mes excuses... j´ai omis de parler des succulentes gnocchi (mais, pas encore aussi bonnes que ta grand mere) que tu as faites a Santiago... Autant pour moi, quelle egoisme de ma part de ne vouloir partager cette joie avec personne :). Bon, c bon la!? tu vas arreter de m´en faire des pataques maintenant!!?
Et aussi, n oublie surtout pas la prochaine fois de fermer la pochette de l appareil photo! non, mais! apres, c de ma faute si l appareil a presque son deuxieme pied dans la tombe!!
A part ca, tout se passe toujours bien dans notre relation de ´couple´ comme dirait Julien. Qu´on en vienne au blog pour communiquer est plutot bon signe non!!?

Matias (c super, il comprennent toujours mon nom ici!!)

He venido al desierto…

Don’t worry, we are not ready to write in Castellano yet, though the beginning of this song by Lhasa fits perfectly with the landscapes around. However, as our families requested it and for our pleasure, we’ll write these few words in French...

A la demande generale un grand bonjour a tous en francais !!

Apres un retour relatif a la sedentarite a Mendoza puis Santiago, nous sommes repartis sur les routes de l’Amerique du Sud, en direction du nord du Chili. Les jours comme les paysages se succedent sans pareil, le Chili offrant une largeur moyenne de 200km seulement entre le Pacifique et les Andes. Ceci nous permet donc d’osciller entre ocean et haute (voire tres haute) montagne en un rien de temps.

En bons plagistes, nous avons donc commence par la cote Pacifique avec la decouverte du pittoresque port de Valparaiso. Maisons aux mille couleurs, dedale d’escaliers et de ruelles offrant chacune une vue sur le port : ca sent le romantisme et la poesie a chaque carrefour et on comprend aisement que Pablo Neruda ait possede une maison dans la ville... Je me serais bien vu avec mes grattes dans son bureau, sous les combles, surplombant la baie...Treve de reveries !! Nous nous rendons ensuite a La Serena, une des villes coloniales les plus anciennes du Chili. Nous profitons la-aussi de l’animation du Pacifique et, de ce port, d’une escapade vers la Vallee de l’Elqui, coeur de fabrication du Pisco, alcool local. Histoire de vous rassurer, on a note tout le process de fabrication, on est prets a distiller a notre retour, et SURTOUT on sait deja comment l’utiliser en cocktail...

Derniere etape avant Calama d’ou nous ecrivons : Copiapo, ville entouree de montagnes offrant des plages parmi les plus belles du Chili a l’Ouest et de hautes montagnes a l’Est. Apres notre premier vrai bain dans le Pacifique, nous avons loue un pick up pour visiter le parc de los Tres Cruces et le Laguna Verde a la frontiere argentine. Nous fleurtons pendant deux jours avec les 5000m d’altitude et prenons nos marques avec notre vehicule tout terrain: terrains escarpes et hostiles (tres hostile la nature), usage de siphons pour remplir notre resevoir (c’est pas si mauvais que ca le 95 sans plomb finalement), on ne se lave pas (meme si ca, ca devient un grand classique)...L’aventure c’est l’aventure !!!

Outre l’altitude, nous commencons a sentir egalement notre changement de latitude, venant de franchir le tropique du Capricorne. Nous passons la plupart de notre temps en region desertique et aride: les etendues de sel, les roches et leurs mille couleurs devenant l’attraction de tous nos deplacements : on a de quoi vous fournir en fond d’ecran a notre retour !!!

Et nous voila a Calama, dans les starting blocks pour San Pedro de Atacama, sa vallee, ses sources thermales... Nous avons atteint mine de rien le tiers de notre voyage...Cela merite un petit bilan. Comme vous avez pu le comprendre en anglais dans les precedents articles, Matthias et moi traversons une crise de couple profonde et irremediable, et malgre le compromis d’usage qui nous lie, nous ne sommes pas mecontents de n’avoir plus que deux longueurs a accomplir...

BLAGUE !!!

Treve de plaisanteries, le temps passe beaucoup trop vite et, chose a craindre, nous nous entendons toujours bien... Nous nous sommes retrouves dans nos jeux de collegiens et dans l’accomplissement de nos reves par le voyage, et nous plongeons de nouveau avec amusement dans nos differences (fondamentales :)) et notre complementarite qui demeurent quasiment inchangees. Voila de quoi rendre le voyage encore plus riche, chacun y allant franco de son grain de sel !!!

Un grand merci egalement a Julien, notre premier compagnon de voyage, exemplaire (bien qu’il ait reussi a me refiler l’accent lillois, bah ouais hein !!!). Il nous quitte deja dans quelques jours, apres deux semaines de vadrouille commune. Bon retour a Londres et mucha suerte pour ton nouveau job a la city!! On attend ton commentaire perso sur le blog...!!

Grosses bises a tous et a tres bientot pour de nouvelles aventures.
Matias, Amancio y Juliano

From the Lagos de los Andes and the Atlantic coast of Argentina to.. Chile!!

Hola Todos !

Vous commenciez a perdre espoir, mais nous revoila! On est toujours vivant, et on a desormais change de pays... Un petit coucou a tous donc de Santiago au Chili! Beaucoup s´est passe depuis notre dernier petit commentaire.

I have to switch in english... for those who don´t fully understand, you can use google translation to get a brief overview of what we say! But don´t worry, we may be able to write soon in spanish :)). It will be much more understandable!

After the wonderful landscapes of the region of los lagos, we crossed Argentina all the way to the east side to go to Trelew (famous for its welsh population), from where we rented a car to go to Punta Tombo. There was the biggest colony of Magellanic Pinguins. It was like a big lake of black and white heads, hidden in the steppe or walking slowly to the sea to get some fresh food. This small animals are so cute, the way there are standing there, like they didn´t even hear you... It walks so slowly by moving its entire body and seems to make so much effort to put a foot in front of the other that you woud like to help it by taking it and throwing it at the sea :). When you get closer to them, they let you know that they don't like it by rotating their head by almost 180 degres. Well, I won't start to describe you the lifestyle of the pinguins. I'm not on a naturalist discovering trip afterall.

We went then to the Peninsula Valdes with 2 very nice israelis we met at the hostel. The wildlife in and around this peninsula is impressive. We saw there animals that I never remember the names, but the pics will speak. After sea lions, sea elephants and pinguins again, we saw, for the first time orcas, like small points away close to the shore. We missed the great show of the Orcas coming on the beach to feed with babies sea elephant.

But of course, all this was so intense and so exhausting that we needed some rest :). So we headed to Mendoza to take some holidays of holidays. We have been there wonderfully welcomed by Amance´s friend (special thanks to Rocio & her so sweet family and group of friends). We really loved the people and the atmosphere of this so-called Hostel by its hosts.

We felt so well there that it was hard to leave. Mendoza being the capital of Argentinian wine, we visited also a famous vinery (Rutini), with, I must say a fantastic guide (Rocio, if you read this...). And before I leave the Mendoza section, I need to thank Rocio again! After she blamed Amance several times for being nasty when he wakes up, I saw a huge improvement !! And we say that we can´t change people!! I don´t believe it anymore, or at least that Amance is not influenced by girls I guess!! :).

But every vacation has an end (woops, I already imagine people getting angry by reading that :)) and so we left for Santiago. After a wonderfull trip by bus through the Andes, we joined our favorite british trek mate (Kat, thank you for the delicious chocolate cake, which was uncomparable with the other one which stayed for maybe a week on the table;)) we met at Torres del Paine (see post of march 22). And here we go, we find ourselves in an appartment that looks like an hostel as well, everybody being so nice and friendly with us (special thanks to Kat and the real inhabitants of the apartment ;)). A day after we arrived, we were joined by my friend Julien from London who´s going to stay for 2 weeks with us.

Oh, I almost forgot! You thought that I was done with Skydiving?? You don´t know me... As Santiago is maybe the last city where we can skydive before Brazil, I had to to go... So, I started to call the few places aroung Santiago, and surprisingly, discovered that most people were telling me (yes, in espanol!!) that they had no plane available for the week end. All this until I got the Chilean federation of Paracaidismo to find out that... (No, why I am saying that!!!!!??) there was an accident last week (from what I was told, 2 skydivers opened their parachute a bit too close...), so the dropzones are closed until they find out what happened...). Well... no comment... :((

And I know that everybody´s worrying for my knee, so I´m glad to say that after thinking of being urgently rapatriated to France (and by taking with me lots of Patagonian Chocolates to increase my chances of surviving), all is back to normal now :).

Next step, the wonderful city of Valparaiso on the Pacific ocean before reaching el Norte Chico de Chile, one of the best place of the world for observatories as the sky is pure and almost without clouds all the year round. We´ll then head to the famous deserts and volcanos of El Norte Grande de Chile and Argentina.

Enorme Abrazo,
Amancio y Matthiaso

Les petits princes...

(Don´t worry, English is below)

Ayant et allant croiser les itineraires de St Exupery, et non par sursaut identitaire, je me permets de debuter cet article avec quelques mots de francais। On ne discute pas c'est comme ca. Pouf pouf.

Pour commencer, s'il vous plait, une photo du mont Fitz Roy flanque des monts Mermoz et Saint Exupery, entre autres... Les Argentins nous faisantl'honneur de conserver les noms de nos illustres pionniers de l'Aeropostale, nous ne pouvions nous empecher de fanfarronner un tantinet au premier plan...

Apres ce dense passage en Patagonie, nous remontons donc dans la region argentine des lacs ou nous nous trouvons actuellement (plus exactement a SanCarlos de Bariloche et San Martin de Los Andes) region aux splendides paysages, reconnue pour ses chalets, ses etendues de lacs et de monts verdoyants...
Notre prochain point de chute se situera sur la cote Atlantique de l'Argentine : La peninsule Valdes. Peninsule dont la cavite Nord a, pour la petite histoire, inspire St Exupery pour le dessin de son serpent mangeur d'elephant, aux airs de chapeau. A vous de le constater sur une carte. Je dis c'est fou, n'est-il pas ??
Nous rejoindrons ensuite Mendoza et ses vignobles, en bons fils d'ivrognes. Petit clin d'oeil a nos peres autant qu'a nos pairs...
Voila pour les nouvelles francaises et avant que ca tourne en ode a la francophonie...

let's go on in English!!! Where were we??
Yes!! Chile, Torres Del Paine, and then El calafate (at least a crack every 30 minutes).
Next we headed to El Chalten (" mountain which smokes"), kind of far west village still under construction, with warmy places and genuine atmosphere. Between two "smoking sessions", we had a chance to approach the Cerro Fitz Roy and enjoy the wonderful autumn colour range, a couple of condors and of course vagaries of climate!
After three days we decided to leave to the North, following the "Ruta 40", to Bariloche. Lakes, mountains, pine trees, chocolates, cycling, "SaintBernard" dogs, are we back in the Alps ??? We are currently still enjoying these amazing sceneries from San Martin De Los Andes, more pictures to come...

The last but not the least, I've heard of some George Lucas related comments in last Matthias' article. Let's keep up with the good metaphors through what is becoming your weekly "web serial":"Matthias and Chewbacca across South America".

Indeed, I omissed to mention Matthias had (hopefully) found some other occupations, which roughly consisted in bothering me with pointless suggestions (such as skydiving or going to the haidresser's in South America...). He is now totally focused on his knee which used to ache 10 days ago. Did not know he was that hypocondriachal. Thus it involves a brand new time schedule for him: half of the timewrapping with annoyance a fabric around his knee, the other half complaining and limping around. I had a flash then: "Il Cattivo" Wallash following "Il buono" Eastwood and "Il Brutto" Van Cleef in the desert, begging for water and support. THE nickname was found: that'll be TUCO, especially when Matt remains unshaved a few days long!!!

That's all folks!! I've nothing else to declare so far (except Matthias´eagerness to add comments on the next update)... As you asked us to, we'll try to upload more pictures on the website. Moreover if you want to come even closer you can join us a few weeks without any problem.You are welcome on board, we will have some support from London next week and it will be a pleasure to share our adventures!! Looking forward to reading you on the blog.

Hasta pronto chicos!!

Amancio "Chew" De Los Lagos y Matthiasso "Tuco" De La Pampa

From Torres del Paine to El Calafate

As some people complained about the fact that we don't give news that often, we'll try to try to maybe do better... But it's very unlikely that we'll do more! Well, we were absolutely outraged to see that the camping site at 2500m in the Parc nacionales Torres del Paine didn't have connection!!

So, since last time... we took a bus to Puerto Natales and arrived at night at 9pm. Of course, we didn't know where to sleep (we hate to know in advance what's going to happen :)). So we get off the bus, wait for a bit, and then a girl is coming to us and is asking us if we want to sleep at her place. Hum... so, before Amance had the time to say something, I was like: Yes, of course! So, we find ourselves in a big family house, with everybody talking to us (in a language that seems still unknown to us). They invited us for a crazy barbecue. They offered us crazy drinks (Amance told me not to mention them, scared of being killed by some members of his family). So we drunk and ate, again and again, we talked to them, they talked to us, I don´t think any of us were talking about the same thing, but the atmosphere was really really nice...until we realize that it was 2am and that we have to wake up 4hours later for... 4 days of trekking.

On the following morning, we meet on the way to the park a very nice British-French girl (oh, no she will read the blog and she told us she makes an amazing chocolate cake), sorry, an amazing girl, studying in Santiago, as well as a couple of 2 Germans. After exchanging few words, going through the storms, rain, and cold (the weather was very moody this first day) we eventually made it to the camp. And though we first thought that a tent for 2 could just fit 2 people, we got it wrong. This mysterious girl joined us for 2 nights. And we went on in this adventure, from the glacier delivering huge ice blocks (some being, as we didn't expect, amazingly blue) in the lake, to the astonishing views from the Valle del Frances (our valley, yes!!) and the immense Torres, big mountains forming very high towers.


Thank you for those who wrote the comments and who are supporting me in the hard task of convincing Amance to jump (especially Ida!). Well, I think I have another challenge. I want him to cut his hairs before I really scream on the morning, thinking that I am Han Solo waking up with Chewbaca!! or worse... that I stayed on the island in Ushuaia (or in CP Zoo for Moumou) and that I´m waking up with a huge unshaved sea lion... Just talking about it, I´m going to have nightmares tonight.. Oh, and I need to say that Amance did a great job in improving his communication skills, with an amazing question to start a conversation with two roommates: a very quick and memorable whr fom?. It´s very sad we cannot attach audio files...


We keep saying that the pictures will come soon. They will, but... we may have a different perspective of time here :).
We are going tomorrow (we still need to book, and it´s only 10.30pm here) to Perito Moreno, an amazing glaciar, apparently very close, where you can see huge blocks of ice craking and falling in the water. We´ll then head to El Chalten, another beautiful site for a 3 or 4 days trek.

Special thanks to The Ball, without whom all this wouldn´t have happened :)

Los gringos