Last country of our adventures: Colourful, hot & festive Colombia!! Que Calor!!

We arrived in Cartagena on 1st of June and were straight away in a new atmosphere: loud music (Sound systems everywhere..., subtropical temperature (very very hot and humid) and a nice Carribean vibe! We were sweating without moving... My god! So hot!! Incredible when there were sub zero temperarures a few hours earlier in Cusco (overnight) in Peru.

Colombia also meant at the beginning a few arguments with our favourite airline LAN...First problem of our world trip with luggage: Our big bag got lost and reached us after more than 48hours! We had to wear winter cloths for 2 days when it was near 40 degrees outside!! Guigui was lucky enough to get a new LAN t-shirt and underwear in the emergency kit...Finally he wears nice cloths:) We soon forgot about this when we discovered Cartagena and its very pleasant old town and our favourite area called Getsemani- a kind of bobo "bourgeois boheme" area with small squares, nice churches, wonderful street art and tasty ceviche! We also dared cycling to Bocagrande which is supposed to be the Miami beach of Cartagena... But were slightly disappointed... Not much by the beach but by the constant harassment of street vendors to sell us anything and everything. You are on the beach to enjoy and relax and every 30 seconds...someone comes to ask you something. One lady even tried to massage Guigui's shoulders with some oil to lure him into a full beach massage... She was thanked by Guigui (not very gently) and she moved on. Anyway the only thing we got that day was big sunburns:). We try to get tanned before going back home...ahahahah!!!

Cartagena is great but too many tourists!! So we decided to go for a week in a "no foreigner zone" in a town called Tolu, 3 hours south of Cartagena. Tolu is locally reputed amongst Colombians as a nice and relaxed place by the Carribean sea! We were so happy we went there... Only bikes in the street with even bicytaxis, nice beach restaurants with fresh seafood, fresh fruit juice and the BEST hotel ever with an open air room wiped by a constant warm wind and a massive double bed, hammocks on the roof terrace... We can say this was a "near paradise" experience and it will stay in our memories as a proper chill out destination. Not to forget Guigui's birthday on San Bernardo island where we spent a night in a kind of resort with only us as customers...a bit weird but nice as well! This year, birthday candles were on fresh lobsters!!

Following this "holiday" break in the Carribeans, we flew to Bogota and arrived just on time for the kick off match of the World cup! Here it's the football Mecca and Colombians are crazy about the world cup.. They convinced me to buy the Colombian football shirt and I was proud to wear it the day Colombia smashed Greece! It was as if they won the World cup in the streets! Crazy, very festive and nice atmosphere in a grey and rainy weather...

Check our usual sections: Colombia, Portraits, Foodies and See & Contact Us.

What a tiring climb to reach...Machu Picchu & its mountain ;-)...but worth the effort!

Dear all... After a hectic bus trip between Puno and Cusco where we had the most dangerous overtaking of this one year trip (very close to an accident), we arrived in beautiful Cusco!! There are so much to see & do here... Lots of Inca ruins but it is worth noting most of the Inca stuff were replaced by Catholic churches and cathedrals built by the Spaniards... Very nice as well but shame the Inca heritage is now barely visible in the old Inca capital...however there is one thing the colons didn't find... And stayed intact... The famous Maccu Picchu which was built by Incas around 1450.. This site was visited by an American called Bigham Hiram in 1911 and he convinced National Geographic to come back to do a full expedition & take more pictures for the world to discover this WONDER of the World... And it worked!! Since then millions & millions of people went to see Maccu Picchu... And we can say now we are one of them!! We decided to climb to the site from Aguas Calientes starting at 5.30amish with hundreds and hundreds of stairs... Waouhh...so tiring! We were very fast as well as we were very keen to arrive... But when we arrived... Big queue with all the people who came by bus:( A bit frustrating!! But we soon forgot this to watch the sun rise above the East mountains and to lighten up Maccu Picchu slowly! What a great time!! We then had the great idea to climb the big mountain above Maccu Picchu which is called Maccu Picchu Montana... And this was not a piece of cake especially after the morning climb!! Anyway after 1hour and 20 minutes and a tiny bit of water left, we reached the top of this mountain!! We were spoilt with a great view all over the mountains, glaciers and Maccu Picchu which looks tiny from the top... And there you realise how crazy it was in 1450 to build such a city on top of a mountain and entirely made of rocks!! It is so cleverly done with water drainage system, irrigation, agricultural terraces...etc that you think we would have had a lot to learn from the Incas!! As you can imagine, this was a special day even if the site is full of tourists (2500 per day currently and up to 6,000 in July)!!! We took the panoramic train back to Cusco very very tired but the head full of nice pictures!! Cusco is the perfect place to relax and enjoy proper Peruvian food (llama meat, fried guinea pig, ceviche, quinoa salad...etc) as well as our usual standards (lamb kebab and lots of other great burgers...ahahahah)! Check out our pics under the usual sections: Bolivia/Peru, Portraits, Foodies and See and Contact Us.

Next stop is Cartagena in Columbia and the Caribbean coast.. Can't wait to feel the heat and swim in the sea... It's been a long time now we haven't been to the beach... Well 2 months since New Zealand!!

La Paz, Titicaca lake & its islands...and Peru..here we are!!

Dear all,

Here are a few pics on our few days in La Paz, which is impressive by its design and organisation. One part of it, including the airport, is at 4,000m high, on a "plato", and the other part down a valley, which is full of houses that are well built within the mountains. From the plato, you could enjoy a very impressive view on the city and the very famous mountain called Illimani which lays at 6,439m high in the background. We then headed to the Titicaca lake which is well known to be the largest highest lake at roughly 3,900m high. As a record, for the past 4 weeks, we have been living at around 4,000m high so when we will go down, we should be fitter than ever ;-)..Anyway, we enjoyed Titicaca, and its islands such as Isla del Sol, in Bolivia and a few others like Uros and Taquile in Peru. Check out our Portraits section to understand more the inhabitants of Uros who live on floating islands... So far we dont see any difference between Peru and Bolivia apart from the fact that the food is even better ;-) here in Peru...We are now in Cusco and we should understand more about about the Incas culture and history in the next few days. We will be updating the blog after our trip to Machu Picchu...As usual, please visit our standard pages like Bolivia/Peru, Portraits, Foodies and See & Contact us. Take care. Guillaume & Agnes

Amazonian jungle near Rurrenabaque: anacondas, caymans, piranhas, river pink dolphins, various monkeys...and thousands of mosquitoes ;-)

Dear all,

Waoooh...from La Paz at 4000m high and 5 degrees celcius, we arrived in Rurrenabaque with a tiny plane (almost as tiny as in Nepal) with around 15 seats....at 200m high and 35 degrees ;-) What a shock but how nice to feel in a tropical environment again...So we went there after being advised that we could go and see the Amazonian jungle & pampa...and what a delight! Different kind of monkeys, beautiful birds like toucans, caymans & alligators, pink dolphins, anaconda, giant ants eater, piranhas etc...etc...To tell you the truth, the jungle can also be a nightmare especially between 6pm and 9pm ….because of the bloody mosquitoes ;-) My bum, for example had 50 bites easily (how stupid it is to take a shower at 6.30pm on the first night ;-) and thus looked like the world map. Agnes had the chance to swim with the famous Amazonian pink dolphins, that are far bigger, softer than the standard ones but also with a longer and thinner nose...Granted dolphins were playing, they also bit Agnes who had to go to the hospital to check for potential infections. We also enjoyed fishing piranhas before eating them, hunting for anaconda...we found a 3m long one which is the biggest we could find there (the bigger ones are in Brazil). Worth mentioning that we had a great 5 days there together with a bunch of Frenchies (Laura & Cecile in their 25s), Rosbeefs (Alex & Dave in their 19s) and Australian (Martin who was 36) guys...Fort more pics, check the usual sections: Bolivia/Peru, Foodies, Portraits, See and Contact Us. We are currently in La Paz and are heading to Titicaca and Peru tomorrow. By the way we will be in France early July and in London mid-July). Agnes found a great job in her former company and will start end of July. Me, I am still looking into joining back my former company/group...so fingers crossed! Take care and see you soon! Guillaume & Agnes

2 weeks in Potosi, Sucre and Cochabamba...3 Bolivian cities...with a strong historic heritage!

Dear all,

For the past two weeks, we have had the chance to relax in three Bolivian cities which all had or have an importance in Bolivian history: Potosi, Sucre and Cochabamba. Potosi is well known to be the highest city in the world…between 4,070m and 4,300m high, but also for its silver mine called Cerro Ricco and also the “Mountain that eats men alive”. For the past 500 years, 8 million men (including African slaves died here). Finally Potosi is famous to have produced the local and colonial coins in the XVIII century. During the boom years, Potosi became the wealthiest and biggest city in the Americas. Sucre is considered as the most beautiful city and symbolic heart of Bolivia. It is namely where independence was proclaimed…If La Paz is the well-known capital, Sucre is the nation’s capital as written in the constitution. You will see in our pics some great ensemble of white washed buildings…including “La casa de la libertad” where the independence was signed in 1809. Worthwhile mentioning that you will find a 1km area with 12 million years old dinosaur foot prints near Sucre, which is considered as a world heritage…Finally, Cochabamba, is currently one of the booming cities in Bolivia, being the second largest city behind La Paz. For the past two weeks, we have been eating all our dinners with two food lovers who are Carine & Kai…(as you may remember we met them two weeks ago during our trip to the Uyuni salt flats & See our portraits sections) and to tell you the truth food in Bolivia, both local and international, is very good…We have namely enjoyed big pieces of meats and meat fondue ;-)….In Cochabamba, we met my ex-colleague, Anthony, and his wife, Chris, who are both doing a world trip for 2 years….well done you two (see our Portraits section)…Anyway, we very much like Bolivia…we thought it would be kind of Nepal in terms of development but clearly not at all. See more pics in the usual places: Bolivia/Peru, Portraits, Foodies and See and Contact us. Tomorrow we will head to the Amazonian jungle to try to spot some caimans, piranhas, anacondas, and pink dolphins…hehehe..the adventure continues...even if it is closer and closer to its end...

Our fantastic journey to Bolivia and its Uyuni Salar salt flat!!!

Dear all,
After a week in San Pedro de Atacama in Chile and a total of one month in this country, we headed to Uyuni in Bolivia. What a great trip! We shared a jeep with 4 other people, one 24 years old Deutch called Ton, one 46 years old Austrian called Paul and a lovely couple from Bristol, Carine (who is actually half French), 23, and Kai, 29. This part of Bolivia (Southwest) is an awe-inspiring collection of diverse landscapes ranging from the blinding white salar of Uyuni salt flat to the geothermal hotbed, a ground that boils with minerals and the extraordinary colors spectrum of the various lagunas, red for one of them, full of flamingos, and all of that up to 4,600 m high. The first night, Paul & Kai were actually very sick due to the high altitude and both of them had to use the oxygen bottles…The following day, we drove to a lower altitude and everything went fine for them and we kept enjoying our trip all together going from one place to another, with fantastic and breathtaking landscapes throughout our trip. We finally arrived in the famous Uyuni salar…We enjoyed a beautiful sunrise on top of an island overlooking this giant and white salar salt flat…what a special moment for all of us! As usual, please check our pics in Bolivia/Peru, Portraits, Foodies and See us. 

A relaxing week in San Pedro de Atacama (North of Chile) & its beautiful surroundings!!

Dear all, we have just been spending one week in San Pedro de Atacama (North of Chile) to visit its beautiful surroundings: its salar, its oasis, its valley de la luna and some fantastic places where lakes and volcanoes lay at more than 4000m high. San Pedro, which is located at 2800m high is very famous for its salar, for its desert, the driest in the world, and also for its houses made of either Adobe or volcanic rocks. We have been walking a lot, cycling 50km in the valley de la luna and enjoying the sky at night...the sky is amazing out here and lots of international astronomists have settled here for their work. This stop was very very relaxing and we will now head to Bolivia and Uyuni. As usual all updates are under Chile, Portraits, Foodies and See us.

Bye-Bye Santiago...North of Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia...this is our program for the last two months of our trip!!!

Dear all,

Agnes and I will leave Santiago de Chile tomorrow morning to head to the North to reach San Pedro de Atacama, to enjoy the salars, the desert, the pink flamingos and the stars. We have been spending our last few days in Santiago with Bessie & her family (see pic below), and we had great times with all of them, especially for Easter and enjoyed some proper food cooked by Bessie (See our Foodies section)! 
After San Pedro de Acatama, we will then head to South of Bolivia (Salar de Uyuni) and Titicaca, probably stay there for 2 weeks to hopefully see one of the oldest tribe in South America, the Uru de Chipayas. Titicaca being shared with Peru, we finally decided to go to Cusco and Machu Pichu. From there, we will take a flight to reach Colombia for the last 3 weeks of our trip (end of June). We just added the latest pics of Santiago under Chile, may update the Portraits tonight ;-)....I am telling you this as I will leave my laptop here in Santiago at Bessie's for security purposes. So far we have done very well and have not had any trouble...As many people told us to be careful here, we thus decided to go with less (expensive) equipments... Anyway, we will try to update the blog from time to time in a cyber cafe and will make sure to make it alive.

Anyway, a new adventure is ahead of us....we cannot wait to see all of that....before coming back home end of June/early July! Take care! Agnes & Guillaume

Chiloe, its wooden houses and churches, a wild, wet and welcoming island!

Dear all,

After rougly a week in South Patagonia, Agnes, Yolande (Agnes' Mum) and I headed to the North of its region to reach Puerto Varas, a nice city built near a huge lake where you can feel the German influence from the XIX and early XX centuries, and where huge volcanoes lay. This city is the door to reach Chiloe island which has a strong fishing heritage and is famous for its typical and numerous wooden churches from the XVIII century onwards. So, we enjoyed living on the "Palafitos", houses on stilts, also very colourful and eating nice seafood. Our favourite part is probably the West and North West coasts where we think it is wilder (nice national parks, walks etc...) and where we met lovely people. We namely met a guy who was hitch hiking called Nyi Nyi (see our Portraits section) who is from Myanmar but has lived in South America for years and years and with whom we were stuck in the mud, in the dark, in the middle of nowhere with our car for nearly 4 hours. Meters after meters, we reached a house. 3  nice men helped us to reach our hostel...and at 10.30pm/11pm, Sonja our host, welcomed us with probably the best food we had so far in Chile (all home made, chicken, bread, veggies etc...), some nice heating and warm shower...The following day, we had a nice walk near the ocean, where the 1960 earthquake created a 2m deep gap, that allowed salted water to surround trees and kill them...the landscape was really beautiful. It is over there that we met a lovely Chilean couple, Alfredo and Elena, with whom we spent time walking in the dunes, fishing, eating and drinking....Check out our latest pics on the usual sections such as Chile, Portraits, Foodies etc...By the way, you will also read about our quest to find the grave of a lady called Jeanne Cabanne, a Yolande's friend who passed away in the 90's in Patagonia. 

4 days trek in "Los Torres" national park with Agnes' Mum & great kayak session at the Lago Grey glacier!!!

Dear all,

We are now back in Puerto Natales after 4 days trek in Patagonia and more precisely in the "Los Torres" national park. In autumn, this place is usually very rainy, windy and cold but luckily we had a great dry weather with no wind and we could enjoy some nice walks with Agnes' Mum without too much effort. The autumn colors, the birds such as the famous condors, the "Lama like" animals called "Guanaco", the ostriches, the famous "torres" (towers of rocks), the glaciers and the kayaking session near the Lago Grey glacier were absolutely breathtaking. Unfortunately we have not seen any puma which are well present in the park but we saw people who saw one ;-) (waoooooouh!!). Agnes' Mum celebrated a secret birthday (with two digits) a few weeks ago and she made it all along the way with us. Congrats to her! In the next few days, we will leave the South of Patagonia to reach the North part of it, on an island on the Pacific coast called Chiloe. We were just informed about the recent earthquakes which happened in the North and which could lead to a bigger one and tsunamis....we will be careful and may rearrange our second part of our trip here in Chile to avoid the North and maybe go to Bolivia via a safer route. By the way, Chilean are very very nice and their cuisine (especially seafood) is truly amazing! For updates please check our usual sections, Chile, Foodies etc....

Otoño en Chile: es muy agradable de descubrir un nuevo continente!!

Dear all,

We arrived in Santiago on Wednesday 26th of March! How nice it is to discover a new country, continent and new language. South America is totally new for us and we already love the long evenings and nights here. It is probably the first country in our world trip where restaurants and bars can still serve you after 11pm ;-) So, we enjoyed Santiago for 3 days, during which we visited a bit of the city, welcomed Agnes' Mum who will be travelling with us for 2 weeks, met Bessie (thanks to our London friend, Miguel) and finally saw Denis, Agnes' cousin who is now living in Chile, travelling all around the country & South America, produce & sell jewellery with his very nice Chilean girlfriend, Isi. In this section you will see pics of Santiago but also our first day in Patagonia/Punta Arenas. We will stay here 2 weeks roughly before going back to Santiago. The atmosphere here in Punta Arenas is a kind of "end of the world" one, very cold, dry and windy...wild dogs in the "dead streets", old houses, and a nice view on the detroit of Magellan...Check out the usual sections for more pics such as Chile. Tomorrow we are heading to Puerto Natales, the Torre del Pain national park, its glaciers etc.

Bay of plenty, bay of islands...surfing & skydiving session....you must do it...it is awesome!!

Dear all,

After Tongariro, we headed North, to visit Rotorua, its hot pools & geysers, went to Bay of plenty to relax and surf, went to Auckland to sell our van (what we did successfully in 2 days for a slightly higher price ;-), and then headed even up North to visit Bay of islands to keep on surfing and....glaglagla...skydiving from 12,000ft (roughly 3,700m) with 44seconds of free fall! Agnes registered me 3 weeks ago without my consent. She asked me: " Do you want to go skydiving? I said: No. She said: Too late, I just paid"....I have been scarred and excited for the past 3 weeks, what a relief...but also what a joy!!! It is such a great experience....we clearly want to do it again and probably will do anytime we will have the opportunity...We now have 6 days left here in NZ. We will finish our trip in a region called Coromandel...to keep on surfing...Life is hard...but more importantly exciting! Check out the skydive video (the youtube video was available in France for a week but due to music protection (Sacem), it seems not to be working anymore in this country only...If you are from another country, feel free to click here to try my own video or, click here to see the new Youtube video from the Skydive company featuring myself and Agnes and a few pics under the usual sections: New Zealand, Foodies, Portraits and See us.

Back to work at Crab's farm winery at Hamish's & great trek sessions in the volcano Tongariro National Park!

Dear all,

My god, we feel so lucky once again. After spending a few days in Wellington (south of North Island), we headed to the Hawkes Bay to try to find a job in a vineyard/winery. And what a success!! We went to Crab's Farm winery created and managed by Hamish since 1987.They own a few parcels which produce Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Rose, Merlot (like a Bordeaux powerful wine)….Again we could not be part of the harvesting as this was due to start in one week time so we did some gardening (one of our specialities from now on…;-). We spent some amazing time with Hamish, his Cafe staff (where we were spoilt with free food like mussels, scallops etc) and his wife, Dominique and her son Salvador. We also had the chance to spend one day at their very relaxing home….Thanks Hamish for everything and the home made wines and Brandy bottles ;-). After this we headed straight away to the middle of the North island to the Tongariro National Park to do some tramping (trekking). What a scenery we had there under a perfect weather….the volcanos, the lakes, the toxic fumes, its colors etc….Check out our pics under New Zealand, Foodies and Portraits. We now head North to visit Rotorua & its geysers and the Bay of Plenty coast.

The North, Abel Tasman...a kind of perfume and sound of Provence & the Malborough sounds before reaching the North island!

Dear all,

Here it is, our visit of the South Island is coming to an end....And what a treat to be here in the North. Blue sky everyday, morning swim almost every day, bluer and warmer water, great coast walks with great views....+ the smell of the Provence, the sound of the musical crickets & cigales...What a joy....! Also personally I felt my first spleen about home, our family & friends, our trip...travelling from one place to another is slightly less exciting that what we have done so far and we knew it...But C'mon, lets not complain and make the most of our trip...(actually I was starving and exhausting when I felt this...)

We will now spend one or two more days in the North before taking a ferry to reach Wellington. And what a final stay: we went in the Malborough sounds, enjoying the scenic routes with Nicky, the swim in the sounds, fishing with Nick & Courtney....the ferry at night & Wellington at Stan's & Carol's. Check the pics out at New Zealand, Foodies & Portraits. By the way, the goal of our trip in the North Island is to visit the Hawkes Bay & its vineyards (we will try to work there), its volcano region, its surfing coasts, its Bay of Islands (where Agnes booked skydiving without telling me...arghhhhh) and Auckland...And do not forget to send us emails...we love this!

A few nice surprises on the East coast...

Dear all,

After having had a great time in the Catlins (extreme south), we took a bit of time to enjoy the East coast. Eating proper fishes & seafood, catching myself the famous green lips mussels and cooking them with the Mariniere style (butter, celery, oignon, creme fraiche and white wine), visiting the touching and in construction Christchurch, fishing and trying to get fishes (without success), enjoying some nice short treks, the fur seals & penguins, and  getting used to Nicky, which showed once again some strong characters as the front left tyre went flat once...Fortunately, it was only an issue about the valve and we did not have to change it...Furthermore, we spent some nice time with some French and Belgium couples, David & Emilie and Xavier & Sophie...and are now heading to the North, Nelson and Abel Tasman. For more pics, go to: New Zealand, Foodies and Portraits.

Terrific wildlife & scenery in The Catlins!!!

Dear all,

After our experience at Pam's dairy farm, we headed South to visit the region called "The Catlins"...where the wind is stronger, the sea wilder....and where we could enjoy some of the best wildlife such as yellow eyed penguins, sea lions, hector dolphins etc....Life with Nicky is great even if nights are sometimes tough ;-) and even if her battery failed once ;-) because of us...Anyway The Catlins is a terrific region. We are now heading North (via the East coast) to reach Christchurch, Nelson etc...Happy Valentine's (dixit Agnes ;-) Check out the usual sections: New Zealand, Portraits and Foodies.

First farming experience in New Zealand: at Pam's dairy farm, surrounded by cows, chickens, lambs...

Dear all,

After one day of being on our own after the wonderful week with families, we met a nice Kiwi chap, Vic, who was working at the campsite on behalf of the local council...What a nice and funny guy...Thanks to him, we found work at a dairy farm owned by Pam Williams....work in exchange of accommodation (what a bed....) and of food (how nice to eat local bacon, eggs, lamb....vegetables...on a daily basis). We did not really work with cows as the farm is managed by experienced people and they use big automatic machines to milk the cows...So we ended up working on the chicken & hens' field, preparing the glass house's ground for the next veggies and fruits' seasons, mowing the giant field owned by Pam etc..etc...What an experience to do this....to be surrounded by all these animals and to spend some wonderful time with Vic & Pam. We will add more pics on the farm, the animals, Vic & Pam shortly but feel free to have a look at the downloaded pics on the usual sections: New Zealand, Portraits and Foodies.

On the road again, on our own..again...not really...we now have Nicky!

Dear all,

Don't panic (especially Mums), we did not get a baby...but we are so pleased to announce that Nicky is now sharing our life...We adopted "Nicky" (the 1995 Toyota Estima Lucida Luxury van) in Queenstown from a very nice Scottish couple, and started to head South to start our road trip. We had the chance to introduce Nicky to Matteo & Ines (my niece and nephew) and what a delight to see them enjoying a camping van...No need to tell you that they really wanted to leave their parents and join us for our trip ;-)  It is also a delight to stop whenever you want, wherever you want...nice freedom...+ Nicky is very comfy...See its pics by clicking on the usual "New Zealand" section.

Family week in Queenstown, New Zealand!

Good'day all...here we are in Queenstown, New Zealand!! We started our trip here with my sister, Caro, Jordane and the two kids, Matteo (6 years old) and Ines (2 years old) who is Agnes' god-daughter.They live in Singapore and decided to come to NZ to spend time with us. How cool was that!..We stayed all together in Queenstown and could enjoy the fantastic landscapes, the fjords (Milford sounds), the lakes, the bike rides, some nice food etc. How lucky we were to spend such a nice time with them...All pics are available under the usual sections: New Zealand, Foodies and Portraits.