jeudi 28 mai 2009
Nouvelles photos
Nous avons créé deux nouveaux albums photos, pour l'Argentine et la Bolivie. Des photos ont aussi été ajoutées à l'album du Chili.
lundi 25 mai 2009
A Birthday to Remember
Sucre is a lovely town where lots of foreigners hang out and study Spanish. At our hostel, Amigo Hostel, not so friendly in fact, but cheap with big rooms and functioning hot showers, we met several travellers who had arrived before us but seemed to have no intention of departing in the near future. More beautiful colonial buildings, home to the oldest university in Bolivia, here we spotted an Alliance francaise and a German Cultural Center, and saw posters for film festivals and dance performances - it seemed like a "happening" place with lots of cultural activity going on. We stayed for about five days and already I was starting to imagine what it would be like to live there... This is where we finally saw Slumdog Millionnaire (original Hindi version) with Spanish subtitles, and loved it, particularly since it brought back some memories of India. Julien and I also saw Monsters -vs- Aliens, in Spanish with no subtitles, not undertanding much but getting the general plot: luckily we knew who the bad guys were right from the start.
And this is where we discovered the typical Bolivian lunchtime meal, almuerzo, which includes soup and a main course, usually chicken or beef with potatoes, and sometimes dessert like jello or fruit, all for about 12 bolivianos, a little over two dollars. This is apparently the biggest meal of the day, and from what I could tell, many students and workers ate their meals in the local restaurants, or at the central market. Sure beats cafeteria food!!
From Sucre we took a night bus to La Paz, arriving completely exhausted on May 1st, Julien's birthday. The hostel recommended to us by another traveller was full, so our taxi driver suggested a hotel, and we said fine. At 7 a.m. you just want a place to put your bags and lie down. It was probably one of the worst accomodations since the beginning of our trip. So, not a good start to the birthday. After a brief rest, we headed out into the market (already in full swing at 8a.m.) in a bit of a daze, when we stumbled upon a vendor selling some kind of a breakfast drink. A Bolivian couple urged us to try it: turns out it was a mixture of low alcohol malt beer and fluffy egg whites!! Interesting alternative to coffee, but not exactly what Julien wanted for his birthday breakfast. We got talking to this couple and ended up going to a small restaurant together where we had saltenas (sort of like small empanas filled with beef) and coffee. Not bad, but still not what Julien was hoping for. Beatriz and Fabien (the couple) spontaneously invited us to their house the next day for lunch. Wow, what an offer from complete strangers! We were amazed by their generosity, although Julien was still concerned about his birthday meal.
We promised him we would go somewhere special for dinner, in fact, we had found a restaurant in the guide called "La Québécoise" with authentic food from home. What could be better? Well, when we got there, it appeared to have been shut down for months. Julien spotted an Italian ice-cream parlour a few blocks away, so we decided to go to a pizza joint for supper (turned out to be pretty bad) and when we came out of the pizza place, the ice-cream parlour was closed!!! Boy, this was turning out to be the worst birthday ever. And just when we were starting to despair, we found THE totally perfect all-american dessert restaurant with a huge menu full of cakes and ice-cream concoctions. We all had monster sundaes and the waiters came over and sang Happy Birthday in Spanish and English!! And then proceeded to demonstrate the Bolivian birthday tradition: sticking a piece of whip-cream covered cake into the birthday person's face!! Luckily, Julien thought this was quite funny. I'm sure it's one birthday he'll never forget!
And this is where we discovered the typical Bolivian lunchtime meal, almuerzo, which includes soup and a main course, usually chicken or beef with potatoes, and sometimes dessert like jello or fruit, all for about 12 bolivianos, a little over two dollars. This is apparently the biggest meal of the day, and from what I could tell, many students and workers ate their meals in the local restaurants, or at the central market. Sure beats cafeteria food!!
From Sucre we took a night bus to La Paz, arriving completely exhausted on May 1st, Julien's birthday. The hostel recommended to us by another traveller was full, so our taxi driver suggested a hotel, and we said fine. At 7 a.m. you just want a place to put your bags and lie down. It was probably one of the worst accomodations since the beginning of our trip. So, not a good start to the birthday. After a brief rest, we headed out into the market (already in full swing at 8a.m.) in a bit of a daze, when we stumbled upon a vendor selling some kind of a breakfast drink. A Bolivian couple urged us to try it: turns out it was a mixture of low alcohol malt beer and fluffy egg whites!! Interesting alternative to coffee, but not exactly what Julien wanted for his birthday breakfast. We got talking to this couple and ended up going to a small restaurant together where we had saltenas (sort of like small empanas filled with beef) and coffee. Not bad, but still not what Julien was hoping for. Beatriz and Fabien (the couple) spontaneously invited us to their house the next day for lunch. Wow, what an offer from complete strangers! We were amazed by their generosity, although Julien was still concerned about his birthday meal.
We promised him we would go somewhere special for dinner, in fact, we had found a restaurant in the guide called "La Québécoise" with authentic food from home. What could be better? Well, when we got there, it appeared to have been shut down for months. Julien spotted an Italian ice-cream parlour a few blocks away, so we decided to go to a pizza joint for supper (turned out to be pretty bad) and when we came out of the pizza place, the ice-cream parlour was closed!!! Boy, this was turning out to be the worst birthday ever. And just when we were starting to despair, we found THE totally perfect all-american dessert restaurant with a huge menu full of cakes and ice-cream concoctions. We all had monster sundaes and the waiters came over and sang Happy Birthday in Spanish and English!! And then proceeded to demonstrate the Bolivian birthday tradition: sticking a piece of whip-cream covered cake into the birthday person's face!! Luckily, Julien thought this was quite funny. I'm sure it's one birthday he'll never forget!
mardi 5 mai 2009
Change of scene
Today I am writing from Sucre, the former capital of Bolivia, roughly in the middle of the country. There is a protest today (not an unusual occurance, I've been told), everything is closed, so I have no excuse not to write!
Before I begin my update, let me just say one thing: anyone who is planning a trip to Paris this summer, change your tickets right now and go to Buenos Aires instead!!! You'll find lovely cobblestone streets, beautiful old buildings (yes, some are kind of grey and run down, all the more authentic), large tree-lined boulevards (for those who like grandeur), world-class museums (like the Museo des Bellas Artes, absolutely free!), art galleries, milongas (dance halls where people go to tango), fruit and vegetable markets, antique markets, craft markets, hundred year old cafes full of brass and wood (but without the annoying waiters) and amazing restaurants, all at a fraction of the price! O.K., it might be more expensive to get there, but once you arrive, it's a bargain. And you get the chance to practice your Spanish - a veritable challenge for all your senses. (Any Parisians reading this, please do not take it personally!) That said, most Argentinians we met said it's a great place to visit, but not so great to live there!
After almost a week in Buenos Aires, we headed north to Cordoba and then to Salta, all of this on night buses, to save on sleeping costs! Despite what people say, you never really get a good night's sleep, especially when they boost the air conditioning and flick the lights on at every stop along the way, or show obnoxious dubbed Americain movies: there's nothing like a good horizontal bed, even if it's a bit lumpy!
At this point Evelyne headed off on her own to meet a friend in Bolivia, so we suddenly became a small family! In Salta we rented a car and spent four days driving through some pretty mind boggling and everchanging scenery: a winding, extremely bumpy unpaved road up through multicoloured mountains and over occasional streams, through Parque Cardones, a desert conservation area full of giant cactii, then through Quebrada de las Flechas, a valley of huge pink stones jutting up from the ground with the small dusty road squeezing its way through these rock formations, and finally, a thousand year old Inca ruins in Quilmes hugging the mountainside, great for hide and seek! I was a bit worried about the car, a small Volkswagon, but then I remembered that the rental agency had provided us with the map and knew exactly what kind of terrain we would be driving through. Along the way, several small villages with impeccably manicured plazas, and even smaller ones, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, where all of the houses are built of mud bricks. In my last message I mentioned that South America did not seem that different: well, this was different. I have come to the conclusion that differences are greater between rural and urban environments in any given country then between cities in two different countries. Indeed, life in Montreal and Meat Cove, Newfoundland is probably quite different.
Another night bus up to the border of Bolivia. When we finally made it to the border crossing (after wandering through the empty streets of La Quaica at 7:00 in the morning, trying to figure out where to go - you have to walk about a kilometer from the bus terminal, and no one tells you which direction!) the whole procedure was very simple: a couple forms to fill out, a couple more stamps in our passports, and off we went. What really struck me here was the people in traditional dress. The indiginous women wear large pleated knee-length skirts with coulourful blouses, wool tights and, what looks to us like bowler hats atop their long black braids! And of course, the indispensable multi-couloured blanket slung over the shoulders, either carrying a baby or wares destined for the market. It really is quite surprising to see the mix of contemporary and traditional attire, even in big cities.
From Tupiza we did a four day jeep trek (with four Australians) ending in Uyuni, through more out-of -this-world scenery, including lagoons of various colours, pink, green, white, depending on the minerals, some filled with several species of flamigos, beautiful mulit-hued mountains that truly looked like paintings (apparently Dali did paint them), aguas calientes (bubbling mud) and a lovely outdoor hot spring that we soaked in, lots and lots of lamas and vicunas, and finally the renowned Uyuni salt flats, 12,000 square kilometers of crytallized salt. At times, I almost did feel like it was snow, especially since, at an altitude of almost 5,000 feet, it got pretty darn cold, especially at night. No sympathy, I know, I know. I have since bought some beautiful hand-knit mittens, which I quite enjoy wearing, in fact!
At this point we received an e-mail from Evelyne who had been on her own for about a week, and was anxious to see us, so we zoomed up to Sucre, an entire day on the bus (a break from night buses) on a lovely smooth paved road (according to our guide book, 4 per cent of roads are paved in Bolivia). After a couple of hours, I think she was ready to head off again, but she's stuck with us now!
Before I begin my update, let me just say one thing: anyone who is planning a trip to Paris this summer, change your tickets right now and go to Buenos Aires instead!!! You'll find lovely cobblestone streets, beautiful old buildings (yes, some are kind of grey and run down, all the more authentic), large tree-lined boulevards (for those who like grandeur), world-class museums (like the Museo des Bellas Artes, absolutely free!), art galleries, milongas (dance halls where people go to tango), fruit and vegetable markets, antique markets, craft markets, hundred year old cafes full of brass and wood (but without the annoying waiters) and amazing restaurants, all at a fraction of the price! O.K., it might be more expensive to get there, but once you arrive, it's a bargain. And you get the chance to practice your Spanish - a veritable challenge for all your senses. (Any Parisians reading this, please do not take it personally!) That said, most Argentinians we met said it's a great place to visit, but not so great to live there!
After almost a week in Buenos Aires, we headed north to Cordoba and then to Salta, all of this on night buses, to save on sleeping costs! Despite what people say, you never really get a good night's sleep, especially when they boost the air conditioning and flick the lights on at every stop along the way, or show obnoxious dubbed Americain movies: there's nothing like a good horizontal bed, even if it's a bit lumpy!
At this point Evelyne headed off on her own to meet a friend in Bolivia, so we suddenly became a small family! In Salta we rented a car and spent four days driving through some pretty mind boggling and everchanging scenery: a winding, extremely bumpy unpaved road up through multicoloured mountains and over occasional streams, through Parque Cardones, a desert conservation area full of giant cactii, then through Quebrada de las Flechas, a valley of huge pink stones jutting up from the ground with the small dusty road squeezing its way through these rock formations, and finally, a thousand year old Inca ruins in Quilmes hugging the mountainside, great for hide and seek! I was a bit worried about the car, a small Volkswagon, but then I remembered that the rental agency had provided us with the map and knew exactly what kind of terrain we would be driving through. Along the way, several small villages with impeccably manicured plazas, and even smaller ones, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, where all of the houses are built of mud bricks. In my last message I mentioned that South America did not seem that different: well, this was different. I have come to the conclusion that differences are greater between rural and urban environments in any given country then between cities in two different countries. Indeed, life in Montreal and Meat Cove, Newfoundland is probably quite different.
Another night bus up to the border of Bolivia. When we finally made it to the border crossing (after wandering through the empty streets of La Quaica at 7:00 in the morning, trying to figure out where to go - you have to walk about a kilometer from the bus terminal, and no one tells you which direction!) the whole procedure was very simple: a couple forms to fill out, a couple more stamps in our passports, and off we went. What really struck me here was the people in traditional dress. The indiginous women wear large pleated knee-length skirts with coulourful blouses, wool tights and, what looks to us like bowler hats atop their long black braids! And of course, the indispensable multi-couloured blanket slung over the shoulders, either carrying a baby or wares destined for the market. It really is quite surprising to see the mix of contemporary and traditional attire, even in big cities.
From Tupiza we did a four day jeep trek (with four Australians) ending in Uyuni, through more out-of -this-world scenery, including lagoons of various colours, pink, green, white, depending on the minerals, some filled with several species of flamigos, beautiful mulit-hued mountains that truly looked like paintings (apparently Dali did paint them), aguas calientes (bubbling mud) and a lovely outdoor hot spring that we soaked in, lots and lots of lamas and vicunas, and finally the renowned Uyuni salt flats, 12,000 square kilometers of crytallized salt. At times, I almost did feel like it was snow, especially since, at an altitude of almost 5,000 feet, it got pretty darn cold, especially at night. No sympathy, I know, I know. I have since bought some beautiful hand-knit mittens, which I quite enjoy wearing, in fact!
At this point we received an e-mail from Evelyne who had been on her own for about a week, and was anxious to see us, so we zoomed up to Sucre, an entire day on the bus (a break from night buses) on a lovely smooth paved road (according to our guide book, 4 per cent of roads are paved in Bolivia). After a couple of hours, I think she was ready to head off again, but she's stuck with us now!
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