Posted in , Travel

Auvergne from above

We are slowly starting to travel again, in small steps…

We decided that we did not want to go too far, and not across more than one border.  Our first trip was to Auvergne, right in the center of France, a region that neither of us had visited before.

And in Auvergne, the first thing we did was an early morning flight in a hot air balloon!  How early? See below!

This was the clock in our apartment as we were eating breakfast – cannot go out without some food and a cup of coffee.  The real breakfast will be after the balloon trip.

We had to meet across the street from the apartment (fortunately) at 5:30 AM and discovered that there was quite a crowd already waiting.  That photo is actually quite deceptive as at 5:30 AM, it is still dark! We finalized the formalities and were introduced to Stanislas, our “pilot” for the day and the gentleman on the right.  After introductions with the rest of our crew (we were in a small balloon with only 4 passengers + pilot) we were off to a nearby field in order to prepare the balloon for flight.  You can see our basket in the lower left photo.

Here you can see the various steps in the preparation of a balloon for flight.  The passengers are actually doing quite a bit of the work, under the directions of the pilot and one or more helpers.  On today’s flight, there will be four balloons, which could be quite interesting as we will not be the only ones up in the air.  After unloading the basket, the balloon shell is stretched out and securely attached to the basket.  The balloon is inflated initially with powerful fans and only once it is well inflated, it is heated up with the burners to get lift.  That will be the next step for the crew of “Auvergne Montgolfière”, the red balloon here carrying the name of the company we are flying with.

This is our balloon being inflated with one fan – it is called “Volvic” after a local water.  It is quite noisy actually as the fan is powered by a petrol engine! No power necessarily where you want to start your flight.  The departure point is determined to give us the best possible flight, carried by the dominant wind.  As we saw during the flight, there is a possibility to steer the balloon in flight by changing height, actually, a lot more than I thought but the general direction is still dictated by the wind.

Continue reading “Auvergne from above”

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Alaska – Part 3

Our continuing saga on a small ship in a large state…

It is still day 4 of our adventure and we have now moved all the way to the Northern end of the Seymour Canal, not far from where we were on Day 1. We are going to visit Park Creek, a bear sanctuary, not to rehabilitate them, but just an area that provides safety for them.  The rangers have interacted with the local bear population for many years, and quite a few bears have their own name; the bears are left alone as much as possible, but are used to human presence and do not see it as a threat.  We took the dinghy to go ashore and just as we were talking to one of the rangers, this is what we saw coming towards us.  That is when I remembered I forgot my bells!

Mama Bear with two cubs, slowly coming along the shore to where we were.  The rangers did not panic, so I figured we were safe.  They kept on coming very close to us, but then followed the shore to our right, without taking a second look at us.  We will encounter her again.

The cubs just followed Mommy.

Our valiant vessel parked in the sound waiting for us.  She is such a beauty, I have to show more pictures.

After a very short walk, we came to a river where the salmon are running.  Mama bear is now fishing for herself after she provided fish for her two cubs.

She jumped on a salmon and immediately started to eat. Continue reading “Alaska – Part 3”

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Posted in , Travel

Alaska – Part 2

Continuing where we left off the first episode at the end of Day 2 we arrived at Ford’s Terror where we were not alone.  As we approached our anchorage for the evening, another boat was already there – crowded!

We went for another walk near narrows on a rising tide.  We had no problems landing from the dingy on a pebble beach – after our walk, and after the tide rose a bit more, we had more problems getting back onto the dingy as there was no beach left.

The walk was very nice – and we did not see bears, maybe because Kristin kept yelling “Hey Bear” – I have already shown you a picture of Kristin fully equipped for our defense, but she took no chances.

We were walking through beautiful scenery – this is a view of Ford’s Terror from land.

Time for portraits!  Behind is the narrow inlet that leads to the rest of the bay.  With the rising tide, the water was violently flowing making a roar, which you cannot really see or hear on this picture.

More spectacular views along the way

I liked this little pond reflecting the mountains and trees.

At the end of the walk, as we were wainting for the dingy to take us back to Catalyst, we saw a few curious harbor seals

Later in the evening, when the tide reached its highest point, we took a dingy ride around the whole bay and into West Arm Anchorage. Unfortunately it was raining the whole time so there are no pictures of that. Continue reading “Alaska – Part 2”

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Costa Rica – Part 3: Arenal Volcano

After two wonderful days in Monteverde, we slowly made our way to Arenal Volcano, first by 4-wheel drive through the mountain, later by boat on Lake Arenal and fianlly back with our driver William for the last few miles.

We first stopped in an area that had pretty good views.  You can guess at Arenal Volcano in the back ground.  It is the somewhat darker shadow capped by a big cloud.  This is how we saw the mountain for our whole stay, it seems…

On the way to the view point, we discovered some leaf-cutter ants, hard at work. The pieces of leaf that they carry are several times larger than they are.

They have been doing this for so long that they have acutally carved a path throug the grass.

A different view from the same view point.

On Arenal Lake, we had a private boat which took us across the lake.  Another typical view of the Volcano – summit still not visible.

There is a lot of bird life on the shores of the lake and we had time to stop and observe.  Great Egret, Cormorants, and Herons are all looking for fish. Continue reading “Costa Rica – Part 3: Arenal Volcano”

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Peru Episode 5 – Sillustani and Colca Canyon

Welcome to another installment of our (not so) recent trip to Peru.  Things keep getting i the way of my finishing this, but I am getting there.

I am now several other trips behind, but will catch up eventually, I guess.

We left you on a small island in Lake Titicaca and this episode actually starts still on the island, the morning after the glorious sunset which closed the last episode.  Before the boat brought us back to Puno, we had a chance to walk around the island some more and see more animals.

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The Alpacas are still there, still as cute as the day before and not afraid of us at all.

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There is bird life as well – I am not sure what this is, but I thought it had a very colorful head.

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This one had just collected a seed and was probably wondering if I was about to steal it.

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Rabbits too…

As we were waiting for the ferry to take us back to Puno, I noticed water birds that had a very strange behavior.  Every so often, one or more of them would start splashing around like crazy.  At first I was not quite sure what was going on, so I started to take pictures.

PeruBlog204 Continue reading “Peru Episode 5 – Sillustani and Colca Canyon”

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Peru Episode 4: Machu Picchu and Lake Titicaca

Here we are again.  Preparation for this one has taken less time that the last episode as I already had most photos selected, and the weather in Belgium has been much worse than earlier, giving me more indoor time.  However, much travel around Christmas, New Year and later in January delayed again final publication, so this one too is late!

I left you in suspense right at the entrance to the ruins of Machu Picchu, the entrance that is used only by those who have completed the Inca Trail.  Out of 2000 visitors allowed per day to enter Machu Picchu, less than 150 come in this way.

And here is the view that was immediately offered to us.

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We are still quite a long way from the main portions of the ruins and you can see the road that leads to the main entrance – several switch-backs that end near a building with green roof that blends quit well into the scenery.  After coming down, we have to take the “typical” photo from a slab that overlooks perfectly the whole site.  It is mid-afternoon and we are tired and dirty and will have a whole day in the ruins tomorrow so we go to our hotel, right at the main entrance, and relax for the evening.

 

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The next morning, Bee and I are up early in order to catch the sunrise on the ruins.  We wait in line with about 200 other people just before opening at 6AM.  Most of them have had to climb up from Agua Caliente, where most hotels are located.  The first bus to make the ascent arrives just after 6AM and therefore if you want to make it in early, you need to climb.  We were privileged as all we had to do was walk 100 m from our hotel to the entrance.

Unfortunately, the weather is not the best and the ruins are covered in clouds as we get to the vantage point we had selected the day before.

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We are not alone! The llamas have been on their own for the whole night and have taken over the place, and now they reluctantly have to leave room for the tourists.  They appear to be quite used to people.

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I am again able to take pictures close up.  The clouds are still dense and therefore I need to pass the time.

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We have a good spot, up on top of the ruins with a plunging view.  We have such a good spot that there is this lady who is doing everything she can to take it from us… for the hour that we were there, she moved her tripod 5-6 times, constantly looking at me with this accusing look.  She has Nikon, so I felt no obligation to share my spot, until I was done with my photos.

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The sun came up behind the clouds – so no spectacular sunrise and I finally let the lady have the spot she wanted for her tripod.  Bee and I went exploring briefly before breakfast and before the hordes of other tourists arrived.

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We found a two-floor dwelling.  It does not look like there was room for a staircase inside, so probably one had to go outside to get to the top floor.

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Yes, you are sseing things correctly – Bee is floating up in the air in this photo.  When I took her photo, I unfortunately cut off her legs, and therefore when I added her to the montage of the house, the legs did not appear – sorry! I still think it was worth having her in the picture.

We stopped at the Temple of the Condor.  If you look carefully, the triangular rock on the bottom of the temple has been carved to look like a condor, with a small head closest to the camera.

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Here is a closeup of that condor.

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We came back to our room just before breakfast only to find a bird that was very much angry at his reflection in the mirror.  It kept flying into it and pecking at the mirror.

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We went back into the ruins after breakfast as we had a guided tour.  Here you can see the clear difference between the high class building, such as the Temple to the Moon above and the normal buildings such as the granary in the foreground.  They spent a lot more time and effort getting the stones to fit just right for the important buildings.

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I call this the “Parade Grounds” even though that is clearly not what it was for.  My understanding is that archaeologists are not quite sure themselves what this space was intended to be used for.  There are several theories.

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Quite a nice bird hidden among the branches.

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El Templo de las tres Ventanas – the temple with three windows.  Absolutely stunning brick-work.

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There was a maintenance crew busy on one of the temples.  We were impressed with the safety features that they used to do this work.  The crew seemed to be quite well organised, and I guess I was not expecting this.

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The Osservatorio Astronomico, or Observatory – where the local Inca priests would look at the stars and planets to determine the season and if any serious event was about to happen.  It is told that the Incas could predict Solar Eclipses and the arrival of comets.  It probably took many years of observations to get there.

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As I have shown before, we ran into several groups of young children, sometimes very young, hard at work practicing dances.  Here is a group in Aguas Calientes, the town at the foot of Machu Picchu.  We had a few minutes to kill before the train that would take us back to Ollantaytambo and eventually back to Cuzco – the Inca trail and Machu Picchu adventure is over.

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On to the next one! Very early the next day, we boarded one of the highest train in the world.  The train that goes from Cuzco to Puno actually crosses a pass at over 4300 meters above sea level.

This is a luxurious train for tourists only.  The bus is much quicker, but a lot less glamorous.  There is an observation deck at the back of the train.

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and a full service bar

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which is used for some entertainment during the long (8-hour long) trip.  These guys were actually pretty good and at times, the four of them would play 8 different instruments!

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We stopped in La Raya, the top of the line at 4313 m.  An opportunity to stretch our legs, and buy goodies offered to us.

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Desolate scenery – there is quite a bit of snow here in winter, I was told.  Today, it is quite warm.

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There are Incas with a baby Alpaca, charging for having your picture taken with them.

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Back in the train, there is another musical session with the band.

They also had a fashion show and dancing girls.

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We arrived at the hotel just after sunset – this is the view from our hotel room.  Lake Titicaca is right there.

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The next day, we went to visit the “floating Islands” that Lake Titicaca is so famous for.  I was very surprised to find out that these islands have only existed for a little over 80 years! Before that, families would live on rafts and join together in this way.  However, the rafts needed to be re-built every 6-8 months and this was a lot of work.  The islands (there are over 80 islands in this area and each island is essentially one family) last 2-3 years and therefore there is less work than before.

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They still build boats to move from one island to the next – this is one recent example.  They are manually operated with long oars.  We had the opportunity to go on a ride, but declines as it was way (WAY!) too touristy for us.

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We enjoyed spending more time with the local Uros (the indigenous people who occupy these islands) such as this old gentlemen who demonstrated to us how they build these islands.  The actual flotation devices are the roots of the local reeds which they pull from the bottom of the lake (which is not very deep in this area).  Dried reeds are used as the top platform, and makes for a very bouncy support.  I am sure these guys never have knee problems!

The Uros are a very old people, actually pre-dating the Incas.  Most of them live in Peru, but some are still located on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca.

Each member of a group living on an island is responsible for the maintenance of his section of that island.  Our friendly instructor explained that there are severe penalties against those not carrying their own weight, including one that involves a very large saw and actually a complete separation of the offending party from the rest of the island – they are cast adrift to be on their own!

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Houses are simple structures, usually just one room.  Most of them do have televisions, not flat screen TVs yet.  I am not sure what is the purpose for the tire on the roof, but in this case, it supported a very nice parrot.

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The gate at the entrance to the main square of the island we visited.  All houses are built around the main square.

The community is essentially self-sustaining.  There are special islands with schools up to secondary school and some islands have restaurants and bars for entertainment (probably mostly for tourists again).

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We were able to get onto an elevated platform (this was scarier than I thought at first as the platform was not very stable and built on nonexistent foundation on top of floating and unstable reeds).  However, this did provide a remarkable general view of some of the area where these islands are built.  There are two main sections, with a wide canal between these where you can see a motor boat.  Each section is made up of multiple small islands that are very close to each other, but still separated – if you look at the two yellow buildings to the left of the picture, there is probably a separation (narrow channel) between those two houses.  There is also a channel in the foreground of the picture so we are looking here at the island next door to the one we are standing on.

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After the floating islands we continued our crossing of the lake towards a more permanent island, seeing local fishermen on the way.

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We stopped in Taquile where there are other local people known as the Taquilenos – they speak Quechua, while the Uros speak Uro or Pukina.  This was obviously a VIP  – I saw him later in deep business-like conversation with local people.

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Local weaver

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And of course, a dance troupe for the tourists.  Clearly not what we were most interested in.  Before that, we had a demonstration of how they can make soap from a local herb.  Remarkably, we had a demonstration by a local aboriginal near Perth Australia in January 2016 that looked eerily similar!

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Taquile is an agricultural island with many terraces where different foods can be grown.  There is no lack of water, even though it does not rain very often.

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We spent our next night on a small private island near the Bolivian border, but still on the Peruvian portion of the lake, so I cannot claim that I have visited Bolivia.  The only thing on the island called Isla Suasi is the hotel where we are staying.

There are no inhabitants, but there are Alpacas that do not appear to be very afraid of humans.

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This one Alpaca seemed to really like the purple flowers in this one bush

 

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Who can resist that!

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We went to the top of the island, at 4100 m altitude, to watch the sunset.  The walk was not very long, only about 2 km, and we only climbed 200 m, but we were still out of breath at the top.  I took several pictures while the sun was coming down.

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As always at this latitude, once the sun is down, dark arrives very fast.  We had to hurry to get back to the hotel, but still had time for this picture.  Bee was trying to distract the Alpaca so that I could get a profile shot, and it worked.

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The next day, we will be leaving the island and soon will be leaving Lake Titicaca for Arequipa.  That will be the subject of the next episode as I have not yet worked on those photos and do not want to delay further the publication of this one.

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Peru Episode 3: The Inca Trail

Sorry for the long delay in getting this episode out.  I think I have a good excuse, actually two or three good ones!

Since I completed Episode 2, I moved, helped my girlfriend to move into our new house and then we got married!

So Sue Me!

Here we go for the next installment of the trip in Peru.  All we did earlier, was just preparation for one of the highlights of the trip, the Inca Trail – this is a five day hike (we did one extra day outside the official trail) in the mountains, across two high passes (4200 and 3900 meters). We started from a place called KM77 with just a few houses and a rare bridge across the Rio Vilcanota; the end point of the trail is, of course, the ruins of Machu-Picchu through the Gates of the Sun.

Our first night was in luxurious accommodations.  We did not have to carry tents and sleeping bags yet, so there were sturdy tents with a cover to keep the sun out.  This is a permanent campground managed by Wilderness Travel.  We had showers, a dining room with real chairs and toilets.  All luxuries that we would not have for the next four days.

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We arrived at camp early and were able to get organized before sunset.  There was one tall mountain just to the North of us called Mount Veronica with very nice glaciers at the top.  It was often covered by clouds and our guide told us that she had been on trips where it was not visible at all so we were lucky to get good glimpses of it.

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That evening, our crew (more on that later) had a treat for us: a special meal called Pachamanca which is slow-cooked meat and vegetables surrounded by hot rocks.  The first step is to get the rocks really hot with a fire.

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What the crew did not know is that they were going to get an extra helper.  Bee has always been fascinated by fires and so she volunteered to help keep the fire going to heat the rocks.  At first, they kept a close eye on her.

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We did not get a sunset, as the sky was cloudy and we were surrounded by mountains.  But we could see the last rays of the setting sun on some of the mountains near us.

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and Mount Veronica got better and better every minute!

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Eventually, the crew decided that Bee was not going to immolate herself, or half the country and could be trusted to look after the fire alone. Continue reading “Peru Episode 3: The Inca Trail”

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Peru Episode 1: The Amazon Forest

Bee and I recently came back from a great trip to Peru.  We stayed there for three weeks and had wonderful experiences everywhere we went.  We had more adventures at some point than we had anticipated (more on that later) but all in all it was a wonderful trip.

I will separate the trip in reasonable bites so that I do not bore anybody with endless photos and commentaries.  It will also allow me to issue these blogs more regularly, rather than all at once at the end.

After a 30+ hour trip, we finally arrived in Puerto Maldonado, near the Brazilian and Bolivian borders, on the East side of the Andes and smack at the Western end of the Amazon Rain Forest.  We left the office on Friday evening at about 18:30 Brussels time and flew to London, then Bogota, then Lima and finally Puerto Maldonado where we were met by the representative of the Riserva Amazonica, one of the resorts situated along the Rio Madre de Dios and where we would be staying for three nights.  The is probably the least typical Peruvian portion of our trip; it is a first introduction to the Amazon jungle for both of us.

After a short bus ride from the airport, we boarded a small boat for the final leg to the resort.  You got to admit that Bee still looks good on the boat after 30+ hours of travel!

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Just next to where we boarded the boat, there was the one and only bridge across the Madre de Dios River.  Nice bridge, the same colour as the Golden Gate bridge, and similar construction.  Puerto Maldonado is only 250 m above sea level (the lowest by far we will be on this whole trip) and much closer to the Pacific Ocean (only 600 km) but the Rio Madre de Dios flows into the Amazon and eventually to the Atlantic Ocean, more than 2600 km away. For the mathematicians out there, this is equivalent to an average slope of only 0.01% for all this water to flow into the Atlantic Ocean.

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The sun was setting as we motored towards the resort.  With storm clouds in the distance, it made for a nice combination.

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We decides to start our trip in Puerto Maldonado as it was expected to be the most relaxed part of the trip.  This would also give us a chance to recover from jet-lag.  When we arrived at the resort, we were told that tomorrow’s activity would start at 6:00 AM, with 5:00 AM breakfast; we thought “No Problems, we will be awake at 3:00 AM anyway” so we immediately signed up.

We started by crossing the Madre de Dios river and ran into many cranes, flying overhead and nesting in the tress.  On the picture on the right, the crane is actually landing, but not on the nest that is right below it – it continued to float past it to another hidden nest further down the tree.

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On the river bank, we saw a small crocodile and I caught a kingfisher in mid-flight – it is actually the same as the one on the branch on the right.

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Continue reading “Peru Episode 1: The Amazon Forest”

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Hiking in the Dolomite

Bee and I had been talking about a trip like this for several years.  I had thought about it ever since I had seen a picture taken by a friend of a refuge with mountains in the background.  I took essentially the same picture on the trip I will be describing here.

This was my 5th trip with Wilderness Travel and was another fantastic experience.  We had a group of eight people with three guides, including Giuseppe whom I had already met on my first trip with Wilderness in Slovenia.  Giuseppe was joined by Leila and Sean so we had three experienced guides (with two vans) to help us on this trip.  It was great to have that flexibility given the weather that we encountered on some of the walks.

We met the group at the airport in Venice and quickly got into our two vans for the drive to the first stop of the day – for lunch half way to our first real destination. We stopped in the small town of Vittorio Veneto, at the edge of the Alps in an old water mill converted into a restaurant and had a great meal outside even though it was somewhat cold for the season.  We then continued to Passo Giau where we would spend the first three nights of our trip at the Rifugio Pass Giau.

As soon as we arrived, I recognized where we were.  The mountain with a flat top in the background is quite unique – this is a similar view to the picture who had made me want to be here – thanks Bill.

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The was also the view from our bedroom at the Rifugio.  Sean and Leila have stayed here many times and therefore know the owners quite well – it is like being welcomed into somebody’s house!

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Cannot have a view of the Alps without a cow here and there!  The weather was not great, and was not going to be great for the whole week so we had to contend with a very heavy sky, not making the pictures as spectacular as they could have been.  But when the sun did shine, we were rewarded with spectacular scenery.

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The contrast between light and shade can also enhance the view at times.

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Near the Rifugio, there was a small chapel, as always called Santa Maria (or something) delle Neve to indicate that it is often covered in snow.  They are usually dedicated to the memory of mountain guides who lost their lives doing what they loved to do.

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We went on a ‘warm-up’ hike from the hotel in order to open our appetite for dinner.  The Rifugio where we stayed is the first structure on the right and is quite a popular place at lunch and towards the end of the day, when people have finished their hike and are ready to go home.  The crowd was thinning significantly as we were walking around. Continue reading “Hiking in the Dolomite”

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Bhutan 2 – Thimphu and Paro

I am not going to try to cover this trip chronologically.  We made several passages through Thimphu and Paro and I will cover these as a separate topic now.

But still, this starts at the continuation of the previous post.  After Chuzom, we headed directly into Thimphu where we had lunch in Clock Tower Square, the center of town.  Compared to Paro, Thimphu is a very big city and growing quite fast.  A short walk in the city gave us much more of an urban feeling that we had seen anywhere else.

After lunch, we headed for “Monk University”, or Tango Gompa.  On the way there, we stopped in front of this huge rock painting of Guru Rimpoche.  Guru Rimpoche is a very important character in the history and folklore of Bhutan – there is not always a very distinct line between the two.  He is credited with bringing Buddhism to Bhutan and in his travels across the country founded several temples and monasteries. The painting is relatively recent but already a very important location as evidenced by the number of prayer flags that surround it.

Tango Gompa (as the name indicates – Gompa is only used for temples and monasteries that are located on the side of a mountain with steep climbs to get there) is reached by hiking up for about 1 1/2 hour.  On the way, we see more rhododendrons in bloom.  These are very different than the ones I was used to in Belgium.

We are now used to climbing at this altitude and therefore are able to do it relatively easily, but still breathing hard.  It is very nice though when you finally get your first glimpse of your destination.  Here is the final approach to Tango.

Before going into the monastery, Kipchu explains more to us about the history of this temple.  It is a good opportunity for me to get a general view.  Tango Gompa is the oldest and largest college for Buddhist Studies in Bhutan.

Lebo and Kipchu have once again put on their more formal attire and we are ready to go in.

The main courtyard is accessed through a rather narrow passage.  The shoes are there because of a small temple on the left of the entrance – we did not forget to take ours off!

Continue reading “Bhutan 2 – Thimphu and Paro”

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