After quite a while, I m back here and will soon post pictures of the rugby world cup trip !!

To sum it up, it was legen... wait for it...dary !!! (Check How I Met Your Mother. The serie rules!!)

I'm still sad France didn't make it to the final, but I'm sure they'll do better in 4 years when we'll be with them in NEw Zealand...cause WE WILL be there !!!

Added a new album of pictures.

 

This time it is an older ski session in the French Alps for New Year.It s already 3 years old. But the memories are still there.

For some "live action", check out the link below :

 

 

Those of you who were there, I hope u ll enjoy seeing these souvenirs ;)

Tried to mix a movie of our ski sessions. Don't be too hard on the quality ;)

 

Here is the link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOYFBUJzTos

 

Have fun.

My god it was good.

We dreamt about it, we counted the days down, and finally it was there. And it was even better than we hopped for.

I think that the decision is made : it will be an annual trip :)

Highlights of the trip :

 

- Great sun and -5 to -10°C in Mont Sainte Anne. Conditions were pretty damn good to ski. Great slopes (Sydney Dawes, L'Archipel, Les ilots, la Crete...), amazing hot tub surrounded by snow, night ski, beers/ pool/ dinners...

- Snow storm in Montreal for our first day. It was a blast to come out of the club and see big snow fall.

- Great to see Bapt and Vio there :) Rhum and Marple syrup and pretty cool (and it still is good in the caribbean) See you soon guys and sorry for the Bruins kicking the Habs...

- Great time with Valerie's family

- Cool we didn t get stuck in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night, in the middle of the snow and in the middle of the deers...when we didn t take the good way to the "cottage"

- Snowmobiling is awesome, dogsled is even better. These dogs are incredible. I just can t find words to describe how I loved it.

- Getting lost in Mont Royal park when it is -30°C, Old Montreal and Solano..., sleeping only 2 hours the last night to drink with Bapt and Fab.

 

Conclusion : GREAT VACATION. MUST DO IT AGAIN !!!!

 

 

Finally it's here!!!

I can't believe we are leaving on saturday for 2 weeks in snowy Canada. And yet, WE ARE :D

 

Program : Arrival in Quebec City for the first night. We then go to Mont St Anne for 3 full days of ski. After these snow powder show, we go to Montreal for 3 nights where we'll visit Bapt and Vio (http://baptivio.skyblog.com).

The little plus of the trip : 2 nights in Duhamel to discover snow scooter and huskies. I bet it s gonna be pretty nice too.

We end the trip with a few more nights back to Montreal. Some would sing "Je reviens a Montreal" ;)

 

Be sure you'll have pictures as soon as we come back.

CHEVERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Here are a few links ;)

 

ski session : http://www.lemassif.com/   http://www.ski-stoneham.com/  http://www.mont-sainte-anne.com/ 

Pictures to come...

The pictures of Italy were taken during the last semester of the MBA program I followed.

Most pictures are from Tuscany, where I was studying (Lucca, Viaregio, Firenze, Pisa...)

Some pictures are from Roma and others from Milano.

I must say I really enjoyed my time in Italy. Nice people, amazing trips, delicious food.

And by that time, the Italy France soccer world cup final had not taken place yet...

I can only advise you to go and visit this country. I have no doubt I ll go back and visit other places I haven't had a chance to visit during this semester (the south, the islands, the volcanoes...)

After all these stops, we had 2 days to do the final 900km and reach Cancun to fly to Florida.

The heat was much more present during these two days, as we left the moutains behind us and were more following the coast. We did stop a few times on the way but did not visit much, even if the countryside was pretty nice along the way and once again pretty different from what we saw before. We did actually stop once in the middle of nowhere to have a drink. Excellent fruit drinks in huge huge glasses. I m not sure I d be able to find the place again, but it was really nice. Very green and refreshing, near the water.

 

We left Chetumal to Cancun with one major last visit for the trip : the site of Tulum. Once again, this site could not be compared to any other one we visited. The site was pretty much on the beach, we palm trees everywhere, and an almost unbearable heat. Once again, I have a hard time thinking of this site as a place where many people were living...

Moreover, it was not easy to feel the atmosphere with people walking everywhere in bathing suit. This is the most (actully the only) crowded place we had during all the trip. When they say Cancun is one of the most visited place by US citizens, I guess they are totally right. It is true that the site of Tulum is much more tourist oreinted with shirts mugs and everything u can think of waiting for you. And of course, prices skyrocket compared to the prices elsewhere.

Anyway, I still loved the place.

During the 50 or so last kilometers to Cancun, we had real good road for the first time of the trip I think, but also cops everywhere checking the speed and the respect of the rules...Quite a change compared to the rest of the way...

 

We did not visit Cancun that much... I actually don t know if there is much more to see than that 15 or so km long street packed with hotels and clubs...So we did like everybody and went out for our night in Cancun. I must say it was far from the crazy spring break stories we heard before going there. Actually, there were more people in their 30's. Still, we had a good night we a yard long drink of Margarita, a nice 4am pizza break, and a long lazy day after that.

 

The day after, we had to wake up early and took the plane to Miami. Bye Bye Mexico. I'll be back ;)

After a nice swim in the Pacific Ocean, we continued our trip to Chiapas.

 

Actually, we almost didn't make it. I didn't mention it before, but there is about 1 bumper every 100 meters on Mexican's roads. None of them look alike and of course, we finally drove over one full speed with little Chevy. After that, we had to continue the way most of the time in 1st or 2nd gear. I can't say we were very confident... It turned out the problem was minor, and due to piece that were not original in the car... My car fan addict Ju would probably explain it better. With these trouble, we didn t see much of Tuxtla. We only visited a zoo quite quickly and then went to repair the car. The end of the day was spent resting in the hotel and drinking a nice pina colada to forget the stress of the day...

 

The next morning, we took a private boat to visit the Canon del Sumidero. This place is incredible A river in between 100 meters high green cliffs. The legend says indians at the time jumped from the highest point to avoid being captured by the Spaniards. The only negative point is some massive polution here and there. The current brings all the bottles thrown away at the same points and you end up sailing in the middle of bottles...

 

After this nice trip, we continued and arrived to San Cristobal Las Casas. This is a real charming village full of life where we had a great time. Nice dinner, nice bars with live music full of people. We really enjoyed. We also did most of our shopping here, buying masks and other stuff...

 

The day after was full of natural wonders. First, driving in this mountains from villages to villages with people walking along the way in traditionnal costumes was incredible. And what to say about Agua Azul? This mix of cascades is just breath taking. We were lucky that the water was still very clear for this time of the year and could enjoy the stay there. It was so refreshing just to hear and see all that water... We couldn't stay longer as another wonder was awaiting for us on the way : Misol Ha fall. Once again an incredibly refreshing stop. the best part of Misol Ha is that you can actually go behind the fall without getting too wet...

Last but not least of this long day, the visit of our third site : Palenque. Hidden in the forest it once again can not be compared to the other sites. First, we needed to walk up the moutain for quite a while to discover the site. Here again, it was a very green site with a lot to see. We could actually enter in one pyramid but also in the ruins of some houses. BY the way, they must have been damn small...

 

I'll definitely come back to Chiapas!

After the crazy revolutionary Oaxaca, we targeted the south of Mexico to hit the Pacific Coast. The opportunity to swim in the Pacific Ocean was to nice to miss it, even if the west coast is probably nicer... Anyway, little Chevy tool the curvy roads to go down the mountains of Oaxaca all the way to the ocean.

 

The village of Tehuantepec is far where we were heading is far from being the most developped of the country, but people here were very friendly. We walked in indoors and outdoors markets with scary scents, discovered great taxis, had a drink in a "bar"!? I also had a great discussion with a drunk old timer who started to walk with us. I would not have assumed I could speak spanish for so long...

After that, we decided it was time to go to the beach. We had a hard time finding it as we were only taking dead end streets. Finaaly, after passing by manufactures, we arrived to a first very windy beach. No way we could stay there. We continued and arrived in a more desertic place. If I remember well, the beach we stopped at was called Copacabana...You can not make that up !!! Photo time with the seaguls and then for the first time, we WENT SWIMMING IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN !!! The weather was not perfect but it was damn nice.

 

 

After Mexico city, our first stop brang us to Puebla, a charming Colonial village. First surprise : the hotel is amazing. Not many rooms, but it is charming and you really feel at home when in the room. We will discover during the rest of the trip that the hotel choices were damn good. Thank you Nanuq!! The visit of Puebla started with a tour...on the roof of the hotel. A pretty nice spot to look at the churches around and enjoy the cool evening starting. We then walked the streets of this colonial town, enjoying the colors of the houses, and the beautiful churches before stopping on the zocalo for dinner. After the difficult digestion of the first tacos, we remained simpler this time with a traditional pizza... A mans' stomach sometimes needs a break...

I the morning I went out to take some more pictures while Mister Juju was still sleeping...Then we hit the road to Oaxaca

After 2 days of green trees and important vegetation in the mountains, the road to Oaxaca was a total contrast with what we saw before. Dry ground and cactus were all along the way. Afterward, I ve been told that we were crazy to take that speed way because it is supposed to be very dangerous and windy. But our little Chevy just did great, and we didn't have any troubles getting to Oaxaca.

Well, no troubles...not exactly. When we arrived to Oaxaca, the first round abound was blocked by a bus. At first, we assumed there was an accident and just followed the other cars. We ended in a kind of dusty no man's land and then we had to "climb" on the railway with the car.Still not understanding, we drove through some very poor suburbs and finally arrived downtown.That s only there that we realized half the streets were blocked by protests with rests of tires burning and barricades. All this is in fact due to some political issues and has been going on for month in the region.

Therefore, the city was not quite what we expected to see, with tags on the walls, broken windows on the city hall, people spleeping in the streets...

The major visit was the site of Monte Alban. Smaller than Teotihuacan, it is very different. Much greener and compact, you just feel like taking a nap and enjoy a relaxing time in a great place. The view on Oaxaca and around is also pretty nice.

We also visited the Cascadas Petrificadas, an incredible spot in the mountains where the water of a cascade stopped falling and where you now see the marks of the calcaire on the rocks. Once again the site is just incredible and you could stay there for hours. We were just a bit worried for little Chevy are there is no real road, but more a large path full of rocks to get there. Big plus of this visit : the little tiny bar (actually it s more the garden of a house) where we took a beer with the grandma cooking and the daughter breastfeeding her baby...

 

The trip continues soon...

It all started thanks to Julien who wanted to go there on vacation last summer. He asked his beloved travel agent friends what they could do for him, and after a quick search we found a pretty good deal. We'd travel from Mexico city to Cancun with our hotel booked in advanced for all the trip. The only inconvenient was that we had to be at some precise places at precise times. On the other hand, with many kilometers to do in 10 days, you'd better not lose time on the way...Right?

When we arrived in Mexico, we quickly realized that we would have to make efforts to speak spanish most of the time. If people do speak pretty much english, they definitely don't make much effort (it actually make sense as Spanish is becoming more and more popular around the globe).

 

After a first night downtown Mexico, we spent the day walking the streets of the city. The first surprise was to see all those old beetle cars everywhere. I didn't know the last factory was implanted here.

We first wanted to see the famous zocalo with the huge Mexican flag and the Cathedral. What a surprise to get there and find out presidential election was coming and that a massive crowd was heading  We visited the Palacio de Bellas Artes (Museum of Fine Arts) that has a much nicer architecture than the collections inside in my humble opinion.

In the afternoon, we went all the way to the south west of the city and visited the museum of History that relates all the History of the country from ancient times to more recent revolutionary legends. I much more enjoyed this museum. It is located in a large park and is definitely worth to visit.

To start the evening we looked for a nice bar to stop by. After a hard search (it was a sunday) we finally ended in a very nice place, a modern place where we had a few drinks and some tapas. We then went to eat our first tacos and burritos... in a Mexican fast food...

 

The first big event of the second day was the arrival of our car for the stay, a wonderful Chevrolet Chevy... Not very big, not very powerful, but nice enough to drive all the way to Cancun!

Little Chevy's first ride brang us to Teotihuacan. About 50 km away from Mexico city, the site is probably one of the most impressive sites of the country with its 3 large pyramids. If the site is incredible, it is hard to imagine it white thousands of people living and working there, to imagine all the stones coloured. But I must say that the view from the top of the pyramids is amazing.

 

After the visit, it is time to hit the road for our next destination...