locura

Locuras

Partageant avec vous un chanson de Silvio Rodriguez qui fait partie de notre actuelle trame sonore. Enjoy it !

please use Babelfish to translate this text in your language

Hay locuras para la esperanza,
hay locuras también del dolor.
Y hay locuras de allá,
donde el cuerdo no alcanza,
locuras de otro color.

Hay locuras que son poesía,
hay locuras de un raro lugar.
Hay locuras sin nombre,
sin fecha, sin cura,
que no vale la pena curar.

Hay locuras que son
como brazos de mal:
te sorprenden, te arrastran,
te pierden y ya.

Hay locuras de ley,
pero no de buscar.
Hay locuras que son la locura:
personales locuras de dos.

Hay locuras que imprimen
dulces quemaduras,
locuras de Diosa y de Dios.
Hay locuras que hicieron el día,
hay locuras que están por venir.

Hay locuras tan vivas,
tan sanas, tan puras,
que una de ellas será mi morir.

We were told its Christmas

One on the beautiful things about our journey is the splendid isolation from everyday life, international headlines, soap-operas, cellphone atennas, traffic jams and other important stuff. So it happens that we successfully forgot about the big Christmas rush in December. The poor Santa Claus sweating hell out of his red suit under the Plam trees of San Felipe’s Plaza was finally reminding us that there was something going on. It always feels funny to see the globalized marketing material with snowy Christmas landscapes implanted into hot summer scenery. I don’t know who succeeded in selling this image to the Southern hemisphere but I must say I am pretty impressed.

So here we are, thinking of all of you up there in the cold, celebrating the Feast of Love. Please receive our warmest regards and best wishes for the New Year. We wish you lots of fantastic moments with your loved ones and thank you for follwing us in our journey.

Marisol, Matilda, Yoska & Beat

Image source: http://www.adbusters.org/

Just a perfect day

It was a must, a mandatorily rendez-vous, to stop by the roof of the Americas on our way back to Chile.We left Uspallata in the early morning to drive the very scenic road upwards in direction of Punta del Inca (2725m), our first stop. Blue sky and snowy mountains was the setting in which we arrived about one hour later. Punta del Inca is a naturally formed bridge over the wild Horcones river running down the valley (click on picture below for a better view). A hot water source that was already used by Incas and commercially exploited by Englishmen in the early 19^th century invited us to take a bath. What an eye-feast to see our two children enjoying naked a hot bath surrounded by snowy high peaks (sorry, pictures are still in developpement).

After this refreshing stop we drove a couple of kilometers further the international road and took our right to enter the parque provincial de Aconcagua. Equipped with delicious tomatoes, Swiss cheese and fresh bread we walked to the Laguna Horcones that offeres a breathtaking view on Mt. Aconcagua (6962m), the roof of the Americas. Happy and satisfied after our summit pic-nic (sandwiches always taste better in the mountains, don’t they?) we walked back to the car to put our very tired children to sleep. With the kids sleeping, we were ready for the one-hour paperwork of the Chilenian customs at Christo Redentor.

By the time Matilda and Yoska woke up again, we were already comfortably installed at Hosteria la Gringa at the junction of rio Aconcagua and rio Colorado. Off we went again to discover the beautiful rocky landscape and to jump into the icecold water of rio Colorado. Back at the hosteria, delicious empanadas were served with spicy home made pebre and a cup of Chilenian wine, under a roof of Eucalyptus trees. After sunset, we opened the roof top of our Westfalia and let the moonlight illuminate our gipsy beds. The chant of crickets put the four of us to sleep after a perfect day.

Temps de bodegas

WoW !Mendoza, ville des montagnes, du bon vin, et des alpinistes ou andinistes de partout, prets a conquerir le Mont Aconcagua. Nous sommes restes presqu'une semaine a parcourir ses rues decorees par d'immenses plataniers formant des tunnels, ses parcs, ses riviere,s ses charmes. Puis, pas question de passer a coté de la route des vins. Nous avons choisi Las Heras, ville voisine, renommée par ses vignes, ses festivals et bien sur par la panoplies des "bodegas". Une sur notre liste  a visiter, était la bodega Trapiche, mais tristement, une compagnie americaine l'avait deja achetée et la securité était tellement insecure que ils n'ont pas voulu des nous, meme si on venait directement du Quebec (acheteurs potentiels de la SAQ...) anyways, cela n'a pas fonctionné. Alors,nous avons tourné a gauche (la gauche c toujours ma preferée) et BINGO! nous avons deniché la plus ancienne d'Argentine (merde le nom m'echappe, coming soon), et là, nous avons passé l'apres-midi à boire du bon Malbec et compagnie (On dit que le meilleur Malbec provient de Mendoza et le meilleur Cabernet Sauvignon de mon pays natal, on dit...) ah oui! une chance qu'on avait des Chupa Chups (caramba Chupa Chups) qui nous ont encore sauvé la vie et donné quelques heures inoubliables de dégustation a Yoska, Matilda et nous. Finalement, la Bodega a été notre camping car ni Beat ni moi avions la "gout" de reprendre la route.

Le reveil vous dites ? G é n i a l , parmi ses odeurs fraiches de Malbec, Merlot, Cabernet, Chardonnay, Torrontes, et un soleil radiant qui donne le gout de chanter la toune de Brigitte Fontaine, ah que la vie est belle souvent pour presque rien...

ciao bye

ps.: nous avons rajouté quelques photos, faites le tour.

On the road again

We left Buones Aires after almost five days of urban life (thank you Monica for your great appartment!). It took us nearly an hour to get out of this 12 million megapolis. On ruta nacional no. 7 we headed westwards in direction of Mendoza. We made it until the village of Alem where we settled down to pass the night behind a Shell gas Station. At 5 o’clock next morning we were rolling again with the kids still sleeping in the back. This time we covered only about 100km until the engine would suddenly stop.

Here we were in the middle of the Argentinian pampas on an unpaved road at 6:30 in the morning with an engine failure. My first guess was that we tanked bad Diesel. With the aid of two very helpful Univia employees patrolling the unhabited area, we made it to the next town called Rufino (note that rute no. 7 is privately runned by Univia inc. and we enjoyed a great customer service for the couple of pesos we payed for this toll road). Since we are member of the Canadian Automobil Club and the latter has an affiliation with the Automovil Club de Argentina, we automatically qualify for ACA’s services. While I was discussing possible engine failures theories with two ACA mechanics, a journalist of a local newspaper spotted our Canadian car licence and started immediately started inverviewing Marisol. Our story is scheduled for this weeks issue of El Diferente, one of Rufinos two weekly newspaper. Two very friendly mechanics (one of them insisted that we would come to see his newborn pony horse Rocco at his place – Yoska loved it!) repaired our camper in a way that we could at least drive another 200km and sleep behind yet another gas station in a small town called Vicuna Mackenna. Feeling and hearing that our Westfalia was far from being back in shape, we still decided to move on until San Luis, Capital city of evenly named province.

We hoped to get a better choice of reliable car repair shops. Since we arrived on Saturday around 5PM, we immediately went to the local ACA subsidary with another helpful clerk welcoming us. He helped us to locate Jorge, the hands-on guy who was welding our broken exhaust right on the street. With clean Diesel and a fixed exhaust we headed of towards Mendoza next morning but our VW was hardly running 40 miles an hour and consuming twice as much Diesel ans usual! It was clear that we would pass another night at the hotel and search for reliable mechanic folks again. To make things more complicated, I always had to Google the spanish words for the needed pieces/service as well as the approximate pricing before I actually met with these car doctors (you can be sure that you pay 5 times too much if you walk in as an innocent tourist not being able to properly describe the problem!). Two pesos for a cyber cafe hour was always an excellent investment.

One day later, we finally had our camper back in shape with a brandnew distribution belt and a perfectly tuned engine. Happy and confident, we were then able to attack the Cordillera de los Andes again and climb up towards the 3850 meter high Cristo Redentor tunnel that will bring us back to Chile again.

Retrato de un dia oscuro

please use Babelfish to translate this text in your language

Cada mes vivimos al menos un día en el que todo va mal. Casi siempre pasa cuando decidimos alojar en un hotel. Los niños se ponen porfiados, gritan, hacen maldades y nosotros nos ponemos de mal humor. Esos dias oscuros nos llevamos preguntandonos quien tuvo la idea de hacer esta locura y mutualmente nos echamos la culpa, hasta que las horas borrán este dilema.

En unos de esos desayunos al hotel, unos francesas curiosas nos empezaron a preguntar varias cosas, estaban un poco aturdidas ya que pasabamos del ingles al frances al español y luego al aleman osea un lio linguistico. Despues de un rato, la más fea y gorda además, dijo : "Ustedes son muy valientes de viajar con esos niños tan pequeños". Me di vuelta miré mi café con leche y un mega "flashback" rodo intensamente más de 3 meses de viaje por mi mente. Despues de unos segundos extensos, comprendí que era fea y gorda pero tenia razón, y le respondí : " Si, somos valientes, un poquitos locos, y muy felices. Y por fin paro de hablar. Y ese fue el tema del día...

Sinceramente, viajar con niños es dificil, todos los que tienen pueden confirmarlo, y aún más cuando son pequeñitos como Matilda y Yoska. El trabajo se multiplica, el casancio se nota y las visitas turisticas se acortan. Habitualmente, empezamos un día en la ciudad buscando un parque donde puedan jugar para despues visitar, luego, durante la hora de la siesta aprovechamos de mandar a lavar la ropa, ir a un cyber cafe o bien recorrer lugares un poco más interesantes para nosotros. Y ahi se pasa el día. Bueno en el campo todo es muy distinto, todo va mejor y aún más cuando dormimos en la Westafalia. Tal vez hubiese sido mejor esperar que los niños estubiesen grandes, pero bueno cuando se quiere realizar un sueño las consecuencias no se piensan, se viven.

Convivir 24/24 con la familia es una experiencia maravillosa. La solidaridad, el respeto y el Amor son nuestros aliados. Y lo más importante de todo es que por la noche la sonrisa nocturna no nos desampara, un verdadero "Happy End".

Buenos Aires

Maintenant je comprends un peu plus tous ces porteños (habitants de Buenos Aires) qui habitent Montréal, Buenos Aires est une superbe ville (12 millions d'habitants), qui a ete longtemps la capitale du monde occidentale et, vraiment, il faut en etre fier!

A mon avis, Buenos Aires a rien a envier a Paris, au fait, elle est au meme niveau et un peu plus je dirais... (ca c'est mon coté latino ) .

Depuis la crise economique en 2001, la gastronomie, les livres, le soccer, les spectacles, le tango donnent une nouvelle vie a la capitale de l'Argentine. Bref, une ville à visiter, et surtout vous les celibataires, car il y a vraiment du beau monde ici et en plus ( ca c'est mon cote marketing) c'est vraiment pas cher!

Finalement, nous sommes restés 5 jours chez Monica, la mere de ma copine Brenda, qui gentillement nous a preté son appartement en plein coeur de la ville.

Le soleil etait au rendez-vous 4/5 et les enfants heureux de trouver de jolis carrousels un peu partout dans les parcs de la ville, alors c'etait un "win-win". 

bisous

Buenos Aires- Argentina

Bye Bye Uruguay

Well, Punta del Este is definitely the schicki-micki place pour l'elite de Montevideo et Buenos Aires. Gorgeous beaches, signalisation des rues commanditee par MasterCard, expensive designer boutiques et des restos chics. Just too bad that it was almost snowing while we were there... :(

En fait, la ville etait pas mal morte, das weltuntergangs wetter was everybodys topic. Since we left Brasil, we had the first couple of rainy, windy and cold days de notre voyage. Au lieu de rester une autre nuit tout seul dans le camping San Rafael (le premier camping de l'Uruguay!), nous avons decide de continuer directement vers Montevideo, la capital de ce pays de 3,5 millions d'habitants.

24 heures dans cette metropole accueillante etaient assez because the cold weather just didn't make it easier to stroll with too little kids through grey and wet street. Off we went en direction de Nueva Helvetica, une colonie Suisse en plein coeur de l'Uruguay. Nous nous avons payes une nuit dans l'hotel El Granja Suizo avec un excellent souper a la Suisse. El Granja Hotel Suizo fue inaugurado en 1872 como el primer hotel turístico del país. Por entonces el edificio contaba con tres grandes alas: una destinada a las habitaciones, otra al comedor y un salón de baile con pisos de madera y ventanas con vidrios esmerilados, que aún existe. Algunas fotografías expuestas en la recepción recuerdan aquellos esplendores.

El Granja Hotel es hoy más pequeño, pero igualmente encantador y posee una renombrada cocina suiza. No deje de visitar el restaurante y probar un conejo con hierbas, los capelletti a la Ticinesa, con champiñones y tomate, o una ensalada del huerto.

Bon, un autre 24 heures plus tard, nous sommes embarques on the ferry that links Colonia Sacramento with Buenos Aires, Argentina. The skyline of Argentinas culural, political and econimical heart slowly appeard through the rainy clouds hanging over the river de Plata.  Bye bye Uruguay, buenas dias Argentina.

We are determined to stay in Buenos Aires until the sun is back again (or at least until Wednesday so that I get to see the Argentinian football team playing against Venezuela for the 2006 World Cup tournament).

Tschuess!

Uruguay

Brasil - Porto Alegre

Nous avons laissé tomber Rio, Sao Paulo et avons decide de visiter Porto Alegre (Kids first!), la 6eme ville plus importante de ce pays, en passant par le Region de Misiones en Argentine. Vous vous rappelez du film The Mission? Ce sont ces paysages qui nous ont accompagnés pendant 4 ou 5 jours de traversée: la SELVA! Nous avons goute aux moustiques, vu des Iguanes geantes, des oiseaux paradisiaques et croissé gente buena, qui travaillent dur et long temps dans les champs de tabac. Ils nous ont accueilli tout souriants et curieux. Leur champ a servi d'hotel et leur salle a manger de resto 5 etoiles, avec du bon lait et fromage de leurs vaches, du miel de leurs abeilles et du pain casero d'Irma, la dueña de casa. (South-Brasil)

Apres cette immense ville, nous sommes partis faire un "chill out" a la plage et descendus tout le long de la cote Atlantique jusqu'a la barra de Chuí, le plus au Sud du Bresil, ou la ville est un vrai "open border", d'un cote de la rue c'est le Bresil et de l´autre l'Uruguay. Les autos, les touristes, les chiens y traversent librement.

Bref, belle plage, sol eterno, vagues enormes, peu de gens. PERFECTO!

Proxima parada: Punta del Este, Uruguay...  Beach again;-) !

Brasil-Foz Iguaçu

Cataratas de Iguazu

Truly breathtaking they are indeed, the Iguazu Waterfalls at the borders of Argentina and Brazil. On average, some 1700 m3/s of water falls down the rocky cliffs of this beautifull rainforest landscape. While the big masses of tourists stepped out of the busses and run towards the falls, Yoska was dancing with the hundreds of colourful butterflies. Matilda was quite impressed by the leguan that quietly walked by her baby stroller. Nature in the Amazon region seems still abundand and overwhelmingly more powerfull than anything made by man.

We stayed three days around the falls, the first day in Brazil which allowed us a general view of all of the 275 falls. The second day we chilled at the gorgeous pool in our camping before we headed back to the falls again on the Argentinian side. The Iguazu falls are definitely a must for any South-America travellers.

Some pictures coming up soon.
Ciao, A+

Iguazu/Argentina side