Photo albums

I have done too much in the past two months. I'm just back from Ann Arbor, Michigan, where I spent the week for work stuff and some fun time. I even managed to run a 10k race, and placed 4th, but there were barely 10 competitors...


Life has been going so fast, no time to relate all the exciting moments.

Laura visited on her way from Nicaragua to England. We went to see the Yankees play in the Bronx. It's the historical last season at the Yankees stadium. Fun facts: we ordered foot long hot dogs from a machine, the Yankees lost, we sat in the rain, and I got a cold :-) Let's go Yankees!

Eglantine and Pierrot visited for a week end, and we had a spectacular evening at the Guggenheim museum for First Fridays. It felt like it was "the place to be" in NYC that evening. The "I want to believe" exhibition from Cai Guo Qiang was original, aesthetic and very interesting.





I'll try to catchup with pictures of the other trips:

Cool climbing festival in West Virginia. A bit too rainy for my taste, but some great time spent with friends. As we said, there are 2 kinds of people now: those who went to The New River Rendezvous, and those who didn't:

New River Rendez Vous 2008

An excellent day at the Gunks. Congrats to Matt for leading Madam G (one of the most exciting lines I've ever climbed), and to Marianna for not being scared on her first day climbing outside.

Gunks, one year later

A surfing session in Long Beach, Long Island. We have a lot of enthusiast surfers in the group now. I was able to stand up on my first attempt. So much easier than Puerto Rico.

Surfing Long Beach

And some nice additions to the Nicaragua gallery:

Nicaragua

Nicaragua

Ah... Nicaragua... Land of Spanish words pronounced without the final "S", old US schoolbuses concerted into local transportation blasting reggaeton and salsa, best surf break ever in my short surfer experience...

What a cool trip it was.

2008 - Nicaragua

My first time as a solo traveller, and also the first time realizing that I was flashpacking, among a horde of genuine backpackers. Everyone was travelling for 2, 3, 6, 20 months.... And I was there for only 10 days!

Also, just a thought: I realized solo travelling actually means the opposite of travelling on your own. You meet plenty of cool people and travellers and can actually do activities in group.

I only visited 3 places, but it felt like I was also on a 2 month trip. I'm not sure my pictures do it justice.

- Satyed in Granada at the beginning and on my last night in Nicaragua. Beautiful Colonial architecture surrounded by multiple volcanoes. According to the Lonely Planet, it is the oldest city on the American mainland. Quite impressive. The city has been sacked and burnt by pirates, but is now well restored with bright colors....
Stayed at La Siesta, a hostel owned by French "expatriate" Boris and his Nicaraguan wife Marcela. Really nice people, they cook the best French crepes since a long time.

I met lots of travellers (Helge the Norwegian Kurt Cobain and his friend Maria, Laura from Brighton, Angie from Portland...) over cheap local beer and rum at the Bearded Monkey, the unofficial backpackers hangout... We went on a long bike ride to Laguna de Apoyo, a gigantic crater lake. Ah, when it's 36C outside and you got lost on your way on winding road, nothing can match a swim in the fresh water of the crater lake!
Went back to Granada right before sunset and caught my first eerie glimpse of Volcan Concepcion , a perfectly shaped active volcano on my next stop an island of Lake Nicaragua called Ometepe.

- Ometepe: beautiful bi-volcano island, relaxed vibe, even quite hippie on the part of the island farthest from the ferry. We hiked up Concepcion but the guide would not take up to the crater because of a recent eruption. Demasiado peligroso!
We stayed at the beach in Charco Verde, had delicious fresh seafood, and could even kayak a bit around Lago de Nicaragua! (amazing views of Concepcion).

The next day, Angie and I toured the island on mountain bikes around the other volcano (Maderas), and added a hike to Cascada San Ramon. Strenuous day of 38km of bike + 6km of hiking mostly in the burning sun. I think I stayed 2 hours in the hammock doing nothing but relaxing after that...
We stayed in a super basic 19th century Organic Farm, in a funky dorm, where you don't even sleep on a bed, but on a sort of cot made of wood and a piece of tarp... Never done that before in any other country! Beautiful sunset over Concepcion (again), and ice cold Victoria beer shared with fun people: Quebecois bikers, ex-peaceCorps marathon runner JeanDaMachine, the desilusioned Australian surfer dude and others...
In the morning, hawler monkeys woke us out of bed and it was off to a long bus+bus+ferry+colectivo+colectivo+colectivo transfer to the final destination.

The last part of the trip was dedicated to surfing! Yes I am totally addicted now. San Juan Del Sur is famous for being gringozied, so I decided to stay directly on the surfer's beach (Playa Madera), outside of town. At day we surfed (3 days in a row), and at night gather around the bonfire... We had the beach adn waves only for us on some occasions (early morning or close to sunset when the day visitors were back in town). Being able to stand up on my board was an unforgettable feeling for me, it was just like a dream. Once I repeated the move over and over, I realized I'm not a complete beginner anymore. But... I still got beat up in the bigger waves, so I still have to practice a lot to follow in Aaron and Ingar's steps...

That's in store for the next trip...

America Latina

I'm looking forward to my next vacation, coming up at the end of the month, in Nicaragua.

I guess I couldn't wait so long, and had to take an extra short break. When I heard of a surfing trip organized by my climber friends, I hardly hesitated and joined in.
Aaron, Kelly, Kaori, Ingar and me only took 1 or 2 days off for this long week end in Puerto Rico, but it felt like a 2 week vacation! It was my revenge with the island and this time my camera did not get stolen ;-)

We rented a nice apartment almost on the beach and basically surfed all day, starting one morning at 7am! There are few things in life better than surfing at sunset (sunrise is bit cold to my taste), even if you really suck at surfing. I think I understand a little all the coolness about surfing now. On the last night, I even fell asleep while having the feeling of catching a wave. It sounds so stereotype, but it's true. And it help that we could hear the waves from the apartment.

Well, unlike Aaron and Ingar, I am definitely not an expert. It was my first try at this sport, and even after 3 days of practice, I can still say I am a total beginner. But, I'm kind of hooked on surfing and plan to go again in Nicaragua!

Pictures of the trip are here below, and on Aaron's website: http://www.aaronbudd.com/pr/

Surfing Rincon - Puerto Rico