10 days til Christmas? Oh my!

Well, apparently I have been quite lax at updating my blog over the past four months.
In a nutshell, this is what I have been getting up to...

Early in October, I discovered a fantastic climbing gym over the bridge on the Quebec side and I have gotten back into my addiction. It started with a twice a week thing, then it quickly became a thrice a week thing, and now I seem to find myself there at least 4 times a week. One thing is for sure, I am getting better at climbing!

In November there were a couple of stand-out moments during the time that my sister was in town: on Remembrance Day, we caught the Canucks vs Senators game here in town and the Canucks had a big win that night. Additionally, the next day, we decided to rent a car and drive to Montreal for the day. In our true fashion, we had just left Ottawa behind and saw the signs for Montreal and Quebec City so I turned to Y and said "want to pass Montreal and just go to Quebec City instead?", and so we did. It was a long day of driving but definitely fun times. Stopped in to Trois-Rivieres and wandered around town to take some photos and grab some lunch. Then we made it in to Quebec City for sunset and some strolling around Vieux Quebec, an absolute beauty!

I am now just finishing up my co-op term with Agriculture Canada and I have accepted an additional term within the same division but with a different supervisor. This next term I will be focusing on writing reports based more on social analyses than economic ones and I will attempt to explain various consumer trends based on behaviour. One of the benefits of this posting is that I will also be able to incorporate my photography which is a fantastic opportunity to have some of my writing and my photography published together.

In just a few days I will be on a plane once again but this time en route to the West Coast for some family and friends time.

Happy holidays to all!

Off on a new adventure...

A new adventure awaits as once again I am bound for the capital of "Eh's".

This time is different though as I am relocating there for a few months this time around with a short-contract through uni. Am I excited? Yes. Am I nervous? You betcha.
Looking at my duffel bags I feel like I have over-packed but then I remember that I am heading to weather bordering 40+ that will be -40 by the time my contract ends; so with a span like that who can blame me for having 2 duffel bags?

So off to Ottawa I go. I will be sure to keep you all up to date with my adventuring in our nation's capital and whatever fun I get up to with all of our fine folks out there. It's guaranteed that bilingualism will be present so be sure to brush up on your francais kids because this French gal is coming back in action!

Bises!

Don't forget to pack your sunscreen!

My latest adventure took me to the capital of our fine country with a quick one-day jaunt to Montreal for a visit to rue Ste Catherine where we caught the Canadiens' game at "3 Brasseurs" then walked along le Vieux Port and were somehow mistaken as artists at an art gallery.

Some must-do's while you are in Ottawa:
1) check out the Museum of Civilization (free on Thursdays); be sure to leave yourself plenty of time to check it out (if you're doing it all, around 3 hours).
2) check out "Pizz-za-za" in Gatineau-Hull for some amazing pizza and salads.
3) "Stella" in Byward Market is your place to get some of the best food and drinks in Ottawa.
4) If you love coffee and supporting a local business, then "Bridgehead" is a good choice.
5) Check out Parc Gatineau (about a 45min drive northwest of Ottawa). There are amazing lakes and trails throughout the area.
6) "Wild Oat" in the Glebe has amazing vegetarian fare. Their scones are to die for; as is their "Wild One" sandwich.
7) Favorite clothing stores to check out are the indie stores along Dalhousie.
8) The Manx had a very tasty steak on their menu at a crazy amazing price of $16!
9) If you like to bike, a ride along the canal to Dows Lake then onwards to the Lochs is a must.

My trip was great. So many fun things that we got up to; great time spent with wonderful friends; and a great overview of what my life might look like starting this fall. The one thing that I still have mixed feelings about is the 30C weather that felt like 42C! That is easier to deal with when you're on vacation but working in an office? There would need to be some strategic planning to get from point A to point B in the heat.

Another flight?

So once again I will be heading out of town. This time to our beautiful capital for one last meeting about the summer project in Peru.
I will also be able to catch up with one of my best friends whom I really don't get to see that often. Hopefully we'll be able to catch a concert on Saturday night. This band recently played here but I was sick the night of the concert and had to pass on catching it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we'll be able to see them there instead.

We're all going on a summer holiday...

My mom's favorite artist of all time was due to play his farewell tour this month throughout the UK and Europe. Seeing that it was our last chance to ever see him in concert, the girls in the family flew over our fair country and over the Atlantic for a chance to catch Sir Cliff Richard live in concert.

Due to classes at uni, I was the last to fly out (and also the first to return home). Being the student that I am, I took the cheapest flight available to me that ended up looking like this:
Vancouver to Chicago, Chicago to Stockholm, Stockholm to Paris.

I was lucky that I was able to spend the day in Stockholm.
Although it was quite cold (just above freezing when I arrived in the city at 8:30am), I was able to discover quite a few amazing spots. I walked across the numerous bridges that connect the different parts of the city centre, enjoyed many coffees to warm myself up, came across the Nobel Museum by pure luck, and enjoyed a fantastic lunch in a quaint plaza.

Then it was onwards to Paris and the search for a hostel for the night before catching the train to my hometown. After getting on the wrong end of my fast-train (the TGV), I arrived safe and sound in Noyers S/Cher.
It was amazing to be back "home" after being away for the last 11 years. Looking at the rolling hills, the roman roads, the vineyards, the cobblestone streets, the houses built into the cliff, all of this brings back so many childhood memories.

After a very brief stay in France (just over 36 hours) it was a quick jaunt across the Channel to London where Mom and I spent a few days exploring the city; a first for both of us.
Trust us to find two amazing Malaysian restaurants within a 4-day period. If you are in London and craving some Malaysian food, check out "Makan" on Portobello Road, just past the train overpass.

Then it was onwards to Manchester for a few days culminating to THE concert of a lifetime for my mom. Sunday October 18th: Cliff Richard and the Shadows, live in concert.
It was fantastic. I grew up listening to his music and watching his movies so it was a trip down memory lane once again. I was surprised to realize how many songs by the Shadows I knew and loved. It was great to see my mom enjoy herself so much. We even stuck around by the back gate after the concert to catch a glimpse of Sir Cliff before heading back to the hotel.

All in all, it was a fantastic trip and definitely worth the long flight out and back.

Last days of the South American adventure

The days in La Paz wound down quickly with great laughs. S. and I had some fun staying at the Loki La Paz where we shared a dorm with 4 English blokes and 1 San Franciscan dude. Let's just say that there was a lot of laughing going on.

During those couple of days it was also a parade of all the uni students performing dances from different regions of Bolivia; the streets were packed with dances, live music, drunken debauchery, and the inevitable street food.

On Sunday afternoon we tackled our bus ride back to the Peruvian coast that was due to be 24hrs long...
We left La Paz well prepared to tackle the upcoming day of travel. After a quick jaunt across the border in Desaguadero (and the funniest border agent that I have ever met!), S. and I continued along on our bus journey northwest.

Towards nightfall we started traversing the Andes towards Arequipa and somewhere between Juliaca (by Lake Titicaca) and Arequipa, our bus came to a dead stop.
It turned out that there was heaps of snow on the road and being Sunday, there was no one to clean the roads. We were informed that we were going to have to wait it out... all night long... We quickly started thinking about travel time and whether or not we were going to be able to make a day trip to the National Park of Paracas located just south of Lima. Time wore on and we were still parked on the road with many other cars, trucks and buses.
Morning broke and we awoke to the most beautiful sight. Hills and mountains all around us with a covering of snow on everything. Then the good news came: traffic is starting to move, us included!

We start inching our way up the hill and start passing a stationary truck when *CRUNCH!* We all try to see what has just happened and one of the other passengers calls out that we have just lost our door as it was left open when we started moving and it got ripped off as we passed the truck!!
Now S. and I are thinking a few different things:
1) we have no door
2) it is still lightly snowing outside
3) we are 3/4 hrs away from Arequipa, the closest place for us to change buses
4) the bathroom is right next to this door
5) what is going on?!
After some consulting with the bus driver, the whole bus agrees that we are okay with heading all the way to Arequipa without a door as long as we change buses there since it's another 16 hrs to Lima afterwards.

Off again we go with nightfall once again upon us when *CRASH*, we have just hit something! For those of us in the middle of the bus, we can't figure out if we have hit another vehicle or an animal or a rock. We really don't want to spend another night stopped on the road, especially since we were running 17hrs behind schedule. Turns out that it was a rock and that it didn't do much damage, so off we go once again.

38 hours after we left La Paz, S. and I arrive in Lima at 6am on Tuesday morning. We decide to skip Paracas as it would have been a tight timeline and we would have been dead tired from all of the traveling in the end.

The two days in Lima were well spent. We took our friend's advice and stayed at the EuroBackpackers Hostel in Miraflores that we definitely recommend to anyone heading to Lima, two thumbs up!

We had a bit of an eventful taxi ride to the airport where the driver had a bout of road rage, or maybe he thought that he was a derby driver, and we had to have some words with him in order to arrive at the airport in one piece.

Now here I am, sitting in the Toronto airport, waiting for my flight home. This is the final leg of this journey and after 19 hours of travel/transit time I am very excited to be coming home to the heat wave that is sweeping the city; hello Vancouver!

Bolivian adventures... and misadventures...

So the time has come to update the old blogger...and where do I start?

I last left you from Puno on the shores of Lake Titicaca where the fun and adventures were to start in Bolivia.

Well, we made our way to Copacabana (yes, just like the song that you are probably now humming to yourself) and a beautiful place called Isla del Sol. After an entertaining 3hr boat ride with a bunch of Brazilian boys to Isla del Sol, we started what was to be an incredibly hard hike uphill with our packs to our fantastic hostel (where we scored the best room in the whole place, overlooking Lake Titicaca). The next day was filled with a 6-hr hike around the island with another group of Bralizian boys. Now the tricky part of this hike was that one of us was still fighting altitude sickness and another one of us was experiencing the Bolivian equivalent of Delhi belly... not the most positive experiences for either but still an experience nonetheless.

After Copacabana, we took off on another bus ride to destination La Paz where we arrived late in the evening and got dropped off at a fantastic stop called ¨el cimentario¨, which does mean ¨the cemetary¨. Luckily we were quickly picked up by our friend´s cousin who was letting us stay with her for a couple of days.

After a couple of days in La Paz (and the purchase of amoxicilin to combat the onset of a sinus infection as well as the purchase of bronchial syrup to combat the onset of liquid in my lungs), S. and I hopped on an overnight bus last Sunday to Uyuni to start a 3-day tour of the salt flats and the surrounding desert. What they do not say in the guidebooks is that the journey by bus from La Paz to Uyuni is horrible! Not only is it 12hrs long with seriously bad toilets but also the road between Oruro and Uyuni is horribly bumpy for the entire 7hrs between the two cities!

After arriving at 6am, we decided to hop on a tour starting that day in order to save a stay in a hostel and to get us back to La Paz a day early; something that was soon to change.

Our first day went by well and was fun-filled.
Then came day 2...What started off as a beautiful day quickly turned to a horrendous sandstorm by 10am. After being turned away at a checkpoint, we took refuge in a little place called San Juan in one of the worst hostels that I have ever stayed in. The place resembled a bunker that I visited in grade 9 whilst in Normandy. Some windows had plastic coverings and sand kept blowing in (the wind was so strong that metal roofs were being ripped off). We were hoping that the wind would die down by mid-afternoon and that we could carry on our journey, boy were we hopeful. We ended up spending the night in one of the coldest places I have ever slept - we could see our breath when we exhaled.
The upside of this time bunkered down was the presence of other jeeps who had to stop because of the storm. We ended up buying most of the bottles of chilean red from the local (and maybe only) store and playing cards with yet another group of Brazilian guys. That coupled with copious amounts of chocolate kept the good vibes flowing.
The next morning was better and we continued on our tour with one day lost. If we thought that night 2 was bad, night 3 got the prize for worst sleep ever! It was colder than in the hostel/bunker and we were sleeping on concrete blocks, definitely made for stories to tell. But once again made better by meeting up with the same Brazilian guys from the bunker.

We made it back into Uyuni safe and sound a day later than expected.
Then it was another overnight bus for S. and I back to La Paz. This one was a lot more entertaining than the one down to Uyuni as the bus kept heaving like it was on its last legs. Once we arrived in Oruro at 4am we were advised that we would need to change buses as ours was broken. Off we go to the other bus only to discover that 1) the bus is quite full with locals and 2) there is no toilet on the bus and it´s a long way to La Paz. So after S. and I claimed a couple of seats at the back of the bus, I hop off to quickly run back to our broken bus that still has a functioning toilet on it only to hear a bus revving its engine like its ready to go. I run back to our ¨new¨ bus only to run into our Chilean friend A. who also needs to use the facilities before we head to La Paz. I wait for her outside of the bus thinking that if I am just outside the door then the bus will not leave without us... this is a VERY naive thought. Not one minute passes that A. is on the broken bus that the bus starts driving away with me still on the street and her in the broken bus. I start sprinting for the bus at the same time that A. emerges from the bus. We both bolt for the bus and barely make it on.

We got into La Paz yesterday morning and are heading out tomorrow afternoon on a 24hr bus ride from here to Pisco, Peru. Let´s just say that that iPods are charged and there will be some serious sleep time involved with fantastic earplugs.

Countdown until home: 5 days.