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Cambodia Cambodia was very short, too short, but beautiful. We took 5 days to visit the famous sites of Angkor Wat. We traveled to the Cambodian border by car from Pattaya in Dada’s and Palida’s company. We reached the Thai … Continue reading
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We landed in Sydney with no great expectations. We had heard Australia was a nice place, some of our friends completely fell in love with it but we didn’t think it would be for us. The main reason for our quick stop over was to see the Opera House as this was Alex’s main request for this trip. It is also the only way for us to travel from South America to Asia. But it is winter here and we knew it wouldn’t be the best time to visit the country.
But somehow we fell in love with Sydney straight away. A beautiful young, dynamic, creative city, with sun and sea. A perfect version of London! We stayed in an airbnb near Hyde Park. The area was full of funky little cafes and restaurants. We quickly discovered Buster Brown on Crown Street, where we met Dominic, a French chef that never went back home. We walked everywhere and our first stop was the Opera house. Alex was delighted as this was the one sight he had asked to see during this trip. He was however somewhat disappointed when we found out that we couldn’t get in to visit as it was closed. We walked to Darling harbour, one of Sydney popular hot spot and, on some passer-by’s recommendation, we found a great little playground with water games for the boys. We visited Sydney aquarium, which is I must say the most impressive one we’ve ever seen: the sharks tunnel is the best we have come across and there were plenty of animals to be spotted and even touched! We visited the little zoo, own by the same company but were very disappointed: beside a massive alligator, there was not much to see there. We walked to The Rocks, an old part of the town and down the commercial streets where we discovered beautiful old little galleries, amongst which the elegant and nostalgic The Strand and further on the Victoria’s Building, a beautiful building dating from the late 1800’s . In fact, everywhere in the city, we found beautiful remains of British architecture, like the Old Hopital, the Old Government House, Hyde Park barracks, ….
It was winter in Australia and the weather was not great but this didn’t stop us from walking everywhere. Armed with our umbrellas we strolled through Hyde Park, walked to the bridges. On the nice days we stopped for coffee on the steps of the Opera House and a light lunch on the parade along Darling Harbour, what a pleasant city!
We decided to extend our stay and to stay an additional three days and took the opportunity to go and visit the Blue Mountains. We rented a car and did a three hour drive west of Sydney. We visited the delightful little town of Leura and checked into the Three Sisters Motel in Kattoomba. Ranj had a flash back and recalled his trip to America as a young man. The following day was grey but we decided to go an see the Three Sisters, a three-peaks rock near the small town. The fog was so dense we could not see further than 20 meters and we decided to head on a small trek instead. We ended up walking for over three hours: we walked down a eight hundred step steep staircase leading us to the bottom of the valley from where we headed to a waterfall. At the bottom of the cliff, the Valley is a true jungle and we walked amidst the tall trees, bamboos, giant ferns and eucalyptus trees, following a little muddy path running all the way along the bottom of the valley. One part of the walk was under the suspended rock of the mountain, and we felt like proper explorers. After 5 kilometres or so we reach the busier side of the valley, the Scenic World, where a cable car and a funicular are available to go up and down and across the valley offering a beautiful of the 3 peaks.
After the beautiful little trip out of the city, we made the most of our rented car and headed to Watson Bay, the furthest bay on the Sydney Eastern side. Recommended by our friend Julie, this place is a little jewel of a hideaway: a beautiful beach, surrounded by coffee shops and seafood restaurants, with a little park and a view Point where you can see the 2 sides of the bay. We had fresh seafood at the deck of the famous Doyles restaurant, on a gorgeous hot summer day, with everyone nibbling on seafood or sipping on a cool drink whilst enjoying the park and the beach. The perfect ending for our Australian stay!
The trip from Lencois to Maceio took 18h by bus. Although very long, the journey was pleasant: for the first part of the trip, we travelled through the lush green Bahian valleys where massive rocks are scattered randomly, as if they had just fallen from the sky. We then jumped into a luxurious (although standard) night bus which was a further 10h journey to Maceio. With fully reclining seats, we were ready to spend a pleasant night, until the driver, spotting the tourists, tried discreetly to warn us about a certain danger ( we didn’t quite get it as he spoke so fast and mumbled his words to keep quite) after which we were not so reassured anymore and slept with one eye open!
We got to Maceio at 6am the following day and to our surprise, a very pleasing one, our friend Jarvas was there to welcome us. Brazilians are wonderful hosts and as usual Jaravas, his wife Sida had prepared a beautiful buffet of traditional food to welcome us. After catching up with the family and stuffing ourselves with feijouada, fried cheese, baked plantain, manioca couscous, fruits and juices, we headed to town to rent a car and headed to the village of Paripueira where were going to stay for 10 days.
Paripueira is a small and very modest village, 30kms north of Maceio. There is nothing to do there but to enjoy the pool and beautiful beaches. We therefore spent 9 days resting, enjoying the pool and exploring the local beaches of Tabuba, Praia do Frances, Praia do Gunga and many more. The area is still very wild and undiscovered; the beaches although untidy, are kilometres of white sand lined with coconut trees whilst the sea is of different shades of green from turquoise to lime green. A mile into the sea, a coral barrier protects the beach from the moods of the ocean and creates natural swimming pools full of bright coloured fish.
We all had a very relaxing time, enjoyed cooking our own food and eating as many fresh fruits and vegetables as we could. We started home schooling after 3 weeks of holidays and the kids were happy to comply! With no internet access, we made it our mission to find the local bars or restaurants with free wifi and we discovered a great book shop in the recently opened shopping Center in Maceio, with a coffee corner and coffee shop. It felt like home!!!
The city and the coast are changing very quickly, the Brazilians are only just starting to discover the area and the government has begun working on the infrastructure to develop tourism. We like it as it is, untouched and wonder what the future will be made of for our little village…
En Francais!
Nous sommes arrives a Maceio après un trajet de 18h en bus depuis Lencois. Bien que long celui ci fut plaisant: nous avons d’abord traverse les plaines Bahiennes dans les quelles se trouvent d’enormes rochers parsemes ici et la comme s’ils etaient tombes du ciel. Une fois arrive a Feira de Santana nous avons pris un des bus les plus confortables que je n’ai jamais pris, avec des sieges s’inclinant a 160degres, promettant une bonne nuit de repos. Malheureusement, le chauffeur, remarquant notre presence, et voulu bien faire en nous prevenant dans un portugais demi etouffe pour ne pas etre entendu des autres et a grand debit, d’un certain ‘danger’ a bord. N’ayant pas compris ce dont il parlait (il y avait effectivement plusieurs jeunes hommes parmis les passagers relativement impressionants par leurs carrures, tatouages et regards noirs profonds, mais rien que nous n’ayons jamais vu auparavant), nous ne e que d’un oeil cette nuit la, pourtant berces par les ballotements du bus.
Bref, nous sommes arrrives a Maceio a 6h du matin et a notre grande surprise furent recu par notre ami Jarvas, membre distant de la famille. Quelle agreeable surprise: il nous conduit chez lui et a leur habitude, Ils nous traiterent comme des rois et avaient prepare un buffet de nourriture pour notre arrivee. Après avoir revu tout le monde, nous nous nous dirigeames pour recuperer une voiture de location et partames vers Paripueira ou nous passerons les 10 jours suivants.
Paripueira est un petit village costal tres modeste a 30 kms au Nord de Maceio. Il n’y a rien n’a y faire, pas de tele (pas chez nous cela est, beaucoup de petites maisons de terre et de bois disposent cependant de grosses paraboles et immenses ecrans tele!), pas d’internet (c’est déjà plus genant), Juste une belle piscine et beaucoup de tres belles plages.
Nous avons donc passe 10 jours tres calmes soit au bord de la piscine, soit a explorer les plages locales de Tatuba, Praia do Frances, Praia do Gunga et bien d’autres. Toutes sont de magnifiques et gigantesques etandues de sable Blanc fin et a l’eau variant du vert tres pale au blue turquoise, longees par des avenues de cocotiers. Au loin, la barriere de corail protege la cote des violences de l’ocean atlantique et creer de magnifiques piscines naturelles, refuges naturels pour la faune marine.
Les enfants, tout comme nous, ont eu le temps de se poser, et de se reposer. Nous avons apprecie pouvoir cuisiner nos petits plats et devorer autant de fruits et legumes frais que nous le souhaitions. Nous avons passe des heures dans la piscine, d’autres a se balader sur la plage.
Nous avons nettoye la maison des fourmis et termites qui s’y refugient en notre absence (les termites se regalent, heureusement que nous n’avons que peu de bois dans la maison), appris a partager la maison avec des petites grenouilles dans les salles de Bain, les geckos aux movements sacades, une chaise souris de passage et de nombreuses moustiques (beaucoup moins plaisant!)
Nous avons entame les cahiers de vacances, point de depart des revisions de l’annee scolaire passee. Pour pouvoir continuer a prevoir notre voyage, nous nous refugions dans Les restaurants locaux avec acces a l’internet. L’avant dernier jour nous avons trouve une Librairie tres sympa a Maceio avec un coin cafe et acces internet! La ville change a vue d’oeil, se modernise, devenant de plus en plus sofistique. C’est agreeable et pratique mais nous nous demandons a quelle vitesse cette modernisation prendra pour atteindre notre petit village et surtout les consequences que cela aura. Nous aimons la simplicite de cet endroit. En Esperant que ce soit pour le mieux…
Le 19 juillet, nous reprimes la route, direction l’Amazonie, au grand plaisir des enfants!
It was hard to leave Boipeba, it’s blue waters and empty beaches but we knew that Lencois would offer its fair share of wilderness and peace too.
The trip from Boipeba to Lencois was expected to be a question of jumping from 1 bus into an other. It turned out however, that the bus schedules are even more unreliable than we heard about and since we could not book any bus trip online, all we could do is ask and hope that the information given was correct. Well it only partly did…and although the first bus was on time, it was not the express bus expected and the 2h journey, took 4.5 hours; we then missed the connection and had to wait 5h in Feira de Santana for the following bus to Lencois to leave at 00.05 in the morning. All together our 350 kms trip took 18 hours! We got there in the end and I am very glad the boys are cool and big enough to handle the lack of sleep (Max enjoying the opportunity to finally stay up late and Alex gifted with the ability to fall asleep in seconds literally anywhere).
We are learning about sleeping rough and coping with it. The thoughest part is the poor choice of food on the go. We are pretty easy and are happy to eat whatever is available, but 10 days into the trip, we already bored of fried doughy food and manioc sandwiches and feel very frustrated to see amazing mangoes, papayas, pineapples and guava simply turned into juices with plenty of added sugar with no actual pieces of fruits anywhere to be found! So we reached our pousada in Lencois at 5am to find that we were expected to have the 2nd child sleep in the same bed as his parents! Alex is not a big big but still! Despite the town’s cockerels already crowing away and desperate to get a bit more sleep before the town woke up, we put up with the inconvenience and put the kids to sleep in the same single bed for a few hours.
When we woke up at 9am, beautiful Lencois was already buzzing. Only a small town of 7 thousands, Lencois is rich in history and culture: part of the Chapada Diamanta, it was once a prosperous and fashionable town, wealthy from its coffee plantations and diamond mines. French fashion stores opened here once and as the coffee plantations were slowly abandoned and mining dried up until it was totally forbidden in 1995, so did the economy of the little town. The region is very green and wild, with amazing deep red soil. Once a very deep ocean, it’s rocky soil is carved by the water and offers a vast number of waterfalls, caves and canyons. Chapada Diamanta is the size of Switzerland and it would take many months to be explored fully. Today, Lencois thrives on tourism based around expeditions and trekking. Although very touristy, it has a very warm artistic and hippy feel. And we felt immediately at home. It’s cobbled little streets all lead onto a piazza with the Mercado Artsanal and the main church. The houses are small and brightly coloured. Most have no windows with just tall doors that open fully. Music is always playing and locals sit on their doorsteps watching the world go by, whilst cradling the new born.
We were in Lencois to watch Brazil v Germany. The entire day was put on hold for the match, all the shops, excursions, where to close at 1pm for the 5pm match. At 5 the entire town Center woke up, a massive screen popped up in the market and the bars set a TV screening the street. The excitement quickly made room to an eery silence with the odd scream for hope from a Brazilian or a tourist desperate to raise the moral. The dramatical fall of Brazil really hurt the nation that night and the pain could be felt for days to follow. Some youngsters however did not let themselves go and pulled out the drums to perform what Brazil’s is best at, amazing beats and catchy rythms. A lot of locals went home early that night, but many enjoyed the heart warming beats and stayed on to enjoy a happy night out with beer and caipirinha!
Whilst in Lencois, we took a day trip to the amazing caves, waterfalls, rivers and canyons to the north of the town. We walked in a 800m cave with 20m high ceilings, 9m tall stalagmites that grow at the pace of 1cm per 33 years; snorkelled in another, in such clear waters you feel as if you were suspended in mid air, surrounded by millions if little fish suckling on your skin. We walked up a 90m climb to reach the top of rocky mountain which edges at the top were carved by the sea millions of years ago; we trekked through the jungle full of trees with medicinal virtues and spider holes with amazingly manufactured front doors. The following day we walked 2h to a massive waterfall of black, tannin and iron full water. We all found it spooky at first but the fun soon took over.
Lencois was truly beautiful. July is winter here and although we had rain everyday, the days always brightened up and the temperature, still around 28c, was perfect for trekking. Well worth the stop!
En Francais!
Lencois:
Nous etions tristes de quitter Boipeba, sa nature sauvage, ses eaux turquoises et sa serenite.
Nous avions prevu de faire le trajet entre Boipeba et Lencois en bus et avions ete prevenus que les horaires des bus etaient generalement peu fiables. Nous nous ne pouvions donc mieux faire que de se renseigner en personne a la station. Chose faite. Le bus etait a l’heure ce jour mais au Iieu d’être ‘express’ celui ci s’arreta dans toutes les petites Villes et au lieu de durer 2h le trajet dura 4.5h. Nous avons ainsi manqué notre correspondance et avons du attendre 5h pour le prochain bus partant de Feira de Santana a 00.05. Je confirme, ne compter pas trop sur les horaires des bus! Heureusement les enfants sont grands maintenant et Max etait ravi d’avoir l’occasion de veiller tandis qu’Alex a l’abilite de s’endormir en l’espace de quelques secondes peu importe ou il se trouve.
Nous apprenons donc a vivre en nomades! Dormant dans les avions, les bus et vivant dans les quelques vetements empaquetes. Ce qui a ete assez frustrant au Bresil jusqu’a present, c’est le fait de ne pas trouvé d’alimention saine”sur la route”. Les Bresiliens raffolent de plats frits et farineux et leurs magnifiques fruits sont vite tournes en jus auquels est rajoute une enorme quantite de sucre. Il est bien difficile de trouve un fruit entier a croquer!
Ainsi nous sommes arrives a notre ‘pousada’ (petit hotel avec petit dejeuner seulement- equivalent du bed and breakfast) a 5h du matin et vite nous recouvrons que notre chambre n’a que 2 lits et que le plus jeune des enfants est sense dormir avec papa et maman! Alex n’est pas bien gros mais quand meme! A defaut de creer une scene a 5h du matin et desesperes de pouvoir profiter de quelques heures de sommeil de plus – les coqs chantent deja- nous empilons max et Alex dans le meme lit et nous effondrons tous rapidement.
Nous nous reveillons a 9h et déjà Lencois est en pleine activite.
Cette petite ville de 7 mille habitants est riche en histoire et culture. Elle fait partie de la region de la ‘Chapada Diamanta’. Elle fut un jour une ville riche et a la mode, grace a l’exploitation des plantations de cafe et des mines de diamants de la region. Alors que les plantations de cafe furent relocalisees et les mines doucement assechees, l’economie de la ville en fit de meme.
La region est tres verte et sauvage avec une terre rouge fonce. Les marques d’erosion dans les rochers creent un paysage tres sacade semblable a des canyons et la presence d’enormes cavites, grottes et cascades nous rappele que cette region, grande comme la Suisse, fut un jour un ocean tres profond.
Aujourdhui, Lencois s’epanouie grace au tourisme pour les randonnees et explorations dans la region. Bien que tres touristique, la petite ville est tres accueillante, artistique et hippie et nous nous y sentons bien tout de suite. Les maisons petites et etroites sont toutes de couleurs vives. La plus part n’ont pas de fenetres mais une grande porte d’entree longue et etroite a deux battants.
Les petites rues sont pavees et menent toutes au ‘mercado artesanal’ ou a l’eglise. Partout on entend de la musique et les habitants sont assis sur leur palier, bercant dans leurs bras le dernier ne.
Nous etions a Lencois pour suivre le match Bresil – Alemagne. Des 13h, les magasins fermerent leur porte, tout en ville s’arreta pour le match. A 5h la ville se reveilla, un grand ecran fut installe dans le hall du marche, les bars et restaurants sortirent les televiseurs dans la rue, les barbecues portables apparurent. Tres vite cependant, les cris de joie et d’excitement laisserent place a un silence pesant et de temps a autre un Bresilien frustre ou un touriste souhaitant passer une bonne soirée, poussa un cri d’espoir pour remoter le morale des troupes. Un groupe de jeunes decides de ne pas se laisser demoraliser, sortis tambours de toutes tailles et firent ce que le Bresil fait de mieux: creerent des rythmes chaleureux. Beaucoup rentrerent chez eux tot ce soir la, Bresil lourdement ecrase sous le poids de la defaite. Mais d’autres profiterent de la musique et de la caipirinha pour finir la journee en beaute!
A Lencois, nous avons visite des caves d’eau translucide qui innondees par la lumiere du soleil, creer des ‘trous bleus’ (poco azul); nous avons nage dans des caves d’eau si claire que nous nous sentions comme suspendus dans les airs tandis que des milliers de petits poissons sucaient notre peau. Nous nous sommes baignes dans des cascades et rivieres d’eau noire, pleine de tannin et fer grace a la vegetation locale; nous avons grimpes 90m de rochers sculptes par l’eau il y a des millions d’annees de cela et avons admire les canyons; nous nous sommes promenes dans de chemins encevelis dans la vegetation, decouvert des varietes de plantes medicinales et admire les magnifiques petites ‘portes d’entree’ des trous d’araignees. Nous avons visites des grottes de 800m de long et 20 m de plafond avec des stalagmites de 9m grandissants a la vitesse d’un centimetre par 33 ans…
Lencois etait vraiment magnifique. Bien que ce soit l’hiver ici et qu’il ai plu casiment tous les jours, nous avons profite des temperatures moderees (toujours autour de 28 degres) pour les ballades et randonnees. Une alte tres recommendee!
Boipeba virgin beaches of Boinema and Morere
We’ve just spent 4 amazing days on the island of Boipeba.
This little island is located south of Salvador, close by the more known Morro de Bahia. A real paradise! Still untouched because so remote and difficult to access to (the trip itself would put you off: ferry, bus, speed boat, taxi and eventually tractor – or horse or donkey if you don’t have as much luggage as we do!) The island is protected by Unesco and has no access for motorised vehicules.
We got to our pousada Casa Bobo after a 5h trip from Salvador and we found ourselves in stunning little wooden lodges in the middle of Brazilian wilderness. Myriam and Nilton who built and run the pousada are an amazing couple, very kind and caring and extremely Eco and health conscious. The pousada is immaculately decorated, in an elegant yet simple and traditional manner and all details have been carefully thought off. Although the island is solely covered with fine white sand, they manage to grow their own vegetables organically and fed us the best home cooked food we ever had in Brazil. We discovered, manioc cake, cooked plantain (balata de terra), moqueca (typical bahian dish with either fish, seafood or chicken, coco oil, beans, and more cooked in a terracotta bowl) – delicious!
Boipeba is simply stunning: long wild white sand beaches naturally ornate with palm trees, little trails running through the mangrove, natural swimming pools filled with clowns fish and other stunning species; lots of gorgeous humming birds swiftly flying around, large bright butterflies and multicolour birds and crabs, the island is a true paradise. It is also home of hundreds of sea turtles protected by the Tamar project.
One evening our hosts took us to visit the native village of Monte Allegre, where the villagers were celebrating the inauguration of a community Center. The youngsters were dancing samba and demonstrating their skills of Angolan Capoueira to the beat of the drums and local instruments: the atmosphere was nothing like anything we’ve ever seen!
Although we felt like intruders, for them it was an honor to have visitors from the outside!
We did long walks on the fine sandy beaches of the island, the kids played in the sand for hours, we snorkelled looking for sea turtles (no luck there), large shells, bright coloured fish… I got bitten by a sea snake and although most are venomous, mine-which I didn’t even get to meet- wasn’t, so all is well!. The boys played football with the local kids on the beach, we watched Brazil v Colombia is the smallest -yet the fullest and liveliest improvised street cafe ever, we fell asleep to the beat of Brazilian rythms…
We are living the dream!
En Francais:
Après Salvador, nous venons de passer 4 jours fantastiques sur l’ile de Boipeba. Cette petite ile situee au sud de Salvador dans l’etat de Bahia. Un vrai paradis! Nous n’y avons passe que 4 jours mais 4 jours d’indulgence pure au milieu de la nature Bresilienne.
Longue de 40km, cette ile est protégée par l’Unesco et sans acces aux vehicles, elle est encore tres sauvage et peu exploitee.
Rien que d’essayer d’y acceder peu vous dissuader: depuis Salvador, il faut prendre ferry, bus, taxi puis bateau. Le tractor et cheval ou ane sont les seuls moyens de se replacer sur l’ile. Donc eviter, non comme nous, d’arriver avec trop de baggage!
L’ile est couverte de sable blanc fin, de cocotiers et de ‘mangrove’; Elle est entouree de coraux et offre donc de magnifiques piscines naturelles pleines de poisons exotiques mais aussi de nombreuses tortues d’eau protégées par le project ‘Tamar” un project …malheureusement nous n’avons pas reussi a en voir, il faisait trop chaud et elles ne sortent que tard le soir.
Ces temps ci, une polemique derange le calme habituel de l’ile: 7 petits proprietaires ont recu une offre d’achat par de gros exploitants qui veulent developer un resort exclusif impliquant le defrichage de plusieurs hectares afin de developer terrains de golf et helipads. Les indiens, d’abord seduits par l’argent, ont maintenant realises (grace a l’aide de quelques gringos – ‘etrangers’- ecolo vivants sur place et ayant choisis cette ile pour sa virginite ecologique) les consequences nefastes de tel developement sur l’equilibre naturel de la region.
Le village de ‘Cova da Onca’ (un village descendant directement des colons hollandais, ou les gens sont blonds aux yeux bleus) disparaitrait completement, tand dis que les indiens du village de”Monte Allegre’ qui vivent encore de nos jours casiment entierement peche, chasse et cueillette (dont coco), souffriraient de l’impact sur la nature. Le Tamar project et les tortues de mer seraient aussi irradier bien que protégés par Unesco. Un tel project semble bien illegal mais l’argent achete bien des choses et la famille italienne derrière tous ces nouveaux projets semble avoir les bonnes connections!
Nous sommes rester a Casa Bobo, une magnifique petite pousada ecologique geree par Myriam et Nilton. Ce couple espagnol-bresilien a installe la residence en hauteur dans la brousse de Boipeba, surplombant la plage de Morere. Construites de maniere tradionnelle, les loges ont un toit fait de tuiles de bamboo, les murs sont faits de baguettes de bois couverte de boue (case de Taipa) et fibre de coco, le tout peint de blanc et recouvert de resine.
Myriam et Nilton (se pronounce Newton) sont super sympa et nous ont accueilli les bras grands ouverts; super zen, tres centres sur la Sante et le bien etre en harmonie avec la nature, ils etaient aux petits soins. Nilton cuisine merveilleusement tous les produits ecologiques qu’ils reussissent a faire pousser dans ces terres sableuses ainsi que les fruits de mer fraichement peches, les plats a la farine de manioc, la ‘batata de terra’ (plantain) etc, nous nous sommes regales.
Pendant ces quelques jours, nous avons fait de longues promenades sur les plages desertiques de l’ile, visiter des piscines naturelles par petit bateau et nager parmis les poissons clowns; avons nage a la recherche des tortures et navigue au dessus de l’epave d’une caravelle sur la plages des Castellanos (sans succes mais ce fut l’occasion pour moi de me faire mordre par un serpent de mer! Belle morsure, heureusement d’un serpent non venimeux, la plupart le sont!).
Nous avons eu aussi la chance de pouvoir assister a une presentation de Capoueira Angolaise et de samba par une association pour les jeunes dans le village natif de Monte Allegre. Les seuls etrangers, nous nous sentions assez intrus tandis que pour eux, c’etait un honeur d’avoir des visiteurs interesses dans leurs traditions. Nous avons aussi rencontres Marina et son mari ainsi que leurs 3 garçons. Une super famille avec la bougeotte, qui gere une ligne de vetements d’enfants (www.waddlers.co.uk) tout en vivant une vie nomade en Amerique du Sud, quelle inspiration!
Et tout cela en 7 jours a peine! Nous avons l’impression d’être partis depuis si longtemps! Nous n’avons pas eu Le temps de regarded en arriere. Nous sommes lances, et pour le moment , ce sont comme des vacances prolongees. Les enfants sont calmes, heureux, nous vivons le reve…
For weeks, we’ve been waiting for this one day. Mum and Dad have been : shopping, organising, stressing, the whole lot really. I think it was about 5 days ago that the removal company came and took everything. And when I mean everything, it’s e-ve-ry thing : bed, TV, sofa etc. we had to sleep on the floor for 2 nights then went to my grand dad flat for the 2 last nights. Everyone we told about our world trip was very envious (and I sort of understand them).
Baba and Dada took us to Heathrow airport. We said lots of farewell and good bye and felt a mixture of sadness and happiness. We were checked by security and dad biped as usual.
Our first flight was to São Paulo at 9h50pm to then go to Salvador at 10h45am the following day.
We arrived in Salvador at 1pm. We took a taxi from the airport to our hotel, the Hit Hotel. In my opinion it is a very strange name. On our way to the hotel we didn’t see anyone in the street and then realised that a big football match was on: Brazil v chile. We settled in our bedroom with views of the ocean and quickly turn on the TV to watch the match . It was a very tight match and they had to go to penalties. Brazil won 5/3. In the streets, and little bars, people were celebrating, singing, playing the drum…
Finally we went for a swim in the sea. Although it is winter here the weather is very hot and the water is very warm and clear.
From Porto de Barra, there was an amazing sunset and everybody clapped when it was over, that was funny!
We slept very well that night!
Max
Cela fait des semaines que nous attendons ce moment. Maman et papa ont passe beaucoup de temps a organiser, stresser et preparer notre depart et tout et tout. Il y a 5 jours a peu pres, les demenageurs sont venus vider la maison, il sont tout pris, absolument tout. Nous avons dormis par terre pendant 2 nuits puis sommes alles dormir chez Dada les 2 nuits avant de partir. Nous sommes prets a partir enfin. Dada et Baba nous ont accompagnes a l’aeroport. Nous avons dit au revoir, c’etait un melange de tristesse et de joie. Nous passions les douanes et papa bip déjà, ca commence bien!
Notre premier vol nous emmene a São Paulo et tout de suite après nous allons a Salvador de Bahia. Nous partons a 9h50 du soir et arriverons a 13h a Salvador qui a 4h de moins que Londres.
A Salvador les rues sont vides, jusqua ce que nous arrivions dans le centre ou plein de gens, tous en t- shirts jaunes Brazil se dirigent vers la plage. Nous nous rappelons qu’il y a gros match: bresil / chilli et de grands ecrans sont sur la plage pour suivre les matches. Nous arrivions a notre hotel, qui s’appelle Hit hotel, bizarre, et nous allons vite dans notre chambre pour suivre la fin du match. Le bresil gagne et la ville se reveille avec plein de gens dans la rue qui chantent, rient et font du tambourin. ..
Nous finissons la journee avec une baignade dans la mer. C’est l’hiver Ici mais il fait tres chaud et l’eau est bonne. De la plage de Porto de Barra, nous avons un magnifique coucher du soleil, une fois finit, tout le monde applaudit, c’est drole!
On va bien dormir ce soir!
The excitement is huge, no doubts about it. So many places to see, so many things to do!!
The kids help us mark on a world map all the places we want to visit. First on their list: Orlando’s Disney World, hum not what we had in mind! Then comes the North Pole, Machu Picchu, the Great Wall of China, Sydney’s Opera House, they also want to climb mountains, trek the jungle, visit the Amazon.
Rj is easy, wants to see and capturing it all, through his camera lens. His big wish, however, is Japan and the Sakura.
As for me, the dream is to visit Amazonian tribes and Peru’s rich historical landscape. I also really would like to focus on meeting local people and children wherever we go for the boys to appreciate the cultural differences, and what it means in the day to day life.
From here in London, the World seems so small and accessible: all the destinations are available, the travel expertise at hand, there are plenty of people that have visited your destination already and that can guide your travels…
A year would have been ideal but the school has only allowed us a term off (which we feel very lucky to have got considering the high profile of the school). The plan is to combine this to the long French summer break and we’ll have just 6 months to do Our little tour around the world!
So here we are, looking at travels guides and searching the internet for information about our destinations. The cheer amount of resources is overwhelming in itself: from friends advice and recommendations, blogs, touring websites, travel guides, and photography books, we are not running out of sources of inspiration… We could nearly complain that it is too much! So we are dissecting every blogs and books to source the best of the best for our little tour.
And there we have it: it will have to be compromise! 6 months will definitely not be sufficient to fit everybody’s dreams and cover all 5 continents in sufficient depth. No North Pole, no Great Wall of China, but we have Machu Piccu and the Opera House! We also have the trekking and the jungle, the elephants, the monkeys, the pink dolphins and pyranas. No one seems disappointed for too long, we soon realise that there is much more to see out there that our original wishes are quickly overwritten by new dreams.
The line drawn on the world map has therefore changed and the main legs of the trip are finalised : It will be London – Brazil – Peru /Bolivia/Chile – Australia – Singapore – London. Lost of gaps to fill, especially between Singapore and London as we are planning on travelling through a fair few asian countries by any mean but flying. Lots of roads to map, trains and buses to book, people to meet. Exciting!
When thinking and planning to travel, One usually expect a number of twists and turns, losses, sickness, delays, and more, especially with children.
I knew that this very trip, because of its cheer size, would be particularly challenging to organise: packing home, organising the removal & storage, cancelling our administrative life in London, handing over responsibilities at work, planning our route throughout the world, organising all the jabs and the strategic packing for 6 months, all at once, was never to be easy.
Recently however, new and unexpected challenges have arisen:
– the flat is now nearly empty and done up but renting has suddenly come to worry us: the first 2 viewers didn’t jump on the offer and we wonder whether our plans to finance the trip will end to be reviewed. The financial worries always keep me up at night which turn the littlest worry in a massive anxiety! I have started meditating again…
The kids although excited are clearly anxious about this big adventure and the move. They show concern about having little bits of their life with us. A couple of “doudous” (soft toys comforters) will make the trip with us!
(They are not too worried about missing a term of school, neither am I but I still need to ensure we come back with the knowledge required! )
Some days, we ask ourselves, is it really worth it? Do we really need to go through all this for a 6 months adventure?
Many people told us they couldn’t do it, I start to understand why…
But it’s our dream and leaving aside all very inconvenient practicalities, this is what we want to do and experience with our children!
Anyways, we are deep in it to the shoulders now, so let’s breath deeply and face to the challenges thrown at us! 30 days to go!
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Travel sources, maps, guides, blogs
We have now come to realise that planning a trip of that size can be somewhat overwhelming.
In our case, planning the trip also involves leaving a business and a good school behind and renting our flat to finance the trip. We are therefore talking removal, furniture storage, responsibilities hand over, agreements with the school as well as booking flights, finding hotels, best routes and tours through unknown territories, for us that is.
At night, I wake up in a sweat, wondering how on earth we will manage to do all we have to do in 4, 3 and now 2 months…
We have booked the main legs of our trip, all 6 of them, having to decide on where we will be when and when we will have enough of it…tick.
We have found out about visas and time restriction and rearranged our trips around them. We think. tick.
We have called the insurance and planned our jabs (a massive list of them – the kids are going to hate us!) .tick.
We have found and booked reasonable (not cheap) accommodation in super-expensive and World cup pumped up Rio in July 2014, tick.
We have had the estate agents around, we need to contact them again a months before leaving and contacted the decorators to touch up the place. tick.
I am briefing and training my workmates and transferring all the information to them so that they can take over, hopefully smoothly. tick.
A few issues remain to be sorted out:
– how do we pack super light and have everything we need from tropical beaches to 3000m climb?
– how not too over plan and benefit from flight special offers and visa requirements?
– travel sickness, hmmm…
Let’s sleep on it!
Ranj and I always had itchy feet…that story started well before we met each other, it’s in our blood!
Ranj enjoyed a few holidays trips around the world whist I only really travelled in my dreams. A few trips to Spain were my first tasters and initiated a real curiosity for Latin and South American cultures. A dream that I decided to follow when leaving France in 96 and settling down in London as a
a world adventure with kids
step to further destinations.
Combined, our families originate from 5 different countries. Add to this the origins inheritated ‘by law’: we now have 8 nationalities sitting around the table on a regular basis! French, Italian, Spanish, British, Indian are now joined up by Brazilian, Irish and Thai.
Both our families had travelled substantially: on Ranj side, the family tree covered India, Kenya, Malawi before joining the Italian line of his mother’s family; on my side France and Spain were the source but the tales came from travels through Iran, Lebanon, Egypt, the Republic of Congo, Tchad and Algeria.
For our boys, there is no such thing as a Home country. The world is their oyster!
For us, with the family stretching across the globe, the World just got much smaller and the Dream bigger!
It is time to pack up and taste the dream…
A little tour around the World 