Let's liven this place up a little....

Back in Zurich now just over a month and right back into the city system. I can't believe still that only 2 months ago I was coming to the end of an adventure. We've hardly had any time to process what we've done. From reregistering to job hunting, bill paying to spring cleaning.

All things, grown up things I might add, that need to be done. I think it's very easy to fall back into old habits, and to be honest I felt the pull of it, though I was having none of it and nor was Rebekka. Hence we saw the chance to make this place that little bit more lively and fun to live in.
So in the spirit of doing and riding the residual wave of spontaneity we've taken the opportunity to repaint our living room.

 

You know after 6 yrs in one place you can get bored of it and we started to focus a bit much on the negative sides of the apartment. But if our travel taught us anything it's that it's up to you to make the best of your surroundings and find the beauty and fun in life. This is after the first coat,

How to enter DFU mode when Home or Power button is broken - Restore iPhone

Back in Switzerland and loving the internet. Got into a little experiment to try save this iPhone 3g from absolute destruction. I was going to film the phone at high speed being smashed, but just befor there was a light. We abandoned the idea and now busy restoring it. Holding thumbs :)

Making new friends

A short post today but I wanted to share a night of crazy fun with our friends from Santiago, Chile. I also felt a thank you was in order for all of their help and hospitality, and for a damn good time.

We met our good friends Raul, Fabian, Teresa and Lesley (taking photo) whilst on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) on our second trip there, shortly after Roxy was stolen from us in Valparaiso.

What a fantastic bunch they are. They where on their vacation and had another 12 days on the island when we met. We where all staying in the Mihinoa camping site, which as you can see behind is was very close to the ocean.  We explored some of the island with them, went fishing like the locals (with much less skill one must say) and partied with another friend and only auto electrician/panel beater in Hanga Roa, Manuel the mistrallero (Mistral is a brand of Pisco and he stood by it always)

Just to sum up what magic people Raul and Fabian have been I briefly explain how they helped on our return to the mainland. We needed to pick up Roxy from the Placilla police station 25km from Valparaiso and we had no idea where it was, if it ran or where the hell to park the thing. And all we had was 2 days to make a plan before we had to catch our flight to Cusco in Peru. Not only did the boys offer to drive us to the police and drive back with us, which incidentally took over 4 hours as Roxy over heated and needed to be towed to Santiago, and not only to let us park our car at Fabians place in the center until our return from Peru. NO not only to take us out that same night and let us sleep in his apartment and drive us to the airport and offer us a place on returning from Peru. Not only did they do all this, but they also proposed we move the car to Raul's father house, where he has a garage where they can make any necessary repairs and upgrades to the car. We all decided to leave the car with them for the next year or so and have it fixed in the meantime and when we go back to Chile to either use it or sell it. UNBELIEVABLE, seriously! Though I'm sure they had fun on the crazy adventure of saving Roxy, it was never the less a tough feat. A feat which the never seemed to be a burden to them. I was lucky to be in Santiago for my 31st birthday and we partied (on a budget) like I was 21.  HUGE thanks to Raul and Fabian to whom I'm in debt. Until next time guys 

319 days

We made it to Amsterdam! more than 10 months we are back in EU and it's like taking a sweet shower after a long days hiking. Travelling from La Habana, Cuba to Paris then change to train until we arrived after 23 hours at Robin's place in Jordaan, Amsterdam . We met Robin and Lenneart in Brazil and they invited us.


Cuba was an incredible roller coaster ride. A heavily contracting land with such a different culture (or in some cases lack of it) that it feels that in this case the con way out the pros. Rebekka and I have different take aways from 17 days we spent there, but for sure we both agree that it's a must visit country.

We where very lucky from the go it must be said. A HUGE than you to our friends for their wedding gift which we cashed in staying a a 4 star hotel in the old city Habana Vieja. 3 nights of warm(ish) water, fresh sheets, soft pillows, comfy beds and space.

Our luck continued when we met Juan and Wilber, two street musicians who's voices where the initial attraction. So harmonious it really stood out from the rest. I approached the gentlemen and asked if they would mind if I filmed them. They agreed but only one condition, that we record the next day so the could dress for the occasion. So we agreed to meet the next day. After recording Juan invited us for lunch in his house in Regla, a suburb in the industrial section of the Habana harbour. We stayed late after lunch and Juan said it's no probs for us to stay the night. We ended up staying 10 days, Ha Ha ha....

We did go on some trips and found a last minute deal to stay 2 nights in a resort on Varadero, their pride and joy beach peninsula.

Cuba however will be a topic frequently mentioned in future posts. As beautiful a place it is, it too is riddled with unnecessary controls and suffering from the general population and so it's important to write in detail about this country and not just imagine it as a paradise where everyone is happy and loves their socialist state..

Breath of fresh air

I can't believe it's already 2 months since my last post. Though I must admit I'm glad to have had that break we all at some time either need or are looking for  peace from, tv, radio, phones and just listen to the sound of the ocean and the wind and the birds. To be totally focused on your environment and take it all in like a deep breath of fresh air.

Heading

I think it only fair to fill you in on where we've been before letting you in on our current whereabouts. Though I couldn't, and wouldn't put you through the agony, and put 2 months worth in one post. However I will hopefully entertain you a little with a brief look at whats been going on and later go over each stop and the road there in detail. In short we have made it to northern Ecuador and are on our way to the boarder with Colombia.



Last time Rebekka wrote we where both a bit angry and still in shock from our Roxy being stolen.
(But what a bizarre and unbelievable story this has turned out to be after finding her again)

After a spontaneous decision made 11:00 am Monday morning in a busy agency in Valparaiso we dashed off to get our stuff to make the 17:00 flight in Santiago. We were going back to Rapa Nui .... for 3 weeks!
Too much bad energy and negative vibes from my side and so we took a step back .

I can say with out any doubts this was my favourite place. It has an incredible energy and atmosphere everywhere on the island. We where welcomed back as friends and we felt so at home. The friends we made will be for life. I will go back one day with Rebekka and family. Here are just some pics....




to be continued........

Good things can come from bad things

This morning I woke up with the thought on my mind, why not go back to Rapa Nui? At least we could eat all that food we stocked up for our road trip! So we went to the LAN office to check flights & we were in luck, we found a cheaper flight than last time and we can stay till 1st of June :-) the only thing was, that it was leaving THIS afternoon... so Damien got the tickets, I ran back to the hostel to pack, we jumped in a taxi, took the bus from Valparaiso busterminal, got off in Santiago and took a transfer to the airport :-) here we are! The lady at the check in was super nice, she let us get away with more weight... Damiens backpack was 30kg plus a second bag of 5kg, my backpack was 20kg plus a second bag with 9kg (it was so heavy beause of the food...) we would have been allowed 30kg each, so that was really nice of her.
We are really looking forward to stay on the island again and hopefully we can put the bad experience behind...

Sad face

I think this describes our feeling pretty good at the moment. I was actually working on a blogpost about our wonderful trip we had to Rapa Nui, when we found out that our car had been stolen...
Obviously our road trip trough South America will not happen now and we need to figure out how we want to go about it. All we didn't want to do was to take the tourist trips with busses, but the way it looks we have no other choice to do it like that...
On the bright side, me and Damien are safe & sound and that's what counts!