2BumbleB

2007-10-27T03:32:00.000+02:00

There is No Way to Happiness. Happiness is The Way! (Buddha)

According to 20th century folklore, the laws of aerodynamics prove that the bumblebee should be incapable of flight, as it does not have the capacity (in terms of wing size or beat per second) to achieve flight with the degree of wing loading necessary. Not being aware of scientists 'proving' it cannot fly, the bumblebee happily goes on flying!

Go as far as you can see, and when you get there you can see further (Mahatma Gandhi)

We’d left our dear chocolate and snow-mountain country last December fully packed with our kite surfing gear and a single air-ticket to Brazil. Except for the Budget and the final destination, everything else was unplanned. Following the calendar of the trade winds and the moon, we explored the sportsgrounds of our dreams, visited important cultural and natural centres and got inspired by cheerful and helpful people. Now, after 11 months and 44 thousand kilometres on transit, our 2bumbleB project has happily reached an end in order to give space for a new beginning! But this is going to be another story...

There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew. (Marshall McLuhan)

Through this blog (and the photo collections on Flickr), we would like to share our adventures, impressions and gratitude with you. Definitely it is just one of infinite ways to discover and enjoy the endless wonders of this world. Life is beautiful and we are meant to cherish all of its riches, as much as it is our responsibility towards our flourishing future generations to always stay openly critical towards everything - including ourselves - and act with respectfulness (check the new blog 2HumbleB!!!)

Experience is not was happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him. (Aldous Huxley)

Anh-Dao and Padi
October 30th 2007 in Sydney NSW Australia

2007-10-27T03:23:00.001+02:00

One last escape to Melbourne

How can we decide to settle in Sydney if we haven’t even visited Melbourne beforehand? And my best friend Valerie was expecting us there! With these reasons in hand, we booked our tickets at a low-cost air-company and set up for the final step of our 2bumbleB Journey.

We arrived on a chilly, rainy and windy Tuesday evening via Avalon airport to the huge, modern train station of Melbourne CBD. A short tram-ride through a deserted city took us to a Victorian-style suburb where Valerie welcomed us with a hot cup of tea. She’d prepared a program for the week-end and some magazines and maps for our time in Melbourne City. It was such a nice feeling to know somebody like her in that part of the world! While we visited some of Victoria’s best places at day and night, we shared many thoughts together. I could talk with her for hours and hours to share travel experience and learn about the work conditions as she had experienced in Melbourne.

Thanks to her car, the famous surf spot Bell’s Beach near Torquay, the gorgeous wild beaches of the Surf Coast and the wonderful green hills of Mornington Peninsula weren’t that far from Melbourne. The ocean seemed to be a more powerful natural element than in Sydney. Those two days were a delicious journey in harmony with the time, the lovely weather and the Mozzies. These flies apparently don’t make any difference between cows and human: in Australia, when a fly catches you, it won’t let you go. Imagine what happens when there are many...

Listening to our mood of the day and with the excuse to be prepared for future sophisticated events, we spent a lot of shopping time in Melbourne. Victoria’s Market and its unexpected Delicatessen Stores plenty of yummy Greek and Italian specialities was the best location for us to start. I finally left the market with some new sunglasses, elegant shoes, an Indian scarf and juicy fruits in my bag. We met Val after work to share an ice cream that seemed the right compensation after a busy day for every one. That’s the day when Padi crossed the whole city with a large smile on his face, carrying proudly his 15kg mail box full of business clothes sent by his parents.

Perfectly dressed on Saturday 10 AM, the three of us were ready to leave the house for the traditional Caulfield Cup horse races. Val briefed us about the horses’ performance history in order to bet some money on the favourites. Our main interest, however, was to experience the OZ-way of such an event. I would describe it as ”to appear the most extravagant you can and get totally drunk before the last horse race finishes”. Unhappy to let them the money of our bad bet, Valerie and I yet were fascinated by those powerfully muscled horses. Only Padi felt a bit richer and smarter at the end of the day since he managed to triple his investment. Horse races are definitely “men’s business”.

We had a dinner with Sunny, the bloke we met a few months ago at Copacabana on Titicaca Lake in Bolivia. This happy guy did not loose any of his good energy on people. We had a very good time all together with plenty of Australian beers and wine. Besides, Sunny accepted to fill in a Statutory Declaration Form about my true relationship with Padi just one day before he left the country for another adventurous trip! His mission had been to convince us to stay in Melbourne. Well, he failed, but it’s not his fault. The strange taste of my weird “squid pizza” had probably more effects on life’s course. It had to be, and so we said goodbye to Sunny and Val and got back to Sydney.

Now we temporarily share a very well-located, new apartment with Korean people, and we are enjoying a beautiful swimming-pool on the rooftop, with views on Sydney Skyline and the Opera House. Our flatmates are extremely respectful and sometimes it is very embarrassing for us. The most intrigant is how their culture constrains them not to bother others, even in common living areas! I guess that Korean or Japanese demography forced them to find different ways of privacy on tiny space. And now that they are in Australia, they still maintain this regardless of our western culture. My most untactful act was for sure to wake up everybody early in the morning with a loud fire alarm, activated by the little bread’s smoke from the toaster!
There is no chance to ever teach them the western Chill Out’ lifestyle where all together share the same living room with a magnificent view onto the Botanical Gardens with fireworks at night. So even if our final challenge is not to settle up a Spanish Guesthouse, we do enjoy discovering new culture every day.

Click here to access our Melbourne Slideshow

2007-10-25T06:43:00.001+02:00

Closing a Circle in Sydney

The first time I thought of actually revisiting Sydney, my place of birth, was when I saw the cruise ship Pacific Star a couple of weeks ago on Isle of Pine. Having slowly given up the hope for the sailing trip with Magellan from New Caledonia to Darwin, Northern Australia, that ferry was the first practicable option to move on, and I must say - despite the original strategy of our 2bumbleb journey not to visit any place one of us already knew - it was quite a seductive idea to arrive in Australia on a huge cruise ship, entering Sydney harbour to view the magnificent Harbour Bridge and the famous Opera House before setting foot in the heart of the city at Circular Quay.

Once back in Noumea to organise the ongoing trip (still having Melbourne in mind as the final destination), we decided to take the next airplane to Sydney in order to answer a spontaneous invitation to the birthday party of Anh-Dao's friend Chris. The same weekend, in the legendary Customs House in Sydney center, there was a big event in the honour of the International Architecture Day, and Anh-Dao put on hands in a fun competition to propose a visionary residential solution for 250'000 new inhabitants on Circular Quay considering the principles of sustainable development. So finally, getting to Sydney right on time turned out to be a great move since we immediately plunged into a good architects' network with a considerable outlook to plenty of work opportunity for Anh-Dao.

Of course getting back to Sydney was like getting home for me, as I had already spent some key experience time 8 years ago in this beautiful city. On arrival at the airport, I immediately contacted my old friend Kim who spontaneously invited us to stay with him in his appartment. Of course we went to meet him and Tamara in the city first, since it was Friday evening, the time for the compulsory Afterworks beer party... Having rented a car for the weekend, we immediately planned to travel together and make a surprise to meet his dear parents in the Hunter Valley, Dorothee and Detlef, as well as his sister Michelle, who happened to be up there as well. I was deeply happy to see them in their new built lovely home and to witness Dorothee's artistic expression (click here to view her artwork).

Before moving on to Melbourne, we are considering the option of settling here in Sydney. There's much to do, besides starting the complicated process to apply for a de facto partner visa for Anh-Dao so that she can rapidly pick up work without being dependent of an employer's sponsorship. As much as starting a new life can be exciting, the questions are rather difficult to answer, and the more we think, the more we see how dependent some issues can be from others. For sure we can't do all things right from the start, so it's quite a challenge to manage and harmonize such a package like getting career-appropriate jobs, finding a convenient and relaxing new home, getting a reliable car for good value to maintain our mobility and be able to do kitesurfing in our speartime, learning how to adapt to the local rhythm of life without giving up our own. First of all we have to get used to driving on the left hand side of the road, dealing with everything in english again, and try to figure out what the major issues and concerns of the Australians are (not easy after having unwinded for 10 months).

Sydney is a very busy city, and now and again I catch myself getting sucked in by the swirls of traffic, noise, overdose of information and the countless attempts of the consumer world. I have to learn again to be able to contemplate with this hustle-bustle. One way is to enter into one of the many asian foodcourts and enjoy a well spiced and tasty meal, something I really missed throughout the trip. One other way is to regularly find a calm place and escape for a moment, like joining a Yoga class and centering myself again (yes, sometimes I forget to breathe properly, and this causes accumulation of stress). I was lucky to make the exceptional experience of attending a class with Master Kamal, founder of the very popular Planet Yoga establishments in Hongkong and throughout Asia. This young, open-hearted and eversmiling Indian Yogi inspired me a lot with his challenging, humourous and holistic way of teaching a wonderful way of life. Anyway, Sydney has all we could wish, it's up to us to know what we want and learn how to achieve it. May another adventure begin!

Click here for the Sydney Slideshow.

2007-09-27T06:43:00.002+02:00

Isle of Pines – Waiting for a sailing boat that never came

Who wishes to be forgotten in paradise?

Originally, the island said to be closest to paradise was planned to be our starting point for our sailing adventure on Magellan. Instead of one night, we ended up spending 17 long days without clear information. As we kept on waiting in hope for good news, we learnt that bad news was definitely better than no news. In fact, Magellan’s rudder blade broke between Fidji and in southern Vanuatu only a few days before arrival, and at first there was no way for them to contact us, nor to know how and when the repairs would be successful.

We speculated waiting would take just a few days. So we went out to explore the unique beauties of the island like cycling, hiking, horsebackriding, scuba diving. We did’nt find any reasonably safe and reliable kitesurf spot. Not being prepared for a longer camping-stay, cooking tools were practically unexistant, and we quickly started to suffer the lack of fresh food supplies and generally exorbitant prices, not only in the very fiew restaurants, but also in the foodstores. Frequent rainfalls and low temperatures over 5 days made our camping quite uncomfortable, but it was never too bad to be a reason to give up. Instead, we focused on catching up with things we’d never had time for up to now. Spending more time than usual guests, we started to socialize with locals. Each time they saw us again, they wondered why we we were still here, since we'd explained that we would leave very soon.

One day Anh-Dao could not stand it any more. She was ready to leave everything behind, even me! Of course I was more patient because I knew the captain of Magellan personally and remained faithful towards him. Moreover, where should we have gone, if not keep waiting in the camping? Nouméa with its expensive hotels was not an option. Moving anywhere else was another huge logistics project with all our gear. On that day there was a big invasion of Ozzies, enjoying some hard ground on their cruise back to Sydney. Watching the big cruiseship outside the Bay of Kuto, I realized that we could maybe just hop on and reach Australia that way. Calling the maritime agent, he was in for the deal but could not persuade the captain who was against such risky, short-noticed actions. Anyway, the sudden rush to clear our tent space and prepare our luggage saved the day and Anh-Dao had a proof from me that I was ready to look out for new options.

Fortunately, we met some very cheerful people who had come to Isle des Pins 38 years ago to develop tourist business with modern watersports. Now they run an Arts & Handicraft Boutique and create souvenir items themselves. We spent quite a few evenings with them to get inspired by the experience of one another. On these encounters we dare to conclude that it’s not the birth year that determines our age, but the sane amount and creative nature of our future projects and our positive attitude towards them.

After nearly two weeks, our friends on Magellan at last contacted us and the many speculations came to an end: Due to major technical problems, Magellan can’t immediately continue its trip to Papua-New Guinea and Darwin. For recovery, they’ll extend their stay in New Caledonia and add a loop via New-Zealand and Eastcoast Australia. This way, we also had to completely change our plans. But we had no way to leave the island for another 5 days. It’s quite challenging to change a travel plan spontaneously, when trying to keep expenses minimal, and wishing to meet friends in New Zealand or Australia spontaneously without disrupting their original programs. One thing is clear: We can’t stay any longer in New Caledonia. We have to move on rapidly and try to settle in Melbourne as planned. We are at the end of our trip, our budget reaches the bottom end. Thinking more about time, work, money than enjoying the moment on an island so close to paradise is a clear sign enough. In fact we’ve spent as much money waiting for the boat on Isle of Pine and taking the airplane as we would have for 2 months sailing to the same destination. And we will not have made the sailing experience we’d so dearly wished since we arrived in Tahiti.

How shall we deal with all this resentment towards our friends on Magellan? It wasn’t their fault! Lucky enough they survived their accident! Anyway, we were looking forward to see Chloé and Jean-Baptiste as we got back to Nouméa. They cheerfully picked us up with their Dinghy on our arrival at the the ferry-pier, carrying all our belongings with us. We ended up spending two nights on Magellan, experiencing fullmoon on deck, and exchanging all our stories with much enthusiasm. The expedition together would have been great, but “Es hat nicht sollen sein!”

Finally, we are happy to have made this special experience of New Caledonia. Despite the challenging extreme conditions with weather, wind and temperatures, we managed to push our limits in kitesurfing and add more lasting impressions to our underwater career. Many local people, no matter if native Melanesian Kanaks, native white Caldoche, or expat metropolitan French and other nationalities, were great source of inspiration to us in terms of friendly attitude, warm hospitality and great respect for the resources of nature. We will cherish all this good Mana as we move on to Australia and hope to find a place where we can keep irradiating our environment with it for a long time!

To explore the stunning beauty of Isle of Pines, click slideshow.

2007-09-27T06:43:00.001+02:00

Extreme Adventure on Ilot Tenia

After a week of rockin’ round la Grande Terre in a Peogeot 207, it was time to slow down and get back to the roots... We couldn’t resist the unique offer of our new Caldoche friend Mark to take his canote, some camping gear and enough supplies for water and food, and experience a Robinson Crusoe life. The coral cay of Tenia is a natural reserve with a sandy island and beautiful coral reef, based at the limit of the world’s largest lagoon and the Coral Sea. This place was to become our new home for the coming 12 days.

To get there from Mark’s place with all our gear, it took a two and a half hours ride in the little canote. Mark and his mate Bruno were so cool to show us the way, do some gunfishing, leave us some fish and cold beers before they returned to their homes through the dark of the early nightfall. We quickly got settled in an abandoned shed and prepared for some great snorkelling and kitesurfing. Being alone on an island far off civilization, our rhythm rapidly adapted to the eternal breath of pure nature. Never-before-heard, Mozart-like bird singing from all directions and distances announced the morning sun and cheered us up to get ready for the day. Of course these depended heavily on the tidal calendar and the winds. To extend some daytime, we lit campfires using stranded woods we found on our daily strolls along the deserted beach.

Having a little boat of our own was great. We could go and visit some outer reefs (with great long surfbreaks) and snorkel among unalerted marine life. The coral reef’s wild fauna and flora seemed rather intact and definitely excited us more than anything we’ve seen beforehand. However, with 22° C water temperature was chilly and kept us off doing long underwater sessions. Back on land, we enjoyed the moderate winter sun to heat up, but had to constantly take good care not to step onto one of the countless sea snakes obviously having the same intention with the sun. These creatures are extremely venimous, but fortunately behave rather passive when encountered.

Lucky enough, our stay dropped into a long period of great SE trade winds between 20 and 30 knots. Exclusively enjoying glassy waters in offshore wind conditions, we were fortunate to have the boat for emergency cases. Being only the two of us, we could never surf at the same time, since one had to secure the other. Now and again winds were so hard, Anh-Dao couldn’t control the smallest kite. On one occasion she lost the board and the gales let her no chance to bodydrag upwind. She drifted faster than the abandoned board and was relieved when she could save herself further down the island. Assured that she was fine, I rapidly drove the canote out to search for the board, but the wind was so strong I hardly could keep the boat flat in the water. Anh-Dao joined me in the canote and together we searched for another 2 hours, in vain. This loss was quite a shock for us both. Having accumulated this with the experiences the day before (sight of large shark during kite session, nightmare due to a helicopter waking us up in the middle of the night with his penetrating flashlight, mystical moon eclipse), Anh-Dao suffered a luxuation of her right shoulder on her next dive expedition, and I provoked a second, more serious one on manipulating the stiffened muscles to relief the pain and calm her down. That was the point where we realized there was more than just fun related to our adventure.

Now and again the island received other visitors coming for a daytrip. We sympathized with some kitesurfers and scientists from the capital Nouméa. Our conclusion to this is for reasons of precious time, energy and money, it is wiser to wait on a little piece of paradise for few but mostly interesting encounters, rather than get lost in a crowded place where it is hard to filter the people we would like to spend more time with.

24 hours before we left, heavy rainfalls started, that disgustingly made all our gear feel humid and wet. Fair enough, the boatride was calm and we even saw some dolphins. Mark expected us back at his weekend house and helped us to clear up and dry all the things for ongoing journey. In the evening we were invited to Laurence’s birthday BBQ with excellently tender Vanuatu beef, plenty of cold Champagne and great dessert pastry. This way we enjoyed a pleasant return to civilization.

Waiting for the ferry to transfer onto Ile des Pins and join our friends on the sailing boat Magellan, we spent a night at our new friend from Tenia, Guillem. Anh-Dao was lucky to buy the last reasonable kiteboard available in whole Nouméa from Stéphane Tranne, the Caledonian wakeboard star, who spontaneously invited us to join in for an excellent wakeboard session on his wonderful, large Mastercraft motorboat.

If you'd like to know how kitesurfers fly in glassy-flat water, check this: tenia slideshow.

2007-09-27T06:29:00.001+02:00

Rain Challenge on Grande Terre New Caledonia

Having Tahitian shell necklaces from Nadège, Christelle, Dyonita and Fabien pending on my front, a Farewell cocktail from the Beachcomber bar resting comfortably in my belly, and with a wide lasting smile on my face from the fresh impressions of snorkelling just hours ago with humpback whales in crystal clear tropical waters, I arrived in New Caledonia’s International Airport with Padi on my side. It was midnight, and it felt strange to have lost a whole calendar day after crossing the dateline in the “wrong” direction. Moreover, we had no reservations for transport or accommodation, so we were bound to improvise. Lucky enough, we met a warmhearted person who enjoyed chatting with us for hours before lending us a rental car for the week. His name is Mark Levy, and I can’t imagine to have discovered New Caledonia without his help and his fascination to share the hidden beauties of his generous country with us. He gave us clear instructions on how to reach a wild campsite used by hunters on the shores of the magic Tontouta River in the middle of the night. Can there be any better first impression of a new country than being woken up by birds’ concerts and the morning sun in a save place on a heavenly bit of land?

Travelling inland through the vast and hilly bush on red dirt tracks is like diving into ancient times. In the South we hiked on some fantastic botanical trails to discover sceneries reminding us of the prehistoric Gondwana era. Then again, we were surprised by the differences of the tropical eastcoast and the rather dry, prairie-like westcoast.

To dive into Melanesian culture, we first visited Renzo Piano’s Cultural Centre of Tjibaou, and then spent a day with the chief family of the Werap tribe in Hienghène. Of course we had to respect the local custom by officially asking chief Martial’s permission to visit the land of his ancestors, and after handing over a couple of chocolate bars, he happily accepted and hosted us with a tasty traditional Bounia meal. That’s how we got to taste their energetic and holy Igname (Yam root) for the first time. As we were suffering heavy rainfalls for days, we were glad to spend a night in a traditional hut, but even more glad to mount our tent in the middle of the night, when all kinds of biests tried to fight for more attention than the heavy raindrops crawling through the straw roof. Unfortunately, the tropical depression had a great impact on our discovery trip. One after another, we had to cancel kitesurfing in world-class Poe beach, scuba diving among huge Gorgones in Hienghène, driving scenic roads that were blocked by floodings, and the options to visit a traditional agriculture fair or a coffee festival were postponed. To take a good rest, we once decided to sleep in a hotel. It turned out to be a real flop as the quality of service and the food did not satisfy at all for the price we paid. We believe we were unlucky with our choice.

Overall, we had much fun and got a great insight to the beauty and the potential of this stunning island. We believe, New Caledonia is a great destination for individual travellers who prefer eco-friendly tourism to mass tourism, appreciate and respect well preserved nature and can manage high costs of living. In return, local people are extremely friendly and anticipate help whereever they can, the French engineered roads are in great shape and allow enjoyable cruising, and there are many comfortable picnic-places to have a break and breathe the clear air. We figured out that New Caledonia has nearly as much inhabitable area as Switzerland, but with 220’000 inhabitants only 3% of the Swiss population!

For more pictures of New Caledonia Main Island, click slideshow .

2007-08-18T23:52:00.002+02:00

Imagin' French Polynesia

...like The Little Prince who visited Earth and asked Antoine de St. Exupéry to draw a cute sheep to bring back home to his little planet.

...like Julien Cottereau miming his imaginary world with its monsters and courageous heros, ending his tale Imagine-toi with a lot of new friends.

...like us two bumble bees blown by the wind into the middle of the Pacific Ocean, starting a new episode of our life with bated breath, a breath boosting us with positiveness for our common future!

Soulrider's Vision
To experience total freedom while gliding over flat, endlessly turquoise water along coconut trees! The search after this fantastic sensation was driving us all over our journey and finally came true in the beautiful lagoon of Maupiti.
An encounter with the crazy kiters from Lakana Fly on Moorea taught us new limits: Those guys use two 80 meters long towing line in parallel behind a motorboat that cruises against the wind to give them a lift up to over 50 meters. The kiters then let go the line and sail their conventional kites like hanggliders to gently land on the water and continue with a graceful synchronized ride back to the starting point. We never saw something like that before!
We did not have as often wind as expected. Therefore, on calm days we often used a kayak to enjoy gliding over the lagoon. The wake-up Yoga sessions at the shore became Padi's daily routine to an extent he did not feel the need for regular cardiac training anymore. However, he was very happy to join a Sprint-Triathlon and find back the sensations of his long neglected favourite athletic discipline.

Daydream on a secluded Pacific Island
You need plenty of time and trials to finally find a place that corresponds to your dreams. First it's often hard to describe some imaginary settings, then you have to go and look for yourself in secluded areas, because if you follow guidebooks and commercial tours you'll just be disappointed to find some spoilt spots full of people, noise and rubbish. We found a neat campplace on a lonely cay full of coconut trees and lived like Robinson Crusoe for a week. Ok, he did not have kiteboarding gear to enjoy the wind. But he surely suffered far more than us, that there was no means of communication with the outer world. Instead, we sucked up the beauty of nature in an everchanging scenery conditioned by the weather, the Sun and the Moon, and let the magic do its work on us.

Set back to Dream Time
Spending much time on, in, and along the water, we were lucky to see wild animals such as huge turtles, tame manta rays and some black tips surfacing, or spinner dolphins, flying fish, marlin and once even an eagle ray teaching us flying lessons, or plenty of coral fish, white tip and gray sharks as well as a nosy Napoleon Fish during our Scuba dive sessions. We loved to go snorkelling as the clear waters allow for great views and the fish and coral are also very enjoyable close to the surface. Hunting with the harpune was another way to enjoy apnoe snorkelling and train our capacity to stay calm and long time at interesting depths. Padi was not such a good hunter as me, but I had to rely on him for spanning the dart ;-) This way, now and again we were able to also taste some of those colourful little creatures...
Near the beach you get to see those strange crawling creatures such as huge coconut crabs and hermit crabs (the strangest one of them used an rosty metal pump as his housing - well, nature can in some ways adapt to mankind).
We absorbed the luxurious green canopy on the islands and the tropical fruits, although the variety is much smaller compared to the fruits in Brazil. However, here we dared to eat lots of tuna - a real feast, no matter in which way: raw as sashimi or the Tahitian way, or barbecued etc.! And we discovered the power of the nutritious breadfruit called Uru!
We were lucky to visit Tahiti during their annual traditional festivities called Heiva. We believe that their well choreographed Tahitian Dance Shows along with great drumbeats could beat the crowds at the Brazilian carnavals, whereas the chants accompanied by Ukulele music rather reminded me of poor performances at secondary school level. I wont say that our Digeridoo session on our last evening in Bora Bora could do better, but it also had its effect on tying multicultural friendships!
The highlight, however, was the snorkelling-session with a couple of humpback-whales. I will never forget the sight of their beautifully shaped bodies and their slow but gracious movements. Nature is wonderful and always again manages to make me feel very small and unimportant.

Travellers Nightmare
On our arrival, we would never have imagined to experience such a kind of experience such as a masturbation of the obese French Polynesian Administration...
As you might have read in our reports from Brazil, we expected a parcel from Switzerland to replace our broken kites, that arrived in Tahiti with much delay and no announcement for another 10 days... With much patience and diplomacy towards all sorts of post departments and the customs adminitration of Tahiti, we finally managed to retrack the parcel and get our hands on it three weeks after the planned receival date. Without Christelle's help (we met her in the camping in Moorea and she spontaneously offered us to stay at her home on Tahiti and use her car) and our proficiency in french, we would've never managed and our kites would've been returned to Switzerland. We ended up doing more than thousand kilometers through tedious traffic jams in Christelle's 4x4 between the different administration instances (post, customs, chamber of commerce, national treasury) located at decentral points not accessible by foot or public transport only to leave a guarantee of 700.- US dollars for the duration of our stay in French Polynesia because we were not ready to pay the far too high commission toward a transitory broker. On our efforts to regain the deposit, we spent another four days (of totally eight days) to play messenger between the different instances because the informatic system did not support our special case. Finally, the big boss of customs who had proposed to us to enter this whole nighmare, had to deal with our matter to the end and became tributary of the very absurd process he required from the start! Now we'll leave the country with a seal on our two kites-backpack and the good feeling to leave a place somewhere in Africa! At least we did not have any personal or material damage, and that is what counts in the end!

With my dream to extend the stay in the pacific island, I responded to a job offer in the papers and got an interesting offer! The demand of skilled architects on the French Polynesian Territory is quite strong, but unfortunately not in concordance with the immigration administration, which refuses to deliver any temporary permission to stay for Swiss Citizens. The economic blockade against available foreign workforce (except French citizens, of course) may end up choking the own economy, if renowned Architecture Offices have to refuse big projects because a lack of working personnel! Perhaps we are happy not to have to experience a working life in Tahiti. The high prices, administrative absurdities and overpopulation are enough to transform a stay on the islands into a nightmare.
On the other hand taking the risk to experience a nightmare can sometimes lead to some extraordinary experience: We faced the difficult challenge to get on board of a cargo-boat. We decided to travel with the "Hawaiki Nui" without any reservation (normally one would have to book a cabin one month in advance to be on a list of maximum 12 passengers). Being accepted on board by the captain the first time, for a lift from Tahiti to Bora Bora, we weren't able to plan any further destination in doubt to be refused the next time we present ourselves again on the dock! We managed only with patience, strategy, the good will of the captain and the flexibility to stay a few nights more on an island to book an expensive flight back to Tahiti main island.
Globetrotting without a Round-The-World airticket can be quite adventurous regarding the usual immigration procedures: Despite our presentation of a correct visa, most airport immigrations do not accept us entering their country if we do not present a valid airticket for exit. For us this is a serious restriction to our freedom of deciding spontaneously on our overnext destination. Authorities do not want to understand our special wishes and so we are often forced to be rather creative on finding our ways through the administrative djungle.

Polynesian Dream Team
We had the chance to experience French Polynesia differently from the standard one-week honeymooners. We learned a lot about the warm hospitality of the Polynesians, the French Expats, and the Chinese Community. We also experienced how important it is to have local friends that can use their networks to help us out in complicated situations. Thank you to all of you, especially Christelle and Fabien for hosting us a month in your beautiful Fare next to the Lagoon at Paea, Dyonita and Eliane for your warm hospitality, Ronny for lending me the Triathon Bike, Nadège for taking us on her motorboat to search for the humpback whales, Rosine for receiving us during a month in your charming pension, Toby for your Aussie-Polynesian mateship, Paul for your professional (under-)water photography, Julien Cottereau, his fiancée Fany and the crew as well as the Kiwi Probst family for being the catalysor to start our Polynesian adventure! You have become very dear friends! May we receive you in the same way whereever our home will be!

Dream on: Our next adventures
One source of inspiration for our journey was my dream to sail around the world. We'd hoped to find a sailing boat in Tahiti and join in as a crew to reach the Australian coast by sea. The alternative would've been by air via Auckland, New Zealand. Well, as beautiful as to bumble be may be, Padi contacted a sailing boat who's skipper turned out to be his former French rival Jean-Baptiste at the Camel Trophy 2000!!! Jean-Baptiste and his partner Chloé invited us to join their expedition from New Caledonia to Australia starting mid september! In the meantime we'll scout the fabulous kitespots in New Caledonia. To find out more about Jean-Baptiste and his partner Chloé's Expedition, click on the link Un Monde d'Expeditions.

As a dessert to all of this, check out the various Photo Sets of our Polynesian Experience on Flickr, via this link!

2007-06-03T03:59:00.000+02:00

Tahiti Dream

We'll take a time out with our blog reports - just such that you don't get too jealeous... We plan to bumble bee on the Islands around Tahiti... Cya later!!! Na na!!!

LATEST NEWS: Photos from Tahiti on FLICKR!!!
Due to the announced service stop of Yahoo Photos, we were forced to migrate our Photos to Flickr. The adaptation of all our links will take a while, but you can already directly check out the cool Flickr Slide Show Feature to view our latest impressions of Tahiti and Moorea, or Bora Bora.
To reach all the other photos of our 2bumbleB Journey to the South-West, click on this link. The complete 2bumbleB Photo Collection will then open via the Flickr.com website. Have fun!

2007-06-03T02:32:00.000+02:00

Easter Island at Pentecost

Lucky enough we arrived at the end of a long period with steady rainfalls, and we were able to set up our new tent and quite comfortably camp right next to the ocean, enjoying the sound of some huge Pacific swell while watching sunset. The cool, misty and very windy weather conditions were perfect to explore the mystical Island of Rapa Nui by bicycle! Since it was the absolute low season, we hardly saw any other tourists, and loved the many encounters with free horses! Of course we would have preferred to swap locomotion... At the end of the day we enjoyed some great Ceviche for dinner, a raw tuna fish speciality. If you like to know more about the island, we recommend you watch the film Rapa Nui by Kevin Reynolds. I loved the film for its birdman race that reminded me of some moments I experienced during the Camel Trophy in Tonga and Samoa.

Click here to visit our Rapa Nui Photo Set on Flickr!

2007-05-26T04:23:00.001+02:00

Farewell South America after 6 unforgettable months!!!
What do you do when you come to the end of a very important chapter? Organise a party and do a resume? We thought one party was not enough. You just have to design the chapters creatively...

So we had a great party in Arequipa, on the highest terasse above the main square, overlooking the cathedral and the volcanoes in the background waiting for a beautiful sunset, and enjoyed a fine alpaca carpaccio and a decent Peruan wine to celebrate our last busride of totally 11'450 bumpy South American kilometers and 262 long hours in public transports overland ...

A day later, after a comfortable short flight, we finally saw the Pacific Ocean with its large and regular swell breaking far in front of Lima's cliffs and decided to feast this occasion with a yummie-fresh seafood plate - of course with the sound of the waves in our ears. This was not only the end of our crossing of the Andes, but also the last night in Peru.

Having completed the loop to Bolivia and Peru by returning to Santiago de Chile, it was time to say goodbye to the beloved continent of South America. We chose to return to the excellent seafood restaurant "Ocean Pacific" to enjoy abalones among other fine specialities along with a last great bottle of Chilean red wine.
As you can see, we care a lot about what we feed our stomachs, and it is not always easy to keep within our limited budget of 80 US $ a day for two. We can say that we have more or less well managed throughout the last six months. However, the big challenge is about to start now, since we intend to stay a few months in Tahiti, a very heavenly place for people with a slightly higher budget... We'll let you know if we will have managed or not. Of course we've bought a tent to accomodate ourselves in the 1000 stars hotel, and we'll see if we can stick to the coconut diet while trying to make progress with kitesurfing. For sure we will have lots of fun!!!Before that, we'll visit Easter Island. Don't worry, we decided to quit Thor Heyerdaal's version by ancient sailing boat. Therefore, we'll cross the first part of the Pacific Ocean by air. If you have an idea how we should move on from Tahiti, please share it with us by posting your comment!

2007-05-26T04:10:00.000+02:00

Condor flight over the abyss of the Colca Canyon
Photographic pictures of the Colca Canyon can't reveal the full beauty of this place. We are glad to have visited this rugged valley in the north of Peru's third largest city Arequipa and its beautiful volcanoes. The visit is easily feasible on your own, so you can avoid the high fees of the agencies and enjoy to visit the place at your own pace. We chose to do a 2-day trek to get off the beaten track from mainstream tourism.

After being visited by majestic, 3 meters large Condors at only 10 meters, we descended 1400m down to the gorge and spent the night in a lovely Refugio (Roy's House in San Juan de Chuccho). The fertile but steep valley can only be reached by foot or donkey, so you can imagine how laid back the people there are!!! After only a day it already did not seems strange any more to see trains of donkeys crossing our way.

This is THE place of our whole trip in South America where we felt the most travelling in the past. People are still very friendly and simple. The fact that you have to spend at least a night in a simple stay without electricity and communication after a hard and dusty trek fortunately still keeps back mainstream tourism from spoiling the place.

More pics on our Arequipa photo set by Flickr.

2007-05-24T22:30:00.001+02:00

Worshipping the Sun at Macchu Picchu
Have you ever imagined how deeply fascinating and rich in symbols Inka's architecture and culture could be? No? So let's see what a roundtrip of ten days in Peru, imerging in archeological sites of the most famous Inka ruins, can teach us!
Qosqo, the ancient capital of the Inka Empire and the actual city of Cusco in the heart of the Andes, is headed by Sacsayhuaman, an impressive construction of stone walls (some of them weigh over 100 tons!) that constitute a place for sacred ceremonies.

The perfect knowledge of the agricultural calendar, systems of irrigation and terrace cultivation constitute the main point of interest of their ancient sustainable live style. They mastered the mystification of the Sun by combining naturally positioned and geometrically shaped rocks to produce fascinating games of light and shadows using the orientation of the sunrays on special days like the winter solstice. These events illustrated the power of the gods in order to control the people and were often carried out with sacrifices and offerings. Thanks to all the guides that recalled us all these elements of the Inka culture at the various sites in and around the Sacred Valley, we learnt to discover new forms in the rocks, like the Puma Guard or the Andean Cross, or even the lying Inka Face formed by the Wayna Picchu range in the background of the Macchu Picchu ruins.

As fresh baked Inka amateurs, we enjoyed to find out by ourselves the symbols hidden at the Temple of the Moon near Macchu Picchu. The enigma of this place, lost between Wayna Picchu and the Rio Urubamba and completely ignored by tourists, seemed perfect since haven't found any explanations in the specialized bookshops.

Finally, to supplement our enthusiasm on our return from the highlight of the trip, we did a perfect Mountainbike downhill ride on an Inka trail between Moray and the salt mines in the surrounding hills of the beautiful and very Inka-style village of Ollantaytambo. With some aches the following day, but happy to have survive the expedition and not to have undergone any other kind of breakdown, we had a guinea-pig feast to honour the local tradition and the end of the three weeks' journey with Madou. We would like to thank Anh-Dao's Mum for her amazing energy to climb and descend the thousands of difficult steps during our twelve hours' hike around Macchu Picchu, and for her great patience and flexibility throughout this strenous journey full of inexpected adventures and inconveniences, but also full of inspiring new colours, flavours, smells and ideas.

View our Cusco and Macchu Picchu Photo Set!!!

2007-05-13T17:20:00.001+02:00

Discovering the tresors of Lake Titicaca
Lake Titicaca is said to be the highest navigatable water surface in the world. Unfortunately we did not have our Kitesurf gear with us, so we could not verify it ourselves. However, we did see some fishermen cruising around in their triangle-shaped sailing boats, that surprisingly remembered us of the Jangadas we'd seen in northern Brazil.

Titicaca is the center of the ancient Inka culture. We were enchanted by the beauty of the holy Isla del Sol, where only half millenium ago, the Inkas used to pilgrim to a big sacred rock to swear that they would never rob others or lie to them, and that they would never be lazy in order to support the prosperity of the Inka empire.
Beforehand, we had visited the pre-Inkan ruins in Tihuanacu. This civilisation proved to have had a great influence on the Inkas: Not only did we learn about the holy trilogy of Heaven, Earth and the Underworld with their respective wild animals (condor, eagle, puma, lama, snake, frog etc.), but also we saw that the people of Tihuanacu had great geometric capabilities in building their sacred sites, as well as managing to handle huge blocks of stone.

In contrary to this, the Floating Islands of Uros on the Peruan side near Puno seemed like a cheap replica found in Disneyland or the Universal Studios. Of course we could not miss out since everyone was talking about it. What we found, were dozens of tiny, picturesque islands made of seagrass, inhabited by Peruan micro-communities who did nothing else than pose for the tourists and present handycrafts that were not even self-made!!! Apparently they had already existed before the tourist specimen came up. But somehow we did feel like in a bad film, especially after our captain stopped the boat for a lunchbreak and managed to block the bilge-pump. We must have given quite a pathetic image as the wind was blowing us into a Floating Island that was just being constructed by its future inhabitants.

To view some less pathetic images, click on the link to the Titicaca photo set!

2007-05-07T22:48:00.002+02:00

Three Bolivian Jewels: The Cities of Potosi, Sucre and La Paz
We felt the need to contrast the overwhelming emptiness of the Uyuni Salt Lake by visiting three important historic centers of Bolivia.
Potosi, the silver city, surprised us with the perfectly shaped triangular Cerro Rico, the mountain that brought much richness to the colonialists and much misery to the indigenous people. Today, children are still forced to work because they can more easily enter the narrow mines. We did not feel like seeing them and moved quickly to Sucre after a short yet pleasant visit of the city center.

Sucre is the constitutional capital of Bolivia, and it surely expires this with it's beautiful white buildings and clean parks. We booked our rooms in the Grand Hotel, just to get a feeling of how the Latin American Hero Commandate Che Guevara spent his time in this city over 40 years ago. Lucky enough we could attend the film of his famous motorcycle trip in the alternative cinema at the Joyride Bar, after having successfully survived a wonderful and adventurous mountainbike tour around Sucre. After having torn the chain in the afternoon, watching the accidents of Che and his partner felt quite fun...

Reaching La Paz was not that easy as we thought, as we had to freeze the whole night in a bus that got stuck in the middle of the desert due to lack of gasoline. The driver probably had known about the problem and that's why we did not have any heating. After this experience, we did not have very much fun to visit La Paz the same day, though the steep hills of the heavily polluted and noisy Megacity did show some charm on our arrival in the early morning sun. Having consumed Coca leaves against various physical pains, we were eager to find out more in the little museum dedicated to this plant. According to their tests, Coca leaves have great health benefits due to a high concentration of antioxidants and so not only are effective in the case of altitude sickness, tooth and stomach ache, but also can heal cancer and other fatal illnesses besides beeing a great anaestetic. The highly addictive Cocaine drug can only be extracted from two of over 250 different kinds of Coca plants. Consumed as a Coca leaf, other substracts act as antidote and totally eliminate the addictive effect. Some experts say, these Coca leaves could be the direct remedy to help Cocaine addicts get out of hell. We did try some gentle kind of leaves both dried and in the form of tea. Our experience was that they really calmed our travel illnesses, gave us a feeling of having more energy and stimulating the mental capacity. In Bolivia and Peru, Coca leaves are an integrative part of the indigenous culture. They are being sold and consumed completely legally, like coffee and tobbacco in our Western countries.

Get some impressions of the three cities on our photo set: Three Bolivian Jewels

2007-05-07T22:45:00.000+02:00

Journey to another Planet: Atacama Desert and Uyuni Salt Lake

It was only a short hop by bus over the snowy Andes from Uspallata to Santiago de Chile, where we then met Anh-Dao's mother Madeleine at the airport. Since we have a ticket to Tahiti for the end of May, we were happy to leave our heavy kitesurfing equipment in Santiago in order to travel lightly throughout our loop to Bolivia and Peru. After a delicious seafood meal with great local wine in Santiago's central market, Madeleine preferred to leave the hustle-bustle of the big city and immediately add another 26 hours of travelling to her flight from Switzerland. So we rode a comfort bus along the Pan-American Highway north to San Pedro de Atacama.

San Pedro is a neat town in an oasis at 2440 meters above Sea, in the middle of one of the driest places on Earth. This is where we chose to acclimatize for a couple of days before starting an epic 4x4-trip to the world's biggest salt lake of Uyuni in South-West Bolivia, during which we would spend our first night on chilly 4300 meters.

The dry air, strong sunshine, chilly winds, icy night-time temperatures and ever-present dust turned out to have more lasting effects on us than the thin air in the altitude. Nevertheless, we had to manage an unexpected challenge that taught us a great lesson: We'd rented a 4x4 pickup truck for a day and invited the two Swiss guys Raoul and Cyrill (we had met in Mendoza a week before) to join in for a discovery trip South to the Salt Lake of Talar. After a wonderful day full of odd-worldly impressions on the artwork of Pachamama (mother Earth), our rear-left tyre punctured just before we wanted to confront the 200kms back home. Fortunately, Anh-Dao managed to stop the truck safely, but our nerves were seriously tested, when we found out that the reserve tyre didn't have enough air to take us anywhere.

What would you do in the middle of the windy desert at 4500 meters, when the warming sun is about to leave, the two trucks per day from the Argentina border have already passed, the mobile phone network is inexistent, and you're stuck with only 1 liter of water each and a chocolate bar, feeling the first symptoms of altitude sickness like heavy backhead, no appetite, nausea and knowing that the next village Socaire is at 70 kms? Keep cool, give every one in the team a clear task and hope. Hope for the rental company to come and search for us. The question was, when? We can tell you when: 22 hours later!!!

Lucky enough, there was a mine nearby, called El Laco, and some workers passed us on their way to their camp (they were the only ones who would cause any traffic during our stay in El Laco). They helped us kindly on our time-consuming attempts to get back to San Pedro the same day after inflating the spare tyre and alarming the rental company. Well, this let us take more risks than necessary. The spare tyre did not hold and we finally we had to walk 4 kilometers at moonlight to access the miners camp. Not knowing when or if at all the rental company would send immediate help, the miners gave us some food to cook in their kitchen and spend the night in their spare beds. What an adventure for us all! We had a good time in El Laco and found an agreement with the rental company, so in the end this story turned out fine for all of us!

After this incident, we had no worries about the 4x4 trip to Uyuni any more. The 3 day-trip along volcanoes and colourful salt lakes was like a wonderful dream. There are no words for what we've experienced along with our driver Alberto from Estrella del Sur Expediciones, our mates Daniela and Daniel from Germany, Rich from England and the motorcyclist Rolf from Switzerland. Just visit our Foto Albums and dream yourselves!

Uyuni Expedition
San Pedro de Atacama
Santiago de Chile

2007-04-24T22:54:00.001+02:00

From 0 to 4000 meters above sea in ten days

Our adventure to reach the Andes Mountains along our journey south-west is like an encounter of the five Tibetan elements - Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Clouds! In Argentina!

Fire: We feel the urge to leave Françoise and all the friends in Rio when the thunderstorms come up. Before definitely leaving Brazil, we make a short stop in Curitiba - out of pure curiosity about the all-so-different "Southern Brazil way of life". My need for architectural inspiration gets completely satisfied here, thanks to an appropriate "VIP" visit to the main exposition hall of Oscar Nimeyer's museum - and Padi loves the philosophic biography of this artist.

Water: Millions of liters per second fall into Devil's Throat at the border between Brazil and Argentina, hundreds of curious tourists from all over the world watch this spectacular worldwonder, accompanied by all kinds of beautiful butterflies and entertained by a swarm of thousands of birds playing in the windy mist around the cliffwalls. This is probably our most lasting impression of the Iguassu Falls. You have to be there on your own, there are no words for this! It's just wet - unless you encounter a Jaguar in the near rainforest park... Forget about hearing hummingbirds. Just watch them, the noise of the waterfalls overwhelms everything.

Earth: On our way crossing the Parana plain by bus we get to enjoy a wonderful sunset. This gives us a first idea of what the famous Argentinian Pampa could look like. We still don't know what Pampa means, but haven't stopped to associate it with thousands of free horses, the Argentinian Gaucho cowboys, hundreds of 50-years-old american Trucks, hot Mate teapots, great Churrasco BBQ accompanied by strong red wines, and neverending fields with hallucination horizons. After 4 and a half months along Brazil's coastline, you can be sure that those Pampas along with their geological formations created one hell of a contrast to what we'd seen before. This is where the hero Che Guevara grew up and started his inspiring motorbike travel adventures through Latin America.

Wind: Mendoza is the first city where we feel the austral autumn, brought in by the cold winds from the South. After having spent 4 nights travelling in busses, we decide to reanimate our numb legs with a little bicycle ride to the nearby wineries. Our bikes swirl the dead yellow leafs up into the wind as we hop from one cellar to another to compare the different creations from the Malbec, Syrah, Cabernet-Sauvignon and other grapes. Our lips, throats, eyes and noses suffer not only the abundant cosumption of red wine, but especially the cold, dry, dusty, heavily polluted air of Mendoza city. At night we recover mentally, sharing all-you-can-eat Asado-BBQ parties with other backpackers, or visiting the cinemas and bumping into melodic indigenous cultural gatherings. We are very happy to see that those regional events aren't only organised for maintaining the roots and the traditions of these nowadays minority groups, but also attempt a lot to build a future-proof identity that seriously takes into account sustainable development.

Clouds: The inversion in Mendoza (sun in the mountains, fog in the plain) motivates us to move to Uspallata, a little town in a huge valley between the Pre-Cordillera and the Cordillera de los Andes. We drive up the first mountain range at nighttime to watch sunrise above the sea of clouds, before seeing the reddish, majestic range of Aconcagua (highest mountain outside the Himalayas) for the first time. This region reminds Padi a lot of his Tibet adventure trip (Bikeventure 2002). In fact the film "7 years in Tibet" was produced there. We explore the ancient Inca Trail and the dramatic mountains of this valley by horse, bike, foot and car. Each moment the light changes, and the clouds as well as their shadows give us the feeling of being part of this eternal spectacle. Now and again we see an eagle gliding above our heads, and wonder how people can go on living in mega-cities.

Tomorrow we will leave Argentina in order to reach Santiago de Chile, but our experience of the Andes has only just started!!!

Check our photo sets for more impressions:
Curitiba (Brazil)
Iguassu Falls (Brazil & Argentina)
Cordoba (Pampa Argentina)
Mendoza - Uspallata - Aconcangua (Andes Argentina)

2007-04-05T21:45:00.001+02:00

Rio Maravilhosa

Rio De Janeiro, The Marvellous City, has caught our hearts! It already felt like getting home, as we crossed the huge bridge over the Guanabara Bay and for the first time sighted the vibrant city embedded between the Sugar Loaf Mountain and the Corcovado Rock. Our friend Françoise, who works for the Pan-American Games 2007 in Rio, is kindly hosting us in her flat in Leblon, at the far end of Ipanema Beach. Thanks to her we can enjoy the real life in Rio! Oh, sorry, without the stress of work, of course...

Let us just describe a few fragments of our rather addictive sight-enjoying activities:

- Visit an open-air Samba club and let the vibes drain your blood vessels in order to synchronize with the adventurous rhythm of life in Rio.

- Feel like the Christo Redentor Statue on Corcovado, and enjoy the show of the humid seabreeze and the setting sun playing with the clouds to constantly recreate new 360º sceneries of Rio.

- View the surprised faces of all the tourists visiting the top of the Sugar Loaf Mountain by cablecar on our arrival by foot with our brilliant climbing guide Fabio (climber's website)

- Feel like a looser after having joined the fan-ranks of the "Flamengo" team in the Maracana - football stadium and viewed the 999th goal of Romario, for the "Vasco da Gama" team.

- Feel like a bird sailing in the sea-breeze along the Pedra de Gavea Mountain and attacking a free-fall with recordholder Marcio's double-place hangglider towards the beach of Sao Conrado (Easyflyrio).

- Enjoy a tasty Thai meal in Leblon, bump by chance into a former working colleague and invite him to sip a Chopp Escura at the "Devassa" bar in order to toast on our small world (Hey Oli, thanks for taking our Liquid Force kites back to Switzerland for exchange!).

- Visit the Contemporary Art Museum in Niteroi, designed by the famous Architect Nimeyer, refuse to visit the art gallery itself, in order to spend the money in the inspiring cafeteria beneath for the best Iced Cappucino in the world.

- Wake up early and go to the pulsating Praça of Leblon to do a Tai Chi Chuan training with Master Marcio (Yang Style Tai Chi in Brasil). Refuel your body with a big cup of icy and healthly Açai at the nearest Suco Bar.

- Feel the dark side, get stressed and angry after spending days and days to clear up and save the photos and write the travel reports, compare the expenditures with the budget, and prepare the ongoing itinerary and logistics, instead of hanging out on Ipanema Beach to relax on Caipirinhas and watch all the wonderfully shaped people.

- Jogg along the Beaches of Ipanema and Copacabana on a Sunday, when traffic is prohibited and all kinds of Cariocas (people from Rio) present themselves as slalom poles on the typical ornaments of the cobblestone walkway.

- Go kitesurfing the wind at Barra de Tijuca Beach to compare it with the tradewinds in Northeast Brazil back in January and be convinced that it is worth carrying the gear all the way to Tahiti and Australia...

- Sit out on the street in front of Copacabana's Bip Bip bar and listen to the seductive Bossa Nova gigs that will always recall the wonderful times in Rio.

Our heart tells us that Rio might be the climax of our trip. In any case, this will be a major turning point on our epic journey, as we will now leave the Atlantic coast and head inland to the Argentinan Pampa and the Andean Tibet.

Hey internauts, hope you realized from our Rio photo set that the picture quality has improved. In fact we've got a new digital camera from Jordi, who kindly brought us an affordable model from Barcelona. Jordi, you are a star!!! And there is Yannick, who left us his home-key to do all the necessary internet work for free! We hope he'll not forget to look inside his freezer...

SO, NOW IT'S UP TO YOU INTERNAUTS TO SAY THANKS TO THE GUYS LIKE FRANÇOISE, YANNICK, JORDI AND ALL THE OTHERS WHO PROVIDED ALL THE INGREDIENTS TO MAKE THIS 2BUMBLEB-BLOG A DREAMSITE!!! YOU, WHO HAVE MANAGED TO READ THIS ARTICLE ALL THE WAY THROUGH, PLEASE INVEST 60 SECONDS, CLICK ON THE "COMMENT"-LINK JUST BELOW, AND LEAVE A LITTLE MESSAGE (if you have no blogger identity, just choose "anonymous" after having signed with your name in the textfield, and click on the "publish"-button).

MAY YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE, TOO!

2007-03-26T22:41:00.001+02:00

Unwind in Cumuruxatiba

Some people may think we are completely crazy to cover the distance between Salvador de Bahia and Rio de Janeiro by bus (about 1400 kms, and the airtickets are as cheap as the bustickets). In reality, we had a good reason to suffer twice 24 hours travelling by road: that reason was called "Cumuru" - a place where it is said that tiredness suddendly diseappears (That's probably also the feeling Vasco da Gama and his sailing crew had when he as first European set his feet on Brasil 500 years ago, at less than 10 kms north of Cumuru). One lies at low tide in the middle of a huge sandy reef, under the clear starlight of the Milkyway, and respires pure air from the Southern Atlantic. Old people there are said to get younger every day thanks to the magic black sand (apparently radioactive...).

So we planned some time for the little paradise at Nancy's to bumble about for a while and recover. As it finally turned out, we did so many activities and tasted so much fresh and exotic seafood in one week, that we cannot remember all (the special cachaça of Bernard helped for the wanted lack in our memories). We will never forget the kindness of Nancy, the shells of Solange, Bernard's passion for fishhunting and his huge experience with nature, the jogg with the Jack Russel puppy Olive, the galops between the colourful sandcliffs and the sea on Andrea's horses, and the neverending show of the sea, where the tidal breaths and the sunlight constantly played to create one nicer picture than the other.
(... see photo set).

No waves in Cumuru, no problem! We had already freed ourselves from our surfboards in Salvador, where we contributed to the charity project Surf Solidario for the misfortunate local kids.

2007-03-21T21:38:00.001+01:00

3 days trek with Extreme EcoAdventure (Interview)

*Padi: Yeah, we did it! Welcome back to civilization! How does it feel, this first icy beer, after three days in nomansland?
-Anh-Dao: Cool! But I especially appreciate the comfortable chair and the relaxing background-music.

*What is the first deep impression about this trek, that comes up to your mind - can you visualize it?
-I feel the vibrations in my whole body: my legs will remember that hard crossing of a coca-cola coloured, cold river with its strong currents and the slippery stones and mud on the ground. My back will remember sleeping on the hard rock of the natural caverns. My stomach will miss the energetic tapioca-porridge in the early mornings. My nose will identify all kind of smoke in the future. And my eyes will never forget the glowing horizon over the lower plains, and the bird's sensation of hanging over a deep gorge with a bombastic waterfall.

*What other stunning encounters did you experience?
-There are no words to fully describe the experience of pure nature. But the sight of wild orchids is hardly as lasting like my shock in Pipa, when I saw that huge Iguana-Lizard in slow-motion unwillingly slide off the roof of our veranda and drop ten meters.

*Which were the adventurous elements during this trek? Anything extreme about them? Did you expect more?
-You have to be ready for all kinds of surprises. Trekking in general is physical, but I did not expect it to be so mentally demanding: If the goal of the day is not to wet the sneakers, you have to find another way through the wetlands than just follow your guide (who of course has high leather shoes). The most extreme cooling sensation was when I took off my shoes to walk in an irrigation channel still leading water to some ancient mines. I would have loved to do some climbing or abseiling on a virgine rock. Instead, we carried a tent we never used. Ok, we did get some unsecured climbing on wet rocks for reaching a powerfull waterfall called Cachoeirao. The untouched pureness of the nature itself was an extreme experience to me. And what I loved, was to see that the label "extreme" does not forcedly correspond with "expensive": Since we had to carry all our supplies ourselves, and there were no facilities to pay during the trek, our expenses were kept to a minimum - a nice experience of simplicity.

*Are you ok with having missed out staying longer in Capao Valley, or doing the apparently wonderful trek in Vale do Pati?
-The unexpected magic lightshow of thousands of lightning bugs in the energetic Capao Valley rivalized of course with the following two nights of constant moskito attacks in the caves during our trek. If we had visited Vale do Pati, I guess the moskito-situation wouldn't be better - I believe that the native people, that would have hosted us there, don't use any comercial moskito-repellents.
*We were supposed to do an ecologic trek. What was new to you, and what would you improve?
-We were told not leave waste and not to pollute the source water. Quite common sense for us with our alpinistic experience. Moreover, we took our water from the sources, and our food mainly originated from the organic producers in capao valley. In order to minimize our footprint even more, we should consider the "grey energy", which is our effort to get to the place (use egologic transportation) and the green attitude for all sorts of products brought on site (choose eco-friendly, resource-saving products).

*Do you believe such kind of Eco-Tourism could be sustainable?
-Absolutely. This trek forces visitors (most of them Brazilians) to keep their consumption to a minimum, and they are given the chance to learn to enjoy it. On the other hand, it inevitably brings consciousness about waste and pollution, e.g. that our drinking water directly depends on the care of other trekkers. Furthermore, impact on the park could be kept to a minimum, if the number of visitors does not exceed certain limits, and the trails are not further developed (better to just maintain the old trails of the miners). Many parks in Brazil offer educational pamphlets, but it takes a lot more to put into practice, first during such holidays, and then also as a driving attitude in every day's rhythm!

*A few words about the teamspirit, and about our guides?
-Our guides were champs. They knew the best places for a good swim, for a shady lunchbreak, for a fantastic lookout. They prepared fantastic vegetarian meals. We believe that in order to maintain some kind of extreme attitude, they constantly pushed their own limits of weed consumption (carrying most of our food supplies was not hard enough). We trekking tourist tried to rival with organic Cachaça but we soon discovered we had not brought enough along. Anyway, on the first day, after dozens of smoking breaks, we managed to reach our nightcamp only after nightfall. Everybody was wonderful and all this ecologic stuff had a pretty good effect.

*Last question - Would you like another beer, or would you prefer to go back to nature right now?
-Let's grab a few more beers (estupidamente geladas) and then go back to nature together...

Many thanks to our dear backpacker friends from Holland, Hanneke and Merjin, who initially discovered the agency and asked us to join in with them for this wonderful trek with the guide Marcos.

Links:
Marcos' Agency: Extreme EcoAdventure
Hanneke's and Merjin's Blog

2007-03-08T22:19:00.000+01:00

Bahian Contrasts in Salvador and Chapada Diamantina

Salvador de Bahia was Brazil`s first capital city in the 16th and 17th centuries. Now it claims to be the heart of Afro-Brazilian culture. Our schedule was set to experience this famous city one week after carnival. Perhaps not the best idea, since we must have rather met a hangover community. We did find a group of stranded afro-culture tourists making their way at nighttime in a rather improvised rhythmical bloco through the historical center called Pelourinho but we preferred the performances of an international gathering of street artists at the peninsula of Ribeira, after enjoying a sunset over the beautifully calm Bay of Todos Santos. Of course we checked out the rather lousy and lazy Sunday gathering at Salvador's most popular beachfront Itapua. During our visit at a Candomble ceremony, where colonially dressed Afro-Brazilian ladies danced nearly 4 hours to heavy flowing drum sounds, we saw them falling into trance which supposedly means they get into contact with some of their religious spirits. However, our best experience of Salvador was the great view off the open terasse on the seventh floor of our Hotel during breakfast, feeling the fresh breeze in the short hair after a radical haircut in the streets of the Pelourinho. Get a grasp of Padi's experience on the Salvador Photo Set.

If it's not for visiting friends or taking dance or music lessons, 2 days in Salvador are definitely enough to spend. After visiting Padi's former Velotaxi compatriot Anita who runs a neat waterfront pousada (Coco Maluco) on the nearby island Itaparica, we decided to move on rapidly and take an overnight bus ride to Lencois in the famous natural park of Chapada Diamantina.

The most remarkable thing about this mountaneous region full of spectacular waterfalls, caves and cliffs is probably the air temperature. Ah, it feels so nice to sleep at 20 degrees... After having checked out a few of the most popular tourist sites (check out the pics on the Chapada Diamantina Photo Set), we are now getting ready for a three days very wet adventure treck off the beaten track. Our guide will be Marcus, an extreme adventure freak from Sao Paolo, and an experienced dutch backpackers couple will join in to form a little expedition through the heart of this former diamond mining region. We will carry along all we need to survive for 3 days and hope to learn a lot about the so-called ecologic tourism, that is rapidly developed throughout the country by young enthusiastic Agenda 21 students and nature lovers from southern Brazil.

We'll append more to this report once we turn back from the treck! Keep your fingers crossed for us! Ate logo!

2007-02-28T03:34:00.001+01:00

Brazilian Carnaval

What a welcome on our arrival at Recife airport: Instead of waiting for the luggage, dancers cheered us with their traditional carnival marching tune called Frevo swaying their typical little coloured umbrellas. That rhythmical tune shall follow us for the coming 5 days in the overcrowded streets of Recife and Olinda. Both city centers were exempt of traffic in order to let the people invade its streets with the folia of the different Blocos (marching carnival gang) that meet each other to form a chaos of different rhythms in a sweaty climate and mix with cheap bacon smell off the many improvised barbeque stands. In fact you can only stand this fool if you fill your stomach in an appropriate way: At least 2 to 3 Capeta drinks (a sip of each of the strong alcoholics available on the stand mixed with a few spoonful of Guarana, cinnamon and chocolate powder) and regularly enough Macaxeira com Charque (Manioc with cheap greasy meat to keep fit for the many capetas…).

Olinda with its colonial architecture took a special place in our heart. We had the feeling to fall a few centuries back in time. The old part of the town is concentrated around a little hill. Imagine the crowds trying to move from all sides up through the thin streets and up there finding no other escape than to fight against the flow in another street…We found a place to stay 4 nights. A private home with one toilet (fortunately constantly held clean by the kind landladies Carmilha and Rebecca) shared with 12 young guys from Chile, England, Brazil and Suiça - of course always ready transcend the fever of the next folia party.

We warmed up the evening before carnival with an inexpected free of charge buffet inside the Palaço do Governador and nearly drowned in Ballantines whisky and beer (hardly anybody knew about so we strangers were lucky to get loads). That was the opportunity for us to experience our “fluent” Portuguese with new friends who had dropped all their shyness but by now probably won’t remember us…

The following day we decided to wear some masks (not only as sun protection…) that would give us a funny subject to celebrate and play about. This was a remarkable way to meet people and dance together in the middle of the crowd. For quite a while we supported a Danish Bloco that turned up in the corner of a street and played their rhythms so well that at each time they had to cross another bloco, that other one stopped playing and gave way. It was just at midnight to Saturday that the bloco of the “Homens da meia noite” (The men of midnight) brought the key to officially open the carnival, that the streets were so stuffed nobody could make one step forward! You can’t imagine how hot it was at daytime, without any breeze and the omnipresent warnings along the beaches to keep out from shark attacks. So you can easily understand that after four days of unhealthy diet, not one minute of privacity, the constant wish to take a cold shower and unevacuated adrenaline from crossing some dangerous Flavelas at night by foot after a crowdy party in Recife, we were looking out for a better life.

The city of Joao Pessoa was the perfect solution to spend Mardi Gras. Of course the Pousadas in Joao Pessoa were all full on our arrival. So we greatly thanked Junior with his Ferrari-like buggy to give us his hospitality and let us sleep in his safe veranda. He had picked us just when we started to give up our search, tired and hungry after a long trip. Joao Pessoa turned out to be a perfect place for good seafood directly on the beach, our heads in the shade of palmtrees and the feet in the sand. You just have to make a sign to the guys passing with fresh oyster or delicious shrimps finding their way to the mouths of thousands of happy Brazilian families (who had rented their flat in Bahia or Recife to Carnival fans for good money in order to spend a tranquil weekend at a cheaper place). We think that the take-away Point da Amazônia was an important medicine for us, with its crazy energizing drinks and cheap Açai (see predecessent post). We believe that the concept of a functional-food take-away with healthy natural drinks could also revitalize the majority of depressed European workers in dark winter days ;-)

We did not just get back to Pipa to recover our left luggage. In fact, we had planned to join an extra day of crazy carnival with all men dressed as ladies. So we could continue to enjoy the special celebration with unknown people and have a good reason to start again with Cachaça in the middle of the afternoon – until the heavy tropical rainfall emptied the streets shortly before midnight. Now we’re enjoying a week of recovery with busy but healthy schedule of sport sessions (jogging and yoga, surf, kayak, kitesurf) and physiotherapeutic massage for Anh-dao and we hope to empty our minds before continuing our adventure in Bahia state.

2007-02-28T03:32:00.001+01:00

St. Valentine's week on Fernando de Noronha

First of all, it's planning our budget. Since we want to travel at least 10 months before getting to Australia, we have a daily budget of 80 US$ for 2 persons a day, including accommodation, food and local transportation. Now Fernando de Noronha is a typical honey-moon destination completely out of our margins... But as we are real globetrotters, we'll show you how we master that! At first, neglect all commercial packages proposed on mainland and find a low-budget charter, then - on arrival at the destination - hitchhike to the main village and bargain the cheapest bed&breakfast (assure a good quality breakfast as it will have to hold for the day), maintain a special diet and only eat out at after sunset (daytime is short at the equator) and especially never forget to constantly drink enough against dehydration (careful, water is nearly as expensive as 40% alcoholic cachaça, but has a fairly more neutral effect under the sun).

This is not all. A lot of patience is required, and a lot of fortune as well. Lucky enough Anh-Dao has it ;-) (lucky enough Padi normally adapts...). 29 hours before our preferred departure time, we recieved our flight tickets. The story is, that 2 weeks before we had tried to buy those tickets via internet, but we only had managed via a intermediate agent who needed to pass twice himself at Natal airport for us to pay with his local credit card. So much about Brazil's low cost carriers for Brazilians...

Yeah, our feet finally on the ground of Brazil's Hawaii called Fernando de Noronha, a 17 sqkm island with 200 Pousada's and an exorbitant tourist tax fee (for some kind of sustainable tourism program...), we let off our gear in the cheapest Pousada and looked out for the closest beach. Wow! Never seen that before!!! Perfect 3m tubes from a North-Atlantic swell breaking onto an out-of this world picturesque sandbay, surrounded by the dark vulcanic needle Morro do Pico (probably the master of all those famous stone-sculptures of Easter Island) and the transparent, all the way to the northern horizon glassy blue Ocean. Too much? No, sure not for 7 days of Valentine's to come... Feel like dreaming along? Read on!

The other bays to the North and to the South are also of extraordinary beauty, both above and under water (with often over 30m visibility). Imagine nurseries of thousands of baby-fishes in natural pools formed by volcanic rocks only revealed at low-tide. If you manage to wake up at 4:30 AM and start a 6km walk at moonlight, you will be the first to discover hundreds of spinner dolphins in their preferred and protected bay, secluded by 60m high cliffs. You can also spend a night on the beach and wait for the huge turtles, that come on land to lay their eggs (fair enough, we only found their traces the other morning...). There's much effort (and business) done by government programs to preserve those little and big beasts on this paradise-like island.

We admit having most enjoyed the few spinner dolphins playing in the drought of the boat on the way to our scuba-dive sites. The most well-known site is called "Pedras Secas" and presents colourful, moonlike submarine sceneries with caves playing magic with the sunlight and supposedly frequent visits of big animals. We were lucky to see two beautiful, 2.5m large but inoffensive nurse sharks. During our other dives, we saw a white spotted ray flying over a sandy landscape, sea-snakes coloured like leopards and plenty of olive turtles scratching their backs on the rocks.

On lifting our view back up to the surface at the occurring sound of a motorboat, we smiled at a group of snorkellers, who seemed to be suffering the stinky Diesel air being pulled like fresh bait for the other kinds of shark we did not encounter...
Safe and sound, our memory filled with amazing sunset pictures and the residuels of batido de coco and cachaça, we flew back to the civilization of Mainland-Brazil, now getting crazy for carnival. Olinda, known for it's extravaganza, it's folias in the tiny cobble-stone streets of the colonial-style old town, was our choice to realize a perfect contrast.

Our photo set provides a selection of our own shots with the cell phone's cam and an aquatic throw-away camera. Since our digital camera has been stolen in Canoa Quebrada, we advice you to have a look at this fantastic website of a photographer called Alex Uchoa ! Ok, after depressedly having viewed those artistic pictures of the stunning sites we'd seen with our own eyes, we believe it's better we don't replace our camera throughout the rest of our trip in Brazil. It's easier to click around on internet... or what do you think?

2007-02-06T17:06:00.001+01:00

Vida Dulce na Praia de Pipa

Happy to travel lighter, after having sold our bikes in Canoa Quebrada, we still managed to stress the busdriver with our fragile surfboards. But having arrived in Pipa, we know it was the right thing to do. There are great waves in many different wild beaches surrounded by black volcanic and orange sandy rocks. The most inexpecting view on deep blue mother Sea was from the top of a natural platform where two men sitting in the air in total harmony with their paragliders were moving slowly above the powerful atlantic waves breaking on the cliff 50m below.

If you reach this place in the very early morning, you will wake up some 90kg turtle lying on the protected beach. But as lazy guys as we are, we´re also perfectly satisfied with the gorgeous view from our bed across our windowless veranda down to Pipa's bay and the fantastic reefbreak. Our room is actually situated on the top rim of the garden of DJ Uwe's and Evelyne´s german Pousada "Tranceatlãntico".

The main activities of the day consist of: After the first glance from the pillow downto the beach, a first bath at low tide - shower - sumptuous breakfast with fruits even sweeter than in Ceará - shower - discovery-hike to a secluded beach - refreshment in a natural pool, with either coconut or caipirinha for lunch - waiting for a light bus to get back to pipa - shower - caipirissima before and during padi´s surf session (hmm...) at high tide in front of the pousada - shower - relaxing massage for Anh-dao by Keith's special medical treatment on the 6th and 7th vertebrae before dining in a cosy little restaurant (Pipa hosts some delicious gastronomy from around the world) - shower (you can't imagine how good these showers are, with 31 degrees centigrade even at 6 AM!) - sleep in at fullmoon light and the sound of the atlantic ocean.

Now that both of us found Pipa small enough to get one's own fun and live together in harmony with the short daytime, we definitely chose to come back after carnaval and currently put all our energy to have a nice trip to Brasil's Hawaiian Island called Fernando de Norhona for the coming week.

2007-01-31T22:32:00.001+01:00

The call to move on to Canoa Quebrada

On Tuesday 24th in the evening, we arrived back home to Paracuru. Having tasted the sceneries and the strong winds further northwest, we could not stand the sticky windless weather conditions and immediately felt the urge to leave the place we'd so much loved during a whole month back in december. Many kitesurfers have left, the strong trade winds have definitely moved on further north, and the local population started to give us the impression as if they've got eager to scratch every single little cash as possible, not considering their own good reputation before sinking back into misery for half a year. We decided to leave within 36 hours in order to keep the place in good memory (since probably most of the negative feelings were produced by ourselves, suffering pure coincidence and having no fun to start a new household as we had in december). We would transfer by public bus lines via Fortaleza to another village called Canoa Quebrada, on the eastern tip of Ceará's coast.

Now, what do we do with all our gear, we asked ourselves. We had packed as much stuff as possible back in Switzerland, and brought it all the way to this first place in Brasil. Some clothes and guidebooks we thought might be useful in a later stage of the trip (e.g. for the cold nights of the high Andes mountains) would be sent by post to Fruchie in Rio. The two surfboards would be strapped on top of the huge Quiverbag containing all our kitesurf equipment (45 kilos). The bikes should be sold on the spot, as it was planned when we bought them...

Haha, no way to sell two bikes in a poor village at the end of a touristic season. Nobody had enough cash in hand even for a bargain price. We did not want to geet stuck in Paracuru just because of the bicycles, neither did we want to just give them for free. So we decided to take them along on our trip, as far as we could, and hoped that they would go on serving us until we would find a buyer elsewhere.

Now imagine the face of the busdriver on that early thursday morning of the 26th of January, when we arrived with all our belongings to Paracuru's Rodoviario. Just say, we love him! And so do we the next bus driver in Fortaleza...

Canoa Quebrada, the hippiest party town in Ceará after Fortaleza, would be our home for one week. We adored the fine food in the different restaurants (e.g. Argentinan All-You-Can-Eat Barbecue with great wine), the crazy Reggae parties in front of Canoa's famous ocre sandcliffs, the firstclass kitesurfing conditions and simply hanging out and enjoying the seaview and the cool seabreeze on the veranda of our neat pousada Quebramar built by an Argentinan architect.

As the places are nice, lots of people come in at weekends, and so does the risk of thefts rise. Early on Monday morning I woke up to discover that somebody must have climbed up from the street to our veranda and get in through the open window to steel some valuables. Luckily there was no violence involved, but we are quite sad to have lost our digital camera, my little pocket trumpet, and some other little handy things that bring in good cash at the black markets... Take it easy, such things are quite common, not only in Brasil... Now the only things that can't be replaced are the pictures from our buggy trip. All the great impressions from the ongoing places will have to be kept in memory by some other means until we find a new camera... Here are some last pictures of Paracuru paradise we´ve managed to retrieve from an old SD-card: bye bye paracuru

On our last day in Canoa, we did a bicycle trip to enjoy the typical lobster session in Ponta Grossa, which is a beautiful secluded village stuck at the spectacular cliffs 28kms west of Canoa Quebrada. The main adventure was the ride back: After a long digestive Siesta in the Palm Garden of Sidrak's Barraca, we crossed a river with our bikes on the shoulder suffering the strong mangrove smell and we quickly advanced through the beach immerged by tons of soft brown algae (barefoot, yearghhh). Then, after sunset, we flew over a hard sand "motorway" during almost an hour and a half and arrived in Canoa for a fullmoon bath in a transparent water lagoon.

2007-01-31T21:58:00.001+01:00

14-days discovery-trip with beach-buggies by kitehouse.ch

If you´re in search of the ultimate kite adventure trip in northeast brazil, opt for a bunch of humorous kiters having plenty of time and at least one with a little idea about mechanics, rent a couple of those 15 years-old, loud FYBER beach buggies equipped with VW-beetle engines made in Latin America, pack enough drinking water, biscuits and suncream along with your huge bag for all your kite gear, some jerrycans of gasoline, spear tyres and the repair kit – and off you go on an epic journey along Ceará’s Sunset Coast all the way to the Parnaibá Delta in the neighbouring State of Piaui - through endless and nearly untouched beaches, along mangrove forests, across rivers and huge sanddunes, constantly searching for that one perfect kite spot of the day.

Romantic? I´d say so. Ask Anh-Dao, if you don´t trust me - she may have another definition for romantic . For sure it was a great adventure, and it felt at least as good as the Camel Trophy or the Fulda Challenge. The transitions onto rod-guided barques to cross the rivers and deep lagunes were peanuts compared with searching the way through sand dunes without any traces ahead (hey, GPS does not help on those constantly wind shaped wandering dunes…). The dirt tracks through soft sand and muddy mangroves were pretty hard to master with only rear-traction and unprofiled tyres, especially when stuck in boiling sand at high noon. Heat, wind, dust, salt and bumpy tracks wore our buggies to such an extreme extent, that praying for that bump at each time we started the engine, became something like a ritual. You must love to ride and care for a buggy. Fred, our eversmiling tripguide, and his future wife Sonia, surely did so, and therefore we were fortunate to enjoy an unforgettably great experience.

Every day we visited a different kite spot on the way. And as we were moving northwest, we followed the strong tradewinds that had left us rather too early in Paracuru. Nevertheless, thanks to the training in December, and a three days luxury stay in Fleixeras, we were ready to ride in different conditions, starting with 15 knots of wind and sweet, flat water lakes, and ending with impossible to ride gusts of 35 knots in bumpy waves. Most of the days, we had a rather moderate mix of both, allowing us to progress in our sport, as long as we still had some energy after the long, windy and very sunny buggy rides. On the way back, though, we stopped for a few days to relax at probably the best kiter place on the coast, a little fisherman village with a cosy pousada, and to enjoy 3 hours long, easy going downwind rides. The coastline would allow us to do much more, but for the sake of security, we thought 15kms were hard enough to keep the necessary concentration, without any help except for the four other fellow kiters along with Swimming-Pool Lifeguard Seb, the temporary driver of our onshore assisting buggy in case of emergency (like changing wind conditions leading now and again to difficult situations offshore like entangled, non-recoverable kitelines, or a lost kiteboard not being able to bodydrag back upwind, or a shock after having seen some dark shade under the water, with some triangle form shortly occurring in a trough…) We’ve actually sadly witnessed a stranded, dead potwale with a size of 12 metres! The local population had no other choice than to bury the huge marine mammal on the spot, in the sandbeach…

We wont unveal the different kitespots, nor will we show many pictures of the trip, since they disappeared with our digital camera in a rather unpopular(?) night action before we could save them elsewhere (check out the photo set buggy-trip). Just one advice: Whoever you are, and whatever your activities are, if you get to northeast Brazil, go and check out that famous village of Jericoacoara. No matter the people talking about the place to be too stuffed and too overpriced. We loved the mythical touch to the place, and we’re sure you as well will find something there to love and want to stay!!!

Our memory is filled with deep impressions of the rugged, yet beautifully pure and almost untouched nature, stunning experiences with the nearly unspoilt, at times extremely poor rural population and inspiring images of paradisiac properties along the coast. How long it will hold, depends on the amount of Cachaça and all the fantastic combinations created around this brasilian national spirit, that will or hopefully will not burn our brains… and the amount of crashs on front- and backloop attempts at 25m below a looping kite and 5m above the water…(ok, I exaggerate – right now it´s rather still 1m). Definitely, the wonderfully rich Feijoada (very tasty bean stew) and the healthy fruit juices of Sonia have temporarily helped us prolong that deadline.

For more information about adventure trips for kiters in northeast Brasil, check out kitehouse.ch or contact fred@kitehouse.ch. Great beginner's packages in Paracuru are proposed by the swiss kitesurf pioneer André Simone´s kiteboardbrazil.com.

2006-12-24T17:39:00.001+01:00

Sunset Surfing on X-Mas Eve

Let us describe a perfect day in Paracuru Paradise:
It starts with the first ´kickerickee´ of the neighbour´s rooster. An hour later the sun calls us kindly out of the bedroom. We enjoy a sumptuous breakfast with juicy fruits (watermelon, mangoes, maracuja, pineapples, papaya) energetic pancakes and mouthwatering medaillon filets. Time to cross the dunes by Bike to Quebra Mar, the kitesurfing spot at 6 kms distance. The low tide allows us to enjoy flatwater in the lagoon during 5 hours a day. We refresh ourselves with ice-cold fresh coconut juice. As long as the tide is still low enough, we bike back to Paracuru on the hard sand between the sea and the dunes. The wind is so strong in our backs we hardly have to push the bikes. Towards the evening the tide comes back in. That´s when waves are at their best. Yeah, enjoy sunset surfing a perfect righthander. Then it´s fish-time at Mama´s Barraca on the beach. Delicious! Accompanied by the sound of the waves and some soft Bossanova in the background. Heavenly! We walk home in the dark, the surfboards under our arms, and look forward to a fresh beer at home in the hamac outside the veranda to round up this fantastic day.
Check out the latest pics.

Actually, it´s quite hard to live such an idyllic dream even when you´re on the spot! The tide changes its schedule day by day and forces us to adapt ours constantly. Though the wind statistics prove strong winds till end of January, this year the rain season seems to start 2 months too early. Instead of sailing 9 sqm full power every day, Anh-Dao and I just about have enough wind to practise with our 12 sqm kite. Easy so far! Compared to the locals here, we are happy with these conditions, remembering the weak conditions back in Europe throughout the summer.

Last wednesday was a hard day for us to bear: Two of our kites exploded at the leading edge. Both times it happened after the launch, when the kites reached their zenith. We have no explanation. Just call it bad luck. I did not dare to get out on the water that day anymore. Our vendor Sascha Biedermann replied very kindly from his vacation on Galapagos, so we hope to find a pragmatic solution together with the supplier Liquidforce. Nico, the Kite Doctor from Munich, has fixed the kites as good as he could and eversince we´ve already enjoyed 2 good surfing sessions. We´re relieved!

Health has been an issue since our first day we left. We´re not talking about the compulsory sunburn, cuts and bruises... In fact, the Lago Lodge party was just a portion too much on top of the heavy workload before we left, and eversince then Anh-dao´s immunic system is on strike. She´s caught one cold after another, with a three day´s peak of over 40 degrees of fever. Fortunately since this morning, both blocked ears from the otitis she caught in the swimmingpool the first night in Paracuru, seem to slowly get back to normal. We´ve done the whole cocktail program from the first (and wrong) eardrops in the local drugstore to three different kinds of antibiotics, anti-inflamatories and cortisone drops, last from an ear specialist in Fortaleza. He told us to pray, since he could not guarantee us that these latest remedies would help. Nevertheless Anh-Dao always stays positive, and she can´t keep off practising some kitesurfing every other day, using some very effective earplugs. The lightwind conditions are just perfect under these circumstances!

So, also in paradise, each day remains a challenge, even if they may seem a bit different from the ones at home... Anyway, we really enjoy to be in Brasil, and our first Forro Dance party still waits ahead of us. In fact we are just sooooo lucky that we are in Brasil! Some people told us that Air Madrid had got bankrupted 10 days after we flew with them! We could hardly imagine being stuck in the Swiss winter - though we do feel a pity to miss christmas with our families back home!!!

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!! We´ll drink a caipirinha to all of you! We feel taking things easier from day to day. And knowing that our trip will still continue for quite a while, we slowly let off from packing every day full will activities. Brasil pace, we´re almost there!!!

2006-12-10T01:26:00.001+01:00

Bom Dia Brasil!

Life is a breath - Love its inspiration... and Norteste Brasil the perfect place to launch or Kites!!!

After a 2 days "grounding" with Air Madrid, we declare that the one Liter Welcome Sangria of Val on our Arrival at Madrid Airport and the delicious Tapas near Plaça Mayor saved our first step of the trip.

Air Madrid, the low-cost company we chose to cross the Atlantic, turned out to be a real joke: We got hijacked for unknown time (eventually 36 hours waiting for news in a hotel room, and 10 hours waiting in the airport), then we were flown by some Italian charter company whose staff had the first spanish lesson on board serving the customers. The most stunning episode was the information of the Italian captain, who complained that the plane was ready to leave, but the tractor driver, who was supposed to undock the plane backwards from the gate, simply had disappeared and let us wait for another hour.

In fact, the 2 nights for free in a four star hotel were just perfect to recover from the white nights back home, and to get fit for some announced hardcore kiteboarding at 25 knots windspeed. You can imagine how glad we were to get back all our luggage on arrival in Fortaleza.

Now we are in Paracuru, 90 kms northwest of Fortaleza. We´ve got a lovely nest with airy veranda and view overlooking the town all the way to the dunes. We´ve got 2 bicycles to get to the famous Kiteborading lagoon where we can enjoy the extremely steady tradewinds in a secured flat water area behind a reefbreak.

Rural Life in Brazil is very laid back and we hope to adapt to their rhythm very soon. However, we do not seem to be so far away in another world. On our first day in Paracuru, we decided to celebrate Anh-Dao´s birthday in the most fancy restaurant in town. Unexpectedly, Anh-Dao´s good friends Jeanne and Quike made all their way from Swiss Lugano to this place to welcome us with a cold Caipirinha! Woow! Thank you so much! We´re still absolutely stunned!!! Not enough, Padi also met Kuno, a former Camel Trophy mate, by conicidence while Kiting in the lagoon. And the kiter couple Val and Jocelin recognized us from last summer at Montreuxjazz, where we were testing the Segway.

Watch out the foto set for the newest pictures!

2006-11-27T16:11:00.000+01:00

Ready for Takeoff! Attend the Launch!

On Sat 2nd decembre 2006 the countdown of 2bumbleb will be at zero. Come and join the last hours before launch and spend some memorable happy time!

Wed 29th novembre at Sansibar, Militärstr. 114, Zürich, after 8:30PM

Thu 30th novembre at Lago Lodge, Nidau/Biel-Bienne, after 6PM (check out the pictures on our photo album)

Fri 1st decembre at Anh-Dao's anticipated Birthday Dinner (photo set)

2006-11-20T21:04:00.000+01:00

The Horn that matters...

How can we plan to leave our country without having seen the most well-known rock in the world? No way! Best thing to do: Invite a dozen of great friends for a weekend to zermatt.

The ultimate penthouse experience with jaccuzzi-direct-view-to-the-matterhorn (unfortunately it took 2 days to heat it... so no way to wellcome-drink champagne in a bubbling hot tub...).

Check out the photo set for lasting impressions by clicking on the picture of the Matterhorn! Thank you guys for having come all the way up on that memorable weekend of the 10th till 12th of novembre! We really had great fun together!

2006-09-24T22:07:00.000+02:00

29th Sep 2006: Liquida(c)tion after Sunset

Last call for party at Bremgartnerstr. 70, 8003 Zürich!

It's time to give up Padi's appartment after nearly 3 years. No milestone without party. This time, all ZH-friends of Anh-Dao and Padi are requested to help eliminate all available liquid stock. Doors open after sunset. End is open as well...

Attention: the latest birds might encounter the earliest birds and might be forced to help moving and cleaning the appartment... ;-)

Test: All participants are required to post a comment in this blog!

2006-09-24T21:48:00.000+02:00

To Bee or Bumble Bee? That's no longer a question!

Anh-Dao and I have decided to make things clear:

WE ARE LEAVING SWITZERLAND ON THE 2ND OF DECEMBER 2006!!!

Our plan is as simple as it sounds: We'll bumble about in the southern hemisphere.

This blog is dedicated to our dear families and all our friends who want to take part in our journey. Of course we'll be delighted to read your comments. Let's share the emotions!