Sunny Christmas

I was a bit scared about the weather I was going to find in Tibet. However, so far we have had sunny weather everyday with up to 16ºC.

The 4.000 Km trip by train from Beijing to Lhasa lasted 48 hours. The places we passed by were: Beijing – Shijiazhang (Hebei Province) – Zhengzhou (Henan) – Xian (Shaanxi) – Lanzhou (Gansu) – Golmud (Qinghai) – Lhasa (Tibet). The altitude at some points of the trip was up to 5.000 metres. The train goes equipped with oxygen onboard in case is necessary. Luckily we did not needed.

Today I went to visit Drepung Monastery, which is just 7 Km away from Lhasa. I was lucky as I had a monk who could speak English as a personal guide; he also invited me for lunch. In exchange I toughed an English class he has every day for a group of monks (very interesting). To complete the visit he invited me to have a typical Tibetan tea with Yak’s milk.

We have postponed the excursion from Lhasa to the Everest base camp we planned. Among the reasons: altitude adjustment (Lhasa is 3.600 m. high), Yage´s cool and my stomach. We are going to try to depart the last day of the year, Monday, 31st . I take the opportunity to wish you all the best for 2008.

Deep Happy Christmas

Today Beijing had an average temperatura of 7ºC. On the Internet I saw that Dakar had 25ºC. The average is 16ºC, which is the perfect temperature to keep a good red wine.

Last week it was presented the team sponsored by Torrederos Winery for the Lisboa-Dakar race. The presentation took place in the heart of Torrederos Winery – its cellar which is at a constant temperature of 16ºC.

This week I read on the newspaper that the F1 pilot Fernando Alonso was interviewed in the mine at his home land Asturias. It seems to me to go into the ground its becoming fashion, but wine has been keep in this kind of places for many hundreds of years.

I am not sure if I will be able to find a good wine this Christmas. Then, I ask you to toast on my if you have the chance to have a good wine near by.

I want to wish you Merry Christmas and all the best for 2008.

Saffron

Yesterday, I finally founded saffron which I wanted to buy for a while in order to cook paella. I did not finded at a supermarket, but at a pharmacy.

The pharmacy where I founded is where you can Chinese traditional medicine. They are very nice and have big shelves full of different types of herbs, mushrooms, etc. Among them I founded saffron which in Chinese is called “zang hong hua” (Tibetean Red Flower).

Last weekend I finally had the announced party, but I was not able to cook paella as I did not have all the ingredients… We mainly had Chinese food which Victor and Mario appreciated very much after several days on Mongolian diet, which I believe is very limited and pour.

Xmas are around the corner and now that I know where the saffron comes from I have decided to go there (Tibet). I plan to spend there the last week of December and the first week of 2008. I am going to try to bring warm cloths because the weather there is quite cold.

New Home

Three weeks ago, my friend Victor, whom next Friday will arrive to Beijing for a visit, asked me how my apartment hunting was. I did not know what to answer, because I had not even start to look for it.

I thought it was excuse to start hunting and may be I could give Victor a surprise when visiting me three weeks latter. Straight away I started and in a week I had find one. I had some small problems with the landlord during the negotiations, but I reached an agreement in the end. We signed the contract (both in Chinese and English) and went to the police station to register together with the landlord (this is mandatory in this country).

This was two weeks ago and today I can say that the apartment is completely ready. I am very comfortable and it takes only 15 minutes by walk to arrive to class everyday.
I am going to take the chance that Victor will be here and I am going to try to arrange a warming party next weekend.

Victor will the first and I hope no the last. So, Who´s next?

In China does not use daylight save time

Last night I read on the Spanish newspaper that time was going to change. I thought that may be I could sleep one more hour, but I was not lucky. Although in China everything changes quite a lot and very quickly, they do not have the daylight save time.

I was happy I got up early this morning because I went for hiking at the Great Wall in a non-tourist location and I managed to breathe a lot of pure air. The last couple of days, Beijing´s skies were completely covered with fog and the pollution underneath.

In order to follow the culinary lead from last article I can tell you that last night I cooked my first paella in China. I could not have all the ingredients, but the result was reasonable. One of the guess told me where to find saffron for the next time. You can find it at the pharmacies of the Chinese traditional hospitals.

A shame I did not know it the day before that I was in one of those pharmacies. I was lucky of not going as a patient, but as companion. It was interesting to see how it worked. A big bulleting board with pictures and explanation of each doctor helps you to chose one of them. You have to pay in advance a 10 Eur fee for each visit. For the same price we were few at the doctor office: the patience, the doctor, an interpreter and myself. After a long list of questions and the measurement of the pace the doctor wrote the list of medicines. Then, we had to go to the pharmacy of the hospital where they prepared the combination of herbs (very interesting). Next step was to boil them for which were taken to a different place. Next day you have to go to pick them up in sealed bags.

I am trying to look also for the formula of how to seal the Chinese characters on my head, so they do not evaporate. However, I have not founded the way to do it yet and I have serious evaporation problems. I have the hope that with the cool weather the evaporation of characters decreases. In the mean time I will keep looking they way of how to seal them…

Spanish Weekend

This weekend I had a lot of Spanish contact. On Friday I went to the Spain National day celebrated at the Spanish embassy in Beijing. On Saturday I went to first Spanish Omelettes competition.

When going to the embassy I had an alternative plan, as I did not know if I was going to be accepted without invitation. In the end, a warm “buenas noches” (good evening) was enough to get in.

The cocktail was very packed of people celebrating the Hispanity Day (12th of October). I did not find any controversy about the flag as it seems to happened in Spain.

These type of cocktails tend to be a perfect way to make networking. Although in this occasion I could feel that people where more with a party mood than anything else. Even the ambassador was there until the last moment. As well as the day after at the Spanish Omelette Context where he was member of the judge.

About the Spanish Omelette competition I knew about it from an Email received from Madrid (Thank you Chema!). In order to support the international dimension of the competition I went togetether with two colleagues from class. One French and another Lithuanian. During our trip on the underground we also added a Chinese whom we were speaking during our trip and decided to joined us. We arrived a bit latte as to form part of the participating groups, but at a good time to test the omelettes. The official drink Spanish beer Mahou, which just arrived to China.

Wine Torrederos Selección

Just befote the grape harvest starts at my home region Ribera del Duero, the wine magazine Wine Spectator biweekly bulleting issued an special edition about Spanish wine. One of the wines of my family´s winery Torrederos Seleccion was one of the top scored wines with 93 points.

I received the news from China while drinking a green tea. In China there is almost not wine culture although the market starts to weak up. However, the tea culture is very strong in this part of the world. Here is very common to have tea during meals. Even myself have started to adopt this custom of having tea or a warm drink during meals.

There are many tea shops that carry out what is called “tea ceremonies”. During those ceremonies all details are well taken care of: 1) The tea type; 2) Type of cup and ceramic; 3) Proper way to serve the tea; 4) Separated cup to appreciate the smell of the tea; 5) Correct way to take the cup, which varies for women (with a fenix shape – fortune) and men (with a han form – strength); and 6) The number of zips to drink it, which should be three in reference to happiness, good luck and long life.

Although tea and wine are completely different type of drinks, you can find some affinities between both cultures. When I read the news the other day about Torrederos Seleccion I did not have the chance to compare both cultures and I had to continuous with my tea as I did not have a bottle of Torrederos wine near by.

The Second Chinese Revolution

Few months ago my friend Lola give me a book titled “La segunda revolución china” for the author Eugenio Bregolat (ex-Spanish ambassador in China). I just finished it today and it give me a very good perspective of the changes China has gone through during the last 25 years.

The book mentions about the litter presence of Spain in this part of the world. This part was very encouraging for the study of my Mandarín as there will be a lot of opportunities related to China.

Yesterday, I just finished my fifth week of Mandarín classes and the learning process goes very slow. Although I am happy as I am now able to say few words in Chinese. A different thing is that I am being understood when I try to say something…

Today I went to visited Instituto Cervantes of Beijing and I was very impressed about the building and facilities. Then, I was having lunch in a Spanish restaurant. I used the cutlery for the first time after some weeks using only chop sticks.

I will finish these lines with a phrase I read in the book. This was said by a former Chinese primer minister (Deng Xiaoping): “It does not matter if the cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice”.

Ni Hao!

When you are in a foreign country, where you do not know the language, you discover things that cannot find back at home. I have discovered in China the three dimensions of a restaurant menu card.

The Chinese food is very cheap. Yesterday, I paid 30 cents of a Euro at the cantina of the university where I have already been for two weeks. Today, I paid 2,5 Euro at a very nice restaurant. However, it is not always easy to order what you really wish. Today for example, we have tried to order four chicken brochettes at the same time as tried to practice the numbers in mandarin. For our surprise, only one brochette arrived to the table…

The word “menu”, by the way very useful word as it is very similar to the mandarin expression of “beautiful girl”… has different formats depending the place where you are. If you are in a local restaurant, the menu will be only in mandarin (dimension 1). If you are in a restaurant where foreigners go as well, the menu will also be in English (dimension 2). Then, there are other restaurants which think on everyone and have the menu with pictures of the different plates (dimension 3 – international language).

The graphic dimension is very practical and although very often it is associated to typical restaurants for foreigners, it is really useful for me now. This dimension can also be fun, last weekend I played to try to guess countries by doing gestures about typical places from those countries (guess what the gesture was when Spain had to be guessed…) and I enjoyed it very much.

I think in the future I am going to give it more importance to the graphical dimension. In the mean while I will continuous learning mandarin characters which I will have to study now as I am having tomorrow my weekly exam. May be in few months I will manage to order what I want in a Chinese restaurant where only mandarin characters are on the menu…

European interested in China?

The program I am participating in METP (Management Exchange Training Program) is now looking for participants for next intake that is planned to start in April 2008 and will last 10 months.

If you are interested and want to look for details you can find the information on the following site http://www.eu-china-metp.eu/ or http://www.metp.net.cn/. Please do not hesitate to askme any question or send them an Email.

The First Week in China

My first 10 days in China have been very interesting and busy at the same time. I am participating, together with other 40 Chinese and 17 European (6 Spanish, 5 Italian, 1 British, 1 French, 1 German, 1 Swedish, 1 Lithuanian and 1 Finish), on an Intercultural Training program of two weeks before starting the mandarin lessons.

The first week was in Beijing, except two days that we went for an outdoor training near Beijing. We just had been in Shanghai for the last two days. Now, we are on are way to Wuhan for two days before returning to Beijing on Thursday.

The first impression is very positive, but I am aware that I have not seeing the “real China” yet. We are at major cities in nice hotels and with not much free time to explore the cities.

The mandarin language will be a big challenge and I will start the classes next week at UIBE University in Beijing. For the moment I am learning few words
together with the Chinese colleagues of the program.

Madrid - Beijing

I travelled from Madrid to Beijing last 10th August and I plan to stay in China for the next 10 months participating in a program between EU and China (http://www.eu-china.metp.eu/).

I had a very comfortable flight. It was a direct flight and thanks to my friend Cristina and Juan Carlos I managed to travel on the front part of the aircraft. Thank you!

A combination of jet lag after 11 hours flying and tiredness I brought from Spain, I felt really tired when I arrived to the hotel. So, I have been just resting today. Tomorrow I will start to discover the city of Beijing.

Enópolis

Enopolis (the city of wine) is a project that links two of my main hobbies: wine and travel. This is located at my litter village FUENTELISENDO, which is 2 hours from Madrid to the north.

Last first of August Enopolis presented a refurbished Roman wine press from 18th Century, as well as the guided visits that Enopolis offers, which include vineyards, wine tasting as well as visit to modern Torrederos winery.

The list of assistance included Tourism Information Offices from the area, wineries as well as wine tourism companies. All agreed that this will not leave indifferent to the visitor.

Please do not hesitate to contact us for any question you may have.

Opening days: Mon, …, Thu, Fri, Sat & Sun
Opening Hours: 11:00 – 14:00 & 15:00 – 20:00
Email: Info@enopolis.es
Tel: (+34) 606 239 507
Contact: Silvia Rocher

Canada: “C`est beau Québec”

Québec city, capital of the province of Québec, celebrates next year (2008) its 400th anniversary. I was very well treated by Ysabelle and her parents Loraine Dupont and André Burassa. I would like to thank them as well as to invite you to visit the city next year. I do not speak French, but I have learned a sentence in French that says: C´est beau Québec!

I really liked Québec city where I had the opportunity to enjoy its summer festival. The main festival location is Parc des Chaps de Bataille, where in 1795 French were conquest by the British. Even thought they lost the battle they have managed to maintain the language and the culture. The museum of French American offers a good historic perspective.

Canada can be proud about the amount of nature it´s got, I could enjoy a bit during a hike at Jacques-Cartier National Parc. The French name of Jacques-Cartier is very popular in Québec because he was the first European to discover Canadian land (former New France). I also enjoyed with the Bourassa-Dupont family in an excursion to St. Joseph de la Rive through the Royal Road which goes along the great San Lorenzo river. Please, do not forget to visit the recent builted fountain broght stone by stone all the way from Bordeaux.

Montreal was my last stop of the trip before I returned to Spain. I managed to have a good guide, whom just included Spanish among the languages of guided visits. From Australia, headquarter of the Lonely planet, I also received very good recommendations which were very useful.

My next trip is to Beijing as from the 10th August, where the 2008 Olympics will take place in a years time. I have started already a competition with Mrs. Dupont: She will learn Spanish and I will learn Mandarin...

Brazil

An Argentinean friend told me few weeks ago that one of the differences between people from Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro when getting on the bus was that while people from Buenos Aires tend to seat alone always possible, Cariocas tend to look for companion, so they can have conversation with somebody. I totally agree.

I was a bit reluctant to go to Rio de Janeiro as it is very common to hear news about the lack of safety. Once I was there, I completely forgot about safety and I really enjoyed Rio. 60% of Rio´s area are green, combined with wonderful beaches and people. My visit had some French influence as the hostel, which I really recommend, were I stayed was run by a French guy and part of the guests were French too.. I enjoyed the Forro and samba music as well as some caipirinhas I had with some of the members of Hospitality Club and Couch Surfing in Rio.

I have personally discovered part of the good work of the Brasilian arquitect Oscar Nyemeyer. Next to Rio de Janeiro (Niterói) I visited the recently inaugurated Popular Theatre characterised for it circular shapes, which seem to be motivated for one of the Mr. Niemeyer’s passions: women. Last time that he got married was two years ago when he was 98 years old. I saw another piece of his work in the last place I visited in Brazil – Pampulha (Belo Horizonte). I specially liked São Francisco de Assis church. This church was inaugurated few years after it was build due to the ideological differences between the Brazilian church and Mr. Nyemayer.

One of the main reasons for to visit Brasil this time was the hospitality of my friend Pedroca whom I met in New Zealand few months ago and invited me to come to his village. Tiradentes is a Portuguese colonial village which was very important in the pass due to the amount of gold it had. Now is Brazilian’s National Heritage and therefore kept very much as it was in the past. This is a place with a lot of artists who came from all different places of Brazil as well as from abroad. If visiting it, you should not miss Restaurante Aluarte, where home made pizzas are very delicious. Pedroca, on his day off took me to Bichino, a very small and special village which has very beautiful and unique crafts.

On my way to Belo Horizonte I stoped over at other village called Ouro Preto. This is of similar style as Tiradentes, but a biger town and used to be the capital of Minas Gerais (Belo Horizonte).

My original plan was to stay one full day at Belo Horizonte before flying to Sao Paolo. The warm hospitality of the people I met made me to stay few more days. I practiced some portoñolo (language between Portugues and Spanish) and really enjoyed from a city which is not highly ranked by the Lonely Planet guide, and may be this is one of the reason why I liked it. I discovered a type of bars called boteco, which are very simple and modest, but with a very special character. I went to one of them my last night, it was located in the village called Sabara, near Belo Horizonte. I do not remember its name, but it was located next to the slaves´ church (during the colonial times it was very common to have different churches for people from different social classes).

The trip from Belo Horizonte until Quebec (Canada) where I am at the moment visiting my friend Ysabelle (I met her in Madrid last year while she was taking Spanish at the university in Madrid) was a bit difficult. I had some problems with Gol when trying to pay with my credit card. Then, I had problems finding space when trying to catch the flight between Sao Paolo and Montreal. Although in the end I was very lucky and I managed to travel in business class for lack of economy class seats. The last segment Montreal-Quebec was by bus. I had just left Brazil and I just realised that people talked less onboard the bus.

The Argentinean Ability

In Argentina, where I am at the moment, I heard in several occasions that this great country with other sort of politicians should be one of the top 15 countries in the world. I agree, however one of the reasons I think I founded for not been in that club has to do with a theory I called the Argentinean ability.

Personal ability can be used in a positive or negative way. When the personal ability is used more in a positive way than in a negative way, things improve. On the other hand if the use of personal ability is used more in a negative way things improve much less and even sometimes get worse. This is what I call the Argentinean ability.

I crossed the Argentinean border from Chile through the Jama pass several days ago. The same pass is used by a gas pipe used to supply gas from Argentina to Chile. This gas is previously imported from Bolivia (bilateral relation between Chile and Bolivia is not very good) and with a marginal profit exported to Chile.

On my way to Salta (north weast of Argentina) I saw a good culinary detail it was just by warming up a basic sandwich at a road restaurant. Once in Salta I stayed over at the house of a local friendly family. They showed to me the city as well as the surroundings (Quebrada de Humahuaca and San Lorenzo). I also took the chance to eat “empanadas salteñas”, they said that they are the best ones in Argentina and I can confirm it so far.

In this country football is like drug and other sports are followed as well, like tennis. At Rolland Garros final between Federer and Nadal and in order to compensate the unequal number of fans at the stadium in Paris, I joined a group of Nadal´s fans following the final on TV. One of the members in the group, as did not have any Argentinean player to support, took the telephone and bid a bottle of champagne with a friend. Brilliant idea to fix a date in which the worst thing that could happen was the he should pay the bottle, because he already secured to uncork it together…

Valleys here are called “quebradas” and there is a beautiful one called “Quebrada de Cafayate”. This valley shares its beauty with a wine region, one of my passions. La casa de la bodega let me kill two birds with one stone. On one hand, I could see a very nice winery boutique integrated with a 8 rooms hotel and on the other hand I was able to enjoy the beautiful valley around the vineyards (impressive!). Here the ability was from a young cook José Manuel Chañi, chef of the restaurant whom was recently given the first prize to the best entrance at the National Match of Chefs with the dish “Rainbow Trout with humita blinis, charqui salad with tomatos and his coulis of watercress" (yummy!). I also visited Porvenir winery which belongs to Salta´s province Governor Mr. Juan Carlos Romero, whom also was second with Carlos Menem´s when running for president at the last general elections. The development of Porvenir winery, located at the city centre of Cafayate happens at the same time as the development of tourism of the town (what a coincidence!). Both projects are driven by the Governor; one is public and the other one private.

I use the bus as the main mode of transport in Argentina, except the other day when going from Cafayate to Salta. Just at the moment I was ready to purchase the bus ticket someone offered me to give me lift for the same price as the bus ticket and much faster (service called remis). I decided to accept the offer and even enjoyed the trip which was much comfortable than with the bus. After been drop off in Salta I realised that the driver had not given me the receipt with the corresponding taxes…

Last weekend I was at Yaboti biosphere reserve with a friend of Buenos Aires. This jangle zone at the Brazilian border in the Argentinean province of Misiones which I recommend to anyone visiting the area (next to Iguzu falls). We shared hostel with four researchers from Misiones university. They were carrying out a project which consisted in finding out the viability to open Yaboti river for fishing, in order to promote the fishing tourism in the region. They still had one more year to complete the research. On Sunday morning, while enjoying from a kayak trip in the crystalline river we saw some fishing nets crossing the river. I asked one of the researchers who joined us for the trip if the fishing nets were material from their research material, but with a sad face told me that the net was from local illegal fisherman whom like to combine the fish dishes with the wonderful meet they have in Argentina.

I am at the moment in Buenos Aires and the city is full of electoral propaganda as there are elections next Sunday to elect the city Governor. The conservative politician Mauricio Macri (Actual president of Boca Junior football club) seems to have developed his political ability by using the football as political trampoline. It is expected that he will get an important number of votes from a group of voters belonging to the working class which are also Boca fans. Therefore, he will share some of the clientele he is got as president of Boca and now as voters as a Governor as the pools point that Mr. Macri will win the elections next Sunday 24th of June.

I finish this lines with one of the slogans that Mauricio Macri is using during his campaign: “Que bueno va a estar Buenos Aires” (How good Buesnos Aires is going to be).

China

Last February I applied for a Management Exchange program between EU and China http://www.eu-china-metp.eu/. A total of 10 months of which 7 will be in Beijing learning Mandarin and 3 months somewhere in China for an internship with a Chinese company.

Last 23rd of May I went to Brussels for an interview and just today I was confirmed that I have been accepted for the program. The program starts the second half of August 2007.

I would like to thank Alfonso for the idea, Alex for the program info Miguel for pass it on, Anni for facilitation the internship and Julio for your support while preparing the interview.

Now I am going to catch a bus that runs from San Pedro de Atacama (Chile), where I have been the last 3 days, to Salta in Argentina.

Time qualigty is at the table

I have always heard that with a good food it is possible to make good business. I would say that at a good table instead.

Last month of May I was back in Spain and I realised that most of people are willing to spent time of quality around a table.

Madrid is as busy as always, however I managed to spent good time with friends and family. It was possible by using the table as excuse (i.e. breakfast, lunch, dinner…).

The eating table is a magic thing. When someone commits to share time around the table, it does not matter how busy or stress he or she is. Time allocated is of quality.

Last Friday I re-started my trip in Santiago de Chile. I continuous the whole weekend practicing my new theory: “The time quality is at the table”.

The table did adopt different versions: An artistic table at a sunny terrace, a doggy table at “Rincon Canalla”, a rock as a table with a mountain view and on a honey moon table.

Around a good table I have spent the weekend in Santiago. Now I am on my way to the Atacama dessert looking for a good table.

Arrived from Chile

Madrid is warming up for the elections and everyday something new is been inaugurated (i.e. New Metro stations, a tunnel at the ring road M-30, which is meant to be the longest tunnel for a city – 12 km, …).

I arrived to Spain in time to say goodby to Ysabelle (Canadian friend whom doesn´t know what she is doing…) before starting the Santiago de Compostela pilgrim path. I also went to Ana and Vicent´s weeding in Lerma (Burgos). They took me the travelling lead and left Madrid EAST towards Asia and plan to arrive from the WEST in 5 weeks time (i.e. round-the-wold-trip).

My village Fuentelisendo is getting ready for the summer with the summing pool that Jose (my brother) and Laura are building although have not worked out what is going to be the admission system. We celebrated mother’s day with “la Rafa” and enjoyed very much the countryside which was very pretty after a rainy winter.

I arrived to Madrid a week ago from Santiago de Chile after spending two weeks in Chilean land. I had a very good time in the three places I was: National Park Torres del Paine, Chiloé and Santiago de Chile.

The south of Chile is similar in a way to the south of New Zealand. Thank you Cecilia for hosting me at your house in Punta Arenas. If you ever visit Puerto Natales I recommend to visit a wine and cheese shop at Eberhard street (not in the Lonely Planet…). Here I was suggested to visit Chiloé which was my next stop.

I originally planned to stay for two days and ended up staying four! I really liked it and I founded it very special. I liked its arquitecture , its green colours, its sea food, its people, its MAM (Museo de Arte Moderno) – thank you Eduard Rojas for pushing all projects as well as your time.

To Santiago I flew Aerolíneas del Sur and when reading the onboard magazine I founded out that Mr. Enrique Meliá (fomer CEO of Spanair) was its CEO. Everyone in Chile was talking about “Transantiago”, a restructure of Santiago´s city (not public) transport with which nobody was happy. These local problems from the capitol affecting the whole country gives and indication about Chile been a very centralised country.

Thank you “my sangre” for your hospitality, for taking me to visit Casablanca Valley wine region and in general for your generosity. Now I can say that I know few good Chilean gossip…

Thank also Iona you for presenting some of your best friends. As you can imagine I have to get back to Chile: I have to return the Terremoto invitation at La piojera I have to return Machuque movie which I really enjoyed on my return fligh.

Now, I have to go because I am going to go to the post office in order to put my vote for the 27th of May elections. Just in case I am on the road again…

Goodbye New Zealand

While writing these words I am onboard of an Airbus 340 from LAN airline. Fling with speed of 940 Km per hour and at 10,600 meters of altitude above Pacific Ocean level. Up to here nothing very different to any other flight. The surprising thing on this trip is that I departed on the 17th of April at 18:00 and I would be arriving to Santiago same day (17th of April) at 13:00. Therefore, I will be arriving 5 hours before departure time, after flying for 11 hours… The trick are the 16 hours different between New Zealand and Chile.

Thank you Mrs. Vidal for the information provided yesterday on the status of the flights. By the way, I saw your picture at the LAN onboard magazine and you very beautiful.

I have decided to depart New Zealand few days before my original plan because the situation of the flights was a bit complicated and the thermometers in the south of Chile (where I plan to go now) keep lowing down and down… And I do not have the long underwear because as you can Imagine they do not fit in my backpack…

During my three weeks in New Zealand I have been mainly in the southern island, which is very pretty and the nature is just amazing.
To finish I will let you know how the maori people greets. It is called “Hongy” and consists on pressing noises and foreheads three times symbolising past, present and future. Now time for you to practice…

Some comparisons

Tonight I was asked by German guess in the hostel where I am that what were the main differences I founded between Australia and New Zealand.

On of the first differences that comes to my mind are the licences plates on the cars. In New Zealand plates are clean with not decoration. However, in Australia the licences plates have a slogan attached to the licence plate number, which is different for each of the 8 different states. I thought that this may reflect some differences among both societies.

Some of the slogan used in Australia, which very often change when new political party comes into power are: Queensland (“Sunshine state”, ó “The smart state”); Victoria (“The place to be”, “the garden state”, ò “on the move”), North Australia (“The outback – desierto- state”). I was thinking what the slogan would be in Spain now that elections for the states will be quite soon. It is very probably that slogans in Spain would contain some kind of political mention as they do in Quebec – Canada, where the slogan is “we remember”. By the way this is very nice to be long away from Spain in order to avoid listening the political battles all the time before the elections.

If you have a look to both the Australian flag and the New Zealand flag you realise that they very similar and largely influenced from the Union jack of the British flag. The only thing that makes you think that those flags are from this part of the world is that both have part of the southern cross which cannot be seen from London. My personal perception is that on top of the flag the influence of Britain is a bit greater in New Zealand than in Australia.

Before I started this trip I thought that it was very expensive for Australians to travel to Europe. I presume that not a lot as prices are not very different. New Zealand has a bit lower prices than Australia and the cost of living is a bit lower.

In Australia the aboriginal people were there before European migrate there. In the case of New Zealand Maori people where here before European came. The share of Maori people (16% of a total of 4 million people) is greater than the aboriginal people in Australia (2% from a total of 20 million people).

Thank you Bloggers

Thank you to all of you that follow this blog. I would like to say sorry for not updated it as often and with all the content all of us would like to.

How the backpack goes?

The other day my friend Victor, who isa t the moment in a two weeks trip to Gambia, asked my for advice about to bring with him a small packpack. After one month travelling with one I said YES!

Is very handy to pack in five minutes and be ready to move next. You can have a day trip with all your staff on your back and you never have to check your luggage at airports.

Sometimes you have the temptation to buy things, but soon you simple do not do it as you have not got space for it. In those moments I remember the comments from my friend Juan who asked me where I was going to carry the presents…

In the end I believe is possible to travel like this in places where the weather is not very adverse. You have to be a bit disciplined with the washing up. I normally I wash up by hand and dry it down on its own or using a machine. Today for first time (now all my cloth are in the drier machine) I have used machine for washing and drying and I just stayed naked… well with the swimming suit and a t-shirt.

On Monday will be the proof of pudding as I will be hiking the Milford Track in the south of the Southern New Zealand which takes four days. You have to sleep in shelters along the way and you have to bring your own food for the 4 days. I will let you know how the experience goes…

Heading to New Zealand

Alter a bit more than three weeks in Australia I am getting ready to try to fly tomorrow to Auckland in New Zealand.

The time spend in Australia has been mainly on the east cost of the country. I think I have managed to see a good variety of different places and people.

From city of Sydney I went to the Blue Mountains (colour which comes from one of the most popular trees in Australia – eucalyptus). There, I founded the Spanish connexion by cooking Spanish omelette with olive oil. The Spanish connection become soon cosmopolitan with the Indian good cousin, the Dutch efficiency, the English good manners and Quebecois good sense of humour (except if touching the independent issue, Ysabelle, you should had told me that I almost get in trouble …).

Rail Link took me to Hunter Valley wine region. This is located 2,5 hours from Sydney, so it could have some analogy to Ribera del Duero region in Spain distance wise. However it is much more developed when it comes to wine tourism infrastructure (e.g. cellars doors at each winery and open 7 days a week). In the hostel were I stayed had been the grape pickers for almost a month before I arrived. I meet wine makers from France and Italy that were getting experience about total freedom on wine making practices. Here cocking pizza I made the Irish connection. There were a group of very nice Irish girls from Dublin spending a year in Australia. There is quite a lot of Irish people in Australia because it seems to be a quite popular place to come for a year with a working Visa (i.e. travelling with the possibility to work legal).

On my way to Brisbane I was suggested few places. Some of them on the coast and other in the countryside. As a country boy I selected the countryside option (not in the Lonely Planet) and I went to a farm for 3 days. Castle Montain was a very peaceful place surrounded by catles, ships, horses, … Where you could see very clear the Southern Cross star at night (present on the Australian flag). Where you “could get lost” doing some hiking, exhausted after 40 minutes running, play chest and pick up some cow pu for the garden. Everything was rewarded with wonderful meals and good conversation with Lynda and Peter.

Greyhound Australia bus took me to the capital of Queensland (Brisbane). As all the Australian cities I have been, quite spread with very high scrappers in the centre, sometimes almost hiding the sand stone buildings from latte XIX or early XX century. I had a good briefing about aboriginal culture at Brisbane Cultural Centre. My intention was to visit any of the aboriginal areas, but could not do it in the end. Third largest city in Australia after Sydney and Melbourne which I was informed by a local that Brisbane is at a very good economy at the moment as well as cultural life.

I flight Jetstar (similar to Clickair now in Spain) to Cains in the northeast. This is one of the locations to see the coral riffle. Although Cairns did not impressed me as a nice city and it was still at the end of the rainy season I had a very good time going for diving. You can go 20 metres deep with your shorts only. During this trip the connexion was with Austrians, Canadians (Quebec), Irish (dUUblin) and German. We ended up celebrating the day before St. Patricks day until a bit late…

Next day on a minibus I headed north. Very difficult to travel sometimes if not doing it with an organaised tour. With honours to my friend Victor I decided to do it own my own (not tour). It took me a couple of days to get Cape Tribulation and I end up paying a premium for trying to be different… The road between the coast and the jungle was beautiful and I had a very good time in Cabe Tribulation. Hikking for a full day in the jungle (very different than in La Pedriza – near Madrid) and checking out how the jungle, the beach and the coral riffle meet one after the other. The connexion this time was from New Zealand on her way to Europe, Colombian (Medellin) and Spanish (Galicia) improving English for a few months, Austrian looking for autochthonous mushrooms, Spanish couple (Valencia) in the meridian of a 9 months round the world trip and Australian (Brisbane) discovering new areas of her own country (very interesting to be able to talk to someone local as I did not have many chances to have long conversations with locals).

Mr. Brandson´s Virgin Blue airline took me to Melbourne where I was for 3 days and were I meet again the people I met in the Blue Montains and they treated me very well: Sunny (India) and Natalia (España). Walking around this city that if looking for analogies could be the Barcelona of Spain and where you can find a market that is have way between onf in Spain and another in Vietnam. I enjoyed from good Indian food and hospitality from Sunny and Natalia.

I flew National carrier Qantas from Melbourne to Sydney yesterday where I arrived in time to celebrate Rachel´s birthday (one´s of the Irish girls I met in Hunter Valley 2 weeks ago). I also went to visit the most important bridge in Sydney which celebrated also its 75th birthday last Saturday. Today I am getting ready to fly tomorrow to Auckland in New Zealanda, including few words in Maori language:

Haere ra!

First Impressions

Since I arrived to Sydney a week ago I have had the impression that I was “half way” between the UK and the USA. It is comment to find travellers from both countries but that is not the main reason. The looking of the building very often with a Victorian style, the wide streets, the one or two floors single houses with garden on the front and high towers in Sydney remind me some how the USA and the UK.

We are at the end of the summer, like in early September on the north hemisphere. However the few places I have been were very green. May be It could help the rains they have had during the last couple of weeks, but really surprised me all the green landscape.

When you travel and stay in youth hostels you sometimes have as much contact with international people than with local people. However the contact I have had with locals gave me so far an impression of open, friendly and willing to help you out.

Madrid - Sydney

I left Madrid the 1st March at 11:00 and I arrived to Sydney´s hostel 3rd of March at 8:00. Both local time, therefore deducting the 10 hours difference between the two locations, I took me 35 hours from dor to dor…

The trip was not too bad, I even had the impression of not been too tired when arrived. However, it was only the impression because as soon as I took a shower I felt in bed for few hours.

The itinerary of the trip was Madrid-Frankfurt-Bankog-Sydney. The time spend on each flight (2,5-11-9 hours). In Frankfurt I was for few hours but the time passed very quickly as I met Ana, and ex-colleague from Spanair, whom was there for a meeting. During the waiting time in Bagkog I tried to use Skype, updated my blog and I took a good foot massage. The last flight I sat between an Australian student from Tasmania (Island south of Australia) and an a Jewish traveller.

Both had similar age (24 +/-) but with very different reasons for travelling. She came back from some holidays in Thailand just after finishing her bachelor degree and before starting the PhD. The research topic was going how to improve the amount of grass ships had in Tasmania along the year. He, after doing his 3 years military services has been travelling for the world. When looking at his country in perspective from outside had realised that did not see much future there and was now coming to Australia t explore the possibilities to stay here in the future. He loved his country, but he sais to be tired of being in war with 50% of the neighbour countries and not foreseen a solution to the problem.

In the afternoon after a good sleep I went out for dinner with a friend (Leona) of friend (Marisa Sendino). A very nice New Zeland laidy living in Australia. She showed the Bondy Beach neare Sydney and we had some sea food dishes. On our return to the city centre some of the streets were blocked due to mardigrass party.

Party and Moving

I have been living the flan I just left for the last 14 months (time flies!). If counted in number of parties there were three. This is a nice flat and will be available as from the 15th of April 2007. Just ask the owner Maria if interested in renting.

I did not made a good estimation about the amount of staff to move from the flat. I started litter by litter one week before and I had to delay one day my trip because the moving… Thank you Ysabelle for helping me out!

This is amazing how we manage to generate staff in a short period of time, although we do not realise it until we do the moving… In my case, just after the last party.

There were three parties in the flat: The warming party, the spring party and the goodbye party. Last Saturday was the last one. Starting with football match Atletico Madrid – Real Madrid (1 – 1) and continuing with some drinks, music and the motive: The party of the flag.

We had the Canadian flag, Swiss flag, Mapua New Guinea flag, Nigerian flag, Canary Island flag, Madrid Region flag, Vietnam flag, Torrelodones flag and pilgrim flag.

Travel Insurance

The travel insurance is one of the things that I bring in my back pack although it does not take space… Travel insurance is the type of services that you purchase but you would not like to use.

The main items covered by insurance are:

Ø Sickness or accident
Ø Repatriation
Ø Baggage lost, delayed or stolen when flying

The price range I founded was from 175 Eur the cheapest to 1.350 Eur the most expensive. I wondered why the different was soo big? The requirements to be fulfilled were the following:

1) Length of insurance 12 months
2) Mundial coverage
3) Multiple entry in the country of origin (i.e. España)
4) Possibility to be abroad each time more than 90 days

The insurance companies evaluated were the following:

Company Price

Europea de Seguros ........................ 1.000 Eur

Europe Assistance ........................... 1.350 Eur

IHI ....................................................... 175 Eur

World Nomads .................................... 600 Eur

International SOS .............................. 550 Eur

HIS give a good initial impression and I founded because it was the company Wordnomads outsources medical services. I had and Skype conversation with its call centre in Denmark and founded out that did not fulfil points 3 and 4. In the case of World nomads point number 3 was not fulfilled.

The other three insurance companies were very similar on the level of liabilities been covered and I purchased the services with International SOS.

Only one back pack

Last week having coffee with Julio and talking about my trip I made a new decision about the back pack.

I was telling him about my plans of spending a couple of months between Australia, New Zealand and few days in the south of Chile. I do not have fix plans of the places I will visit. Starting point around the 1st of March will be in Sydney and I will pass by Auckland in New Zealand as well as Santiago de Chile. Then I will have to come to Spain for Vicente and Ana´s wedding in Lerma the 5th of May (good milestone!).

During this two months I plan to have one small back pack. I took the decision after talking to Julio. He said that in one of his trip he had seen some travellers doing that way. I thought it was a very good idea. I really do not like to bring too much weight when I travel, so one of the first challenges for the trip will be to decide what to bring in it.

Last Sunday I cooked paella at home and I asked my guess about the idea of having that small back pack for the trip. Most of them were doubting about it, other were complaining about not having space for the presents... I start to worry..

Thank you and see you

Last 31st of January 2007 was my last day of work at Spanair. I bring with me very good memories from my last 7 years at Fuerza and Spanair. I would like to say thank you for giving me the opportunity to develop myself professionally and personally.

I want to thank as well the colleagues from Fuerza and Spanair for the goodbye party from last 26th of January. I want to tell you that one of the presents that were given to me has motivated this blog: The packpack!

Now, I am going to try to look for good stuff to fill it up...