Wir sind dann mal weg...

I'm about to leave the office... finally holidays :) We'll be in Berlin, where we plan to meet Martin on Monday for a Potsdam tour.

Sobre El Jorullo

Close to La Huacana is México's second youngest volcano of named El Jorullo. Although only a half an hour drive away, Toño and his sister have never been there.

El Jorullo was born on September 29, 1759, and had been active for 15 years. It a cinder cone volcano, which lies in a remote yet beautiful landscape. The drive goes through groves of elegant palmas real, the local variant of sabal mexicana. The farmers only harvest the top to leaves to make hats and brooms.

The head of the local environment protection agency was so kind to give us a tour. It is a half an hour hike to the crater, but the view up there is worth every step.



Our guide refused to take any money for his services, he just asked us, to promote a trip to the volcano. Hence, by writing this, I'm paying of our debt.

Location:18°58′19″N 101°43′05″W

The In-N-Out Experience

Our last meal in California was at In-N-Out Burger at LAX Airport. In-N-Out has been recommended to me only minutes after we passed immigration and it has been many times again during out stay. Have you eaten already at In-N-Out? was a common phrase. Such highly praised things should not be missed and so we squeezed in this visit. I don't know if it was because of us or or the burgers... we were a group of 11 who showed up together.



The menu is pretty simple: burgers, fries and beverages. the burgers come in three different basic types (hamburger, cheeseburger, double cheeseburger) with a few options. That's it and it tastes delicious - not only for a fast food place. The fries are made fresh by hand at the shop and for the patties, the family owned company has got their own butchery. No microwave, no heat lamp, and no freezer compromise the taste. I loved it.

Cutlery - Revisited

There is not every thing just fine here in México. There is a constant lack of decent cutlery. Like today when I was given a nice sirloin steak for lunch which I was supposed to eat with a effin plastic fork and nothing else. I had to wrap the meat in some tortillas and had to bite pieces off it. wtf?

To eat or not to eat?

Baptism, Wedding, Party & Hangover Breakfast

One can easily forget that there was also Easter to be celebrated because on Easter Sunday* there were plenty of things going on here at La Huacana in México.

After noon mass, Katia, one of Toño's niece got baptised.



Getting baptised at Easter seems to be very popular. There were about 10 babies, toddlers and even children lining up to receive this sacrament.

The second important event was the wedding of Toño's brother Tito and Maria.



They were actually already married, but that was in the U.S. of A. For some unknown reasons to me, this was not accepted by the Méxican authorities and they had to do it again in order to be entitled to a certain type of mortgage. Whatever, it was very touching and just another reason to celebrate.

About 400 relatives showed up to celebrate Easter, baptism and the wedding. There were Mariachis and a 20 men Banda band to entertain them.



Toño's family definitely knowns how to party. I had a blast blast and a few Corona Extras and tequilas too much. I reckon at times, you just had to lick the sweat off my skin to get drunk.

My sleep was almost comatose, but Toño's relatives also took care for a healthy hangover breakfast - an intensely hot shrimp cocktail - to get me on my feet again.



* in Switzerland we also have an Easter Monday.

Sombrero de la Tierra Caliente

The area of México where Toño was born and bred is called Tierra Caliente. Yes, it is hot here, like for today 38°C/100°F are forecast. And it is only spring.

A thing I like about the Tierra Caliente are the sombreros, which the hombres wear.



I like the dynamic shape of these hats and the simplicity of the design, which is not only aesthetic but also functional. It keeps the head cool. The sombrero is made from the leaves of the royal palm.

Sadly, only the old geezers wear them nowadays. But Toño was so kind to wear one for me to take a picture.



No, I did not buy one. It is not for the lack of trying, but Méxicans seems to have smaller skulls. I could not find one that fits on mine, which has a circumference of 62 cm/24".

Comer con Chilo y la tía Lourdes

Today at noon, we went to Toño's sister Chilo. The question of dinner came up, a menu was found, a shopping list drafted and soon both Chilo and tía Lourdes were cooking for the 16 people that happen to be there.



Caldo de camarones



Filetes de pescado



This drink is called Michelada:



Tía Lourdes made it for me. She used tomato juice, lime juice, beer and seasoned it with chilli powder and salt. Very refreshing.

Yes, I'm having a good time :)

Cutlery

I will not go as far as to say that the way people handle their cutlery reveals their character. Although, the way people handle their cutlery tells a lot. Like you can easily spot the American in a restaurant (swap alert!). Nevertheless, I was quite flabbergasted when I was given my cutlery like this earlier this week:



¡Qué cabrón!

Just in case...

...you were wondering how we are spending our time here in México



This is Carla Guadalupe, Toño's youngest niece.

Viajar a México

The flight to México was uneventful, which is always good when flying. The most thrilling part was, when we approached Greenland. It has such a picturesque coast.



Of course, I was waved when we passed Toronto "Hi Tyler", Memphis "Hi Steve" and Austin "Hi Gauss". Sorry to the Brits, I was checking out the films when we passed you.

In México D.F. we are staying at the Hotel Presidente Intercontinental. Toño's hairdresser knows the manager and thus we got a complimentary upgrade to a room on the club level with nice amenities.

I was too tired but Toño had to take some tacos dorados after we'd arrived.



Our room is at the 39th floor and has a nice view to the south of the city.





We could even see the Popocatepetl volcano. This was at dawn, Now it's barely visible.



Later today, we will be heading to Morelia (4.5 hours by bus), where three of Toño's sibling live. In pre Easter, they have this tradition in Morelia is a tradition called Toritos de Petate. A couple of years ago, I took this video of it:



Of course, when being in Mexcio City one has to meet Dzyan, we plan to do this on our way back in two weeks. I'm so looking forward to this. He's such a fascinating lad.

We are in México

We are on our way to México visiting Toño's family. I missed enjoying a siesta in a hammock in the shade. I'm so longing for this.



Sorry, work has been a bitch recently and I neglected many things. Hope things will be better after our break. We will be back on April 13, 2010.

In the meantime, don't do anything I wouldn't do.

On Leave Till February

Toño & I are spending a week with friends in the snow of Vals, painting the town red.

Source: www.swissmilk.ch

Colour by Countries

visited 41 states (18.2%)
Create your own visited map of The World

As seen on To Engineer Love.

Many Thanks Indeed!

Many thanks indeed for all the well wishes to our first anniversary and the lovely present by Mr.Mac :) I hope you will get many chances to repeat this. By the way, the video I posted made Toño to contemplate taking up tango classes again.



In other news: we might be on telly tonight. No, it is not because of our anniversary. During our holidays at Mas Du Soleilla, a journalist made a portrait of our host and we were filmed tasting wine and slurping oysters. Toño even had to give an interview. The journalist filmed for three days and I have no idea if any footage of us made it into the 12' feature. If you want to find out by yourself, it'll be on Cash TV, tonight at 10:20pm Central European Summer Time (UTC+2) on the channel SF2.

Unbelting the Grape

Toño is an ardent wine aficionado, however, he knows little about how wine is actually made. And since he is more the haptic type, we used the opportunity of staying at a top-notch wine domain to get in touch with the grapes.

On the first day here at Mas Du Soleilla, we went with winery owner Peter Wildbolz and his régisseur into the vineyards and observed how they decided on which grapes are to be picked next and when will they be due to be picked.

Maybe this Syrah...



or this Grenache Noir...



but not yet the Bourboulenc, which will not be ready before October.



Over the years Peter Wildbolz & Christa Derungs have gradually moved their applied cultivating methods toward organic. This really shows by plenty of animals which inhabit their vineyards.





For white grapes, the maturity of the tannins which reside in the skin seem to be the decisive factor. For the red ones, it is how they part (like an apple) and the colour of the pips that are mainly taken into account.



On Wednesday, we actually spent a day in the vineyard with the picking crew. Pilgrim would have had no problem to understand this motley crew. Maghrebi Arabic and French were the linguae francae. Unlike on too many other vineyards in the Languedoc, on Mas Du Soleilla the grapes are picked manually and carefully handled in small crates. The picture below was taken in the morning, when we still felt fresh as a daisy. The merciless sun and hard labour of picking and carrying crates took quite a toll. Luckily, we signed up for only one day. Harvesting grapes is a tough job.



The freshly picked grapes are constantly carried back to the wine cellar, so that they are processed within an hour after they had been picked. A fabulous machine removes the grapes from the stems and idle hands get rid of everything one does not desire in the further process.



Here the communality ends. Each variety and even each plot is handles individually to produce the best wine possible. Of course, the process has to be carefully monitored and frequent tasting is mandatory :p



Once in a while it is not a bad thing to get ones hands dirty. So you appreciate a good glass of wine even more.



Cheers! I wish you a fantastic weekend. We will be heading home tomorrow.

Like Pigs In Clover

Just to show a sign of life... We are having an excellent time* here at Mas Du Soleilla in the Languedoc.



Like we eat dozens of the most amazing oysters fresh out of the sea on a regular basis.



And yesterday, our hosts surprised us with Moules et Frites. Yes, we are at the Mediterranean. However, these could definitely match up to the ones you can get in Belgium.

And there is also time to be a bit romantic and enjoy the occasional wine from La Clap.



* Except when I'm driving. Toño keeps bleating when I'm at the wheel. I know I'm an awful driver but I wouldn't mind if he regained his composure. It's not really helping.

Languedoc, We Are Coming!

We are on the way to our holiday destination in the Languedoc. This estate will be our home until Saturday:



It will be pouring down the first couple of days, but then the sun should coddle us :)

My Mammoth

This morning at 4:30 am, Toño woke me to inquire whether we overslept. Not yet. Unfortunately, I did not mange to get back to sleep and my mind started to wander around. To Siberia to be precise. To Lake Serechen in the Kolyma region to be even more precise. I have been in this area 5 times. My memories led me to the trip in the year 2000, when I celebrated my birthday there and received this piece of mammoth tusk with with a personal dedication:



In the morning on my birthday (August 21), we were greeted with snow on the tents. That is why I'm wearing a cap on this picture.



Nevertheless, I took a bath in the lake later that day. It is one of my habits to put a newspaper cover on books I take with me on travels. The picture has been taken here by Gertrud:


View Larger Map

On the following pictures, also taken by Gertrud, you can see why this area is worth many trips.



There is permafrost in the Kolyma area. This preserves mammoths, which have lived (and of course also died) there up to to 4500 years ago. During thawing period in spring, the rivers wash away some layers soil and occasionally people find the remains of a thawing mammoth. That is also how the tusk for my birthday sculpture was found.

100 Random Travel Facts

I'm in a strange list mood and I travel quite a bit. Hence, here are some things that come to my mind when I recall my trips:

1. If I get homesick it's first because I deliriously miss Toño.


2. The second reason is, I like hard-crusted Swiss bread.


3. My first trip abroad (lasting more than a few hours) was with my parents to Venice when I was 12.


4. This was the only holiday trip I made with my parents (they are farmers, they don't do holidays).


5. On the trip to Venice, I slept the first time in a room with an air condition.


6. I caught a terrible cold because the chambermaid set it to the maximum level and we did not notice it.


7. On the trip to Venice, I'd slept and eaten for the first time in a ***** hotel. I'd never seen so many waiters around a single table before.


8. The Piazza San Marco in Venice was flooded.


9. On the way home, I ate my first Lasagne. It was a mind boggling experience.


10. The worst food I'd ever eaten was a pizza in India. Cardboard would have been more palatable.


11. The second worst food was Sandwich Chaud au Poulet in Quebec, Canada.


12. However, in Asturias (Spain) I dicovered Cidre de Glace (ice cider), an extordanary speciality from Quebec.


13. In order to do this, I had to pretend that I'm a journalist writing about cider.
    


14. I usually spend about 168 hours (7x24) per year on planes.


15. In 2005 I was on 41 planes.


16. My first flight ever was to Canada when I was 15 to the World Scout Jamboree.


17. Two of my fellow boy scouts played Alphorn over the Atlantic.


18. 4 hours before landing in Canada they run out of Coke and two hours later out of all other soft drinks.


19. In Canada I had my first jet-lag. A dreadful experience.


20. In Canada I discovered that I had some bullets of an assault rifle in my luggage. Airport security did not find them *uff*. My brother had left them in the bag, which I took with me. I threw the rounds into the next trash bin.


21. Two years later, my brother took the same bag on a trip to Australia. Again, there were some rounds in it. At the stop-over in London, they were discovered and he was questioned for two hours.


22. In Canada, I played cricket for the first and last time. I never managed to ball anywhere close to the wicket. I hated cricket.


23. Many moons later my then Kiwi boss taught me the laws of cricket during several trips to India. Since then, at least watching is kind of fun.


24. On the first morning in the camp in Canada, our Alporn players waked us at dawn with their instruments.


25. On the next day, the Scots next to us took revenge with their bagpipes.


26. In Canada I played Golf for the first time. However, after the fourth hole we had to shortcut to the 19th because we run out of insect repellent spray. I lost two balls until then.


27. In Canada I saw the first bears in wildlife. A mother and a cup were crossing the street in front of our bus.


28. In the Kolima region in Siberia I saw the first bear face to face while I was walking across a glacier. I did the wrong thing and run. The bear did the same, luckily in the other direction.


29. During this, my former flatmate Tigresa was fast asleep in our tent.


30. On the Kamchatka Peninsula I saw fresh (less than half an hour old) foot prints of a bear in the snow. I could comfortably put my shoe into the foot print.


31. On Kamchatka I saw a bear defecating while we were landing with a helicopter. The poo was still warm when we reached it.


32. We negotiated for this helicopter flight were held in the middle of a roundabout. The negotiations took 2.5 hours.


33. This was my first helicopter flight ever.


34. I've never been in another helicopter than a MI8.


35. Also in Siberia I saw a dead bear. Actually I smelled it twenty minutes before I saw it. I still have got a tooth of that one.


36. On the same trip, we were interviewed by the television, because we were the first tourists travelling to Siberia with a private local travel agent (it was still the Soviet Union)


37. On the same trip, I drank ethanol for the first time.


38. I also saw the skates Lenin was using when he was exiled to Siberia.


39. I saw my first non-poisonous snake on a school trip. Our teacher caught it with his hands.


40. The next snakes I saw in Siberia, a place I did not expect to see any snakes at all.


41. I saw my first poisonous snakes Kazakhstan. One of them I spotted in a field where we had our tents. My tent mate denied me to take my shoes into the tent. I almost died of fear when I had to check them on the next day for any inhabitants.


42. On Kamchatka, I drove to the crater of a volcano in a tank.


43. On Kamchatka, I was told that the flight back was postponed by a week due to lack of fuel.


44. I then bought some smoked salmon and drunk a bottle of vodka, which the salesman offered because he never had a Swiss customer before. There is photographic evidence that I then tried to teach my dead and already smoked fish to smoke a cigarette (not that I remember this).


45. Thanks to bribery, we got a flight three days later.


46. The first money given was rejected because the dollar bills were not clean and new enough.


47. At the bottom of the stairs to the plane we had a fistfight, because we bribed more than others and were given access first. The ones who bribed less did not liked this. There were no boarding cards.


48. The flights from Moscow to Kamchatka and back were my shortest and my longest domestic flights ever. It lasts 9.5 hours and covers 9 time zones. So to Kamchatka it takes half an hour and back it's 18.5 hours.


49. I've been 12 times to either the Soviet Union or Russia.


50. Of those, 8 trips were to Siberia.


51. Of those, 2 trips were in Winter.


52. I was twice to the coldest village on Earth.


53. I was naked in the snow with Toño at around -50°C/-58°F to cool down from a banja (Russian sauna).


54. I've spent 3 times a week on a river and was 2 times hiking for a week in Siberia without meeting anybody.


55. For the hiking sections we always bought a reindeer as emergency supply and named it Shashlik. Though we never had to slaughter it.


56. I never travel to such places without a diver sport towel.


57. We forgot our passports in the hotel in Irkutsk while travelling further east on the Trans-Siberian Railway.


58. In summer 1988, I won a dance competition in a discotheque in Tajikistan.


59. I sat in the audience when Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre went on strike on March 9, 1995 for the first time since 1776. The ballet did this to get their director Yuri Grigorovich re-installed, who had resigned because of president Boris Yeltsin.


60. In 1995 I spent three months in Moscow, learning Russian with a private teacher.


61. I heard the song Barbie Girl for the first time in a hotel in Mongolia.


62. In Mongolia, I rode a horse for about 100 km.


63. About one kilometre before our destination, my horse stepped into a mouse hole while we were at full gallop. I have no idea how I did not break anything while falling with the horse.


64. I've broken 5 bones but none abroad, though 3 of them while skiing or snow boarding in Switzerland (the rest while cycling to the pool).


65. I have used to have a good night sleep. In Mongolia we were sleeping in tents and had a small bus for our cook. On the first night we had a thunderstorm and everyone was fleeing into the bus. Everyone but me. They could not wake me up.


66. I do not like to travel in the wilderness without a cook. A cook is a necessity for such an endeavour.


67. On the Mongolia trip, our cook slaughtered two sheep.


68. In Karelia, I did not sleep the first night on a canoeing trip because my arms hurt so much from rowing all day.


69. In Karelia, I swam through white water rapids.


70. In 1996, I cycled from Moskow to St. Petersburg


71. In London I shared the bed with the girlfriend of a friend, who slept on the floor.


72. I made my first trip to the U.S. of A. before I was drafted to the army and was not yet allowed to drink there. I always had to wear a suit when I wanted to drink. They never asked for an ID when I did this.


73. I drunk my first White Russian in a restaurant called Blue Lagoon on Key Largo on that trip.


74. Later that night a boy called me Crockett because of my silver jacket (it was the 80es).


75. I was carded in a gay club in Pittsburgh when I was already older than 30.


76. We jumped a long queue in front of a club in Brussels, because an Austrian friend of mine shouted "We are from Switzerland!" to the bouncer.


77. I lost 10 kg (22 lb) after a spring break shopping trip to New York. All the clothes I bought I could give right to charity.


78. I did not see any other white boys when I visited relatives of Toño in South Central Los Angeles.


79. Legend says that when you take a bath in the Lake Baikal you will reach 100 years of age. It was so cold, when I was there, that I only dipped my foot. If you ever see a lonely walking foot, it might be mine.


80. My most useless business trip was to a nuclear power plant in Germany where I had nothing more to do than to press 1 button.


81. In a hotel room in Brussels I confessed to a friend and he confessed to me that we kind of like the Earth Song.


82. I somehow managed to catch a flu in Mexico this April.


83. I slept with Toño in the bed of a Hollywood celebrity.


84. I never got seasick, although I sail a lot. *touches wood*


85. I was once coerced to carry water for 1.5 hours by an old woman when I visited a Russian monastery.


86. I once stranded in Dublin with an Air Lingus ticket, although it was Ryanair that was on strike.


87. The highest altitude I've ever walked/climbed to is the Thorong La Pass at 5416 m (17,769 ft) in Nepal.


88. For this trip, my lugged weighted only 12.5 kg (including mountaineer boots).


89. I crossed Chechnya and did not even notice it (1988 in a train to Baku while I was asleep).


90. In China it was cheaper to buy socks than to give them to the hotel laundry.


91. In Syria, a Bedouin wanted me to marry his daughter.


92. In Syria, I ate my first club sandwich.


93. I went to Palm Springs to my my first Quinceañera. To prepare for this, I watched the film Quinceañera (which has a nice gay side storyline).
    


94. I've never been to Berlin and kind of regret it.
    


95. I got quite wet when I drove in a 15 year old convertible from New York to Washington and it was raining all the way. I tried to plug the biggest holes in the roof with tissues. But they just soaked up and then dropped.


96. I love the sea but I loath sandy beaches. The sand gets to places where I just don't like to have any sand.


97. I saw the sea for the first time in Venice.


98. I swum the first time in salty water in the Caspian Sea.


99. Despite all the travelling, I've never crossed the equator and have no idea how it feels like when the sun shines from the wrong side.


100. My first trip with Toño was to Lausanne. We did not sleep much.