Whitsundays

One of the last places to see on our Aussie list were the Whitsundays. Our original plan was to take a sailing cruise but with a toddler that was out of question. Instead we spent 3 nights on each Long Island and Hamilton Island. We spent the first three days at Palm Bay resort on Long Island and we have enjoy it a lot. The resort is very small and our bungalow was practically on the beach. Although the sand was a bit scarce our son enjoyed being on the beach or at the pool all day long. The free kayaks were also quite nice since it was easier to reach the snorkeling spot about 150m out. The coral was not very large but it was very diverse with most of the coral types being present. Also there were quit a lot of fish species. The only downside was the current which made the water a bit murky. Diving couple of meters made the view much clearer though. The second part of the trip on Hamilton Island was not that nice: too many people, the only beach was usable only in the morning (with the afternoon tide the water was far away and the beach was rocky and muddy) and the pool at our accommodation was small and toddler unfriendly. From Hamilton we have taken a tour to ReefWorld and one to Whitehaven beach. Reefworld was a disappointment since I did not see anything I haven`t seen before. The reef was certainly big but that was about all. The good part of Reefworld was the heli ride which provided an overview of the area. Whitehaven beach was certainly nice and we would have spent more time there. Our bad planning meant we could not take advantage of the lowest tides of the year at Hill inlet....everything was already booked. The same happened at ReefWorld ...all fly/cruise tours were booked so we had to spend extra for the heli tour on top of being on the boat 2 hours each way.

Cook Islands

Last August we had a short escape to the Cook Islands (Rarotonga).... We have selected the place based on recommendations from friends who visited the Islands before. With a bit of delay let`s try and remember the good and the bad. The trip was quite short from Melbourne with a stop in Auckland. We have rented a house close to Muri beach and we got a car for the first three days. Although there is a bus going around the island every 30 min or so I think it is more convenient to have your own vehicle....particularly since we often found ourselves pursuing the sunshine. Rarotonga is quite small with the main road following the coastline (32 km) and a secondary road about 200m further inside. There is nothing much to see on Rarotonga except beaches and some tracks to the mountain peaks. The nicest beaches are in the southern part, e.g. Muri Lagoon and so on. However, we often had to use the western beaches where weather was better. Provisions are available from a hand full of supermarkets with the biggest one being located in Avarua. However, the food variety is quite small and fresh produce are scarce...one of the main negative points. The beaches are nice, particularly Muri lagoon but nothing extraordinary. The climb to the peak (the Needle) is not very difficult and you are supposed to have quite a nice view from the top. Unfortunately we arrived in bad weather with very low clouds and rain so we did not see much. In Muri there are some dinners and every couple of days a night market with food stands which was enough for us. One of my main disappointments was the general dirtiness, stray dogs and rubbish all over the place, particularly on the western beaches. For such a small and touristic place this far from acceptable. Also, the inland road is littered with abandoned properties and dump sites. Overall, I would not recommend Rarotonga. For the amount of money spent to get there is not really worth. Probably staying on one of the smaller islands is a better choice. We did a one day trip to Aitutaki and I think we would probably go back there. The place is smaller, less touristic, no dogs, much cleaner and the lagoon is quite nice.

Boston - first week

After sub-zero temperatures for most of the week. the last days were a bit better so I have taken some time to visit the city. Since I was in 'historic' mood I have followed the so called Freedom trail around the city...at some point down the road I discovered that there was literally a trail marked on the pavement so one just needs to follow this red line/bricks. Learned some history too, about the revolutionary war mostly. Since the city is not that big I was able to walk from my place in South End (which it seems is a trendy place so I need to go around a bit more) to the Public Library then through the Public Gardens and down the trail to the Navy Yard and and Bunker Hill Monument. On the way back I took the subway though. As a city Boston is quite similar to European cities although the public transport is kind of a joke: the subway is basically a tram that goes under ...quite narrow , slow and so noisy that I rather walk than take that again. The good part, I am only half an hour walk from downtown and the city is pretty walk-enabled. Next week will do more sightseeing ...hopefully the wetter gets better.

Thailand

Our first trip abroad since we moved down under. Destination: Thailand. We chartered a boat and "sailed" the Andaman sea. Apart from the first and last day we needed the engine ...this sea is calm as a lake ...in November at least. Very relaxing time with nothing to do all day around but snorkelling. We`ve seen fishes everywhere but mostly the same species....I hope the Great Barrier Reef is better. Anyway we saw a turtle, some dolphins and a WHALE ....that was kind of unbelievable, early in the morning close to Racha where sea depth reaches 50-60m. The islands were mostly nice except the most famous ones like Phi Phi, Phi Phi Lee and James Bond where the mass tourism was amazing ...in the bad way. At the end of the week we stayed for some days in Bangkok and managed to visit Ayutthaya and the Royal Palace. Ayutthaya was bit bad but the public transport was a nightmare...for 65 km we needed like 4 hour on the way back ...plus the flees and stuff. I personally did not like Bangkok much....too hot&humid, a permanent traffic jam and kind of chaotic. I guess some people could appreciate this .... Please enjoy the photos ...

Road trip in USA

Few weeks ago we went on a two week trip to USA and Canada. Despite the main purpose of the trip was business (we attended to two conferences, one in Corvallis, Oregon, and the other in Vancouver) we took some holidays as well! The first part of our "road trip" took place between the conference in Corvallis and the one in Vancouver. For two days we drove along the north West coast of the States, through Oregon and Washington to Seattle, where we took a shuttle to Vancouver. The scenery was beautiful, we got to visit some of the locations were "The goonies" was filmed and even slept in the town where Kurt Cobain was born! My main regret is that we couldn't eat more of that delicious clam chowder... mmmmmm don't miss if if you ever go there!! After the second conference we flew back to San Francisco where the second part of our trip started. The plan was to drive through Yosemite, Kings Canyon and the Sequoias NP only that this time we rented a convertible... purely California style... and that really made our trip!!! Really, once you've done a road trip through the mountains in a convertible... you don't want to do it any other way! Despite we only had three days to enjoy the parks it has been one of the best trips I've ever done. The landscape was astonishingly beautiful. A new and more impressive scenery awarded after every turn...and the sequoias...there're no words to express how it feels to stand in front of one of those massive thousands year old trees... even less when there are dozens of them!!! Overall, an incredible experience.... an we even saw a bear!!! To finish our trip, a short drive trough Beverly Hills and Santa Monica Beach just before dropping the car at the airport. The states have never been on my "places to visit" list, but after this trip, I cannot wait to go back!!! ...... ......

Mt Hotham - skiing downunder

Here the proof ...Australia has snow and ski runs. Lucky us..this year was one of the best, heaps of snow. Unfortunately we arrived at the base of the mountain during a snow storm so we had to wait for a convoy to escort us up the mountain to the resort ....It took us around 4 hours from Melbourne to base (~350 km) and another 4 hours for the remaining 30-40km to Hotham resort. First day was cloudy, windy and snowy but good enough to enjoy skiing. The second day was sunny and warm...which means that by noon half of the runs were quite wet. Still we had a great time!! Check the pictures:

Fraser Island

Short trip to UNESCO World Heritage Fraser...

Kuala Lumpur

Hace un mes y pico que fuimos un par de semanitas a España y de camino paramos un par de días en Kuala Lumpur (Malasia). Como dicen las guias turísticas de las grandes metrópolis asíaticas, Kuala Lumpur es una "ciudad de contrastes"... vamos que lo normal es que a un lado de la calle te encuentres un rascacielos modernísimo y al otro una barriada de casas pobres llena de monos que rebuscan entre la basura. Una ciudad bastante caótica, sin apenas aceras por donde andar (pero con avenidas con 4 y 5 carriles para los coches!). Dos dias fueron suficientes para ver lo más emblemático de KL: el centro y sus jardines, las cuevas Batu y, como no, las Petronas. Ahí quedan las fotos:

Se acabó el campo... por ahora

Desde Septiembre del año pasado he estado trabajando en un proyecto que estudia el efecto del fuego en los bosques australianos. Durante este tiempo he aprendido mucho y he disfrutado aún mas!! De momento el trabajo de campo se ha terminado. Ahora toca encerrarse con el ordenador y ver qué podemos hacer con todos esos datos que hemos recogido. Con un poco de suerte habremos contribuido a entender un poquito mejor cómo funcionan los bosques aquí abajo :) Ahi van las fotos, Cómo me gusta darle fuego al bosque!!! . . . .

F1 2012 season start

so...this year I decided to watch the race from my couch ...but of course I did want to have a look at the new cars with their funny looking nose. So I went for Saturday FP3 and qualifying session withe a GA (general admission) pass and the upgrade to the Premium zone. This proved to be a very good choice since the area is on the hill before curve 14 and has a large TV screen just in front. So I was actually able to enjoy both seeing/hearing the cars under heavy breaking and the rest of the circuit on the big screen. All in all much better than last years` tickets in the Webber grandstand.

BTW ...I am really disappointed by the official F1 2012 application for smart phones ...not really helpful and it has a big bug... the display remains black when coming back from energy saving mode (turn off the screen light) ...so one has to restart the application every time ...what a BS ...and is only for the Android version, on iPhones this is not happening as I checked it with one of my friends.

and now some photos

Wilsons Prom

Last week-end we did a camping trip to one of the nicest places around Melbourne....when the whether is good. Superb beeches with mountains and forests in the background, rivers entering the sea and nice trekking paths. As downside ...the camping was packed...of course everybody goes there because is so beautiful.
The plan was to have a nice, quiet day on the beach on Saturday, followed by barbecue and relax time...until around 11 PM when they send us to sleep...of course all around everybody else was sleeping since 10 :(. On Sunday we did a short walk (around 8 km return) to Tongue point and of course we had a swim in a deserted place.

Below you have some photos taken by our friends.

Tasmania

Back from our short holidays - a week in Tassie. Very wild place, lots of forest, some huge trees, and of course lots and lots of rain. We got wet every day (except the first I think). By the end of the week we knew ..sleep late do the hiking in the afternoon when the sun comes up.

We spent the first couple of days in the south east taking advantage of beaches and sun ...
then we cross towards the highlands, the lakes and the rain. We stood at lake St. Claire for a couple of days and hiked around ...btw do not try to buy the pizza they sale ....awful. After that we moved towards Strahan ...very nice drive, stopped for some waterfalls and camped by some lake all the time. By the end of the week were back in Hobart for a day. We visited the MONA thing ...not recommended at all ...if that it modern art then EVERYTHING IS ART...and not a pleasant one.

So after a week in Tassie we got some mixed feelings ...it was a nice place but I am not sure we will go back, at least not soon. We would return for extraordinary places but with so many places to see ...a nice place is not enough.

Navidades australianas

Para bien o para mal, las navidades son unas fechas para estar en familia. Y qué pasa cuando la familia está en la otra punta del mundo??? Pues que toca buscarse una "familia de repuesto" y arrejuntarse con los otros "huérfanos" que también pasarán las navidades fuera de casa.

El hecho de que aquí sea verano y haga un calor de muerte hace que el espíritu navideño falle un poco y que algunas tradiciones, como el consomé o los polvorones, pues no apetezcan mucho. Eso si, el jamón serrano, el queso manchego o las gambitas, QUE NO FALTEN!!

Y bueno, en el fondo no nos lo hemos montado nada mal!! En nochebuena nos juntamos 26 para cenar e intercambiar regalos en un "amigo rotatorio". Al dia siguiente, navidad, nos fuimos con "las sobras" de barbacoa a la playa, algo muy típico australiano. Y la nochevieja la pasamos de fiesta en casa de un amigo australiano que vive en el piso 72 de la torre Eureka, la más alta del hemisferio sur!!

Lo mejor? Que se nos ocurrió que en nochevieja no podían faltar las 12 uvas... lo malo es que aqui la cuenta atrás empieza desde 10 (y no desde 12!!!). Pero al final nos dio igual, y convencimos a los 50 de la fiesta - australianos y asiaticos- de que se comieran las 12 uvas en 10 segundos!!! Qué momento!!!!!

Y hasta aqui han llegado los festejos navideños. La semana que viene... TASMANIA!!!

Aussie Christmas

The first Christmas in a land far far away from home ...... and with some "snow" ....very lucky indeed :)

Enjoying Australia!

Last weekend we went with some of our Spanish friend to the Great Ocean Road. The weather was unusually warm, so we enjoyed at the beach, we swam in the Tasman Sea (OMG, it was cold!!) and if the evening we prepared the typical Ozzy BBQ and the typical Spanish Kalimotxo....and of course, next day we suffered the worldwide typical hangover :)

Here is the video to prove it! Just follow the link...

https://picasaweb.google.com/cristinaaponte/201109GreatOceanRoadEspanoles?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Plantando arbolitos

Como en esta vida hay que hacer de todo, la semana pasada me fui a plantar árboles con la empresa CO2 Australia.

Se trata de plantaciones de eucalyptus para capturar C02 y vender despues los creditos a empresas que "contaminen", un tema muy de moda en Australia ahora que estna a punto de aprobar el llamado "Impuesto del Carbono"para grabar a las grande empresas contaminantes por tonelada de C02 emitido.

El caso es que surgió la oportunidad de hacer este trabajillo durante unos días y no la desaproveché. Y menuda paliza!! Plantamos 1150 arbolitos cada uno en los 5 días que estuvimos en el campo. Eso supone agacharse hasta el suelo y levantarse de nuevo más de 250 veces al día! Lo bueno es que llovió a mares, asi que el suelo estaba blandito y no fu tan dificil clavar la pala. Lo malo es que acabamos de barro hasta las orejas.

Como experiencia estuvo divertido, pero como bien dice Mihai, no me he pasado toda la visda estudiando para acabar cargando sacos.. :)
La jardinería mejor la dejo para los ratos libres.

Adventures in the Northern Territories

Last week we took some days off and flew to the so called "Top End" in the Northern Territory of Australia.
Once at Darwin we hired a 4WD campervan that would allow us to drive through all the unsealed roads and get to more isolated areas far from the mass tourism. At first the car looked great...but that was just "at first".... Later on the first night we would discover that the car had no mosquito nets in the windows... that meant either you sleep with all the windows closed and you suffocate or you keep them open and be literally eaten by thousand of mosquitoes.... great, isn't it??? After that horrible first night we bought a mosquito net and duct tape and covered the windows so we could be free of mosquitoes and have some air at the same time... bud luck that we forgot to close the small rear windows and so we woke up covered by mosquito bites again!!! ;(
In any case, the 4WD paid back... we drove hundreds of "corrugated" roads where all the car shacked like crazy and we crossed rivers where water raised up to 70cm!!! By the en of the trip, we could not open the side door, we could not close the back door, and we had lost several screws.... but that's why you rent a 4WD!!!

We visited three national parks: Kakadu, Nitmiluk (or Katherine Gorge) and Litchfield. The highlight in Kakadu were the crocodiles: there were both freshwater crocs, smaller and shy, and saltwater croc, very aggressive and really big!! There were many places where swimming was restricted because of the crocs. The park rangers tried to capture them and relocate in other "less turistic" areas. In the places where swimming was allowed it was always "under your own risk" ... creepy!!! Still we managed to swim in amazing places, and many times all by ourselves. Whenever we found a waterfall, we would swim to the base.

We also saw some aboriginal art and had a interesting chat with one of the park rangers about the situation of the aboriginal populations and the future of their culture.

And every night we camped in quiet places, far from the road, where we could make fire (the most effective way of keeping the mosquitoes away!) and enjoy a thousand of stars.

Overall, it was a great trip. Enjoy the pictures!!
PS. There are some videos worth to be seen... check them on the links below!!


video 1. Saltwater croc
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/FBhJQWtMq3YXvSveZLRE7Q?feat=directlink

video 2. Swimming at the Jim Jim falls
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/66M6sbJLQO5I1lA-Id9Rnw?feat=directlink

video 3. Crossing the Jim Jim creek
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/_XcW_yhklPt8xfiKWH3LAg?feat=directlink

Sydney

Flash trip to Sydney for work. I had an entire free afternoon but it was raining cats and dogs..In the evening the rain stopped a little bit and I went out....nice city, like it very much, have to go back with Cris.

Our first Australian Adventure// Nuestra primera aventura australiana

Last week, after five months living in Melbourne, we finally went on our first Australian adventure. For this first trip we decided to visit Central Australia.
We flew to Alice Springs, a small town in the middle of nowhere, and there we rented a campervan. Despite we had booked a two-persons campervan, the company "upgraded" us and gave us a 4-people campervan... what in the end turned out to be more a punishment than an upgrade: huge car, more difficult to drive and with a huge fuel consumption!!

Our first stop was King's Canyon at Watarrka National Park, 500km south from Alice springs. It was a long way driving, so we decided to take a shortcut through an unsealed road. Because the car insurance wouldn't cover us in that road we asked a couple who had their car stopped at the intersection how bad was it. The lady told us it was ok (at the same time that her husband was changing a flat tyre and fixing some other things on their caravan), but we decided to believe her, ignore the swearing of her husband and suffer the consequences.... what a hell of a road!!! The longest 100km ever!!

We arrived to King's Canyon campground to discover that they had a mice plague. Little mice run everywhere: in the restaurant, the toilets and, according to the noises we heard in during the night, they probably got into our campervan too!!

Next morning we did a 3hours walking loop on the Canyon and in the afternoon we drove further south to the Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park. The Uluru is a huge red island mountain (860m high, 10km circunference) in the middle of the desert. Its colour changes along the day, depending on the sun, from greyish to bright red. It's something difficult to capture with the camera, but it is really impressive and you don't get bored of staring at it. On our first day at the park we saw the sunsrise, we walked around the rock and, despite my guilt feelings for not respecting the aboriginal culture, we also climbed it.

Australian aborigines don't look at as the New Zealanders or the Hawaian aborigines we've seen in our previous trips. While the later descend from the polinesians, arrived to the island by the sea and lived on the coast, the Australian looked very simmilar to the people in Africa, with really dark skin and similar face features. It seems that the Australians are direct descendents from one of the emigration waves that leaft Africa more than 40.000 years ago and reached Australia when it was still conected to the other continents by a land bridge.

The most incredible thing is that these people have not evolved at all since then!!! By the time the Europeans arrived to Australia, few hundreds years ago, they were still living as nomads and hunter-gatherers. Now they fight to preserve their culture, but what do they want... to keep on eating warms and ants? We had long discussions with the other turists we met about the aboriginal people, their culture, and their big social problems (alcoholism, unemployment...), and we all agree that they have an uncertain future.

On our second day we visited the much less known Kata Tjuṯa, another rock formation 50km west from the Uluru. These were 36 huge rock domes that looked like giant heads from far. Surprisingly, everybody knows about the Uluru but no-one ever speaks about the Kata Tjuṯa, despite being as nice as the famous Uluru.

This has been a great trip. We have now added a tick to the list of places we have to visit in these three years. And now that Central Australia is done... which will be the next one??

*********

Despues de varios meses viviendo en Australia hemos podido por fin hacer nuestro primer viaje. Esta vez ha tocado Australia Central, en particular el Kings's Canyon en el parque Natural de Watarrka y el famoso monte Uluru y las menos famosas Kata-Tjuta. Para ello alquilamos una caravana y condujimos cientos de kilimetros a traves del desierto australiano. El paisaje aburridisimo, eso si, y ni una emisora de radio (que te puedes esperar estando en medio de ninguna parte). Pero el camino mereció la pena. Entiendo que el Uluru sea una de las maravillas de mundo, pues tiene algo especial. Nadie lo esperaría, pues en el fondo es una roca en medio del desierto... pero algo hay que no te aburres nunca de mirarla. Y además, descubrimos las Kata-Tjuta, unas rocas que bien parecen cabezas gigantes. Estas no son tan famosas como e Uluru, aunque bien lo merecen.

Ademas hemos conocido algo mas de la cultura aborigen. Esta "gente" emigró desde áfrica hace unos 40.000 años, cuando Australia todavía estaba conectada con el resto del mundo, y no han cambiado mucho desde entonces: hasta hace bien poco seguian comiendo gusanos y hormigas, y recolectando frutos en el desierto.

Total, un gran viaje. Ya estamos planeando el siguiente!

Finde de aventuras

Como quizas ya sabeis, Mihai y yo nos hemos inscrito en el club de montaña de la Universidad de Melbourne (http://www.mumc.org.au/). Cada fin de semana organizan distintas actividades. El pasado fin de semana había una excursion para hacer escalada y otra para participar en un proyeto de conservación, asi que nos dividimos: Mihai se fue a probar la escalada y yo a colaborar como voluntaria.

El proyecto (http://regenthoneyeater.org.au) busca aumentar las poblaciones de unos pequeños mamiferos, parecidos a las ardillas, que estirando sus patitas pueden planear. Para ello han instalado unas cajas que les sirven de nidos. Nuestro trabajo consistía en revisar las cajas y comprobar si había "alguien" viviendo allí. Eso, claro, supone ir de un lado para otro con escaleras de más de 5 metros, pues las cajas están colocadas bastante arriba.... toda una aventura!

Asi que tuve la oportunidad de ver distintas especies, aprender sobre sus habitos y conocer a mucha buena gente (quién si no pierde su fin de semana trepando árboles gratuitamente??!!)

También me tope -por no decir que me llevé por delante- infinidad de telas de araña... y ojito con las arañas que hay por aqui...(http://museumvictoria.com.au/spiders/detail.aspx?pid=16)


Cuando llegué el domingo a Casa me encontre a Mihai tirado en el sofá... no podía mover ni un musculo de las agujetas que tenía! Un día de escalada y el resultado fue: agujetas infinitas, unos pantalones desgarrados por completo y las rodillas y espinillas llegas de rasponazos y moratones.... esperemos que la proxima vez no sea tan devastadora!

Ahi unas fotillos: