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!!!