Cuenca!

I am in Cuenca, the thrid most important city of Ecuador, just 25 minutes away by plane from Guayaquil. The city is in the Andes, at about 8000ft altitude. The weather is perfect. 22 degrees C during the day, a little chill at night, and no mosquitoes, what more can one ask for? I got here some time in the afternoon and was surpised to have a lady come up to me and ask 'are you sylvie?'...so from there three people took care of us (me and the other student from stanford who is travelling with me)...the lady and her daughter as well as a pediatric doctor. They drove us around, showed us the city (which is truly beautiful and has pretty churches at every street corner), took us out for lunch (mmmm all sorts of grilled meat, yep, ecuador is not for vegetarians, potatoes, corn, ...). We are staying at their house...we met their family (the lady has 10 brothers and sister who came to meet us), got converted to being Jehova witnesses,...After that we headed out to the hosue of the ex minister of health of Ecuador, who happens to be the doctor I am going to spend a week with in the jungle. I met a retired anesthesiologist from Stanford and his wife and plenty of other interesting people. This is better than expected, really...Anyway, we are leaving with a truck to the jungle tomorrow morning and will be back on thursday, hopefully with more stories...one recommandation so far...come to ecuador if you can! Oh small technicality, both the currency and the electrical plugs are the same as in the US,...so no excuses not to make the trip!

The Southern Hemisphere

For the first time in my life, I am walking around on the Southern Hemisphere of our little world...I haven't checked yet, if the Coriolis force makes the water turn the other way here...a little experiment for tomorrow in the shower. But i do know that it feels good to be here...Ecuadorians drive like lunatics..."we drive fast in Quayaquil" is the first thing the cab driver told me (in spanish ;-)) yes, yes, i feel home...it is going to be a good trip, i feel it!

Zion

Saturday morning started out well, after a good breakfast at the hotel and with a delicious cappuccino in hand, we continued our journey to the highlight of our trip: the NP in Utah. After driving forever along little country roads (we decided not to take the highway) during which Bruno slept and I ran over a dead animal (I couldn’t avoid it, since it was in the middle of the road and other cars were coming in the opposite direction…so I thought I’d aim for it to pass neatly between the wheels…hmmm, the beast was to big)…so the miata bounced over it and for a while (read a couple of days) we left a incense trail of roasted pig, we finally made it to Zion. I must say that on the way, I was a little skeptical about the grandness of those NP…sure the scenery is beautiful. Yes there are a bunch of huge rocks around, but really, nothing to be blown away by…until we entered the park. Zion is impossible to describe. The park has such a variety of things to see, from tall “cliffs”, to steep climbing rocks, to lush meadows,…and the whole park makes you feel like this world has been designed for creatures much bigger than ourselves, I felt tiny.
When we arrived at the park entrance we were pleasantly surprised to hear that the park was free this weekend. In theory it meant that it was going to be crowded…but luckily for us, it started to rain! So while we drove into the park, most people were heading for the exit. Perfect timing! In Zion, you cannot drive personal vehicles during the summer, everybody needs to park at the visitor center and take the shuttle busses around the park. Bruno and I had decided to hike up to Angle Landing. Supposedly a hike not for the faint of hearts. About half way into the climb, you reach “Chicken Out Point”. Passed this point the trail becomes more of a rock crawling trail rather than a hiking trail…at times a little “scary” if you are afraid of heights, but that’s about it. We did witness the effect of “chicken-out point”. A young couple (read a cool 18 year old kid trying to impress his girlfriend (?)) was hiking in front of us when the guy started “whining” about “how are we going to get down, oh-my-god-I-am-gonna-die, how am I making it out alive”…funny sight! Anyway, all along the way to the top the views are breathtaking…I’d recommend the hike to all of you! By the time we reached the top, the rain had stopped…pleasant surprise. We made it up and down in about 4 hours…so we didn’t have much time to do anything else in the park and headed to our hotel in Cedar City. If you make it to Zion, I’d recommend to stay right outside the park at the western exit of the park. There is a cute little town, with seemingly nice restaurants and little shops…probably very touristy, but very cute, and more interesting than the “towns” a little further out, like Cedar City. The Knight’s Inn where we stayed at wasn’t bad though, free wifi in the room that works (not like the motel 6 wifi a couple of nights before), breakfast (cereals and toasts) included, clean rooms and very decent prices for the area. The steakhouse right across the parking lot is not a must, though ☺

Back again

Back for some updates. I am sitting on a plane from Panama to Quayaquil, Ecuador…so I have plenty of time to hopefully finish the updates of the roadtrip before another adventure starts. So, where was I…the salt flats, on our way to Salt Lake City. We got to Salt Lake City early evening. Bruno and I became avid fans of hotels.com. Super way to book a decent hotel for not too much money. So the way we do it is as follows. Around noon, we more or less know where we’ll be at night (our schedules are pretty unpredictable since we seem to never be able to get out of bed) so we look for a Mc Donald’s. Mc Donald’s has been the constant in this trip: free wifi that you can pick-up from the parking lot, decent iced latte’s for the long road ahead and restrooms ☺. So once we find a Mc Donald we reserve a hotel at hotels.com for the night to come…you get pretty good deals if you reserve last minute. This is how we stayed at the Radisson in Salt Lake City, with sleep number beds! Anyway, apart from the cool hotel, there is not much to do in Salt Lake City…it feels more like a small town than a City (I hope I am not upsetting anybody ☺). Maybe one night is just not enough to find out what the city has to offer other than the famous Temple Square and downtown.

Salt Flats

Time for some updates...where should i start? The Bonneville Salt Flats and how i almost drove the miata into the water! Water? Yep, indeed, water...Bruno and i were driving from Elko to Salt Lake City when we saw the signs to the Bonneville Speedway...how could we not take the opportunity to go to a Speedway? :-) So, I took the exit. The exit lead us to a long straight road, parallel to highway 80 with nobody on the highway...interesting...no cars, no speed limit...Everything is so flat over there that it looks like there is water where the road meets the horizon...optical illusion, or so i thought! So I was driving at about 80 miles an hour, while Bruno was reading the lonely planet, when i suddenly wondered out loud where the road was heading. At the same time Bruno was reading about how the long stretch of road suddenly stops and becomes hard salt...but only in august and september...the rest of the year the salt flats are covered with water. Bruno barely had the time to look up at the road and yell: "STOP"...the miata breaked as hard as possible and stopped right in front of ....a huge water body...hmmm so much for the Bonneville Speedway. Anyway, we got the chance to make some nice pictures.

Lamoille and the Nevada Alpes

Yesterday morning we headed out to the Alpes...but not just the Alpes. The Nevada Alpes...being the eurosnobs that we are, we had to check out what those snowy mountains in the middle of Nevada were all about...and yes, we were pleasantly surprised. After a 20 minute drive from Elko we arrived in the charming little town of Lamoille...well, town is a big word, there is one bar/coffee house, one post office and a church...according to the lonely planet this church is the most fotographed rural church around...I think it is just often fotographed often because the LP says so...anyway....From Lamoille we followed the signs to Ruby Mountains Recreational Area...a long windy road brought us to a parking where a bunch of trails start...we didn't have time for a hike, but had brought our Albertsons Croissants (do not buy croissants at Albertson unless you like chewing on rubber) and were looking for a nice spot to eat them...we found our spot accross the ICE COLD stream! I know now that mosquito bites don't swell when immersed in ice cold mountain water for a while...all in all a fun morning. Oh, and although i wouldn't call them the Alpes, the Ruby Mountains are definitely worth the detour...look at the pics!

Bruno has a new T-shirt...and I have made my first Southern Californian friend!

This morning, in Elko, NV, Bruno and I walked around the "annual motorcycle jamboree"...some pretty cool looking bikes (and bikers? ;-)) took over the town. Mostly harleys, but also some fast sport bikes...mmm, makes me wanna get my bike so badly. Next roadtrip will be on a bike, I promise!

The miata kicks ass!

120 miles per hour! On an endless stretch of road, out in the desert of Nevada...and i was not even pushing it! I am so proud!
Other than that, Bruno and I made it from Reno to Elko after spending the whole morning in a casino desperately trying to finish this ##$% report! But it's done, sent and gone now!

On the way to Elko we passed a little town called Lovelock advertised as the place where romance and race cars meet. We also almost run out of gas...but that should come as no surprise to people who know me and Bruno :-)...stopped along the way to catch the sunset (and get bitten by some nasty, nasty mosquitos :-))) and finally got to Elko in time to eat some real home-cooked basque food at Star Hotel and Restaurant...mmmm, the home-made potato fries were amazing!

I am excited!

So, let me bring you up to speed to why this blog exists. If you are reading it, chances are you know i just graduated from iCME...iC what?? Exactly! This is the reason why i left, in the end i had forgotten why i came here in the first place. To celebrate the fact that i will never ever have to deal again with my loser team (and some other painful and frustrating people i met at Stanford), I decided to take the summer off and travel (ok, ok, the fact that my H1-B still hasn't been approved has something to do with this too). As soon as i found out i would be out in the real world (euh, if you can call LA the real world :-(( starting from October I figured i had 4 months to do something worth telling my grand children (if and when i ever have some ;-))
Last October, I made a promise to myself that i would make full use of my year-long multiple entry Indian VISA (a sweet revenge for the limited number of days i could stay at Dev's wedding), so India was definitely on my list of places to go...but what would i do there? Maybe something useful for a change? That's where Jane, CEO of Embrace, came to the rescue...while attending a presentation on Embrace (check it out at embraceglobal.org, they really do something pretty cool), I found out they were looking for volunteers for summer, both in the US and in India. To keep a long story short, i'll be flying from Brussels to Hubli on July 30st for a 9 week long adventure on Indian soil where I'll be helping out with the usability testing of the incubator...but more on that later! Before that, I'll finally be spending some time at home...wow, i can't imagine how 2 weeks of holiday at home will feel like...two weeks where i don't have a report to finish, or an advisor to please, or some homeworks to grade, or some quals to study for...no, just two weeks of enjoying the sweetest country in the world! Fantastic! (Oh and in those two weeks, i'll be visiting Paris, Toulouse, Barcelona and Madrid with my "surrogate sister" :-)) Are you all jealous, yet? No? Ok here is some more: After finishing this wonderful roadtrip that is taking me from SF to Houston (Houston? Why Houston? What the hell is there to do in Houston?), I'll be heading out to Ecuador to do some volunteer work with a Dr in Cuenca...we'll be driving around in the jungle with a van transformed into a mobile clinic. So yes, i am excited about this summer!

Will I ever leave?

Yes, I did! I left sunny California before it made me soft (or not?). After saying goodbye to Dev and Karen for the 5th time, we did hit the road on wednesday night. All is taken care off, the little one has a safe new home (thank you Shad!), the sofa problem is solved, the storage place completely packed (and so i the miata!)...Reno here we come.
After a loooong drive where Bruno fell asleep and suddenly woke up from his own snoring, we finally reached Atlantis Spa and Casino Resort in Reno. Our first night "on the road"...many more to come! Thank you Bruno for being so patient :-)