11. February 2008 12:49
by Rene Pallesen
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This week I am in Mexico City assisting some of our partners.
I flew in Saturday evening and had Sunday to do a bit of sightseeing before meeting up with our partners in the evening. I took a tour to the big pyramids outside Mexico City (Pyramid of the Sun is the third largest pyramid in the world...apparently the largest is also here in Mexico). It was fantastic seeing the Pyramids and it is one of the few things that I've always wanted to see in Mexico...so now: been here done that.
The whole complex is huge it is 3-4 kilometers long so it takes a fair amount of work to walk from one end to the other...especially with all the stairs and sections.
We also saw the most holy cathedral in Mexico...a place where they keep a piece of cloth with an image of Virgin Mary that was left after someone carried flowers in the cloth. It is a beautiful piece of cloth...but I don't buy the flower story.
Monday to Friday was work days and the first couple of days were spent training with our partners and customers. Here in Mexico they don't start work until around 10am...but also don't finish until after 6-7pm and then followed by dinners etc. with the partners mean that some days go on until around midnight.
I find that Mexican food here is very different from the Mexican food that we get in Australia and elsewhere (but I already knew that). The food is still very unhealthy and full of meat and cheese...but much more tasty and much more variation. Our partners were very impressed on the first evening with them that I was able to eat whole chillies in the tacos...but when I explained to them that I was used to Asian food and to chop up fresh chillies into my day-to-day food then they understood.
In the big intersections in the city there are children dressed as clowns doing tricks to earn a few pesos. The other day I say three kids standing on each others shoulders which was very impressive...I also saw an older woman dressed as a clown walking around with a bucket with a dark cloth in it and throwing it at the cars...very freaky and I think she needs to change her tricks if she want to make any money. One of the more disturbing was a mother with a three year old kid who lay down on the street in the middle of the traffic while the kid was making somersaults on top.
On the last evening we went to Plaza Garibaldi. This is the place that all the great
Mariachi bands came/come from. The whole square is filled with bands that you can hire to play music for you. When you drive to the square the
Mariachis line the streets and run alongside the car trying to convince you that you should hire them to play some music for you.
We went into a restaurant where they besides the
Mariachi also had other entertainment such as cockfighting and lasso dancing. Afterwards we went this cantina where a lot of bands were playing simultaneously at various table. All very Mexican and a great tradition. I wonder if the Mariachis will still exist in 20 years from now...but seeing the reaching of the mexicans they probably will. The food was excellent and I tried another couple of great traditions such as beer with lemon and chili in it as well as the mandatory Tequilas (El Tequila Loco).
The hospitality of our partners here has been excellent. They have taken me out every night and made sure that I tried everything Mexican.
Here's some videos:
Cockfightting
Indian Dancers
Lasso Dancing
Plaza Garibaldi
Mariachi
Click here to see more photos from Mexico
1. February 2008 12:04
by Rene Pallesen
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I haven't blogged much this year yet. Mainly because not a lot has happened this month (January traditionally is a quiet month) but also because it has been very hot and wet which is not a good combination for outdoor activities.
The next two months however are going to be really busy as I will be traveling in Latin and South America.
I am looking forward to the trips as it will take me to most of South America such as Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil.
As I travel I'll start posting pictures and entries in this blog.
4. January 2008 12:50
by Rene Pallesen
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I was glad that I didn't have too much to drink on New Years Eve, because the day after turned out to be a busy one.
In the morning we had breakfast with Kims family at the cemetery where her mum is buried.
Right after this we went to the golf course at the coast and played 18 holes. It was a pretty hot day, but there was a nice breeze along the coast and the course is in such a spectacular location.
Click here to download video of Playing Golf #1
Click here to download video of the Golf Course #2
Most of the beaches in Queensland and New South Wales were closed due to dangerous surf conditions. There is a hurricane off the coast of Queensland creating some huge waves along all of Australia's east coast.
In the evening we had dinner with Kims family having steam boat and those rice paper things that you roll up (not sure what it is called)...and it was yummi.
They have this fermented fish that has been fermented over 3-4 years and it is really nice as a dipping sauce with a few chillies mixed in.
Click here to see more photos from New Years Day
4. January 2008 12:31
by Rene Pallesen
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The year 2007 has now ended and it is time to start some new adventures in the new year.
2007 was full of traveling and other adventures and I expect 2008 to be much of the same.
Take some time to look at what is happening in 2008 as well as what happened in 2007.
Click on this link to see the events of 2007
Also please bookmark this page and also have a look at the RSS feed features of this page.
28. December 2007 09:56
by Rene Pallesen
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After Christmas Eve we went a couple of days to Jervis Bay. Jervis Bay is about 3-4 hours drive south of Sydney and is not part of New South Wales, but belongs to ACT (Australian Capital Territory, Canberra). Hyams beach at Jervis has got a reputation of having the whitest sand in the world.
The house we had rented was right on the beach so it was easy to go for a swim. Unfortunately the water was quite cold, so Kim and I instead opted for a trip to the local golf course.
In the morning we went fishing and although we did catch a few fish they were all too small to keep. The most annoying was that we kept catching stingrays.
Click here to download video of fishing at Jervis Bay #1
Click here to download video of fishing at Jervis Bay #2
I know that the area has got a lot of Port Jackson sharks and on the beaches we found a lot of shark eggs.
In the evenings we played Mah Jong and 21. I decided to stay out of the Mah Jong game until I've got a better grasp of how it is played (some of the numbers on the bricks are in Chinese and it therefore took too long time to compute and I felt it was a disadvantage). I had a lucky night in 21 and won $20.
Click here to see more photos from Jervis Bay
25. December 2007 09:47
by Rene Pallesen
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The Australians celebrate Christmas on the 25th December where we in Denmark celebrate it on the 24th in the evening. I still like to celebrate on the 24th and it is the day of the year where I most miss family (and the only day of the year where I miss the cold in Denmark).
Most of my friends were either out of town or have kids and therefore not very mobile on this evening so this year I decided that it should just be Kim and myself.
I cooked the traditional Christmas dinner with duck and ris-a-la-mande and we had a very nice evening.
In the morning next day we went over to Kims family for lunch and there was a lot of people and kids there. Again this year I took on the duty of being Santa's local ambassador and hand out presents to the children...all good fun.
22. December 2007 12:28
by Rene Pallesen
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Last weekend Andy, May and myself went climbing at Mt keira near woolongong south of Sydney.
May had never really done any outdoor climbing before and Keira is a good place to go and try your first lead climb.
The weather forecast didn't look promising but we decided to go there anyway as in our experience the forecasts are never very accurate here. Besides it said that there was a chance of one or two showers in the afternoon.
As soon as we arrived to the cliffs in the morning we started feeling the first few drops. The rocks were still dry so we decided to put up an easy route anyway.
Once we finished it was raining more steadily and the rocks started getting slippery. There was a climb in the corner that was still dry so we decided to quickly also do this. And afterwards we put up a top rope on a climb that also still was dry.
Before we got onto it it was raining heavily and there was a storm with lots of lightening approaching.
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Click here to download video
After a couple of not very motivated (and wet) attempts on the climb I volunteered to clean up the climb. As I approached the top the water was coming down like from a waterfall and by the time I had cleaned up the anchors I was drenched (and yes...my pants were very wet).
Climbing wise a really disappointing day...but we still had fun.
