In America, Adventure, Diving & Snorkeling, Venezuela 2012 On  26/07/2012  No comments

A little bit of the underwater feeling on the first day of diving in Los Roques. Dive sites were La Buceadora and El Morrito. And for the ones who like a bar anywhere, here in the depths of the sea we found a table with some bottles.

Mergulho/Dive 1a – Los Roques, Venezuela from Karla Brunet on Vimeo.

Apoio de:

In + More..., America, Errante and tour guides, Diving & Snorkeling, Venezuela 2012 On  26/07/2012  No comments

My guides for the dives in Los Roques. Divemasters at Ecobuzos.

In America, Interviews, Venezuela 2012 On  26/07/2012  One comment

Carlos is a traveler… has worked on cruise ships and traveled around the world. Nowadays he chose Los Roques to live and works in one of the cafés in Gran Roque. The place where I had been a few times for a beer sitting on a puff on the beach. The place is magic, specially by the end of the day with the Caribbean lights and starred sky.

http://vimeo.com/57594876

Here Carlos Quintana talks a bit about Los Roques.

In + More..., America, Curiosidades Venezuela, Venezuela 2012 On  25/07/2012  No comments

The time zone in Venezuela is considered one of the Chávez’s whims. Here the time zone is -4:30 hours (UTC/GMT). I asked many people about the reasons for having a 30 minute time difference. They all answered me: “I don’t know, it is Chavez idea”. It is incredible to think of an eccentric president that one day wakes up and decided to change the time of the whole country to 30 minutes earlier…

See more at: http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/09/19/us-venezuela-time-idUSN1927682520070919

In America, Venezuela 2012 On  24/07/2012  2 comments

The arrival in Venezuela was “errant”. I got at the airport in Caracas having no idea where I was going to stay. I just knew I had a reservation for an air ticket to Los Roques for next day, 3pm. But event that flight, I hadn’t received the confirmation ticket.

As almost everywhere in South America, arriving in a city we are harassed by a great number of men trying to sell transport and money exchange. Passing through them it is an accomplishment.

The first thing I did was to check my flight with Chapi Air. I had to get my luggage and walk to the domestic terminal. Getting there I found out my they were closed until next day 2 hours prior boarding time.

My second action was to decided where to sleep. So, I went to tourist information desk and tried to get a room. The one they recommended me was full, so I got a taxi driver recommended by them and he took me to a hotel. My only request was to have wifi and, of course, not to be so expensive. He took me to a place in Playa Grande...

In Australia, Oceania On  17/04/2012  No comments

The Great Ocean Road, also called Surfcoast Highway, is one of the main attractions of Australia. My idea was to rent a car and drive on it. But, unfortunately, I forgot my drive license at home. So, I decide to get a tour. The pro side is that you don’t have to worry about driving, about maps, about which side of the road to go… The down side is that you have quick stops in each place, it is the fast tour: get out of the bus, take a photo, hop on the bus again…

The road was constructed between 1919 and 1932, when soldiers came back from Turkey from the World War I (The memorial to the soldieries reminded me my visit to Gallipoli in Turkey).  Our fist stop was Bells Beach, an Australian icon for surfing. Getting there, our tour guide played the audio of Point Break, a movie by Kathryn Bigelow with Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves, Bells beach is the location of the huge surf wave...

In Australia, Diving & Snorkeling, Oceania On  16/04/2012  One comment

Here I put some info on the dives. After some months trying to download the information of my Mares dive computer on a Mac or Linux OS. I happily found Dive Board, an online scuba logbook where I could download my data. Here is the link to my dives in Australia

Day 1

1st Dive – Petaj Mooring http://www.diveboard.com/karla.brunet/12198
Date: 2012-02-09 – 11:05 Max Depth: 16m Duration:47mins

2nd  Dive – Petaj Mooring http://www.diveboard.com/karla.brunet/11737
Date: 2012-02-09 – 14:34 Max Depth: 10.1m Duration:48mins

3rd dive : Whale Bommie http://www.diveboard.com/karla.brunet/11738
Date: 2012-02-09 – 16:44 Max Depth: 11m Duration:47mins

4th dive : Whale Bommie http://www.diveboard.com/karla.brunet/11739
Date: 2012-02-09 – 19:41 Max Depth: 11.5m Duration:31mins

Mergulho na Grande Barreira de Corais from EcoArte on Vimeo.

Day 2

5th dive : Whale Bommie http://www.diveboard.com/karla.brunet/11740
Date: 2012-02-10 – 07:33 Max Depth: 18.6m Duration:53mins

6th dive: Tennis Court http:/...

In Australia, Diving & Snorkeling, Oceania On  16/04/2012  One comment

In order to dive on the Great Barrier Reef I decided to get a 3 day / 2 nights live aboard. Early in the morning we meet at the dive shop (ProDive) and went for a breakfast on the boat before departure. The trip to the Great Barrier Reef was smooth, no storms and no seasickness. It was interesting to notice that during the whole trip nobody got seasick. We were very lucky with the weather. Even so it was rain season, we had sun light every day. There was some rain, but not in the way to damage our dive days.

Our first stop was at Petaj Mooring, a dive site at Milln Reef. The crew of the boat was excellent in doing the dive brief. They showed us a map of the site, explained what we could see and the best way to explore the place. For the ones that did not remember how to use a compass, the give a quick refresh. The importance of using the compass was because we were in our own, there was no divemaster guiding the dive...

In + More..., Australia, Australian Curiosities On  15/04/2012  No comments

It is incredible the amount of signs of prohibitions in Australia. In the great majority of the beaches, before one get in, there is a sort of “menu” of signs of things one can and cannot do. The feeling of controlling is so strong…

In Australia, Oceania On  10/04/2012  No comments

Another great day trip out of Cairn is Cape Tribulation. Actually, I don’t recommend it as a day tour, the best way is to stay a night over there to enjoy the forest, all agencies give you that option of staying over and getting back with the next day tour.

Our guide, Peter, was very funny; with him I learnt “no worries, let’s keep going”. During the trip he explained us about the sugar industry, as this part of Queensland is a big producer of sugar cane. He mentioned me all the time during the tour since (for him) I was one of the “competitors” in the sugar market.

We stopped a few times for lookout and had some walks on the forest. Here again, it is very neat. The path is very well constructed, wooden made, beautiful and they scare you to not wander around, you are not allowed to walk outside the path, otherwise dangerous things will get you. One is a plant that will make you itch for 6 months.

It is a beautiful rain forest, some of the trees are similar with the ones in...