2012 tagged posts

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 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  20/03/2012  One comment

Uluru is a place in Australia I always wanted to visit. It is my second reason to visit the country, right after the Great Barrier Reef. At the same time, this place wins in fascination, even before I learnt scuba dive, this huge rock fascinated me, when I saw in photos and movies. Deserts in general fascinates me, I believe what attracts me it is the immensity, like the sea, they are a dry version o the sea, it makes us feel small, to respect the nature. Movies as Rabbit-Proof Fence, A Cry in the Dark, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, showed me the Australian Outback, this enigmatic desert.

On my arrival at Yulara I got I little disappointed because there was no village, it was only a resort, and I don’t like big resorts, they are the same everywhere, even airports can have more personality. However, the 4 days there seduced me and I changed my mind.  On my first day I met Star and he invited me to see Allison for a talk on aboriginal’s culture (See Star post on...

In Australia, Oceania On  28/02/2012  No comments

In Australia, Oceania On  26/02/2012  One comment

In Australia, Oceania On  23/02/2012  No comments

The landscape from Chandon Australia, the last winery we visited.

In Australia, Adventure, Cycling tour, Oceania On  21/02/2012  One comment

I love cities with public bicycles, here in Melbourne on my first day I already tried the Melbourne Bike Share. They are all around city center. The only downside is that by law we need a helmet (but they sell cheap ones on vending machines and 7 Eleven shops).