Vacations @ Madeira & Porto Santo

Hello!

Now that the vacations are over and that I have already worked for some days it's time to chill out and remember the good moments that we've passed.
I will summarize the days one by one:

Day 1

• Arrival to Funchal


• Visit to: Curral das Freiras, Camara de Lobos, Ribeira Brava, Ponta do Sol, Cabo Girão, Calheta, Paúl da Serra and Encumeada.


• Information: Cabo Girão is one of the highest cliffs in Europe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabo_Girão).


• Best moment: See the cows near Paúl da Serra.

Day 2

• Visit to: Ribeiro Frio, Faial, Porto da Cruz, Santana, Pico Ruivo, S. Jorge, S. Vicente and Funchal.


• Best moment: Walk near the river in Ribeiro Frio

Day 3

• Visit to: Paúl da Serra, Porto Moniz and Seixal


• "Levada do Caldeirão Verde" (Caldeirão Verde Walk/Hiking).


• Information: "Levada" means a man made water channel, and these are very well known because they go across beautiful paths into the mountain/forest.


• Best moment: The Levada/Walk

For me this was the best day.
Here is a video that we made while walking:

Day 4

• Dolphin watching.


• Visit to: Jardim Tropical Monte Palace.


• Best moment: Going into the water when we were in the sea... at least there I didn't get sick!

We also tried to swim with the dolphins, but those guys are always in a rush to go somewhere, so once they were always moving and we couldn't stop to swim with them.
Apart from this, we saw a turtle that was hurt and kind of stuck to a rope connected to a bag, the skipper stopped the boat and once I get motion sick, I almost threw up over the turtle... while I threw up, they managed to move the boat around to get the turtle from the other side. Yes they moved the boat around to get the turtle, it was not me who tried to swing to the other side of the boat I was busy throwing up and didn't even had the strengths to get up...
For those who do not know, I LOVE turtles, in normal circumstances I would be the first to go and grab it, but in this case, I only saw the turtle when we where back to land!
I love animals, I think that I wouldn't mind to be a biologist, but this boat trip made me remind that I could never be a marine biologist... unless they drop me in the sea by helicopter!
About the turtle, last Friday, May 29th, exactly one week after we caught the turtle, I sent an email to the guys from "Rota dos Cetaceos" (www.rota-dos-cetaceos.pt), the company that took us to see the dolphins, to ask how the turtle was. It seems that she (I like to use he/she for animals) is healing well and should be released soon.

Here is the video with the dolphins:

Day 5

• Visit to: Porto Santo island.


• Best moment: Chat with the old friend (see photos)

This had everything to be a great day, visit the island and finish in the beach, we managed to visit the island, but 5 minutes after we set ourselves in the beach it started raining...

Day 6

• Beach in: Porto Santo island


• Best moment: The beach and the special photo session :)

Day 7

• Visit to: Camacha, Machico, Caniçal and Santa Cruz


• Return back to mainland.


• Best moment: Small tour close to the Ponta de São Lourenço

Well that was it, I leave you with the photo album:

Madeira

Regards,
dfm

A busy beginning of vacations...

Here I am again,

I had a busy weekend with the visit of my aunt, I had to do the "usual" tours to well known places like Geneva and Annecy.
We were lucky because the weather was really good with lots of sun and a warm temperature, we got tanned! :)
Here is the album, that includes two photos taken on friday with the path from the mechanic to the client which is a very pleasant walk:

May 15th to 17th

Well, for now it's finished, tomorrow start the real vacations!

Cheers!
dfm

This week's summary

Hello again,

This last week was pretty much normal with work, so there are no big news.
The landscape from my place at work has changed and here's an updated photo:

As you can see there is almost no snow in the top of Jura.

Yesterday I saw the movie Into the Wild, very good film, apart from the ending... and the music, done by Eddie Vedder, was almost perfect for every situation. Since the movie didn't had an happy ending, that left me in a shitty mood, so I went for a run, which brought me back to the good moods and spirits :)
Running solves many problems, specially those that cause us headaches!
Today I was all dressed up and prepared to go on and ride my bike, but I had a very unpleasant surprise... I had a flat tire :( Now I have to find someone to fix it, or buy the material and fix it myself, but this second hypothesis is more difficult once that I've not the material here. Since I didn't ride my bike, I went for a walk in St Julien, always paying attention if there was a bike store somewhere :). After my walk I came home and picked up the guitar to practice a little bit more. That's pretty much it for my Sunday, I will also hear a little bit of Dave Matthews Band and eventually practice some lyrics, so that I'm more prepared for their concert :)
And that's all for this week.

This next week my aunt will be here some days and then I'll go on vacation for almost a week and an half, so it will take long before I blog again.

See you next time,
dfm

... and the CUmmander went away

Hello again,

Lately I've updated the blog a lot, let's see how long that will take :)

As I said, we went to Zurich, we met our friend Roque, in the afternoon we gave a quick tour in Zurich, specially near the lake and by night we went to a friends concert.
I don't know the name of the band, I only know the name of the singer which is Dimitri, so I'll call it Dimi's band :) it's an hip-hop group that sing in Swiss-German, which means that basically I didn't understand nothing that was said, I can even name the two words that I understood "icy icecream". :) Apart from that the concert was nice and it sounded cool. I didn't even know that I could enjoy hip-hop and worse than that I didn't even know that I could enjoy Swiss-German sang hip-hop!
The worst of the night was the trip to the bus, once we were late, we had to run, that was not a pretty good experience, specially for someone that doesn't run for more than 6 months. I don't know how long we ran (it wasn't that much) but for me it seemed like a marathon :)
I leave you with the photos:

CUmmander last weekend

For those of you that are asking: Why doesn't he has a photo with his friend CUmmander?
The answer is:

• If you know the CUmmander why are you asking??


• If not: Because he didn't allowed me to. And yes he would become very angry if I posted a photo without his permission.

BTW: I think that he doesn't even know that I have posted his name as CUmmander, actually, probably he has no idea that I posted something saying that he came here... let me wait and see if he says something...

See you,

May 1st - What to do? WORK!!

Hello,

It's May 1st, holiday in several countries, but not in Switzerland, here it's a regular working day, although some employers "give" the day to their employees, which is not my case :(
Once I'm waiting my computer to finish some work that it's doing for more than half an hour I decided to come here post something.

Still regarding the last post title, I forgot to mention that the Iron Man part was also because I rarely get sick, and if I get, I get well quickly :) that's a good thing that I have. Of course that I remembered to say this now, because I had some troubles two days ago, but I'm ok now :)

This weekend me and the CUmmander will visit our friend Roque in Zurich, once there is also a friend there that will give a small concert. I think that the language in which he sings or raps is mainly Swiss-German, so I won't be able to understand a thing... So What! (Metallica) :) Well... he also told me that sometimes he also sings in English.

Well that's it for now, I think that my PC already finished it's work.

See you,