Sophie Chatelain

Poupoune autour du monde

'All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible.' T.E. Lawrence, the 7 pillars of Wisdom

I'm done dreaming my night, welcome to my day time dream!

'Tous les hommes revent: mais tous ne sont pas egaux dans les reves. Ceux qui revent la nuit dans les recoins poussiereux de leur esprit s'eveillent en decouvrant que leurs reves n'etaient que pure vanite: mais ceux qui revent le jour sont des hommes dangereux, car ils peuvent vivre leurs reves les yeux ouverts, ils peuvent les realiser.' T.E. Lawrence, les 7 piliers de la Sagesse



Travel Blog Posts



My Brazilian odissey actually started as I was leaving Uruguay: I went to the town of Chuy at the border, and the plan was to leave for Brazil the next day... But that was before I got there and realised that all the shops had huge ´free shop´signs on them: now unfortunately, that did not mean they were actually free, but they were duty free, good enough for me! I needed to buy clothes for my return to kind of normal life, so the next day I set off... Amazing what 10 months without shopping can do to a girl, I was going from shop to shop like a lunatic: I´d just finished reading one of the ´shopaholic´books (not the read of the century, but kept me busy on the beach!) and throughout the book, I ... read more



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Poupoune autour du monde
February 18th 2009

My next destination, and the last one where I´d get to speak Spanish, was Uruguay: now, I didn´t know much about it, except that they like their football and they apparently have good meat... I didn´t test the former, but boy did I make sure I sampled the latter! Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay were meat fest to me: after 9 months of not fantastic and often overcooked meat, let me tell you that steak often was on the menu! Anyway... I crossed the border in the north west of the country with a 5 minute boat ride accross a river and ended up in the town of Salto, from where I took a bus to Tacuarambo, which my guide described as real ´gaucho´(cowboy) country... Is it, really?! There is a gaucho fiesta here, but it´s in ... read more



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Poupoune autour du monde
February 5th 2009

...En Argentine! Et oui, c'est la que j'ai fini par arriver apres qu'il n'y ait pas de bus pour m'amener a la frontiere du Paraguay comme le voulait mon plan A... Enfin, ce n'etait pas vraiment dur a deviner: si je vous disais que j'etais arrivee en Chine, la vous pourriez etre surpris! Plan B m'a donc amenee au Nord de l'Argentine, et mon premier arret fut a Salta, une ville TRES touristique dont j'ai donc vite fait de m'en aller! Mais ceci etant dit, ma destination d'apres, Cafayate, m'a montre que l'Argentine est touristique, et je n'y echapperais pas, d'autant plus que janvier/fevrier sont les vacances d'ete ici, et tous les jeunes Argentins semblent atteints du virus 'sac a dos'... Cafayate est connue pour son vin (et accrochez-vous bien... je n'ai visite aucune cave, et ... read more



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Poupoune autour du monde
January 26th 2009

Get a cuppa, it's a long one again!!! Let me start with the bit that I forgot to tell you on the English version of my blog last time, because I still think it's worth telling: as I was walking around Machu Picchu, I heard a group of young Americans behind me wondering what the 7 wonders of the world were... And my friends, in case you didn't know, I make it my duty to inform you that... the White House is obviously one of the 7 wonders! I bet you've just learnt something! That went up there with the woman (American, yet again...) whom I saw in a church in a little Guatemalan village where they dress their saints: she looked at one of the saints and went 'Oh my God, this is a Hermes ... read more



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Poupoune autour du monde
January 17th 2009

Je crois que je dois etre la voyageuse la plus illogique de la terre avec tous mes allers-retours dans tous les sens, et me voila donc a nouveau en Amerique du Sud, cette fois-ci au Perou... Je suis arrivee a Lima le 4, et n'ayant aucune envie de visiter une ville de plus, je suis allee direcement a une auberge, ou je suis restee 2 jours: je voulais partir le lendemain de mon arrivee, mais la compagnie etait plutot sympa, et j'ai eu droit a une vraie campagne anti-drogue en direct live: a l'auberge, il y avait une Suissesse (huuum...) qui 'voyage' mais franchement, je ne vois pas pourquoi elle le fait physiquement, parce qu'elle a l'air de voyager suffisamment dans sa tete... Une minute elle vous parle normalement, puis elle se met a hurler sur ... read more



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Poupoune autour du monde
January 10th 2009

Happy New Year to one and all! Sorry to all those of you who sent me texts on new year's day, I ran out of credit so I couldn't answer! So I left you as I was leaving the Dominican Republic... I took a bus to go to Haiti, as my flight to Cuba was from Port-au-Prince (way cheaper than flying from Santo Domingo!): it was meant to be very straight forward, as I'd got on a bus that was going to take me from point A (Santo Domingo) to point B (Port-au-Prince) without me needing to lift a finger... Well, think again! We got to the border at around 4pm, and it started to all get very complicated: I didn't even have my passport, as there was a woman with us on the bus who ... read more



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Poupoune autour du monde
December 9th 2008

Avant de commencer ce blog, je dois absolument rendre à César ce qui est à César, ou plutot à Sophie les erreurs qui sont à Sophie: ceux d'entre vous qui ont lu mon blog d'Equateur auront sans doute noté que mon frère m'avait parlé des grandes 'amplitudes thermales' auxquelles j'allais devoir faire face... Et bien, on arrete de se moquer de lui (Thierry, pour ne pas citer de nom!): il m'a parlé d'amplitudes thermIQUES, c'est dans mon petit cerveau inattentif qu'elles se sont transformées en amplitudes thermALES (mon excuse est que quand j'ai écrit ce blog, j'étais a Baños, ville qui a des thermes, et ca m'a embrouillée. La vraie raison est probablement que je devrais retourner à l'école... Et y rester jusqu'à la Saint Glinglin!) Donc on arrete de se moquer de mon frère, de ... read more



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Poupoune autour du monde
November 26th 2008

Promises are made to be broken, right? When I promised me Mom (just for you, Hannah!) I wouldn't go to Colombia because she was scared I would end up joining Ingrid Betancour, I meant it... But I met a lot of travellers who had been here and said it had been one of the highlights of their South American trip, and I couldn't resist seeing it for myself. Let's start by telling it as it is: no, you don't see guerilla all over the place. No, you don't see fields of coca everyday, and neither are you offered cocaine on every street corner. And yes, Colombia definitely is a very safe country to visit: there is lots of police and military around (and it has to be said ladies, most of them are rather yummy!), and ... read more



Opishou!

Published: November 18th 2008South America » Ecuador
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Poupoune autour du monde
November 10th 2008

La deuxieme partie de mon voyage d'une vie commence donc ici, en Equateur (on dit EN Equateur?! T'es pas la seule a te poser la question ma Patoune!)... Je suis arrivee a Quito et ai commence a avoir froid des que l'avion a atterri: passer du niveau de la mer a 2800m d'altitude le meme jour, avec les changements de temperatures que cela implique, est un peu un choc! Comme dirait mon frere: 'tu vas connaitre de tres fortes amplitudes thermales pendant ton voyage'... ou comme je dirais 'parfois j'ai super chaud, et parfois je me les gele!' Et oui David, tu m'as toujours dit que la fac rendait pas intelligent! Ce soir la pendant le diner, j'ai entendu des histoires de vol (3 ce jour la, juste dans mon auberge), alors inutile de dire que ... read more



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Poupoune autour du monde
October 30th 2008

After a one hour flight during which I could just not stop grinning because I was so delighted to be going to Cuba, I got to La Havana and tried to get myself a Lonely Planet guide as I hadn't bought it in advance (it's only a book, but it does add weight to my backpack!). The lovely people at the information desk announced that LP guides can't be bought in Cuba... so I had to buy a very very Cuban guide, which to be honest was also very very rubbish. Not knowing where to go for the night (my guide was all about 3 star hotels!), the people at the desk booked a room in a 'casa particular' for me: in Cuba, there are no hostels, it's either hotels or rooms in people's houses. I ... read more






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