Patiperro

This turned out to be one of the best weekends I've had in a while. During 2012 and 2013 I traveled around the world. Now I'm back home and back to a job with schedules (not complaining, just saying). This year, especially the second semester, I'm planning to do short getaways to lesser known places in Chile and write about them. That weekend I got my outdoor fix which was much needed. Just when I managed to get a few days off work, the people that work in a dive center with whom I usually dive, planned a dive trip to one of the best spots in continental Chile. It's a not very well known cove: "Caleta Chañaral de Aceituno". For this same reason, dive sites are just recently being discovered. The main attraction of this ... read more

To finish off my 632 day trip I had 2 days left in Paris and I had no specific plans before boarding my flight home. Last time I was there (about 6 weeks before) I had stayed with a French girl, Marie Arkrour who was the friend of a friend. This time she wasn't in the city, so I had to figure out things to do on my own. I stayed in a well located hotel, the "Hotel Printemps" that was walking distance from the "Champ de Mars". It was my third time in Paris so I wanted to avoid spending too much time walking in the usual places (although I guess it's kind of inevitable), so doing a bit of research online I came across some interesting websites with off-the-beaten-path places in Paris and decided ... read more

These were two places I had on my list-to-visit before leaving France. In a previous post I wrote about my time staying with a woman named Anik Heraux in a town called Rochefort. I contacted Anik through an organization called “HelpX” and that’s how I ended up staying with her for 5 weeks, helping around doing odd jobs in exchange for accommodation and food. But Anik belonged to several other such types of organizations, like couchsurfing, etc. This included one called “Route des Sel” (a sort of “French Couchsurfing”). Through this last one she put me in touch with a woman named Dominique Catalifaud, who turned out to be the president of the organization. She lived between St. Malo and Mont St. Michel, so the location was perfect to do day trips to both places from ... read more

I went to la Rochelle two times while I stayed in a nearby town called Rochefort for 5 weeks. The first one was when Anik (my host in Rochefort) took me to La Rochelle to see a Russian tall ship and the second one when I went to see a film festival. La Rochelle was founded in the 10th Century and became an important port in the 12th Century. The main activities of the city were maritime trade and commerce. La Rochelle has had a very interesting history; including being the Knights Templar’s largest base in the Atlantic, having been under English Rule, having participated in the 100 Years War, becoming protestant and having suffered at least 2 sieges in its early history, the last one by Cardinal Richelieu. It had booms and declines, moments of ... read more

I spent 5 weeks in a town called Rochefort, situated along the Charente River, to try and improve my limited knowledge of French and experience everyday life in the country. Spending about 2 months in France was one of the things I had thought about doing during this trip. Mainly, because I wanted to be forced into speaking the language. Before leaving on this trip, while I was in Chile I went to the French Consulate to see if there was any chance of getting a student visa to study French for a while. But that wasn't really an option as it was way too expensive to pay for courses. So I just let the idea hang for a while and see if any opportunities opened up during my travels. And they did. While I was ... read more