Who’s hungry?
Last week-end I saw one of the guys living in the house I live in harvesting wasp nests located in the house. If you have never been to Reunion Island you don’t know that people actually eat wasps’ larvae here. The guy had a very long stick with a smoking piece of cloth at the end. The wasp don’t like the smoke, once they are gone it is easy to get the nest. Then it is time to fry, sauté or stew the larvae, bon appétit.
La suite!
The day before yesterday I stumble on this as I got home.
Looks nice doesn’t it? I had no idea lizard liked bear with tequila in it. As soon as I saw them I went to get my camera to take a few pictures. I had left the bottle outside after emptying it so 3 lizards decided to move in. I expected them to scramble as soon as I came close to the bottle but they were completely out of it. I took my shots and left the bottle there expecting them to be gone in the morning but it seems they were stuck in it. I put the bottle on the side so that they could escape and went to work, when I came back 2 were gone and one was dead. R.I.P.
La suite!
You know you are in a really special place when you drive by people making wedding pictures in a roundabout.
La suite!
And here I thought my problems were over.
This morning I went to the post office to get the debit card my wife sent via express mail. After my workday I went to the ATM closest to my place to get some cash, I would finally be able to pay my rent. I inserted the card, typed the pin code and selected 400€; the machine started working and then displayed that I could only withdraw 200€. I selected 200€ and got them. I inserted the card again, typed the code again and selected 200€ this time. And surprise I couldn’t get any more money. Nothing bothers me anymore so I went home and called my bank. I explained my problem to a woman, she told me that in France I could only withdraw 200€ from an ATM who doesn’t belong to my bank. I knew that my debit card allowed me to withdraw up to 700€ every 3 days in France. She corrected “yes 500€ at your bank plus 200€ at other banks equals 700€!” Can you believe such nonsense? The more things change the more they stay the same. With such a stupid system I will be able to pay my rent in 6 days, thank god my landlord is nice.
No need to tell you that I wasn’t a big fan of banks before but now...
La suite!
When you think it is over think again.
I went back to one of the banks where I could use my American Express card in the ATM. As I still couldn’t get some money from the ATM, I went in the bank hoping I would be able to get some money from the cashier. Hell no! The woman in front of me couldn’t care less about my problem and she sure wouldn’t get out of her way to help me. I called the American Express support line, the operator informed me that I had just withdrawn 200€ in cash and I could only withdraw a maximum of 300€ every 7 days as I was in France. She was surprised when I told her that my request to get 200€ had been rejected by the ATM, I then explained that the card was my only way to get some cash and asked if the withdraw limit could be lifted for the day. She said no. I then asked if there was a bank on the island where I could get some money from the cashier. Again no. What is the point of having this card to withdraw money? She explained that the ability to withdraw money was in case of emergency. When people have money issues, they usually need more than 300€. She couldn’t/wouldn’t do anything. This is a card that will definitely not cost me any annual fee once I get back to France. Thank god I have friends who lend me money!
La suite!
Sometimes it is just better to stay in bed.
Thursday was the big day, I had setup a nice week-end in Mauritius Island to go scuba diving. My suitcase was full with what I needed for 4 days of diving, reading on the beach and sleeping. The taxi dropped me at the airport, I gave my passport at the check in counter, the agent looked at it and told me that he couldn’t check me in because my passport would expire in 5 months. I went to the office of Air Mauritius to discuss this with someone, the hostess explained that there was nothing that could be done except contacting the consul of Mauritius to request for a dispensation, the approval for the dispensation would take a day. I had to board the plane the same day, not the next day so I asked her to refund my ticket. “I am sorry sir but this kind of transaction can’t be done in this office you will have to go to the main office in Saint-Denis”. It was like the only thing I had to do in my life was to wait in an office to get my money back, well as I was not going away for the week-end I had plenty of time. The plane ticket would of course not be fully refunded, a 15% charge would be applied and the refund would take a minimum of 30 days. What a bunch of thieves.
On the way back from the airport, I asked the taxi driver to stop at an ATM so that I could get some cash to pay for the fare, it was higher than expected has it was a holiday. I inserted my card, it came out instantly as the screen displayed “card expired”. I looked at the card, my face changed when I saw that expiry date on the card read 10/12 meaning the 31/10 at midnight. The taxi took me home where I got two American Express cards I didn’t want to take with me for the week-end, the expiry of one was 10/12 and the expiry of the other was 10/13. Only a handful of ATMs accept American Express cards in Reunion Island. I tried 2 ATMs with no success, the taxi was starting to get nervous when he drove me back home. Luckily the landlord was around and loaned me the money I needed.
I then went for a walk in the city to find an ATM where I could use my Amex. I felt joy rushing in when I found one but it left me as quickly as it came when the card was rejected because I used the wrong pin code. I rang my was who had travelled back home the day before and asked her to check the pin code, I tried with the right code this time but the card was still rejected. The anger started to rise but I told myself that the ATM recorded that I made numerous attempt with the wrong pin before using the right one so I went to look for another ATM. Lucky for me the ATM of the lask bank had a nice American Express logo, again the good pin was rejected. I called Amex support service and explained my situation, the operator could definitely see my attempt to get some money but each time the pin was wrong. I tried again with the good pin as I was on the phone with him but the result was still the same. I asked if he could reset the card but the only thing he could do was offer to send another card. That was so what I needed.
I walked home hoping I would be able to use my card the next day. Waking up this morning it downed on me that had I been allowed to fly I would have ended up in Mauritius with 100€ and an expired credit card, that would not have been fun.
La suite!
Today is a sad day, I lost my first tooth as an adult.
Today the dentist extracted one of my wisdom tooth.
I am seated in the dentist chair head backward. He just stuck a needle in various areas of my gum and I gradually am starting to lose some feeling in the mouth. He asks me to describe what I am feeling and when he is satisfied he starts working; he pushes, he pulls, he presses...
I am waiting for him to be done. I look at the ceiling, I look through the window, I look at his assistant then I look at the lamp sending light into my mouth. Thanks to this lamp I can actually see everything that is happening in my mouth. And just like that all the thoughts in my mind vanish and only one remains: I am my mouth. I could be thinking about much more interesting things but no there is only one thing in my mind. I have a lot of work waiting, I could be thinking about how I will manage what I have to do but no I am fixated by what is going on in my mouth. I just can’t refrain from laughing when the dentist takes a needle with a thread and inserts it in my gum. He is stitching the space left by my tooth to avoid any infection, this is the first time that I have stitches and they have to be inside my mouth. When he is done, he asks me if I want to keep my tooth, a picture of me running around with my tooth around my neck flashes but I am not 5 anymore so the tooth will end up in the rubbish bin.
I am not out of the woods yet, when will the pain start? In the meantime I am forbidden to eat anything until tomorrow morning, now this will be easy.
La suite!
I am abroad again and this means that this blog will come alive again.
I have been back on Reunion Island for almost 2 weeks now and I can say one thing for sure: it is cold here. Of course being cold is relative to each of us, the temperature can go up to a maximum of 25°C and gets as low as 10°C as soon as the sun sets. At this time of the year in Paris the warm weather stays as long as possible in the streets of the city. Things are completely different here, as soon as the sun has set the warmth is gone and the cold wind rules as king. One has to make a quick stop at home to get a sweater when going for drinks or diner if one doesn’t want to end up with a sore throat later in the evening.
The great thing in this season is that the whales are coming back to Reunion Island to give birth. Everyday it is possible to witness a mother whale and her newborn swimming quite close to the shore. There is no need for a boat, the road that are along the coast offer great viewpoints to witness their amazing ballet. There is one simple rule: if you see more than 3 cars parked here and there along the road you know that a whale is around. There are of course places where you will be sure to see whales all the time: Cap La Houssaye (where I saw my first whales of the year) and Cap Mechant. I will try to take a boat ride to be able to take closer pictures of the whales and maybe if I am lucky I may get a few underwater shots...
La suite!
What is the recipe for an excellent week-end? You have to spend time with people you love, you have to do something outdoors, you have to meet new people and you have to learn something you.
Waking up on Saturday morning was tough. It was quite a while since I last woke up with an aftertaste in the mouth. Two friends had come for a drink the evening before, we finished late and ended up drinking a lot. I had scheduled a dive at 7:30 AM, I was following a training allowing me to dive as deep as 40 meters under supervision. I had slept enough to be in a good shape but that weird aftertaste in the mouth just wouldn’t go. I was lucky to be on a boat with divers who had full autonomy under water, we had to wait for them to finish their dive to start ours so that gave me time to drink enough water to get rid of that aftertaste. For my training I had to repeat the same exercises at different depth. I had to be able to jump from the boat and meet my instructor and fellow divers 3 meters below the water level without stopping to check my equipment on the surface. I had to remove my mask underwater, put it back on and empty it from any water to be able to see clearly again. From time to time I had to give some air to one of the divers faking he didn’t have air anymore. The most important one was to be able to stay at the same depth by achieving neutral buoyancy during the decompression phase without using the swimfins. The dive went pretty well, I was quite at ease underwater even when I had to completely remove my mask, put it back and empty it (I used to hate that). I still have 2 dives left to conclude my training.
On Saturday I went to a party in a nice house with a great swimming pool. The house guest was living alone in that place that could have easily accommodated a large family. One of the girls at my place the day before had invited me, I met some interesting people and had a lot of fun. When there is a swimming pool at a party one can be sure that someone is going to end up in it at one point. We played Uno Sport in the swimming pool, it is like the Uno but the cards are made of plastic so that they can be used almost anywhere. Here we were in the swimming pool at 11 PM, there was not enough light around the pool so we used headlamps to light the floating tray where the cards were. Some of the girls were cold in the water they were wriggling all the time and the boys were going in and out of the water the same way a piston would. The intermission of the party came when champagne was served; the second part of the party then started when everyone started playing tarot. I was back at my place at 5:45 AM, it was a very long time since I had played cards all night long.
I received a short message at 8:25 AM, a friend was telling me that he would be late and would be picking me up at 8:45 AM. We were supposed to meet at 9:00 AM to go to a rope course. I jumped out of the bed, brushed my teeth, went to the kitchen to put a bowl of milk in the microwave, opened the fridge to grab anything I had that could be used to make sandwiches and threw all that in my backpack as well as something to drink and some plastic glasses. I had eaten half of my croissant when I heard is 4x4 coming in the alley leading to my place. I finished the croissant with one bite, drank the remainder of the milk, checked I had everything I needed in my backpack and left. We went to meet two more friends before heading to the rope course park, I was so tired that I felt asleep in the car. Still I was fresh enough during the 2 rope courses available for adults. We spent 3 hours in the park and enjoyed every minutes. We then looked for a quite to have a picnic and headed to a black sand beach once our bellies were filled to spend the afternoon.
The friend who had picked me at my place had brought a kite and showed us how to use it on the beach. I had always seen kite flying as something not very interesting and quite boring but that quickly changed when my turn to fly the kite came. I think I must have scared a few beachgoers who must have thought that the kite would end up falling on their head. With my experience I had the kite fly close to the heads of a few people but thankfully each time I lost control the kite crashed where there was no one. After a few attempts I managed to have the kite fly from left to right and from right to left at different speed. I was astonished by the way I would feel the actual speed of the kite. I would sometime brace myself in the sand to make sure the kite would not make me lose my balance. I discovered kite flying thanks to the same person who introduced me to boomerang throwing, I am extremely thankful to him for that.
I fell like a log in my bed once I was back to my place. The alarm on my phone didn’t even ring on Monday morning allowing me to sleep one extra hour, it seems like I really needed to rest.
I have a hard time writing these days so you won’t read me for a short while but don’t worry I will be back. Enjoy your week-end.
La suite!
Water, stones and landscapes = life.
I have been thinking about trying canyoning for more that a year now but I have always used the fact that I don’t like cold water as an excuse to not to give it a shot. What is not to like: you spend the day in a stream, to go forward you will have to do some abseiling, some jumping and go down some natural slides. All this looks nice for someone who likes nature but as I am not a true nature lover things could have gone sour.
We went to the « fleurs jaunes » canyon in Cilaos and started gearing up before going in the water. You have to start with the 5mm thick integral wet suit. You then put another suit whose only purpose is to cover and protect the wet suit from being scratched on the rocks. The harness comes next, it comes with snaps used for safety during abseils; the rear part of the harness is reinforced with burlap to protect our rear ends during the slides. The helmet comes last as one would not want to smash his head against the rock. Bags containing either ropes, dry clothes or food that will be eaten at the bottom of the canyon will be carried by the strong ones. I can tell that you will be hot while wearing all this but don’t worry the walk to the start is not long.
It is now time to start canyoning, I woke up at 5 A.M. for this so my hatred of cold water doesn’t matter much anymore. We get to the water through a small slide and damn it is cold but this way it won’t take me one hour to get in it. The guide makes a small security briefing before we start going in the 20 meter high cascade. I wait for 2 persons to go before heading to the edge. The guide puts the rope in an eight shaped object connected to the harness and tells me that I am good to go. I sit on the edge of the cascade, holding the rope he handed me; I feel like I am on top of a building. I only have two things to do: if I push the rope away from me I will go down and the farther the rope will be the fastest down I will go; If I pull the rope to me I will slow down then stop going down. It is very easy. I go down with my back to the wall and I end up pretty quickly under the water, the water in the cascade may not look strong but it is something else when you are under it. Even though I took my time going down I am quickly in the pool below and I tell myself that this is going to be a piece of cake. I then take my camera (in its underwater case) out of the wet suit it was staying up until now to take pictures.
After the first cascade I was almost always the first to go, the guide would tell me to keep the camera inside my suit during the abseils but what was the point of bringing it in its underwater case if it was to not take pictures when I was right inside a cascade? For the second abseil I asked the guide if I could go with my feet on the wall instead of with my back against the wall; he answered that it was my call and warned me that it would be quite slippery. And indeed it was! Here I was trying to keep my balance on the wet rock and trying to take picture at the same time. It is neither easier nor more difficult, it is just more fun. The water was pushing hard against my feet and the slippery rock didn’t help to stay straight but boy did I have fun. Most of my pictures were crap because the underwater case is made to take pictures … underwater and it really didn’t help when I had a few drops of water on the part protecting the lens but it was ok as long as I had a not too bad pictures of myself doing abseiling.
The high point of the canyon is the 55 meters high abseil. You are in for quite a view when you are standing on threshold just before going down. You see the small pool far below and you can’t even see the whole cascade because some of it is hidden by the rocks. I went in with the camera in my hand hoping I wouldn’t lose my balance as I was walking on the rock. I was so concentrated on the water and being stable that I didn’t even look down to check how far I had to go. I think I must have been smiling all the way. I was getting showered by the waterfall as I was fighting to keep my balance, I was having a hell of a good time. The water was so strong on my elbow that it was difficult to lift my arm to take pictures. As was enjoying myself so much that I could have stayed there a while but others where waiting for me to get to the bottom. Once there I really felt like I had only spent a few seconds up there and I would have minded a quick way to go back up and do this one again.
The canyon ends with 2 shorts abseils then comes the time for lunch and getting dry. After that you will have to go through an hour long walk on a steep slope under the burning sun to get back to the starting point. The walk is no peace of cake but you will get a very nice view of Cilaos. Trying canyoning is adopting it. If you are in Reunion Island and want to try canyoning send an email to Luciano he will take good care of you.
La suite!
I went to « la Plaine des Palmistes » on the 31st of December and that is where I met him.
There is nothing better than a good palm salad to end the year, we went to the Payet estate in “la plaine des palmistes” to get some palms. Mr Payet greeted us and showed us where he spends most of his time, the area where the palm trees are growing is so big that roughly 4 tons of edible palm hearts are produced each year. He is growing red palms also called barbel palms endemic to Reunion Island, white palms also called princess palms from Mauritius and royal palms. We came to get barbel palms, I like them better than the princess palms because I think they have a more subtle taste. The white palm has a huge advantage over the red palm: it never oxidizes. The red palm is very sensitive to nitrogen in the air; when one wants to make a salad, one will have to hurry to separate the upper part of the palm. If you don't hurry up, the beautiful white pulp composed of water for 80% will start to blacken; it won't change the taste but it will look less nice in your plate. You can see how to extract a palm heart from its peel below. In addition to not oxidizing, the white palm will grow a new sprout when one is cut and it will take 3 month to reach the right size. It takes 3 years for the red palm to reach its maturity and once it is cut a new palm needs to be planted.
We came upon a jackfruit tree as we were about to leave, its fruits look a little bit like the durian but thankfully they don't smell the same at all. Mr Payet went close to a fruit, reached for his machete and cut the tail of the fruit with a swift strike; he then looked at us and said that the fruit was ripe and that we could take it. I thanked him, leaned to grab the fruit and recovered with more difficulty than I would have expected because the fruit weighed around 10kg (it can weigh up to 25kg).
Back to the flat it was time to look inside the belly of the beast. I had to cut inside the fruit to get the pods that are edible. It was my first time opening up such a fruit I had absolutely no idea what to expect. I cut a square in the fruit and started peeling it; I discovered pods glued to a lot of filaments. I reached inside the fruit to grab a pod and check that I will be eating the right part. The pods were firmly fixed at the base of the fruit, one pod broke when I pulled on it. I put one part of the pod after extracting it from the fruit, it was sweet, didn't have a strong taste but was good. For the second attempt I reached for the base of a pod and grabbed it strongly while pulling to get it out and this time I got a nice pod covered with filaments that looked like tagliatelle. I started removing more pods, after a while I could see that I had sticky stuff on my hands. The sap of the jackfruit is extremely sticky and the filaments in the fruit are full of it. I had to clean my hands 5 times to get rid of most of the glue. In Reunion Island the sap is called “colle jacque” it was used to catch birds. To be able to work with the fruit and not be bothered with the sap, you have to cover your hands and knife with oil.
The jackfruit is of of those fruits found in Reunion Island that don't have a lot of taste but are good nonetheless, don't hesitate to try one if you get the opportunity.
Happy New Year 2012.
La suite!
Now that I have less work I took the time to go to « le Piton des Neiges ».
We left Cilaos on Thursday and got some rain as soon as we started walking. The hike to “le Piton des Neiges” can be done in two different ways: you can walk roughly 5 hours with an elevation of 1700 meters, you can walk roughly 3 hours with an elevation of 1100 meters, spend the night in some sort of cottage and start walking at 3 in the morning to walk the remaining 2 hours with an elevation of 600 meters. We chose the second option. You can only walk up during the hike and the few moments with no elevation are very short. You start the hike in a quiet forest and it is very pleasant but the steps made to avoid the path from becoming too slippery can quickly become tiring. I don't hike often, I need some time for my body to get warmed up and to be able to walk properly, things are easier when I am walking on a flat track or a track with a small elevation. In this case having to produce such an effort to walk along the steep track that lead to the pass on the way to “le Piton des Neiges” was very difficult for my legs. We couldn't really enjoy the landscape on our way up, the clouds that were quite low were blocking the view as well as bringing rain. I started reducing my speed as soon as I felt my heart beating too strongly, I did exactly the same thing as when I was riding a bike on “la Route du Volcan” I would go as slowly as possible to be sure to get to the end.
I didn't need to achieve anything, I just wanted to reach the goal of the day which was the cottage. I was slowly walking behind my hiking partners with small steps, I had my poncho on and my eyes were only looking at the ground to avoid loosing my motivation. My partners had a nice rhythm but there was no way for me to try and follow their rhythm or I wouldn't last very long. I stopped walking each time I felt like it but tried at the same time not to do it too often. We finally made it to the cottage after a 3 hour walk, we had walked for 8 km. It was still raining when we got there, we were soaked from the rain as well as the sweat but it was great. We changed clothed, got warm, ate a very good “rougail saucisse” and went to be straight away because we had to wake up at 2:30 AM.
I couldn't sleep and I have no idea why. I had two blankets to be warm, I even removed one during the night; I usually can sleep anywhere but this time I had plenty of time to count the sheep and sing songs to myself. Waking up at 2:30 AM was not difficult at all but starting walking in the dark and under the rain to get to “le Piton des Neiges” was. We started walking on a very rocky track with our headlamps to help us. Walking on rocks is usually a pain but it is even worse under the rain, sleepless and with headlamps. I was afraid to twist my ankle during the whole walk, the rocks were slippery and being tired really didn't help. Each time I go hiking and it gets tough I tell myself “I hate hiking but here I am so better reach the goal” and I indeed hate hiking but it is the price to pay to see amazing landscapes. An hour later I raised my head and saw that it was not raining anymore but more than that I could see the stars. The possibility of seeing the sun rise at the top without any clouds to block the view got me in a very good mood. We were halfway, I was very tired but I was almost there. 20 minutes later we were back inside the clouds and I was quite disappointed, the top was getting close and it would be a shame if it would be completely inside the clouds. 15 minutes before getting to the top we got rewarded, we were above the clouds and we would get our sunrise.
We got to the top 30 minutes before the sunrise. Waiting for the sun to rise in the wind and the cold is great when you are all sweaty but it sure was worth it. We had a sea of clouds in front of us where we could see “le Piton de la Fournaise”. Le sun rose behind the volcano, we were looking forward for it to bring some light but mostly warm us. It was happiness after torture, we enjoyed the sun's warmth a while before walking back down.
Here is something less for me to do in La Reunion: I was on top of the highest point in La Reunion and watched the sun rise and I can assure you I will not do that again anytime soon.
La suite!
