The Earth shook in Chile!

As you all probably know by now, there was a very strong earthquake in Chile, at about 400km South of Santiago at 3h34AM during the night of 27th Feb. 2010.
The magnitude of the Earthquake where it hit was measured at 8.8 on the Richter scale and in Santiago the equivalent strength would be about 7.0
In Chile, which is undoubtedly one of the Earth most active seismic places, we have to go back 50 years to witness such a strength. The 1960 Valdivia quake, one of the strongest in the whole history of recorded seismic activity was measured at 9.5.
7.0 is equivalent to the Dec. 2009 quake of Haiti.

When it hit, I was asleep in my apartment, located on the 12th floor.
SCARY!
This is the word.
It's really hard to describe the sensations and thoughts that went through my mind during the 2 minutes that lasted the quake. That's a very long time and the movement of the building were extremely impressive! Mother Earth is one strong mom!!
Right after the first quake was over I jumped out of my bed, got dressed as fast as I could, grabbed a torch light and my phone and ran down the 12 floors by the emergency staircase.
One thing I forgot to grab was a sweater so it was a bit chilly waiting down there on the street with all my neighbours (a couple of them didn't want to leave their apartments though, so strange!!)

About 1h30 after being down there, listening to the radio and trying to place phone calls without success, I raised my head to see my 3 friends Caroline, Vincent and Benoit! What a relief!!
They came by car to check on me and we all then went to look for or other friends to check on them. Fortunately they were all sound and safe!
The 4 of us went to the house of Vincent (another one) which has the great advantage to be much closer to the ground!!!
The electricity came back pretty quickly but phone service was really hard to get. after about 7 hours we could use Internet and send messages and call our families to let them know we were ok!
We spent the whole day there, very tired from the lack of sleep, stress and the aftershock, plus all the subsequent smaller quakes that we experienced throughout the day, each time running in the garden for safety.

About 14 hours after the first quake I went back to my place for 20 minutes to grab some clothes and check out on the consequences of the quake. You can see some photos here. Nothing much really. Only a couple of lamps and glasses broken and one big scar on the wall in my living room.

After that we headed back to Vincent's house to spend the night.

So we've been very lucky!! Not the case for all of Chile though. Lots of older houses and buildings got seriously hit, including some of my friends' place. Down South the situation is without any doubt much more serious. Even in Santiago, in the older areas the damages are much worse.

After a good night's sleep, today everything seems quiet again.
Let's hope it'll be this way for a very very long time...

Happy Birthday to me!!

Today is my birthday!
Had a little celebration yesterday with a couple of friends. We went out to Bellavista, ate, drank and danced the night out. I'm a bit fuzzy about some of the details though....
I emptied quite a few bottles of alcohol to celebrate... 17 in total.... All by myself!
What!!?
How!!?
Are you crazy?
I guess a little ;-)
I actually did not drink any of this but I emptied all those bottles in the sink! Just did.
I have been contemplating leading a healthier lifestyle for a few years now but it's always been up and down. I had my periods where I would eat well, not drink.... and others... well where I would do pretty much the opposite.
Since a couple of weeks I started again trying to eat better and drink better too and I've been reading / viewing lots of information on internet mainly concerning food and health, trying to determine what would be the best possible diet for me.
Here's a link to a video that made quite an impression on me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM&feature=player_embedded#

there are much more and I might start sharing some of those now and then.
I am trying to eradicate refined sugar from my diet since. On the day I watched this video I grabbed all the soft drinks in my house and pourred them down the sink.
Today I decided that I should not drink alcohol anymore and I thought then that the first step would be to get rid of all the bottles at my house. I didn't want to give them out as I think after all this is not a very elegant thing to do and I do not want anyone to drink them (how selfish ;-) )

The other good side of this is that I have more space on those shelves in my kitchen cabinet to have awesome nutritious food instead! I was a bit short of storage space so it will help!

Nude art

2 weeks ago I finally fulfilled my dream: taking nudes of a girl ;-)

Thanks Camille for the great participation!
You were definetely born to be a model so keep it up!

Jazz Festival in Providencia

This week was the 3 day annual international Jazz Festival in Providencia.
I could only go to the first day, which was really great, despite (or because of?) the few people who turned up.

I had to leave before the end of the show because of an early plane to catch

Happy Raw New Year!

For new year, I went up to Baños Morales in the Cajon del Maipo, about 2 hours from Santiago and at about 1700m altitude.
The program for the 3 days there ran roughly like this: Raw food, hot springs, horse ride, fresh air, trekking, indian music, meditation.... and a lots of good vibes!
It was really awesome and quite of a shock to return to civilization, its noise and agitation the day after!

Check it out!

Merry X'mas

For X'mas I went to Quintay (more or less the beach nearest Santiago) for the whole week-end with Benoit, Caroline, Vincent and his parents. We were joined later by Mauro and his wife and Vincent (another one), Anita and their family (the list is too long!). Lots of food, drinks, games, music and some visits to the nearby museum of where they used to fish and process whales and some swimming (If I can say so..) in the icy cold water.

We had a great time and we'll sure go back there soon!

Here are some photos of the week-end (lots of bird and baby photos I know.. :p )

Brazil!!!!

After Las Vegas, I spent 3 weeks in Brazil for a nice and long holiday with my friend Lionel :-)
The plan was: no plans!
What we ended up doing went roughly as such:

First week in Rio de Janeiro: Beach (Copacabana, Ipanema, Leblon), party (Lapa, Samba, Favela Funk Party, Boat party...), pool (a lot!), Corcovado (Christ statue), Sugar Loaf, some visit of the downtown and some Hang Gliding with a nice landing on the beach! This was absolutely awesome!! Rio is a great city for all the cultural and the beach aspects :-) At the hostel we got to listen to live music and see and participate in a capoeira demonstration!

After Rio we headed over to Ilha Grande, which is a nice island about 150kms away from Rio. There it was diving and lying on the beach mostly :-)
After what we took the bus to Sao Paulo, spending a few hours in Paraty on the way.
Sao Paulo was only for the week-end and only for partying. We didn't start very well the first night where we hit first a gay club (thanks hostel guys... :p) and then a very expensive night club somewhere in Vila Olimpia. The second night was better though, thanks to a new friend met through Couchsurfing (thanks Frix!)

From Sao Paulo we flew to Manaus, a big city lost in the middle of the jungle and crossed by the Amazon river. From there we went for a 4 day jungle tour that was really good and interesting, although a bit hard too because of the heat, the mosquitos and the not-so-comfortable hamacs where we slept in the jungle (I thought I was gonna die because of the mosquito net falling on my face and dramatically increasing the temperature!). What did we do in the jungle? Piranhas fishing, aligator hunting (Lionel has the photos..), jungle trekking where we got to see some funky animals (check out the photos below), including some snakes and lots of birds (hard to take pictures of those without my most powerful lens..). The guide was really knowledgeable and friendly, which made the whole trip very interesting and nice!

During pretty much the whole trip we have been "followed" by a group of 2 and then 4 swedish guys that you can see on the pictures in the jungle. If you guys ever read this cheers and have fun on the rest of your trip! :p

Overall an awesome experience and I'll definitely go back to Brazil sooner or later (I think sooner :p )

And now the photos (there are a lot but very few of Rio and none of Sao Paulo, where I didn't dare to walk around carrying my big camera...)

Viva Las Vegas!!

Hi there!
It's been a while I didn't write in here.... well the main reason is that I was on a loooong holiday :-)

First part of the trip was to Las Vegas with my family. It was 6 days there and filled with meetings of friends and family. I got to see my ex roomate from Santiago Florence, my college mate Yves and his wife Monica and also my ex roomate Marvet from San Jose, California who know lives in Las Vegas! It was great to see you all (and the family too of course!)!

Lots of gambling and some street walking where the main activities, along with a lot of different shows. I went to see the Blue Man Group, Lance Burton the magician and also the show 'O' from Cirque du Soleil. All 3 were really worth it! They are great shows in their own style. I especially liked the blue man group for the music, its originality and the amazing visual design of the set and the Cirque du Soleil for.... everything! It was such a magical moment (and we were right in front of the stage in the front row seats!)



Here are a few photos from Vegas

climbing at Las Chilcas

It has been a long long time I haven't climbed... Neither indoor (for different reasons, one being that I now live further away from the climbing gym - lame, another reason being that I haven't been much in Chile during the week and busy with salsa lessons in the evening when I was...), neither outdoors (it was winter time here!)
Anyway... This week end was a 3 day week end in Chile and I did go out and climb! (or at least try to...)
We went to the famous climbing spot called "las chilcas", about one hour north of Santiago (North West to be more exact).
Despite the nearby motorway, we had a pretty good time, although after a few months without climbing my performance wasn't very impressive!!
I took my camera there and make the most of the occasion to play with my new lens. I think I spent more time taking pictures of my climbing buddies Benoit and Pancho than actually climbing myself but well... I was still very exhausted by the end (maybe that's all the running around to take the photos)

Sunset from my balcony

I haven't been blogging much lately...
Probably amongst other things because I have been traveling a lot for work in the last few weeks and thus when I'm home (yeah, I don't blog away from home :p) I don't do so much, especially with my camera, hence no blogging...
I actually went out today to climb (more on that in the next post) but it comes out that there was ONE photo left on my camera, that was sitting there idle for a month waiting for someone to look at it... :-)
And yes, it is AGAIN one of those magical sunset I have the luck to witness every now and then when on my computer staring outside my window.

I think the colors in the sky that evening at dusk were amazing. So I share it with you.... whoever you may be ;-)

My New Apartment

It's about time!!

Some 4 months after moving in my new apartment and after showing you the view from the balcony, I finally show you the apartment from inside!
Please don't pay attention to the mess in my home office room... it's temporary of course!

Santiago from my Balcony - Night time

Just 3 photos to show how it is at night time.

The view from my apartement balcony is kinda cool I think ;-)

Santiago from my Balcony

Since I moved in my new apartment (yes, I still owe you some photo of it... will do soon...) I'm often amazed at the view I get out my window. Being on the 12th floor with no other buildings right next to mine on either side I'm facing, on a good day I can see until the mountains that are bordering the city.
So yesterday morning as I was sitting at my desk getting some work done, I just couldn't help it but take up my camera and go around my balcony and shoot some photos of the scenery that was uncovering before my eyes as the sun was rising up in the skies.

So now you now what it looks like to wake up where I live ;-)

Pomaire

Yesterday I went to Pomaire, a small village which is about 50km away to the West of Santiago. For some reason there is a LOT of crafts in this village, some of it very nice and all quite cheap!!
I went with my Friend Celina whom I met in Malaysia and who visited me for a week here in Santiago. That was really nice seeing you again Cel! Come back anytime you want to!
The day was nice and on top of all the nice things to see and buy, there are also a lot of restaurants and a specialty that we tried is the Giant Empanada (1Kg!!).
that was a nice (but short) visit!

Some pictures here:

I'm on TV!

ok... well it's only really half a second... and it's on internet TV...
but anyway!
I spent most of the week at the Telefonica conecta 2009 telecom fair and I got shot while I was there. Let's see if you can actually see where I appear:


http://emoltv.emol.com/?id_emol=2699

Arabian night in Ali Baba Restaurant

Last Saturday there was an Arabian night in the Ali Baba restaurant in Bellavista area. 4 renowned Chilean dancers were participating: Fakkaruni, Sambra, Nur and Marwa. The Al Qamar orchestra was there to set the mood for the night.
The place was packed and the show finished by having the public participating in the dancing too! It was a very lively and entertaining event!

I post some photos here:

Mendoza

By all means, this post should come before the one on Kuala Lumpur... But anyway.
21st of May was a public holiday in Chile so we (Benoit, Stefi, Carlos and myself) took a 4 day week-end in Mendoza. 2 nights in the bus allowed us to enjoy the full 4 days there, although been woken up in the middle of the night and stand for one hour in the cold at the immigration desk was not the most fun part!
Mendoza is a great city! I loved it!! Very peaceful, lined up with trees all around, there is plenty of nice areas to walk around, a few parks very well maintained, especially the biggest one which is supposedly the biggest park in all South America! And yes big it is! And very enjoyable for that is.

The program was roughly the following: city tour on foot, horse back riding in an incredible setting, surrounded by the mountains, BBQs, our first real Paragliding flight!! and some quiet time in the parks :-)

The people in Mendoza are very friendly, the weather was perfect and it's not difficult to imagine living a peaceful life around there. I'll be back!

some photos:

Kuala Lumpur

Call it fate or whatever you like... but it's kind of a funny coincidence that being now in Chile since more than a year I have the opportunity to work for a Malaysian operator (namely Packet 1) that won a license to implement a WiMAX Network in Chile. Since we (Alcatel-Lucent) are their supplier in Malaysia, we are in a good position to also become their supplier for Chile.
Thanks to this project, I spent the last 3 weeks in Malaysia (minus almost 4 days to go and come back) where we went to hold the final clarifications and negociations.
It was a LOT of work packed in a short time because there is a deadline for completion of phase 1 of the project for October 2009. Which means they need to find the supplier, negotiate and sign a contract in a record time.
Which also means I also didn't have any free time when I was there...
I still managed to see some former colleagues, some local friends, go Climb at camp5 2 days in a row, eat some nice local food, go for a nice massage and even Jam with my former band buddies!! :-) That was really cool guys!
I couldn't do all I wanted and see all the friends I planned too but anyway it was excellent to be back to Malaysia for a few weeks.

One thing I didn't remember is how hot and humid this country is! It's insane!!
I'm now back in Chile (since this morning) and catching up on my blog!

5th meeting of BellyDance lovers in Chile

suprised by the title?
unless you know that my friend Taryn is a Bellydance teacher and dancer. It's been a long time I wanted to go to see a show but somehow it seems that I was never there at the right time. Before that I only got to see her student graduation ceremony in a Restaurant in Santiago's Bellavista neighborhood.
So that time I was invited and I went to the 5th meeting of bellydancing lovers in Chile, with a special guest from Argentina, namely Shanan.
I took the most of the occasion to try my birthday gift, an external flash for my camera. Unfortunately the batteries died quickly so I was stuck with the tiny integrated flash at the end, but it still did a fairly good job so I won't complain (it was my fault anyway!). Although I'm not especially into Arabic music the show was really entertaining, with lots of different groups of dancers, with different styles of dancing and of clothing.

You can enjoy some photos of the show below:

Week-end in Quintay

May 10th (yes we're getting closer...) was Vincent G.'s Birthday.
He decided to celebrate that on the beach, or rather, close to the beach and rented a house in Quintay for the week-end. The program was roughly as follows: friends, drinks, food, BBQ, party, presents, relax, sea view, music and more drinks and food!
Some people came on Friday evening, others on Saturday and some others joined the party on Sunday. We spent a really nice time there, enjoying the quietness of the area, the really great view from the house over the sea with breathtaking colors at sunset (check out the photos), ice cold water (only for the 2 courageous ones...), huge pieces of meat amongst others.

Enjoy the photos!