Discovery Space Shuttle

On this special day of 17th of April, the space shuttle Discovery made its historic final trip to Washington. 27 years after its first lift off! It flew over the city three times, "piggy-backing" on a Boeing 747.

 From the rooftop, we could see it pass by, accompanied by a . What a sight! Awesome to see such a technical achievement fly around. Discovery is the shuttle that flew the most in space, at 39 times.

It will now rest here. I guess this will be the next museum I will visit.

Miami - Florida

In south Florida, the must see is the Everglades National Park. Although there are turtles and many species of birds, the iconic animal is the ALLIGATOR. And there are tons of them. Good luck for counting how many are lurking in that picture.
A scary moment was to cycle around the alligators, actually not to cycle over them!
A tastier moment was to eat alligator. It is white meat, tastes a bit like chicken, but is more elastic.
Miami was a great stop. The beach is fantastic, so wide. The sea was nice to swim in. And Ocean drive, the road that runs by the beach, is the biggest open air party place I have seen. So many bars and restaurants. Great atmosphere - for example, our restaurant had a transparent open air swimming pool on top of the DJ and kitchen area. So you could see people swim in the pool above you, while sipping huge drinks, having supper and dancing.
To finish this fantastic holidays, the tennis final at the Miami Masters. Very nice setting with palm trees and the beach in the background. Beautiful stadium, and once again very well organised.
Unfortunately, the finalists were not the ones hoped one for. Still the final was a display of very competitive tennis. Amazing that these two athletes could run for one hour an a half in the midday sun, while, even seated, I was sweating. I guess it makes sense that it was not me who got the huge check!

Jamaica - Cayman

In Jamaica, you need to know two expressions "no problem" and "yamaannn". So no trouble there at all. The excursions were well organized. First, the Dunn's River Falls, which we had to climb! It was much fun, and of course so refreshing.The next excursion was the Skyland, the local skilift, which runs through the tropical forest. Nice too to be on top of the trees.
Tropical forest also means tropical animals. I had to be fast on that one: a hummingbird!
Next stop: Cayman Island. There again, some tropical animals: the stingrays! Apparently, that picture is the most commonly taken in the Cayman. Am I a tourist or not?
At least, I am a sporty tourist! I did kayaking. Not so tiring, but you have to make sure to be synchronized. Easier said than done...
The funniest thing was this "flip-flop tree". Last year, a couple from Cayman got really annoyed at seeing so many flip-flops abandoned on local beaches that, one night, they collected them and nailed them down on that tree. Since then, tourists stop by that tree and add their own flip-flops.
After the kayaking, time to relax and snorkel! Another first for me. Nice to swim around and to look for fishes.
Do not ask me for their scientific names... just admire the fishes!

Cruise in the Caribbean

This huge cruise ship was home for five days. It was not with little apprehension that I boarded the "Carnival Destiny", since this boat is owned by the same company, which lost two ships in recent months. But once you step on the boat, everything is forgotten. As the cruise manager Noonan said, "what happens on this ship stays on this ship".
The deck was the place to be, with its swimming pools, its inviting chairs (so nice to watch a movie there - even if the program includes ET...), its minigolf course, its basketball field, its table tennis area.
Inside the ship was like a huge building with 10 stores. Of course, there was a huge number of rooms to accommodate the 3000 passengers. I must admit that I was positively surprised at how diverse the passengers were. Anyway, on each floor, there was so much on offer: fitness, casino, bars, stage, shops, medical center, restaurants, library.
There was always something to do, whether it is to eat (and believe me, some people ate almost 24 hours a day...), drink, play at the casino, laugh at a comedy show, being taken in picture, cheer at a cabaret, anything so that passengers would have FUN ! Still, all in all, the best was to relax and sunbath on a beach chair.
The 1000-people strong crew was well trained to make you feel welcome. Everyday, the cleaner would create a "towel animal". Most employees were from Asia and Eastern Europe, while the captain was an Italian.

Kyrgyz Republic

After a long flight and a jetlag of eleven hours, time to arrive in Bishkek, the capital of the Kyrgyz Republic, where I was welcomed by the snow... The city boasts many "Soviet-style" buildings and monuments, as well as wide boulevards, but at least is surrounded by a high mountain range. It felt nice to wake up and see white mountains in the background.

This trip was primarily for work purposes. Many meetings with the main economic actors in the country. It was so interesting to see how the country authorities work, their policies, their challenges. One of the more attractive building is the Parliament, which was previously the seat of the government.

And the authorities were very welcoming, with many good dinners, where I had to quickly become an expert at vodka toasting! At this farewell dinner, we were also entertained by musician. One was playing accordion (is traditional music the same throughout the world...) and another one was singing in Kyrgyz, which sounds very Turkish.The welcoming extended to a private visit to the secret golden chamber of the National Museum to admire the pieces of golden Kyrgyz art. Gold remains the main export of the country.This tradition of being a good host even extended to organise excursions both on a public holiday and on the week-end. The first one took us to the Orlovka ski resort, owned and operated by a Swiss, what a surprise! Swiss flags dotted the whole resort, while the support staff was wearing jackets with the "Graubunden" logo. We had much fun on the slopes. Especially me, since they were not the steepest in the world.
The second excursion was to the big Issyk-Kul lake. The combination lake-mountain cannot be unfamiliar to a Swiss visitor. Even more so, when we passed by the huge and protected residence of the Kazakh president - are we on the shores of Lake Geneva?

Istanbul

Ok, to treat Istanbul as a stopover between America and Asia might be a little bit harsh, but in this case, it is exactly what it was. Still, you can try to make the best of a stopover. The obvious choices are to eat a shawarma on Taksim square, to walk along the Bosphorus, to count the number of stray cats, and to resist buying a carpet... Compared to my first visit around 15 years ago, the city is even bigger, but seemingly less chaotic. Difficult to say whether it has become more conservative.The two most famous landmarks are the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia. The first one was built in the 17th century in the classical Ottoman style.
Next to it, Hagia Sophia was first an orthodox church built in the 6th century, and during a thousand year the biggest church in the world (before the Spanish built a bigger one in Sevilla). It was converted to a mosque in the 15th century, once the town had been conquered by the Ottomans. Many Christian characteristics were then removed and replaced with Islamic features. To this day, it is still a very impressive building!

Costa Rica

Any entry about Costa Rica should start with "pura vida" - the country's motto, actually more than that - a way of life: so enjoy life! And the next thing to mention is the name of the Costa Ricans: they call themselves the "Ticos". So there it is: welcome to Costa Rica.
Costa Rica is a land of peace. The capital city is dotted with statues of doves (is that not much nicer than cows...!!). There are also many signs praising previous President Arias, who obtained the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987. At least, these doves add a certain specificity to the otherwise unremarkable capital city. Guidebooks, friends and even neighbors on the plane warned about pickpockets. But the only thief we witnessed was a raccoon who maliciously stole a packet a chips from unsuspecting American tourists on the beach! Good laugh.
Costa Rica is a small country, Ticos are short, and the animal are also small. During a two hour long walk through the most famous national park, the guide "succeeded" in pointing a frog, a lizard, an iguana, and finally a sloth! More than that - a moving sloth. Good to see it hang high up the tree.
Although small, Costa Rica offers a great variety of landscape. The beaches are superb, and the Atlantic Ocean was so enjoyable to swim in. Perfect temperature, and nice little waves to play with.
Of course, the volcanoes are probably the main specificity of Costa Rica - there are three of them on the country's coat of arms. Some of them are still active, like this one at Poas. The guidebook advises to get there before 10am, and believe me, you have to get there before 10am. The lake in the volcano is surprisingly cool, at 40 degrees. The fumes prove the volcano is alive. Great to see all of this, and to feel the earth "breathing". Even more so, when, after a fifteen minute round walk in the forest, coming back to the volcano, it was completely hidden behind a thick layer of fog. I felt quite bad for all the tourists (including the Japanese ones, who were late for once) who were walking up towards the volcano and would not see ANYTHING...
The tropical forest is very dense, but sometimes there is a beautiful opening, like this waterfall.
And sometimes, there is an even better one, like this frog! Certainly one of my best picture ever.